Snug as a bug !

I am a sucker for gorgeous quilts / blankets/ throws - I love the chunkiness of these two above, you can't beat a beautiful cable knit. I can never decide though, bright colour or neutral and earthy - maybe a bit of both is in order - go here to see more.

I love the neutral cream background on this one interspersed with gorgeous colour

and these colours are just so vibrant it hurts

What a beautiful mix, so, what are you waiting for.........................get crocheting before it's too late.

Beautiful Bendigo

WELCOME TO BENDIGO I lived here for a couple of years, back in 1976 - 1978 when I was just 8 years old. Bendigo is a beautiful small city, full of lovely old homes, antiques, lovely gardens and good shopping. This is a picture taken by me recently, looking down View Street, Bendigo Victoria. View Street has quite a few Antique Shops and several Vintage Clothing stores. I was lucky enough to spend some time here earlier this month shopping. I managed to buy a vintage suitcase and a 70's paisley jacket for myself and for my friend who lives across the road I bought an antique vegetable dish. I will post pics of these soon. This Antique shop kept me entertained for probably an hour or so.

Here is the Trades Hall

building which is Heritage listed. It is one of only 3 remaining Trade Halls in Victoria. It was built in several stages, with work commencing in 1896. Next to it is the Penfolds Fine Art Gallery, I did a Google search on this building but could not find any history on it. The next two pics are of the Fire Station, again in View Street. It is a lovely old building of the typical Victorian red brick, built in 1898. It is now used to hold concerts and is part of the Performing Arts Centre

Unfortunately, when I was in Bendigo I did not know about theBendigo Woollen Mills. It is apparently the largest wool outlet in Australia and they also do online ordering for those of us who do not live nearby. Next time I go to Bendigo this will be on my "to do" list.<

I did, however, know about Langley Hall, though I had no idea where it was. Several months ago I was checking out real estate in Bendigo, dreaming of living in one of the many beautiful old homes down there, when I stumbled across this most beautiful place. It was for sale for a cool 2 million, but I knew I had no chance of convincing my husband that we had to buy it and live a beautiful life there. So driving through Bendigo recently on my way to a friends place, there it was, right in front of me. A quick photo stop was in order, so I got myself a few pics of the grand old lady. She is simply stunning.

This picture is courtesy of the internet, I will post more of mine in a later post.

If you get the time, head to Bendigo, and I recommend you go in autumn or winter to enjoy it at it's best. If you get a lovely cold day with a blue sky you will be in heaven.

Italian Doughnuts a must

My husband is a Masterchef fan and he also got hooked on My Kitchen Rules earlier this year. He made a fantastic batch of the Italian Doughnuts pictured above that the two Italian ladies, Daniella & Stephania made on one episode, and I highly recommend you have a go at them - they are truly divine. I warn you though, once you have eaten these doughnuts you will never want to eat any others - the texture is beautiful and very different to normal doughnuts, possibly because they have potato in them. So go on, have a go, you won't regret it. Follow the green link above for the recipe. He did not make the chocolate sauce, and I don't think you need it, but it's up to you.

These ones are his first batch in March, they were to celebrate the official opening of our neighbours new cubby house, they were a huge hit with the kids and adults alike.

The second batch were cooked whilst down in Victoria visiting my parents. Nephew Mitchell was pretty impressed as you can see in the two pics above.

The Veges are GROWING !!!!!!!

Our new vegetable patch is going great guns. This is what it looks like as of yesterday (23/7/11 - above). And below is a pic of how it started off as new seedlings on the 19/6/11.

The dwarf broccoli is coming along nicely and there are flowers on the tomato bushes. We have already harvested some yummy fresh pesticide free lettuce leaves for our salads. see below pictures.

The carrots are coming along nicely, I can see hints of pale orange just under the soil so that is a good sign of things to come.

Being a vegetable farmer is so much fun. My second vegetable patch is now ready for planting - hopefully today. So watch this space.

Keep warm this winter

There is absolutely no need to freeze this winter, you can keep warm in style, it's easy, just look at this beautiful little fella, all rugged up in his gorgeous crocheted blanket, made with love from his two grandmas, mum, aunts and cousins, it was a family effort and I have to say it is simply stunning. I want one of these blankets for myself

I wouldn't mind one of these either, isn't she adorable, I just added her to this post cos she was so cute, look at those cheeks!

I love this owl, it is a heatbag, filled with australian wheat - perfect for your children to snuggle up to in winter, my kids have a frog that I made them a couple of years ago filled with rice. Unfortunately they are developing holes and the rice is starting to spill, time for a new one I think. Yes !

Mst O would love this cute little sausage dog - perfect gift for a boy who has everything - available here on Madeit.com.au

An exquisite scarf/shawl crocheted with the most gorgeous baby alpaca wool and mulberry silk, tutorial is here - you can make it yourself Or something a bit more understated in beautiful earthy tones - same pattern as above but different colours.

I think my daughter would like this little pink poodle number, available here

Aaaaahhhh winter, I do love it, except when I have to get up at 6am in the dark.

Recycled shed

I have been meaning to post these pics since November last year. This shed belongs to a dear friend. She has a great eye for detail and loves to recycle old building materials. This is what she came up with when she decided she needed a new "old" garden shed. It has so much character, and it is so tidy inside. A very dear friend of hers built it under her careful direction with the recycled materials she collected bit by bit, over a period of time. I love the old door with all the paint peeling off, and the chinese star jasmine is beautiful hanging over from above.

The wagon wheel is so sweet.

And a couple of horse shoes for good luck complete the perfect picture.

A great project for your own backyard. I think I might have to google "old recycled sheds" and see what I can come up with, hmmmnnnn...................

Pretty Paper Wreath

I found this photo stashed away in my "to do" file on my laptop just now. Thought I would share it with you, I found it here. I think I need to make one of these for Christmas. I know Christmas is a while away yet but I am going to a "Christmas in July" Dinner tomorrow night with my craft group girls. This will be our second year running and it's lots of fun with a great bunch of crafty critters. We all have to bring a present to put in a lucky draw/secret santa, the criteria is it must come from "The book Depository" and must cost $10 or less. Can't wait to see what everyone has bought. I can't post mine here just yet in case anyone reads this before tomorrow, as it is meant to be a secret santa - you get the picture !

Take me to the Country .................Pleeassse !!!!!!

Recently I have been dreaming about living in the country. An old house perched on a couple of acres of slightly undulating hills, surrounded by pastures and cows. I would love to retire to Maleny. But after looking on Real Estate.Com.Au at Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands, I am SOLD. The only problem is that most of the properties I fell in love with were a cool $7 million or so - seriously. Ouch !!!!!!! But I love the old house above, I can see myself here.

And I can see myself on a verandah, knitting in hand, cup of coffee and afternoon tea, watching the beautiful cows grazing just like these ones.

I could even live in this shed, but you should see the house that it belongs too - OMG !!

And don't you love this simple but elegant entry, finished off beautifully with a matching pair of conifers.

These hedges appear to be fake, but trust me they are real, and they are for sale, as I said, a cool 7 million or so would do it. Can you imagine the house that lies just beyond ?

How about this for a position, amazing trees and views forever

This is probably more affordable, a sweet sunroom, this one is only about $700,000, I can afford this !

And this sure has street appeal, love the tree and elegant fencing

Or maybe this one, wouldn't the kids love to explore these grounds or swim in the pool, maybe a pony or two.

Well, for now I have to be happy where I am, but maybe, just maybe one day, I might be able to live on the land and enjoy my chickens and vege garden. Only time will tell.

Eggs galore and vegies to boot !

Our girls have started laying ! We are getting 2 - 3 eggs a day now. They started at about 38grams and are now averaging 45 - 54 grams. Its so lovely to go down to the garden and be greeted by cackling from the girls. They are now officially called Sofia (Miss L's favourite from junior Masterchef), Poh (my favourite from Masterchef) & Lewie (however Lewie is also known as Pancake, that is how Mst O best likes his eggs) Here are the first of our happy hens eggs - a perfect pair in the nesting box

A lovely boiled egg for breakfast - in our cute Easter Egg Cups

Miss L with her boiled egg and toast - yum yum ...... Not only are we enjoying the eggs now but we have also built a new raised vege garden so we can put all the chicken poop to good use. We have used some gorgeous compost that has been created by our resident bush turkey "Harold", he has meticulously created and tended his nest for the last 4 or years and a byproduct of this was that all our lovely expensive mulch that we purchased with the intention of keeping our weeds under control has now been converted into the most amazing black friable garden soil. So today my husband and I carried bucket upon bucket load of it from our lower garden, up three sets of stairs and a very steep ramp, to our upper garden so we could fill our raised vegetable bed that we built yesterday. It was a beautiful day to work outside in the garden - just look at that blue sky

Putting the bed together with recycled sleepers

Here it is all planted out.

Late this afternoon, and with our last long weekend for the year drawing to a close, I planted out the first intallment of seedlings. I then fertilised and watered them with high hopes for a successul crop. We have carrots, dwarf broccoli, red oak lettuce, butter lettuce, honey snap peas and oxtail tomatoes. We are now building a second garden bed as there is so much more I want to plant.

So off to bed I go to rest my weary limbs, it's been a great day.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner - Try it !

You have to try this one !!!!!!!!! I found it on this Martha Stewart site. I don't often recommend recipes, but this one has the thumbs up from me. My husband and kids loved it and so did I and it was so so SIMPLE !!!!!! Last night I put everything into a big tupperware container, i.e. chicken, beans, tomatoes and remaining ingredients, stirred it round, left it overnight to do its job, came home from work this afternoon, turned on the oven to heat, popped the chicken etc into a roasting dish (I put a sheet of baking paper on the base of the dish, saves scrubbing after) and stuck it in the oven for about 40 minutes or so. I used 6 chicken cutlets (removed most of the skin) and 4 chicken wings You could use a whole chicken and cut it up, or some chicken thigh fillets or even chicken breast if you want less fat. You can also just use a mix of drumsticks or marylands, it really does not matter. So here is what you do: 1 to 1.5kg chicken pieces (whatever you like, skin on or off, it does not matter) 1/3 cup olive oil 4 cloves garlic (roughly chopped) 1 teaspoon ground cumin 2 tablespoons paprika,(use a mix of hot, sweet and/or smoked, whatever you have) tiny sprinkle of chilli powder, more if you like it hot *1 teaspoon salt - the recipe says 2 tablespoons (way too much for me) 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper 1 or 2 punnets of grape or cherry tomatoes 2 cans cannellini beans (washed and drained) 1/2 cup parsley (I did not use this as I did not have it) method: Mix together the olive oil, spices, salt, pepper, parsley and garlic etc in the dish you are going to use to marinate the chicken in (less dishes this way). Add the chicken pieces, beans and tomatoes making sure chicken is covered in the marinade all over. Store in fridge to marinate until ready for baking (several hours to overnight, whatever you like). Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius, pop everything in to a roasting dish, I laid a piece of baking paper on the base of the dish to make clean up easier, and simply bake for 35 - 45 minutes until chicken is nicely coloured and tomatoes are almost bursting. (I turned the chicken pieces over half way through and stirred the beans and tomatoes around a bit). If you wanted you could throw in some baby spinach leaves towards the end, maybe some kalamata olives or even add some chorizo sausage. You can serve with a bit of greek yoghurt if you like that. My son ate it with a tortilla bread. The beans are yummy, so are the tomatoes, and the chicken gets a type of coating on it almost similar to KFC (don't let that comment put you off). So, get cooking, it's well worth the try. (the picture shows chick peas or garbanzo beans, I used Cannellini and they were perfect, highly recommend using cannellini beans. Also I cooked until the tomatoes were almost a bit blackened and bursting open and caramelised, so yummy) Enjoy ...........

Meet the girls !!!!

Well the coop is finally done and so this afternoon we made the trip to pick out our chickens. So here they are in their box about to be let loose into their new home. It was fun driving home with them in the box in the back seat, between the kids, cackling away.

Exploring their new house

Having a feed of layers mash

When it was time to lock them up for the evening I said "come on girls, into the coop", I opened the door, and in they went, just like that. It was like they knew what to do. They huddled in the corner, so I picked them up one by one and sat them on their roosting perch. An hour later we all went down to the lower garden to check on them, and they were all still sitting on their perch, just as I had placed them. So, all is well in the chicken coop tonight I hope, can't wait for the morning to check on them.

Oh, and what have we called them ?? Well Miss O is still calling hers Sapphire, Mst O is still calling his Lewey, and I am undecided. I am thinking I need to get a fourth chicken and maybe I'll call them Laverne and Shirley. Just maybe.