I think I can, I think i can.....

Survive this week, that is. I am currently sitting in a sexual offences workshop. Does this mean i have an addiction that i post on my blog during a meeting? Probably but it is also an indication of how boring this really is.

I need to share my exciting finds yesterday:
I stopped at a my local needlecraft shop on the way home and "adopted" the following items:

• I found some great christmas quilting cottons. I bought 1/2 metre of each. One has snowmen on it and the other has cute little christmas lights. I will post a pic. I then bought some 100% white cotton. I intend to do christmas pictures in redwork on the white cotton, block it and quilt the other fabric around it. This is going to be my first mini quilt for my fireplace. I was hoping to get a summer one done by the 1st Sept but decided to cut myself some slack. December is better!
• I also found some really country quilting fabric on sale - half price. It is all in browns, greens, blues and reds. Its has teapots, chickens, flowers, quilts on it. It is fab! I got some plain matching cotton so will try something in patchwork just to get myself going. I am undecided what - a mini quilt for my kitchen table - a sewing bag or a patchwork cushion?
• I also found some lovely buttons for my summer and spring quilts - butterflies, flowers and birds....

I made amazing pasta last night and so quick: Brown mushrooms, fresh spinach (picked 5mins before from my garden) and rosa tomatoes fried in glugs, glorious glugs of olive oil and LOTS of feta chucked in. It melted into an amazing sauce into which i tossed the pasta. It took the whole of 10 mins!

The Wainwrights are all well thankfully. We have defeated the germs!

Have a safe Tuesday...

Quilts and cookies

I am searching for some inspiration to feed my current obsession with quilts and cookies. I REALLY need to make a quilt. Why? Because i just dont have enough hobbies, thats why! What kind of question is that? Anyway quilts speak of country life, simpler times, frugality, warmth, etc and Cookies? Well they just taste good.

In terms of cookies, i have just discovered a new blog that i love! If you are a cookie fan, check out http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/categories/cookies/ and be prepared to drool. Peabody notes that cookies and milk make the world go round and I have to agree! The cookies we made on the weekend were dangerously good. I really should not be thinking about making any more!

I have some traditional African fabric that i have been collecting over the last couple of years that is 100% cotton and i am tempted to cut it into strips to make a log cabin design. I found some really simple instructions on a site called "The Quilting bug" where i was inspired by the quilts displayed. The picture above is off this site and is almost exactly what i want to do, but in softer colours - blues, reds and whites. http://www.thequiltingbug.co.za/Anniv%20Quilt.jpg

But enough dreaming on this cold Autumn day.......

End of the weekend

So we put another weekend to bed. They just seem to go to fast. I start every weekend with huge plans but there just never seems to be enough time to do it all. I had a crazy busy weekend this time around. We did bake yesterday and settled on chocolate chip (a favourite recipe that i will post) and some anzac biscuits. Anzac biscuits are basically crunchies, oat and coconut biscuits. I chucked in a handful of chocolate peanuts and they were great. As they were about to come out of the oven, the power went out. Fortunantly when we opened the oven they were ready. I also cooked a great pot of butternut and barley soup, which was fantastic and went down a treat on a cold winter day. We squeezed in some scrapbooking and i was happy with my two pages. They werent "ifffy" i you know what i mean. When you just put them in the album and think "oh, well, its done now..."

Our evening got a bit chaotic when some people (I wont mention names in fear of offending some of my followers :) drank too much red wine but that's life..... The poster on this post is especially for them. I am sure that they think that they offering angel was a devil this morning!

Today i got to laugh at my husband's hangover (he was one of the guilty parties!!!) and went off to my best friend's son birthday party. I enjoyed the party although felt the absence of the abovementioned hubby when i had to juggle the two kids in the restaurant. How does one watch two at the same time? We had a bit of excitement when Seth got stuck at the top of one of those funky modular jungle gyms. I was just trying to figure out how to get my butt up to the top to rescue him when i was saved by my oldest son, who heroically climbed up and dragged his brother, kicking, wailing but safe down!

Well life isnt supposed to be boring! I wish you all a good week, free of germs (thankfully Seth is fully recovered), free of stress, full of unexpected gifts of life......

Cold autumn days

Ode to Autumn

by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

We had a wonderful day at the open day for Gabriels' school for next year. I cant believe he is starting school next year - my baby! The school is lovely and the teachers very kind. I am now waiting for my two cousins to arrive for a day of baking and scrapbooking. I know we are baking biscuits - a joint effort that we can split up. Have you noticed how much fun baking can be with friends? I am not sure which biscuits we are making but i stocked up on lots of chocolate and chocolate coated nuts. I have my pile of trusted recipe books ready and have a couple in mind. Such choices - chocolate chip, cornflake cookies, peanut butter, orange, ginger... how does one chose? I will let you know which ones made the communal cut.......... and how they taste of course!

Summer dreaming

Its cold, everyone is ill and i am dreaming of summer. Where it is warm, the sun is shining and i feel alive! I mean look at this picture, doesnt it inspire you to stomp grapes, pick olives and do suitably other sun soaked things? I am working from home today with a sick child. As if that was bad enough, in a moment of madness i agreed that the other non sick child stay at home today. Now, despite the purchase of expensive Lego as a means of trying to buy some peace and quiet, i am taking strain. There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel with Seth's illness and it has been two feverish days now. This has all equated to a rough ride generally. Now Seth is finally sleeping and Gabby is occupied in front of the TV and i have 5 minutes in front of the computer. So i have lost some of my loving winter, nesting blah-blah! Right now give me sun!

So right now i would like to just wallow quietly, thank you :(

What a week!

Its Thursday and it has been a real humdinger of a week as you can tell from my silence. I got the news that my MEC is leaving and we are still on the edge of seats about the possibility of losing our Head of Department. Strangely they drove me both crazy at times but now that i have to think about the amount of energy that i will need to put into building new relationships i get exhausted. However, i am a civil servant and not a political appointee so my life will invariably go on after all the hullaballoo has died down. I have been through this thrice before.

On the home front we are in the midst of a war and the germs are winning. So i have sick kids, spent my evening at the doctor yesterday, have more medication in my home then a drug dealer and got up at the ungodly hour of 4am. On the bright side it is almost friday and i desperately need so creative time this weekend. I did manage to squeeze in some scrapbooking this week after the medicated kids were sleeping. I have a busy weekend. On Saturday the school that we are sending Gabriel to next year has an open day and then on Sunday we will be going to a beloved little boy's birthday party (Connor!). I do love kids parties though, so that is no chore (especially when i am no the mom in charge!!!). I hope to see my baby cousin this weekend as well. (Cindy if you read this i am keen to scrap on Sat afternoon so let me know!)

Once again what a week. But on weeks like this you need to carve out some comfort space and that is my sole aim this weekend. So my goals are:
* Sleep late at least one morning (that is 7am in my life!)
* Bake at least one thing delicious and eat it with friends and family.
* Create at least one thing that makes me want to go back and look at it.
* Read the papers in my Pj's and over cappucinnos on Sunday morning.

Have a stress free Thursday........

Monday blues

Monday is really not my most favourite day. Monday when you have a sick, green nosed toddler who you have to leave at home with the nanny is even lower on my must do list. However, this was a good weekend and that helps to make this monday a little bit more palatable. I was thoroughly spoilt for mother's day and enjoyed seeing my niece, sister-in-law and mother-in-law on the weekend. Family certainly makes the good times great and the bad times better.

I found a little bit of time to do some scrapbooking on Sunday night and did three pages which helped to scratch this crazy i must do something now, must make something itch i have right now. I love the vintage childhood paper that i have. I also loved brainstorming with my mom-in-law about all the wonderful stuff that i just NEED to make. I admire her ability to make just about anything and wished that she lived closer so that i could learn from her. I am still frightened of my sewing machine, although i am working on (It can be pretty mean). She helped me think of a great idea for a seasonal mini wall quilt for above my fire place. I wish i didnt have four other projects going right now so that i could start it.

Anyway, wishing a managable and not maniac monday..... And dont you just love this vintage post card... man i wish i had a lassie to help me get out of bed in the morning!