Heart Sisters

I belong to a forum that I check into most days and there is an off shoot from that called heart sisters which I joined.

Some of the members are stay at home mums or single mums or people on their own. The idea is to be in contact with another member on regular basis, usually once a month.

Two people set it up and matched people that have similar interests and so forth. Its contact so could be a written letter, a small gift or just something to let them know that some one is thinking about them.

This is the first year that I have been involved and I get a bit of a kick out of it. It does seem difficult at first to write to someone that you dont know although I got a fairly good profile about my person and we have quite a lot in common.

I get writing away and then sign off and its hard to remember not to write my name as it is anon.
Through the forum once they have received communication, they usually make a comment regarding the communication.

I wrote a little early for April as we will be holidaying but I didnt want my heart sister to miss out.

Last month from my heart sister (different person) I received a cheery letter about her and her daughter and some crochet made hearts for Valentines day.  It arrived just before VD and as we dont celebrate it it was nice to get something like that. I havent crocheted in years but I will have a go at making some myself.

Its possible that I wont be able to access my blog which will be a bummer but I will be keeping notes and will blog about what we get up to while away after we get back. So looking forward to new adventures and returning to old places too.

Cricket

Yesterday afternoon I sat and watched the World Cup Cricket final between the Aussies and the Kiwis. I had some hand sewing and some knitting to do.

It was quite a good match and I got six small teddies sewn up, eyes on and stuffed, I also finished a jumper and sewed that up and neatened the edges. I hand stitched three big flowers on to another piece of plain material to make up some more book covers.

The Aussies got the Kiwis out with a couple of overs to go, thirty minutes and it was our turn to bat and the boys ran out the winners in a very short time.

I don't mind the knitting but I didn't realise it would take that long to stitch them up, maybe I should knit and then stitch before going on to another one.

High Tea

Friday lunch time I went to a high tea at school. It was organized by year 12 students who are doing home Ec as we used to call it, now I think it is HPE.

The cost was $10 and we were greeted at the door by one student and then shown to to a table by another who offered a choice of drinks. Sheridan and I both chose to have a coffee frappe and it was good.

All students were dressed in black pants with white chefs jackets and they looked quite smart if a little stressed as they had been cooking and now they were serving to some of their teachers.

Once the tables filled there were four to a table, the food was brought out on fancy two tier stands.
Sandwiches were cut into threes and no crusts were seen at all a savory scone and then some sweet stuff, my favourite was a tiny melting moment. That would be the one thing that I would chose over anything else and I must admit it was a good MM. Although the icing was probably a little "wet" it had not had time to dry out.

Envy.

My GF showed me her pantry a couple of weeks ago, she had spent some time tidying it and there were all these neat rows of tins and containers. Yep, I love my pantry to look like that.

I did ask Warren to tidy ours and while he does most things in the house, he told me that it was my domain and he didnt want to go near it (except to find more milk when he needs it)

At my daughters last week and I helped get the school lunches, opening the pantry to find some snack food and Oh My Goodness, her pantry no longer looks like mine. It was nice and neat.

I did feel envious but its a big job! Lying in bed this morning, I thought that I should/could/would do something about it. Fifteen minutes after breakfast, I had head down and bum up and now I can say that I do have one half a shelf tidy.

Its looking that good that I just might spent another fifteen minutes as I don't have to cook dinner tonight. Maybe just maybe I might have it looking okay to have the pantry open if anyone comes to visit, now it is firmly kept shut.

The Croods

I think that is how its spelt. A few nights ago TV program were not inviting and we wanted something to watch. The first movie we selected wouldnt play so we picked the next one. It was called The Croods. We had no idea what it was about and we thought we would put it on and see, after all if it was no good, we could turn it off.

As it starts to play Dreamworld came up and we realised that it was probably a kids movie and done by Dreamworld so should be alright.

Ten minutes into it and I said to Warren "Should we turn it off?" "No Way" he said "This is pretty funny!" so it was.

It wa about a family set in caveman times and how they survived, it was quite stereotyped with the Gran living with them, the older brother who just went long with whatever, the teenage girl who was a rebel and the youngest child who caused lots of dramas.

So many references to life now for instance, they were travelling one time and every one was given a shell to call for help, the way that it was done made you think about mobile phones given to kids now to call home.

It was a really good movie thats a keeper.

Focus

Last night we went to see the movie Focus. The last couple of times that we have been, we have seen the shorts for it and it looked interesting. With Will Smith and Margot Robbie how could it go wrong.

The movie is about a con man and his Army of people, very much slight of hand to steal wallets, watches, rings even credit cards that were returned to the people without them even knowing it was gone.

Good story line and just when it seemed to be wrapping up, blam! a big twist in the tail which I certainly didn't see coming. Well worth the trip to see it and even better was we used a movie card that had some credit on it so it didnt cost us anything, bonus! (Yeah, I know we bought the movie card at one stage so it wasn't actually free but not forking over money, it appeared to be free.)

Dragon's Blood

I was reminded today of why we don't watch Daytime TV. We do like to watch "The Chaser" if we are home and think to turn it on. The Chaser is a British quiz show and I like to think that it is good for the mind. Its our afternoon break when I am home.

Today I was sewing and finished a particular piece a little earlier than expected, instead of going on with some thing else, I made coffee and got some afternoon tea ready to watch and try to come up with some answers.

Turning on the TV at about 2.50pm, there was a home grown Talk show on discussing some ground news like they do and then they went for a commercial within the program.

Its brand name was DRAGON'S BLOOD, I thought I had misheard but no they said it again Dragon's Blood!" One of the things they said was that it has been reported in Vogue, giving the impression that it just has to be good!

Warren and I missed most of the commercial because we were laughing so much and making comments about Dragon's Blood. I dont know if one rubs it on or swallows it, not even sure what it is supposed to do, make your feel good, look good or keep cancer at bay.

Next week I will wait until 3 o'clock before the turn the TV on!

"I kissed the cat!"

We had to be up early on Sunday morning to take the boys to soccer, leaving home at 7.10am. Warren got up at usual time around six and started coughing and he thought that he had picked up a cold. I expected him to stay home and go back to bed but he had breakfast and took a cold tablet.

because of that and him not feeling the best he asked me to drive, not a problem but he normally drives when we go somewhere. Set off and got through the first two sets of lights without having to stop and this continued. Warren has a saying, well two actually, one is when he gets the lights going his way is "I must have kissed a cat" if the several lights go against it is "Must have kicked the cat this time." I have no idea where there sayings come from and neither does he and its/they are only used while driving.

I drive to our daughter each morning that I work and its takes me about 50 minutes, Sunday I had to do the same at roughly the same time and it took me only 35 minutes, there are approx twelve sets of lights and only one that I had to pull up and wait.

Warren couldn't believe that the lights were so good to me, it was the same driving home as well. BTW we don't own a cat although he is feeding one atm, we think one of our neighbours moved and either didn't take the cat or it run away. he slips some food out onto the patio as he wouldn't like to see it starve.

The Annual Easter Egg Hunt

For about the last four years we have had an Easter Egg hunt for the grandkids. This year I bought colour coded packets not realized that the colours reflected the flavours. at least two kids enjoy the "hunt" more than the actual eggs and chocolate. The kids are allocated a colour to find so its fair for all.

Once again I over catered and so today Warren and I are eating left overs which includes quite a few prawns! For lunch we had half a dozen prawns and salad and will probably have the same for dinner with an Easter egg or two thrown in.

I was able to buy some prawns a couple of weeks ago so we had prawns, sausages (I bought bread and rolls as I thought the kids would eat them in a roll but no they didn't), chicken wings which I marinated as they didn't have any prepared and I also made a pizza,

Sausages and chicken are cooked on the BBQ which saves me a job, very easy dessert, ice cream on a stick and/or hot cross buns, only way to go. I have now got a few empty spots in the freezer but nowhere near being able to turn it off.

Shoes

I really like shoes and probably have far more than I need. I don't pay a lot for them and probably the most I have ever paid for a pair of shoes than I remember was $75 from USA, I ordered them online and there was an outline of how to select the size. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't fit esp when I had paid so much but they fitted well. I only wear them on special occasions mainly because I did spend that much (which is crazy I know, I should be wearing them all the time to get my monies worth) the other reason is that that they are higher than what I usually wear these days.

Anyway I digress, as those shoes are not the ones that I wanted to post about. Before I returned to work, I ordered some clothes online from a store that I do buy a few pieces of clothing (it was far easier and cheaper to sit at home in front of A/C and choose what I wanted) and they have added shoes to their stores as well only very recently. To increase their sales some shoes were priced at $5, I decided to add a pair that I liked to my order.

The pair was sandals and I usually cant wear sandals  because I have a high instep (plus too much padding!). These shoes had two straps one across the toe and another over the arch plus a strap to go across the back with a buckle.

I hated the strap at the back and so I thought that I would "doctor"them. I got my big craving knife and cut the straps off! thinking OMG what if I ruin them? Kicked myself in the bum and thought well not going to wear them as they are so no dramas. I wore them shopping last week for a short time as I didn't want to get blisters and they were so comfortable that I wore them to work with every intention to take another pair of shoes. 7am til 5pm is a fair amount of time to spend in new shoes and I am on my feet most of the day good intentions but that was as far as I got, no second pair of shoes. But now i have worn them for two days at work this week and they are fine, Five dollars well spent!

Lamb Shanks

As a kid these were used to make soup but recently they have appeared on pub menus and other eateries. I saw a pack of two awhile ago and thought I would have them as a change. The last night we went to a pub for a meal with SIL, he ordered lamb shanks and was served two with mash and gravy and it was about $25.

I bought the two in a pack for $7, of course I had to cook the little devils. One look at them and I realised that they were not going to fit in the slow cooker. It was the oven in the roasting tray

I added some roast vege and gravy, yum, definitely got the 5/2 today as there were six vege and we had grapes and a plum as part of lunch, winner. trouble is there is nothing left over for my lunch tomorrow.

French Seams (2)

Well the French seams worked well . I almost got the top finished just had to do a little this morning .
I set myself a challenge this morning after I did the housework and that was to make and finish the shorts.

So this is what the completed french seam looks like, a seam within a seam. Half way through sewing it I realized that there is no need to do any over locking or zigzagging on the seams, bonus!

I was starting to worry but lunch was at 12.20pm. I had had a phone call and then a visitor during the morning so not too bad to get it done. 

French seams

What do you know, I remembered and used something that I was taught quite a few years ago, almost fifty if my maths is right.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make myself a pair of shortie pjs. i had a nice piece of fabric that was suitable in colours that I like, mauve and pinks and blues, it was a mishmash of colours but it worked. I had to be a bit inventive in cutting out as again I had bought the fabric because I liked it not with any plan in mind at the time so it really wasn't quite enough.

Because of the type of fabric, some of the seams pulled out and others unravelled after a couple of washes. While they was nice and I had spent time and effort to make it, it was going to take much more time and effort to mend and fix, I binned them.

Sometimes I can let things go and other times I am determined to make something work, this was an other time, so next time I was at Spotlight I bought some more silky type fabric suitable for night wear. I figured that I had to make the seams stronger so that they didn't pull out of the stitches.

Light Bulb moment. Wayyyy way back when I was at High School and learning dressmaking we did have a small unit about French Seams that could and should be used for light material.

I proceeded to cut out the pattern leaving extra on the seams so that I could execute French seams, so far so good for the top. I aim to finish it and the shorts today and have photos later.

A french seam is sewing the wrong sides together at first and then turning and sew another seam on top enclosing the first seam.

The material that I chose was in the bargain bin and therefore cheaper, I wanted one and a half metres I thought would be enough however if I bought the whole roll or what was left on the roll, it was 50% off, not one to pass up a discount and there was only three and a half metres left, I bought the lot. I will make kids boxers for the excess for the charity that I support, the fabric is dark blue with small polka dots

On a mission

I knew that I needed to go and buy some more ginger sauce and pick up some gifts which meant a trip up the highway. Warren knew that meant coffee and scones for him. We left in time for morning tea up there. First port of call was The Skin Thing what a name for a retail place who says that they don't advertise, they are on the main highway and display several skin that can be seen for quite awhile. We first visited a couple of years ago to buy Ugg boots for a friend.

Warren loves moccasins and I had said that when his old one wore out, that would be the place to go. I was hoping that they would have some small items made of skins but boots, mats and moccasins were the main things. We have the fans on and Warren has his shirt off as its hot but I do note that his new moccasins are firmly in place on his feet.

On to the opal place, nice stuff but too pricy for me although we did walk out with a small bag. Finally we reached our destination and it was close enough for lunch. We shared a burger and fries as we had to have room for the ginger scones, ginger marmalade and cream.

I made most of the purchases that I planned for, when one wants something made in Australia that is useful, light, will travel well and not break the bank (as I did have quite a few on my list)that's quite a task.

My bank card did get a bit of a work out but satisfied with the days shopping EXCEPT we looked for our favourite ginger sauce, we couldn't find it. I asked at the counter and was told that it had been discontinued!!!!Each trip we would buy six bottles, they did have a bottle or two on the other counter and I asked if I could buy the lot. yes, I was told and she located three!

The above is one of the last bottles in existence apparently. I also bought some ginger tea as I am finding that even drinking decaf coffee seems to be keeping me awake. So I will try this for a hot drink.

Books for Charity

Last week I sent off my monthly box to the charity that I am supporting this year. I had made several toiletry bags and hand towels that I had decorated.

This is the start of this months box, covered A5 notebooks. These are apparently given to the people to write a journal and they like them to have a cover so that they are individualized.

I had a small piece of the multi coloured fabric so I included some lace on one to make them different. I am back knitting teddy bears and have about eight done. Planning for a dozen books and the same for teddy bears. as we are almost half way through the month, I need to get busy but pretty sure I have a reasonable free long weekend ahead so should be able to get quite a bit done.

What to cook for dinner?

I had chicken thighs out of the freezer for dinner but they didnt enthuse me. Warren had a coffee ready for me as I walked in from work and we had sat, sipped and chatted,

I did need to go and buy something for morning tea either this evening or tomorrow evening. Nice cold prawns and salad came to mind, yum .

Luckily cooked frozen prawns were on special for 50% off, down to $9.90 a kilo with a limit of four kilos per customer. I lashed out and bought two kilos.

This was dinner and we have probably another two or three meals of prawns in the freezer.

New passports

Warren and I have both had to get new passports. Mine was up for renewals before Christmas and Warren's photo was a bit water logged from getting wet in China a couple of years ago.
His new one arrived a couple of weeks ago and boy are they pretty!

This is the front page after the boring bits with names etc on it.

Then these on on the other pages, all the gum leaves then the stockman and the croc on the other side, neat hey! I look forward to getting stamps on as many pages as possible.

Inside both our passports as of today are our new visas! yay!

New Curtains

A catalogue came in the post a few days ago from Spotlight, I hadn't opened it until the weekend and even then I hummed and harred over opening it or just throwing it in the bin. I didn't really like to throw it so decided to see what was in there. Oh my was I glad that I did as they had 20 to 40% off curtains.

I wanted new ones to finish off the lounge but was prepared to wait for sales and here it was! I asked Warren to measure the window and then told him why and asked if he wanted to come and see what they had. I had decided that chocolate brown would complement the carpet and new lounge suite. Warren hates shopping and so I was surprised when he said he would come.

We checked out fabric first, I wanted curtains that threaded not the pull type one with the cords. Warren saw one that he liked, it was nice but grey and white, I didnt think that it would fit in. It was $49 a metre, oh boy it was going to be expensive.

We wandered over to the ready made and settled on a pair that was a linen mocha and no work for me. needed to buy another rod, ends and the thinghy for the rod to sit on.

Warren set to work as soon as we got home and within an hour we had new curtains hanging and we had saved $84. I know that because the docket told me, Warren remarked that we could have saved an extra $125 if we hadn't replaced the curtains.

The lounge room having a make over for less than $2000, is pretty good I thought. New (secondhand) TV unit, new lounge suite, revamped clock, changed a painting to suit and finally new curtains to top it off.

BBQ

Last night of our visitors visit was a BBQ and Warren got the girls to help. Joanna and Nancy wanted to prepare a meal for us so they had gone to the shops with Warren to buy stuff. What a feast! They bought lamb chops, marinated chicken wings and prawns. It was a big meat meal. We also had rice with peas, corn and mushrooms which was put into lettuce cups. The girls prepared the prawns before cooking, this involved washing and then peeling off the shells. I had not seen it done that way and explained that we cooked and then peeled them. Huge mangoes and other fruit finished the meal. 

Concrete

The kids (students) made concrete on Thursday using different mixtures. Two groups made the recommended recipe and the others made a variation. They mixed in and poured the mixture into a take away container. Science was on again on Friday and after a bit of writing we all trooped outside to test the creations.

The test was to drop it from a certain height, kids stood on a table and then held it another metre. First one smashed to smithereens and the others were better and only broke in two or three pieces. What fun!

I don't remember doing fun things like that when I went to school. These were year sevens,

The following lesson was science again this time with the year eights, same teacher and it was experimenting with dry ice.  I was a bit worried about kids grabbing the ice and burning themselves but it went off without a hitch. We did blow up a couple of balloons, made smoke and a couple of little bombs using a film canister.

No phone!

Our home phone has decided to give up the ghost. What a pain. We don't use it that much anyway BUT internet computers!!!! eck!how can we survive?

We have this little device that we bought to take when we go away in the caravan, not cheap but much cheaper than park fees for wifi. It was $29 and that included 1 gb of data, $30 a month after that. When Les was in hospital, Warren would take it and the laptop when he visited him and he paid $50 for two months, we also used it for two trips away. Then we decided to pay $200 for a full year and the data was 2GB and it rolls over. In hindsight it was a very good thing to do as that is what we are using now.

Phone we can do without but internet is a bit more difficult to be without, just thinking of all those emails to wade through after ten days if we couldn't check them every day.

Yep, its going to be ten days before a techie from Telstra can get here.

Warren thought that he would give me a night off cooking an suggested fish and chips for dinner. He asked me to ring and order and he would walk down and pick it up. I searched for the magnet on the fridge and got the phone before I realized that I could ring, reached for the mobile which is a bit hit and miss in the house. Too much hassle so we drove to Maccas instead.

Cows

We went to the farm to see the cows.

Millie is the token cow that is milked and patted by the visitors. The tour guide showed everyone how to milk her by hand and then asked anyone if they wanted a taste, those who did taste were surprised how warm the milk was. We then moved on to feeding a two week old calf, there were two of them but one was not interested at all.

Lily and Tina sharing feeding the calf.

Lucy was scared of the animals and would only come into the yard with me, she ended up holding the bottle for the calf but that was all.

Two friendly goats were there as well and there was pellets for them to feed from hands, the girls were that keen on that as they nibbled

Collecting eggs and feeding chooks

The cows go into two rows with the workers in a trough, after we saw the milking, it was back to wash up and then taste their wares. Chocolate milk, yoghurts and custard, very very yummy!

Hot Cross Buns

I know lots of people complain about these being available very soon after Christmas. I am not one of them as hot cross buns are one of my favorite snacks. I am pleased that they aren't around all year.

I went to the shops yesterday for our groceries and spent a grand total of $10.19, a packet of muesli, a pack of Hot Cross buns and some broccoli (the buns were not on the list!)

My pantry seems to be full and so is my freezer so this month I am doing cheap shopping by only buying what I really need. Warren has muesli for breakfast and I have gone back to just plain oats and his cereal was empty. We are still getting the organic fruit and vegetables each fortnight and I think it is good value so I won't stop that but greens were a bit light on so I picked up some broccoli.

The buns were out the front of the store and I figured that afternoon teas for the week was done with them. I did put them in the freezer so they last the week.

I think it is the cinnamon and the fruit, I also like the fact that there is no icing on them.

Of course they are probably not good for us but a warmed bun with a touch of butter with a coffee is my idea of bliss.

Autumn

First of March was yesterday and therefore it is Autumn. We were enjoying our afternoon coffee on the back patio and I noticed this.

One lonely flower bud on Max's tree. We call it Max's tree as she is buried under there. Max was our little dog that we found abandoned, cold, starving and scared. (Max spent the next fifteen years living with us) The tree was a bit like her when we put it in with no name, hence Max's tree.

I did find a couple more flowers and it will continue to flower and in a few days we will have hoards of parrots visiting to get the nectar.

Another tree in our back yard which loves the rain and sun that we have been having. Two branches are almost touching the ground and we will need to do something about soon. It does make a nice canopy over the trailer though for the moment.

The excess water and then hot sun has put paid to one of my egg plants though, it was the younger one and has turned up its toes. The older more established one is still doing strong and producing three or four fruits a week.I use it like mushrooms.

A strange request

Last week I rang a friend of mine and asked to borrow something of theirs. She laughed and said that it was the strangest request she had heard for some time but said yes.

One of the first things the girls (our young visitors) asked us was did we have a dog. We said no and they were so disappointed as they thought everybody in Australia had a pet dog. I told them that I could probably get a dog to visit hence my phone call. Warren went and picked up Pokey (the dog)

This is Tina sitting and Lilly and Pokey. Lucy the youngest girl did not want anything to do with the dog. Pokey stayed for about half an hour and demonstrated the doggie door that we have in our screen door. The girls couldn't believe that there is such a thing. I drove him back home and he sits down in the foot well while being driven and doesnt look to move until his door is opened for him. They do have a seat belt for him for long trips.

Second Best

Exotic hotel in India. The first movie came out while ago and we really enjoyed and now the second movie opened last Thursday. We knew that we wanted to see it and we usually go on Tuesdays as its cheaper then but the TV was woeful last night so I checked the movie guide and went along at 6.45pm.

The movie was different from the first of course but many of the same actors were there with the addition of Richard Gere.

Two big party scenes with lots of colour and dance a real Bollywood sense about it. About a week ago the the first one was on TV so we had watched that and so it was fresh in our minds.

The theatre is always cold  and we remembered this, Warren wore jeans rather than shorts and I took one of my shawls and I just used it around my shoulders.

My "nothing soup"

Last week I bought a ready cooked chicken as the girls wanted chicken sandwiches which I made and we took for a picnic lunch. The bones and stuffing of the chook, I wrapped it and put it into the freezer.

Yesterday while cleaning the fridge, there were some pieces of vegetables that needed using or binning so out came the chicken and the slow cooker. It was a hot day so I prepped it and then put it outside to cook, therefore it didn't heat up the kitchen.

Come dinner time, I grilled some cheese on toast to have with the soup, brilliant! "Free" meal and easy. Now we have lunch for today as well as one pot for the freezer.

I have set myself another challenge for the month as my pantry is like walking into a minefield and the freezer is pretty full. I belong to a forum and they talk a lot about having $21 weeks. This is only feeding the family on $21. Of course this is not long term but more to think outside the box and use what is on hand.

I hope to have all $21 weeks in March, I will have the fruit and Vegetables delivered as usual each fortnight.  So far the only thing on the shopping list is Warren's muesli.