Baby Shower Quilt

Aunty L recently had her baby shower and being the Art teacher that she is, planned a cracking project for us all.  We all had to decorate a calico square to be sewn into a wall hanging/quilt.  Aunty L has a knack for aiming high and achieving the incredible (when we all thought we were going to sip tea and nibble cake.)  Here are some snaps...

Aunty E's patch in the making

Ms C hard at work

Pedal to the metal

Beautiful garden by Miss S

Big Flower by Aunty L

Squirrel With Nut on a Hill by Miss M

Turtle by artist unknown

Cat - collaborative work started by Ms J,
embellished by Aunty L and I

Chook - artist unknown

Mine, its a bit dodgy

Magical River With Bridge and Hot Air Balloon
artist unknown

Ocean going Hermit Crab by Grandma Gia

Rainbow With Small Dog in Red Coat by Grandma M
in collaboration with Aunty L

There are quite a few more squares I am not sure why I don't have photos of them???  I thought I had got them all (I wonder if a certain child might have deleted some because the card was full??)   Oh well that just means I will have to do another post another day.

Ratatouille Lasagna

When I have a weekend cooking urge and feel virtuous and all European I love to make this yummy baked pyrex dish of goodness.

1 enormously large Egg plant cut into 1 cm slices
3 medium size zucchinis cut into coins
1 large red onion sliced
2 red capsicum cut into cheeks
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup of grated cheese.

Sauté onions in a table spoon of olive oil, then ...

I ever so lightly pre cook the egg plant and capsicum in my
toasted sandwich press - brush with olive oil and closed lid for a few mins.  

Starting with the egg plant, layer ingredients into dish
(don't pre cook the zucchini it turns to slush.)

Layer

Layer

Another layer of egg plant to finish off

Pour over the two cans of chopped toms and sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake at 180 until the cheese is golden, serve with what ever you like.
Tonight we are having ours with crusty bread and roast Lamb.
I also love these ratatouille left overs as a pasta sauce, it goes really well with a chunky spiral pasta.

Finished Crochet Bag

I have finished my first ever crochet bag.  I really enjoyed making it and learnt so much as I was going along.  I am amazed at how much sense crochet is starting to make to me.   Now I understand what all the fuss is about and why it is so addictive.  I am itching to start the next one, especially now I know what I would do better/differently.

The bag is a bit on the small side but still very handy.

I know how to reduce width and how to keep the strap
a bit neater for next time.

I love the wide/fat bands on the lower middle section  I was
trying to do Granny stitch but ended up with this
pretty stitch that looks quite lacy, maybe it is called Lace Stitch?

Kids With Cameras

We don't have a particularly special camera (as much as I would like one.)  Ours lives in a basket in the the kitchen so its always at hand.  A consequence of this convenience is that it is also at hand for the children too and they love to use it.  We tried to give them the old one to use but no-one can ever find it.  So ours gets used a lot and you never know what you are going to get when you download the photos.  They love to make movies of each other and of their toys.  They take lots  photos of things they love, think are funny or might be rude.  (We don't get too much rude stuff they all hate the serious talk that goes with getting busted.)   Here are some of my favorite photos

I think Miss S took this one, I love the angle and the colours.

This would have to be by my scientific Miss M

I don't know who took this one, its my favourite.

Trick Tomatoes

What do you do when your tomato plants have gone crazy and Halloween is around the corner...

Trick

Or Treat 

Its amazing how many kids actually took tomatoes and ate them on the spot.

Does anybody know if cherry toms are any good for chutney?

Fabric Book by Kindy Kids

Our super and amazing Kindy teacher recently got married which was very exciting for the kindy kids.  While she was on her honeymoon Mrs B our clever Teaching Assistant got all the kids to decorate a calico square.  They the squares came home to our house to be sucked into the vortex  sewn together.  Our Teacher is very much the naturalist who loves craft, calico and all things without a commercial touch, by her own admission, pretty much had an Etsy Wedding.

How beautiful is this, there were 26 beautiful squares of some of the
funniest things.  Lots of girls did bride pictures, my son did a dinosaur.

Hope this gives an idea of how its constructed.

The front cover - I stitched "Miss A Gets Married by ....."
I also used my last scrap of this awesome liberty field print fabric.
A project very worthy of my liberty scrap.

Vintage Rag Rugs

We recently went to our local museum.  It's my favourite type of museum, crammed full of vintage bits and bobs, obscure donated collections and rooms set up as life in the "olden days" would have been.  It's run by volunteers who clearly have their own pet projects and friends who are pretty tricky with a calligraphy pen who can do the labels.  (None of that high art business of a huge room filled with three items behind glass cabinets with graphically designed info boards.)

Look at this for Rag rugging....

How fantastic are these chair covers?

How much so these guys own frugality with their
table made from reclaimed and found materials?

What a Rug!!!

Organic Unicorn Cake

Did I ever show you this cake??  This is another of the very talented Aunty L's cakes, did you see the Veggie patch cake?  Can you believe she made this for a party in a park, hence the quick iphone snaps before it was devoured.  She made an organic chocolate beetroot cake and decorated it with her home made marzipan sculptures.  Its a magical garden with magic plants.

Better Late Than Never

It is a freakishly late spring year.  We are having beautiful warm, sunny, blue sky spring days but the temperature is still dropping right down over night.  Which has been messing with my plants biology, my seeds aren't germinating well and my flowers aren't blooming.

Yesterday I went to check the letter box and could smell the most stunning perfume and I thought "golly that smells like someone has Sweet Peas."  You can imagine my delight when I turned back to the house and realised it was me!  A quick glance around the garden shows a quite a few of my plants are on the verge of exploding into bloom - Yay.

Hopefully just the beginning.

First Apple Blossom

Kangaroo Paws

How nice for me to have a little vase of flowers to look and smell, rather than the previous jar of dissolving chicken bones.

Zpagetti Gifts

Our lovely Kindy teacher got married recently, since I am having so much fun with Zpagetti at the moment I thought I would try my hand at making a gift.   I got some free pattern ideas from the internet and winged it a bit as well.  Hope she likes it.

Fruit Bowl

Chunky Doily 

I think I might make some for me too.

The kindy boy thinks it makes a better hat!

Decorating with Experiments

 My children love discovering things, they love science and like all children they have inquisitive minds.  I do think this is a good thing and Mr Daddy and I do like to nurture this in them, however... I am feeling a little bit fed up with all the experiments that are underway at the moment.   I feel like every where I turn there is something a bit gross, probably not hygienic and possibly going to end with the house being burnt down.

This is Miss S's Chicken Bones in Vinegar Project.  Can she turn the bones into jelly by having the vinegar suck out all the calcium?  It is very interesting but its really gross to have to look at festering chicken bones every time I stand at the kitchen sink. 

This is Miss M's chemistry project, I am not sure what it is but I know she was in full safety gear when she was  preparing and I'm not sure it should be so close to the dining table.

The lounge has served as a Silkworm farm but thank goodness  they have finally cocooned up and can be reduced down to one small box. 

My hutch has become a science table displaying a wasp nest, dead butterfly and  the shed skins of numerous creatures.

But the scariest of all was the strange light I could see coming out of the rarely used bathroom where I found this elaborate/dangerous set up...

It turns out Miss M was trying to dehydrate an apple!

 \

Spelt Chocolate Slice with Texture

Everyone has a chocolate slice recipe, this is mine...  It started as a normal chocolate slice but over the years has evolved as I have decreased the amount of sugar and added more fibre in an attempt to get my children to eat a little better.  I might have gone a bit too far and sometimes get a bit heavy handed with the LSA.  The girls are on to me and wont have it unless there is nothing else in the house but I love it and so does Master B.

I use wholemeal spelt quite a lot, it adds a great flavor and when used half and half with white flour the kids never know.  Spelt does need slightly more moisture than normal flour so either take a table spoon of flour out when measuring ingredients or add a Tablespoon of milk.  I also love shredded coconut rather than desiccated at the moment.  It has so much more texture and doesn't get lost.

This slice is best kept in the fridge it goes nice and fudgie when kept cool.  Yum.

Spelt Chocolate Slice

250g butter melted

1 ½ cups of brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup of plain Wholemeal Spelt

½ cup white self raising flour

4 table spoons Cocoa powder

1 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup LSA meal (Linseeed, Sunflower and Almond)

2-table spoons milk

Mix all the ingredients together in the one bowl.

Pour into a tray (greased and paper lined) approx 30 x 20 cm.  Spread the mix out evenly and bake at 180° for approx. 30 mins or until the edges have come away from the side of the tray and it passes the fork test.  This slice works well slightly over cooked rather than under.

Allow to cool and ice – I usually have left over icing in the freezer and use what ever is available. Or this one - 2 tblsp cocoa powder, 1 cup of icing sugar and hot water added gradually a tblsp at a time until a spreadable paste is formed.

This batch is iced with left over butter icing from the cup
cakes we were also making, anything goes with this slice.