I've been offline pottering around. We've been having some really nice weather mixed in with odd weather, rain and fog. It won't be long before spring is around the corner although we still have windy August to go through yet.
While at home I've been trying new recipes. I made a goulash and I'll put a video of that up soon along with instructions for a crochet shawl. I've also been managing to get some finishes done.
I've been working on and off of the baby quilt and it is finally heading to it's new home. A baby girl will hopefully like this. The only thing I brought for this quilt was a flannel set of double bed sheets on half price and I used the flannel for the batting. I wasn't sure if it would work as a batting but it does make the quilt very soft and warm, but not hot.
nicely ironed
The rest of the fabric came from my stash. I used, yes, another bed sheet to for the embroidery blocks and coloured in the blocks using crayon tinting technique: Technique can be found here. I embroidered through out in one strand of embroidery thread in DMC 310 black.
The gingham fabric came in a bundle from the thrift store a long time ago for about $1 (still had the price tag on it when I pulled it out.) The backing fabric is the same as the bed sheet. I actually used two different slightly pink sheets as I couldn't find the original one. Need to get organised in my stash I think.
I used up a lot of what I had and even recycled the tag. The clay charm is a fish and it comes from When Laura Meets Clay who is on etsy: whenlaurameetsclay
The designs of the little girls come from : Q is for Quilter. They can be found in the colouring book section.
The blocks on the quilt are 8 inches square. Set four rows across and five rows down.
Great oven to 200/220 fan-forced. Place a baking tay in oven. Lightly grease a deep dish. Line base and sides of container with pastry and trim excess. Prick with fork. Line with baking paper. Fill with pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove baking paper with weights. Bake for 5 more minutes until pastry is golden.
Melt remaining butter in large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and bacon. Cook. Transfer mixture to bowl set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
Reduce oven temperature to 80/160 fan-forced. Spoon bacon mixture in pastry case. Sprinkle with cheese. Whisk eggs and cream together in bowl. Pour over bacon mixture. Bake for 45 minutes or until set. Cool for 5 minutes.
Note:I didn't add the amounts as we made a lot to freeze. We also added silverbeet from the garden as it needed to be used up. I don't think I'd use silverbeet again as once defrosted the Quiche was very watery.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
June first is apparently international pen pal day. I've been writing letters on and off for years and they are more than often a lot different to how I write up a post for a blog. I love sending long 'chatty' letters and often include little sketches in the lines to make them fun. The letters I receive are always interesting to read. I have a long time pal from Mexico and most of the letters I receive internationally are from America. I love reading about how folks live across the pond and having a peek in their lives, it is so different from blogging.
It is said letter writing is a lost art, but there are still many who keep the art alive and well. Here are a few groups to find pals that I also use:
I'm always open for more pals so you can email me at vintagepapery@gmail.com to exchange snail mail addresses.
Yes mailing can be expensive but if you keep your letter flat and 'letter' size you won't be charged parcel rate. In australia letters are about $1.00 and over seas mail is up to $3. For less than five dollars you can find out what another person is doing with their life and cheer up someone when you send them something. There's not many places these days where you can have a lot of fun for less than $5. I'm planning to use June to write a letter a day, I should start with the mail I have to do some catching up.
Get writing and have fun!
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
We had frost on the ground this morning but the day is fair and if you can find a place to sit in the sun, it is a nice day. All the windows are open and we're airing the house out while the good day is warm enough to do so. It's still cool enough in the wind though not as cold as it has been. Our winter has really arrived.
A while back, our lady hairdresser who works from her home gifted us mandarins. This bowl has been brightening up the kitchen and they are really nice tasting.
I've saved a few of the seeds to see if they will grow and I'll plant them out after winter. I also been saving the citrus skins of the mandarines, oranges, and lemons for potpourri. I dried out orange and lemon rings too to decorate potpourri.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
(we also add a frozen mix packet of carrot, peas and corn)
Method:
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat add onion,
carrot and celery. Cook stirring until soft. Add mince and cook, stirring to
break up any lumps.
Add flour with beef stock and cook mixture until combined. Bring
to boil then reduce heat to low and cook. Stir occasionally or until mixture
thickens.
Cook potato in saucepan and boil until tender. Drain well.
Add butter and milk and mash until smooth.
Preheat oven to 200 C. Spoon mixture into ovenproof
baking dish and top with mashed potato. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes
or until mashed potato is golden brown.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
Winter has arrived and the days have been cold, wet, and windy. It is a good time to stay indoors when possible. My garden is loving the rain.
Meanwhile I have been doing some mix media painting. I'm on a Folk Art style at the moment and using up scrap supplies. I used up alphabet letters I have and had to cut some down and rearrange the letters to make the letters I didn't have. The word 'little' uses L's for T's and F's for the E.
The video below shows how I go about creating the art.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
I've been doing house keeping on my blog. I cleaned up links and added links that needed to be updated. I made the blog look more simple and cleaner. It's not perfect but it'll do. This will hopefully motivate me to post a little more often and comment around again too.
Here is a recipe for Citrus and Rose-Scented Potpourri
Dried Scented Rose petals
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Dried grated rind of 2 large lemons
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground orris root
1 container
Method:
Mix the flowers and herbs together in an airtight container add the lemon rind and leave for 2-3 days. Add spices and orris root, stir well and leave for 6 weeks stirring occasionally.
Lavender and Lemon Balm are good insect repellents, so this will also be useful in sachets among linen.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
Winter has arrived with a cold blast. We had heavy rain the last couple of days and it has cleared up with winds to keep the temperatures down. Just before May ended we took a brief trip up to Hervey Bay and on the way back we had breakfast at the Rusty Ute Cafe in Woolooga. The cafe has a vintage retro vibe and it's well worth the stop if you are passing through.
With Winter about the trusty slow cooker is out making nice comfort food to keep warm. Nothing is as easy to do as stew in the slow cooker. There is really not much you have to do with a slow cooker and it is worth the investment.
While my plants are enjoying the rain, not so much the cold, I am in doors working on a few projects it's a good time to work on them.
I hope everyone is warm and dry. We are going to have a wet winter I think.
We had some really lovely weather, and the change of the season into winter had to come with heavy rains. It's a very over cast, grey day at the moment all the signs that autumn is ending to bring in winter. Looks like we are going to have a wet and windy winter.
With the rain and cold coming in it's good time to start pursuing some new skills. I attended the Toowoomba simple living workshop on Tunisian Crochet, or Afghan Crochet. It makes a very simple stitch and works up quickly. Our worship co-ordinator, Margy's husband made the hooks for us to buy.
I've also been out and about, driving. My first trip was out to Bunnings for the garden. I won't talk about how I got lost....but at least I managed to park the car fairly straight in the carpark.
At home, I've been doing a few crafts. I brought some very cheap face washers to add some crochet edging to. Cheap face washers usually don't feel nice at first but they wash up okay. I'm thinking of adding a crochet one to make them a little more fancier gift. I'm also still working on the baby quilt, more to come about that soon.
Meanwhile I'm on another learning curve with a new computer given to me by my sister. It's an Apple Mac and very different to Windows. The hard part is figuring out the new way to edit photos and making movies as everything is so different. I'll figure it out eventually. I'm sure my posted photos will look a bit weird until I get the hang of things.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
It was a cooler morning this morning and still slightly over cast. I've been painting of late but the truth is I'm not feeling it. I'm in a bit of a artist block and it doesn't help I can't seem to find a subject and style I like. I'll paint through the block and hopefully something will come of it. I did an art journal page cutting up a piece of art I did at art class and rearranged the image then added in a scripture quote I thought fitted.
As you can see I was inspired by my pot marigolds. This is mixed media on paper. The scripture is Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
At home, I've also been cutting up and using some pumpkins Dad grew in his garden. I'm saving the seeds to start my own. If you have this Queensland blue pumpkin type growing at home and using it for mash Mum told me to add some sugar into it before you mash to sweeten the taste of it.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
My favorite season has arrived...Autumn. The mornings have been starting off very foggy but the fog soon lifts for a nice crisp, clear day. The nights have been a bit chilly yet still warm. At home, I've been pottering around fixing up my small garden.
Dad gave me some herb cuttings from his garden and my aunt who lives across the road gave me a lot of pots to work with. I now have a beginnings of my own garden. Hopefully I can keep every thing alive, I don't have the best talent with gardening. As always you will know I'll keep my garden frugal too and will share ideas.
My favorite place now is garden places and Bunnings garden section. My aunt and I went for a drive out to Bunnings after Mother's Day and they did have some plants on sale. I came home with Marigolds and Petunias.
I also started off some late flowering seeds of a cottage mix variety. I'll see how they will go, I may have planted them out too late. The back of the pack did say Autumn and they are growing so with a bit of luck I might have a few pretty flowers to show later.
Another thing I have been doing is I reopened my Youtube channel: My Channel
at some point I will rename it to match my blog. There will be a few different kinds of videos to match the content of my blog: Art, Sewing, Craft, Gardening, Snail Mail, Simple living, and so on. I'll post video's here too from the channel to save going in to look at the channel.. I'll be doing a mix of voice and music videos. I don't have the best quality voice for speaking, add painfully shy into the mix and hearing me is just hard for everyone including me, but I'm going to give it a try.
Hopefully my voice is not too painful to listen too.
On this Youtube video I'm talking about the baby quilt I'm making.
The technique is using Crayon Tinting. And the Images come from Q is for Quilter I used the links from her children's book category. The book is favourite paint book - Little girls
The weather has turned and you can tell Autumn is in the air. Although we have been having some warm days and it's nice to sit in the sun. I've been painting too, I attend an art society and it's a nice social gathering to go to and talk about art.
At home I've been pottering around. Shepherds pie was made and roast dinners too. I'll give a recipe for the Shepherds pie soon enough. I've also been working on another baby quilt to give There will be some instructions for that as well. I was sitting outside enjoying the sun while embroidering the squares for the quilt. As you know, I like frugal so these quilt squares are done on an old sheet and the sweet children images are printed off the web. The embroidery thread is about 60c each and this goes far when you are using one strand of thread. It'll cost me nothing much to make, just a little time to do. These type of things are slow as you know.
I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.
