Chocolate dotted girl

My constant companion Ruby, she is never more than half a step away from me.  I'm really worried that I will one day trip right over her, she doesn't mind being bumped into, kneed up the bottom or having her toes trod on, as long as she can be right there with you she's happy.  She is the most affectionate and doting dog I have ever owned and I'm so glad she is in our lives.  Ruby is 3 1/2 years old and still loves a good play with her collection of baby toys on the lounge room rug.  Oh, yes, she comes indoors!  Dalmatians have a really short soft coat that is so easy to look after but they shed hair all the time!!! 

Ruby is a purebred liver spotted Dalmation from Lukius Dalmatians in Canberra, ACT.  Her stud name is Lukius Hidden Treasure and she's a real gem.  She loves running and swimming, luckily we live beside a beach where dogs can run freely off the lead.  We've had two Dalmatians and I can so recommend this breed to active families.  Dalmatians often come up for rehousing on The Dalmatian Club of NSW.   Ruby's mum and sister have both been rehoused in the last couple of years.  

Chocolate river kayaking

The sun is shining after weeks of miserable rainy weather so Dear Husband and I went kayaking up our local river on Sunday.  We can't complain too much we haven't been flooded like so much of New South Wales has been in the last 2 weeks. So we packed a picnic and pedalled our way in our Hobie Mirage Revolution kayaks up the river on the high tide up past the oyster farms to a great little picnic spots on the river bank.  The water is normally crystal clear and you can see Sting Rays and Flathead resting on the sandy bottom, not this time, it looked like a river of chocolate sauce and I didn't fall in!  We enjoyed three hours out in the fresh air and enjoyed the peace up the river to places where motor boats can't get to.  Ahhh, the serenity!

A bakers dozen of Liberty shirts

I've been collecting these for a few years now, hoping one day to have enough variety so I can make a quilt.  I found the 13th shirt yesterday at a local charity store, it was made in England and cost me $3.  I think the time is getting closer where I can start designing the quilt I want to make.  I've been looking at lots of Liberty of London Tana Lawn quilts today on the web for ideas.  The fabric is just so delicate and soft it is going to be a very special quilt.  Tessuti Fabrics have a large selection online and those of you who live in Sydney and Melbourne can visit their great stores.

I've loved Liberty fabrics for a long time, one of the shirts I made about 23 years ago,  I also have a bundle of scraps from the making of my 3 bridesmaids dress from our 1990 wedding. 

I think I might be needing to add this Kaffe Fassett book to my library to give me just a little bit more inspiration for my Liberty quilt.  I have about half a dozen of Kaffe's quilting books one more will just blend in and Dear Husband won't notice.

Vintage sheet room makeover

When Surfer Boy left home to join the Navy, Darling Daughter decided she wanted his larger room!  So a coat of fresh paint (Dulux Whisper White), new super soft carpet, new Luxaflex plantation shutters and new white furniture where needed.  After all that Darling Daughter and I went hunting for the perfect bed linen.  This proved to be a difficult task.  We picked up some beautiful white Sheridan pure cotton damask striped sheets but finding a quilt cover set was more problematic.  As you know I'm a keen thrift shopper and I mentioned to Darling Daughter I had a collection of pure cotton vintage sheets stashed away.  So while she was at school one day I ripped and sewed, and now she has a reversible striped quilt cover with a button opening at the bottom and a pair of quilt as you go pillowslips.  She loves this quilt set better than anything we saw in the shops and then we started adding some bits and pieces to her room make it more personalised.  Picked up the great lamp at Freedom and string of paper lanterns and Paris inspired canvas artwork at Typo.  The pair of turtle doves ornament was particularly revolting when I found it at a local charity store so I sprayed it pale turquoise and it looks great now.  My 17 year old loves her new room and that is all that matters!

I've used vintage sheets before when I made myself a new cotton bathrobe a few years ago.  If you like vintage sheets too then you should pop over to this great blog The Vintage Sheet Blog. 

Francesco Biasia find

Last week I had a very lucky find at one of my favourite local charity stores.  I found this small black handbag amongst all the other various bags hanging around the store, I thought it looked like real leather, the stitching was very precise and the metal findings were all high quality.  I didn't know the brand being a country girl but I was very pleased when I discovered this is an original Francesco Biasia handbag made in Italy.  I know it's not from the latest range but it is in perfect condition and I like the style of this small bag.  Here is a link to an Australian retailer of Francesco Biasia handbags, also found a lot on eBay.  It was a good week for thrifting last week also found a lovely soft Leona Edmiston woollen dress which is just beautiful.  I went charity shopping last week for an embroidered pillowslip for a special little project I have in mind for Darling Daughter, no joy finding a pillowslip so far so will be hitting the charity stores again. 

My Kingston slice

It's gloomy and cold so I decided to cook this afternoon.  I'm a cupboard cook, I check what I've got in my cupboard and come up with a recipe to suit those ingredients.  I've made a variation of my Ginger slice.  I'm calling it my Kingston slice because it really tastes like an Arnott's Kingston biscuit, coconut and chocolate, a good combination.

Kingston Slice

3 weetbix (crush with your hands if you don't have a mixer or food processor)

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup of melted, unsalted butter

Place dry ingredients in mixer then add melted butter and mix till it starts to bind together, if it's a bit dry add a couple of teaspoons of water.  Press into a lined slice tin 20 x 28cm with a fork.

Sprinkle half a packet of milk chocolate Nestle Choc Bits over the slice, spread evenly. 

Topping

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/4 cup castor sugar

1 egg

Mix these three ingredients gently with a fork until combined and it looks light and clumpy.  Spread very gently over slice with tip of fork.

Bake at 180 degrees (lower if fan-forced) for 25-30 minutes. Cool in tin.  Lift slice out with baking paper onto chopping board and cut into 18 rectangles with a big kitchen knife.

Sweater bed for our cat

She immediately began to wash which means instant love for this fussy old girl!

An thrifted old pure wool men's sweater/jumper that I have washing machine felted so it's thick and strong.

With a few seams, a bit of stuffing and a couple of buttons.

Absolute luxury.  A very warm and cosy bed for our aged cat Annie who will be 13 next week.  You can see the flecks of grey in her coat but her health is good and I'm sure she'll love this bed during winter.  She's sound asleep in it now so I think that is a good sign that this project is a winner.  This was an idea I've had kicking around in my head for a while, just had to find the right sweater/jumper.

Cotton crochet throw

In September 2009 I posted about my learning how to crochet this simple square in 4ply cotton.  Well as I suspected I did forget how to work it and it took me another few nights recently to finally work out what size hook I had used and how to interpret that pattern again!  Anyway, I have a couple of watermelon ones to work and a ball each of cream and taupe, then all the squares might be finished.  I will have to lay them out and check the size and maybe find another ball to make it work.  So I set to work searching for a good crochet technique for joining these squares together to make a throw.  I've tried it out with a white scrap on two squares and I'm quite pleases with it.  It gives a nice bit of stretch to the join so it will stretch and conform without breaking any threads which can occur when you sew squares together. I found this technique demonstrated on Youtube which was really helpful, it's called Crochet - Flat Braid joining and it's shown over 4 short videos.  Here is a link to the first one to get you started.  I love how you work a border on each square while you join to the next one and I don't think the finished throw will need an outer border to finish it off.   I ordered 2 x 200g of latte 4ply cotton from Bendigo Woollen Mills last Friday for the joining of the squares.

Crochet is finally starting to feel comfortable and I can work a square pretty quickly now!  My 2012 challenge is working out and I'm even planning on a winter crochet project made from a stash of Cleckheaton Vintage Hues I've had for some time.

A friendly reminder to myself

If you can't read it, here is the transcription.

Q Are you the driver or the passenger in your life?

A I think I've locked myself in the boot

A good friend reminded me I had given her this tea towel a number of years ago when she was buried in work stress.  She had dragged it out again recently to show her colleagues and it reminded me that I need to check whether it is me who is driving my life more regularly.  Mum's and wives so often get lost in the business of family, we don't put ourselves first and let others walk all over us because we are so busy or tired. 

Judy Horacek is an Australian cartoonist, artist, writer and children’s book creator and has a great website, also a very entertaining blog.    I really love her latest blog post which is an advance showing of a book she illustrated called The Night Before Mother’s Day, it is a poem written by Doug McLeod telling of a mother lying in bed dreading the onslaught of Mother's Day.  To be released in April.  This hit a chord with me because I really dislike Mother's Day, it has turned out to be the most monumentally bad day of the year on many occasions for me.  This one began it all, I was 7 months pregnant with my first child and my husband said I didn't qualify because I wasn't a mother!!  If you not a mother when you a hugely pregnant then I'm not sure when you are!  My sister has cried  to herself on many Mother's Days because her husband ignores the days significance because my sister is not his mother and therefore never bothered to help their 3 kids make Mother's Day special for her at all.  Not that he buys his mother a gift either!

Filati felting

Picked this knitting magazine up recently.  I've bought a few copies of Filati Handkitting in the past but this one with the gladioli on the cover really caught my eye.  As a designer of knitted and felted bags I was pleased to see a felted bag on the cover and there a few more felted projects in the magazine too.  The cutest one is a small felted stuffed toy fish, might even try this out with my new crochet skills so I can show you how cute it is.   I have personally thought felting had probably had it's day, now maybe I am not right............in Germany at least!  Other than the felting the magazine is full of great home wares projects, very contemporary and stylish.  Worth a look if you can still find Issue 46 on the shelves near you.