Quilt A-long Block 11....

I can't believe we are up to Block 11 already, only one more to go.......

Jodie

Back to School Time.......

It is back to school time here.

The summer holidays are drawing to a close.

DD1 is going into Grade 2 this year and she starts on Wednesday.

Yesterday I covered ALL her books.

I so DO NOT like contact!

We went for a Barbie theme this year (her choice), but ran out so there is a bit of My Little Pony in the mix too.

At least it is all done for another year!

DD2 has an exciting year ahead of you. She is starting pre-prep at a new centre tomorrow.

No uniform and no books, but we did get some new clothes.

She has a Tshirt from the centre in green, and we have a new pink hat and pink and orange shoes to wear with her pink and green shorts!

Funny thing is, she is normally my purple girl!

Jodie

Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day, we spent it with friends in the park.

Flags were flying.....

the BBQ was firing...

Secret men's business around the BBQ...

Secret Kids Business.....

The weather was beautiful. This is God's own country.

Jodie

"N"

Only a day late this week, I am improving!

This week's Scatterdays is brought to you by the letter N. Categories are Orange, South American and Things that are good for you, that you don't like.

For Orange I have my two NEW orange T shirts, Suzanne Grey has a sale on!

For South American I have Brazil NUTS. I stole the photos from the net, from http://www.orau.org/. (I am assuming the Brazil nuts are from South America!)

Lastly, for something that is good for you, but you don't like I have NUROFEN. (thanks to my friend Chooky for the photo!) I chose it because kids medicine's tend to be sweet to entice the child to drink it, and DD2 doesn't like sweet things so she DOES NOT LIKE to take it.

Jodie

Proof....

Chooky........

and Me!

She came, we met, we drank a little Champagne!

(and swapped cameras and played silly buggers!)

Jodie

Pumpkin and Feta Salad

Looks good doesn't it? Taste's divine I promise you and is very easy.

Peel, dice and roast the pumpkin until tender. I seasoned mine with some salt, pepper and a touch of brown sugar and then tossed it in olive oil before roasting about 30mins. Allow to cool but do not refrigerate.

Crisp some bacon in a fry pan and dry roast some pine nuts.

When you are ready to serve, layer baby spinach and rocket leaves on a plate, scatter the pumpkin, bacon, finely sliced Spanish onion, diced or crumbled feta and the pine nuts.

The secret ingredient is the yummy Honey Mustard dressing that Chookyblue brought with her........ just swirl a little on the top.

Enjoy,

Jodie

NB. I was asked in some emails where can we get the dressing? As it was a gift I am not sure where it is sold. The bottle does have an email address on it for contacting Rosie - Rosieshm@bigpond.com or I have made this dressing before -

3 quarters of a cup of Honey
1 tbs Dijon Mustard (I think it would be nice with wholegrain mustard)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs lemon juice

This is a Donna Hay recipe that goes with her Pumpkin and Beetroot Salad in Issue 20 of her magazine, a few years ago.

Quilt A-long Blocks 8, 9 & 10

What to do on a rainy day

We took the girls to the beach on Sunday morning, and it rained!

It wasn't cold, in fact it was quite steamy, and afterall you do get wet while swimming. We stayed about an hour and they had a lot of fun.

I was standing in the shallows, taking the photos and NOT swimming and I got very wet. It wasn't quite as much fun from my perspective. But still it cooled us all off.

Jodie

Quilters' Blessings

Thanks to Bea for the pattern.

Thanks to May Brit for the stitchery threads as part of my SCSS present, and

Thanks to Chookyblue for getting me started.

Jodie

Mystery Guests Revealed...

So who came to stay? Chookyblue and her DD, that's who! Well it was so lovely to finally meet face to face after talking almost daily on the Internet for I don't know how long. Her DD is just a bit older than my oldest and they they got on great as well.

Like any visit is was too short but very sweet. I have no photos of Chooky though. We were being silly one afternoon after some champagne and swapped cameras and took photos of each other. So I have photos of me! Once she is home I will get her to post the pic of her and I will do the same with the one of me.

The morning of the day they left us I took her up to the botanical gardens where DH, the girls and I had been the weekend before. Amazing the changes in just a week. And it rained! Walking in the rain forest in the rain, very appropriate.

Come back and see us again Chookyblue, anytime!!!!

Jodie

"U"

Ok, this week's Scatterdays is the letter U and it has not gone according to plan! Yes I had a plan, I thought about this earlier in the week.

Cartoon Character I found hard, I did a google and came up with Uncle Sam, but for some reason "Uncle Sam" won't sit nicely with my other pics so no pretty collage this week.

Streets - there are two that came to mind - Upton Street, over near mum and dad's and Universal Street (actually I think it is drive, but it is closer than mum and dads!), but I never got to either! So I photographed the page in the street directory!!

Lastly, things we spent A LOT OF MONEY ON!!!!!, School UNIFORMS. Fortunately DD1 is going into Grade 2, so that major expense was last year.

Yeah for me, I got Scatterdays done on Saturday!!!! But next week!! Hooley Dooley!!! Watch this space.

Jodie

Jodie

Can you guess who?

I am behind with Crazy Mom's Quilt Along, but I am making 3 sets of blocks and I am not that far behind. (I do know that there is a mistake in "Block 7" in the pink set but I am going to leave it as is - a bit of individualism). Besides....... my sewing room is also our spare room and as I am expecting two very special guests to arrive on Thursday I am packing up the sewing room and bringing on the guest room.

I will keep it a surprise, but I am sure she will join in the fun and let me do the 'big reveal' once she is here......

Can anyone guess who??

Jodie

PS I know these photos are shocking quality, but they were taken at 1.30am and I didn't want to wake anyone. So it was a quick turn on the lights, snap the photo, lights out and lay out the next set of blocks. :)

Mt Tamborine, Botanical Gardens and More

Well our camping trip that delayed Scatterdays never happened. The weather here lately has just been too bad to attempt any time in the great outdoors. It wasn't a problem here or where we had planned to camp, but the roads in between have gone under in all the rain we have had.

Plan B. The girls had a serious case of cabin fever, so we drove up Mt Tamborine and found ourselves at the Botanical Gardens. We took our camping lunch with us - Chicken Kebabs, Salad and wraps, as well as the little gas burner and fry pan, and we had a great time.

The rain had done wonders for the gardens, the flowers were in bloom, the grass green and the little creeks flowing well.

After our lunch, we drove on and Russ and the girls had an ice cream where I got the water fall shots.

Jodie

"E"

Playing catch up again (as usual with Scatterdays). Last week was the letter "E", white things, plant world and terrifying things! Ok then .......

Egg whites.......

A Eucalyptus......

here is the sign at the base of the tree to prove it.......

And something terrifying...... no it is not DD1! It is the Mango Tango ice cream she is eating. Kinda lame I know, but to someone who is lactose intolerant AND allergic to mango (ie ME), I just would not go there in a culinary sense.

Ok, now I thought that was hard. Next week (which is now this weeks....) The letter "U" - Street, Cartoon Character, Things people pay a lot of money for.

Someone please HELP!

Jodie

Scatterdays

We are going camping tomorrow, so I will be late with this weeks offering. See you after the weekend.

Jodie

Quilt A-long Block 7 and more.......

Well as illustrated above I have complete Block 7 in Crazy Mom Quilts Quilt A-long. This one was so quick and easy to put together. I love that. Crazy Mom is talking of doing a Star Block Quilt A-long when we finish this sampler. My initial reaction - No Way, Not Me, but the more I think about it the more interested I am. I am no-way as scared of half square triangles as I used to be, and I feel less intimidated as we work through these blocks one a time.

So much so, that I picked out the fabrics above and decided to make samplers for the girls as well. The top 3 fabrics on the right are new FQs, the rest are just scraps. (I did honestly think it would be enough fabric! I was so wrong).

DD1's is pink with purple, and......

DD2's is purple with pink.

Don't worry, I agree that the purple in the bottom left block is too dark, but I have stalled as I am totally out of darker pinks and don't have any other purples for interest. Gee I will just have to go fabric shopping! I will wait until I pick up some more fabric and then decided if the new fabrics help the dark purple to blend in more, otherwise I can unpick it and reverse the fabric so it is not so intense.

Speaking of purchasing fabric, when we were up at SIL's place between Christmas and New Year she took me to a patchwork shop - Maleny Magic. I had Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket! The six FQ on the top left are a set called "Abstract Expressions". They caught my eye as soon as I walked in so I decided to splurge. No idea what I will do with them but I am sure I will have fun working something out. The other FQs where all $2.50 each. Yes you read that right. I promise I tried to buy more, but this was the best I could do!!

Jodie

"V"

This weeks scatterdays is the letter "V" - Office Items, Car Parts and In the Kitchen. Not as hard as I first thought it would be, although I left car parts up to DH.

Office Items - the air conditioning VENT in my office (our 4th bedroom)

Car Parts - tyre VALVE

In the kitchen - VEGETABLES - specifically carrots, capsicum, zucchini and choy sum.

Up to date again! Sigh!!!

Jodie