heating up our home

heres my very first (good) loaf of 'made with my own two hands' bread. i attempted it once before but lets just say that attempt wasnt worth photographing. it was great to make and better to eat. i even like the crusts (yes ill admit it, when im looking after kids i chuck my crusts in the chook bucket when there not looking, shh dont tell em)

i took a pic of the recipe to save writing it out. the recipe is from "the womans weekly new cook book'' (thats the title, its actualy not new at all, mums had this book forever and made so many things from it, its fantastic! i was lucky enough to find my copy at an opp shop for 50c, score!! i love that i can cook up lots of the things i ate throughout my childhood. mmmm)

the first few blured ingredients are 30g compressed yeast, 2 cups warm water, 1/2 teaspn salt, 2 tablespn honey or treacle

i left it to sit and rise a lot longer than the recipe called for as mine hadnt done much in their recomended times.

breakfast time stitching

for my birthday i got a wonderful outdoor table. ive been scouting opp shops for cussions to make the seats nice and comfy and found $2 cussion inserts and $1 callico, perfect!

what better place to do the hand stitching than at the table where i can sit there picturing how great its going to look. great motivation if you ask me

ive so far made this red one with mushrooms, ladybirds and trees. its loosely based on logcabbin, idea from here

and this blue and green one with a dresden plate with hand quilting. i love this one and plan to make a matching quilt

two down, four to go

camping on the river

on the weekend me and benny went camping near morgan with his parents at the spot theyve been going to since he was a little boy. friday night we arrived at the river. their favourite spot was taken so we had to search for another site.

unfortunately the spot we found was a little to sandy. we got bogged. then it started to rain. after all getting thouroughly saturated trying to get the car out we gave up and camped there overnight. and woke up to a flat tire on the caravan!

from there, luck couldnt get any worse so it got much better. once the car was out and tyre changed we went and found their favourite spot was free. the rest of the weekend was perfect blue sky, white puffy clouds, picture perfect

we had lots of fun checking out local opp shops and garage sales (bennys mum loves opp shops as much as i do!) found lots of $1 clothing bargains.

i loved their caravan that pops up, cooking damper on the fire, eating stew (real camping foods!)

benny and i wandered to all his favourite spots and he told me memories from when he was younger

plenty of perfect hours were spent reading on the river while benny checked fishing lines and their dog jasper paddled (and chased ducks) in the water

we caught a few good fish

shrimp were caught for bait. i was more excited about the shrimp than fish because i could get them out of the pots and hold them. oh and no scary hooks!

ahh, feeling thouroughly refreshed and happy. i had so much fun

happy actual bday to me (tuesday)

heres pictures of my actual birthday. i had a great day full of visitors.

i was lucky to have anneke come the night before so that she could be here to say happy birthday to me the second i woke up!

we had a great time eating ham and cheese bagels for breakfast (no were not turning into bagel eating yuppies, the bagels were reduced to 70c for a bag of 10! i cant pass up that kinda bargain lol)

oma and opa came for a bit, then lil and dale, then sarah and kylie and then bennys parents and my mum for a barbie tea



whats that im holding you ask? only the greatest icecream cake ever made by the wonderful anneke especially for me! it had honey icecream, toffe ice cream with crunchie, maltesers, curly wurly, chomp mixed in, ice magic and a funky candle. mmmm, theres enough left for me and benny to enjoy all week and benny has been brainstorming what to put in an ice cream cake for his birthday

here we are eating it. mmmmmmmmmmm

21

heres some pictures of my family party. it was ''tea party'' theme and a lot of fun!
i made teapot shaped biscuits, tea cups out of marshmallows with half life saver handles, biscuit saucers. very cute

mum and anneke suprised me with a photo board of my life so far, a great suprise

i got some great presents, including a beautiful wooden outdoor table (which i absolutely LOVE!)

heres some of the pretty food