Easter Parade

My very special Easter gift from my Mum.  It's a Blue Bunny needle case.  I LOVE it.  It is so so special to me.

My darling Easter Bunnies



The Easter Table



The Easter Table



Greek honey and pine nut cake with cinnamon orange glaze



Little stitches



Hand quilting....



Finished this book

I caught 'the movie Ëaster Parade on tv this weekend. I'd never seen it before.  It was lovely to sit stitching away at my hexie quilt listening to the songs and watching Fred Astaire dance. Judy Garland really had the most amazing voice!

So in homage to the film, here's my pictorial Easter Parade for you. Just a few snippets of what we got up do over the lovely, lovely break. 

Absent from photos...my weekend also included, walking Tilly, kayaking on the Swan River, a movie outing to "The Other Woman", lunch with friends, a whole day at home and working on my hexie quilt, dvds with my girls, coffee and chocolate - I love the little Turkish delight eggs.

and for fun....yours truly having a go at the piñata.....

The BEST Coffee and Walnut Cake

On Sunday I had a rare day with not much on, so I thought I'd bake a cake.  I went through a stage of baking a cake every weekend a while back, but that had gone by the wayside recently.  But I just felt like something super yummy to have with a morning coffee.  I was totally inspired by a new cookbook I bought recently - it is so mouth-watering, I just drool over the pages as I flick through.  I've declared to myself I will systematically bake every recipe in the book - a bit of a Julie/Julia Child thing.  No pressure Sooze..I mean I didn't set a time frame.  I think I might set a counter up and count down the number of recipes in the book...mmm I just need to figure out how to do that! 

 

I won't keep you in suspense any longer................

 

 

 

here's what it looked like from the top....

 

 

and side

 

 

 

 

It was to-die-for-delicious and got the biggest thumbs up from my girls. Totally gluten-free.

 

Thanks Julia Thomas from Cake Angels

 

 

Weekend in Review 4

I feel as though the weekend was really very uninspiring.  It just seemed to pass in a blur and I don't have any real enthusiasm for recording it.

I baked on Sunday morning for a birthday afternoon tea for my besties birthday.  I made gluten free butter kisses

and a gluten free chocolate caramel slice.  All very yummy.  I also made osso buco and an interesting Persian lamb and rhubarb stew for evening meals.

I managed a grand total of possibly 10 treble crochets on my rug!  And I did did about 4 strips on one Russian doll quilt. 

The washing machine has broken down. As has the printer and the screen/monitor.  Part of the back fence has blown over in the massive storm we had here on Sunday. The wind also dislodged a couple of pickets off the front picket fence!  I managed to get grease and petrol all over my favourite red winter coat on its very first outing after the dry-cleaners so it's back at the dry cleaners!

I'm on anti-biotics again!  And now being treated for fibromyalgia.

Oh dear woe is me....I think I better eat some worms!  :))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5O4TaXY2gE

Weekend in Review 3

Ooops it's Friday and I haven't done my weekend in review post, although I've posted about a couple of things I did. My weekend was very very quiet. I blobbed in front of telly on Friday night.  Saturday morning did a few chores before heading out on my "Artist's Date".  I've read the book by Julie Cameron, The Artist's Way and try to incorporate random artist dates into my life.  I love that book and it sits beside my bed, so everynow and again I flick through it and re-acquaint myself with it. So with the prospect of a long weekend and time on my hands I decided to have an artist's date. I headed to Calico and Ivy to soak up some inspiration.  In particular I wanted to buy sock yarn and needles so I can learn to knit socks. 

The yarn for sale is heaven.  The colours are heaven.  I was in heaven.  My mind started jumping all over the place with projects I want to make.  It almost became stressful.  I had to take big deep breaths! I was there for ages fondly the yarns, flicking through books, looking at fabric, drooling over the Liberty bolts. Eventually... mission accomplished very satisfactorily!

Here are the socks I'm about to embark on!

Next weekend job was to buy myself some jeans.  With the weather turning, and not a pair in my wardrobe, I need to rectify this.  Again mission successfully completed - 2 pairs purchased - a dark dark navy pair and a red pair!  Thumbs up from everyone at home.

I also splurged on a wooden sign for the kitchen.  Very fun!

Sunday was spent doing chores and sewing my Russian Doll quilt - see earlier post.  Evenings were spent crocheted my wavy edging on my rug.  Almost finished - one and a bit sides to go.

A lovely walk down to the river on Sunday evening.  I'm so lucky to live so close to the beautiful Swan River.  As I approached the foreshore I could hear bagpipes.  I discovered it was coming from a small glen :).  A piper and drummer were practicing.  How special was that.  I stayed within earshot for the entirety of my walk.  It was very special.  I grew up learning Scottish dancing and listening to pipe band records with my Scottish grandfather.  I love the bagpipes, pipe bands.  The sound of them transports me to other times and places.

Monday was lost in running the girls around, chores and cooking.  I did squeeze in an hour of sewing, but that was it.

Foodwise I cooked a delicious chorizo and bean soup (thanks Bill Granger), a lamb and lentil stew, some delicious bacon, pea and parmesan mini quichey muffiny things and the dismal failure of a cake!

And that was my long weekend.

Epic baking fail....aka lemon brick cake

You know that saying "When all else fails bake a cake"........well what happens when the cake fails? 

My Sunday baking was a Lemon Drizzle Cake - a gluten free version.  All mixed in a food processor, whacked in the tin and the oven - easy peasy. 

First sign of impending disaster was that the mixture curdled in the food processor.  Mmmmm I stood and looked and considered this...do I add more flour?  No I think I'll soldier on being my first attempt at the recipe.  Put it in the silicone loaf pan and slid it into the oven.  Watching it carefully as my oven is awful.  I really must get someone out to look at it.  It was browning up very quickly but sloppy as all get out.  The butter was bubbling all around it.  Was that the silicone baking tin?  (It's not a tin, but what else do you call them?)  I bought it recently as I needed a loaf pan of a certain size.  Don't know why, I don't like using silicone.  I went against my better judgement and got talked into it by the shop assistant and I needed one to make my gluten free bread and it was all they had.  (Still haven't made the bread!). Anyway I think I'll donate it and get myself a tin tin...

I tested the cake and the top half was sloppy and the bottom solid.  I thought "oh no' it's burning on the bottom.  But perservered until the top was the tested properly. So finally I pulled it out and drizzled the drizzle over it and left it to cool completely in the pan.

It didn't look too bad when I turned it out....

The top half was edible....so we nibbled away at that...real cake desperados that we are!

and played and sculpted it....

It looks like a barge or oil tanker, don't you think?  Although this one would sink without a trace.  The bottom half was just a solid slab - reminiscent of the concrete slab out extension is built upon.

So all was not lost completely... we managed to have some fun with it.  I'm wondering whether to try again, but not use the food processor and make it by steps, that is, cream the butter and sugar add an egg and then the rice flour etc etc. That way I can keep an eye on it, oh and use one of my trusted cake tins, not the new fangled silicone. 
so all is not lost when the cake fails too! 

Weekend in Review

Weekends pass by in a blur just as the weeks do.  I sometimes think I put too much pressure on "the weekend".  I want it to be the classic storybook kind of relaxing and fun time - you know a proper weekend ... off on a picnic, eating delicious home made food, lying on a rug, soaking up the outdoors, walking through beautiful scenery...yep I'm delusional!  That happens NEVER in my life.  My weekends are so rarely restful and rejuvenating. They can be busier than the week I just made it through and I end up completely happy to go to work where I get to see the stuff in the Inbox go to the Outbox.  My weekends are filled with errands, jobs, taxi-ing the girls and catching up so I'm ready for the next week.  But Monday comes and I don't feel ready for the week?  I haven't had my PROPER weekend.  But is there any such things these days where we're all so busy juggling, work, kids, home, fun? I don't know but I'm trying to deliniate between the 2. To find someway where I feel there is a little indulgence or down time or break from craziness.
This weekend was very rare though - my girls went away to a music festival, so I had a few hours alone in the house (except for the pets).  It was bliss.  I was conscious though that there is a lot more of this to come as they are both talking of travelling and living away in the coming years. So before too long I'll be missing them and having lots of alone time. So enjoy the busy times now.  Although I look at my mother who is one of the busiest people I know.
I actually felt as though I had a bit of a weekend.  I still did groceries, cooking and jobs, but I also sewed and crocheted more than usual . 

One border finished on the quilt - my first attempt at mitred corners.  Okay, I know lots of room for improvement. The black border really finishes the quilt off.  I'm loving the quilt all the more for the border. It makes it so much ...bolder.  The black fabric has some terrible fraying disease - I've never sewn with a cotton fabric like it.  Now for the backing...thought I had that sorted, but the piece isn't nearly big enough, so I'm going to have to piece the back as well.  I am going to attempt to hand quilt this one, so check back in a year or two to see how I'm going!  Ha!

Several rows of the border for my rug done.  Loving it too.  Sounds obvious probably but it is really really adding another dimension to the rug and I'm loving it all the more too. I'm not sure how many rows I will do.  I'm just trusting that the rug will tell me when there's enough.  Then an edging of some description.  Something new.

A bit of cooking - all scrummy.  A chicken curry on Friday night, a good ol' fashioned beef stew on Saturday, absolutely DElishous.  The smell filling the house whilst I sewed was divine.  The anticpation of the meal to come...

Saturday night watching New Tricks on telly crocheting away.  My colourful leftover quilt spread over me.

Sunday morning coffee with girlfriends at a patisserie in the Perth CBD. 

www.jpsancho.com.au

We hadn't been there before - well worth a vist.  Busy and vib-ey on a Sunday morning.  I bought the girls a treat...ah memories of Paris last year....

Some more baking - my current favourite soup, Sweet Potato and Lentil and a banana cake. 

And some herb patch admiring...planted in an old wheelbarrow about a month ago and THRIVING.

And a then a Sunday afternoon rugby match in glorious sunshine.  My team lost by a point - their 5th straight loss. 

And then settling in with a cuppa and Sunday night tv viewing - the return of Downtown Abbey and some more happy hooking!

Knock me socks off... if it wasn't a proper weekend!  It just snuck up on me... just like that!

Sunday Baking

I quite often bake a treat for us on a Sunday.  It feels as though it rounds off the weekend nicely.  A celebration of time spent at home and in my kitchen.  An acknowledgement to the week ahead and and extreme busy - ness for the week days.  Baking has been absent whilst I've been sick and also because of the gluten free diet.  I mean I ain't gonna bake something I can't eat, now am I?  Cakes and baking being an integral part of me! (Remember, this bake a cake post, So it's taken a while to get my head around gluten free alternatives.  I've armed myself with a couple of cookbooks and scoured the web and found heaps of recipes, so now I'm armed and equipped, ready for action! First cake.. A Victoria Sandwich Cake!

Here it is posing for its photo! A very photogenic and willing subject!
(The flowers were a lovely surprise from my stepmum, wishing me wellness as the whooping cough drags on.  Aren't they beautiful? so bright and cheery - the complete opposite of how I've been feeling...morose and sorry for myself.  C'mon Susie snap out of it!  Well the cake helped.)

  It was perfect. Such an easy recipe...one bowl. Mdae with brown rice flour.

Dusted with icing sugar

Sandwiched together with my home made plum jam.  Is your mouth watering?

Served up on my favourite cake plates, with a super generous DOLLOP of cream whipped with icing sugar. Sitting contentedly watching Sunday night TV.
Really it's all good isn't it?