Successful Ginger Beer

As the title suggests my ginger beer was fizzy and yum. I would have liked to show you a glass but my son (Joe) has drank the whole lot and now we have to wait for the next lot to be bottled which will be tomorrow and then a further 5 days. Sorry about that, i will make sure that i have my camera ready for the next batch.
Yesterday i spent the whole day at Tomorrow's Memories
participating in two off the page classes. The classes were run and designed by Audrey Underwood and Maxine Hazebrook and were really fun to do. Caitlin has already claimed this one for her bedroom


and a friend of mine has a sewing room where this will go just nicely. I learnt a lot of new techniques and we finished both projects with a lot of time leftover to shop.

My poor dishcloth was put through its paces today and the poor thing is now in the soaker as i even used it to clean the inside of my oven. I must say goodbye expensive micro fibre and Enjo dishcloths i found this one much better. I just have to make the next one a bit bigger, and i don't know what planet i was on when i said it only took an hour to crochet, more like three.

On a P_ss You Off mode i spent this morning making two loaves of bread (which doesn't take long) from my new cookbook one plain and one ham cheese. They turned out yum or they looked yum. Joe (yes again) had to have a slice of both and when i went to serve them up for dinner it appears that the ants also like my bread. They were covered in them. I thought that in winter our ant problem would go away, maybe this house is built on top of a great ant mine! Little Sh#*s.

On that happy note i will say goodbye, adieu, farewell

I have so many craft projects to choose from but i will go and scrap a bit.

If you are in Perth drive carefully tomorrow as we are meant to be having terrible storms.

How Popular Are These?

I cant believe that i actually crocheted this. Do you know what it is? They are the "in" thing at the moment or have been for ages and I have only just found out about them (See Mel's
or Tammy's blog). This is my very own dishcloth. As I am not a prolific crochet-er i did a bit of research on the web, its so amazing, you can learn anything, this one is made out of cotton and Tammy suggested bamboo (Bamboozel) but they didn't have any at my craft store. This one took me a couple of hours (it was my first attempt) but my second one only took an hour. Yes second one, I was warned that they are addictive and they are great for washing the dishes.

During the week i cleaned out my craft desk and found this in the bottom drawer so of course i had to put it on a LO. Very basic and simple but this LO is all about letting the image tell the storey.

and keeping with my own challenge to myself I used the left over papers to make two quick cards.

Where ever you are in the world I hope that you are having a good day/night. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Linda

Lucky Me

Here are three cards that I made with Tracey's
"A card makers Tea Party" pack. This class is held every month at Tomorrows Memories
although I don't actually attend this particular class I am lucky to get a pack put aside for me. So if you are ever free on a Friday morning go and find out when the next class is. My giveaway that I won on Melissa Goodsell's blog arrived the other day, aren't I the lucky one. My Japanese sewing book also arrived so I will put that fabric to good use Mel. Thank You.
A new magazine was launched today called Australian Homesewn and Melissa has a few projects in it, for more info take a look at her blog (link above) she has designed some gorgeous storage boxes that I am really going to have a go at.

On another note it's my baby girls birthday today she is 17 Happy Birthday Caitlin.

It's not long now until the "L" plates will be off your car and the red "P's" will replace them, then we will all start on another journey ie- I will be asking you "are you home tonight for dinner or out? Boy that 17 years sure went fast.

Have a good night everyone, I am not cooking as its Caitlin's choice tonight and she has chosen Nandos, we have never had it before and a new store has just opened up down the road.

What a busy Week

Well Hi everyone my poor blog has suffered this week as I have been very busy with both of my children's birthdays and some boring routine stuff, I do however have some show and tell items for you.
This book arrived in the post early last week and after reading it from cover to cover we finally made our first loaf of bread yesterday, and i can promise you that it is as EASY as it sounds and it tastes yum. Here is my very first loaf just before it went into the oven.

And here it is 30 minuted later.

All you do is mix 4 ingredients together just until they are well combined then leave it in your container for at least 2 hours then you put it in the fridge and when you feel like fresh bread you cut a chunk of dough work it into a ball (this takes about 1 minute) no Kneading let it rest for a little while and then bake it. Presto. Fresh yummy bread. The dough will keep in the fridge for 14 days so whenever you feel like fresh bread just go to you fridge.

Earlier in the week I made this little thank you book for one of the teachers where I work as he fixed my laptop. This man always buys a choc milk everyday at the canteen so i pre paid about 20 choc chills and then made up a pile of little vouchers that he can rip out and exchange for a drink. It was something different and I think that he was pleased. Although I should have told all of my staff as they were a bit surprised when said teacher presented one of these at the counter. Now they have to see each day what stamp I put on each voucher. :) small minds!!!!

This morning Joe and I bottled our first batch of ginger beer, I hope it turns out and i hope that it is as good as i remember it (most things aren't unfortunately). The book where i got this recipe from also has a recipe for homemade lemonade so on the holidays I will be giving that a go.

I also finished Caitlin's ball album and will post a couple more photos later in the week of the finished product.

Sorry about the small photos but I had a lot i wanted to show you and some more which wouldn't fit in this post so that will have to wait for another day.

I hope you all have a good week ahead.

Happy crafting

Linda

Can you guess What This Is

Did your mum ever make one of these? Do you know what it is? Well I got the recipe from this book (sorry its a bit blurry). Melissa Goodsell had done a post on this book a while ago and as I love cooking and making jams etc i just HAD to have this book. One of the recipes is homemade ginger beer. My mum used to make this when i was little and i will always remember the exploding bottles and then some of the bottles that had FLAT ginger beer and how mum always had to feed the plant everyday. The mixture in the bottle is the PLANT (my kids think this is really funny and want to know where the fizz will come from). This was a part of my childhood that brings back some very happy memories so I thought that i would give it a go and make some memories for my kids. To any of you who live in Perth I have to split my plant in 8 days so if you want it let me know. Or maybe you should wait until we have tasted the first batch :)

Now I always thought that i couldn't crochet and someone taught me way back when i was about 6 to make squares, it's funny how you don't forget. I didn't know what the stitches were called or anything. I have been using these cute little crocheted flowers on my LO's lately and thought surely they couldn't be hard to make, so after a search on google i came across this
and after watching it a few times i made these. With my liking for natural things i just had to go and make one out of jute and i am really happy with the way they turned out. They aren't perfect but not to bad if i do say so myself.

I am still waiting for my two books to arrive and again Mel Goodsell did a post on these a couple of weeks ago, I tell you every time i log onto her blog it costs me :) and these books don't have anything at all whatsoever to do with scrapbooking.

Have a good week everyone, I, hopefully will be making loaf after loaf of yummy bread when my book comes. This will probably make my bread maker obsolete.
Linda

My Best Card Ever?

I so love this card i made using scraps leftover from Caitlin's album and Susan the ribbon was recycled from one of the bought (not hand made) birthday cards I received. Here's a close up of my flowers. Ahh I am so impressed with myself. :)
I also have to say that i so love my new Canon Powershot camera and it's many functions including macro, i highly recommend it to anyone that doesn't want a SLR but still wants to use some of the functions.

And here is a double LO of the ball. I only have the after party left and then i am going to do a journal page about the cost of everything and where she got everything from etc so that in later years we all can remember. I was trying to think how much my ball dress cost way back then and i think it was $150.00 which was a huge amount back then. Maybe i should get some pics out to show you all.......maybe not.......

Have a good night

Thanks for stopping by

LINDA xx

My Question,Gloria Jeans & Cup-cakes

Well it's Sunday and I have spent the day doing my usual Sunday homey things like ironing and making a huge pot of creamy pumpkin soup and some yummy cup cakes. All my work is now done it's just after 3 and i can blog,craft or just relax and of course try out my cakes with a yummy cappuccino. Did you know that you can but Gloria Jean coffee in Woolies, try it it's really yummy. My QUESTION (see yesterdays post) is what do you do with all of the hand made cards that you receive? Susan was mortified by my answer so now I don't know if I can tell you what I do with mine, but i would like to know what you all do with yours.

Oh alright I will tell you.

I pick the bits of that i can reuse then i throw it away. (In one way its good b/c it makes me a recycler right?)

Now on to other things Mel Goodsell had a giveaway on her blog (click on the link it's a great blog) and guess who one? I am so lucky, now I will have to make something from the Zakka sewing book when it arrives.

Have a good week everyone, there is only four weeks of school left over here I cant believe how quick this term has gone.
xx Linda

Update,Links & LO's

Once again thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers we really thought that we were going to lose dad on Sunday but i am pleased to report that he has rallied this week and says that he wants to stay around a bit longer to keep us all out of mischief. However mum and i feel much better as we now have plans and know what to do when the time comes as dad wants to die at home not in the hospital. Sorry very morbid talk I know but for those of you that know me know that i am good at talking and better to let it be said than bottle it up.

Now on to something completely different. I am not very patiently waiting for this
book Artisan Bread in Five minutes to be delivered. Its a belated birthday prezzie, go and check out the link its amazing and so so easy.

I have ordered another book Zakka Sewing which i am also not waiting very patiently for, it has some gorgeous things to make hopefully they wont be too hard for a very average not precise sewer.

Now Here's a couple of LO's I did last w/e before i got that dreaded call from my mum.
This LO was done with photos that the kids took of themselves with my new camera and as they do know that if they don't delete them straight away I WILL USE THEM. This is a LO using a Stampin Up kit that was another birthday prezzie, and yes its another one for the ball album, i promise it's nearly finished so you wont have to look at many more.

Well that's all for today. Tomorrow I am going to ask you all a question (not hard) its a question that Susan asked me and she was shocked by my answer, so i am going to ask you all.

Have a good night

Linda

A Big THANK YOU

Hi all sorry no pics today I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday and thanks for all of the wonderful prezzies I received. Flowers, lots of flowers, real and craft (I love flowers) a new Canon Powershot camera (on my list-the only thing on my list) a GOLD bead for my Pandora, my favourite Dioressence perfume that you cant buy in Australia any more,clothes,and vouchers to TM's, oh the list is endless see I really did get spoilt and don't forget Caitlin did my whole weeks ironing which to me is priceless. So thanks again.

Now back to reality... I wont be posting much this week or the next as my dad unfortunately has got worse and I would love to say that he will be getting better but I don't think that will happen this time so I know that you will all be thinking of us and if you are fortunate enough to have your dad still with you go and give him a hug as I will be doing over the next hours/days..
Linda XX