Things making me happy

- Cheap and cheery bunch of jonquils

- A chat with my sister this morning

- Camellias from my Mum's garden

- Looking at old photographs

- The kind lady at the supermarket who offered to park my trolley for me while I was struggling to get my octopus into his car seat.

- A giggling little boy (who is now sound asleep)

- Cuddles and kisses with the husbeast (who seems less stressed about his exam, for which I am both happy and grateful)

- Going to bed early (well in about 10 mins from now!) in the knowledge that I love and am loved.

... and finding this precious moment to share my happiness with you. I hope that there has been happiness in your day too. xx

While the cat's away

Well in this case the 'cat' is my sewing machine and the 'mice'... crochet. Oh it's so nice to be in-touch with my yarnier side again! I'm starting a little blanket project using the centre round from one of Jan Eaton's books (200 squares). The plan is to make it in yellow, cream and grey and work on only one colour at a time... good plan (well, I'm hoping it means I will get it finished anyway). So far I have 20 little happy yellow squares, this baby will be done in no time :)

Rudey nudey

I've been looking for an easel for The Boy for a while. I'm not a big fan of plastic branded things which are the easiest to find, and not prepared to pay $120 plus for a lovely wooden one, so settled instead for a dooer-upper from the local tip shop for $4. Yes, it's covered in paint, chalk, stickers and an odd arty nude skillfully hidden under a train magnet, but after a good clean - it's come up as-good-as-new.

No doubt by the time The Boy is done, it may be sporting another naughty masterpiece, but I can only hope with a doctor for a father, that the anatomy will be a little more accurate. Two penis' and one testicle - well, he looks pretty happy.

Lentil love

Do you have a favourite recipe that your partner/kids/flatmates dislike? I adore my hearty red lentil soup but my husbeast is dead against it (apparently it tastes like ground up hippies?) I certainly don't think of lentils as being hippy food, but a total deliciousness personified in lentil form. Maybe he'll come around one day, but lentil then, more for me!

Hearty red lentil soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

250g dried red lentils

2 tablespoons of chicken stock powder

2-3 litre of water (alternatively you could omit the stock powder and use real stock)

2 x 400g tins of diced tomatoes

Fry off diced onion in butter :: add ginger and cumin, stirring until fragrant :: add rinsed lentils, chicken stock, water and tomatoes :: simmer until lentils are cooked through (but not mushy) :: yum

I had one of my long awaited wishes granted to me this week via this recipe. I love to cook food for people and I always had a needy desire for someone to love what I made them so much they asked for the recipe, whoop whoop.. I feel fulfilled and happy, thanks friend, you know who you are xx

EDIT:: I just published this post and realised the image looks suspiciously spew like, I assure you this is more about my photography skills then it is about the soup.

Pillow talk swap.. Round 3 received!

I got my pillow talk swap cushion in the mail the other week and thought I'd share it with you. Made by the lovely scrapstudio - Kelly.

I've decided this is the last swap I'll partake in for a while, I love swapping, but am going to focus on some stuff closer to home. So many awesome tutorials, sew little time..,

Daphne

My Mother planted a daphne around the time I was born and I distinctly remember her threatening it every year (death by axe) until I was about 12. This is because it failed to flower (this situation has now been righted and it flowers profusely, obviously it's survival instincts kicked in) So you can imagine my surprise and delight that the daphne I planted a mere 2 years ago has flower buds.. maybe daphne's behave themselves better these days? I'm very excited indeed, I think they have a beautiful scent.

Twins - oh snap!

My friend is having identical twin girls very, very soon, how exciting! I thought a semi-matching outfit with a 90's catch phrase would be fun on a bun. Not that it shows up very well in the photo, but the letters are red and gold spotty fabric, appliqued and hand-stitched.

Quarantine

It feels like we've had the plague at our place. First The Boy with some kind of cough, snotty gastro blarg and then Blair with some repeating curry (no such thing as a free lunch, I tell you that!) I've not caught the bug, nor had the food poisoning but have been ill in sympathy for the other two. Unfortunately sight, sound and smell don't do much for my constitution, but I am happy to say we are all better now.

As a result of our time in quarantine I think a walk in the sun is just the ticket, happy Wednesday to all xx

Yummy lemons thanks to Bruce and Suzanne