"Makes Me Happy Monday"

Welcome and a "Happy Monday" to you.

Today we are blessed with beautiful blue sky with white wispy clouds. I am enjoying it because rain is forecast later on this week.
Last Friday I had my monthly sewing group. We meet on the fourth Friday of each month. I took along my Catnip Quilt to do some more hand quilting. I don't want to start anything until that is finished. I only have one row to quilt then the border. So it is all going to plan.

Seeing I haven't any new quilting to share I thought I would share a quilt I did back in the 90's sometime. I am pretty sure it was my first try at stippling.I did the buttonhole stitch by hand, I know it can be done by machine but I do prefer to use my hands.

I am very happy that the garden is in full bloom. Especially happy that the Dutch Iris have started blooming. I planted some new ones this year which are a bit lighter in colour. It was a good surprise to walk out the back on Sunday morning and see it. Some of the Freesia's are flowering to, these are an old fashioned variety. The plant in the middle of the bottom row is a lupin. I go for a walk to the tanks and collect seeds from the farmers paddock and plant them. They are great to dig into the ground after flowering. 

We picked two cauliflowers on Sunday morning. This one weighed in at 5 kilos. I made some Cauliflower soup with one of them and had it with some Naan flat bread. Have you tried cooking flat breads? It is so easy. You get to eat them nice and hot,great with some Dukkah.

Other things "Making Me Happy" today are some Rose scented candles Bonnie gave me. She bought a jar with them in. She liked the jar because of the shape. It is very cute especially that the jar is now full of M&M's.  Do you buy things like that because of the container not what is in it?

Finally I want to share this quote with you.

"By the Gate I'll wait for you, dreaming:
And the flowers in my garden will mark your absence
And rejoice in the day of your return"


Happy Monday
Bev C

Nature knows best.

Hello,

I hope you are having a wonderful day. The sun is shining here, a perfect day in the making.

On the weekend I was deadheading "The Duchesse" and I was surprised to find a nest which had only just been made recently. I know this because a rose was blooming through the nest. Well yesterday I went to check the nest and a little bird flew out and look what is inside it.

Two little eggs. I wonder how long before they hatch. We also have a pair of Willy Wagtails building a nest on the patio out the back. Spring is certainly in the air.

Now if a bird can make such a perfect nest why is it that I have trouble with patchwork sometimes. I received a pattern for a tablecloth and table runner  and some fabric from
Vickie last year. I had trouble matching some of the sections together. When I first sewed the bias triangles two corners did not meet up at all. So I unpicked and unpicked and tried again. This time I must have sewn  things a bit tight or something, as things were not lying flat. I even left the table runner under a pile of magazines and books to see if that would help. Of course as soon as the books were removed up popped the triangle sections again. The only thing to do was unpick again.

The triangle sections were left out in the end, though I did end up using most of the fabric Vickie gave me so that is a bonus. I actually like the blocks and think they would make a great quilt pattern. You can't see much of the design in the photo but you can see the "You Go Girl" Table runner and Tablecloth here.

Of course all this unpicking has made me tired so I had better go and have a cuppa.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Makes Me Happy Monday"

Hello and a "Happy Monday" to you.

Over the past week I have been busy doing some hand quilting on the "Catnip" quilt. I have got nearly half way through the blocks. This is the quilt I had nearly finished machine quilting and decided to unpick.

Doing a bit each night has been making me very happy. If all goes to plan it should be finished in about two weeks. Fingers crossed.

I have spent many hours out in the garden at Kainga over the past week. Taking cuttings of Salvia's Lavenders etc and planting seeds ready for Spring and doing hours and hours of weeding. I was even given a promotion to "Head Gardener". I bought myself a jacket on Saturday morning while out shopping and machine embroidered the logo on it this morning.

For the most part of this year I have been looking for instructions for my Yoghurt Maker. I do have the instructions but unfortunately the pages got wet and stuck together. Of course the page with what was required was damaged the most. I have asked family and some bloggers if they had this machine. I have looked on the net every now and again and I know I wasn't the only one looking. I got the instruction book out again Thursday night and decided I would try and work out through the rest of the instructions if it was possible to decipher what I needed. I thought when I got up Friday I would have one last look on the net. I googled and found a kind lady in New Zealand who had the instructions in a PDF. The moons and starts must have been aligned for me. So on Saturday we purchased the yoghurt,milk and I needed a new thermometer and found a cooking one after looking through 5 shops in town. I now have my yoghurt being made at the moment. It will be ready later on today and will continue setting in the fridge overnight. I won't have to buy any more yoghurt for at least 20 weeks. I just need to take half a cup out each time to use as a starter. The only other thing I needed to the yoghurt is a litre of milk half a cup of yoghurt as a starter and 5 spoons of skim milk powder if wanted. You can add fruit or flavouring as desired after the process is finished. So happy to finally being able to make our own yoghurt. I pay $5.74 for the tub of yoghurt I like so making 20 tubs will save me $114.80 over the next 20 weeks. Which adds up to $298.48 for the year. Now I wonder how many fat quarters I could buy with my saving!!!!

Lots of diverse things "Making Me Happy this Monday." I hope you have a great day.

Happy days.
Bev C

"Tuesday's Treasures."

Hello and Welcome to Tuesday's Treasures.


Today I have lots of treasures to share.

 The sunflower smiling in the back yard.

 Stocks in the front yard.

 Bunches of fresh Lavender,books and tea cup,some crochet I did a few years back and a bag of buttons I purchased this morning from Good Sammy's.

 A rainbow out the front on Sunday morning. Look how close it got. I just wish it stayed long enough for me to go and get the pot of gold.

And most importantly I am treasuring the inventor of the Quick un pick!!!! I am not sure who this person was but I did find this information about the American Patent Holder.

Hope you have lots of treasure at your home. Please visit Melody and see what she and the other bloggers are treasuring today.

Happy days.
Bev C

Real Food is "Making Me Happy this Monday"

Hello and Happy Monday.

There is one thing on this earth that makes Me Happy and that is "Real Food." Food that we have grown here at Kainga, no chemicals added no numbers or codes written on the sides of these foods.

All Year Round Cauliflower

We have had great success with the Brassica's this year. They seem to thrive in the raised vegie beds. Now we build up the soil before we plant and I haven't fertilised these very much, just a bit of Seasol type product when they were younger.

Mini Cauliflower

Even the Mini Cauliflower have grown as big as the regular Cauliflowers. These usually only grow about the size of a mans fist. We are also picking Broccoli  heads each night that are as big as the Cauliflower.

Ruby Lou Potatoes

We have a couple beds of potatoes shooting through so in Spring we will have fresh spuds to eat.

Parsley in amongst the Geranium

Parsley springs up each year in some terracotta pots we have near the pool. We pick some of this each day to add to our evening meal. Parsley is high in vitamins.



Fresh Produce from the Kainga Kitchen.

 Over the past week I have been cooking a variety of dishes using produce that we have out in the back yard. I made a batch of Carrot Marmalade. On Saturday I looked at the price of Marmalade whilst we were shopping. I am in front by about $25.00 by making our own. I got the recipe from the book on the left. This is a great book because it tells you how to grow then make something from what you have grown.
From the other book which was produced by the people of  Ruakaka and the  Ruakaka Community Library I have made the 5 minute Chocolate Cake. You cook this in the microwave, it is fun watching it rise right before your eyes. They call this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world-why because you are only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake.  I also made the Beer Bread from this book, Yum is all I can say. As we have lots of citrus at the moment I decided to Make a pie. I am sure they won't mind if I share the recipe with you.

Lazy Lemon Pie---- soooo easy

4 eggs
100 gram melted butter
3/4 cup coconut
1/3 cup lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
Zest of 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Place all ingredients in a bowl or processor and mix together.

Pour the batter into a 23cm pie dish.

Bake for 45 minutes or until top is golden and filling is set.

This pie is delicious and even tastes so much better cold the next day.

Growing and making your own food is so good for you. You don't have to battle the shops,no trying to find a parking spot and best of all you know what is in it. I can't believe what some people put in there shopping trolleys. No wonder we are a growing nation!!! Please let me know what you are growing or have cooked for your family this week. Let me know if you make up the Pie. You will have a smile on your face eating this one.

Happy Monday.
Bev C