Sunday, December 25, 2011

Keeping Busy

What better way to spend boxing day then to be busy making.. yes I have a weird idea of what is fun. While the kids were occupied with the Xmas pressies I set to work waxing my first hard cheese a farm house cheddar so far its looking good, now i just have to be patient an wait for it to ripen. Most people use old fridges or wine fridges to store there cheese,  from what I know they need to be kept at a temperature of 13 degrees while maturing. For the moment I am just using our waeco fridge, which isn't ideal as we use it when we go camping, or fishing.

 Preserving is something I'm fairly new to, in the past Ive only made jam. But as we are trying to eat more of what is in season and local food, I'm finding that preserving food is a good way to have access to fruit and veg when it is out of season. First recipe I have tried was a honey spiced peaches, I used half the recipe and got 4 jars, as you can tell from my pale peaches I used white peaches as they are only $2 a kg at my local fruit shop. The syrup turned out really yummy but I think it was a little heavy as the peaches  were floating in the syrup and after having a google I can to the conclusion that next time I need to make a lighter syrup so maybe less honey or sugar. Our apple tree is covered in apples so I can't wait till they are ready and I can preserve some of them. I also want to have a go at using the cores and peel to make pectin and also apple cider. Once the larger variety of tomatoes ripen I also want to make some sauce to preserve. My aim is to try and preserve all the excess veg's and fruit from the garden, which at the moment is only zucchinis, and cherry tomatoes so what I have been doing with them is putting them in the dehydrator. I'm amazed at how small the zucchinis have gone all up I have dehydrated around 15 and they have all fitted into a 1 ltr jar.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Gifting

Christmas is always a time to be conscious of how and what we spend our money on. I think it’s easy to buy too much and for children to quickly become overwhelmed with all the gifts. The actual act of giving and caring is forgotten and children and adult alike easily forget what it’s all about. Now let me say I’m not a religious person at all but I feel that Christmas has become too much about consumerism and that children need to be taught that Christmas is about more then receiving gifts.
The first thing the children and I have done these holidays is to go shopping and buy dry goods to put in the hampers that are given out by the local salvos. I explained to the children why we were doing it and they were really thoughtful in what they brought for the hampers. I also had them help decide what we were going to make to gift to family and where possible they contributed even if it was just measuring out ingredients. We also discussed what gift we could give that were more environmental friendly and they helped me pick what we brought. We are having a simple Christmas this year and I have decided the children will receive two presents each one home made by me the other is a gift from Santa. I'm hoping by doing all this we can have a fun Christmas were the children can learn to appreciate that there is more to Christmas then receiving gifts.



 Below are what I made for the kids they each are getting a blanket made from vintage sheets .




Monday, December 19, 2011

Vintage Love

Who doesn't love op shopping I know I do....
Alyra was impressed that the dress had pockets. I just love the fabric.


I had to add this photo of photo of Lincoln, My little man is growing up. The tooth fairy visited last night and left a teenie tiny  letter in a tiny envelope and a gold coin.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Determined

I don't know if its determination or the fact the Alyra has a real stubborn personality, but this weekend Alyra
refused to let Rob double her around.... She wanted to be in full control. First she doubled Rob around then Rob connected the rope that clicks to the kill switch so that he could jog along behind her but if she had gone to fast it pulls out and the quad stops. It all went well and she didn't have any incidents thou she will be riding around with rob jogging next to her for a while yet.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

this and that

 While my tomatoes aren't going as well as last yr, I am still getting some each day. I have had to pull up 6 plants that were covered in black spot.. its all the rain, I'm not impressed at all.
 
Op shopping  always cheers me up I did go for a purpose I'm looking for a frame for an idea for Xmas, but i didn't find one the right size so it looks like i might need to buy one new I did find lots of felt which will be great for crafty things over the holidays and some serving spoons but the best find was this labyrinth game its very addictive.. we have all been taking turns let me just say its very hard. I can't even get a quarter of the way through.

Love






This amazing Guardian Dryad and the Gnomes were made by the etsy seller Rjabinnik, His toys are so unique and well worth the wait. I did have a little issue with customs as there is some bark on one of the pieces, and I had to have it gramma irradiated.. but I think it was all worth it in the end. It was to be a gift for Alyra for her birthday but since that's been an gone and Christmas is just around the corner this will now be what Santa is leaving under the tree.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dinner roll time

This sweet roll dough is the best i have ever tried, you know when you try a new recipe and its a instant hit. Well this is one of thous  recipes.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Pallet Cubby

Remember the pallet chook pen, well we had some left over pallets still sitting around and what better way to spend the weekend but to use them up. It was really quick an easy, we pulled apart 1 pallet to join two together, all up it took around 30 mins  and the kids having been playing in it ever since.