New Friends...

I just had an awesome day hanging out with some new friends. First it was over to Sophia's place for morning tea and a chat. It is so nice getting to know new friends and spending time with like minded people. Sophia has some gorgeous old breed chickens that has rekindled my desire for some new chickens to add to my flock. Then it was off to the Op shops with Anita. We spent time browsing through the Animal Welfare League and the Hospice looking for treasures to decorate our homes.

Wrap up of 2011

It has been a looooong time since I posted anything so here is a pictorial summary of the major events of the last quarter of 2011.

October: I had my 30th Birthday!

As I never have birthday parties I decided to have 2 for my 30th. An Afternoon Tea Party with all of my family and an Indian Banquet Dinner with my friends.

November: And unto them a child is born...My sister and her husband had a baby, Miley Eva.

December: We travelled north to Rockhampton to spent Christmas with my family. It was 5 days of eating, chatting, watching cricket, spending time at the beach and playing with the kids. On the way home we stayed with Leon's family in Bundaburg for another 5 days and it was more of the same.

One week into 2012 and I am excited about what the new year will bring. I have many plans and goals for the year (all of which I still need to write down) and I am sure that there will be some surprises as well.

Happy New Year,
Mel

The Herb Garden...

I spent most of this weekend at home working on the garden. The weather was so nice and it was lovely to be outside. I decided this year to move my herb garden up next to the house so it is closer for picking herbs while I am cooking. In the past I have grown my herbs in a fridge down next to the vegie gardens.

(Converting a fridge to be used for a no-dig garden should be done by a licenced Refrigeration Mechanic. My husband is a licenced Refrigeration Mechanic so he checked to see if the fridge needed de-gasing and helped me remove the element off the back. We then drilled holes in the back of the fridge for drainage. )

This year I will use the fridge for salad greens. At the moment I have a healthy tomato seedling growing in the freezer section. It came up on it's own so I don't know what type of tomato it is, I am hoping it is a cherry tomato. They seem to do alot better than bigger varieties. Last spring I had a beautiful crop of tomatoes growing but with all the rain we had they got some sort of fungal disease and I had to pull them all out.

I planted a mixture of culinary, medicinal and tea herbs in my new herb garden. I planted some leek seedlings and marigolds as well. In an old rusty wheelbarrow I planted some basil, chives, peppermint and marigolds.

In this garden there is also a tomato seedling that came up out of the compost so I am trying a bit of companion planting with the basil, tomato and marigold.

Happy gardening...Mel

Queen Anne's Lace...

I learnt how to make this beautiful crochet pattern last week. It is so pretty and easy to do if you have basic crochet skills. I found this tutorial to show me how to do it. I like it so much I have just started another one.  

Weekend Diaries...

I had a great time away with some of my closest friends this weekend. We went to the Queensland Baptist Womens camp She is...

I had been looking forward to this camp since last year's camp. I wasn't disappointed. It was a great camp with very timely and practical bible teaching. I also had a great time away with my friends.

The camp was held in Mapleton, on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Such a beautiful place to be.

This photo is actually taken from Montville but you get the idea. We spent Saturday afternoon in Montville shopping, drinking coffee and generally having a good time.

Until next time, Mel...

Weekend Diaries...

I thought I would start to keep track of all the things my husband and I get up to on the Weekends. We always seem to be heading somewhere on the weekend. About a month ago we went out to Mt Cotton to visit the Sirromet Winery and two weeks ago we went for a drive through Brisbane and ended up at the Brisbane Powerhouse. We got to the Powerhouse just in time for some free live music and a lovely glass of wine from Bar Alto.

This weekend we were back at the Brisbane Powerhouse for the album launch of an awesome A Capella group The Idea of North. This group is amazing. I like all kinds of music but I'm not a big concert goer. Having said that, I really enjoyed the show.

Sunday afternoon was spent at Portside Warf, Hamilton at the Merlo Coffee & Chocolate Affair. There was lots of coffee and chocolate on offer as well as cupcakes, fudge, brownies and live music.

The Blue Sky Coffee that I had was really nice. I like strong coffee and this coffee was stronger then the other one that I tried. I have quiet dreams of doing a Barista course one day, then I would be able to do pretty patterns on the top of a coffee like this...

After exploring all of the coffee and chocolate stalls we enjoyed some perfectly cooked calamari and chips and listened to Firefly, a jazz trio.

We finished off the afternoon with fresh strawberries dipped in belgian chocolate...very yummy.
Hope you had a lovely weekend...Mel

Accomplishments of a Housewife...

I like being at home. My home is a lovely, comfortable place to be. I also like feeling that I have accomplished something. Sometimes in the evening I sit down and think " what have I done today?". Lately I have been wasting alot of my time. It was really nice to spend yesterday and today at home. Yesterday was full of all the usual Housewifely accomplishments (cleaning the house, ironing the Husband's clothes, cooking etc...). Today I spent a few hours designing and making a new bag for my Basilbee product range. It is a lovely denim bag with vintagy bits and bobs appliqued onto the front of it. I really like how it turned out. This afternoon I got cosy on the couch with my crochet and several episodes of the UK television show " Escape to the Country". I like seeing the houses that are several hundred years old and imagining what life would have been like back when they were built.

On the weekend I decided it was high time I collected all the ripe passionfruit that were falling. There are at least 3 Passionfruit vines growing wild in various parts of our 1.5 acre block. The possums are getting alot of the fruit, most of which I can't reach. I removed the pulp from all of the ripe fruit and froze it in ice cube and ice block trays. I would like to try and make Passionfruit Butter sometime.

Until next time...Mel