Tuesday 23 August 2016

Boy's Single Quilt

I have been working all nap times for the past few weeks on a new quilting project. Jeremy is old enough to move out of the cot and into a single bed. To ease the transition and talk it up as an amazing stage of life, I decided to make a fun quilt for him to get excited about on his big bed.

I chose some lovely fabrics in greens, teals and white with a fun zoo animal print in two different colours. The 12 inch quilt blocks are very simple and look great divided out into their colours to make a blue trim around the green centre. I made the quilt as a cover for a single quilt insert for cold Toowoomba nights and it fastens at the bottom end with a row of press studs.

The pillow case was just made out of the leftover pieces of fabric. Jeremy loves his quilt and can't wait to have his big bed in his room. Just waiting for the holidays!





On a side note, our house plans have been approved by council and we are ready to start building!! Meeting with our earthworks team tomorrow afternoon to set out the house on our block! Keep an eye out for progress photos!

Monday 15 August 2016

Our Land & Planting Fruit Trees

There is a reason that my blogging has slowed down a lot lately. I have a lot on my mind... we bought some land and are about to start building a house!
Most of our weekends and spare afternoons for the last couple months have been taken up with visits to builders, banks, cabinet makers, tile shops and other such places. We are finally reaching the end of planning and the beginning of building. Our plans are sitting in council at this moment quietly awaiting the stamp of approval. After that... the real fun begins!

We have approximately 3000sqm of land on which I intend to grow lots of lovely fruit trees and vegetables. I couldn't wait to have something happening on our piece of land so I bought some bare root fruit trees and we planted them on our block. Very exciting times. I used a new pruning technique that I have been reading about to keep fruit trees a manageable size and after sitting in the ground as little sticks for just over a week, they are starting to shoot. Fresh nectarines and peaches in a few years for us! (If I can protect them from the builder's trucks during the construction of our house!)



 

Carrot Cake Birthday

So Daryl's birthday rolled around again this week and I decided to try something a little less unhealthy this year after the peanut butter and chocolate-ness of last year's cake. I went with a carrot cake recipe that I found on the internet. It sounded great. Ginger carrot cake with salted Butterscotch frosting. You can find the recipe HERE.
It was simple to make and very tasty. Though, not quite as exciting for my 2 year old. I think this one is a bit of a grown-up cake. (He likes the icing). Overall a great recipe. My only criticism is that it was a little dry and crumbly. Here is the finished product. Yum.


On another note, I have been busy learning how to cook Indian cuisine properly. I figured it was about time to give it a good go. So I borrowed a book called 'From India: food, family & tradition' by Kumar and Suba Mahadevan. It has the authenticity tick of approval by my Indian Mother-in-law and has so far produced some truly delicious meals. The man in the Indian spice store recognises me now and I feel like I just may have secured future success in my Indian food endeavours!