Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Kelly

The garden in May

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It’s so good to see the garden really flourishing due to the increase in rainfall – it was pretty sad there for a while. We have broad beans sprouting everywhere as well as silverbeet, beetroot, spring onions, pumpkins, parsley and other seeds yet to show their first leaves. I’m very keen to have a successful potato crop this year and would love to get my hands on some heirloom varieties.
This daytura (also known as angel’s trumpet) is truly glorious at the moment and has grown so fast. It’s almost to the top of the fence and going strong. They usually get severely knocked by frost so for now we will just enjoy their beautiful lush growth and heady perfumed flowers.

The Bonnie Babes Foundation

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I have joined the Bonnie Babes Foundation as a volunteer. I will be sewing burial gowns for families who have lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or prematurity.
This is a practice gown I made today, I’ll be making many more in a few different styles from my own patterns. Making dolls clothes has been a good preparation for this.

It brought tears to my eyes when I realised how tiny the gowns will be. I am so blessed to have safely delivered 4 healthy children. I have lost 2 babies to miscarriage at 10 weeks, but the burden seems very light compared to this reality. I hope my gowns will bring some sort of comfort to the grieving parents who receive them.

Photos from our sojourn

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No prizes for guessing the region we travelled to…
We stopped here to enjoy the famous Timboon Icecream (yes, it was beautiful!) and to enjoy the scenery – what a gorgeous little hamlet is Timboon.
A brief stop at the stunning Port Campbell to watch the waves crash on the foreshore.
It was worth the drive out to Apostle Whey Cheese for a cheese tasting and a couple of purchases. You drive through marvelous dairy country and rolling hills to get there.
There were patches of drifting smoke rising from the emerald green grass fields everywhere on this cool but sunny autumn day. We stayed at Moonshine Cottage in CurdieVale with the Curdie River running along the back of the property.
As promised – a picture of our new kitten, as yet unnamed but very, very well loved!

Buying seconhand as well as this and that…

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Do you remember my previous post about buying secondhand?

The latest purchase is a lawn mower, which was a necessary after the other mower (which was also secondhand and very old!) gave up the ghost. The cost of this one was $130 – a new one would have been about $350. It runs beautifully.

Secondhand price $130

New price $350

Saving $ 220


Total savings tally for 2010 – $320
So far, all savings have gone towards the mortgage as extra repayments.

In other news my sewjo seems to have evapourated this week, it must be the tiredness. I think right now I am more tired than ever before, I really need a good nights sleep but the little one won’t have it. I keep telling myself it will soon improve, I know it will…

We are going away over the weekend for one night, I’ve been looking forward to that! I’ll give details upon our return, there may also be some pics of a new feline addition to our family.

God bless and have a great weekend!

Home made sausage rolls

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It must be the turn of the weather towards cooler days that has me thinking of hot and delicious food. It is so much cheaper to make your own sausage rolls. I cheat a little by using some pre – prepared products but I’m a long way from perfecting home made pastry so… Here is what I do:
250g sausage mince
4 sheets puff pastry
3 thick slices of bread
1 onion
salt and pepper
other seasonings of your choice
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup water
poppy or sesame seeds (optional)
This is a really versatile recipe, you can add in some grated zucchini or carrot, garlic, cheese etc.
Make an egg wash by whisking the egg and milk together in a cup. Soak the bread in the water for about 5 minutes, when soggy squeeze out excess water. Mix this with the mince, onion, salt & pepper and seasoning. Spoon a line of your mixture on the edge of your pastry and roll over so that pastry joins – you can paint the pastry with the egg wash to make it stick together better. Cut off the rest of the sheet of pastry and use it for the next roll – you should get 2 long rolls to one sheet of pastry.
Cut your roll in half, place on a tray and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle seeds on if using.
Pop into a 200 degree (C) oven until golden brown.
Mmmmmm!!

Basic Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake

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For the cake

125grams butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or essence)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup milk
rind of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
 For the glaze
3 tablespoons sugar
rest of juice from lemon
Preheat your oven to 180 d (c). Grease and line a standard round cake tin.
Cream butter, add sugar, vanilla and grated lemon rind. Beat until nice and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. 
Add the 2 tspns of lemon juice to the milk and mix lightly. Add the sifted flour and milk to the butter mixture in turns while beating slowly. Add in poppy seeds. Beat until creamy.
Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, cake is cooked when a skewer stuck into the middle comes out clean.
When ready, turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
While the cake is warm, brush on the glaze which you’ve prepared while the cake is cooking.
In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and lemon juice for about 5 minutes until beginning to thicken. You can let the glaze trickle down the sides of the cake if you have it on a plate!
This cake is gorgeous warm with double cream or icecream. Very popular with the children too!

Turn a top into an apron…

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I bought this top at an op shop for a few dollars. When I put it on at home it didn’t suit me and looked very apron – like. Well, a girl can never have too many aprons! A pair of scissors and a sewing machine later….. Here’s an overview of what I did:
I started by cutting straight up the middle of the back so that when laid out it looked like this.

Then I cut out the sleeves, just following the seam lines (cut out the seams too.) Because of the style of the yoke and neckline, mine now looked like this.

Next I folded it exactly in half and cut an “apron shape” – that is that sort of curved look where the sleeve was. You can either “wing it” or use an existing apron as a guide for the shape. I also cut a few inches of excess from the back edges for a good fit when wrapped around.

The next step is to overlock (serge) all raw edges, which in this case was right around the sides and the top ties of the apron. Using the tie that came with the top, I cut it in half before attaching it by the raw edges to the sides where I wanted the apron to wrap around and tie at the back. Once all the edges were tidy and finished I sewed the ties at the top together to form a loop to go over my head.
Don’t you think it looks much better as an apron?!

The finished bear

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Well, almost finished anyway, I’m thinking about making a dress as well (which some members of my family find very strange – “why would you put a dress on a bear?!”)
If you missed my last beary post, this is a design by Joan Blyton and is 12 inches tall. 

This was a steep learning curve for me – the jointing and positioning of limbs as well as the facial features was really challenging, and I found the instructions sadly lacking in detail. I ended up needle sculpting the face quite a bit as I didn’t like the way it looked.
I’m not really happy with this bear, I think it’s a “cute” bear but lacks character. I’m sufficiently pleased though to have another go in the near future, I’ve already started drawing up some designs to hopefully achieve the look that I like.
I must also say a big thank you to Sandi for her help and encouragement!

Cornflake slice

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My mother-in-law gave me this recipe, the children love it. Very easy.
1/4 pound butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cornflakes
1 cup coconut
Mely the butter and honey and add to mixed dry ingredients. Press into a shallow tin and bake at about 160 degrees (celsius). Allow to cool in tin, cut into squares. Simple!