“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” ― Julia Child

So today was spent pretty much the same as yesterday, melting in the kitchen!

Sue sent me the recipe she used for plum sauce

Plum Sauce

1.8kg plums, de stoned and quartered

1 sml onion chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic chopped

Put all of this into a blender of food processor and blend until smooth.

Put into a large pot and add:

3 1/2 cups of sugar

2 cups of cider vinegar

1 tblspn ground ginger

1 tblspn mustard powder

1 tspn ground cinnamon

1 tspn red pepper flakes (I used chilli flakes)

1/2 tspn ground cloves

Bring to boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes

 

Pour into sterilised bottles.

I made another batch of pepper relish

Had a sort out of the cupboard and ditched some really old stuff , a beetroot relish that no-one liked

In this cupboard is last years bread & butter pickles and bean relishes and what I did this week.

In another cupboard are some that are a few years old but still good

...and (l-r)marmalade, plum jam & strawberry jam

How cute is this?

So for dinner tonight I made a stir fry, a great way to use some of those veggies and it's quick, after a long day for the both of us, quick is good and it's tasty to boot

Peas, sugarsnaps and ONE chilli, trust me it's all you need!

Finely sliced veggies

 Some left over beef

I used a mix of Peanut & Sesame oils and flavoured with Sweet chilli & soy sauce

I added some of these at the end

Chuck it all in the pan, stir it, add the noodles last minute

...and serve. Delish!

Because Joe had spent the best part of the day clearing and tidying the barn we had a drink up there this evening and played a couple of games of darts.

Lord Muck

Joe beat me good and proper at around the clock 1-bullseye

 

But I beat him at 101 finishing on a double 3! Woohoo!

Enjoy you day or evening where ever you are

xxx

Oh am I on a roll or what?

Not only did I finish another UFO(UnFinished Object) today, I'm on my way to getting another one done and I did a little more on the new project! I feel I need a wine or three to celebrate, I've just sent Joe a text saying 'BRING WINE!' I pressed send and already my taste buds and brain was telling me 'Ooh something to look forward to' then his phone buzzed....behind me! Gahhh! 

Okay so no wine, although my psychic vibes may have reached him, if not I'll make do with the Chinese takeaway.....would have been nice to wash it down with a wine though.

I could have, had I been more organised, put a home brewed feijoa wine in the fridge earlier. 

I can't be expecting to remember EVERYTHING! Jeeze! I was creating luvs!

So the big dyed wool blanket quilt got taken back to the barn, I was going to quilt in the house, it's big and I didn't want it dragging on the floor. But as I was alone and the table tennis table was free I thought I would make a start. Who knows how soon winter will turn up and we'll be grateful of it on the bed.

I'm hand stiching, using masking tape to help with keeping the lines straight.

I'll do this stitching on each vertical row either side of the light stripes and inside the coloured squares.

Like so...

Then I'll repeat the process horizontally. Once that's done I can bind the edges.

I managed four rows this afternoon before my fingers got too sore from pushing the needle through.

I also wanted to sew the blocks I cut out yesterday together before coming back down the the house.

I'm happy with those, just gotta keep on with heaps more.

And finally the UFO. I was asked to crochet(or knit) a blanket for a baby that was due in February. Of course she's long since been born and is rather gorgeous. Not your usual girl colours but the babies room is (I hope) in these colour tones. It's a pretty cool room actually.

The photo doesn't really do it justice.

I really enjoyed learning the new stitch, I'll do it again sometime.

That's me done, I'm off to drum my fingers on the desk and wait for my takeaway.

See ya next time ♥

PS Oh yeah, nearly forgot...

Jinx, sunning herself in MY craft room on MY cushion and MY embroidered treasures!

'No bitch, it's MY room now be gone and get me some fresh fish!'

I am gone now, ta ra ♥

Back again! Thanks for the comments about the new header picture and the problem I was having centralising the one before. We've got this one now. Do you like it?

I'm outta here ♥

UFO's in the barn and Joe get's his chopper out!

Last weekend we had another weekend of crafts in the barn, the aim being to clear some of our UFO's (UnFinished Objects) Why is it we all have so many? It's a gift I expect.  We were incredible lucky with the weather, it was supposed to have been rain, rain and more rain. But luckily when it did rain it waited until we had finished for the day. The barn is such  a great space and I'm so glad we cleared it out so it can be used for things such as this weekend. We had some issues with lighting, it's a bit dark in there really for crafting, but we all coped, as you do :D Below are some photos, I didn't take too many unfortunately, we were just too busy with crafting.

The barn ready for the off....

I found this hexagon quilt way back when I was helping out at the Sallies, it was going to be binned as some of the hexagons had ripped/worn out. I grabbed it and said I'd repair it. Well it's been sat in my UFO basket ever since...until now. Rather than fanny about with hexagons I decided to cut hearts and /or flowers, I ironed them on and I'm in the process of appliqueing them. When I've covered all of the holes, there are a few, I'll finish it off as a quilt and put it back on the spare bed.

Some time ago I made this tablecloth for the outdoor table. I backed it with an old tablecloth, which as luck would have it, was exactly the same size as the tea towels all sewn together. It needed some way of holding the front and back together though, so I thought some stitchery would do it. I made a start and did the cute little daisy chain. The table I needed to work on however was otherwise engaged and so it was put to one side and I carried on with the hexagon quilt. I'll carry on with it some other time, I've left everything up in the barn and I did manage a little bit more the other day.

Some photos of what the others were working on....

On the Sunday friends dropped their fur babies off for a bit of a holiday with us whilst they are in Thailand. They are going to be house sitting for us when we are in the UK, so this was a good opportunity for our two to get used to Jack (lab) and Buddy (foxy with red collar) They are all looking quite cosy....

....but not quite as cosy as they look here! lmao!

We are in tidy up mode here, we seem to have vehicles everywhere, not ours, the boys!! I swear he's had more cars than Joe and I put together. Anyhow his work vehicle, a Ford courier ute has sold this week and the Mazdo Bongo, AKA shaggin' wagin' that never was had to go too. We rang a car breakers and they came out the same day, made an offer (a bit less than we hoped) and off it went...yay! 

No more eyesore on the drive! We've kept the seats, we're going to reuse them in the barn.

Going......going......going....gone!!

One other vehicle, not Michael's, but Joe's farm hack is also going. Sad really, it's been a great worker but it's tired and if someone were to buy it and do it up as we originally wanted too, they would have a classic vehicle on their hands. The  guy who took the Bongo wouldn't make a good offer on it so it's now on Trade Me and already has one bid and lots of interest, so we will see how that goes.

Yesterday we spent the day cutting wood, our supply was getting low

By the end of the day we had done rather well, a mix of pine, gum and Manuka (tea tree) all free and growing here on the farm, Joe was feeling strong enough to use the chainsaw and the axe for chopping. All is well and he's had no pain where he had his hernia ops.

 We'll cut some more during his next shift round off. I have the start of a nice pile of bark there which I'll mulch and use on the garden some where, you can never have enough mulch I reckon

So quite a busy few days, there's always plenty to do here. We need to trim some goat's feet today, they also need a oral drench for worm treatment and they should be all set for when winter really arrives, it's been unseasonably good so far, I'm not complaining. 

Coming soon........

 Susie gets to grip with the craft room!

Looking for UFOs meant I had to try and find some in a very untidy craft room! Now a major rethink of how I've got my silly little room organised is in progress and stuff is everywhere! Sigh! I am waiting for Joe to fit some shelves and we're good to go. I'll be back with progress soon, I hope.

That's it for now, see ya

PS The blog is taking a while to load for me lately, I hope it's not for you too. I have no idea what I can do about that, so please be patient if you're having issues. Go put the kettle, make a cuppa and come back and read it, apologies if it's being a pain. I don't want to see you leave because of it :(

♥♥♥