BUTTER BELL CROCK

I've been waiting patiently for my butter bell crock to arrive from Amazon and today it came. Finding one in Australia for a decent price was near to impossible, this one came from USA.

I'm so exciting to try it out and hopefully it lives up to it's name and keeps my butter soft and fresh out of the fridge. The kids complain all of the time about hard butter and I don't want to resort to margarine for obvious reasons.

It's simple to use the butter bell crock, just add 1/3 cup of cold water to the base of the crock.


Pack 1/2 cup of softened butter firmly into the bell shaped lid.



Replace the lid upside down into the bottom of the crock.
Change water every 3 days.

WELCOME LITTLE HUGO

Our Burmese, Dante, went missing around 3 weeks ago, we are pretty sure someone took him :(

The kids were really upset so I did what any mummy would do and went and found another kitten to cuddle.


Hugo is around 3 months old, he was dumped and ended up out at the Animal Welfare League. We adopted him last Thursday, the kids love him to bits and what's not to love, he is so smoochy!


Want to know how we came up with the name Hugo? Well the kids all had the option of thinking up 2 names each, they all went into a hat and I drew out Hugo.

Sophie's names: Mittens and Jingles
Lachie's names: Hugo and Merlin
Dan's name: Pat (as in pat the cat LOL)

So we now have a very cute and cuddly kitten to look after but we still are hoping for Dante to come home, stranger things have happened.

I'M BACK

I didn't like combining both of my blogs, so I'm back blogging over here. 

Thanks for your patience while I sort out what works best for me.

xxxSue

ps:  I have moved relevant posts from One Crafty Habitat over here.

JUNE 18 - PERMACULTURE

Yesterday Ali and I went to our library to listen to a talk given by our friend Sharn on Permaculture and her 3 months of traveling and working on permaculture farms, what a wonderful inspiring talk she gave.

After Sharn's talk we made our way back to my home for a yummy homemade lunch (Ali brought the pumpkin soup, I had just made fresh bread) and we chatted over green tea. We were hoping to get some crafting done but I guess talking won out.

Later in the afternoon I weeded my herb bed, oh my, I am amazed that any herbs are still alive it was so wet in there.

JUNE 16 - VEGE SWAP

We are very fortunate to have a thriving vege swap where I live. Today I brought 4, 1/2 dozen egg lots to swap, they were snapped up straight away. I picked up a few items but by the end there was still lots left over so my friends loaded me up with some more.
Here's what I received.
:- a bag of walnuts
:- capsicum
:- lemon
:- broccoli
:- kale
:- carrots
:- parsnips
:- pumpkin
:- jerusalem artichokes
:- alfalfa seeds


After the swap I had a nice cuppa with friends then I came home and went straight to the garden to pick some lovely fresh peas, yummy.

What a lovely morning.

JUNE LONG WEEKEND

On Friday we packed up Gertie Mae and left town for Pt Fairy.

Before we left Dan needed another appointment with the doctor for his 2 inner ear infections, hopefully they will clear up soon. Dan didn't get to come with us on Friday, Darren's parents brought him over Saturday afternoon after he finished work.

Back to Pt Fairy, it was so nice to get away, funny how travelling 1 1/2 hours feels like a world away. The weather was pretty good for winter and we enjoyed every moment of our mini break.



On Saturday morning Sophie and I went to Warrnambool to visit my lovely cousin Janelle and her family, she's having her 3rd baby next month so I will be back for cuddles.



Of course we picked the weekend to visit when they were moving into their beautiful new home, it truely is gorgeous and you should see Janelle's attic craft room (to die for).



We stopped at the local market.



Swoon.



Darren took the kids fishing.







I crocheted.



We walked.







Collected shells.



Laughed a lot.



And before we knew it, it was over.

JUNE 2 - RECONCILIATION WEEK

Yesterday Lachie, Sophie and 1200 other students from local schools went for a walk around our amazing Blue Lake.

Our schools's students walked from the school up to the lake, others came by bus. We listened to a local aboriginal elder, the flag was raised then we began our walk.

This walk took a while as for some areas it was single file.

Children planted hands they had decorated.

Banners were judged and Sophie's class was a runner-up.

The weather was beautiful and we all had a lovely morning, it really is exhausting work keeping up the spirits of children that didn't want to walk the 5km but everyone made it and were happy to be back at school for a rest.

COMFORT FOOD

I spent today in the kitchen cooking up some yummy comforting food for my family.  Darren is feeling under the weather so what better way to make him feel better than with a hearty vegetable and beef soup with homemade crusty bread.

While I was at it, I made up a couple of quiches to satisfy some hungry bellies.

Warming nourishing food for a cold winter-like day.