It's Everywhere With Milo, And Milo Does It Good.

Gilly is afraid of slippery surfaces. It must be why she doesn't like standing on the box on the verandah or walking over the metal plates at the dam when they are wet and slimy.

I sent Lassie-like Peri to fetch her: Quick Peri, Gilly's fallen down the well. And all's well that ends well.

All the dogs have lots of fun at the dam: Peri, Gilly, Sandy and Rafa. (Sandy's behind the tree)

I had a lovely time visiting Jet's Mum and partook of the most delicious date cake too. I saw lots of beautiful holiday photographs. I knitted a Milo for her soon-to-be grandchild. This one has the end of MrsDrWho's Boo socks as the yoke and some Bendigo 8ply Classic for the rest. I really enjoy knitting this pattern again and it is ever so clever that there are no seams. I've called it Lime Quik. I think Baby Zoe needs a Milo of her own too.

I've sewed two more drawstring knitting bags. I do love the pattern from In Color Order. We went to bed at 7pm on Thursday and then I couldn't sleep. I got up again at 10pm and sewed the bag with the tiny red flowers. Then I went back to bed again.

We're eating frugally this week and using up pantry and freezer items. I made a very yummy Puys lentil soup with a dash of Worcestershire. I used the last of the chicken mince to make a bolognaise sauce. Then I whipped up a small batch of condiment tomato sauce, Jamie Oliver's crispy oven wedges , some delightful Palmiers and a teeny tiny loaf of bread. I let the bread dough prove in the fridge overnight and then did the second rise in the oven with the temperature on plate warming. It's been a big week of cooking at our house. The Labradors didn't miss out, I baked them some oat biscuits. Believe me when I say that they are the best biscuits in the whole wide world!!!

Bloglovin' has a Top Posts clicky button and I have been perusing the various options. I've found that the Beauty people are very enthusiastic about nail polish. (I must remember to wear nail polish on my toenails this coming Summer) They have A Lot of beauty paraphernalia and products. I have few. I have less than few really. Here's a photo.

I use a colloidal oatmeal moisturiser because the drugs I take make my skin sensitive. It's why I use the Beauty and the Bees 'shampoo' bar and apple cider vinegar for a hair conditioner or rinse. Then I have some BB cream in Light, a concealer and some Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer in Nutmeg and I have Caramel on in my handbag along with a Peppermint lip balm. Sometimes I use a mineral powder, but I'm pretty much the opposite of Monica from Friends, I'm low maintenance in the beauty department!!! I don't know why really, I am quite girly and like dresses and shoes. But I do like to spend less than a minute doing my hair, I usually whoosh my fingers through my hair and maybe dry my fringe and that's it.

MrsDrWho have me the very snazzy eye shadows, liners and nail polish. I sometimes swoosh the eyeshadow over my eyelids for a special occasion, but I don't use mascara because I always end up rubbing it into my eyes no matter how waterproof it is. I remember my mum always put her 'Face' on in the morning and I like to look neat and presentable too. I learned at Look Good Feel Better that if you feel you look your best, then you do feel better, and it's true.

Oh and Judy-May has just pinned some glittery lilac nails on The Pinterest!! I don't know how to make a clicky link.

During the holidays I took MrsDrWho's cats to the Vet for their annual vaccinations. They are, from left to right, Cleo, Caramello and Muppin. They meow all the way there in the car and I sing These are a Few of My Favourite Things. Once we go into the room, they are all as angelic as can be and so well behaved. MrsDrWho doesn't like taking the cats to the vet if she doesn't have to. I don't mind. Peri and Gilly were a bit put out because the back of the car smelled of cats. We'll be doing it again next year!! Peri and Gilly are going to have a Dental Check Up again. It's a free check up and last year there were treats. We've been preparing so expect toothy photos anon!!

Friday Food: Quick Curried Rice With Egg and Peas

I loved the look of the recipe in the photo, and I had almost all the ingredients- no yoghurt or crispy shallots or coriander (which I don't like and wouldn't have used anyway) so I had curried rice for brunch. 10-15am is getting too late for breakfast.

It is an added bonus that the curried rice is really delicious and moreish. Only the fact that I made enough for just one serve stopped me eating more!!!

Karen Martini suggests you drink lager with the rice and that it will partner fried chicken very well. I think it would be really nice the next day as lunch, cold or hot.

 

Curried Rice with Eggs and Peas    serves 2

• 250g basmati rice
• 1 tspn cumin seeds
• 2 tspn curry powder
• 650ml boiling water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 eggs
• 60g butter, melted
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 a lemon
• 4-6 spring onions, sliced
• to garnish: coriander, plain yoghurt and crispy fried shallots

In a medium saucepan that has a tight fitting lid, because this is important later on, heat the rice, curry powder and cumin. You will be able to smell the spices as they heat and then you know it is time to add the boiling water. Stir to combine and then bring to the boil. Once boiling turn the heat down to low and put the lid on. Leave to cook for 7 minutes, which is enough time to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.

 

Whisk the egg and the melted butter together in preparation. I cooked the rice for an extra 2 minutes as all the water was not absorbed.

Fluff the rice with a fork and distribute the peas evenly. Pour in the egg and butter and season with salt and pepper. Do Not Stir. Replace the lid and leave to cook for 4 minutes and then turn the heat off and leave it to sit for 5 minutes.

And that's it, all done. I left the lid on until the egg only had a slight wobble in the centre and then served it straight away, with a tiny sprinkle of parsley and a generous squeeze of lemon. Yum!!

It Was The Best Of Climes, It Was The Worst Of Climes.

Well, at our house it has been both busy and interminably slow. I have been busy with lots of friends in the school holidays and spent time in bed feeling poorly too. I just thought tonight, talking to my mum on the phone, that perhaps my most recent poorliness was related to my Pneumonia vaccination. I still have a sore arm, which I know is a very common thing....

The weather has been so changeable, we had the coldest ever night and the warmest ever days for July in the State. At the dam Peri and Gilly saw grass stiff with ice and puddles completely frozen: a state of affairs they delight in. See the wiggly waggly tails and happy running??

The Labradors are ever hopeful that there will be a treat. I baked them some biscuits this week which are apparently delicious. Peri looks more than hopeful, she looks positively certain. Gilly looks very worried. She never misses out though.

The Wednesday before last, when The GardyGardeners didn't come because of the rain, we went for a lunch-time walk. We went mainly because Gilly was so full of energy that Peri and I rolled our eyes at each other after half an hour of romping and wide-eyed running about, and decided a walk was called for. There was a most beautiful rainbow at the dam, the rain was but a mist and the sun was shining. All very beautiful.

My new green car is not so new any more. It still feels new, but it is almost three years old. We have just reached 20,000km. In fact we reached it exactly as we pulled up at home in the driveway. It amuses me no end that the dial is called ODO. (ST:DS9)

Auntie Dutch invited me along to a workshop at The Milkbar. We used Lumi Inkodye and made prints on calico with A3 sized negatives of photos printed onto acetate.

I knew that mine wouldn't be super successful because you really needed a dark subject and light background, and Peri and Gilly are the opposite. I don't have any photos from Auntie Dutch, but hers were fabulous. Regardless, I love mine. It was so much fun, we went outside to check the colour developing and said 'Wow!" quite a lot. I would never have thought to go, but Auntie Dutch is adventurous and loves to explore craft. It was lovely to spend so much time with her.

My 'creative' one wasn't really very creative, I should have gone dark-to-light. I am going to make three bags out of my lovely photo-prints. Very soon our whole state will be supermarket plastic bag free, so I will need more shopping bags. There are no green Lumi dyes yet, nor a yellow so I could mix it with blue to make a green. My bags shall be green though. I can really see the details of the dark spots where Peri's whiskers start and the gorgeous velvety texture of her ears.

This last fortnight I've read three very big fat books (Empire series by Wurts and Feist) and three normal sized ones. I've saved innumerable Princesses from Evil Goblins and Matched Three up to Level 68. Then I had to give MrsDrWho's iPad back!!! It is so kind of her to lend it to me for the holidays. Oh, and I even downloaded the ABC app so I could listen to proper radio at night while The Ashes were on.

I've knitted another pair of socks that don't match. One is a lovely long colour change Hand Dyed Effect Regia, Hand-Eye Co-ordination I have named it. The other is some variegated green and I used Froot Loops from Knitty.com. I broke two needles doing the pass a stitch over two others, so by the time I got to the foot I just ribbed and twisted and my needles remained intact. I fiddled with the photo to try and get the best colours for the Regia wool. I love it. I finished the Froot Loop sock waiting for my doctor. It certainly entertained everyone in the waiting room when I tried it on to see where to start the toe, knitted the toe and then grafted it and tried on the finished sock.

I've spent a lot of time talking about The Spare Oom, but when I met the Lovely Andrea she said that if I haven't used anything in The Spare Oom for ten years then I probably don't need it at all. MrsDrWho concurred. I can just throw things out. I don't need to delve into boxes of patterns or stacks of paper. It's a bit freeing and wonderful actually. I shall keep my records. Can't play them, but I'll keep them.

And now it is time for bed. I have thirty stitches to cast off and my project for today is complete. There are no seams, just a few ends. Tomorrow I am going to visit Jet's Mum and I'll take him some of The Labradors' biscuits. I'm sure they won't mind.

Friday Food: Chewy Caramel Cups

This is recipe which requires little effort and time. It is a whip-up-in-a-hurry recipe.

I don't own a 24 hole mini muffin tin so I used an ordinary 12 hole tin and doubled the recipe for the base. I guessed and only made the caramel as per the recipe and it all worked out fine.

I made caramel cups two ways: with chocolate and with banana, cream and toasted coconut- a kind of Banoffee cup. I ate half a banana caramel cup and it was delicious.

You'll need some baking paper for turning the caramel cups out.

 

Chewy Caramel Cups   makes 24 small or 12 large

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbspn desiccated coconut (8 tspn)
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup golden syrup
• 50g more of unsalted butter
• 395g tin condensed milk
• To decorate- 100g melted chocolate or banana, whipped cream and toasted coconut
• spray oil or butter for greasing

Preheat the oven to 160*C.

Make the base by mixing the flour, brown sugar and coconut. Make a well and pour in the melted butter and mix together well.

I ended up using my hands to bring it together and in my own obsessive way measured 12 individual portions for the base, each 30g. It's a heaped teaspoon for the 24 mini muffin tin. Making equal parts helps them cook evenly. Grease the muffin tin with either a spray oil, or as I do, use a torn off piece of butter paper and butter. Press the mixture firmly into each hole, I used a small glass to make sure it spread out nicely. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the bases are baking, make the caramel. Melt the butter and golden syrup over a medium heat. Once melted, bring to the boil and cook stirring, for 1 minute.

Pour in the condensed milk and boil for a further 3 minutes stirring all the time. It will stick slightly to the base of the saucepan, but just stir vigorously. It will be slightly caramelly in colour and thickened.

When the bases are cooked, spoon the caramel over. It was a heaped 40ml tablespoon in this case for each base. Spread it out to the edges. It does not melt and spread out itself. I know this because I thought it would and it did not.

Bake for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool for 2 minutes. Cover a tray with baking paper. Using a knife, gently break the seal of the caramel around each caramel cup. I also eased each one out a tad, and let it fall back. Turn the tray and baking paper onto the top of the muffin tray, and using something to protect your hands from the heat, turn the whole thing upside down. Amazingly, all the caramel cups came out on the first go for me!! Huzzah!! Turn them upside down so they are right side up and allow to cool.

Top with the melted chocolate or cream, banana and toasted coconut. Yum!!

Friday Food: TimTam Brownies

Once again, it is Friday Food on Saturday. I've spent quite a lot of this week sleeping. I think I may be getting a cold?? Anyway, these are not too taxing as you don't need the mix-master. I made them last night and then went to bed at about 6-45pm and just didn't get up again until this morning.

Don't do what I did when I was baking the brownie- I ignored the timer when I was talking on the phone and so the brownie isn't terrifically squidgy. There is some squidginess in the centre, but there's usually a lot more.

For a 20cm, or 8 inch, square cake tin you will need 10 biscuits, which is handy because TimTams now come in packets of 11. You can substitute any chocolate biscuit really, I fancy making Chocolate Royals or Mint Slice brownies one day.

The recipe uses White TimTams, and if there were any at the supermarket I would have interspersed them amongst the brown ones. There were not. The White ones look very effective, but are perhaps not chocolaty enough for proper chocolate people.

I made this recipe in a slice tin, used 16 TimTams and increased the recipe by a third.

Warning- there may be spelling/typing or even making sense errors. I am a bit beastly careless this morning.

 

TimTam Brownies   makes 10 large or 20 smaller pieces

• 200g good dark chocolate
• 180g butter, cubes
• 200g brown sugar, I used dark brown
• 3 eggs
• 110g plain flour
• 10 TimTams

Grease and line a 20cm tin and set out the TimTams to check they will fit. You could probably fit more if you squeezed them in. Preheat the oven to 180*C.

Chop or break up the chocolate and melt it along with the butter. I usually use the microwave on medium in 1 minute bursts. Remove before it is totally melted and stir till smooth. It says allow to cool, but if you melt it this way it is not too hot.

Mix the brown sugar and eggs with a whisk, or wooden spoon as I did, until smooth.

Pour the melted chocolate and butter into this mixture, whisk till combined and then add the flour. Stir well, making sure there are no lumps.

Pour about half the mixture into the tin and arrange the biscuits. It is a tad tricky pouring the rest over top, so it might be sensible to spoon it over, otherwise the biscuits can go sidewaysie. I know this because I had to poke a knife about in the brownie straightening them up. Bake for 35 minutes. I usually turn the tin half way through and also check a little early. I learned from BH&G that to see if a brownie is cooked, you press half way between the edge and the centre and if it springs back and is firm, then the brownie is cooked. There shouldn't be any cracks on top really. This is way too cooked.

Cool in the tin and then on a rack and slice with a hot sharp knife and serve. I think they would look nice with a little icing sugar sifted over top too.

Friday Food: Cronuts

Oh my god Chandler Bing!!!!! I made cronuts. For those who came in late, a Cronut is a cross between a croissant and a doughnut. I am delighted to announce that not only did they puff up in layers, but they tasted like a little bit of heaven. On a stick. My fear of using yeast in cooking is not allayed, but somewhat dimmed. Look!!!!

Layers and height and crisp croissant pastry on the outside and creme patisserie on the inside. Yum!!

I consulted recipes at The Other Crumb which was also posted on the SMH, and NotQuiteNigella. I ended up making the pastry from recipe at The Other Crumb, as there was no rising of dough involved, and the creme patisserie from Taste.com.au.

You need to start the pastry the day before you want to bake the cronuts. It is not as difficult as it seems and though there are a few steps, there is a lot of nice long waiting time. They only last for 6 hours, not that they self-destruct old Mission:Impossible style, but they are just not as good- so it is written. I doubt you will have any left over to test this theory.

I was at a loss as to which bread flour to choose, in the end I chose a flour that said it was especially for pastries, but not ordinary plain flour.

You don't need any strange or weird ingredients. I used a piping set from the supermarket, a sieve and a clean perforated kitchen cloth. That's it. I am afraid of deep frying and don't have a confectionery thermometer (I must buy one) so I just guessed the oil temperature and tested it with a doughnut hole.

I made 10 cronuts, 6 fantastically good, and 4 weirdly monstrous re-rolled ones. I cut them out with a 6mm cutter and made the holes with one of the spare piping tips.

I used sunflower oil to fry them. I have no idea if it is the right oil or not, but the bottle had a label that indicated it was for deep frying.

If you can't face making creme patisserie, then use firmly whipped thickened cream, sweetened with a little sugar and add some vanilla.

OK, gird your loins, here we go.

 

Cronuts    makes about 10

Pastry

• 60ml body temperature water
• 60ml body temp. milk. I used full fat milk
• 7g or 1 sachet of dried yeast
• 125g bread flour
• 125g plain flour
• 45g brown sugar, pinch of salt
• 150g cold butter. I used unsalted as it was what I usually have
• preferred oil for frying

Creme Patisserie

• 1 egg yolk
• 125ml milk
• 40ml thickened cream
• 2 tbspn caster sugar (8 tspn)
• 1 1/2 tbspn cornflour (6 tspn)
• 1 tspn vanilla extract

Decoration

• caster sugar for rolling
• pink glaze made from pure icing sugar, food colouring and water

 

Pastry

Put the yeast, water, milk and brown sugar in a bowl. Set it aside and start the pastry. When you are ready to add it, it will have risen and there will be a foam on top. I have delicately poked my finger into it so you can see!!!

Put the flours, salt and cubed butter into a bowl. The bread flour is on the left in the bowl, it looks a bit darker. Rub the butter into the flour, it will take about 4-5 minutes and is a nice time to think about eating cronuts!! There should still be little chunks of butter. It should not be like breadcrumbs at all.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and bring together to from a dough. Knead a little, if at all, and then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Next day, prepare a place to roll out the pastry. I am lucky my sister gave me this lovely pastry sheet.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle 40cm long and 20cm deep. Try to roll it out evenly in one piece. You don't need to be completely accurate. but try for a rectangular shape.

Now you are going to fold 1/3 in from the left and 1/3 in from the right so 3 layers are formed. Give the pastry a 1/4 (or 90*) turn and then repeat this process twice more: roll into a rectangle, fold in the sides, turn 90*. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate overnight.

Here's where I went off on my own little tangent for a while. Today I went through the rolling and folding process 3 times more, refrigerating for 30 minutes in between.

Now it's time to cut the cronuts I found my pastry was kind of still in 3 distinct layers and so I rolled it a little, and if it came apart I stuck the circles together with a little water. I left them to sit for about an hour.

Creme Patisserie

Make the creme patisserie while the pastry rests. You can see the method I used explained fully on my Chocolate Mousse post: pastry cream (same thing, different name)

Heat the milk and cream over a low-medium heat. Whisk the egg yolk, sugar and cornflour together, it will resist whisking at first and then make a nice creamy paste. When the milk is almost boiling, pour it over the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking as you go.

Pour back into the pan and stir constantly as it comes to the boil and thickens. Once it actually boils, remove and strain through a cloth and/or sieve to remove any lumps. Really I wouldn't bother next time with the cloth or the sieve, mine seemed nice and smooth. But if you are worried, I think a fine sieve would be the go. Now mix in the vanilla extract and cool to room temperature. Cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming.

Heat the oil and get ready to cook. My stove plates have 5 settings and I switched between 3 and 4, depending how I felt things were going as I fried the cronuts. Heat the oil in a medium pan, mine was probably 7-8cm deep. I popped a pinch of pastry in as it heated to indicate when it might be ready. I really think it's a good idea to cook the 'holes' first to get an idea of how long it will take. The pastry needs to go quite dark, as you van see from the first photo on this post. Relax, they are not burnt!! The 'holes' needed three minutes to cook for me, 1 1/2 minutes on each side, and so did my cronuts. They sink to the bottom when you put them in the oil and then pop up to the surface as they start to cook.

In my excitement, I neglected to take any more cooking photos.If you re-roll the pastry you make weird mutant cronuts, I don't care, they taste the same!!!

 

Decoration

Drain the cronuts on kitchen paper and then dust them with caster sugar. Fill a piping bag with the simplest nozzle with the creme patisserie and poke a few holes in the cronut and pipe it in, in several places. Drizzle with the pink glaze, or icing, and serve.

And I can't quite believe I made them. They are delicious. I'll definitely be making them again, because I don't have a proper life and so I have time to do it. The cooking world is now my oyster, I have no idea what I shall try to conquer now. I can't check any more spelling........

Here We Go Gathering (Cro)Nuts In May

It is more of a cold and wildy wet afternoon, and I've started making the Cronuts. I procrastinated every day, but there's nothing like a looming deadline to shame me into a task. I spent five minutes rubbing butter into flour and mixed in some liquids and now it is resting for three hours in the fridge. That's my kind of recipe!!!

Peri and Gilly insisted on waiting outside in the rain for me to come home. They were both soaking wet and as they won't be dried with the hair-dryer, it's towels all round. When I went next door for a few minutes yesterday you would think I had left for ever. They stood in The Forbidden Zone and glared through the passionfruit netting until I relented and came home.

Earlier in the week when it was sunny The Labradors were on constant alert. Lots of Council workers were cleaning up leaves and there was generally a lot going on in the street. They didn't know which way to look!!!

The Tumbling Blocks block turned out better than I imagined. Gilly helped by lying on it, but it is reasonably OK. I can see blocks, so that's a start. MrsSherlock sewed almost all of hers and MrsReno only once strip because the machine gave up the ghost a bit and basically we were all ready for supper. I need to make another one now.

The Hand Dye Co-ordination Sock #1 is on its way to the toe, but somehow I lost a needle when I took them with me in case there was a wait at the BlackSpot of DoomLight(tm). There wasn't a wait, but one needle disappeared and two let the stitches out. This is the worst ball ever, the wool falls off the loosely wound ball in a wodge and then makes horrid knots. I can't knit any more until I've unravelled two knots. I am patient, so it will be fine.

Oh no, Peri and Gilly have been outside in the rain again. And Gilly wants to leap all over me. More towels!!! Now they are jumping on the bed, like it is a rebound trampoline for mounting the beam. They did go for a walk this morning, in fact all the human companions were silly (or dedicated) enough to walk their dogs in the wind and rain!!!

I drew the name of the person to whom I am giving the Origami bag and it is Linda at Two Pink Possums!! Maybe we can catch up because we live within a quite loud Cooee of each other, I'll send you an email Linda!!!

I'm reading Raymond E Feist's Magican again. I have a lovely new green hardback special edition. I've forgotten so much about it. I'm bookending the series by reading the first and last books in this endlessly long series. I gave up somewhere in the middle, so the last book will be somewhat of a mystery read.

Today is the 24 year anniversary of living in our house. That is such a long time, I don't know where the years have gone. We remember the years by Vundy and Tori's age, they were born late in 1989, so they'd be 24 this year. It's also Uncle Dutch's birthday: Happy Birthday!!!

Now I had best feed the Labradors, they've momentarily given up hope of any dinner!!! Back tomorrow with Cronuts: good, bad or indifferent.

Much Ado About Everything And Nothing

There have been some changes, again, in Canberra and we have Kevin Rudd back as Prime Minister. I thought Julia Gillard's speech as she left The Spill was strong and positive and she made some very insightful comments at what was a most difficult time.

"...The reaction to being the first female PM does not explain everything about my prime ministership, nor does it explain nothing about my prime ministership... What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman, and the woman after that, and the woman after that, and I'm proud of that." From ABC News

I do believe that she was subjected to greater personal and professional scrutiny because she is a woman. And I noticed as the days passed, many commentators spoke positively about her term as Prime Minister. Still, as a country we elect local members to Canberra and the party with the most members, or people who will vote with them, form a Government and choose the leader, a Prime Minister. We really have no say. I do hope there will be a next woman and a woman after that soon. As a knitter I am pretty cheesed off at the flack Julia Gillard received about her knitting. No-one seems to pooh-pooh a golfer or a cyclist. Bah humbug.

Well, I've been garnering my strength and we've been having extra naps. I've had a few headaches, but they seem to have gone away now. Napping seems to have paid off, because yesterday I started two new socks: Froot Loops, which has yet to have a better name and my ordinary plain sock in some beautiful Regia hand dye effect in long green repeats. Yay, I am already at the gusset decreasing.

Yesterday I planned out the Tumbling Blocks for our next Sewing of the Craftsy Block of the Month 2013. There are some discrepancies between the video and its captioning and the information sheet, so my triangles are too small I think. I can really see the blocks tumbling though. I bought a 60* triangular ruler which should make cutting the real pieces easier and more accurate.

This afternoon I sewed a Jelly Roll quilt top for my NextDoor Neighbour's Christmas present. I'm going to give it to her early, so she can enjoy it in Winter. I decided on a MrsDrWho alternative construction: the jelly roll had to be supplemented with some plain Homespun and so it ended up long and narrow.

I used 8 strips from the bottom, cut the rest of the quilt top in half lengthwise and then sewed the strips down the centre. Et voila!! A much more pleasing shape in real life, as yet unpressed.

I had an awful lot of technical assistance with the quilt photos.  My assistants were eager for a treat after all the work they did. Peri was so ready she did her best trick, which is 'Drop' and then usually 'Roll over' too. Gilly was just unprepared for the camera's flash.

I suspect MrsDrWho is still engaged in Family things to do with her birthday, so I can post a picture of her Boo!! socks, which are complete. I just loved using this Opal Surprise wool, and I would knit another pair like a shot. They are so colourful, but don't hurt your eyes.

I have some hippy-dippy green boots on lay-by. The cuff parts are way too colourful but they can be turned up and hidden under jeans- of which I have innumerable pairs.

I bought the new Colette Hawthorn dress pattern from SewSquirrel. The cost was $18 and the postage free. It is great to be able to buy it in Australia as the postage from the US was $14. The photo is from the Colette site. There's to be a sew-along. I may not sew along in real time, but the hints will be useful. I borrowed a couture sewing book from The Library and I have learned quite a few new tips and techniques.

Gilly has a new trick to try and get all the attention at the gate. The other day they'd opened the wooden inner gate and were waiting for me at the wrought iron one. Gilly likes to be taller than Peri and, well, any one else really. It is hard to be bottom of the pack.

Peri is just resigned to the fact that Gilly will push in and try and be first.

Gilly is so eager and makes little piggy grunting noises to get some attention: Me, me, pick me. I pick Peri first because she is top of the Dog pack.

The weather has been extremely warm, 16*C here and 19*C on the East Coast. Yet today we had nuisance showers, the kind where you can't even have your windscreen wipers on intermittent because they squeak on the windscreen as there's not enough moisture. At least we didn't have the destructive winds that hit the South.

Tomorrow we shall have Morning tea and then I will be cutting out and sewing my Tumbling Blocks block and baking some TimTam Brownies for supper at Sewing. I should also start the Cronuts. I am dreadfully afraid of the yeast part of the process, but I shall put my apron on and give it a red hot go!!!