Pyjama Party Sunday

I must have been watching too much Masterchef or Jamie's kitchen or something because I've been a full on Domestic Goddess this weekend.  Before I donned my goddess like apron  I had to go buy new kitchen scales because my old ones  died this week after 22 years of faithful service. Kitchen scales have gone up market and are bloody expensive.  And they've gone high tech too . It's almost impossible to get ones that don't beep , read your fortune and measure your IQ  while you cook.  Naturally the ones I really wanted were 160 bucks. Calm down - I'm not completely insane. For that kind of money I can hire someone to come in and weigh my ingredients for the next 10 years . I bought a set that were much more middle of the road. I'm nothing if not sensible. 

I whipped up these lemon tarts this morning...I love lemon tart. It's my favourite dessert. These are utterly sublime. I can make that call since I've eaten 8 of them since lunchtime. Lemons are a fruit and fruit is good for you. Acid eats fat cells. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Emboldened by the lack of high drama in making the tarts  I made foccacia at great personal cost,  since touching anything sticky makes me want to ralph. And yes - crumbing anything in this house is  a massive production of OCD hand washing activity.  I digress- the foccacia is yum! I'm batting two for two. Tomorrow I may just make a  croquembouche  since I'm apparently a baking genius.

I spent Saturday night transcribing recipes into the recipe book Miss P gave me for Mother's Day. Some of them had been lurking round on scrappy bits of paper since 2006. I'm over calling Patty every time I want the salt and pepper squid recipe because I misplaced it again. Now I'm all organised and feeling virtuous especially since I didn't cop out and paste typed recipes onto the pages.  Yes-I ended up with writers cramp but it was totally worth it.

I hit the motherload of crafting magazines at one of my local Op shops this weekend. I can't argue with the logic of a dollar per magazine. Where else can I buy that much fun and inspiration so cheaply?

And I finally bought some more mint to re-plant since the cats in this house seem to like killing my mint by using it as a porta-potty. I have an ingenious plan to keep this stuff alive and the cats out of the pot.  And that's how sad I am - I've spent hours plotting how I'm going to outwit two cats just so I can make my own mint sauce.

In creative news ....I started and finished a new project . I cant show you the whole thing yet because it's a gift  for a house guest I have coming to stay with me next week.

I was inspired by something I saw in one of my new  crafting magazines and hopped right on it.

And I finished another Tis The Season block. That's 6 down . Halfway there. I wonder if I'll be finished by Christmas....

I made the final 10 Dresden centres and sewed them on . I can hear you all cheering! This quilt is going to be vintage by the time it's finished.

And in the thank you department  this week, Thea sent me this gorgeous card and some of my favourite sewing needles which was incredibly fortuitous because I'd almost run out.  Thank you Thea.

Shell sent me a stitching pattern I had been coveting (after I saw her beautiful version )  as well as some other lovely  goodies. When I'm  done  I'm going to send the pattern back out into the universe thereby ensuring my place in the sisterhood of the travelling pattern club.

It's a long weekend here so I'm not going to bitch and whine tonight about having to go back to work tomorrow. I'm saving that for tomorrow's post. Right about now every one who isn't in Australia is wishing they still had a Queen rule the crud out of them so they could have tomorrow off as a public holiday.  I hope we never become a republic unless they plan to swap the Queen's Birthday for some other equally cool free day off work.