Getting My Nigella On

I woke up Saturday with an overwhelming urge to cook. At first I wondered if I'd had a personality transplant overnight because mostly I cook for function not for fun. Since the urge didn't go away while I drank my usual morning coffee(s) I decided to roll with it to see how far I'd get before I got bored and wandered away leaving Mr. P to clean up the kitchen.

Everything I touched was pure gold (if I do say so myself) How often does that happen? I started with a triple batch of beef rendang,and 45 minutes later had a spaghetti sauce,a lasagne sauce and a double batch of beef and red wine casserole on the go too.Then I decided to add a double batch of butter chicken because its one of Mr. P's favourite things to eat.  Actually food is one of Mr. P's favourite things to eat. Fullstop. Anything. Except beetroot, brussel sprouts, or anything with bits of citrus fruit peel in it.

I also decided to make some jam because Patty Pie sent me home with strawberries last week. I obviously had some inkling with the jam idea because Little P facetimed me about 10 minutes after I started it to let me know there had been an unfortunate accident with his personal jar of Bella Jam where the jar met the floor and the resulting mess looked like a crime scene. He decided to swing on by to help make the jam, probably to ensure he got another jar, because he was afraid Grandpa would eat it all before he got here if he didn't come over immediately. 

I fed three hungry men vegetable soup for lunch along with vegemite cheese pastry twists, made by my own little hands. Ok - the soup was out of a can because I was too busy cooking other stuff to be bothered making soup from scratch. Nobody complained. And nobody called me out on canned soup (except Mr. P later in private) so it was all good. 

And while all this was going on I was making ciabatta dough for bread which seriously turned out to be the best ciabatta bread I've ever had in my life. Definitely doing that again. 

A brief break ensued while Mr. P and Little P played with boys toys and Little P gussied me up by putting flowers in my hair (They are actually weeds but I didn't have the heart to tell him) 

Apparently I couldn't find my hair brush yesterday either...

My golden run ended with some free form mince tarts because they were shit...I took that as a sign that my period of channeling Nigella was at an end and thanked the cooking gods for their generosity. Looks like dinners for the next week are sorted. Little P and I celebrated with a second attempt at s'mores and called it a day. I packed him off back to his Dad's full of sugar and collapsed on the lounge. 

That's my idea of a perfect Saturday. Let's hope today involves a visit from the same motivational place for my sewing efforts. At this stage it's not looking likely since I've been up four hours and have only managed to drink coffee and scoff more ciabatta bread... 

Highs and Lows

This week has been full of highs and lows... 

This is my car being towed away for repairs because the transmission is broken. I sent the car in for repairs 7 weeks ago because I knew there was something wrong with the transmission , and it came back marginally better after a full major service but still wasn't quite right. It's been back in since then for other repairs,  and I have been asking Mr. P for 3 weeks to take it back in to have the transmission looked at. There was some rather blue language round here on Saturday when the car just refused to go into gear.  Mr. P arranged for the car to be towed away to be looked at after the RAA dude confirmed it was transmission related issue .  Mr. P's  motivator was fear - I was not a happy camper. The irony of all of this is that Mr. P works for a major international car company that has all the fixit guys you could ever need about 30 seconds walk from here he sits all day Monday to Friday - I ask you how hard it could have been to organise for the car to be looked at on one of the other 475 occasions I've mentioned it.... 

These are the jeans that I went to put on Saturday morning and the zip on my jeans broke ....its not like I don't have others - but these were one of my favourites :(

I also stuffed a brand new pair of unworn unides but since this post is already sounding a bit like a pity party lets all move on shall we?  

We had a house full of visitors all weekend. Aside from my parents, we had a very special visitor come to stay on Friday night for the first time in a while. We had a camp out in our bedroom and everyone knows when you have a camp out you have to have a fire. I was a bit dubious about setting a camp fire on top of my carpet so we improvised.

Unfortunately Kevin the sock monkey got too close to the fire at one point and we had to render first aid. 

On Saturday Little P chose hanging out at home over going to the movies. We baked some chocolate chip cookies (no pictures -since they all got eaten rather rapidly), blew some bubbles, made playdough, did some drawing, and then did some gardening. I know you already know this - but this kid is the light of my life. I love seeing the world through his eyes. His enthusiasm for life is positively infectious.   

The week before last I won a giveaway over at Rachael's blog (Blue Mountain Daisy). I kept waiting and waiting with increasing excitement for it to arrive, checking the post box every day. I mentioned to Mr. P last Monday that I was waiting for parcel and he sheepishly went out to his car and brought in a package that he told me had arrived Friday but that he forgot to give me. 

Talk about hitting the motherlode-A huge parcel of awesomeness! Thankyou Rachael. I dont know what to use first but trust me - I'm going to have fun playing with all of this loveliness.  

And last of all, I managed some sewing in amongst the madness that was my weekend. I've been moving forward on my Seville quilt (which in theory is meant to be finished by the end of June -dont laugh - it's still possible) 

And I started cutting fabrics for my first new quilt of 2014...which doesn't look like much at the moment but is going to be absolutely gorgeous if I can make all my seams behave. You'll have to wait until I have an actual block done to see where I'm heading with this. And who knows when that's going to happen. Crazy week coming up....

Mojo A Go Go

Just when I thought my mojo was lost forever and I was lamenting the fact I'd finished two whole quilts this year I've managed to knock the ball out of the park and finish two more this month. It's about bloody time I got an injection of creativity that actually led to finishing stuff ! 

I started this quilt on a whim after seeing another version of it when I dropped some backing for another quilt off to my awesome magic quilting fairy recently.  The idea looked so simple and ingenious (and fast to do - I like fast because there's no opportunity to get bored with a project and shove it in a corner ) so I started it the very next day and 15 days later it was done. It was a dream project, as long as you don't count the silliness where I thought I could hand quilt this as a starter project. Pfttttttt...forget that. I'm going to start with hand quilting a pot holder. 

I suffered for my art ...getting my socks wet to take this picture. 

And I came in and informed Mr. P we simply need to move because  there is nowhere picturesque to take a picture in our yard.

Nanci sent me a layer cake of this fabric 18 months or so ago and it's been waiting for the perfect idea to come along.  I love this fabric and cuddling up to this quilt in winter is going to be a reminder that Spring will arrive again (eventually). The heating is well and truly turned on here these days and I even broke out of pair of socks last night. Seriously -winter is just bullshit. 

The mojo was slightly interrupted by a visit from Little P this weekend. Since we hadn't seen him for almost a month we had plenty of catching up to do. I was mistaken for his mother twice which really made me feel awesome because I've been feeling kinda old and frumpy lately. I either look really young or I was acting so immaturely in public that people couldn't believe I was a grandparent. Whatever. Bear with me for a sec while I break out my bragging pictures from the visit. I know every grandparent thinks their grandchildren are the smartest most adorable children ever but Little P really is. Everything is better when he's around. 

I'm linking this post  up to Elizabeth's monthly finish linky party because I keep promising her I will when I finish something and then I totally forget to do it!

P.S. The quilt finishes may slow considerably over the next couple of weeks since I am now pinning trillions of pictures of bags on Pinterest. One of my nephews asked me to make his girlfriend a bag months ago and I'm just now thinking about it. 

P.P.S Just wrote girlfriend as "girlfiend"..and she isn't a fiend at all ...G is adorable. My sister is blessed by having two gorgeous prospective daughter in laws that she gets along so well with. Both her boys picked good!