Stage 2

Here is the view of the new carpet from the middle of the room. The carpet guy was concerned about the suede effects because he had had bad experiences with it in the past because it marks easily. I said that we had already experienced that when we ripped up the old carpet and had to repainted the wall in places but we then sealed the whole wall so the finish was more durable.

My daughter and I spent the afternoon helping my son's class make castles. The class is studying fairy tales and they were given the assignment to construct a castle or a bridge. They were to use 4 ways to join pieces, have one moving part and use 3 types of recycled material. There was some interesting structures including one little girl wanting a three foot canon to jut out at an angle, and as much as I tried I couldn't get it to stay where she wanted it.

Floor Stage One

It has been a wild and woolly day here in Adelaide, especially by the beach, lots of sideways rain and blowing a gale.

Today my passageway got its lovely floor covering, here is the picture, carpet goes in tomorrow so I am hoping that the storm passes by then. Luckily the guy had finished by the time the rain came down.

I knew that as soon as my husband saw it he was going to say that we should have done the lounge dining room with it and he was in the house ten minutes and the words were said.

You can just make out my linen press minus doors which will be my task on the weekend to paint... yuck starting to get sick of the a painting at least they are just flat it was worse painting around all the woodwork. Can't wait to get my hall table in place and picture on the wall and entrance way is finished.

The End is in Sight

Tomorrow I am going to be ordering our new floor coverings. We have been doing some renovations over the last few months. We knocked out a wall in our lounge/dine to make one large room. Unfortunately the wall happened to also be the main support for the roof, so we had a bit of a setback there and a bit more expense. Then came Christmas and the builder didn't have time to do the new sliding door so I decided that I wasn't going to start painting until that was done and all the dust had settled and of course the painting took longer than anticipated and there are still a few spots that need finishing (I work better when I have a deadline and the carpet installation will give me that)

In the mean time we had ducted gas heating put in.....why did we not do that earlier. Within 10 minutes the whole house is toasty warm going to be loving that over winter.

So within the next month it should all be finished and I can bring all my new furniture in out of the garage.

Its Finished

I finished quilting the quilt this afternoon. Just binding and a sleeve to go and a label of course oh and I forgot I have to wash the vanishing thread out. Here are the photos, my daughter insisted in being in one.

And here is the detail.

Easiest Chocolate Cake Ever Again

Well here we go again. My friend left out one vital ingredient 1 cup of lemonade. Made the cake again last night and it was a winner so here is the recipe.

1 pkt Whitewings Chocolate Cake
1 pkt Cottees Chocolate Instant Pudding
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 cup of lemonade

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into a bunt microwave safe dish. Microwave 6 minutes on high (1000 watt microwave you may need a little more or less depending on your microwave).

Topping: 1 100g Toblerone, 1/4 cream

Break up Toblerone and microwave for 30 sec until melted, stir in cream.

Turn out cake onto a serving dish and poor topping over cake. Serve warm or cold.

Quilting Time

I finally got some free time to do some more quilting on this quilt that I have been working on for probably 12 months. I remembered that I was doing the needle turn applique last winter and have been quilting it since January doing a little bit at a time. All the circles have a trapunto motif in the centre and the borders have a trapunto'd continuous design, so really it has been quilted twice. I have one more border motif to quilt and then just stipple the gap between the motif and the body of the quilt and it is all finished.

The white thread on the black square is water soluable and holds the trapunto batting in place until the quilt is quilted then it will be washed to remove it. I have been using a couple of different threads in this quilts with mixed results. I think I should have used a black backing instead of lime green and I might not of had the problem with the thread showing on the top side. But I did get that fixed by the time I got to the black fill background. I think next trapunto I try will be a wholecloth but it has been a good learning curve with this project.

Easiest Cake Recipe Ever -oops

One of the ladies at work gave me this recipe for Toblorone it is really easy so she says. (I think there must be something missing it is a bit like a biscuit should get some interesting comments tonight)

I don't think I better publish the recipe as it was a total disaster. The icing was yummy though. Will put it back up when I have got it right.

Mother's Day

Well my morning started at 6.10am when the kids made various excuses to come into our bed. Then they had to go again to get my presents lots of lovely handmade paper and a rose the play's Love Me Tender from the school mother's day stall.

Going to one of my neighbour's who hosts a Mother's day morning tea every year, good to catch up with all the gossip from the ladies. Then off to the MIL for lunch should be a good day.

No sewing for most of the week but made myself a necklace, braclet and earings to wear on Mother's day.

Road Trip Planning

It has been and exciting week, I found out by accident that Leanne Beasley will be teaching at Loxton in July and I quickly emailed my quilting buddies (the Sparkle Bitches) to see if we could make a road trip. They were in so then I had to get a leave pass because it would mean being away for 4 nights and I have a 6 year old and 4 year old that my husband would have to organise for a few days. He can and he is more than capable of doing it but there will be a lot of whinging on his part (which I know will get progressively louder and the weekend approaches).

The deposit is paid for the workshops and the accomodation is booked and so now all I have to do is save some spending money and get more excited etc.

The three day workshop is at Almond Grove Crafts 27th to 29th July and the teachers will be Leanne Beasley, Rosalie Quinlan and Gail Pan.

Amanda