Delicious Sandwiches and some Home Decor

On the weekend I attended a Mad Hatters Tea Party for a friend that's getting married.

It was a very pleasant afternoon, playing a few games and enjoying the wonderful company, not to mention the abundance of food!!!  The 'hero' food for me wasn't the cheesecake or pavlova but the sandwiches!!!  I'm sure they are the best I'd ever tasted. The friend who made them emailed the recipe to me and so I made them the next day!!

You might enjoy them too, spread on some lovely fresh bread.

Mix in a bowl:

Roast chicken chopped (I bought a chicken, took off the wings and legs and chopped up the remainder)

Celery (I used 4 sticks), finely chopped.

Small packet of Pistachios (I used the whole packet) finely chopped.

2 tablespoons chopped chives, or to taste

2 tablespoons sour cream

Mayonnaise to mix to desired consistency

Black pepper.

Use thin white bread, spread with minimal butter.

For a nicer presentable finish, spread mix between 3 slices of bread, cut off crusts and cut into small rectangular ‘fingers’

 

After some lovely homewares?

I have just finished developing a website for Lavilla which is a beautiful homewares and gift shop in my home town of Loxton. We are so fortunate to have it here as it has such a great range of things.  You can visit the website now at www.lavilla.com.au

I'll leave you with some images from Lavilla.

 

 

When I popped in there this morning they were unpacking boxes which contained new Christmas decorations and lots of other tempting things!

 

A new toy and easy lamingtons

My new toy is an iPad!  It's wonderful for sitting in the recliner at night and being able to be online and search around the net and catch up on facebook!  I used to do that with my iPhone but it's great to have a bigger screen. We are off on holidays in a couple of weeks so it will be packed in my bag. I will need to check how to load photos in case I want to do a post while I'm away,

As well as being a toy it is also for work purposes...The ever increasing smartphones and tablets mean I need to make sure the websites I build work on those platforms and I'm also learning about developing mobile applications, so it's not just all leisure!!!

The rose in the above picture is one of my first Pierre de Ronsards which are really starting to take off now that the warmer weather has come along. Here they are starting to climb up the trellis.

It's always exciting to get a special looking envelope in the mail with an invitation inside. We recieved this lovely wedding invitation this week.

LAMINGTONS
And last weekend I made some lamingtons the way my Mum used to make them. You buy the plain unfilled sponges and cut them up. Simmer 3 ingredients together and coat the sponge with the mixture and coat with coconut. They make a lovely crunchy coating not like the soft ones you buy in the shop.

 

 

The chocolate mixture is...(wait for it, it's quite naughty!!!).

3 cups sugar, 3/4 cup water, 3 dessertspoons of cocoa. Place in saucepan and bring to boil. Allow to cool slightly before coating the sponge. I use a slotted spoon to dip the sponges into the mixture and then toss into coconut. These freeze really well too. I wrap them individually in glad wrap. Ideal for lunchboxes.

Catching up...herbs, a recipe and choosing tiles for a new project!

Our family enjoys following the AFL (Australian Football League), Adelaide Crows in particular and we also follow the V8 Supercars (go Fords!), so the past 2 weekends have been a feast of TV watching as the AFL grand final on the long weekend and the endurance race at Bahurst yesterday. My hubby usually goes every 2 years to Bathurst with a few mates but it was his year off this year.

Besides those activities which were enjoyed over wine and nibbles with some family and friends, I potted around in the garden, planting more petunias and organising some big pots for some cherry tomatoes and herbs. One of our sons made a planter box for me and I've placed it alongside one of our sheds. I managed to get 4 big pots into it, so hopefully they will grow well.

Our next project for the house is to give our bathroom a makeover. We are just in the planning stages so no photos yet, but we did visit a shop to start choosing floor tiles and look at vanities.

 

We brought a few tiles home to try and I think we will go for the chocolate one for the floor in the photo below. (not a good photo!!).

Instead of getting our wall tiles re-tiled we are going to paint them. We've done a bit of research on it and have decided to give it a bash!! We will paint them white and our son will probably build us a new vanity.  Lots of fun planning, but will be more fun hopefully when we start to do it.

Have you painted ceramic tiles before? I'd love to hear from you about your experience with it.

Spring and an easy dessert

In Australia we have entered into Spring, a wonderful time of the  year when nature 'springs to life'. My garden is very much a spring/summer garden with flowering plants and annuals and creeping vines which have all awoken from their winter slumber and growing rapidly with the warmer weather we're experiencing. I love it!!

We have been re-doing parts of our front garden but I'll show you that in a later post, once things start to grow a bit more.

Our lavender borders down the back have just started to come into flower and the bees are plentiful.

 

 

A few weeks back our town had a special Sunday Trading Day and launched a Gift Voucher concept for the town. To promote this day a few of us on the committee decorated the central roundabout to the main shopping district with gift boxes and a sign, drawing attention to the voucher launch. The photos below show a very thick fog which we contended with to put the displays together!

 After a simple dessert?  I made these Apricot Turnovers the other week. Just buy some puff pastry sheets and dried apricots. Stew the dried apricots in a little water first with a tablespoon of sugar and then allow to cool a little.
Lay out the sheets and cut into quarters. On one side place some of the apricots and then bring the pasty over and seal down the edges with your fingers. Brush with milk and a sprinkling of sugar on top. Bake for around 15-20 minutes in moderate over or until the pastry has browned. Then cool them on a baking rack.

 

And to add a touch of Pink here are some bits and pieces from around our home.

 

Here are some Pierre de Ronsards that were featured on a garden tour that I went on a couple of years back. Hopefully mine will look a bit more like these this year!

Blogger....Is anyone else having trouble with loading photos lately in blogger? The last few posts it has been a pain, very slow and my photos are al small image sizes. Not sure what's going on there.

I will be joining Pink Saturday, so head on over if you want to see some more 'pink' related posts.

South Australian Country Photography

One of my sisters, Joy, loves photography. Whenever we are together or have a family gathering, Joy is always snapping away. She is good at quietly sneaking around and taking shots that you don't know about. When Joy and her husband travel, they are always stopping so Joy can capture the beauty that she sees. She has finally had some of her landscape photos produced onto museum quality canvas and is selling them. You can view and purchase them at the Madeit website.

Here are a few that are available.

 

Above: Moonta Bay on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia

 

Above: Brinkworth, near Clare in South Australia 

 

Above: An old trike that has seen better days!

Joy also makes her photos up into cards. You can discover more about Joy's photography and purchase her cards at her website. www.postcardsalive.com

 Who doesn't love a quick and easy meal? One that I've discovered lately just has 2 ingredients, pasta and prosciutto. Boil up some noodles. Cut up the prosciutto into small pieces and fry. Once both have been cooked, toss the noodles into the prosciutto. Whalla!. You can of course add extra things to it, but it's surprisingly nice on it's own.

New life to an old 70's footstool

I know many of you who love the vintage style would like this original orange footstool which I picked up at a garage sale for $2.

 

However, for me I felt the urge to paint and recover it so that it would fit in with my decor which is definately not orange!!

Here were my results.

 Now I can sit im our tub chairs with a cuppa and magazine in hand and put my feet up!

For some inspiration and fun I will be joining the following: