Up, down, round and round....

Well, since the 22nd the flood water has come up and the flood water has gone down.

I made some fig jam from the harvested figs (ok, I can hear some of you sniggering behind your hands so  just behave!).

I indulged in Booktopia's 9th birthday sale and bought $165 worth of books for $55, including postage. Oh there's an extra copy of "Love Notes" and "Sewing for Children" that I bought as gifts :).

I did an op-shop round looking for something else and found these. Leather upper and rubber sole for $3, barely used. Just what I need for wet days and Winter.

Another type of round. 

Now that she's finished moulting our oldest hen (9 year old Wyandotte) decided to let us know she was still worth her feed by gifting us with a large egg. She averages around 6 eggs/month but she makes it worth the effort! The comparison egg is from our first year layer.

Lol, why lay 2 eggs when you can put 2 yolks in the one container :D.

I bought these yesterday and of course the rain finally dried up today. Hmph, should have bought them a fortnight ago...grrrr. Ah well, I'll have them for the next rainy day.

To finish off for the week, and the month, there's the mystery box, which arrived on the same day as the box of books. I know the contents but it will be a mystery for the time being as to what I do with it in the next couple of weeks. Some of you may know from posts I've made on the DTE forum. Any guesses?

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Homemade healthy snacks

It's surprising how much energy a farm girl can burn up when she returns to school! Must be all those flights of stairs she has to traverse to go to and from classes. Her father has been buying packets of cream biscuits for her to take as snacks but they disappear as quick as yesterday's vege pie did and have much less nutrition.

The Down to Earth forum I am a member of has recipes for all sorts of healthy food and I found some homemade muesli bars that contain rolled oats, nuts, seeds, coconut and dried fruit held together with a can of condensed milk. OK, so the condensed skim milk has 60.9gm sugar, which is the equivalent of around 12 teaspoons of sugar, however, as a 250g packet of orange slice biscuits has 30.5g of sugar, about zero nutrition and little fibre it makes the muesli bars at around 900gm , full of fibre, vitamins, minerals and Omega 3 & 6, sound absolutely terrific even with the can of condensed milk in there!

I had to taste test one for breakfast and they are very yummy and very filling. I'll be good though and not be tempted too much as I don't know the kilojoule/calorie count on these :). The farm girl grabbed one for breakfast and ate it on the walk up the driveway to catch the bus. She likes them too.

Would you be tempted by these?

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Fabric and Food

Now that school holidays in NSW have finished, the weather is more temperate and I have more time to myself there's a few projects I want to do.

I've cut this out and hope to work on it today, and tomorrow if necessary, as I haven't tried this pattern before.

I'll make it almost to the instructions but I think I'll alternate the zipper directions or do half with the zip pulls at one end and half with them at the other to reduce bulk. I'm doing it with quilting cottons too and it bothers me that the pockets may not be strong enough to hold coins but if I line them with a plain fabric I come back to the bulk problem. I'll have to think on it a bit more.

This little pile is, hopefully, going to end up looking like one of these 

I love their tutorials and always have a little giggle when Jenny, of Missouri Star Quilt Co., says to press it "to the dark side" because of another tutorial she did.


Meanwhile, if I'm sewing, who cooks? Duh.... me of course, so I whipped up an easy vegetable impossible pie last night thinking I'd have something to munch on for a few days as the "meat and 3 veg" crew don't normally touch my rabbit food. I also had to find a way to use up some more of my zucchinis *wink*. Looks like the ever hungry female teenager has decided she likes vege pies too as she must have grabbed a slice for her school lunch today!

Ah well, at least she'll be healthy :D.

Cheers,

Robyn xo