Mother's Day came early this year!

I have wanted a food processor for so long! I have had stick mixers with varying attachments but I've never actually had a food processor. I'm in love! I've already used to to make orange juice, grate cheese and slice beef for dinner. (We are having enchiladas) it did such a wonderful job! Beats chopping it all myself!

Toddler resilience amazes me

The resilience of my toddler constantly amazes me. We have struggled to bring his temperature down below 38degC for the last day and a half not to mention being up since 3:30am first with temperature then he was protesting sleep as he was feeling unwell, I assume... Or maybe he just didn't feel like sleeping... But come 7am with his temperature normal, a spot of breakfast and a doctors appointment booked he is running around like nothing's wrong! He even brought me his boots to go outside! Wonder if it will last...

Update... Two types of antibiotics, one for chest infection and other for a clostridium infection... No wonder he was miserable!

FIFO a lifestyle of extremes

My husband took on a FIFO job a few months ago. Even after a few months I'm not sure what I really think of the lifestyle. It has been made harder or easier, depending on how I look at it, by the fact that I'm still attempting to work part time. Harder because there is so much more for me to do and less downtime but also easier because I don't have time to dwell on his absence. What I can conclude though is that it is a lifestyle of extremes. Huge highs when we are all home together for the longer periods of time, especially when my husband and boy get to spend so much more quality time together, and lows when the boy and I are sick and someone to look after us both would have been awesome.

So far I think the positives have outweighed the negatives but the jury is still out...

Autumn colours

It's really starting to look like autumn here. I love the colours and this tree in our backyard is simply stunning.

Fig jam

I'm lucky to live in an area where I can buy my produce direct from the grower. At the orange food week markets on cook park yesterday I bought a tray of figs. I put plenty aside for eating fresh but also managed to have enough for a batch of fig jam. My husband loves fig jam. I don't think it will last long in this household!

If you are interested in making some fig jam, I used my general recipe of equal potions fruit to sugar, half a lemon for each 500g of fruit and I forgot the grated apple I would normally add for additional pectin. Oops!

I had it at a rolling boil for about 15mins but pulled it off a little early as I was worried about burning it (a little bit had got stuck to the bottom and was starting to give a burning smell. So it's a little more runny than I'd like but still very tasty and will disappear fast!

Fog rolling in

I initially thought that the fog was lifting but was very intrigued to watch this morning that as it became light the fog was actually rolling in! So still and beautiful! Autumn is simply stunning.

Spring creek reservoir

Spring creek reservoir, the view out my kitchen window, was especially beautiful tonight! Unfortunately they can be seen in the photo but on the far shore was a flock of pelicans! They must be really lost to be this far west!

Novelty duck potato

We gave some potatoes from our garden to some good friends and their son found this potato in the shape of a duck! The photo was taken by my sister-in-law. We can't believe how much it looks like a rubber duckie!

He loves them!

I managed to finish a few last night, success! He loves them. Stacking and rearranging...

Fabric memory game

I've had this project in my head for a while now... My boy loves spotting animals on pages of books, we live on a small farm so he watches the animals everywhere and he adores the animal finger puppets his Nanny (grandmother) made him so I wanted to have a version of a memory game for him. He is a bit young yet for the memory bit but I think he will love matching them up! He is also a bit young for cards, I think he would just eat them!!! So I've decided to make the cards out of fabric using a "cheat" fabric panel. I couldn't believe the trouble I had finding suitable fabric! In the end I settled on the At the farm range by Lesley Grainger and I love it! The squares are a bit bigger than I envisioned but that has advantages too! The fabric turned up and I was estatic, it's just what I needed and the boy already loves it! he took one look at it and started pointing at the animals! I cut some fabric squares and he sat on the floor looking at each one, handing them to me to make the animal sound then taking it back and looking at then again! Here's hoping he will like them even more when they are done! I went through my stash and have decided to back them in the purple corduroy... Hopefully the brightness will work!