Everything That Sparkles & Shines

Lately I have somehow developed a love of chandeliers and everything that sparkles and shines.  I picked up these two chandeliers for $40 each, cleaned them, got the wiring checked and had them installed.  I love them and wonder why anyone would not want to have them hanging proudly in their homes.  

This one is a three arm crystal chandelier.

  

This one, may be not everyone's cup of tea but I think it is rather special.  I think it is a Venini Mazzega Murano Glass, Fire and Ice Chandelier.  I did a little searching and found the exact hook on pieces on ebay selling for $950.  If that is the case well I certainly got a bargain.

Lastly a delightful jeweled lizard that my daughter gave me for Mothers Day, I think it is gorgeous.

Have a great day

Shirley :)

In My Kitchen

Following Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial I will add a monthly post 
"In My Kitchen" allowing others to view what is going on in my kitchen. Here is the link to her great blog.www.figjamandlimecordial.com 

I just love old pottery, the old fashioned hand thrown salt glazed Bendigo range.  It is a pleasure to use.  Here are a few of my favourite pieces.

This is a beautiful old casserole dish, I also have the Bendigo Pottery book which gives details of the potters who worked at the pottery, each piece is initialed so you know which potter created it.

Isn't this old teapot divine! 

This very old bread crock would have to be my favourite piece, ancient, rarely seen, great for storing not only bread but potatoes and onions keep well in it too. 

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my favourites in the kitchen.

Enjoy your day:)

Shirley

New Arrivals

A photo of our new arrivals, one week old, so cute :)

I can't believe how quickly they have grown in a week.

We are having the most beautiful weather here at the moment.

Enjoy your weekend.

Shirley :)

Snaps in the Garden

Here are a few snaps of what is going on in our garden over the Easter Break.

After purchasing a delicious red pawpaw, I planted the seeds, today I transplanted many of them into small pots ready for spring planting.

 A trombone pumpkin maturing on the vine.

 The vegie garden getting a re-vamp ready for winter planting.

Removing worm castings to add to the vegie patches.

 An Ice Cream Bean tree, the rains over the summer months have really helped this look the healthiest it has looked in years and it is providing great shade.

 An old bath tub filled with water chestnuts ready for harvest, we will add these to stir-fries for the extra crunch, this is the best harvest we have ever grown.

Enjoy the remainder of your Easter break.

Cheers Shirley :)

Energy Bars

This is a delicious healthy recipe, I used to make it a long time ago, you know how recipes get used over and over and then one decides to give them a break, well I came across it yesterday while looking through a much used recipe book and gave it another go.

4 Cups of Wholemeal Flour
3/4 cup sugar (I used raw)
1 Cup Non-fat dried milk powder
1/2 cup wheatgerm
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 cups water
3/4 cup polyunsaturated oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups raisins
1 1/4 cups dried apricots (chopped)
1 cup sunflower seeds.

It makes a huge cake, so use a very large bowl to mix your ingredients and to bake it in, I usually use a roasting tin lined with baking paper.

You can substitute different dried fruit if you wish.  This time I used raisins, cranberries, apricots and sunflower seeds.

Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  Pour into a lined and greased large baking tin and bake at 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 45 - 55 minutes.

Enjoy.

Cheers Shirley :)

Freshly Ground Wheat

For ages now I have wanted a Grain Mill, a couple of weeks ago one came up on ebay, hardly used, perfect and I missed it.  I was so disappointed.  I was having a look at the Skippy Grain Mills website and contacted them to see if they had any demo models or used mills for sale.  I got an email back later that day saying they had a demo model that had only had about an hours use that was for sale at quite a reduced price compared to a brand new one.

I thought about it for a few days and then decided to purchase it.  So here it is, like brand new, works wonderfully, I am very pleased with my purchase.

It has many settings from coarse to fine, I have ground some wheat into the most beautiful fine flour and made a couple of sourdough loaves.  They taste so much better than any bread purchased and I know we are getting all the goodness from whole grains.

Absolutely delicious and I know it has been made with the freshest of flour.

More baking on the weekend.

Cheers and have a great weekend.

Shirley.:)

Waking up to Horror!!!!!!!!!!

Over the last week I have been building up my sourdough starter, feeding it morning and evening and was planning to make a loaf this morning. So a weeks work is ruined and will have to be thrown away!

Well look what I woke up to this morning, I could not believe my eyes, the cloths that were covering it are in the bowl and there are signs of what has happened.

 Here is the first clue, can you believe it!!!!!!!!!!

 The tea towels are sitting on top of the sourdough and there are the calling cards of a rat.  

We have never had a rat in our house before, so now today's task is to clear out the pantry, repair the flyscreen in the window and make sure I have nothing that it can eat into and try to find the rat.  I am horrified.

Shirley :(