White Wednesday

Today I'm joining White Wednesday at Faded Charms.

 Can you ever beat a beautfully handmade heirloom Christening Gown.  This is one of many I make in soft white voile

I am having tea with Sandi and friends at Rose Chintz Cottage today

Tea and scones today on pretty pink rose patterned china with tea in Australian Westminster tennis cup and saucers

Around the garden today

A Cherub in a teapot

The daisies are blooming everywhere

My favourite cherubs

I am not sure that I agree with this sign my family bought for me, well not the 24hours anyway

I just love cherubs and angels.  I have so many inside and outside our home.

Our home named after Queen Victoria's holiday home in the Isle of White

and the Ships Captain that built his home near where we live,out of materials he brought from his home in England in the 1800's.  He named his new home Osborne House. 

 A Victorian Lady sits in the shade of the bird bath

A little cherub hides amongst the ferns

A Golden Angel waiting for the sweet peas to growThe first of our daffodils and narcissi

Three little cherubs all ready to hold a lighted candle amongst the daisies

A welcome sign on a little blue bucket

The sunroom

Our sunroom wall has now been replaced with a real one as the last wall was corrogated iron.  The colour is November Sky, I think it is so pretty and restful.  The rest of the room is Anne-Marie, which is a pretty sunny yellow

Miss Daisy claims her seat.

country roses for sale

English Roses by Australian Westminster, sandwich plate very good condition $9.95  Country Roses by Royal Albert, saucer $9.95

New items for sale from my shop, http://vintagetreasuresbyjeanetteann.bigcartel.com/

The best custard tarts like Lionel loves on As Time Goes By

Short crust sweet pastry ( the frozen kind is fine)
I use a buttery home made one

Custard
600mls cream
400mls full cream milk
4 large eggs or 5 small ones
teaspoon of vanilla extract
a sprinkle of nutmeg and pinch of butter for the tops
Beat together until well mixed.

Line the ungreased foil pie shells with the rolled out pastry(don't grease them otherwise the pastry will rise through the custard)
Pour in the mixed custard and sprinkle with nutmeg and a little pinch of butter
bake in a moderate oven until set

one of my favourite sets

This is one of my favourite treasures, a little English tea set called Tuscan, isn't the knob in the teapot cute?

my pink saturday post for Charlie the little boy who is so brave

I thank God every day for his blessings, I know he will help Charlie overcome this major hurdle in his life as he has helped me through many.

I have joined pink Saturday today to raise much needed money for children with cancer. May God bless them all xx

The Azalia is starting to give us it's usual delightful display

Wall Plates




assortment of plates, blue being my favourite
but I can't resist anything with little cottages either

 

I really like plates displayed on walls, especially if they are on racks like the ones pictured.
 I am always looking for a space around  my home to hang more.  I was thinking about displaying my collection of bread and butter plates around the bedroom wall, or maybe along the hallway, hmmm I must be getting that restless Spring feeling when you get the urge to clean and change everything around.

The house next door has been sold to an investor, and he is renovating it beautifully back to original ( It and ours which are attatched are circa 1910) He is putting on a modern back extension, which seems to be the in thing at the moment.

The extension will be on the boundry, which means our sunroom wall has had to come down and replaced with a fire wall.  Soooo a good excuse to paint and change the sunroom a little.  Now back to plates, I even thought of a dresser full in there or more on the walls.

Now I am getting carried away.  Next post will be the new look sunroom.

More roses and teacups

when the garden is not producing the real thing, why not enjoy the silk variety, almost as nice.

Another of my favourite teacups, Canterbury by Royal Albert

Tea and scones on vintage china, what could be nicer?

Tea for one in my little rose patterned teapot

One of my favourite roses, I don't know it's name but it flowers all year round by my front gate.

A mismatched teacup with the sweet scent of soy. I take it into my bathroom when I want a nice relaxing soak, aaaaah lovely

When the sun shines

Today the sun came out, it was lovely for a few hours, so I set morning tea in the garden. I  Had to use some pretty vintage china of cause, including the Royal Albert mismatched blue cup and saucer I picked up for $4, and in perfect condition. 

Market Day on Saturday again

Biscuits baked, sampled and into their jars ready for the Market on Saturday.  Just got to make the melting moments and scones.  At least it warms the kitchen, and me.

walnut,choc chip,cherry, fruit and nut, almond and ginger and date.

If anyone would like the recipe. please email me or to purchase some ready baked.  The cost is 6 for $5 plus postage

Thinking of spring

I am so cold, it has been less than 14deg for a week.  I am dreaming of Spring and lovely quiet times sitting in the garden, with the hibiscus in bloom, a comfy cushion at my back and a really nice pile of my favourite magazines.

Don't run for your magnifying glass when you see this

This is the start of something big,  A CAULIFLOWER,  yes, don't laugh ,we all started life as a speck.  My veggies aren't doing too badly seeing as I've covered them with wire, as last year the pigeons got my broccoli and cauli, at least I got one.  They are not getting these babies, I'm going to make sure of that.  The caterpillars seem to have hatched again on my chard and asian greens, but I go out there everyday and pick them off and squash them.  I missed one the other day and made a salad, and even though I washed them well in vinegar water, it ended up on hubbies plate, yuk, it put me off my dinner, but it didn't bother him (hubby) not the caterpillar.

Easy Tuna Pie & the start of lime marmalade

This pie is so quick and easy and kids love it. 

I only remembered to take a photo after we had dug into it

Drain a large can of tuna and place into a casserole dish, cover with the contents of a can of spaghetti in tomato sauce.  Boil about 4 medium potatoes and roast half of a medium butternut pumpkin.  Mash them together with a handful of grated cheese and some milk.  Spread the mash over the spaghetti and top with more grated cheese.  Bake in the oven until golden.

I served it with coleslaw and cauliflower cheese.

 I was given a bag full of limes from a friend, the skins are yellow because they were on the tree a little longer than they should have been.  I was told that's what happens to them, but the flesh is pale green.  I couldn't bare to waste them, as they sat in the fruit bowl for two weeks before I managed to get around to cutting them up.

 This lovely fruit mixed with a couple of lemons is now soaking overnight.  Tomorrow I will boil them up with some sugar and bottle it.  I will show you the finished marmalade in my next post.

Lace rosettes

I don't know whether I will ever be able to use up all the lace and fabric I have in my stash, but I made these rosettes from some of the lace. 
I sewed a piece of felt onto the back and stitched a brooch pin onto this.

It didn't use up very much lace, so now thinking cap on to use up more.

MY BOOK IS NOW PUBLISHED

You can now order my book online at link below  Price is $9.97
Author website link http://sbpra.com/jeanetteodonnell   also available from http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Cheese & potatoe pie

Pulled this old recipe out of my notes the other day, as I was running out of ideas to feed my grandchildren when they came for their once a week dinner.  They polished off the lot.  I thought you might like to share too.

One puff pastry sheet
good quantity of new potatoes, cooked in their jackets (just underdone)
2 eggs mixed with 4 tablespoons of cream and salt and pepper

1 egg yolk ( I mixed the leftover white with the 2 eggs above) mixed with a little milk for glazing the pie

quantity of mixed grated cheese and salt and pepper
Grease a pie dish, layer the potatoes and cheese finishing with a layer of potatoes.
Pour egg mixture over the top
Cut pastry into 8 rectangles, and then corner to corner to make16 triangles. 
Lie them over the top of the pie so that the points are towards the centre, overlapping them until the whole pie is covered.
Glaze with the egg wash and bake in a moderate oven for 30-40minutes

Market Day

We had a lovely successful day at the market today, almost sold out of all our baked goodies

VINTAGE LACE

Going through my vintage fabric stash today, I came across a piece of a vintage petticoat I had forgotten about.  You know how you buy these items with a particular project in mind to make from it, but the idea long forgotten.  Well this is one of those, so what do I do with it?

Maybe a Christening Gown, although I have a wardrobe full of those.  Maybe a pillow sham, I have really lots of those too.   Soooo what to do with it, hmmmm, Any ideas out there pleeeeese?

My book is almost here

Well after what seems to be an awful long wait, my book is almost here.  I received the proof of the cover today and I just love it.  What do you think?  Now I have approved it, it will be off to the printers. 

sewing for our market stall

Spent a nice morning finishing off some goodies for our market stall.  Biscuits, cup cakes, a smocked dress and this pretty sewing chatlaine made from vintage fabric and finished off with embroidered bullion roses.  I love pink and especially candy stripe.
The market is this Saturday, 10-4pm at masonic hall, Semaphore Road, Semaphore