A sneak peak at my latest project...

Just been feeling the colder days and thinking what is it I'm going to make for our little craft shop for next season...we had a very successful time this year and plans are afoot to make it even better for next year!!! So now is the time to stock pile all that is to be sold next time round....Its the bit I like the best but coming up with the right items that people are going to buy is the big issue...sometimes you think people will love what ever it is you have made...and sure they look at it and ooo and arrr over it but they just don't buy it!!! then you wonder why...is the price to high...is it not well made enough...then you go no its none of that its just that they don't know what they are missing out on!!!
So watch this space over the next few months and see what it is I come up with

Laminated pages from old kids books Bunting!!

Heres the first project under way...I say these in a shop and thought thats doable and well with the local drapery closing down and the ribbon 1/2 price how could I resist....Its just so hard choosing which side of the book page to cut and also I sit and read the books and think its too cute to cut up...but on the other hand they are all cheap little garage sale finds and well I am reusing and recycling something that started its life out as a book and then became redundant...in the hope that it brings joy to some little chappie or chapess's(is that a word?) bedroom wall...XXX

Maybe I should re name my blog...seems it is a food blog any suggestions??

One of last weeks yummy dinners.....its a sweet and sour dish of deliciousness

Very successful pasta making with the Le Bons Bay school kids 

Drying while the pasta sauce was being made

Very happy children i tell you what the pot was clean at the end of it all!!!

Happy Girls

Todays effort I made 5oo grms of beautiful fresh butter from the cream off the top of our fresh milk that we are lucky enough to receive from a good friend up the hill....We are very fortunate that we trade with her for this white gold...

Bit of a messy process but well worth it

Check that out Yummy!!

The raw product

lots and lots of mozzarella yummy stretchy and  homemade..I checked out the price the other day...$10 or over for 250 grms...I made 500 grms today what a saving!!!

oops sorry the picture is upside down looks impressive though

Finished product

Left over in the process the whey which I send back up the hill for our pig they are feeding!!!

From Tomatoes to Landrovers.......

What I hear you say????

From This

to this...yummy cream of tomato soup I made today

And look we have upgraded!!!!!

The photos say it all

and further to my previous post here are the results........

The kids loved it, although their's was rather boring with brocolli and melted cheese...and as for ours pretty yum with a homemade tomato and vegetable sauce and lovely fresh proper butchery chippolatas!!
Then dessert that had been asked for nearly every night by little miss 10 this week finally made it much to here pleasure...as for me wow talk about stick your ribs together!!! But good all the same

Guess what? I am still here!!

Its been awhile..no excuses really...only for this last week as I have had the flu cold thing going on!!! Yuck it can go away and stay away thats for sure..

My new found pasta drying rack..formerly a basket hanging rack

Drying over a towel rail

Hopefully drying out not sticking together

the fun part

More fun

Just thought I would share with you my pasta making effort...well 2nd time around it worked!! I thought it was a simple process and did a bit of research and that but I really #*!%#!ed it up... Then reread the quantities and had put to much flour and though ok then I will add some more egg...but no after much kneading I had a very hard unpasta doughish piece of !!!!! I slammed that down on the bench(the kids weren't home at this stage) and good luck to the chickens as it ended up in their scrap bucket.. I could have given up but little mister 7 had requested it for dinner....so try number 2 did work once I followed the recipe...Still not as easy as it looks...I will share the photos of the more successful process...the rolling of the correct dough...anyway will let you know how it tastes with freshly made tomato sauce and pesto...all made right here at the lodge!!!

On a positive note!!!

Gosh how life goes on for some of us....I have felt over the past few weeks a bit helpless, useless and other feelings in between, but when you look at the positives in your life you realize that family and the life you have created is so important it all seems to carry on!!! I feel very lucky but satisfied that I have chosen the life I have and being semi self sufficient and having a very handy resourceful partner things seem to all pay off...sometimes it feels like hard work , but at the end of the day if Le Bons Bay was cut off from the rest of the world no one would starve around here!!!
I have been out to the garden and beyond today and have 4 kg of tomatoes picked,cucumbers, delicious raspberries and blackberries,had fresh milk delivered and been up to Mum and Dads where you can pick or eat a huge selection of fresh fruit and vege..LUCKY!!!!
My pantry cupboards and freezer are over flowing with food squirrled away for the winter...to date I have made

Le Bons Bay Lodges Bounty of the day

MMMMMMMM

Ricebubble slice and Belgium Slice

Camping girls in their new PJS

oops and the boy in new PJ s

Gorgeous girls

Biker boy Sammy

And Darcy

Cousins in heaven on the swings

Blackberries found on the roadside

Paula have a compulsory slow weekend

Wazza, Tessa and Na'uli

Carmen and Tessa

Apricot, blackberry, plum,and raspberry jams, I have made tomato pickle, marrow chutney, cucumber and pineapple pickle, Plum chutney., homemade tomato sauce, ratatouille  for the freezer, feta cheese from the fresh milk.I am yet to bottle pears and pickle beetroot...well once I have dealt with the latest 4 kg of tomatoes... But once again I feel very lucky we are in a position to do this stuff....
We had a pleasant but a little damp weekend away at the Glen Tunnel motor camp and were joined by Fran and Paula and the girls and visited by Carmen and Wazza and the kids on Saturday...All in all we had a fun weekend and for some reason came back feeling more tired than when we left...camping really needs to be for more than 2 nights for all the effort in getting ready packing and unpacking
Hope this finds you all fit and well and coping with the strains of the world at large!!!