Marching on...

It's been one of those great weekends, where the weather has played nicely and you get heaps of things done.

We are now down to one tomato plant.  Right now, I kind of think, that if I never see another tomato then I'll be happy lol.  I have even more tomato sauce on the go and even tomato soup.  Lyall has a huge bag of tomatoes to take into his work tomorrow and my workmates and the kids have had enough of them as well.  Yes, I did plant five plants, but I didn't think that was excessive!  Just a good fruiting year I guess, and hey, when they are in short supply in winter and are nine dollars a kilo, well then, I'll be happy with all my stash :-)

We have a garage attached to the house (internal garage) and a stand alone one.  The stand alone one is getting the big clean out, so it's good to get that out of the way.  I told Lyall to leave a wee space in  in case we get a big dump of snow this year and I need to put the chooks in there.  Yep, he's real happy about that ;-)

Well, here's the finished layout from that sneak peak last week.

Just one more layout to go, to finish the album that this one's going in.  Then I'll send it off with my cousin (whose down Easter weekend).  She can give it to her Dad, and his brothers, so that they can add their stories to the journaling. 

The last layout to do, means I'll get to use my new splatter brush.  I added it to an order that Brenda put in for an American shop, and a certain person keeps asking me if I've used it yet...aye Brendy LOL.  I haven't brought much these last few months, I have way too much stash and it needs to be used.  But sometimes a girls just got to have something new.  Especially if it's a tool.  I don't often get wowed by new paper ranges...but I am rather partial to new tools lol.  What about you?  What do you find hard to resist in the scrapping world?

As much as I'd love to sit here and waffle on, it doesn't get much else done, does it!  Have a great week everyone.

Update that blog!

I may be forty something, but my Dad still growls me for not keeping my blog up to date LOL.

So there's a half done layout on my desk, lots of fussy cutting and a bit of texture paste and ink happening.  Here's how one little corner looks so far.

I took my camera and headed off to my front yard, thought I'd take a few photos of what's going on outside my door right now.  Here's a touch of life on the farm...

 This is Digby, one of Kunekune boys.  You can see he has tusks now and they'll only keep getting bigger as they get older.  Both boys sit when they see you, they've been taught to sit to get fed, so just like a dog they sit in the hope you might give them some food...

 This is Fergus.  He isn't as cute looking as Digby, but he has far better manners!  Both boys love a belly scratch and will lie down for this to be done, and make little grunting noises - I guess it's kind of like a massage in their world :-)  Fegus will also whack himself against their plastic water trough to get splashed when it's hot, which is his subtle way of telling you to get the hose out and squirt him.  Clever animals.

These are two of the dribbly yearlings.  They've been enjoying the salt lick on the gate, hence the big dribble flying out of his mouth!

And last but not least, the dogs.  When I looked through the photos I found I had one of photo of each of them with their tongues out, so thought I'd show  you that :-)

Thanks to all of you who have shared tomato recipes, that was much appreciated.  I decided to do Dianne's one as it had ingredients that I pretty much had on hand and sounded like it was something we would use.  My colleagues at work, along with the kids,  have been getting tomatoes every few days as we come to the last week or two of what's left on the vine.  One of the parents has been bringing in courgettes, so they've featured a bit in our meals.  Love the abundance of fresh produce that these warmer months bring.

I supposed I really should get on and finish that layout...so have a great week everyone.

And this week

I do love my vege garden.  I love tomato sauce even more :-)  So each year, a few tomato plants go in, produce prolific amounts of tomatoes and then they get turned into tomato sauce.  That's something I did last week...and that's something I did today.  With quite a few tomatoes still to ripen, I'm going to have to do a bit of a search to see how else I can use them.  I'm after a good pasta sauce, preferably one that I can freeze, if anybody has one to share.

And yes, those are strawberries.  Hard to believe that in March there are still lots of strawberries coming through, and by golly they taste great!  It's a bit of a race to see if you can get them before the birds do, but at least if the birds start on some, I get to throw the other bit to the chickens for a bit of a treat, and they rather like that.

Did you know you can grow cats alongside silverbeet?  My one's looking pretty healthy, but I think I'll leave her to grow a bit longer, then bring her inside over winter ;-)  More of a case of 'where you are Mum I must be.'  In true cat style, she is rather curious, and of course doesn't want to miss out on exciting stuff like weeding or collecting tomatoes...

Here's another layout done and dusted.  This is my Nana looking very young and gorgeous, and that's her oldest son, my Uncle Colin, in the pram. He's now in his early seventies.

Well while the tomato sauce is bubbling away, I'd better get on and get a certain something made as requested by a couple of friends.  Sounds very mysterious aye LOL, but most of you who read this will know what I mean and who it's for :-)

Have a great week.

March is here....

Driving around today, I really noticed the leaves changing colour, autumn is certainly here.  I wonder what this winter will bring?  Heidi if your reading this, can you ask Mitchell?  Heidi's son Mitchell has been spot on with his winter weather predictions for the last couple of year, so his guess is just as good as Metservice :-)

This morning we headed down to the beach and gave the dogs a good run...then they came home had a bath and crashed.  Just like kids, the beach tuckers them out.

While we were there, three Labradors arrived with one owner, and then another with his owner.  They hadn't met before, but you'd never know it.  They had the best time and looked so cool, as they were all chocolate labs.

I've been mucking about in my scraproom.  Still using those supplies that have sat there, looking pretty, but not being used.  You know, those things like stamps, sequins, and the odd flower.  This layout is of my Mum as a baby, with her Dad, my Grandad.

Have also been working away, filing photos of my nephew into a pocket scrapbooking album - all those photos that I'll never get around to scrapbooking for a whole variety of reasons.  So it's good to have that underway.

Have a great week everyone.