There is has been a decided temperature drop around here lately. It's got suddenly very cold last week and it's been a bit of a struggle to adjust. I went from cardigans to winter coat and scarf in about a week! On the bright side though, there has been a string of my very favourite kind of days, bright clear blue skies, with the sun shining. Perfect!
The tree outside our windows is still holding on to the last of its leaves, and has turned a beautiful golden colour which is really nice to gaze out on.
Despite the cold weather my little plant experiment seems to be working quite well. Everything is still alive, and they are all definitely growing - in fact it might even be time to start using the parsley before it completely smothers the thyme! I think that I am also doing well enough that I might be able to get some more plants... up next a dwarf lemon, and some mint.
Over the weekend I made a lot of progress with the placemats. I've now sewn all the strips together into "placemats" and I've trimmed them down to size. Well, kind of..... I actually managed to trim 3 of them SMALLER than what they are meant to be - I guess that's what happens when you're trying to watch Masterchef and trim at the same time!
To add insult to injury I also managed to cut my finger on my rotary cutter! I've never done that before, not in years and years of quilting! I'd (stupidly) locked the blade open while I repositioned something on my cutting board, and then as I went to pick it up, I pushed a finger against the open blade! whoops! Anyway, Sir Pinkying got me a band aid and I finished cutting!
Moving on to my sneak peek - don't you love it when a squashy package arrives in the mail? Even better if the package is really STUFFED full. That's what happened to me today - and here are the spoils
This is 'Far Far Away II' by Heather Ross for Kokka fabrics. It's a beautiful blend of linen and cotton and features some gorgeous designs from all your favourite fairy tales
Sleeping Beauty
The Owl and the Pussycat
Rapunzel - just gorgeous! I can't wait to get started. It's going to be used together with a pattern from this book - which also recently arrived by post!
I can't wait to get started, but I will finish the placemats first. I need to try to focus on finishing one project before starting another!
So, unless you don't read the paper or perhaps you've been on a remote island of some kind, most of you would know that yesterday (April 29th) Prince William of Wales married Catherine Middleton.
No matter which side of the republican debate you're on, I think we can all agree that the English Royal family really do know how to "do" pomp and ceremony! I have to admit that I was quite excited about the wedding, I remember when I was little that Mum would talk about watching Princess Diana's wedding, so I thought this would be my chance. Even better, the timing of the wedding meant that it fell in prime time TV viewing here in Australia.
Now Sir Pinkying is fairly tolerant when it comes to watching an assortment of shows that he isn't interested in, but I knew that 3 or more hours of royal wedding was a little extreme! I also wanted for us to be able to have a mildly English feeling to the meal, so I decided on a menu:
Roast Beef with gravy (and I NEVER make gravy), Yorkshire Puddings (that I've never made before) and Vegetables with a dessert of Apple Crumble.
I came home from work and figured out the timing of everything - hard to do when you have to take into account things like "7.51pm - the bride leaves for the church"! I was most nervous about the Yorkshire Puddings, I've never made them before and I was led to believe that they're easy to get wrong.
On the advice of my sister I used the Jamie Oliver recipe from his book "The Ministry of Food" (I also did his roast beef and gravy recipes from the same book). The instructions were very clear that you're NOT to open the oven door while they are cooking but I managed to snap this shot as I opened the door to get them out
I'm so happy that they worked! They were crisp on the outside and warm and soft in the middle - just like Jamie said they should be. I had to rest the roast for 30 minutes, and it was quite cool here last night - so a double layer of foil and a tea towel helped keep it all warm.
I don't think I've ever cooked roast beef before (pork, chicken and lamb: yes, beef: no) so very happy that the Jamie recipe made it perfectly medium.
Needless to say Sir Pinkying was very satisfied with his meal, and this morning reading some of the wedding coverage - what do I see on the menu at the royal wedding reception? Roast Beef, with Yorkshire Puddings! It really was a meal fit for a prince.
Last up was a small apple crumble from a "secret" family recipe.
The wedding was great fun to watch, complete with texts from a very special person who was my "royal correspondent" on the Mall in London. My highlights from the coverage were the carriage procession after the ceremony, the balcony appearance, and the sight of dozens of members of the royal family packed into "mini coaches" to travel to the palace!
My absolute favourite though was something I only saw this morning - William and Catherine driving from Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin decked out by brother Harry in bunting and ballons
