gold

A beautiful hand knitted scarf - I've already been wearing around the house despite the summer heat - I love it, it feels so soft and the colour is so vibrant

frankincense

Delicious polish fudge - there were lots more that didnt make it into the photo

myrrh

Just one of the lovely and extremely thoughtful little gifts sent to me by the wonderfully talented Claudia....I'll reveal one of the others when we finally decorate the tree over the weekend

...mine is making its way across the country to you as we speak.....


If you want to see more of the wonderful gifts people have made check out the flickr pool, or the backtack blog

A beautiful prize from moyou

A beautiful prize from moyou
Originally uploaded by redmag

This was a prize from the very talented Amy of moyou.

A pair of earings - red my favourite colour!! Cincidently my husband bought a pair of these as an Xmas prezzie for someone (sadly not me) a few days before this package arrived......
Some of her very own fabric range which I love. I think I'm going to have to buy some more - I particularly love the grey concentric circles one in the front.

You can check out her etsy store here....and a new Australian store in AUD for those of us not blessed with harder currencies.

My first quilt

My first quilt
Originally uploaded by redmag

...and it's nearly done - while it's not perfect ( certainly not square and a few wonky things here and there - I'm telling myself that they add charm)...but it turned out better than I'd hoped which is good because its a gift for someone its it's rather poor form to hand over a complete mess.

It's mostly hand done - my sewing machine seems to be possessed and has developed a taste of fabric so I figured it might be easier to go slowly by hand...its made from a mixture of new and some recovered bits of fabric - the backing which you cant see is from an Ikea sheet set, the green panels are from a tea towel I found in an op shop which must have been a souvenir from a gardening magazine earlier this year - I loved the colour and the pattern and couldn’t resist slotting in the year (not sure if that is a bit too cheesy interested in your thoughts)

I also used that marshmallow type wadding you get in craft stores and it's given the whole thing a cushiony type look that I'm not 100% happy with - I'd love to here what other people use for in-between layer that gives flatter smoother results.

Either way I'm proud of my little effort and it has spurred me on to get to work on the previous quilting project which didn’t make it much past the initial thought stage.....a quilt for our next child due in February. This is the planned design...read more here.

Anyway back off outside to enjoy beautiful - hot- spring sunshine, admittedly from my rocking chair in the shade. Hope your weekend is great!

Duck Duck the Pelican

Duck Duck the Pelican
Originally uploaded by redmag

We picked this little guy up over the weekend in a junk store....pelican proved too difficult to say so he's been named "Duck duck". He's quite a remarkable little fellow - his head bobbles back and forward as you pull him along and his mouth snaps open and closed as the wheels spin.

Broadbeans and strawberries

Broadbeans and strawberries
Originally uploaded by redmag

We've been away.....and while I had grand plans to blog from the road, those of you who stopped by in the last week or so will notice that I just didn’t manage to......must stop overestimating my organisational powers.

There were more broad beans and two little strawberries....in the garden to show you. This time I made broad bean and pea risotto - it didn’t "show" the broad beans off in quite the same way that the pasta dish I shared with you last time....but if you're a risotto fan this will definitely hit the spot....I just ate the strawberries....there were small and delicious.....and made me realise I really do hate those monstrous bland ones you get at the shops.

Broad bean and Pea Risotto Recipe
(Also adapted from the Green River Cafe Cookbook - those ladies love their broad beans!)

100g butter
Fresh Boradbeans (I used about 300g once podded or ~600g before podding)
Equal amount of peas - i used frozen because we didnt have any fresh ones
Handful of shopped fresh parsley
2 litres of Chicken Stock
One small chopped onion
300g of aborio rice
100g of Parmesan - freshly grated
Cracked pepper

Bring the stock to a simmer. Pop the butter in a heavy bottom pan, make sure that its going to be bring enough for the risotto, and melt slowly. Gently fry the onion in the butter until soft and starting to colour. Add the rice to the butter and onion and stir until the rice if coated with butter. When the rice begins to turn opaque add a ladle of the stock. Stir continuously (I enlisted the help other others and plied them with liquor to make the time pass more quickly). Add a new ladle of stock once the previous one has been absorbed by the rice. When the stock is down to the last ladle or so add the broadbeans and peas to it - this is just to heat them through.

When the rice is al dente - add the peas and beans and take off the heat. Now stir through the parmesan and parsley. Add cracked pepper to taste if you like - there shouldnt be a need to add salt because stock is pretty salty and serve.