Goodness . . . where has this last week gone? I thought I had better let you know I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth . . . I've just been busy with school holiday time and with also having Stuart on holidays as well - my whole routine has gone totally out the window! *grin*
Good news though - I have been making great progress on cooking up my 'Granny Smith' apples and getting them in the freezer, although I still have a number to go! Oh and I've been trying out a number of 'Apple' recipes as well. Here's a pic of some very yummy 'Apple Slice' that I made - mmm - it was really yummy heated up with a serving of ice-cream for a dessert too - *grin*
Oh - and we had some very yummy Roast Pork the other night too that I served with 'Apple Sauce' (basically just stewed up apples that have been pureed) BUT with only James and I liking apple with our pork, I don't think I'm really going to use a lot of them as 'Apple Sauce' . . . oh well!
Along with all the activity in the kitchen, there's also been much happening out in the garden as well. With the recent, long hot summer and with only being on tank water, my roses have suffered terribly BUT with the recent cooler weather and a little sprinkling of rain here and there, they are now trying to shoot - YAY - they didn't all die on me . . . 2 of my older ones did . . . 'insert sad face' . . . oh well . . . I hope to replace them later on. Anyway . . . I decided to get busy and give them all a prune, move a couple of them and give them a fertilize with a heap of the old poultry manure from my grandparents old poultry farm as well.
Did you know how hazardous moving roses can be though? I was moving one of my old roses (it's probably over 12 years old now) and one of the very old and woody thorns decided to spike me on my right under-forearm (about 3 and a half inches down from my wrist), and what you see in the photograph at left is the resulting bruise that appeared the next day! I still can't believe that just a rose thorn left a puncture mark and bruise like that . . . pretty nasty huh!
Anyway - I got on and finished the roses that very same day and spread all the 'old' poultry manure around under them and then later that night we had some lovely gentle rain . . . just perfect to wash all that fertilizer in! Now to wait and watch them hopefully burst into growth!
On the scrapping front, I finished off my version of the 'Boys Will Be Boys' Scrappitpack which you can see on the Scrappit site now or wait until tomorrow when I finish taking some close-up pics for you and share the page here - it's also got hidden photos which I'll photograph as well so that you can see how the whole page works.
Also . . . now that the *new* Scrappit Design Team has been decided, the 2008 Design Team Challenge, inspired by Elise Flannigan's book - '52 Scrapbooking Challenges', that was being featuring in the Scrappit Newsletter, has returned and I thought I would share my contribution with you all.
We have picked up the challenge once again at Week 14 and this week it was to - 'Scraplift a Technique' - I chose to scraplift Helen Williams, from her book "The Art of Scrapbooking", where Helen demonstrates how to make Pom Pom Flowers from Fabric. I decided to feature 2 of them on this card and once I’d made the flowers and added a button for the flower centres, I then used white embroidery thread to hand stitch the stems, leaves & grass and then my watercolour pencils to add a little definition to the hand stitching!
And a little close-up pic too!
Cute huh? Just a circle of fabric with a hand sewn running stitch around the outside edge, then draw the threads together and tie them off, flatten out the 'pom pom' and then add a button or something similar to cover the raw ends in the centre! Loved you sharing the idea Helen - your card is so gorgeous too and I love the little square fabric flower as well - another great idea!
OK - I think I've probably bored you all enough for one post . . . I promise not to leave it so long next time - infact, I promise to be back tomorrow to share that Scrappitpack with you!
Until next time . . .