Reflections

Dragonfly Metal Wall Art

Just look what we found on Ebay and that is now hanging on our kitchen wall!

It's probably not the best photo because there's a little bit of shadowing happening too but I'm sure you get the general idea!  Here's a close-up of one of the dragonflies so that you can see it in a little more detail!

It's got lovely Coppery & Gold highlights which is very similar in colour to another abstract metal wall art that we have hanging in the kitchen under our air conditioner.  I'd thought about getting another one for this smaller wall BUT we couldn't find anything that we liked or that was the right size - that was until we spotted this one!

Love it!  It's so much better than the other thing we had hanging on the wall - *grin*

Here's hoping you have a great day!

Shirley

Toyota Kluger

There's such exciting news in the Fyfe household!  We have a new addition to our family although not in the way you might first think!

Isn't she lovely?  She's an absolute dream to drive too!  We'd been thinking about getting a new car because our old Landcruiser was starting to show signs of age and with us enjoying travelling, we just didn't want to get caught out somewhere and find that it ends up starting to cost us big $$$'s.  So the end result was our lovely *new* little girl!

I also want to take this opportunity to wish my very dear Longford Crafters friend - Jan - a very Happy Birthday . . . here's hoping you have a wonderful day and the boys & I look forward to catching up for lunch tomorrow!

OK - we're off for a drive . . . *grin* . . . have a great day!

Shirley

Hedgehog & Ladybug Greeting Card

There is quite a bit of excitement in our household at the moment but I can't reveal exactly what it's all about just yet . . . let's just say that it's been a long time coming and something that we've looked forward to doing 'one day' - well, that time has finally arrived!

Stay tuned for an update on that later BUT in the meantime, I thought I would share a cute little Greeting Card that fellow Longford Crafter - Jan - showed us how to make last year - sorry it's taken me such a long time to get around to sharing it!

 

Isn't it cute!  It's got a simple stamped background which features stamped ladybugs & diasy flowers - the latter of which was highlighted with White & Gold Gel Pens.  The background was then matted onto black cardstock and then mounted onto a plain white greeting card.  The oversized white border on the card perfectly compliments the stamped white tag don't you think!

The white tag features a stamped Hedgehog & Ladybug which I've coloured with a little watered down ink . . . I could have used my Water Colour Pencis, but I hadn't taken them with me on the day that we made this!  None-the-less, I love how the colouring has come out - it's soft & subtle!  Here's a little close-up of the stamped image on the tag!

Thanks for sharing this fun idea for a Greeting Card Jan!  I'm not sure who is going to be the lucky recipient of it just yet but once that is decided, I'll add a greeting to the card front too!

Have a great day!

Shirley

SkyWatch Friday

Here's my weekly contribution to SkyWatch!

This photo was taken on our holiday to Tasmania in March 2011 and features the historic Wesley Church - now Uniting Church - which was built in 1885 in the township of Ross.  What a simply stunning piece of architecture this is!  Not to mention the actual township of Ross itself - there's history around every corner!

Back to my Church photo, I decided to have a little play around with the photo digitally to see what it looked like in black & white - what do you think?  I don't mind it actually - it certainly places emphasis on the detailed stone work!

I must admit I was very slack not getting around to sharing many of our favourite photos from our trip to Tasmania last year - believe me - there were a great many of them to sort through!  Would you believe I haven't even gotten them printed!  How slack is that!  I've definitely got it on my 'To Do List' for this year!  Stay tuned for me to start working my way through them all and sharing a few favourites too!

Have a great day!

Shirley

Birthday Cards - Kaszazz Stamps & Smooch!

The wind is blowing, the sun is hiding behind the clouds and the temperature is struggling to get into the 20's! Just where has our Summer gone?  I'm sure it will return again soon but it sure does seem strange to be reaching for the jackets & jumpers at the moment!  Yesterday was unbelievable - so windy, rainy & cold - looking outside you could have thought you were in the middle of winter!  Some areas in the mountains yesterday even had SNOW!

On a more brighter note, today I thought I would share a set of 3 Birthday Cards that I've made using two gorgeous Kaszazz Daisy Stamps that I've coloured with a product called Smooch!

The brown background is actually plain white cardstock that I've lightly inked before adding the stamped & decorated white panel to!

Smooch is a product which resembles a nail polish bottle.  After giving the bottle a little shake to ensure that the pearlised paint is nicely mixed, you unscrew the lid and use the brush like applicator to paint or decorate your project!

I love the combination of the Hot Pink, Yellow & Lime Green on these cards - I think they work so well together!

I can see that the few bottles of Smooch that I've invested in are going to last me some time too because you hardly use any colour to complete a project such as this - a little of it goes a long way!  I might just have to invest in a few other colours I think!

The checked ribbon was some I think I picked up in Spotlight - I simply took a length of it, tied the ends into a secure knot (you'll end up with a circle) before laying it on my project where I wanted the knot to be and then cutting it to size so that I could secure the ends at the back of my project!  Once I cut the finished ends into a 'v' (when I've completed my card) I also like to seal the edges with a little Dimensional Magic - it just stops the ribbon from fraying!

I'm thinking that colouring stamped images with Smooch would be a great travelling holiday project because you don't need to take many supplies with you, therefore they won't take up much room AND then when you return from your holiday, you'll have a heap of coloured images ready to get creative with!

So - there you have it - I love that I am replenishing my stockpile of cards - it's amazing how quickly the supply can dwindle down isn't it?

Have a great day!

Shirley

Wordless Wednesday

Monach Butterfly In Our Garden - Shirley Fyfe

Elegant Black & Cream Gift Box

Today I thought I would share this cute little gift box that I made using some Cream Polkadot Pattern Paper, Black Cardstock, Stampin Up Scallop Polkadot Ribbon and a cute little Poinsettia Button Charm!

I made the lid like I've made many a gift box lid - just type in gift box templates online and you'll be given a vest array to choose from - BUT before I secured each of the edges, I simply took my scallop punch and created the border you see above! As a tip, start your punching along the centre of each side and hopefully you'll end up with a relatively even scallop along your lid!

You might find when you are securing the corners that the pattern papers don't line up exactly, but I just took out my scissors and evened things up a little!

Don't you just love that Scallop Polkadot Ribbon from Stampiin Up!  It's just gorgeous!  I couldn't resist getting it in both the black & a Christmas red colour!  I'm a sucker indeed when it comes to good quality decorative ribbons!

The little Poinsettia Charm was a little button that I simply cut the loop off the back of and then glued all the pieces together before adhering it to my box with a couple of gluedots.  It was the perfect finishing touch I think!

Have a great day!

Shirley

Longford Crafters

Just a quick update to let all my Longford Crafters members know that their section of my blog has been updated with details of our first get together for 2012!

I also want to take this opportunity to wish one of our members - Kaye - a very Happy Birthday for today too!  I hope the day is filled with lots of special memories for you!

Here's hoping everyone has a great day!

Shirley

Blackberry Jelly

Another busy day in the kitchen . . . this time I tackled some surplus supplies in our freezer to try and make room for a meat delivery that arrived a little earlier than planned.  Now we've got a good supply of Pork & Lamb in the freezer AND we've got some yummy Blackberry Jelly in the pantry!  Mmm - yum!

Here's the recipe I used which was created from the Jelly making notes in my Perfect Preserves book!

Blackberry Jelly

• 1kg Blackberries (mine were frozen ones)
• the juice of 2 Lemons
• 2 cups Water
• 4 cups Sugar (see my note in the directions below)

Place the washed frozen blackberries, juice & water into a large pot and bring to the boil.  Simmer for about an hour until the fruit is very soft.  Mash the mixture with a potato masher, then strain through a jelly bag or muslin cloth for a few hours OR overnight - do not squeeze the fruit mixture because you'll end up with a cloudy jelly!

Measure the strained liquid and return to the heat.  You will need to add 1 cup of Sugar for every cup of liquid - I ended up with 1 litre (4 cups) of liquid, so therefore I needed 4 cups of Sugar.  You may need to adjust these quantities if you end up with more or less liquid than I did.  Stir the mixture over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved and then bring to a rapid boil.  Allow the mixture to rapidly boil until the setting point is reached, remove from heat, remove any scum from the surface, bottle, cover & allow to cool, then seal & store!

I can't wait to try some on some toast or a muffin in the morning!  Mmm - Yum!

I also got busy today and cooked up some Peach Syrup using the remaining Peaches that my co-worker Rosanna, had given us.  We're yet to taste test the end product BUT it sure does smell good!  I might serve some over ice-cream for dessert tomorrow night I think!  We'll see what the verdict is tomorrow!

Here's hoping you've had a great day!

Shirley

Tomato Sauce

Well - it's that time of the year again . . . time to cook up some more Tomato Sauce!

Last year we had an absolute bumper crop from our Tomato plants.  As a result, most of them ended up in the freezer so that I could use them in place of 'Tinned Tomato' in recipes like Spaghetti Bolognaise, Lasagne and so on throughout the course of the year AND also so that I could cook them up to make our own homemade Tomato Sauce!

This year, our Tomato plants are once again looking very healthy - the actual fruit is still mostly green because I was a little late in getting them planting BUT with harvesting probably only a couple of weeks away, I need to get busy and use up some more of last years crop from the freezer just incase I need to do a some freezing again this year!

So, today ended up being a day for cooking up a double batch of Tomato Sauce (clicking on the link will take you to a blog post that contains the recipe that I use) . . . the result of todays effort is 15 bottles of Tomato Sauce tucked away in the cupboard WITH still more frozen Tomato in the freezer would you believe!  Oh well - at least I've made a little more room in the freezer AND I still won't have to buy any Tomato Sauce!  I actually haven't had to buy any now for a little over 12 months!

In other news, we also got stuck into giving our Landcruiser a good cleanout. . . it's been a little neglected of late so now it's now had a nice once over and looks like someone does at least care for it!  Quite a productive day I think!

Here's hoping you had a great day!

Shirley