In my mailbox

I've been trying to restrict my blogging this week. Assignments to do and children to mother and all that...

But I've nearly finished this work I'm doing, the babies are sleeping, and I had to share this giveaway prize that arrived in my letterbox yesterday.

It's from sister outlaws and how cool is that? Packaging the whole thing in a real pocket. Love it!

This is what's inside:

It's a terrific idea and I look forward to pulling all the bits out and having a go when I get a moment. I have to confess (and it does feel like a real 'confession' on a crafty blog like this) that I have a serious, intense, complete dislike of buttons (stems from a young age) so might have to figure something else out there.

This is what it may look like when it's done (just without the button, of course).

And I finally saw Julie & Julia a week or so ago, and combined with the fresh eggs from our lovely chickens that I haven't mentioned much lately, and because I don't have a Julia Child cookbook (yet, I've put my order in for Mother's Day) I've referred to my quite posh Delia Smith cookbook and am working on making the perfect poached egg.

Yum. I used to be a solid yolk person, but I'm definitely converted to the deliciousness of a soft yolk now. Superb.

Egg Couture

Now that we have our own BRILLIANT egg-laying chickens in our own backyard (feeling very rural now), there is the concept of how to store said eggs between laying and eating...

As my friends and family know, I'm a sucker for good packaging (and like to reward clever marketing... or I just like to shop for quirky things... best not to read too much into it really).

Getting to the point - have you checked out the variety of egg cartons available now? I love this black carton that holds nine eggs (they were yummy, but not quite as good as ours) and it will now be the storage container of choice for our eggs. It's neat, blends into the counter top, and holding only 9, will encourage brisk rotation of said eggs so they won't need to go in the fridge.

And it's much better than the daggy old Coles one we were using.

Who is it that said to 'have nothing in your house that isn't either beautiful or useful'?

It's a small thing, but it's making me happy today.

A birthday and a chook shed in action

This is what the birthday painting ended up like. The dress was Jacinta's valedictory dress, made for her by her amazing mother. Her mum made a lot of her clothes, but this was an extra special one, and Jac wore it a few more times while we were at uni. It was so heavily boned she sometimes couldn't quite sit up on a couch. This dress brings back so many lovely memories of our friendship all those years ago.

This is us now. A lot more black going on. Hopefully we'll be back in gold again by the time the 50ths roll around.

And look at Jacinta's amazing blue eyes. She's just gorgeous.

On a totally different note, here's S checking out the roosting box in the new chook shed.

Here it is. All ready to go.

And here are the chooks. Patiently waiting for their check in time. One got so excited she laid an egg, which was carefully washed by young J, and then fatefully dropped, just in front of the sink. So egg number 2 will be our egg number 1. That's how he's figured it anyway. It's all very exciting.

No more art or craft to report. Made chocolate cupcakes and have covered school books, but that will be all until school goes back on Wednesday. And then the year can really start!

The Chookshed

I haven't spent much time on the computer this week, but because I have had so many lovely friends ring and check that I'm getting by with such little sleep, I thought I'd better check in. We're having some success with daytime sleeps at the moment, they're not long, but they're not on my lap. We've also just realised that the little one has 3 teeth coming down at the top, so that may account for some issues. The bigger one is just being two I think.Anyway, we're all ok for now.

The pic above is inside the current work in progress - the Glenn Whitton Memorial Chookshed (below). Of course, as it's built by David, it's the taj mahal of chook accommodation, and we're looking forward to spending less on eggs (we're going through so many at the moment!). It still needs to be painted, and he's down there now doing some extra things so that I can do the painting.
Speaking of painting, we're off to a dear friend's 40th this Saturday and I've done her a painting. I can't show it yet because I don't want to spoil any surprises, so here is a teaser. I'll post the finished work next week.


That's it for now. Next week is back-to-school prep, so if I'm not here much, don't worry. Normal transmission will return soon.