Miracles Do Happen!

Boys rule in my family and in my husband's family!!

There is one girl on my husband's side and none on mine.

My mum and dad have 8 grandsons!!!! Until this week! The drought has broken folks!!! A girl has been born - the first one since 1968!

My younger brother and his wife had a gorgeous little girl this week making their family complete - 2 boys and now a girl.

That's it for our generation of the family now. I have an inkling that this little girl is going to be thoroughly spoilt. All I can say is - hope she likes pink!

Our family is just buzzing with the excitement of finally having a little pink bundle!. The only sad part about it is that they live in the States. We won't get to meet her until September. But we have the internet and digital photography which makes the miles seem shorter!

Hope everybody had a lovely Mothers' Day. I had beautiful cuddles and beautiful cards and gifts from the Mothers' Day stall at school which are the best! I had one little sick one who was up for most of the night with a high temperature and bad cough. But, hey, isn't that what mums are for!

I love how the boys give me their gifts - price labels and all!

Mothers' Day Stall

I know Mothers' Day was last week but just had to show you what I made for the School Mothers' Day Stall. It was a very successful day, we sold out of everything, which isn't bad considering we had made about 1200 items.

I made 32 of these wonderful purse organisers. I got my inspiration from The Giving Flower ages ago, and this is how I came across all of the blogging world. I changed the measurements a little bit and added some vintage buttons which I found at my local thrift store. My friend made all the Mothers' Day cards which I think made it all look a bit more professional. Although I did make these anonymously, I am getting lots of good feedback from the mums who got these as their Mothers' Day present. I must admit, I made one for me, in Amy Butler Sunbloom fabric - and it is just fantastic. It helps to keep my bag in order.

When Patchwork on Central Park were having their amazing sale a few months ago, I grabbed these fabrics at $5.00 a metre so we were able to keep our costs down. I am so in love with that shop and all the wonderful people who work there and of course the fabric. It is almost a 'cut lunch' trip for me to go there, so I try to organise it in advance, and then make the most of being on that side of town. I can spend hours in there soaking up the atmosphere and meeting lots of likeminded women. I must admit though, I do come away from there feeling a little discouraged. I realise that there are too many ideas and projects that I want to do, but by the time I can get round to doing them, something else even more wonderful and inspiring has been done, so then I end up not doing anything. Does anyone else have this problem? I was reading Tam's blog today and I can really relate to what she is talking about. Sometimes, I feel like my head is going to explode because there is just so much going on.

By the way, another good fabric store for cheaper quilting fabrics, dress fabrics, and fantastic buttons, ribbons and trims is Darn Cheap Fabrics. They are so helpful there and I always spend a way too much on fabric and notions that I just have to have. I read over at Meet Me At Mikes that Pip wanted good fabric shop tips. Well this really is a good one. I know it is in Melbourne - sorry to all you girls in Sydney - maybe you can come visit.

Pink Monday

Pink is such a lovely colour. I think it would have to be my favourite. Baking day today - pink meringues for Mothers' Day. I am baking for the Mothers' Day Stall at our school on Thursday. Pink Meringues sell so well - they are so easy to package and so easy to make.

Alot of people seem to have a fear of making meringues, I used to as well, until I found this fantastic recipe, now if you promise not to tell my secret I will pass on the recipe -

2 large egg whites
1 and half cups of castor sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon brown malt vinegar
pinch of Cream of Tartar


Place all ingredients into a small bowl of electric mixer, turn on to low and then add 4 tablespoons of boiling water and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. At this stage I know it will look like it will never come together, but please persevere and trust me, I am not known as the meringue queen for nothing. Turn the mixer on faster and beat until it is stiff and glossy - If you own a kitchenaid - it doesn't take long maybe 5 minutes. If you have any other mixer you will need to beat everything for about 10 minutes.
Place teaspoons on lined baking tray and place in very slow oven (130C) or 110C - fanforced. One hour later turn off the oven and open the door and let the meringues cool before placing into air tight containers or beautiful jars like this one.

Good Luck. I have not had any flops with this.

PLEASE NOTE: to make them pink I use Queens Rose Colour food colouring (in Australia). Red food colouring does not give the same nice pink.

Here are some gorgeous roses from my garden. They smell just as good as they look, and they have a long vase life.