Tuesday's Treasures

Today's Tuesday's Treasures is my German Witch that my father bought me a few years ago.

The last time he came up from Sydney with Mum to visit I took them to Tamborine Mountain. Mum loves the shops at Tamborine and so do I. While we were there Dad wanted to buy me a present.

When we were in the German Cuckoo Clock Shop (which is my favourite shop there) I saw this Witch and just had to have her.
She is a good witch, not a bad witch.
She sits at my front door to protect the house and stop evil people from entering.

She may not look beautiful but I think she is gorgeous. She is also the last present that Dad bought me before he got too ill to go shopping. He died in Jan 2009 so she reminds me of the last time he spent at my home.

Don't forget to drop over to Clare's Blog for more Tuesday's Treasures.

Back on the Farm Block 3

Finally I have Block 3 of Back on the Farm quilted. This block is called "Home to Roost".

It is a gorgeous block but was very time consuming with lots of pieces.

First I cut up and made the Rooster. He is magnificant with all his different colours.

Next came the 4 Hens.

After them I made the 3 chicks and the broken egg.

Then came the Windmill.

Lastly, I made up the Coop and ladder and then I could finally piece all the animals onto the background fabric.

All of this took many hours of cutting, piecing and pressing and then many more hours of quilting.

It is a very time consuming quilt but I am so glad that I am making it and having no time frame to have it made in is making it very relaxing to do it.

It is an absolutely beautiful Block and very satisfying to have it finished.

Tuesday's Treasures "Cook books"

When I was looking around my home for today's Tuesday's Treasures I discovered my favourite cooking books in one of my bookcases. I have many books but not many cook books.

These are 4 of my favourite cook books. The first 2 my oldest brother gave me in the late 1970's when I was a teenager. My brother has since died but he loved cooking and wanted me as his youngest sister to love cooking too. I use these books the most especially "The Commonsense Cookery Book". It is a great book with very simple recipes in it especially suitable for new cooks. I have given it to my nieces as presents. I know Bec uses her's, not sure if her sisters use their's.

When I was shopping last week I saw the new Margaret Fulton Cookbook. I looked through it but felt it wasn't as good as the original one that I own so didn't buy it. Margaret Fulton is the best known chef in Australia.

The last 2 books are a cookbook from the local community of the small town where my sister lives and of course "The Country Women's Assoc of NSW Cookery Book". I also use these a lot as well.

My favourite book is a compliation of recipes that I wrote in an old school textbook when I left home. It has all Mum's recipes in it that she used to cook when we were growing up. My mum rarely used a recipe but always cooked great food. When I left home I wanted to be able to cook the same recipes. I asked mum to write them down and as most of them were made from memory she would cook a different one each time I was home. I would write the steps down while she cooked them.

Don't forget to check out all the other Tuesday's Treasures on Clare's blog.

Riverfire

Last weekend we decided to go to Brisbane for the weekend. When booking the accommodation a few weeks ago we wondered why it was all booked out. We discovered the reason. Riverfire was on on the Saturday night.

Riverfire is a big firework display on the Brisbane river the first Sat in September as the start to a month long festival to celebrate the start of Spring.

The fireworks are on barges along the river and also on the top of some of the city buildings and the Storey Bridge.

They also have F111 fighter jet doing some passovers and a"dump and burn". This year is supposed to be the last year that the F111 will fly over.

We decided that we would brave the crowds, over 500,000 people (which is a huge crowd in Aust) and got our vantage point on one of the bridges to watch the 20 minute display.

In the 20mins the 32 pyro-technicians fired up 2000kg of explosives and 16,000kg of fireworks hundreds of metres into the sky.

It certainly was a spectacular sight.

Afterwards we went to the Treasury Casino for dinner and some gambling, we lost our money of course. The Treasury Casino is the orginal Treasury building in Brisbane. It is a beautiful old building.