Sunday 17 June 2012

Friday 15 June 2012

The Story Behind the Recipe

In early 1989 when the nearly three year old Living Doll discovered flour play in the kitchen when helping me make play doh, we started making scones every second day.
You can imagine how much she loved making them (sifting and handling flour, mixing in butter with her fingers and making decisions to eat seeds, er sultanas, or put them into the scone mix)! We got quite good at making them with so much practice.

About a 6 months later, however, I moaned that I was sick of making scones so could we please make some biscuits instead?

"Mummy, you know how to make biscuits?" asked the then 5 year old Crown Prince, in wide-eyed wonder.

I told him that anyone could cook anything they liked if they knew how to follow a recipe. After all, it was just like a science experiment, wasn't it?
You tried the recipe, critiqued the flavours and tweaked the mix ...

The rest is "Blue Book" history.

Follow the link to the left for my family's favourite foods ...

Enjoy!









Sunday 10 June 2012

Cats

For all you cat lovers out there,

This cartoon brings back memories to my off-spring. We had for years (& Mitzu is still going with my ex-husband in Townsville) two black half-simese cats, Annie & Mitzu. Nowadays, it's Gyspy's turn to be all over you when you are otherwise trying to do something else.

Does your cat have this characteristic?

Thursday 7 June 2012

The New Look Blog

Welcome One and All to the new look Bliss-x-stitches. I got with the flow & updated my blog's template. There are a few new 'bits' due to the change of template styles by blogger, but basically I 'tweeked' it to look like it always has looked: a Blogger design enhanced by Helena Normark's graphics at Graphic Garden.

As ever, comments are most welcome particularly as I know some of you had problems with the size of the text and where the blog actually sat on the screen. I hope it's now readable for everyone. Let me know if it isn't.

While I'm sending you surfing the net to see Helena's lovely ideas, I should also introduce you to my latest blog find. Meet Kelly from Off The Beaded Path. Kelly is an enthusiastic beader with her own etsy and bricks-and-mortar shops with the same name. She also does the most wonderful YouTube demonstrations of beading techniques. The MOTH should be frightened because she emailed me earlier in the week to say that she posts to Australia. If you are into beading, go check out the blog.

Bent Creek Big Zipper - Part 3


Stitching progress on the Bent Creek Big Zipper is coming along nicely. I'm pacing myself with a few other crafty things at the moment so perhaps the updates are not quite as regular as you would like to see. Working on this as my 'off project' for the dinosaur alphabet can only be described as a stitching disaster - LOL. I'm enjoying it so much that I don't want to go back to the dinosaurs, just yet.

Hardanger Classes




This is NOT my Hardanger effort but what I'm aiming for with my Hardanger classes. Stitch by stitch, I'm getting the hang of it and hope to tackle my Nordic Needle project some time before I leave Perth!

New Sewing Machine


You know me as a needleworker. The new look Bliss-X-stitches is going to introduce the Felicity who knows how to operate a sewing machine. I was one of the lucky people who learned how to draft patterns and sew at the same time she learned how to read and write. With the Princesse Royale and the Rock Doctor's wedding coming up on the 29th September, I need some practice before I tackle whatever dresses might need to be made or altered.


Hence, the Living Doll & the Stethopscope Dutchess (my two younger daughters) are each getting a dress like this for their respective birthdays. The dresses look fancy enough but they are quite simple to make. I chose the style because it has features which I want to practise on (rolled hems, invisible zip, fancy stitching, spaghetti strap turning, beaded trims to attach and, of course, precision fitting). Wish me luck!

Beading



These were my craft fair splurge two weeks ago. I like beading so have decided to do it for the fun of it and not worry about what Tiffany (The MOTH's DIL) thinks of it.

Puppies


Lucy & Harry's puppies have left home. Er, let me re-state that. All the puppies which were sold have left home. Liz & Murray fell in love with little Sophie, so she is staying for a wonderful life at Brookton Hounds. She reminds me so much of a little Lucy at the same age yet she also has an air of Harry about her.

Stop Press!

Gosh, I almost forgot the good news. Remember my A Quaker Christmas sampler which had the laundry disaster?


The good news is that I found a product in my local supermarket that removed the dye which ran where it shouldn't have. The sampler is now ready for framing. I'm so pleased about this! I nearly gave up cross stitch when my four years of work bit the dust!

That's about it for me, this week. It's a long post but there are lots of nice things happening which are worth sharing. My apologies that I haven't been doing any commenting on blogs. To be honest, I haven't been online much in recent weeks. I'll get back to surfing soon.

Time to get on my broom and fly. I'm off to vist Jo at Colours Down Under for a morning of stitching.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

Friday 1 June 2012

First Day of Winter



This is a scary prospect!

South East Queensland is pretty much a temperate climate where one only needs a light jacket.

Perth, Western Australia, is cold and wet like Melbourne is cold and wet!

Brrrr!

International Tartan Day

Scotland intrigues me. I've not yet been there, but I'm pretty sure it will one day happen.

My gt gt grandmother, Mary Ann Hughes, lived (or was born) in Roxburgh in 1835, according to her death certificate. Her family, however, came from Ireland.

Long story short, Mary Ann emmigrated to Australia in 1860 & married a man from St John's, Newfoundland, James Power.
The rest is history

"Tartan" is a generic term referring to the multicolored checked and striped cloth that has become one of the best-known symbols of Scotland. When speaking of a "Clan tartan" what is typically meant is the "sett" of that tartan. A sett is a unique tartan "pattern" of color blocks and lines. A Clan may have one or more setts for itself, some differentiated as "dress" or "hunting", usually indicating when it should be worn (such as for formal dress or evening affairs, or for daywear occasions, and so forth), and some setts for sub-groups or families within a Clan. Tartans generally identify a region, a clan, or an organization or company. Thus, if you encounter someone wearing the tartan of the Clan Grant, you can be reasonably assured that the person wearing that tartan belongs to the Clan Grant or identifies with the organization.