Weekend Wrap-Up!

Hmmm ... it's Tuesday already. Did anyone else lose Monday or just me? Oh ... mostly me, huh! :0) I intended to share my weekend update on Monday, really I did ... it obviously passed me by, however, so you'll just have to have a Tuesday update. :0)

Well ... a really good thing that happened on the weekend was ... the sun finally made an appearance!! YAY!! I've decided that either I really AM solar-powered, or I'm reverting to the sun-revering ways of my Celtic ancestors! Tee! Hee! Hee! Suddenly, I had so much more energy and felt rather chirpy and this translated into a productive weekend of stitching.

I finished 'building' the 'No Place Like Home' block for my Stitcher's Journal block for June (oops!) and also got the little wreath stitched and a start on the dog house. And it suddenly occurs to me that I meant to take a photo of said progress and I forgot, so you'll just have to take my word for it! :0) I'll take a photo once I get them pieced into the finished block ... sometime ... hopefully before July!!!

Now, having spent a bit of an epic run stitching the house block, I decided that I really wanted to tackle a quick-to-finish project, so after a bit of thought (and the prerequisite cup of tea!!) I decided to finally tackle a little project I'd been meaning to try since ... ooooohhh ... DECEMBER! Oops! Boy, time flies, doesn't it! Tee! Hee! Hee! It was a little project shared by those nutty Gum Nut gals here which actually led you to here. It was for a tea wallet/pocket. And the tutorial was so easy to follow, so simple and so quick ... that I made FOUR! Tee! Hee! Hee! Here they are ...

Aren't they cute!! I put them beside the tea mug so you could judge the size. I don't know about you, but being a tea-drinker, I often cart teabags around in my handbag and if they get left in there a little TOO long ... well ... let's just say the manufacturers probably didn't make the teabags strong enough to withstand handbag travel!! And you end up with loose tea all through your bag ... and if your bag happens to get damp ... well ... let's just not go there and relive bad experiences! Tee! Hee! Hee! Suffice to say, this little tea wallet should save a LOT of wear and tear on my nerves ... and handbags! :0) Can you guess which one is mine?!?!?! When you open up the tea wallets, they look like this ...

See?! Four individually wrapped teabags, just waiting for a smoko break ... and perhaps a friend to share with! :0) The tea in the cup is my latest discovery by Dilmah ... Rose and French Vanilla. Mmmmmmm!!!! It's blended with a really nice flavoured black tea leaf and is rather delicious. I love to try flavoured black teas!! :0) The lovely Joy-Belle has made a loyalty card version of this handy little wallet, which I think will go on my "To Do" list, as I always seem to be searching for one membership card or another - my latest wallet doesn't have room for loyalty cards ... very annoying!!

OK ... what else did I get up to over the weekend?? Well ... since it was so darn FREEZING, I decided to cook up some winter comfort food ...

Stew and dumplings in the slow cooker. I keep forgetting to use my slow cooker, so I'm trying to remember to use it more as everything always tastes delicious and tender. This was my first attempt at dumplings and I was a little alarmed when they expanded to fill the whole pot ... I could see the headlines in my mind ...

"Toowoomba home destroyed in dumpling explosion!!"

... or perhaps an old-style horror flick ...

"The Dumplings That Ate Toowoomba!"

Hmmm ... not sure that will be a box office hit, but then I didn't get "Pulp Fiction" either, so who knows! :0) But back to the dumplings ... which are cooked after all that time spent chatting! :0)

Dinner is served! Can you see the steam rising from this plate of yumminess?? And I have to use a slight variation on a phrase Chookyblue used to talk about her scone cooking last week ...

I may not be a Master Chef ... but I can sure cook a DELICIOUS beef stew with herb and cheese dumplings!! :0)

I know there's been no garden photo update this week, but I lost Monday and today it was cold, dark and drizzly by the time I got home, so still no photo. I will say, the beans and marigolds are looking just a little sad after a second, bigger frost hit on Sunday. SIGH!! Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not fond of beans! :0) But my Beloved Geek Boy is, which is why I planted them, so hopefully we'll still manage to get a bean or two from them.

Well, I think that's about all I can share with you today. The only other thing happening around the Meares' Madhouse is something I can't share with you yet ... some Secret Squirrel Christmas stitching is happening for "Handmade" after I received an SOS email from Editor Victoria on Friday. Seems I'm not the only one surprised by how close Christmas is! Tee! Hee! Hee! So, for now, I shall sign off and go sit in front of the heater with my secret stitching. Hope you're all having a great start to your week ... and that you're not missing days already like I am! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS