Easter Sunday

Choc Cross Buns!

Easter Saturday

A new family member

2011 Birthday

I was pretty spoiled this year.  Cards and flowers

and dinner with friends and family.
No.1 

No.2

 No.3

Three Years Ago

Three years ago this month I was here -

For my 50th birthday we had a month in France.  A lot has happened in those three years.

Cute

These were little samples showing what the tents would look like fully unpacked - too cute!

Across the aisle were tiny sleeping bags!

Cooking

One of my Christmas gifts keeps coming - a subscription to Donna Hay magazine.  I made the chorizo and fetta frittata from the most recent one.  Mine

and Donna's

Books

I have been collecting books for years.  A couple of houses have had rooms dedicated to them ("libraries" for want of a better word).  I used to love sitting in those rooms surrounded by the physical volumes and reflect on what I'd read and the books on my shelf that I was yet to read.  Well, recently I've found I wasn't enjoying having them as much as I used to, and I've started a process of releasing them.  Bags of books have gone to friends, and to various other places.  I don' want to take them all to one place - I want to spread them around.

A few weeks ago I discovered a community bookshop at Annerley.  It's run by volunteers,  they get their stock from donations, the prices are reasonable, and profits go back into community programs.  I took a few bags of books there.

The books each have memories.  I collected authors such as Nancy Mitford and Martin Boyd.  Some were hard to get collections like Let's Parler Franglais

There were those I'd meant to read

and those I'd had good memories of reading

some were very much of their time

and some had personal history

Annerley Mosaics

PS - note the colour co-ordinated bin in the background!

Slow Art Day - Saturday 16 April 2011

I love the concept of turning up at a gallery or museum and taking some time to enjoy a work of art.  Forget about cramming in as much as possible on your visit - do the opposite!  See just one piece, but take it in, really soak it up....

If you can't do that, how about making a cuppa, opening a catalogue or art book, and taking a long, curious, thoughtful look at one work.

Curry Lunch

After the meeting Margaret and I went to the RSL Club.  As it's my birthday month I got $10 off lunch and a free glass of wine.  Considering membership is $5, that's not bad.  Lunch was an absolutely delicious seafood curry.  More seafood than I could eat in a spicy tomato curry sauce.

 The wine was a light sparkly red

Quilt Handover

I'm a member of Star Sea Quilters - today was a handover of quilts to our designated charity for this year.  Representatives of the respite centre came to pick up the quilts.  Each child in the centre has his or her own bedding and will now have his or her own quilt.

Talking of Postcards...

I decided that I had had enough of postcrossing - where you send and receive postcards from around the world from people you don't know.  It was fun for a while, but I came to to the realisation that I wanted to correspond with people I knew...here is the wall of all the cards I've received

Fabric Postcard

Chris sent me one of her postcard art pieces last week - "Flood Art" No. 42.  The background colours were left by the flood waters.  This is part of her Mailart 365 project - what an undertaking!! I love it - thanks so much Chris!

Coffee Surprise

Sometimes it's a little biscuit, on Saturday it was a chocolate coffee bean...

Pancakes

I made a batch of my easy peasy pancakes the other day.  I spooned diced pear over the top and drizzled it all with honey - a yummy breakfast!

Waiting

I had some time to kill in town so had a glass of wine

and read.  This was nearby

West End

After sharing lunch and dessert, Bronte and I went shopping.  West End has some interesting shops - and I found a vintage shirt here

 The shirt will be good for work - with some tweaking.  It had the worst handsewing I think I've seen

I took the cuffs off and changed the buttons.
This shop has an inviting outdoor seating space...

Still Tuesday, Still Southbank

We continued from the Vietnamese place towards the river and decided to have coffee and dessert at Max Brenner.  This is chocolate lovers' heaven - Bronte's comment?  "Everything seems to have chocolate in it."
Ummm - kinda the point....We shared the best brownie I think I've ever had (rich without being stodgy)

 Bronte's coffee came in a kangaroo cup

The spoon came with instructions

Tuesday, Southbank

Last Tuesday I had a day with my daughter.  We had lunch at Viet de lites on Little Stanley Street in Southbank.  I had a spicy beef soup

with toppings to add yourself

Bronte had a calamari salad - light and flavourful

This amused us at checkout

Not Sure If These Are Going To Be Enough....

Thai Mali

James, Holly and I had dinner at this Bennetts Road restaurant.  We ordered a Sour Curry, Pad Thai with tofu and a duck dish  - very yummy with plenty left for the next day's lunch  :-)