New Arrangement

In honour of Easter (kind of...) I started to re-arrange the dresser in my dining room.  A very much needed clean and shuffle later I had things in place.
I found the nest on the ground outside my bedroom window - the marble egg is from the markets the other week.  The stand was bought on a visit to Queensland many years ago when I lived in Canberra.  The candlesticks from a once-a-year art/craft market I used to go to, and on the right is a little mirror with a frame I love, and a tiny seascape painting...

The platter was hand painted and bought in Florence on honeymoon with wedding present money.  The pumpkin tureen and small blue plates (ivy leaf shapes) were from another Queensland trip - and the trio was a very generous Christmas gift from a friend a few years ago - it is a numbered pattern from her grandmother's wedding china.

These leaves are real - ordinary leaves found on the ground when we lived in Virginia.  The little hand-etched gourd is from Peru - a gift from a friend many, many (many!) years ago....

Rouj Rosalie

Lucky Chris lives within walking distance of Rosalie, so we played Ladies today and strolled to lunch at Rouj.  We shared the mixed entree platter

 

and the mjadra salad (lentils, rice, caramelised onion and pomegranate seeds).  Yum, yum, yum.

The waiter was a hoot - never did catch his name.  He made Chris eat an olive because "it's good for your skin" (she shudderingly did as she was told).  He made me have another cup of turkish coffee before he would read the grounds.  Refused to let us have sugar in the coffee (it was black and strooong) because we wouldn't get a good reading.  But that was OK as the halva and baklava were plenty sweet enough   - one bite, one sip - no worries.

And he DID read the grounds - after upending the tiny cups onto a serviette, he had a close look at what was left.  He certainly sounded like he knew what he was talking about!

Bouquets

Two bouquets today.

First - the cross stitch I was having framed for Mum last year had a chip in the glass which I found only after I brought it home.  The framers replaced the glass of course, but it was a pain in the neck to be honest.  As an apology they gave me a voucher for glass for another picture - I took the voucher in today and no questions asked they will honour it.
Thank you, Framing Corner Toowong.

Second - two weeks ago for Mum's birthday I ordered some wine and nibbles online to be sent to her.  A series of errors and miscommunication (on both sides, I have to say) led to the package taking more than a week to get to her (on the plus side, by the time it got there, I was there also, so I shared some of the wine!).  I was very disappointed, as you can imagine.  Well, totally off their own bat the company sent me some chocolate today as an apology.

Thank you Naturally Gifted.

In both cases the businesses took it on themselves to make it right (and it certainly wasn't totally their fault in either situation).  I appreciate that very much.

Memes

Memes - they're everywhere in blog/internet/www-land.  My son told me of the "If it fits I sits" one - if you feel like checking out the weird places cats (and some other animals) scrunch themselves into, look here.

My domestic companion animal does not disappoint - he just LOVES to squish himself into strange places...like my intray...

BTW - this is him being quite civilised - usually he is curled AROUND the paperweight!

Leaves Quilt

Not long after I arrived in Brisbane I did a workshop with Michelle Steel.  This quilt is the result.

Michelle's version is called "Forest Floor" if memory serves, and we used that as a model for our own renditions.  She allowed us to use her leaf patterns, but encouraged us to draft our own applique pieces. The yellow fabric is from a dyeing session I did with her.  I even quilted this myself, on my little old Janome My Style 16 machine. 

It's far from perfect, but it's always been one of my favourite quilts.  It's going to live elsewhere now, and so I took this photo as a reminder of my beautiful "baby".

Chai

Sue's talk of India reminded me of the wonderful chai I had at Woodford last year - so I dug it out of the cupboard and found a tea set I'd forgotten I had!!

Question

I have just ordered a tea infuser - you scoop up loose leaves, put the cap on and let the thing sit in a cup of boiling water until your tea's made - that sort of tea infuser.
Here 'tis in picture form
 
One of its key features is that it's  
Durable enough for industrial use

Now this is what I don't get - to what sort of INDUSTRIAL USE can you put a one teaspoon size tea infuser?

Anyone?  Anyone?**
**Thanks Susan - of course!  Restaurant use!!!