Bread Baking and Thrifting...

I made an attempt at baking some bread this afternoon. It's ready and waiting to be cut at dinner tonight. It doesn't look too bad, so we'll see how it tastes.

I have to confess, it's a pretty easy recipe that I have a feeling will probably be more like damper than bread. But if it tastes good, then the recipe will definitely be a 'Keeper' in this house. And if it is good, I think it would be delicious in winter with a pot of soup.

Our kids are on school holidays at the moment and they've been pretty good most days, EXCEPT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!! They've spent all day testing my patience!!! So when my mum rang this afternoon to ask if she could have the kids tomorrow to do some cooking with them and go for a swim in their pool, I couldn't say 'Yes' fast enough!!! Sooooooooo, first on my list tomorrow is to go and buy a coffee plunger at the sales (been wanting to buy one for ages) and also I'm on the look out for a muddler to make Lime Caprioscas. When we were away last week, each night my cousin made Lime Caprioscas for us and they are the best!!! If you haven't tried them, YOU MUST!!! In order to make them, you need a muddler for the limes. And lastly, I'm going to have a scrounge at a few Thrift Stores. I took the kids to our local one today for a quick look and decided I won't be going back there again. The prices are ridiculously expensive!!! Seriously, they were charging $28.99 for a scrappy looking doona cover that had stitching coming undone all over it. And $12.99 for a casserole dish....with the lid missing!!!! So I'm off to check out a few others and will hopefully have more luck.

Thrifting or Op Shopping...

We say 'Op Shopping', you say 'Thrifting'...it's all the same. One person's trash becoming another persons treasure!!! I went to a couple of local Op Shops today for a look and came out with some goodies. This children's book called 'The Quilt Story' is really sweet. And who knows...maybe it will inspire me enough to have a go at making a quilt for Chloe.

I found this pyrex dish too...I'm in love with the colour...it's perfect for my kitchen.

And these are a few more children's books I found. A couple of them are going to be used as readers for Will who is just learning to read. And Chloe is currently working through the Adding & Subtracting workbook. And I couldn't resist the 'It's Great to be Eight' book for Chloe (after all, your only 8 once!!!).

I have a really busy day ahead at work tomorrow so hopefully it will go smoothly. We have a brand new HUGE coffee machine that is the size of a standard household fridge. It makes lattes, long blacks, mochas, cappucinos, chai lattes, chai teas, hot chocolates and all at the press of a button....it's the coolest machine ever and makes working soooooooooo much more enjoyable!!!

Op Shopping and Gardening...

We had a pretty hot day today of about 37 degrees and I had the urge to garden. If I don't do it when I have the urge, then it doesn't get done. And our front entrance was in desperate need of dressing up. So I trotted off to Bunnings to get some plants. Usually I wander around for ages trying to find the perfect plants, but today I was in and out in fifteen minutes. They had exactly what I was looking for. I'm not the best at keeping the water up to my potted plants, so I needed some that were drought hardy!!! Mother-In-Law's tongue is always a good one and the smaller one is some sort of cordyline I think (can't remember).

I love this one with the red flowers. These are great as climbers, but my girlfriend has a white one in a pot that looks gorgeous. They flower pretty much all year round. And the little one is a Liriope.Just before school pick up this afternoon, I popped into our local Op Shop to have a look. This is what I came out with...these two lovely paintings. The floral one has already gone up in my sewing room and the boaty one will probably go in the family room. I'm thinking of painting the boat frame white to give it a beachy look.

I LOVE eating anything with lemon in it so I had to get this Little Lemon Book. All the recipes use lemons. I'm think I've heard about this little cookbook before, so hopefully I'll find some yummy recipes in it.

And lastly, a beaded bracelet. The beads are wood and I love the colour combination.

Isn't this painting gorgeous. There were actually two more of these, both similar to the two I bought. I did see a few other things I liked, but I find that our Op Shops are pretty expensive (certainly compared to what Eastern States bloggers seem to pay for their goodies), so I left the other things behind.