Quince paste: a lesson in patience

Um, hi there! Okay, so let’s just say that we spoke last week… okay?

Tried something completely new today. Something that required patience. (Between you and me, I’m a bit light on patience. Excepting with my boys. Oh, and while we’re talking, I’m a bit attention deficit, too. But that’s for another day.)

  

I’ve been watching our quince tree, each year, being picked to pieces by king parrots. Oh, such a wonderful Australian bird (etc),  I just wish they would stop having a couple of mouthfuls of every fruit in my garden.

So after one catastrophic tree netting experience last year (a bird got in, but couldn’t get out, and I spent a good portion of one afternoon simultaneously trying to calm my three boys, calm a bird enough to get her untangled from a net, and stop myself from hysterically sobbing), I decided there had to be another way of keeping the fruit for us. So, this year I watched them nibble and drop about eight quinces, and then I picked them all early.

  

I’ve never eaten a raw quince before, have you? Well technically I have now, because after every single website told me not to, well, I had to try it today. (Wow, living on the edge there Mrs Pickles!) Guess what? The internerd is right. Raw quince is bitter, feels pretty gritty and awful in your mouth; it’s yuck.

  

But they’re so pretty with their furry skins and starry shaped bottoms.

  

Anyhoo, today I tried to make quince paste.

  
Did it work out? I have no idea! I’ll know in about eighteen hours if it has set.

  

But here’s what I do know. Cooking quinces is like magic. 

They transform themselves (with a little bit of applied heat, stirring and yes, sugar), from hard green-yellow bitter things into a glossy, delicious, jammy delight.

  
Now I’m just crossing every finger and toe that this becomes a quince paste (aka quince “cheese”) and not a quince jam by tomorrow afternoon.

  
If I can cut this thing into pieces and gift to some of my dearest people I’ll be thrilled.

At any rate, it was a good practice in patience. It literally takes All Day. But rewarding! And someone had to lick the spoon clean! Now, cheese platter, anyone? (Wish me luck).

Chat soon xx

Another crazy night

  

…in Australian politics, that is. With the number of Prime Ministers in this country over the past five years, it is no wonder some of us get frustrated by the absence of good, well-considered, effective federal policy.

I was supposed to be spending the night at the sewing machine tonight. 

But when politics gets interesting, you’ll find me here.

  

Who knows if this will change anything. Let’s hope the change brings some kindness.

Chat soon xx

Another baby on the way

Before leap to crazy conclusions, no, not ours, but just as worthy of celebration. This baby is coming to some dear friends of ours who have been walking a terribly difficult road. We are so incredibly happy for them, to be so close to meeting their third precious bundle. 

I am working on something for bub’s arrival, but tomorrow I am catching up with the woman-who-is-growing-a-whole-person (even when she’s sleeping, she’s still busy). And I had to be able to give her something. 

So here it is:

  

My first ever beanie! This was such a straightforward crochet job.

  
I just made up a ribbed rectangle, stitched a seam up the back and gathered the top. But it looks cute. And will grow with the bub, too, because of the ribbing.

Yay! Armed with this and a tray of brownies tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a welcome visitor.

Hope you and yours are well.

Chat soon xo

Beauty in the small stuff

vegemite and captain america

It’s everywhere. The stuff with kids. You know, the Lego guy on the toilet floor, the captain America on the kitchen bench, the countless textas (markers) and bits of paper…

I’m trying to find some joy (as opposed to frustration) here. Amongst the abandoned undies, the toast crusts, the teddy bear in the middle of the hallway.

This is not about hoarding, or needing to declare some sort of pledge about no more stuff. This is about me learning to accept that this is the way of life with three beautiful but incredibly busy (read:messy) boys.

 

So bear with me for a while lovely people, I’m trying to convince myself it’s not all bad. And I’m trying to do that through photos. Which I’ll probably share here. Exciting times, no?

Hope you and yours are well and happy. 

Chat soon xo

Shhh! Secret crochet project

hi!

I’m madly crocheting at the moment, and following a pattern (!). It’s a bit of a cheeky secret gift for someone. It’s pretty.

  

It’s just an acrylic Panda yarn, but the colours are lovely.

 
I got the pattern on ravelry, from Naturally Nora (a very productive crochet pattern maker) here. It’s gorgeous. This one is a little more “far out” because of my yarn choice.

  
Much of my first night was spent ripping rows I somehow stuffed up, but now I’m on my way there is no looking back. I have just five to six more rows to go and then I’ll be adding some plain wooden toggles. But no telling, it’s a secret.

I’m sure many of you out there are expert hook wielders…. what pattern/project/tutorial can you recommend for someone who is really just starting out?

Chat soon xx

Nope, can’t be true.

hi. anyone out there?

feeling a touch embarrassed about my long absence. meanwhile, my instagram is chockers (ie., full, for those of you not raised in Aus). but no posts since May?!? nope, can’t be true.

okay, so a quick update: the gherkin is seven, little is five, baby just turned three. the craft in the nooners (local craft group who meet at our place once a month) pombombed our main street for our annual winter festival. I’m learning to knit! I’m helping teach a local class how to crochet. my writing work is insanely busy and I have little time to sleep, let alone craft. i wouldn’t give it up for anything. the boys are absolute dreamboats. the gherkin lost his first tooth.

Life is Good.

i will be back soon. now I’m over my embarrassment about the quiet, it will be easier to pop back in for another post.

Chat soon! xo

Granny gets some love.

Hi there! You know when you start a project and run out of steam, or get bored. (You do too, right?) Well, some time ago I started a granny rug. I only did seven rows before I packed it away. 

 

Enter the renovation.

Boxes unpacked, cabinets emptied, and old works in progress discovered. So for the past few nights I have been working some more on this one. And I think it may just be my favourite.

  

I am being a bit looser with my yarn choices for this on, and I am loving the variety this is bringing.  

 

Such a hip young thing, this is how I spent my Friday night. 

Happy weekend!

Chat soon xx

Yaargh! Little turns five.

He’s not so little anymore. My Little had his fifth birthday party yesterday. His request for the party? A pirate dress up theme, and a pirate ship cake with a Lego pirate on top. 

Little in his pirate get-up

 Yaargh! Plenty of fun to be had at the party – musical statues (to a pirate music playlist, care of spotify), pin the patch on the parrot (local dollar store score), treasure hunt and pass the p-aargh-cel. 

We had a houseful of nearly twenty preschoolers… happy madness! 
The halfway to renovated living space got decked up for the occasion. 

 

But Little was most excited by the cake, a Women’s Weekly cake. Haha! I should have creamed the butter for longer! It was late. So we convinced each other that the chunks of butter in the icing was weathered boards… or crusty barnacles.

   

 

It was loads of fun, and so lovely to have old and new friends in the same place at the sane time.

Next cab off the rank? Super hero party for the Gherkin. But before that, there’s Little’s actual birthday (we’ve created this tradition involving a cake for the party and one for the actual birthday – madness). I’m thinking about a Lego cake…

Chat soon xx

Shake it off

Hi again!

Thanks for popping by, after my last post I wasn’t sure anyone would pop their head in again!

Anyhoo, as it would happen, I have been working on a secret stitchy project for a certain tween in my life. I’m not much of a stitcher, but I thought it was worth a try?

I hope it’s going to turn out okay. I’m only part way through, but it did occur to me after last post that perhaps I should take a bit of my own stitchy advice…

So, here I am. Last day of school holidays today, freezing, wet, boys now snuggling up to watch a movie in our temporary lounge room (Mr Pickles’ and my bedroom). Feeling okay about the assault on the senses that is coming tomorrow.

We have a terribly windy day at home today, and cold. I salute those of you who live in places with snow. Extremely grateful today that we ‘re just dealing with rain and wind – at least we don’t have to dig our way out in the morning.

Chat again soon,
xx

Where did they go? A word about the school holidays.

No photo today. Just words. Night time cuddles and deep talks with my eldest tonight. We’re worn out. We need another school holidays, where we can sloth about at home, stay in our pjs all day, play lego, snap, draw, go for walks, bake, sew, chill out.

There are only four days of school holidays left and I am feeling robbed. Four more days and I have another ten weeks without this time to hang out with my very favourite six year old. I feel as though we have lost each other somehow. And the pressure of needing to be out of our home over these two weeks (due to renovations) has just compounded this feeling. I miss this kid. And I know he wonders where his fun loving mum has gone. Ugh. I want my school holidays back. I want to be able to lock out the builders and tell them to all go away and leave us be. Or run away, just the five of us, to somewhere we can just hang out, no pressures, no needing to be anywhere. Until school goes back. Then the builders can go back to causing havoc and chaos; and in the mix with school, preschool, daycare, work and football training we probably won’t even notice.

Tonight we had deep and meaningful chats, my big boy and me. We snuggled and chatted and he fell asleep on my lap, just like he used to, listening to my heart beat. I know he was listening my heart beat, because just before he fell asleep he was copying the sound, whispering: “pupoom pupoom”. I didn’t want to put him into his bed. I didn’t want to let him go.

So no photos today. But still some things worth recording. [Sigh.] Here’s to an upbeat mood drifting in with the fog tonight.

Chat soon xx