Autumn

Autumn has definitely arrived, we have abundant fruit from the garden, the trees are turning golden and I'm having to trawl through my recipes for 101 things to do with pears! I have a fabulous little book written by fellow Tasmanian, Sally Wise called; "A Year In A Bottle", it's packed full of great recipes for times of glut. Later today I'm going to try her Pear Ginger, which sounds delicious.

The Kurrawongs are feasting, they're driving Lily mad and she spends alot of the day racing around the orchard trying to catch one, though I don't know what she would do if she managed to do so. I've given up shooing the birds out of the trees, we have too much fruit as it is.

I'll have to put some of the apples through the juicer and freeze it. I did this last year and was totally blown away at how fresh it looked and tasted after several months, makes you wonder what happens to some foods in manufacturing that it seems stale before you've even brought it home from the supermarket. I've noticed this with the jams I've made from our fruit, the colour is so vibrant compared to what is available commercially.

Yesterday a big parcel arrived from the US with a couple of yards of wonderfully long and dense alpaca fur fabric inside, some more black and white to make more pandas! I'll have to rework my large panda pattern some more, I want to get it just right before I cut into these pieces, because the fabric is so beautiful and it was very expensive.

I've almost finished my collection for the Black and White Ball, which is just as well since the deadline for submission of the photos is the 1st of May. I'm going to try and set up a light tent inside to get the photos, the days have been very gloomy lately and I need a more reliable set up so that I can get a really good set of pics.

Easter Bunny

We had the cutest Easter Bunny visit us today, Tobias and his parents were here for lunch. Tobias exhibited an amazing Pavlovian response to the little bell around the Lindt Easter bunnies! He's going to be a chocolate fiend like his Dad, I think. I wonder if he would have the same response Sam had to a chocolate overdose? This happened when Sam was about four and he ate a large chocolate rabbit in one sitting.......and my mild mannered son became the child from Hell for a whole week afterwards! After that, I only bought the children small eggs which were strictly rationed over many days.

I'm still working away at my pieces for the Black and White Ball, I'm very pleased with them so far and I'd really love to show them off here, but I have to keep them to myself until June. So very frustrating! It has been a challenge being restricted to Black and White, I keep thinking of bears in other colours, but I guess they can wait until I've finished this collection. Then I can GO TO TOWN. I'll be delving into my fabric stash for all those other colours......I know where all the black and white pieces are :)

Black and White

I have started work on my pieces for the TBACA (http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/) Black and White Ball, online show, and also The Australasian Creative Design Awards which will be held in conjunction with the Ball. What fun it is to think of all the creatures in the world that are black, white or both! There are lots of them out there, and my being a panda and polar bear fanatic helps. That doesn't mean my collection will be all pandas and polar bears. I'm working on something entirely different today, but you will have to wait for the show in June to see what I'm talking about!

At the weekend I traded at the Doll, Bear and Miniature Fair in Launceston, I like doing this show, no air travel just a quick drive down the road. It always surprises me with good sales too. I also made a contact for some workshops in Hobart later in the year, so all in all, a very successful weekend.

On Friday, our 10 month old Grandson stayed with us for the night. It was his first night away from his Mum, and he cheerfully took it all in his stride. He's such a happy, easy going baby and what a joy to wake in the early morning to him happily playing "patacake" on our faces! I must admit I was rather tired all of Saturday, this ol' girl isn't used to getting up to a baby in the night, but that really doesn't matter when this little boy brings such joy to our lives! I'm looking forward to his next "sleep over".