Easter Flowers ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Still Eastering here ...

Had a little fun playing around with empty easter egg wrappers and ended up with this:

"Easter Flowers"
Created with Easter Egg Wrappers, Watercolour pencils and Impasto texture medium as glue

Quite a relaxing couple of hours, and here's a few progress pics:

First - lots of Easter Eggs needed to be consumed and so we applied ourselves diligently to that task ;D)
(ha ha,  our Daughter said... it must have been awful having to eat all those Easter eggs for the sake of art!!)

It was too cosy being hunkered down in my lounge chair to be bothered getting up to find some scissors, so I tore strips off the wrappers to make various shapes... some were petal-like, others were rolled into thin lengths to be left straight,  and others coiled.

Impasto worked well as a glue, applied with a palette knife, it stuck well and dried clear.
Sticky fingers happened, but a dampened sponge soon sorted that out. 

I drew the vase using watercolour pencils and then a quick brush with some water to activate the colour and the job was done.
 

Funny how these ideas pop up.  I've always liked the pretty coloured foil covering chocolate eggs, at last I found a use for them.

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome!

Wednesday's Post ~ Native Hibiscus

This is the time of year when cuttings, from our Dear Daughter's Native Hibiscus, flower up and put on a beautiful display.

They've been watered with mostly recycled water too.

...  After washing up the dishes,  I fill a jug or two from the rinse water bowl and, because they're right outside the back door within easy reach, I give them a nice drink. 

They don't seem to mind the few suds that may be in the water, well, I haven't heard any complaints from them yet ;D)

... We're on mains water but, since our camping days and time spent living in a bus, I can't seem to get out of the habit of making the most of whatever water we can get our hands on.

It's a pleasant bit of exercise too.

    Thanks very much for your visit ....

Linking with Riitta at Floral Bliss:

Recycled Pickling

We blame our Son ;D)

He suggested we try a certain brand of pickled onions and, boy, did we get hooked!

Anyway, with MD's onion patch bearing nicely... and two jars of leftover bits of pickled onions in the fridge, we both came up with the same idea that perhaps we could re-use the pickling liquid. It was very tasty and too good to throw out.

Turns out Mr Google said that, as long as the liquid hadn't gone cloudy, we could!  So we did:

First off, the picking/lifting of the onions.
⭄Note the handy onion-lifting thingy MD crafted... finger knotches and all!
He's always coming up with these nifty type of things - love my dear inventive man 💘

Into the sink for a quick clean-up:

OK... here's where the whinging starts!
Did I say "quick" clean up.  Oh goodness, I kept breaking into new layers. Clingy thin annoying sticky layers,
which then required more and more skins to be removed ... oh will this torture ever end, what was I thinking... blah blah

Finally,  all cleaned, topped and tailed, pickling brine gently
simmered for a little while, jars sterilised... pack in the
onions (hooray I calculated amount correctly - go me!!)

So pleased... even Froggie who watched on, fairly sceptically,
can't believe his eyes!

I'm getting a bit carried away here I know,
but I've never been one to bottle or pickle things
so it's a kind of a first in Susanland!
Two whole jars!!! and it only took ... um... a few hours (heh heh) ;D)

We've been eating them since I made this post.  Most delicious and very near to the originals. The onions had a lovely crunch too. 

~Thanks for popping over and reading this post ~

⚘ My proverbial hat off to those who bottle and pickle regularly ⚘  

(If anyone has a favourite pickled onion recipe - any hints, tips etc.  I'd really appreciate a link.  Would love to give it a try from scratch)

Boomerang Bags

Probably the last thing we want to think about is grocery shopping at this time, but I was quite taken by this idea at one of the shops in town recently:

so I chose one....

... think I'll remember!  Cheers now :D)

~ Thanks for your visit ~

Happy New Year with Cherries on Top !

Here we go again ... another year.  Good wishes to all of us that it's a great one :D)

Lovely to be back, and I'm keen to catch up with everyone once more.

Random offerings in this post, starting with dessert:
oooh la la.... memories of a trifle that was definitely not to be trifled with!  Our Daughter's Christmas Day Delight... it had everything, and more !  We slept well that night ;D)

Now for a walk along the sandy shoreline.
Couldn't resist snapping this truly random find:

Here's a photo opp that I did set up.
I plunked the mussel shell in the water and was happy to watch it drift on its way - floating and bobbing along:

Sometimes, it's lovely to just float along.
I remember as a child, floating with only my eyes, nose and mouth out of the water, hearing nothing much at all except the underwater sounds. 

A couple of 'firsts for 2015' ... our first coffee for the new year:

I couldn't resist adding a loveheart I cut and pasted from our coffees we played around with a few years' ago

... and our first Turkish Coffee for the year.  Very strong - hits the spot!

We treated ourselves to some pretty little cups

Ha ha, I warned this post contained random offerings :D)
Here's a recycling thingy I thought up because I don't like having to clean chopping boards after cutting up raw meat... you know, how those little bits of meat (especially chicken) cling determinedly to the board.
Well, I washed and cut empty UHT milk containers and they're excellent for one-off uses as cutting surfaces.  No washing up, just throw away after use!

Finally, I'd like to end on a pretty note.
The ability to photograph white flowers seems to escape me, however, I had a lucky moment a few weeks ago:

Thanks for popping over :D)

Recycling at its very best

In 1924 an avenue of Monterey Cypress trees was planted in honour of  26 local men of Lakes Entrance who lost their lives in WW1.

Over the years, the odd tree had been removed for various reasons. In 1997 the shire council, unaware of the trees' significance, planned to remove the remaining trees. However, following a campaign by the local historical society, supported by the community, the trunks of 6 of these trees have been preserved and transformed into memorial sculptures by chainsaw artist John Brady.

I just reckon this is such a beaut way to keep the spirit of the trees as well as the Avenue of Honour. My phone camera photos don't do them justice but here are some of them.

This one is called "Waiting for Dad"

Here's some more of John's work at Paynesville. I can't find any information about this Sea Captain, but I guess it's self-explanatory.

Please Note: These photos are mine, however, source of the text and information came from the following website Lakes Entrance Avenue of Honour WW1 Memorial Statues