Tuesday's Treasures

One of my favourite Australian Blog's is Melody's.  She hosts Tuesday's Treasures and this week it is all about our pets.  So I am linking this post to hers.

Now you would all know by now that I am owned by many pets, but did you know that I breed cats? If you have purchased this month's Handmade Magazine there is a profile on me along with 3 projects and my picture is on the front cover - Bottom right hand side - Do you see it?  Well the article reveals many things about me including that I breed Burmese and Abyssinian Cats.

I have been owned by cats all my life and received my first burmese breeding cat at 10 years of age from my grand parents.  She was a red burmese named Angelina.  I was hooked from that point and I have had them ever since.  I have had a few breaks from breeding kittens throughout my life but have still always owned a burmese or two.

Luckily my husband of 20 years is an animal lover also.  He trains greyhounds as a hobby and our property has a "doggy" area and a "catty" area.  This is my husbands airconditioned kennels which you can see as you head up the stairs from our back door.  The doggy area is on the left.

And to the right is my "catty" area.  We own 5 cats and they all have some time in the cattery and time in the house on a rotational basis.  The shed with the louvre windows open has our indoor pens which we are currently renovating ready for winter.

Come through the gate with me and I will show you around

Here are our 3 outdoor runs.  Each one has a little purpose built house with a cat door which leads to a sunny garden run.  The cats get to look at all of the wildlife and birds but can do them no harm.

We have planted trees and creepers around the cattery for natural shade in the summer.

Here is JT & Jack sunning themselves in their garden run this morning.

Each run has pavers for sun baking, a tree log for sharpening of claws and fresh grass growing between the pavers because they love to eat it.

The back of their houses is shaded by a lovely old wattle tree.  The runs look up through our orchard.

And here is Ned's Stud run.  He has to entertain his future wives here so he has an abundance of furniture, scratching poles and logs to play on.  It is important to us that our pets get lots of loving whilst they are in the cattery so the runs have been designed with human doors to both their houses and runs so that we can sit and snuggle with them.

So there you go a little tour of my cattery where my adored fur babies spend some time.  I hope you enjoyed looking around.

Hugs - Fee X

It's Heating Up.....

My home state of Tasmania is renowned for it's cooler climate and it's semi mild summers and freezing cold winters.  The last few years have seen extreme's of both ends of the scale and this past weekend sure was extreme for us.  I live in the Midlands of the state so our tempratures vary from the capital city - We do not have the benefit of a sea breeze.



Saturday the temprature where I live reached 40 degrees (104 degrees farenheit) and yesterday was a slightly milder 38 degrees (100.4 degrees farenheit) This morning at 6am the temprature was still 26 degrees (78.8 F).

Not only are we not conditioned for this type of weather but our homes are not equipped either.  Luckily one end of our house which does not get heated in winter by the wood fire has a reverse cycle air conditioner so at least part of the house can be cool.

But it is very hard to get anything done when you are in sweltering heat and just not used to it - It is so draining - How do you girls in warmer areas cope during summer?  I felt like hibernating and waking up when the temprature was cooler but you can't even do that - LOL

I did manage to get a bit more work done on my project for "Let's Get Stitched".  It is coming around very quickly and it is now less than 2 weeks before everyone starts to arrive.  It is very exciting !  I have ordered cooler weather for you girls - Mid 20's would be lovely.

Today is the start of week 2 of my break and I am heading outside for the day today.

Have a lovely week.

Hugs - Fee X

Another Productive Day

Day 3 of my two week break is almost over and I am having a ball.  It is so nice to forget about the stresses of work and actually take each day as it comes.  I spent a little time yesterday morning strolling around the garden and picked myself a bunch of flowers.



After my stroll I decided to do some baking - I decided upon Cinnamon Scrolls.  I made the dough

And left it to double in size

Whilst I made the cinnamon butter for the filling

And prepared the board ready for kneading

Kneading is wonderful stress therapy - The poor thing was very elasticated by the end of it's workout

And in no time they were ready to go into the oven

They baked beautifully

And were served up with cream cheese icing - Yum !  Have you had a go at Cinnamon Scrolls before?  I used this recipe.

The afternoon was spent making some shabby lavender sachets from one of my favourite fabrics

And also some Cabbages & Roses versions

Today hubs and I enjoyed a lunch at our local hotel with a nice glass of red.  Before we went I cut up my $1 recycled tank top.

I cut a rectangle from the front and back of the top and then cut another matching size to go with each from some fat quarters

Put them together with right sides matching, stitched all the way around and left a little gap for turning.  Pressed with a hot iron and then top stitched all the way around closing the gap as you go and Voila !

2 Polishing cloths - These are perfect for drying up glassware, polishing taps, glass, mirrors etc !!

They look gorgeous rolled up

And even better tied up with some organza ribbon.  I will make some little labels for these and then they will go in my present box for gift giving later in the year.

Next on my list is an easy little project using this.....  Any ideas about their destiny?

Hope you are having a wonderful hump day.

Hugs - Fee X

A Recipe, Some Embellishments & More Thrifting

It seems that slow cookers are a favourite of many.  I am pleased to say that the meatballs were delightful - We had enough left over for DD No 2 to take to work for lunch and 2 further servings for the freezer.  Later in the week I will make another meal using the slow cooker and may even experiment a little.



In my efforts to re-use, recycle and not waste anything I decided that these pears were on their last legs and needed to be used or turned into hen food.

Once I strated cutting them up I realised that quite a lot of them were destined for the chook pen but

I did manage to get a bowl of usable flesh out of them which was enough to make

This Pear & Ginger Upside Down Cake - Here is the Recipe if you want to give it a try.  Hubs and I had some straight out of the oven with cream - Delightful !

I had a little play with the circles of fabric I had cut on my Baby Go Cutter.  I have turned them into little brooches and will also use some for Bag embellishments.

They are a lot of fun to make and I can see more scraps being cut into circles for these.

Yesterday was a pottering around type of day but today I have made myself a little list to get through - I wonder if I can keep my motivation and stick to it?

On my list is the dismantling of another $1 thrift find.

Aren't these little stones in metal clasps just gorgeous?  I will keep these in my stash for another day and have a plan for the fabric.  I'll be back with an easy peasy way to recycle t-shirts & tops.

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs - Fee X

A Brand New Week.....

A brand new week has arrived and with that a new feeling of calmness and serenity.  That may well be because I have 2 weeks off work to get some R & R and I have pottered for most of the morning just doing what takes my fancy.

I have prepared meatballs for dinner

Which are cooking away in the slow cooker - I just love the smell of food gently simmering away - It helps to make a house a home......

As promised from my last post here is my newest furniture find - It is a gorgeous pedestal which is in need of some TLC and some shabbying up.  This will be my project for this week.

It was another busy weekend in our house but I did spend a few hours each evening to work on this Rosalie Quinlan stitchery. 

This is her National Breast Cancer Fundraiser Stitchery and it is a lot of fun to stitch.

I love the fact that there is no tracing as the pattern is screen printed onto the hanky linen as part of the pattern pack. 

Today I have a friend coming over to visit so I will be hand stitching these folded pieces of spotty loveliness and hopefully turning them into something pretty.

And I will be doing a little pattern writing too.

I am joining up with The Haby Goddess today in her Make Grow Thrift Monday.

Hugs - Fee X