Natural Dyes for Easter Eggs

I read this blog post on dyeing eggs using fruits and vegetables and natural foods and so I thought I would experiment to see where they would lead.
In Australia most eggs are brown, so in order to strip the eggs off of the brown pigmentation, you simply boil the eggs in white vinegar till the brown comes off, or if it doesn't, you will see that it becomes a slippery film and you can just rub with your fingers under cold running water, it rubs off easily to reveal white shells.
I hard-boiled my eggs in water before I did the brown-pigmentation-stripping because that way you don't risk the eggs breaking.

I have to say I had so much fun experimenting. Some of the eggs turned out a bit speckled because I didn't leave them in the fridge overnight, I only left them in for a few hours; but that's part of the experiement, and I like the speckled/uneven look as well.

I set them up with some egg cups with tealight candles and egg shells, and a genuine abandoned bird's nest with sugar-shelled choc eggs in a glass cloche pedestal set, all so very eggy themed!

More pictures........

How about some pictures with roses?

And this was supposed to be a post on Easter Eggs Natural Dyes Experiment! I do love playing with roses, don't I? 

That's all for now. Till next time. Have an awesome Easter, dear friends.

Spring Garden Collages

Today I've got some collages of my Spring garden for you, my dear friends.

Spring is undoubtedly a beatiful season, also a very busy one for me as well.

I enjoy being in the garden, it's such a pleasure especially with the gentle refreshing breeze bringing the heavenly scents of roses to my nose.

 I hope you enjoyed these collages, have a lovely week, everyone. Catch you later. 

Spring Tablescape

G'day, dear readers and friends, how are you all doing? Hope everyone is well and enjoying your season. I want to say thanks to those of you who e-mailed me and wanted to know if I'm alright. You really are a lovely bunch. Yes, I am well, I've just been really busy. Thank you so much for your concern and care.
Spring is here and has been here for a while for us, here are some photos of the Spring tablesetting I did a while back.

I picked some flowers and herbs from our garden and used them as napkin rings for the natural linen napkins. I also added a personalised/initial lettered placecard which I made.

Looking from different angles

This wire basket came out for photo opportunities as well .........

Hope you enjoy your season wherever you are. I'd better go and fertilize and tidy up my garden enjoy my day. The garden is calling my name. Till next time.
P.S. This is the dining table we've been waiting for, right size, right style! It's been with us for a while now. Yay!

Small Transformation on the Kitchen Counter

Hello, friends, today I've got some photos to show you. It's some small changes I made on my kitchen counter. I enjoy changing things up a bit sometimes. I made some clay tags ( I used Magic Clay which dried and became very airy and light ) and transforming to chalk board from a metal board I've had for a while. I simply painted it with black chalk board paint.
The black and white really pop in this space!

I also got an inexpensive glass jar and filled it with rolled oats.
I took more photos while playing with bits and pieces from the linen closet.

I white-washed the basket which I got for a few dollars.
It looks much better now.

I pulled out a whole lot of linen napkins and filled the basket with them, I love the way they look.

The bread box that's been hidden in the pantry got to come out as well.

After all that was done, I got the persimmons out to pose for me, do you know what persimmons are? They are a kind of delicious orange coloured fruit. Apparently the new variety is crunchy and sweet, and they are an improved variety, I love munching on them for a healthy snack. Don't they look beautiful too?

Alrighty, have a wonderful rest of the week, friends. 

Roses in Winter

Hi, how are you all doing? Hope you are having a good week.
Some ladies have asked me why I still have roses in the middle of winter.
The reason is our winter is reasonably mild and there's been sunshine even though there has been dark and cloudy rainy days.
I think the combination of sunshine and water is a pretty good recipe for flowers.

I have been bringing them in for the vases.

Things are still green outside, not as many flowers though.

I've been blessed with all these roses. This one below is called China Doll, I have it as a Tree Rose. It always has multiple blooms on each single branch , never just single flower or two.

You can see it clearer here.

Some more photos, hope you like them.........

Till next time! Have a great week!

Anzac Biscuits

I've been baking Anzac (stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) biscuits numerous times this last month.
My kids simply love them and consume them at lightning speed.
Fortunately they are so easy to make.
So I thought I would share the recipe here,
this recipe is taken out of one of the Women's Weekly's mini cookbooks named "Biscuits and Slices".

Anzac Biscuits

For better result, use traditional rolled oats rather than quick-cook rolled oats.

1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1/2 cup (110g) sugar
3/4 cup (65g) desiccated coconut  (I don't use this as someone in my family doesn't like it)
125 g butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 tablespoon boiling water

Combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut (if using) in large bowl.
Combine butter and golder syrup in a small saucepan, stir over heat until butter is melted.
Combine soda and water, add to butter mixture; stir into dry ingredients while mixture is still warm.
Place heaped tablespoons of mixture on oven tray lined with baking paper, 5cm apart, press down lightly.
Bake in a slow oven (160C) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Stand biscuits 5 minutes to cool on tray to give time for biscuits to solidify.

Enjoy!