Cassie's Cuddles

Today I went to my Great Uncle’s funeral, he was 89. My heart broke for his widow. I always think this is one of the worst things, to loose your dearest and best friend. They had been together for over 60 years, how do you carry on? I pray that God will give her comfort and strength to continue living with Joy.My dad is on the right, next to my sister then mum. My auntie and uncle are on the other side, I pretty much see them at weddings and funerals. Um, I must make a bit of an effort to see them on an average day….Yesterday I peeled and let soak most of these tomatoes. I made up about 6 Kg worth. When I got home, I had to cook them up. Tomatoe relish, yum! This is my mums recipe.

1.5KG  ripe tomatoes           2 Tbspoon of plain flour

500g onions                             1   1/2 TBspoon of mustard

1/2 cup of caster sugar        1 TBspoon of curry powder

1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes

Skin tomatoes by  making a cross on the top and bottom of the tomatoe, then boil them for 4 min, then immerse them in cold water. You can now easily peel off the skin. Add the chopped onion and tomatoe into a pot, and leave over night. Next day add just enough vinegar to cover tomatoe mixture and boil for 1 hr. Moisten dry ingredients with a little vinegar then add to tom. mixture, until it thickens. Now bottle it, and enjoy it. Remember to sterilize the jars 😀

I made up at least 12 jars, some are huge!Nom, nom nom.I decided to make my own soap on tap too. For one bar of soap, you use 4 cups of water ( I did double so I used two). You boil the water and then add the grated soap. I left it for a while and the whole pot went solid, so I added another 8 cups! I filled a lot of empty containers that I had kept for such a task as this.Look how much of it, I now have.I will now show you a picture of a giant fairy floss….The clothes are lovely, it’s the person inside them that’s the problem. I will address that problem tomorrow, stay tuned. Oh, and remember I have a giveaway here:https://cassiescuddles.hoodfamily.org.au/?p=3975 just leave a comment for your chance to win.

Stephanie has been back for nearly two weeks now, and she is very busy catching up with the weeks that she missed at school. She is doing year 12, I can’t believe that it is her final year of school. I home schooled Stephanie until she was in year 11, I am very happy with the way that she has applied herself to her studies, and has done so well thus far.Here is Alycia in my wedding dress. I can’t believe that she nearly fits into it. There is no way that I would fit into it now. Cassandra wanted to try on the veil.The veil was my mother’s. It is shorter now, because she cut some off to make a baby net (or something like that). Jared and I will have been married for 20 years this year. We had a few warm days in Melb. last week so I took the children to Lysterfield lake. I love taking the kiddies swimming for free. I really enjoy the atmosphere of the lake too, so much better than a local pool.Sunday week we had a little mishap. Camden was playing table tennis with some other boys when he smashed the light above the table, oops! Nothing better to humble parents eh?I made lots of yummy jam. Nom nom nom. I found a box with about 4 kg of strawberries for only $3.99, great! I made 12 jars in total.I  have been sorting through material too. I might do a giveaway tomorrow, so stay tuned.

with the help of my trusted assistant, Alycia.Well done Bron, sorry Vanessa, maybe next time? Bron if you could email me your address again, that would be great. My email is cassie@hoodfamily.org.au

I went out with the ladies from my church today, it was lovely to catch up.  We had some yum cha, which I really wasn’t a fan of. I felt like I was eating raw chicken skin, gag. Did I say that the compay was lovely?I liked the yummy mango pudding.We also picked up Cassandra’s new glasses. She really wanted red ones.Wow, look at these cool scrapbooking stations. Maybe I would actually scrapbook if I was this organised.I’m taking part in a spring swap. My buddy lives in Scotland, cool eh?

Jared picked up 6 copies of his doctorate yesterday. It looks impressive, don’t you think?

My Stephanie (15) is hooked on crochet, she is seriously one cool Teenage Granny. Here are some sneek peeks at a couple of Christmas gifts that she has ready. The ninja is for Cassandra.oh, I can’t show you the next one just in case G’pa reads my blog. Then there is this worm, it is cute, but could be mistaken for something else (if you know what I mean).Yesterday I had a visit from my friendly postman, perhaps I should be on a first name basis now. The embarrasing thing for me was that I ordered about 8 books from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/bestsellers/?a_aid=notebookco, and they posted them seperately, so I had a visit everday for three days. Yesterday I got 5 at once!Eye Candy is it not?

Yesterday I had my dad pop in for lunch, which was special. He had a meeting near my area, so he thought he would say hi, and join us for lunch.

Today has been a quiet day, Lachlan didn’t have sport because of the long cup weekend. We had visitors tonight, which was lovely. We met this family when Jared and I were just married (18 years ago), now they have 6 children, three are considered adults now. Life goes so quickly. God, help me to be thankful everyday for the blessings that we often take from granted.

Remember the Giveaway

You can have a chance of winning this book , all  you have to do is leave a comment in the next week, anywhere on my blog. Next Sat ( 6th Nov.)I will put the names into a hat, and draw one out randomly. So easy. International or domestic people are welcome 😀

Up for grabs is this lovely book full of delightful things to make. If you want an opportunity to win this book, all you have to do is leave a comment. If I know you don’t be shy, put your name down too! I will post internationally.Here is a sneek peek of some of the items featured in the book.andand

Today I sewed a bottle holder, well, actually two. Here is one of them.I also made a reversible headband for Cassandra.

the other side.

Stephanie and Ellie (our neighbour) made this today, how cute is this? I was impressed, a beautiful low calorie cake.

Remember, don’t forget to leave a comment. I’ll draw a name out of a hat in two weeks, 28th June.

Now I have your attention eh? I know you want it. Just leave me a comment, and I will draw a name out of a hat  on March 28th. Here is a little sticky to wet your appetite.and inside…and..

Seeing that my house was in need of a good clean, I did what any good woman would do, and made an owl. Now that I have made it, I don’t know what to do with it. Perhaps I will drop it off somewhere as part of the Toy Society? I found the pattern for this cute owl here:http://juicy-bits.typepad.com/juicy_bits/2009/12/131-give-a-hoot-for-the-holidays.html 

Here is Mr Hoot.Remember to leave a comment, you just might be the name that gets drawn out.