Happy Easter

Christos Anasti!
We went to Lebanon for Easter. Thank you to my mother in law and father in law for taking us.

We did LOT of this.....

Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning at 5am.
The 5am service is my favorite as everyone files out of the building after lighting candles. Then they knock to come back in.
It's freezing.Everyone holds candles and the street is lit with paper bags and candles set inside the bags. After a bit of dialogue they throw flower petals off the roof of the church. It's so pretty.
They fall such a great distance its like a kaleidoscope of colours. Then they go back inside for another loooong service.


A big part of our time there was also doing this...





Cracking each others eggs in competitions.


And we went on a magnificent walk to a monastery.Built inside a cliff covered in poppies and wildflowers the monastery has existed since the 13th century.

We went to see a really good movie with a new friend last week. Pretty decent price-10 dollars or slightly less.

Last night we went to get some extra material for Taita's (grandma's) bag holder. We bought that.... but i ended up getting a lot more materials. Thankyou! thankyou! thankyou!

Big Dots

Small Dots

Stripes. I want to try and make some mushroom coasters.

G bought these to make the old hands and arms stronger. His obsessed with them.


These are for Brent and Nat's quilt for their wedding and this below is for Taita!

Molokia

Finally finished both quilts. Better late than never. What a snails effort. G decided the back was nice. So i've put it on that way. Suzie and I spent the afternoon picking Molokia. I bought the entire stock from Carrefoure-about 40 bunches. It only seems to come in twice a week and only a box at a time. Herbs are cheap- only 30 cents a bunch. The tomato ketchup won. There are still cookies.

Decided to see what was on offer at the Library in the way of books. I hate paying full price for books because of the time it takes to devour them. I already own the top one.. but it can't be bad to own two of it right? It was 65c. I can read it again now and give it to someone else to read.

It rained last night.. so everything is wet. For once.
Tomato Sauce Vs Cookies...


We bought an ice cream maker attachement for the Kenwood. So far we havent been too impressed. The first lot of vanilla was not frozen when it was used for half an hour. The machine is really noisy too. So for half an hour you have noise+. Lemon Sorbet came out well. Same with the chocolate ice cream we made last night. This bowl has to be in the freezer for at least 24 hours before you make the ice cream. It makes about a litre. However don't expect to be eating it straight from the machine. You must put it in the freezer to harden completely. So it's a bit of a long drawn out process.



This is what the the leaf looks like on its stems.

This is vegetarian kibbeh-for Lent and the salad we made to go with it. G's mum likes using cabbage. Both sorts-red and green which make for a scrumptious salad. We also put, mint, capsicum, tomatos, red onion and a leaf called baaley. This comes on a stem with the same amount of leaves as the mint and requires picking.










Working on these two quilts putting the three layers together. They are so large it was quite difficult to do. In the end, I basted the three together loosly in lines throughout. Later i was craving cookies. So I cooked chocolate chip with a very easy recipe.
They are addictive though... and it makes 4 dozen.. unless you make super sized cookies.
found here>
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/Detail.aspx

Homemade Tomato Sauce

The plant has gone crazy. A new waterbottle for the gym. We have been trying to go more often. G's been really good and gone everyday but our day off for the last two weeks.

Mothers day gifts.



It was pretty simple to make tomato sauce. Just a matter of having the materials. Thanks to my husband who arranged them and sealed the jars with olive oil inside.

Material

Yesterday I got up early and headed to the material store. It takes a train then a bus to get to the place. I enjoy going because I get to see a lot of the areas we don't normally go to.

Once arriving I was suprised because a lady in the store remembered me- I didn't even see her there. Then she continued on with the conversation from the previous time we spoke. One day I might do a class with her.

There are so many patterns to choose from. In the end I bought some that had been on my mind for a while. Otherwise they would rattle around there and i'd regret not getting some.
There were boxes of new fabric that had not been unpacked yet so hopefully that will be in there next time I go. In the end, I came out with a lot of material. I bought some for finishing four different quilts. Some for a new quilt. Some to add to my stash.


I bought some remnant fabric to make these (plastic bag holders) for family in Lebanon. Was going to get it off the roll but then i noticed some in the rolls of remenants. Need to make one more, so I might get a peice of the orange.