Christmas in July Markets and home life

I love the Christmas in July craft market we have here each year.

Some of the stall holders are here every year and are often seen at other markets around town.

One of the ladies even remembered The Princess buying her last purchase for Mother's Day when we saw her at the Cotters Markets!

So, here is my plug:

Sunday 31st July

8.30am-2pm

Holy Spirit School

Junior Assembly Shed

Via Church entrance, Ross River Rd, Cranbrook, Townsville.

Cafe and Raffle - supporting Camp Quality.

If you are interested in holding a stall please call 07 4773 4908.

There are so many people who come to shop and browse at these markets and oftentimes you have to park a street or two away to get a park if you aren't there early enough.

Okay, enough of my plug (and I'm only plugging because I love much of what is on sale there by such creative and talented crafters).

I'm not necessarily a fan of winter.

I don't like the frizzy hair or dry, itchy skin it brings me.

I really dislike getting out of bed or a warm shower in the morning to cold air.

But I do love winter food!

Especially stews and soups.

Little Man and I made chicken and vegetable soup.

I did cheat and use a pre-packed vegetable soup mix from the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket.

I chopped up 2 chicken thigh fillets, a whole onion and 2 cloves of garlic (we've had sniffles and sore throats around here lately).

Little Man sauteed them in a bit of olive oil then we threw in the vegetables and sauteed them for a few minutes.

We added a couple of litres of chicken stock and let it simmer until the vegetables were just tender.

I love adding some little alphabet pasta noodles just before serving and a good shaving of parmesan on top with a sprinkle of parsley.

Delish!

This is part of the cleaned-up mess after the children made their Orange Franken-cake.

I played around on the iPhoto features so you didn't see how messy my kitchen benches really looked!

I love my new Mother's Day sink - I love the extra 3/4 sink and it's ability to be used as extra draining/drying space.

$35 at auction for an Oliveri sink is pretty good - especially since it was brand new.

Yesterday we went to the library to borrow some books and on our way went op-shopping.

I bought two pillow cases - I haven't decided if the yellow one will be turned into a Pillowcase dress for The Princess, or if it will be trimmed with lace or something for her bed.

The blue case will probably be trimmed as well. 

Both were 50c each I think.

I love the little blue apron that I paid $1.50 for.

It will come in handy for collecting eggs or picking from the vegetable garden for a quick meal.

(My Mrs Beeton's apron came with my my cook book and gets lots of use)

I love the lace doily.

It cost $1.50 and I have grand plans for that piece.

That plan has been inspired by Dottie Angel.

I love her blog.

I wish my house was as clean and sparkly looking as hers.

On my way in from hanging out the washing I happened to look up and spotted this little fellow sitting on the outside lamp.

I don't know what made me look up, but anyhoo, there he was.

He's only little so he's young.

I'm hoping the tree snakes leave this one alone.

(darn - there's a grammatical error in here that i discovered in preview mode but now i'm darned if i can find where it was - oh well, i'm only human!)