Easter Baking, Sewing and Gardening

These are the spuds I dug up this afternoon. It doesn't look much - certainly not enough to keep us fed over the winter, but that is okay, it will give us a few feeds, and there's nothing quite like fresh spuds. I think if I left them longer we would have got more, as there were lots of little ones on the roots. However, the plants were yellowing, and I'd like to use the space for new crops.It was quite a sandy bed, so maybe carrots? But then again, should I plant more root crops in that bed, or put something different in?

This picture is of Charlie enjoying the potato soup I made for lunch(not with my new potatoes).He loves to eat with us.

Yesterday I was able to get onto the sewing machine and make some cushion covers.The photo doesn't really do them justice (colourwise). They are a pretty blue and made with the softest hemp fabric. I bought this fabric years ago when one of the fabric shops in town closed down.I could never decide what to sew with it, so I finally decided the colour matched the other cushions perfectly. I was also able to finish off Charlie's little pants. Again, the colour has come out quite right, but they are lovely soft green baby cord. And the little pocket and cuffs are made from the darling fabric I bought online from "Duckcloth"(http://www.duckcloth.com.au/index.php). It has baby boars on it! How cute.It is a lovely Japanese fabric.They do it well. As I was saying, I had bought fabric from a closing down sale years ago.We used to have three fabric shops in town, all small businesses, which I loved to visit.I have always loved textiles. It is so sad that they couldn't get enough business, and then the big chain store came to town, and that was the end of them. Sadly the chain store doesn't go for the better quality fabrics. It is all pretty cheap, and that's okay, but I'd rather sew nice fabric if I am going to go to the effort. There's been a resurgence of sewing and crafts due to the recession, I believe, so there are lots of choices on the net. I'd prefer to be able to handle the fabric before choosing, but I shall just have to take the chance. Ideally I'd be in a position to start my own wonderful fabric shop, but that isn't going to happen!

Check out the goodies we baked today:We made hot cross buns, without the crosses,both with and without gluten.You can tell which is which: mine are the little ones.They were still tasty, just not as light and fluffy as the other ones!

The girls also made gingerbread Easter cookies.We didn't photograph them after they were baked, because they ended up too well browned(read "burnt!")The girls ate them anyway!If nothing else it is lovely to have the scent of spices and dried fruit in the kitchen, yummy!

So, all in all, a couple of fruitful days. Speaking of fruit, I picked rhubarb today, and have a box of apples from mum and dad, so I am off to the kitchen to make a crumble.Yum,yum!