Lovely day to share

Hands up who loves spending time with their grand child!  Me too!  Wanted to share a tiny part of my lovely day with you.

Morning started early, water vapour from planes way up high,
 as I headed down the mountain to mind my grand daughter for the morning.

Reached my daughter's place in nearby Bellingen.
Colours of fading flowering gum quite delish!
Linking this photo with Mandarin Orange Monday

Lasiandra and bunting welcomed me in.

Darling grand daughter and I headed for coffee 
and fun at you know where!

She has the most delightful facial expressions!

Appointments dealt with, met up again with daughter and son in law
for lunch break at Botanic Gardens in Coffs Harbour.

The Grass Trees are just one of the attractions

Son in law went back to work & after some quick shopping I left sleeping baby girl
 at home with Mum & headed back up to my mountain home

Where the sun's fingers were tickling the hills 

And making their own special magic

Hubby had some fish cooking on the stove as the sun went down.
No complaints!

Grand children are pretty special, and so are grand parents. Do you have a special memory of a grand parent, or moment with a grand child that you could share with us?  Would love to hear:)

Jubilee Potatoes!

Diamond Jubilee photo ITV news anglia

That's right,it's Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee,

 so let's join in the  fun with our own potato slant on things!

First cab off the rank is this wonderful bunting from What Katie Did Next.  Katie hand makes textile gifts and treasures,  and here she shows us how to make a fabulous patriotic bunting using as the main ingredient the one and only potato!!

Isn't it so effective?

Take one potato..........

See how Katie does it!

She designed the bunting for the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, but I think it is just as appropriate for the Diamond Jubilee, don't you?

I know you want to know more, so hop on over to Katies fabulous blog to learn how she did it !

And next we have red, white and blue potatoes......

Red, White and Blue potatoes 
from gardening express

Highland Burgundy Red:

This variety dates back to at least 1936 when it was used to add appropriate colour to a meal for the Duke of Burgundy in the Savoy. Highland Burgundy Red is mostly burgundy red inside with a definite ring of white flesh just under the skin. Highland Burgundy red has a dull russet layer over a bright burgundy skin. The tubers are oval to long oval. They make excellent novelty chips, crisps and mash. Nutritionalists say that the antioxidants provide many health benefits, including protection against cancer and other diseases.

Salad Blue:

First grown in Scotland in the 1900's, Salad Blue is very blue. The skin and flesh are both a strong, deep blue. The potato is not a salad - it has high dry matter and fries and mashes well but it does not boil well because it is fluffy and disintegrates. Tuber shape is short and oval. Flavour is mild although texture is quite good. The blue pigment is an anthocyanin. It is an antioxidant, and nutritionalists say antioxidants provide many health benefits, including protection against cancer and other diseases. Makes great novelty blue mash and chips!

British Queen:

Over 100 years old and highly prized for its yield, shape, floury texture of delicious flavour. Use for Chips, roasting, jackets and general purpose. In this Diamond Jubilee year, what could make a better potato to plant in your garden?


And finally.....a right royal table featured in The Telegraph!  

Jubilee spread Photo Yuki Sugiura 
What would you have on your table?

So, where ever we are, we can join in the jubilee fun

and I would love you to tell me what you would include on your
 Jubilee Menu 
(but make sure there are potatoes in there somewhere!)

Banner & Bunting on their first outing to Made In Dorrigo markets!

Don't they look great?!!  I am really happy with the result and I got some good comments on the day as well.  I think the calico and hessian works really well for the potato jewellery. And you can see that we were blessed with the most wonderful weather.

Visitors and locals alike were having a good day out.  Food stalls did a roaring trade and the ladies next to me selling cakes were all sold out by mid morning!  I had a good day, and quite a few people had seen the articles in the newspapers and heard my radio interview, so they were interested to see what potato jewellery is all about!  I had a hoarse voice by the end of the session!

This is a piece of jewellery I call Belle of the Ball, which I had for sale on the day.

But the best thing for me was the lovely note sent with the banner from my daughter:)

Banner takes shape!

To continue on from yesterday, I will show you the steps of the banner. 

My daughter printed off some letters to read POTATO JEWELLERY,and laid them out to decide on the design.

Next she ( and helpful hubby)  cut the letters out of hessian and sewed them on to a calico sheet we had.

Quite a tiresome and fiddly job I think, lucky s-i-l was around to keep 18 month old amused while this was going on!

The final layout is semi circular and really effective!

Tomorrow I will be taking my banner and bunting for their first outing to the Made in Dorrigo day!  

Will show you the final result on Sunday, if I am not too exhausted after a busy day!!

Banner and Bunting - I didn't have to go hunting!

That's right!  My banner and bunting where dreamt up and executed by my beautiful daughter ( with a bit of hands on help from sil -that's short for wonderful son-in-law!).  I didn't have to do a thing!

I would like to share some of the photos of the progress ( which I asked them to take)

They started with the bunting made from Hessian, or sometimes called Burlap.  We decided this was very appropriate because my jewellery is made from potatoes, and so the link with spud bags was perfect.

Tomorrow I will show you the progress with the Banner!