Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

It's coming up to that time of year again, and the fact that this particular fundraising is achieved via a nationwide morning tea event, makes it even all the more fun!
Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is one of The Cancer Council’s foremost fundraising events and the largest, most successful event of its kind in Australia. Over $40 million has been raised since it first began in 1994.

Thursday 22 May is the official date of Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea 2008, but you can host a morning tea (or afternoon tea) anytime in May in your office, home, school or community centre to raise money for cancer research, education and all the support services. Once you decide to host a morning tea, all you need to do is set a date and time, invite people along (this could be at work, school, home or in a club) and ask people to leave a donation.

If you register online they give you your own webspace to set up your own event page and there's invitations you can download and print, plus a whole lot more. A very worthwhile and sweet excuse for sharing a chat and morning tea with friends. Enjoy!

ANZAC Day Biscuits

ANZAC Day - our commemorative day 'Lest we forget'


ANZAC Biscuits are an easy recipe to make. They are a golden crunchy biscuit (cookie) made with Coconut, Oats and Golden Syrup (and a sprinkle of love) ANZAC biscuits are delicious and will keep for a long time, if you can resist them that is.

The initials ANZAC stand for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. Anzac Biscuits were originally baked by women in Australia to send to their husbands and sons serving overseas during WW1. The parcels containing the lovingly baked biscuits took over 2 months to arrive at their destinations and they still tasted just as good!

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

~ exerpt from the poem "For the fallen" by Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

Secret UFOs - the sewing phenomenon

You know they are out there! They lurk in their thousands across the globe. They are every creative, crafty woman's little secret, as they lurk and tease you from their dark sequestered hiding places. Usually found pushed right to the back of a designated 'UFO shelf' in your craft or sewing cupboard. You will sometimes catch a glimpse of them. You find yourself hoping that the sewing pixies will come and visit your house in the still of the night and somehow finish those UnFinished Objects for you.

In the still of my nights this week, I found myself picking up a UFO that I had started way back in 2003 :) I have always loved embroidering by hand, it's soothing to my soul, and this Stumpwork Embroidery of 'Gum Leaves with blossom' and 'Red Bottlebrush', has been a pure pleasure, albeit a long one! I had found the pattern for it in an Australian Craft magazine and although the magazine has long found a new home, my unfinished embroidery had decided that this was its' home and has sat there for all those years . . .waiting . . . It has felt so good to complete it. It has renewed my inspirations.

So it's back to my drawing board to finish off writing my new patterns. Oh, and to frame my new embroidery work too . . . so that I know in my heart that it is completely done and no longer a secret UFO!

Rosy wishes,

Earth Hour - Candlelight Night

Nothing really to do with craft, sewing or tea & roses, but it is something I am passionate about. Tonight we are switching our lights off for an hour at 8pm for Earth Hour. Joining in seems like the right thing to do at our house. Our carbon footprints are leaving marks on our planet and quite simple changes in all of our everyday lives can make a difference. Not just tonight. What type of future will our children and grandchildren have on this gorgeous blue planet known as Earth...

So what to do for an hour with no lights on? Well, it is Saturday night hehe but there are all sorts of fun events and experiences planned by lots of businesses and neighbourhoods. The creativity that some people have put into tonight is wonderful! OurBrisbane has lots of great ideas, for example: South Bank has a free screening of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. Some people will be heading to lookouts and hilltop vantage points to watch the city dim and others will be fine dining in romantic candlit restaurants across the city.

Perhaps I should get our vintage kerosene light (camping light) out from the garage and sit and do some hand needlework by lamplight, whilst pretending I am a lady from Victorian times :)

8pm Saturday 29th 2008
Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney event. Earth Hour 2008 is a global movement.

What started as a question in 2007 "How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?" resulted in 2.2 million Sydneysiders turning off their lights for an hour last year. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Brisbane tonight will be joining in this year too, along with millions of others in 23 other cities from around the world.

How it all began...



See the difference you can make - Earth Hour - earthhour.org

Every single light switched off, makes a statement and a difference . . .

Happy Easter wishes

Happy Easter to everyone. Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox - and for that equation we can thank ancient Egyptian Astronomers. Easter predates Christianity, the name comes from Eostre, the Saxon goddess of dawn. But even much further back in time, civilisations have always held festivals marking Spring and rebirth. I feel a little left out in that regard, being that is Autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere, but I can still appreciate all the sentiments of the day.


If you would like to make my Felt Chocolate Easter Egg, it is a Free Craft Pattern on my Site.

And simply because it truly wouldn't be Easter without chocolate...
-The Aztecs offered gifts to the Conquistadors in the form of cacao beans piled high in wicker baskets.

Chocolate was used for therapeutic qualitites during the 18th Century.

Richard Cadbury decorated a chocolate box with a painting of his daughter holding a sweet little kitten in 1868... and the first chocolate box was born.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine - which causes a reaction and feeling in your body similar to falling in love. Heartbreak is a major excuse for chocolate then!

Enjoy your Easter weekend

Take time to stop and smell the roses...

above: my Tia Rose Pincushion & Rose Leaf Needlebook Pattern $14.00 includes instructions for both the blowsy Rose and the petite Rosubud, along with the Rose Leaf Needlebook.

My recent summer rains brought out the most gorgeous roses. Summer is over now, as I head into Autumn, but the memory of such beautiful pink blooms lingers on.


I added an extra touch of whimsy with the Ladybird on the Rose Leaf Needlebook. Ladybirds are dear to my heart with their 'good luck symbolism' and their representation of the Virgin Mary throughout the Middle Ages.

I only learnt recently that in other parts of the world they are also known as Ladybugs. Lady Bugs or Lady Birds or Lady Beetles . . .
they are welcome on my roses anyday!

"Ladybird, ladybird fly away home . . ."

Rosy wishes

St. Valentine's Day

above: my Sweet Heart Love Letter Pattern ($14)

Happy St. Valentine's Day.
Sometimes inspirations come from the most romantic places.

10th January 1846

Dear Robert Browning,

…Do you know, when you have told me to think of you, I have been feeling ashamed of thinking of you so much, of thinking of only you--which is too much, perhaps. Shall I tell you? It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what you are to me--the fullness must be in proportion, you know, to the vacancy...and only I know what was behind--the long wilderness without the blossoming rose...and the capacity for happiness, like a black gaping hole, before this silver flooding. Is it wonderful that I should stand as in a dream, and disbelieve--not you--but my own fate?

Was ever any one taken suddenly from a lampless dungeon and placed upon the pinnacle of a mountain, without the head turning round and the heart turning faint, as mine do? And you love me more, you say? Shall I thank you or God? Both, indeed, and there is no possible return from me to either of you! I thank you as the unworthy may…and as we all thank God. How shall I ever prove what my heart is to you? How will you ever see it as I feel it?…

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806 - 1861)

What are those cakes on your cakestand?

"What are those cakes on your cakestand?" I have been emailed that question a number of times recently, after my last post about Pink Lamingtons for Australia Day. I thought I would share the answer with everyone. Thankyou too to all who have sent me gorgeous emails over the past month, I so appreciate them all.

And yes, I have been a little busy these past 2 weeks - but there are actually more designs in the works (or spread all over my sewing table is more like it)

"Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies,
with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes etc;
being brought in as other guests arrive."
~ Mrs Beeton. The Household Book of Management.

Tea Parties are such a fun way of having a 'fancy afternoon tea'. I have found that smaller or daintier portions of sweet and savoury treats work the best, because you usually find that everyone wants more. And they have to still have room left in their tummy for a cup of tea or coffee!

On my Cakestand for that day I had homemade White & Pink Lamingtons in the smaller size. There were Buttercake Cupcakes with various pastel Buttercream Icing colours - White, Pink & Green - and the cupcakes were topped off with sweet little, freshly picked, pink rosebuds.

Pictured above: Top left: Miniature Meringues sandwiched together with swirls of coffee buttercream. Top right: Jam Rollettes wrapped in a pretty Pink Rosebud paper and tied with kitchen string - they made such a pretty little package. A White Lamington is in the background. Bottom left: Shortbread Cream stack - these were Arnott's Premier Melting Moments - tied up together with lashings of sheer Pink Organza Ribbon. Bottom right: homemade Chocolate Chip Biscotti - made smaller than the normal sized Biscotti - topped with squiggles of Pink Icing.

If you would like more Tea Party Ideas or even ideas about how to have a Rose Tea Party, which includes recipes for rose petal sandwiches, sugared rose petals & rose petal butter, you're most welcome to have a look at those articles on my Site.

I hope that your curiosity has been satiated hehe and that you find an inspiration or an idea or two that you can try next time you have a sweet and luscious Tea Party. And thanks again for asking, I actually enjoyed reliving that just now through writing about it (& it made me hungry too lol)

Rosy wishes

Australia Day & Pink Lamingtons

G'Day and happy Australia Day to fellow Aussies everywhere. Fascinatingly enough, we don't celebrate our National day with a full-on traditional meal with all the trimmings, unless you count a BBQ with snags and chops and overbrimming bowls full of fresh garden salads (well it's summer here) And friends. Can't forget our mates.

What is Australia Day? Apart from being a great long weekend, it is our National Day when we commemorate the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788 . . . wiki . . .

Now being that I enjoy so many of our typical Australian foods, and you can find my ANZAC Biscuit recipe here, and being that today is Australia Day, I thought I might mention about another great Australian tradition, which is the humble Lamington.

Lamingtons are delicious squares of sponge cake, completely covered in Chocolate Icing and Coconut. Lamingtons first appeared in Recipe Books throughout Australia around 1909. They were named after Charles Wallace Baillie, Lord Lamington, who was the governor of Queensland from 1895 - 1901 They are very easy to make.

Chocolate Lamington Recipe

ingredients
120g butter
2/3 Cup Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
2 Cups Self Raising Flour
Vanilla Extract or Essence
Pinch Salt

chocolate icing
1 2/3 Cups of Icing Sugar
4 Tblspns Cocoa
Boiling Water
Vanilla Extract or Essence
Dessicated Coconut (shredded)

method
Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F Grease and flour a shallow square cake tin.

Beat Butter and Sugar until light and creamy. Add Vanilla. Beat in Eggs, one at a time. Sift Flour and Salt together. Add alternately to mixture with the Milk. Mix lightly to form a soft mix.

Spoon into the Cake tin and bake for approx. 1/2 hour or until cake is cooked. When cold, cut into uniform sized squares.

Dip each square of Cake in the Chocolate Icing (see below) and then roll in the Coconut. Set aside for the Icing to set.
Tip - place a square of sponge cake on the end of a fork prior to dipping. This will be less messy as you need to completely cover each square in Chocolate and then Coconut.

Chocolate Icing
Sift Icing Sugar into a bowl. Blend Cocoa with the Boiling Water to make a smooth paste. Mix into the Icing Sugar, adding a little more boiling water at a time, if needed. Add Vanilla. The Icing should be the consistency of pouring cream, for ease of dipping.

To make Pink Lamingtons
(& white, pale blue, violet, mint green etc:)
If you love pink, as much as I do . . . then Pink Lamingtons are for you. Omit the Cocoa from the icing mixture and add a tiny drop of red food colouring instead and voila! a very girly Lamington. And don't limit yourself to pink lamingtons, there's always white, pale blue, violet, mint green etc. My Lamington in my photo is made quarter-sized, which make them a very 'morish' treat. Which leads me to think about how versatile these delicious little afternoon tea cakes really are and all their variations; miniature-sized lamingtons, lamington fingers, lamington cake, cream filled lamingtons, raspberry jam filled lamingtons, jam and cream filled, lamington bars . . . oh my! delicious.

So I guess it's time grab a beer, fire up the BBQ, have a yarn with my mates and celebrate all that truly makes Australians unique, because we are!
avagoodaussiedaynlongweekend

January is the month to...

go shopping!
All those wonderful post-christmas sales.
There's something very delicious about the feeling of a brand new
year. Perhaps it's the clean slate, a new start. It always feels so
nice. I have found so many pretty notebooks and pencils, that I
just had to have. I'm all set, I have my brand new rosey
notebooks at the ready to jot down all those ideas as they spring
to mind (often) And did you ever see such gorgeous boxes of
pencils? They're from Two's Company. I can't wait for their new
site.
Rosy wishes,

Happy 2008

I'm just taking this fleeting moment to wish everyone a (slightly belated) very Happy New Year and hope that your coming year will be full of wonderful moments & lots of happiness . . . and lots of craft & sewing!

I still have that tune humming in my head and it seems a shame that we only really let it out once a year. Auld Lang Syne was written in the 1700's by Scottish poet and songwriter, Robert Burns . . . meaning "Once Upon a Time" or "Old Long Ago" or "Old Long Since" or "Long Long Ago". . .

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne . . ."

Best wishes for 2008

Christmas wishes

Thankyou from my heart to my gorgeous family & friends, who have filled this past year with so much love & laughter. My wishes to everyone for a Safe & Merry Christmas for you and your families. May your own hearts be filled with every happiness during this special time of year.

moments...

"All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle."
~ Ellen Birdseye Wheaton, 1851

afternoon tea & domestic bliss

I'm guilty of being a quote lover! So much so in fact, that each time I update Tea Rose Lane I find more quotes that I just have to add! I try and restrain myself...

This quote by George Gissing inspires everything I love about having a cup of tea. I can't help but use my good china when I have a cup of tea. It seems such a waste having pretty teacups and saucers hidden away for that 'special occasion', that rarely comes around. So I use them. Whenever I hear that chink of the china & the tinkle of the teaspoon on the saucer, I am instantly reminded of this quote. It would seem some things never change over the centuries. George Gissing, with his insightfullness, is a man after my own heart!

"In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival - almost one may call it - of afternoon tea . . . the mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose."
~ George Gissing (1857-1903) The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

Pudding by design

above: my Rosy Plum Christmas Pudding Pattern, includes both sizes ($14)

Christmas time is a sweet time of the year, for so many delicious reasons. Who can resist resist the sweetness of a Christmas Plum Pudding as it's proudly brought to the table. It's always made with love.

It's that 'handmade with love' that was the inspiration behind my latest design, Rosy Plum Christmas Pudding. Created in chocolatey rich felt, linen and cotton fabrics, they all have pastel coloured rosy custard tops and are topped off with rose holly sprigs. A gorgeous pincushion or christmas table decoration or add an extra length of ric rac to hang them from your christmas tree. I couldn't stop at just making one of these Puddings as you might notice from my pictures. They're very 'morish', just like the real thing!

Add some Christmas scented spices to their filling and you have the makings of the most gorgeous christmas sachets and decorations.