Just want to let you know that I have moved my blog over to Typepad. I find it a lot easier to use than my current Wordpress set up. I also have two new blogs that you can access from my new Mia Henry blog (see navigation bar under the Mia Henry banner), they are Mia Henry – Food and Mia Henry – Make Sell Sponsor. Busy, busy! Enjoy!!!!

CLICK TO GO TO MY NEW WEBSITE

Mia and I mozzied over to the Love Vintage Fair in Bangalow over the weekend. It was held in the A & I Hall which is absolutely gorgeous. Bangalow is about a 15 minute drive inland from Byron Bay, a very pretty town. They had some really fun demonstrations of vintage hair and make-up styles. These fairs are held in other towns around the country, check out the website, there is one coming up in October in Sydney.

Here’s a virtual stroll around Bangalow.

I have been making some new cushions for my neglected etsy shop. These are so much fun to make, they are quick and really so cute. I used a chenille bedspread for the back. I really love chenille, I love the super cottony feel it has and it reminds me of my gramdma’s house when I was little. She had chenille bed spreads on the beds in the guest room (that’s a thing of the past!), they were a moss green and I would sit on the floor by the bed and untwist all the fringing. I guess she wasn’t too happy about it but she never said anything. In fact I have a moss green chenille bed spread at the moment that I havn’t used because I keep thinking the colour is yuck but now that I have re-kindled that memory I’m liking it all over again. Oh how I loved my grandma’s house.

Congrats to the lovely Melinda! A reminder of what you won…

Enjoy! I will be posting a new giveaway in the next week, if you would like to be reminded of it please sign up on my mail list.BTW is giveaway one word?

Read about it here and here.

Okay I have made my butter. There wasn’t much to it really. I was keen to make what is considered a European style of butter because it is suppose to have more of a buttery flavour, which is always good.

So I took a 300ml carton of 40% fat cream and added one and a half tablespoons of sour cream to it. It is meant to be left in a cool place for 12-18 hours to allow the cultures to develop and slightly sour the cream. It was tricky because it’s been so hot here so I put it in the fridge for eight hours and left it out during the cooler part of the evening for 5 hours.

Then all you do is whip it until the butter separates from the liquid (now butter milk). This was so much fun to watch! The butter is gorgeous and still tastes distinctly like cream. It is very light and pale. I am very pleased with it. I have kept the buttermilk to make pancakes tonight.

However, I’m not sure that the culturing process has made a difference and next time I would not put it in the fridge because I think it was too cold to sour the cream. I kind of knew this when I did it but I think I am so used to worrying about dairy being left out of the fridge that my instincts kicked in. And of course you could skip this all together and just whip cream into butter, takes only a few minutes in a mixer. Next I am onto yogurt!

This wonderful book, On Food and Cooking, arrived in the mail a few days ago and I have been obsessed with it ever since.

It’s so fascinating and the author Harold McGee, is one of those rare writers that can explain technical concepts in a way that I actually get it! I am part way through the first chapter, Milk and Dairy Products. I have to make my own butter now. Here are some interesting snippets:

This is the cycle that cows go through in order to provide us with milk. They are bred and then calved, once their milk comes in the calf is taken away and mum is milked 3 times a day for ten months, she is then allowed to go dry for two months before the next calving. Well that sucks. I wonder it that’s were the saying “Poor cow.” comes from?

Of course milk is pasterised (heated) to kill pathogenic and spoilage microbes and inactivate milk enzymes. And homogenized, that is, pumped at high temperature and speed through tiny nozzles. Homogenisation keeps the milk fat evenly or homogoneously distributed throughout the milk. Both processes affect the nutrient and taste value of milk.

Whether a cream will curdle or not when boiled depends on it’s fat content. To avoid curdling, use cream with 25% or more fat.

I hope I’m not boring you with all this! If not you can check out Harold’s website. I’m going to make some butter and I’ll let you know how it goes.

After the success of this cushion with my Henry I thought I’d put a few in my shop. These one’s are a little smaller than Henry’s and therefore a little cuter. They are backed with fluffy chenille and are so soft and cuddly and just a bit of fun.

Thanks so much to Natalie for sending me these gorgeous organic cotton and bamboo wipes. They are really soft, very sweet colours, and great value. I just love them, great for babies, kids and big people. Have a look for them in Natalies etsy shop.

I also got this teeny ‘gratitude rabbit’ with the wipes, seriously cute, this bunny lives on top of my sewing machine.

Thank you so much to Anastasia (my dust team swap partner) for these awesome cards and tags. I’m always amazed at the generosity and creativity of my swap partners and it’s such a wonderful thrill to get mail! I really love Anastasia’s cards, it’s a great time to buy for Fathers Day and Christmas so head over and check out her wares at Percival Road. You can find out more from Anastasia’s blog.

My favourite

THANK YOU!!