Tea cosies

This post was inspired by 'Little Jenny Wren' at http://littlejennywren.blogspot.com showing some of her favourite tea cosies.
Although I love pretty cups & saucers, I prefer plain white teapots covered in colourful cosies. I guess it's nostalgia from my childhood, coupled with the need to keep the tea 'hot' here in the mountains, where the climate is a tad cooler. Some have been purchased at fetes, some op shops, some at markets, one a designer 'teashop' and one handed down in the family.

The Wedding, the cake & mosiac lesson

Mosiac Lesson
Begin by choosing photos in sets of threes, starting with the ones you want on the bottom row.
When uploading, Under layout option choose 'none' (This allows you to move them around as they will load one on top of the other in a column and you want to click on each one and drag them into a row - you choose whether you want spaces or not.) and 'small' under size.
I work in 'compose' as this is simpler for me and check how it is going with preview. I usually find the photos are still too big, so I click on each, one at a time, and drag the corner marker to make them smaller.
Finally I publish and choose 'open in a new window' so that I can check the final result and edit if necessary. If the photos aren't small enough I find they wont sit three in a row, but send the third one down to the next line, which spoils the effect.
BTW I cooked the 3 cakes, but my husband ended up doing most of the icing, including the intricate measuring of the patern, as I was not well and also needed his mathematical skill and precision and patience. I went to bed to recover for the wedding day. I managed the day but am still not well- lots of coughing, which started yesterday.
Well I just had a go at publishing a didn't get three in a row so I need to shrink them or try two in a row. Finally it worked!!

Crockpot Recipes and Photo Mosiacs

Whats in the crockpot right now? My Favourite Chicken and vege soup.
Brown 2 or more chicken thighs in a frypan.
Chop up with chicken shears (the kind of scissors that pull apart and can be cleaned throughly) or use a knife, or cook pre cut
Put chicken in crockpot, Crock pot on low setting
Brown Pumpkin pieces, (1/4 0f a jap pumpkin), add to pot
Brown some onion and garlic, add to pot
Add whatever other veges you have on hand - carrot, swede, potato, sweet potato etc
(OR if in a hurry in the morning add 1kg pack of frozen white wings chunky cut casserole veges)
ADD 1-2 litres of chicken or vege stock or 3-4 teasp powdered stock and 1-2 litres of water, just cover food
You can also add herbs of choice fresh or dried - I use dried Italian mix. Simmer all day on LOW, use HIGH only if you need soup in 3 - 4 hours time

SORRY NO PICS this time, icing cake, packing for a quick getaway, but hope to post soon after the holy season, with photos of wedding cake too!

OK photo mosiac lesson next time!

Hello

Just a few of my favourite things... and a quick hello... as I have posted in quite a while! Been busy working fulltime for a while with long days, often away from home for 12 hours, (so thankful for my crockpot/slow cooker) looking forward to the school holidays and catching up with friends and a less hectic schedule of 3 days work for the rest of the year!