Presentation is Everything

On Sunday afternoon we had the joy and priviledge of sharing afternoon tea with our daughter at her "home in the sky".

(For those of you who have been following the crow story, it is still very active in her street and the tarmac is festooned with all kinds of wiper blade rubbers, what persistence!)

We were served a delicious concoction of meringue, strawberries, whipped cream and liqueur with chocolate sticks. It could have resembled a broken pavlova, which is what the ingredients suggest, BUT NO! it was presented in a black and white, polka dot tea cup and saucer and it looked amazing. It was delicious.
She has such taste and flare, and she is able to turn a simple afternoon cuppa into a special, delightful, memorable occasion.

Here's a snap,

I bet you wish you'd been there!

Have a great day
Simply Susan

Handmade Flowers and Daffodils

While pottering on-line recently, I discovered some wonderful inspiration concerning how to make all kinds of fabric flowers.
Fascinated by what I saw, I decided to try my hand at this beautiful floral artistry.

I spent hours over the weekend experimenting, melting various man made fabrics over the flame of a tea light.
What fun! The heat from the flame transformed scraps of material into petal like shapes that can be layered together to great effect. I'm hooked, absolutely delighted with my results. I can imagine the joy that God would have experienced when He created the real deal!

I had to photograph my work in progress beside a lovely vase of daffodils in order to share my delight in both. My flowers may become hair adornments or brooches, or sit together on a plate, who knows, I'll see how I feel when I have finished them.

While working over the flame, I got to thinking how such a small, innocent, beautiful thing could develop into a raging , destructive blaze, especially hearing of the eleven people who perished in a house fire overnight in South Brisbane. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims. Fire is not something to be underestimated, or taken lightly.(Yes, I was outside as I worked and I did have a bowl of water nearby).
Credit goes to the folk who inspired such wonderful creations, thank you.

Sunday Morning

While waiting for my roast chicken lunch to cook, I thought I would take the opportunity, to blog about my knitted Liquorice All-sorts!

I have spent some happy moments during this last week knitting a few of these sweet treats each evening,now I have a bowl full to enhance my "faux" food collection.

Aren't they effective? And Calorie free! The amazing scarf is a belated birthday gift from my dear "adopted" daughter in Sydney. Hand crafted in silk and merino wool. I love it!

I spent a few moments, well an hour or so, re-organizing my sideboard on Friday afternoon, humming and Ar-ring what to put where, since my fantasy cake collection has been boxed since Christmas. I thought it was about time I put it back on display to bring smiles to visitors faces and joy to me.

The snap includes my beaded wire "treasure" plus a dish of 'cupcake' style trinket boxes that my daughter presented to me - just delightful. I made the teapot some years ago, when I was first enamoured with the whole "faux" food thing.
Long may it live!

I am again inspired to make some more and am eagerly seeking patterns and inspiration.
Watch this space!

I hope you smile...
Love Simply Susan

How to While Away Two Hours

Two hours ago, I sat down at the computer surfing for knitting patterns. I stumbled upon a beautiful site offering Shabby Chic adornments to Blogs for free.

Feeling adventurous and bold, and fully aware of the havoc that my fingers could wreck, I decided to have a go....VOILA...What you see before you is my new look Blog.

What do you think?
I'm pretty happy with it, and with myself for being brave. For those of you who are reading this that are more techno savvy than myself, it is a "biggy" for me!

This is now more like me, fanciful and whimsical.
Press onward and upward, more to come.
Message in this? One never knows what one will find when surfing the wonderful internet.

Hope you like the New Look
Love Simply Susan

Updates

I managed to snap my beaded wires and capture the colours for you to Ooh and Aah over, well, I did, won't you?

Well, I'm confident that you'll get the general idea, and rejoice with me.

Further to my last entry about these beaded wires,we returned to N.S.W.via a beautiful route with magnificent views of coast and mountains, back to the op shop where I found the stash last week. I was optimistic that there would be more wires for sale. My luck was in! Not only were there more available for purchase, BUT there was a fifty per cent sale on all bric a brac! OOOH was I happy! Yes. I bought some more and I have added them to my display.

I also returned to the most attractive and well stocked kitchen shop, where last week I purchased two trinket boxes, disguised as confectionery and bought another to add to my tea trolly of tea things. Check this out and have a drool!

In case you are wondering, I became interested in faux food a couple of years ago, when I saw a fabric tea pot and knitted and crocheted cakes in a magazine. I was fascinated and hooked! I had to make some of my own.

One thing led to another, that necessitated a tiered cake plate on which to place them and a tea trolley on which to appropriately display, my "tea things". The collection includes 'delights' made in other mediums, selected for their authenticity - check out the chocolate biscuits on the bottom shelf! I purchased them at a craft extravaganza and while walking to the check out, so real did they appear to people that several asked could they have one for morning tea!

Something interesting that I have learned about myself, why make one when you can make several...different colours, materials...MMMmmmm

Have a giggle and remember things aren't always what they seem!
Happy Weekend
Simply Susan