Nieces are Fun

It's good being an aunty.  You can do the fun stuff and none of the crappy parenting stuff.

This week, Niamh and I had a couple of fun sessions together.  This was the result of our sausage making adventure yesterday.   Who looks more grown-up here, I ask you?  :D

Andrew and I bought a grinder and have been experimenting with making sausages.  The bought ones all make us react, even the supposedly preservative-free, gluten-free ones, and poor Andrew misses them so much.  Like a lot of blokes he loves a sausage!  So far the home-made ones have been fine.  (And they taste heaps better than commercial ones too!)  Once Niamh and I made them, we had to cook a couple so she could try the taste. 

The hood she's wearing is one of her birthday gifts, this one from my mum.  She is 12 now.  She's having a bit of a hat phase and mum and I knew as soon as we saw this pokeman hood/scarf combo, that it was perfect for her!  I want one myself.  It's adorable and snuggly soft too! 

Here she is posing with her painting with hood reversed.  She loves the art too.  I'm glad of that.  I know it's very fluffy-bunny but she is 12 after all, and I figure she'll like it for a few years. After that if she doesn't want it any more she can gift it back to her old fluffy-bunny aunty, who is already missing having its cheerful presence around the place. 

Niamh and Jerry in their dreams.

Niamh also changed out my saying on the fridge.  I love the new one she wrote for me, and the unicorn to go with it!        

"Ride on rainbows, dream your dreams, and be free."

In other news, I saw this piece of cool art in a cafe this week and I liked it and took a pic of it for my friend Nicolette who will love it.   I love Frida Kahlo, and I love that it is called "Beauty from the broken places."

It's for sale in The Pines Cafe in Darlington if any local wants to go buy it.  It's done in a beautiful painterly style, and the price is $340.

Other artiness this week was a bit more practical, like sausages.  Andrew and I re-did the legs of this old Jarrah outdoor table.  We used some of the elderly jarrah that came out of our friends, Gav and Jules's, roof when their house was extended. Score!  There is lots more too.  Good Jarrah timber is rare and precious.   I doubt that it would be used in many roofs these days.  As for the days of using it for railway sleepers in their millions, or to cobble London streets, those are long gone, thank goodness!

Anyway, with the new legs on, and the top all re-screwed by Andrew earlier, and some good coats of olive oil, it will hopefully last for another 25 years and more.  Excellent!  I hate to waste stuff, especially precious trees!