Tea with Crunchy Lemon Muffins

Today I thought I would share with you

my Hammersley tea set passed on to me

by my darling mother - she loved beautiful china

and I've inherited that trait!

I'm also

sharing

one of our family's favourite muffin recipes!

Crunchy Lemon Muffins

2 cups Self Raising flour

3/4 cup Sugar

75gms Butter

1 cup Milk

1 Egg

Grated rind of 1 large or 2 small Lemons

~~~~~~~~~

Topping

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

1/4 cup Sugar

Measure the flour and sugar into a bowl - toss to mix.

Melt the butter, add milk, egg and lemon rind and beat

well with a fork to combine.

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and combine

until the dry ingredients have been lightly dampened

but not thoroughly mixed.

Divide mixture evenly between 12 medium muffin pans

and bake at 200 degrees C (390F) for 10 minutes.

Stir together the lemon juice and sugar, 

without dissolving the sugar, and drizzle over

the hot muffins when they come out of the oven.

Leave to stand in pans only a few minutes

and place on a rack.

for my special touch

I slit the top of each muffin

and add a generous spoonful of Lemon Curd.

enjoy!

I'm joining 

Judith for Mosaic Monday

Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea

Sandi's tea Time Tuesday

Ruth's Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Thank you dear ladies for hosting

Take care and

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

The Art of Friendship

When Stephanie hosted her first Tea Cup Exchange
I wonder if she knew what a huge success it would be
It soon became the topic of blogger chit chat
I read the posts my friends wrote
and I admired their photos
 of beautiful tea cups both received and sent.

What prompted me to become part of it 
was reading about the friendships formed
by bloggers from all corners of the globe!

I've now been part of the last two exchanges.

This year I sent a tea cup parcel to

Asia

who blogs at

http://underacreativespell.blogspot.com/

where she creates artistic cards

Recently I received an unexpected packet
with the special Royal Mail post mark
(this caused great excitement in our house)
and inside was the most exquisite card
made by Asia to say
thank you
I'm sure you will agree what a talent she is
please pop over to her blog and say hello!

Thank you dear Asia for being so sweet
I treasure your beautiful card,
and for me this is bloggy friendship at it's best!

I'm joining 
Judith for Mosaic Monday
and
Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration

Thank you ladies for hosting!


Thank you my dear readers for visiting and 
leaving your kind comments
take care and
be kind to one another
Merci à bientôt


Shane

A Parcel of Inspiration

I think we all enjoy reading a new magazine

while sipping tea or coffee

during our break from domestic duties!

Lorrie who blogs at one of my favourite blogs

Fabric Paper Thread

organised a magazine swap - now that was music to my ears!

Living as I do in a far away land, New Zealand,

I don't have the wide selection of magazines that my blogging pals

in Europe, the UK, Canada and the United States have.

Merci Lorrie!

Lorrie partnered me with Deborah

please visit her inspiring blog

The Beautiful Matters

You can see from the first photo the collection

of beautiful magazines Deborah so kindly sent me!

They are sitting on my bedside table

and each night I read one before I float off to sleep

to dream of gracious homes, monograms, beautiful gardens

and inspiring food!

thank you

Deborah

you have given me so much more than a parcel of magazines
you have given me the
 inspiration

* to use my crepe pan I bought a while ago in France
lying forgotten at the back of the pot cupboard!
* and I've started a list of items to look for at the

brocantes

when we visit France in June/July this year 
including some vintage monogrammed bed linen
fingers crossed I find some.

I'm joining
Judith for Mosaic Monday
and
Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration
thank you both for hosting your parties.

Thank you dear readers for visiting and leaving your comments

take care and
be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

Easter Cards made with Love...

Happy Easter dear friends

Easter Sunday dawned dull and grey here

it was also the end of daylight saving

in our little corner of the world

our clocks were turned back one hour during the night.

These photos above are from our 

Easter celebration dinner last year.

Today we went out for Easter lunch

and I completely forgot to take photos!

so instead I'm showing you the

Easter cards I made for my

three granddaughters

who live in 

France

You all already know how much I miss them

and wish I could share Easter celebrations with them....

I hope you have had a joyous Easter celebration with your family

Thank you

dear friends for visiting and leaving your sweet comments

I'm joining the following parties 

Aimee for Share Your Creativity Sunday

Judith for Mosaic Monday

Jess for The Art of Homemaking

Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration

Thank you ladies for hosting your parties!

Take care and

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane  x