I like trees,

really i do, but you wouldn’t think so loooking at the hedge trimming I have been doing (with a saw).

The before shot……………..

And the after (or should i say during shot, cause I still have about a third to go)……………..

For those of you familiar with our place I also got Matt to clear all the vegetation from the front of his room, as it used to just get trampled on.  I’m hoping that when the new sleepout is finished there might be enough $$ left over to get a few truckloads of gravel to put on the driveway. At least now the driveway is heaps wider and you can get out the car without getting stabbed by branches.  If I knew how to use the chainsaw there wouldn’t be a hedge (but I’m too chicken to learn, it’s scary).

 

I’ve been taking advantage of the quiet here and got some sewing done. Shoe bags for Lilly, I got 7 bags (various sizes) from the fabric, and when Nathan moves out of her room I will be putting our homemade Rimu coat rack up, so she will be able to hang the shoes (hoping for less mess)

Shower proof overalls for Cam.  Fabric from Fabric Hound. Pattern from my trusty Kwik Sew sewing for Babies book which I’ve had for 18 years now

Camo pin cord overalls for Cam.  Had to laugh at these, I made then to size 86cm (which is average height for Cam’s age), and had to take about 3 inches off the leg, as they were so long My wee midget boy 

Good pattern though – Ottobre 6/2007

I have two more pairs cut out ready to sew, one of each of the above patterns, blue cord and red with stars.  Hopefully get them done tomorrow.

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The birthday

Yesterday was Lilly’s birthday, number 10.  She wanted a party at Lollipops play-land, and to tell you the truth after all the other parties done at home I was quite pleased to leave all the cooking and cleaning up and entertaining to someone else.  I was also lucky enough that my lovely niece came and looked after Cam the whole time so I could talk to the adults and make sure the others were fed etc.  I left Ian at home doing more building.  Here are some pics of the birthday girl, I can’t post pics of anyone else without permission.

And just to prove it, you can have your cake and eat it too

While I was gone Ian got the door on the sleep out, and some edges on it (not sure of the technical term for those), now we are ready to clad the outside.  When I drop off the kids at the bus for camp I will go and get some pink bats for the walls. Hooray its finally looking like Nathan will get to live out there sometime soon.

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More WIP

Before i post a pic of today’s work in progress here’s the promised pic of the fabric for the quilt for our room. It even matches the lilac walls, but I may have to change the curtains Quite bright, but I didn’t want anything namby-pamby. Cool colours aye?

Ian made a start on the new sleepout today. Here’s how it looked after an hour or two…………

That’s Paul on the saw.

And Ian watching. 

They did get the window in by the end of the day, but had run out of nails to get any more done.

 

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Anzac Day

Wow two posts in day I am doing well. 

 

I just wanted to post about going to the Anzac Day parade this morning.  No is wasn’t a dawn one, lucky for us the Greytown one is not till 10am, cause I’m not a morning person, as my husband and children can attest to

 

Anzac day isn’t something we celebrate as a rule, except for that fact that it’s a day off work.  We do both (Ian and I) have ancestors who fought in WW1 and WW2 (Probably like most NZ’ers).  So it is time we took a little time to appreciate the freedom they fought for.  It has seemed a little more important since Sid passed away (Ian’s dad).  Now that the kids are part of Scouts they lay a wreath from the Scout group, and participate in the march.  Last year when Cam was still little I sent Ian along, but this year now he’s bigger we all went.  Surprisingly the whole family came (even the teenager), including my niece who was staying with us.  It was good to see the service and I managed not to cry at the sound of the bagpipes (which I love, but it’s a bit of a Pavlov’s dog sort of reaction that it brings tears to my eyes), and we followed the march through town.  They flyover was cool, and Cam loved seeing the planes. Quite a nice morning really.

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the blog lately everyone, Gypsy – I got the vest fabric from Spotlight on Tuesday, it looks good but I wouldn’t sew it without an over-locker, and the River Cottage DVDs are our favourite to watch whenever there is nothing on TV.

 

Tomorrow I’m going to post a pic of the new fabric for the quilt I’m booked into make in a few weeks, and maybe a pic of a birthday pressie I am making.

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I’ve been tagged

Domestically Blissedhas tagged me for a Food Porn Meme. Cool.  My first tag.    It’s on a subject that is close to my heart, (as my sad wardrobe can attest to). So here’s the guts.  I answer a bunch of questions and then tag some other people to do them   Simple enough, but I’m already racking my brains for who to tag.  The questions I can do.  Here goes

1. What food do you consider the best “date” food? In other words, what meal or food item do you think is sexiest to eat in the company of someone you would like to look sexy around?

That’s a tricky one.  Can’t say I’ve ever thought too much about looking sexy while eating.  Beetroot soup would be my pick. What can be sexier than red soup?

2. What well-known person would you like to share a meal with?

It would have to be Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  My hero and inspiration. You can check him out at River Cottage.

3. What does your perfect breakfast-in-bed look like? (Food AND the details, please. Candles? Music? Flowers? Hot tub? Dancing girls?

I love pancakes with bacon, bananas and maple syrup and a decent cup of tea.  At home is good (especially if we could move the garage so I can look at the Tararua ranges while having brekkie).  I like it when the kids all come in to chat while I’m eating, but not when the maple syrup gets on the blankies

4. What do you consider the best application of whipped cream to be?
Pavlova I’m not sharing any other kinds of applications here on my blog.

5. Oh-God-No, Biff, the yacht is sinking! You are sent to the galley to retrieve the food. What luxury food items do you snatch first? The champagne? The caviar? Smoked Salmon? Truffles? Chocolate? Or something else?

For me the essential items would be tea, then peanut butter, and crunchie bars. Although good wine will always made the list (there has to be an upside to weaning).

Now I have to tag some people.  How bout Challenged, Anemone, The Bean Bag.  They will have to do, and I don’t really read a lot of other blogs.

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Slack again

Sorry, keep meaning to post, but not motivated really.  I know I should as I’m pleased to say that people do actually read this blog, and some even comment.  Awesome.  Although there is nothing wrong with talking to yourself in cyberspace. Is there?

Here is the spare dressing gown I made Cam, however it’s too pretty for him, so it’s going to the lovely Iris instead.

I have finally started to teach Lilly to sew.  She is halfway through making a pencil roll.  I’ve been good and patient, and only made her unpick a small piece and haven’t shouted at all.

Lilly wanted me to make her a cute vest from one of the Ottobre patterns which had an argyle pattern on it.  Do you think i could find any fabric like that? Not even at Spotlight   If anyone finds some let me know   The closest I could come was this cool retro patterned knit.  I think its groovy!

See you next post.

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The weekend

I was just doing my Sunday night Internet browsing (checking TNN and the blogs I regularly read) and was just about to turn off the computer when my email notified me of comments on my blog (hooray).  So here I am posting again as I had forgotten that I had promised pics of the dressing gown (thanks for the reminder Gypsy ).  It was well and truly needed this morning (it was about 2°C here, brrrr).  So here is a pic, complete with breakfast down the front.

It is currently in the wash and will be dry by the morning, thanks to the lovely warm fire, but as I have such a huge amount of this fabric (though in different colours) I will make another one as a spare.  It will only take about half and hour to make.

On Friday Auntie Sharyn and Hayley stopped in for a visit.  Auntie Sharyn was bearing this awesome gift for Cam (she knows about his Thomas obsession). 

Cute PJ’s

Lucky the dressing gown sported the breakfast so Cam got to wear these for a second night in a row.  It was also good that I didn’t buy the PJ’s, as I had seen some Thomas ones and was appalled at he cost compared to regular ones.  Most of his other PJ’s are made by me.

Well I was going to title the post according to the weather, but I forgot to. Doh!  It feels like Autumn has gone already, the Tararua ranges had snow on them this morning (visible from our window), and yesterday morning it hailed here, and we had another 5mm of rain (in just a short time).  It didn’t stop Ian getting a few man jobs done   The new trailer had a slide in back flap, which has been changed to a drop down flap on hinges. Today’s jobs was replacing the box corners on a few ends of the house that were rotting.  I am truly impressed, Ian’s woodworking skills have really improved heaps lately, and I’m so proud of him.  The corners look great , and will be even better when the rustic plugs are put in and it’s all painted to match the house.  But it is great to know that it’s not going to deteriorate any further. 

To make it even better a wonderful new friend dropped off a door for us to use in the sleep out renovation.  How cool is that!  Another friend did a building course last year, and is going to give Ian a hand to take out the existing window and put in the new frame for the door.  Maybe even next weekend if the weather is kind and Ian buys the framing timber.  She has even offered to help if I want to get the interior ply up next week when the kids are all at camp. Yay, its nice to see it all coming along.

Sorry if there are spelling errors in the blog.  Matt’s Internet connection is back up and running and I can’t get it to connect long enough to spell-check

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Well we sure had some rain yesterday.  29mm. That is pretty good.  I had moved the stock into the small paddock behind Matt’s room the day before, but had to go move them in the rain yesterday arvo as they looked so forlorn standing there in the rain with no shelter.  I know I’m a big softie , but you gotta have happy meat, it just tastes better.  So they are all back in the big paddock where they can shelter under the trees if they need to.

I made Cam a dressing gown yesterday as I’m trying to get rid of my huge stash of fabric, and I had some stretch terry that wasn’t any good for wipes, but a double layer makes a good dressing gown.  It’s white inside, but blue outside.  I made it without a hood or collar.  I think hoods are a waste of time, and the collar seems to attract food at breakfast time, so no collar.  Easy to wash and fast to dry.  I will post a pic soon as I stop being lazy.

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A sneak peek

I thought I might give you a wee peek at the quilt I am making.  You can’t really get a huge idea of what it will look like, because it will look quite a bit different when the borders go on. I am pleased with how its coming along, and I will be working on it during the holidays, as I will be starting a new quilt soon (or 3, might need to do ones for Lilly and Nathan too). 

Its bright isn’t it?  The borders are yellow, then black with planets etc.  Will do them tonight i think.

Now in the spirit of buying handmade, this is Cam’s new toy.

Made by hand, in Nelson.  I saw these years ago, now we have one.  He loves it!  Sort of an early birthday pressie

 

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More preserving

Here’s a pic of the dried mushrooms.

Don’t they look neat.  The whole house smelled like cooking mushrooms for most of the day.  We even found a few mushrooms in our own paddock yesterday, enough to add to the beef stir fry that we had for dinner.

Made Cam some cow spot PJ”s.  Plenty of room for growth, and plenty of room for huge night nappies

I went to my Tuesday night sewing class last night, first time in two weeks.  It was good to get out of the house for a bit.  Pity that there are school holidays coming up, now I can’t go for another two weeks.  I did sign up for a quilting class at Crafter’s Heaven in a few weeks.  Its a night class, 6pm till midnight.  Sounds like fun.  Have to purchase the fabric to make the quilt though.  It’s going to be a big one for our bed, which I will probably get professionally quilted (just because of the size).

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