First garden bed in.. veges on their way!!

The first garden bed was finished on the weekend. A mighty job by Aaron and the boys. Slowly making the new house feel like our own.

Looking good. Paving for the path started on the lefthand side.

The reality of the mess!!

This is what it looked like just as we started to remove beds that for some reason were plonked in the middle of the lawn. Weird.

Gingerbread castles

We are very blessed to have some amazing friends who are happy to let us use their farm to camp on, their company to tramp with, and their daughter to boy sit in the holidays.

School holidays and it was a boy sitter day. But the boys and Arial spent the entire day at her Mum's house making the most amazing gingerbread concoctions. 

When I went to pick the boys up after work their day had been a blast. A delicious gingerbread recipe and real chocolate melted to hold it all together. Do you see the Roman Chariot in the front of the photo. Lovely Tracey had not only had our boys around but lots of other teenagers too. The creations were amazing. 

Then the next week they spent the whole day out tramping with them all!! 

Making a homework station

We are slowly settling into our new house. The last box was unpacked in the weekend. Now I am starting to look at how the house is organised.

We had a lovely piece of Rimu which had been taken out of a house being renovated. Then I bought two old pot plant stands which (for some odd reason) had the top pieces taken off. I found them at our local second hand barn. Haggled a great price as they were in the corner covered in dust.

Aaron was dubious about my plan so I set it up to show him how wonderful it would be.

A few days later the skillsaw came out and the wood was cut to the correct size - Yes in the middle of the dining room just after I had vacuumed - need I say anymore?

Then instead of using dowel etc I used heaps of L brackets to screw the legs onto the Rimu shelf.

 And voila we have a very handy homework station. Still a bit of work to do to get it how I want it exactly. But in working order with a laptop, monitor and keyboard as well as all the essential pens, rulers etc.

I link to these places.

Not snowing yet

We are told too expect snow. The boys are all settled and ready for it!!

Turning bottles into glasses

So it is school holidays and the boys are older. Now we can try some of the more dangerous activities.

Get some beer and wine bottles and try a bit of upcycling or recycling. I remembered doing this when I was a child. First we tied string which had been dipped in methylated spirits around the bottles and set it alight. Once it burnt then the bottle went under cold water. It definitely broke but it was very jagged and will take a lot of grinding.
So then we did a bit of research. Green science were great. A good explanation and Utube video and we started again. Using a glass cutter we scratched around the bottle and then poured boiling water onto the scratch only. Then under the cold tap and the crack would appear. Then one more time and boof - off comes the top of the bottle. A much smoother cut and easier to grind down.

This was all completed over a couple of days as we had to walk the dogs into town to get a glass cutter, do research, try and try again.

Great fun
I link to these places. 

On the needles at the moment

Yes, I have started yet another project. I love knitting but the boys don't wear home knitted things now that there is merino available. Aaron had too many jerseys and I don't need any more. But I had over 1kg of my mother's home spun wool and it is light and lovely. I ransacked the local library for more Biden knitting books and find a very funky pattern.

So on my needles are two stands of wool at the same time imported on 8mm chunky needles. A textured shrug. An really enjoying sitting in front of the fire knitting in the evenings.

From Farmers Market to my plate

We went to the Riccarton House Market on Saturday morning after doing a lovely walk or run or scooter or skateboard (depending on who in our family you are!) around Hagley Park.

Oh the amazing new juice we found. Organic apple and lime made locally. 1 litre for the price of a cup of coffee. Heaven.

From these gorgeous ingredients we made dinner fit for those who are into food miles and organics and mid winter vitamin C shots. Bake Potatoes in a super hot oven until crispy outside and soft in the middle then add your toppings as you desire. Hugh "fearlessly eats it all" eat your heart out!!