Back to school baking

Well tomorrow it is back to school. Eli has been talking quite a lot about his school trip to Ferrymead where they went "back to the sixties". It is on his classroom blog - here. As part of the day they looked at food and made lolly cake. He saw some at a cafe and that reminded him. So off we went to the supermarket to get all the things we needed. Apparently it is his favourite food.
So we then also had to make Jakob's favourite food - chocolate brownies. The recipe I use is just melt it all in a pot and bake. I am so into recipes like this. I made it at 9.30pm last night but it only takes 5 minutes at the most. Fantastic.

Homemade skate park

The boys have spent the last few days cutting a big box apart and making a skate park for their miniature skate boards. The big argument when making it was on the amount of graffiti. Eli was drawing graffiti all over it as he said that is what skate parks are like. Jakob was not happy at all - he saw it as defacing his park. Anyway a myriad of jumps and lots of drawing later. (they even have a car parking area)
They have been playing on it  heaps and have found that if they put glue on their fingers the the boards stick better to do the jumps and ramps.

Awesome Mount Cook

We had such an amazing time at Mt Cook last year that we went for longer this time. On the way we stayed at the Lake Tekapo camping ground in a standard cabin. I have to say that it was a very expensive standard cabin! Poor tourists.
Then we went on to Mt Cook on Saturday and had two nights at the fabulous Hermitage. We stayed in the motels where the boys had their own room (yeah - some relief from their noise!) and we had the amazing complimentary buffet breakfast looking down the valley to Mt Cook itself.

The boys on the deck outside our backpacker room

The weather was amazing and so we completed or semi completed some walks. The boys love walking on the Moraine's - they look like adventurers against the skyline. Unfortunately I did not manage so well. I am noticing my deteriorating heart a lot more when in the outdoors. But this did not detract from our fabulous few days.
On Monday Aaron tramped up to the Mueller Hut and then on to Mt Olliver. He stayed the night at the hut. His photos are amazing.

The view from the deck off our room

The cool thing was that the boys and I walked with him to the track turnoff (where it goes uphill for 3 hours solid!!!) and we could see him climbing most of the way to the Sealy tarns. We found that really exciting and everytime we saw him appear we screamed and shouted. Eventually we had to contain ourselves as others high on the track thought there was something wrong when we were yelling.
We had awesome weather most of the time but Monday night the rain started. The boys and I stayed in a room at the backpackers (it use to be the old THC hotel when I worked for SPHC chain) and the picked up a drenched Aaron the next morning after he tramped down the hill.

A very wet but very fast Aaron at the end of his Mueller Hut tramp

Skate Jam - Kaiapoi School Holidays

What a huge turnout.

Yesterday was another rise up Kaiapoi event. This time for the kids in the school holidays. Due to earthquakes Kaiapoi has lost both it's BMX track and skate park area. We used to use both of those quite a lot.
So yesterday Cheapskates put on the free event in the New World Kaiapoi car park.
Thank you New World and Cheapskates, it was awesome.
It was heaving with people from 2 - 19 years old. They had a trick competition in the middle that was fun to watch. I don't know how the kids didn't all crash into each other - but they all enjoyed it.

Jakob (on left) watching people jump the ramp

Eli giving the ramp a go. He was the first person to do a full faceplant off  the ramp. An impressive sight!!! He did not cry but said that he really wanted to.

Breakfast time is very quiet

I never thought I would see the day when breakfast with two boys was quiet!! But it is the only meal at which they are allowed to read and so they make the most of it. But the concentration goes on the book and not on eating breakfast. I love it when kids suddenly "get" what the joy of reading is about, how to use it for quiet time, for escape, for expanding the imagination. Eli has just been getting confident to actually read and understand by himself and it is GREAT!!

Don't make foolish statements

Last Thursday my patchwork and quilting buddies Sheryl, Paula, Kylie and Steff meet for our weekly sewing night. During the night I was started my series on how to use pre cut packs. I have started focusing on Jelly Rolls. I demonstrated how to make fast and easy double hourglass squares. I then said that it was so good and so easy that I might have a quilt top completed by this week. Oh foolish me!!! I have NEVER EVER made a patchwork top in a week. It is starting to look like I never will!!! I still have washing to do, bathroom to clean etc etc and our get together is tomorrow.

Morris insisted on staying on my sewing 

Here is a quick peek at what I am doing.
The pattern is taken from Cluck Cluck Sew (a blog that I follow). I do tackle the cutting a bit differently from her as I have worked out how to use my 6.5" square ruler instead of using the template she describes as needing. Makes it to be nice and fast for cutting. I am always on the lookout for faster, easier ways to do things.

This has a little bit of my upcycling, recycling ethos - the white fabric is a 100% cotton sheet bought from the Op Shop. It is one in very good condition and so easy to use.

Beginners quilt lesson - finally finished

Last year I taught a beginners patchwork class. I had made random sample blocks for each lesson. As the lessons went on we all realised that it would have been helpful to see the various patterns in the setting of a quilt. It has taken me a year to get the little cot quilt finished. All my students are now on at least their third or fourth quilts and we now have an evening a week that we get together. I have now starting looking at quilting techniques and patterns with them. You will see that later.

So the colours and highly patterned material are not what I would have put together if I had intended to make a quilt from scratch but this quilt will end up being given to an orphan at Hope Homes. 

www.hopehomesinternational.com/

Hope Homes International - Children's home in Eldoret, Kenya.

I have been at the power tools again

Yes I just can't resist them. Though I had to use our sander and it is really pathetic compared to Aaron's Dad's one. But I got there. I made a coat rack. I used the front of an old Rimu draw that had been smashed up and given to use by Aaron's Dad. (Bit of a waste of Rimu but as the rest of our stuff is Rimu it seemed appropriate).

A set of old EPNS spoons and forks that Anna gave me ages ago when moving to Cromwell. I used the same method as before. Sanding it all, smoothing the corners and then just oiling the wood.

I even polished the cutlery before putting it on (whilst thinking that really I should be polishing my own silver that we actually use.)

I do not think it as professional as the drawer I made but it is ok and makes me laugh. The boys thought it was really cool and Aaron was OK with it. So it does the job of picking up all the swimming bags etc off the laundry floor. They were bugging me so much that I just had to do something about it. At some stage we will get proper shelving in their but at the moment while it is all still unplastered etc this works.
Obviously working with builders etc is starting to rub off on me! Who would have thought!!!!

Fantastic Op Shop finds

Yesterday I had the best find for the best price ever!!! An amazing retro butlers tray. It was $3 and looked really scummy when I got it. But I have been wanting a butlers tray for years and the new price of $75 (upwards!) has seriously put me off. It has cleaned up so well it is much better condition than I thought.
This is so much better than anything I could have bought new.
Aaron has promised me breakfast in bed tomorrow with it. Hot croissant and coffee - YUM.

I also got this awesome shaped carafe. Last year I tried to alter the Lemoncello recipe I have, to use the abundance of fejoas up, and the resulting Fejoacello worked so well everyone loved it. So this year it is going into mass production and what better than to put it into awesomely shaped carafes.

Seed Collecting Time

rainbow beet, eating pea, bulb fennel, sweet pea, kurly kale

Yes it is autumn in the garden and I am either collecting the seed from the plants that I left in for that purpose (or bemoaning forgetting to leave a plant in and realising I will have to buy seed!!!), sewing green crops and generally not doing too much work but eating the harvest.

The ice cream recipe

My cousin Alison has asked for the recipe re the blog about making home made icecream. Note that this makes about 3 to 3.5 litres of ice cream.

500ml cream
8 egg whites
3/4C castor sugar
1 tsp Heilala vanilla - pure vanilla bean paste (bought at raewood fresh)
   (if you do not have this you can use 2tsp of real vanilla essence but the bean paste is way better)

Give the egg whites a beat until stiff and holding together. Slowly add the caster sugar as though you are making a meringue or pavlova.
In a seperate bowl whip the cream. Add the vanilla and beat to mix through. (if you beat the vanilla into the egg white it will affect them)

Mix the two together. Put into containers to freeze. Yes - no churning, no fussing needed and it is delicious even a few weeks later.

If you want to do a flavour just use some homemade jam. Beat 2 T of jam into the cream before putting with the egg whites and then swirl another 6-8 T jam into the finished mixture to leave a pattern and threads of the fruit. (home made raspberry jam works really well)