Melly and Me patterns

Well six weeks ago I was invited to a baby shower. I came home all enthusiastic and started cutting out my Melly and Me patterns. Had them cut and sewn in a night. Then the next few soccer nights I stuffed them. Then it has taken me 5 weeks to get them finished!!! I kid you not. Why does the sewing up and finishing take me so long. Because I PROCASTINATE. Big time!!
So a frantic finishing session last night and they are all done.

My big hint when doing a Melly and Me pattern is that you trace it with freezer paper and then use that, rather than having to cut out plastic templates.

So I have decided "No more procrastination".
Last night I finished the toys, made the vanilla essence (which the ingredients had been sitting on my kitchen bench for three days). It only took 5 minutes.
Made a huge batch of shortbread (the butter had been "softening" on my bench for two days as well!).
Then to finish the night at 9.45pm I cleaned the toilet. Toilets bug me as they get dirty so easily and yesterday I thought yicky so last night I did it before I had a shower and bed. (It did make getting up this morning easier as all those jobs were not still staring me in the face).

I often "relocate" things to another place or put them on my "to do" list. Really it should get done there and then. On the way home from rugby at Oxford today Eli bought 1/2 metre of fabric at the Cust fairy shop and wants shorts/pj pants. I am going to make them tonight before that too sits around for the next four weeks!!!

Lets see what can get achieved with no more procrastination.

Double Hourglass Quilt - Finally finished!!

Well I said about 6 weeks ago that I could not make a quilt in a week and I was right!!. Since then this is all I have worked on. On Mothers Day I did a last ditch clean up of my overflowing craft stuff. Completed all my mending and cut and sewed the last strip on this quilt.
I still felt it was not big enough for the bed (Aaron agreed!!!). But I am over it and it will have to do. It is more of a summer quilt anyway so does not have to cover so much. It is also going to be very hard to quilt as it is soooo big.
Aaron immediately got under it to test try and then we discussed how to quilt it. So that is now the quandry, a good quandry to have.

This quilt and the method came from Cluck Cluck Sew. Though I have quite a few tips re ironing that makes the assembly of the blocks easier. I also tried to make the template occording to her directions but in the end the good old 6.5" square board does the trick.
So with the left overs I am going to make a little quilt for the charity I support, so will take photos and put up my tips later.

Scooter Safari

Our Pastor - Dennis Isaac, who has been going through operations, chemo and other treatments for cancer has joined in the amazing scooter safari. Go to www.scootersafari.co.nz - fundraising for cancer. Short of a miracle occurring Dennis will not be living a long life but it looks like he is going to take every opportunity he can. Pray for his healing and go look at the scooter tour.

Dennis Isaacs's Fundraising Page

www.fundraiseonline.co.nz

Welcome to my fundraising page. Please support me as I participate in the 2012 Tranz Alpine Scooter Safari, an endurance ride 250 grueling kilometres over the Southern Alps to Hokitika to raise funds for the New Zealand Cancer Society. We set off ...

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers day to you all.
I have had a lovely day.
Poor old Jakob has been struck down with the horrible cold that Eli and I have got and was very miserable, so has been in his PJ's all day.
Aaron and Eli made me a gorgeous breakfast. Fresh fruit salad with natural yogurt. It had pineapple, apple, pear, kiwifruit and banana and was exactly what I felt like. Aaron taught Jakob and Eli how to make real coffee using the espresso machine. So I had about four shots of espresso before I went to church. Eli was so proud of it all that he said he was a cafe and brought me in a bill for the service. $0.50 for every coffee and $1 for the fruit salad!!!
I then had to go to church by myself as Jakob was too sick to take. I was giving the sermon today as they wanted a woman to talk. The sermon was about healing. I was very amused that my family were home sick!! It all went well.
We have had a relaxed afternoon as the day has been sunny and fantastic. I sat in the sun on the deck and starting stuffing my last giraffe. They made me croissant and jam and more coffee for a lunch in the sun. I am so blessed being a mum.

Change of a name

I have been asking for ages as to what I should be calling my blog. The original fromplot2plate was good but the emphasis slowly changed from the garden and food to more crafty pursuits. Most of the names that everyone else suggested were already taken on blogger. So today I spent HOURS trying to get a name I liked that wasn't taken. Then I started a new blog......... Then my IT husband came over and asked what I was doing.
Oh boy, what took me three hours and setting up new stuff he fixed in 3 minutes. I am not joking... 3 minutes!!! He was right that I did not want to lose my followers etc to date and he swapped the name and the url, just like that.
Aren't husbands fantastic.

Fresh Homemade English Muffins

Nothing better on a weekend than lovely, hot off the griddle, English muffins.
I originally got a recipe from an old cookbook that my sister had dated about 1932. Since then I have adapted it for the breadmaker (plus some other modifications). Always works.

Gorgeous to eat with homemade jam and cream, chutney and cheese or whatever you want.

The griddle was bequeathed to me by my Nana when she died. My Auntie was required to give everyone what had been listed and I still remember her telling me that I did not have to keep what Nana had put aside for me. She did not think that they were a very good heirloom. I was given this griddle and two cast iron gem irons. I was so thrilled!!! My Nana certainly knew me well, though my Auntie remained mystified that I did not put them in the Salvation Army box!!!

My Recipe

Into breadmaker put;
250ml tepid trim milk
1T butter
1tsp salt
2tsp sugar
3tsp dried yeast (i don't use the breadmaker yeast just normal - but either works)
1 cup flour
1 egg

put the breadmaker onto dough cycle and let it mix for about 5-7 minutes. Stop the breadmaker and add 2.5 more cups flour. Allow the breadmaker to do a full dough cycle.

Take the mixture out and put onto a floured surface. Flatten it to about 2 - 2.5cm high. Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter. Put the rounds onto a preheated griddle - must have a very thick bottom. This should be hot and even temperature but not frying heat. I put my griddle onto a gas ring at about 1/2 heat - anymore and the bottoms will burn but the dough will not cook.
You could use an electric frying pan.

Once they are cooked on the bottom - It should be brown on the bottom and looking cooked to about 1/2 way up the side of the muffin (takes 5-10 minutes), turn them over till cooked on the other side. The edges of the muffins do NOT get browned. They should be soft to touch but not uncooked.

Use hands only to pull the muffin apart and put your topping on. Yum Yum

Tidying the vege garden for winter

Trying to use my panorama option on my camera. Have to get a bit better at the matching up bits!!

We have been having better weather for autumn than we did in summer. The winter growth on the brassica's is a bit stringy because of it. Today I acknowledged that winter is on the way and started getting into the vege garden to compost and feed the winter over plants, finish doing my cover crops and punnet up seedlings etc for my sisters new 20 acre property.

The garden is a bit daunting at this time when there is so much to do but small bites of 1 1/2 hours makes a significant difference. Soon I will have to look at the flower garden and trees but at the moment I am just thinking of food!!!!

ANZAC day lunch

The boys and Aaron went to the Kaiapoi ANZAC day representing Kaiapoi North School. I stayed and home and had the TV on channel one following the various services around NZ and prepared a family roast.

So we have Paul, Susannah, the girls, Colleen and maybe Caleb coming.

We are having:

• Roast Lamb (with garlic and rosemary)
• Mint sauce
• Roast Beef (with a spice covering)\
• Gravy - lots of it
• Glazed carrots - Jamie Oliver 30 min meals version with thyme, honey and oil
• Braised red cabbage - Annabel Langbein from her first TV series - with currants
• Fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden
• Roast potatoes with salt and garlic - lots of them!!!

On such a lovely day - all outside and relaxing.

Another finished quilt

Well this quilt has been through the "I love it" then "no not me" then "it's OK" then "yep it is good". So I hope the the orphan at Hope Homes who receives this will like it.
Spencer and Eli this morning loved it. Before school they put it on the floor and lay on it to watch TV. (they normally do not get TV before school but they had done all their jobs, had a hot chocolate and were being good).
I am really pleased that some of these quilts are getting finished. We had done a few tops but not batted and quilted them.

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.