Production Line Sewing

I am watching delayed coverage of the Crusaders and hope to have almost 8 sets of my sewing accessories finished by then.

I have everything lined up and am sewing the finger pin cushions and stuffing them while play is on. During the ads I anticipate dashing to the sewing machine to stitch bits together. I have promised a few of these sets as spot prizes for next weekend. I have three days sewing at Living Springs with a bunch of other women. I am also looking at these as Xmas presents for those near and dear who are into crafts.

7 Pirates were in my house

Yes I kid you not, there were definitely 7 pirates on my back lawn this afternoon.
Eli had his birthday party for turning 7 (which happens next weekend) and there were 7 boys invited to a pirate party.

They all participated in two treasure hunts with secret messages to be revealed (ie the clues were written in white crayon on white paper, so they had to find the clue, bring it back and "paint" it with water that had food colouring. This reveals the message for the next clue). First hunt was a practise run all around our section. This achieved a pirate monocular. The second hunt was so extensive that some of the boys ran out of puff and walked for the last two clues. It was in the Kaiapoi Domain- which we are lucky to live by the edge of. The result was a cutlass so they became real pirates.

Big sword fights on the lawn and lots of food followed. With a treasure chest cake. All good fun and the only injury was Eli who poked himself in the eye!!!. I am now having a cup of tea - whew.

Upcycling - 100% eco Patchwork quilt

There are so many quilts out there that are "scrap" quilts but you still need to buy a lot of material, batting, backing etc to complete it. So I decided to buck the trend and make a true scrap quilt. All from left over bits, recycled bits, others rubbish.
Today I spent the time making the basics of the quilt sandwich. So I made the top - out of three bits of sheeting, the backing was also made this way. These bits of sheeting were sheets purchased from the Op Shop for $3 or under, I made them into duvet covers for the boys. But the bits were left over. So I sewed them together in strips until they were big enough for a lap quilt. Then I used all the leftover scraps of batting from other projects. This took five pieces sewn together.


The picture is me putting the quilt sandwich together. So there is a scrap top, scrap batting and a scrap backing. You can see all the seams on the photo but I am hoping that at the end this will not show through. I tried using basting spray for the first time (instead of pins), it took a lot more spray than I thought and it was not as successful as I hoped. May have to revert to the pinning effort.

Anyway - I am going to use bits that I pick up from the various quilt gatherings I go to. I hate seeing waste and at a lot of places I have picked up quite large quantities of material from the bins. Generally I use those bits to make quilts for the orphanage in El Dorat So it will be stitched as a raw edge piecing and will be interesting to see how it turns out. I will keep you posted.

A school award

Congratulations to Eli. Today in Assembly he received his "growing with excellence" award. This is based on the schools values and they have to consistently portray all the values to get the award. Only two children in his class achieved this last term. So big mana to him.
He had to show Arohanui, Community, Responsibility, Respect, Opportunity and Quality.

Well done Eli.

Dinner for the New Mum and Dad

My spare time today was spent organising dinner for my lovely sister and brother in laws - Jess and Stephen. They have Alex home from hospital now for 7 or 8 nights. We are all finally disease and bug and flu free so we made dinner. Eli was really excited to finally meet Alex as he had been too sick the last couple of visits.
I remember people making meals for me and how amazing it was to have. So I tried to make enough for tomorrow lunch as well. Little Mieke loves my jam and spiced apple cake. As those are both diary free I made some for her.
So dinner was cucumber salad with Lime and olive oil dressing, meatballs in lots of lovely slow cooked tomato, rice and then apple cake for dessert. Then a loaf of homemade bread and a jar of jam. With a carafe of Feijoachello for when the new mum is feeling she needs a bit of something at night.
Earlier in the afternoon Jess told Mieke that I was coming with dinner tonight. Mieke's only comment was "Karen, Cake". Then when I walked in the door she lifted her hands up to be picked up and asked for cake!!! Is that good or bad that auntie is known for making cake??

Where there is a Schulz there is smoke

You know the saying - "Where there is smoke there is fire". Well today disproved that. Smoke does not equal fire when Aaron is building it in spite of heavy rain. We were on our way back from a night in Hanmer Springs (breaking our journey home from Motueka). It rained in Hanmer but Aaron was sure it would not rain on his fire at lunch time.

When we were with my parents my Dad made me a really awesome tool. It is for cooking things over an open flame. Instead of bread or crumpets etc falling off your fork he made a square thingy that nothing falls out of. I have not taken a photo but it is very
ingenious. Anyway we were keen to try it. So at the Balmoral reserve just out of Culverden Aaron set a fire going.

I retreated as it starting pouring with rain (as I had very rightly pointed out to Aaron that it would). Smoke was everywhere. The boys were playing in a tyre swing in the trees oblivious to the rain, but they too came to my hidyhole. So we waited out the rain quite snugly whilst Aaron got soaked insisting his fire would be fine. Eventually it all cleared up and we had a great fire, wee walk and then hot toasted bread with butter and jam for lunch over the embers.

The most amazing retro inspired cafe ever

We have all been in Motueka for a few days. Aaron worked so the boys and I hitched a lift and we all stayed with my parents. We had a great time. My Mother had been keeping one surprise for us. A new cafe, coffee roastery and retro shop called Retrotonic. It is amazing. Great for men and women of all ages. Vintage cars, clothes, furniture, crockery - you name it they have it.

You order your coffee (roasted and ground on the premesis) from the caravan and then wander around while drinking. Fantastic coffee too. We thought it some of the best tasting coffee in Motueka. As much as we love Toad Hall, their food and atmosphere, their coffee isn't the greatest but this was.

So all you retro minded people, rock into this cafe.

Bedroom makeover - stage 3

Well I am now down to the fine tuning of the room. The Black curtain is up - just need a hook on the wall to hook it back during the day. The blue, with yellow and orange flecks, sofa has been recovered using a black fitted sheet. The base of the bed has also been recovered using a black fitted sheet instead of a valance. The white duvets I made from old sheets - here- look great on top of the bed.
So - hook for curtain, New quilt to match the room, and fix the storage issue - the bookcase is so shallow that everything falls out of it, and then it will be done.

Teddy enjoys the new sofa

Yes we have some bananas

I have a whole box of banana's in fact. I went down Marshland Road on Saturday to buy some white wisteria from Gayle at Country Gardens. In between that nursery and the QE11 corner there is a fruit shop (actually there are several). I stopped in at the one nearest Country Gardens and bananas were $1.79kg. Bananas are great if you have been ill as when vomiting you tend to get quite low in potassium and bananas have lots of that so it is good for replacement and getting well. ( I was once hospitalised from vomiting too much and all they did was put in a potassium drip and I felt wonderful - it was the Dr there that told me to eat bananas if sick).

Anyway I went to get about 3 kg or $5 worth and there were boxes of bananas for $8 - I kid you not - 15kg of bananas for $8, so of course I bought the box. I also bought cheap apples $0.99kg and NZ oranges yummy. So we are fruit city at the moment.

Jakob and I drove past the big sign that said "nursery" the other day when we were on the way to see Jess and baby Alex. Jakob said "Mum you just missed the turn, the hospital is down there". My reply was obviously that the hospital was in town. Then he said "But the baby one is down there, it said nursery". Don't know if you had to be there but it was very funny.


I then made a quadruple mixture of Yoyo's otherwise known as melting moments. Took a lot longer than I thought it would! So tomorrow is delivery day - a little bit of sunshine in some Yoyo's and some bananas.

Congratulation Nic - winner of Melly and Me pattern

Congratulations to Nic Mckinlay-Clark who has won the Petunia giveaway. 

Welcome to the world

This week we welcomed our newest family member to the world. Tiny little Alex Warwick Schulz 6lb, born safely by caesarean section. Mother and baby are well but have had a few hiccups. Still in hospital sorting things out.