All seasons on one holiday

Walking in the rain

Eating in the rain

Seeing Himalayan Lillies in the sun

Cozy in the caravan

Taking lots of photos

Exploring waterfalls

The last food after being rained and winded out

Gorgeous sunsets while camping

Great family photos

The boy cousins all together

Some exploring of limestone cliffs

Croissant for Xmas morning breakfast

Mayhem and all the family for Xmas lunch

We had a lovely holiday. Like most people in NZ there was rain at the end. Actually absolutely amazing thunderstorms!! In our caravan we were all snuggly but it was the wind at our campsite that did the damage. So many people lost tents and awnings. But we had a fabulous time. All my family were together for camping on Xmas Day. Later Mother and Dad left and Mark and Anna went off for their honeymoon, the rest of us stayed behind. Sometimes swimming five times a day due to excessive heat, sometimes in rainjackets and merino jumpers!! But all in all it was great. We are relaxed and have just said goodbye to my brother, wife and one child. The others fly out tomorrow. Our house will seem HUGE as we will have gone from 9 living in it to plain old 4 and the dog.

A Foraging Paradise

Just arrived home from 13 fantastic nights away. Incredibly fluctuating weather from 33oC to thunderstorms and wind. But what did not fluctuate was the constant great foraging finds.

Gooseberries found and stewing

The foragers with the spoils - this time gooseberry

Gooseberry Jam made.

Hot scones to eat the gooseberry jam on.

Lots of plum trees laden 

Walnut trees ready to be collected in Autumn

Hazelnut trees budding

Hazelnuts in my handbag

I made this up when camping. Don't know if anyone else has a recipe the same but had to do it on the fly.

Gooseberry Jam recipe

We had 2 kg of gooseberries which I put 1 cup of water with and simmered until soft.

Then I measured out 3 cups of the gooseberries into another pot. To that I added 3 cups of sugar and then simmered for 10 minutes and put in jars that had been sterilising in boiling water.

That made a jar of jam for every family camping.

The leftover gooseberries I put 1/2 that amount of sugar with and we had a gooseberry sauce. We had that with scones and cream and the next day made gooseberry fool. Yummy yum yum.

What a great wedding

I loved the hat that Anna got me

 The wedding was yesterday. Fantastic, everything my sister had planned just went into action. Amazing clowns on bouncy stilts entertaining kids for hours, bouncy castles, awesome food and drink and to finish a display by the fire people Highly Flammable.

The Wedding Party. Anna, Mark and their kids

The boys all looked great in the silk waistcoat and bow ties that I made. Montana-Rose asked to do a speech and it was to say thanks to Aunty Karen for doing her hair. I was so blown away - she made me feel very special. She looked amazing.

Albie

The younger boy cousins all together.

Yes I did wear this before the ceremony!!

My brother and the kids. Robyn and Sophia stayed with us for a couple of days first. LOVED having them

My immediate family. Not been together since my brothers wedding  7 years ago.

Upcycling a shelf

From This

To this

Yes it did look like this

All fitted into the wardrobe.

In amongst having no kitchen, laundry, dining room and lounge - I finally finished the redo of a shelving system for Eli's bedroom. Thanks to Dawn for giving me her old shelving. With a bit of sanding and lots of painting, rescrewing and some furniture tacks we have a new look. Way back here I re painted his room and put up new curtains. (If you click on that you can see what his wardrobe used to look like!!). But now I have redone his cupboard. Cube shelving up on what was one big, hard to use space, and a matching shelving set for all his toys etc. Goodness we can actually close his wardrobe doors now. All I have left to do in his room is put handles on the wardrobe doors and make a pinboard and recover a cushion. So the house was madness but is now calming down.
In the process of all this Eli went through all his stuff and we have completed a massive declutter and throw out. It has been fantastic.
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Down to the wire - finish

Well this finish was really down to the last possible moment. Tomorrow I pack and then we have Anna and Mark's wedding on Saturday and then off camping on Sunday. So today i managed to finish the last five Christmas presents. Yes everyone pretty much got the same thing.

All this year when I have been away I have taken my stitching and stitched the names. Then over the last few weeks I have been sewing them into Zip purses etc. I am now practicing making little boxed zip pouches and love them. Easy to make and they look good finished. I found the tutorial here.

Gorgeous simple raspberry jam

Well inspite of all the Mayhem going on around here, some things just don't stop. The major thing that you cannot halt unless you are God is the garden growing. I have cauliflowers being prolific, strawberries and raspberries almost falling off their plants. And today I think we are going to have to have a good pick of the blackcurrants.

Anyway this week as you know I have had no stove, no washing machine, no kitchen at times while the floor is drying but I had raspberries. Now this could have all been a step too far, I fluctuated between making jam and putting the raspberries in the freezer. So I decided to make it- at least it would not be a job I had to do later.

put bottles in boiling water to sterilise

Weigh your raspberries

Put raspberries in pot and put in the same weight in sugar. Warm at low temperature until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to the boil and as soon as it is a rolling boil let boil for 4 minutes, Stir as this occurs. Add zest and juice of 1 lemon. Turn off heat and stir every minute for 15 minutes (this keeps the raspberries evenly distributed around the jar). Put into jars and seal well. EAT

I boiled water and put all the jars and lids into the boiling water to sterilise them. Normally I would just put them all in the oven. Then I used my camp stove to make the jam. I used my recipe (and have realised that I have not blogged it before.) It is all bottled, finished and washed up only 20 minutes later, so I was really pleased that I did it.

Learn to use fondant icing - at the Make Cafe

Kirsty pouring cold drinks 

Everyone arriving and exclaiming

The plain cupcakes to start with

More of what I finished

On Wednesday night I went to a fondant icing course - or cupcake icing course - at The Make Cafe. I had a lovely time along with 6 other women. I learnt alot. It was fun and look at how much we did in just the two hour session.

Not only did I learn a new thing but it was a real treat. Kirsty at The Make Cafe, puts incredible effort into her events with the aim to make you see it as a special time. All beautifully decorated and laid out but also lovely teas, coffee and something to nibble.

My boys were really impressed and took them to school in their lunch boxes.

the best ones

Two boy washing machine

feet doing the washing

great concentration

Well as you know our house is in a state of flux. We have no stove and no washing machine. So I told the boys that they had to learn how to do washing the back-packing way. If they are going to travel the world they at least need to be clean. They were a bit reluctant at first but then got into the fun of it. My Mother was really helpful and hung out the washing once they had washed it, Mother and I wrung it out and then she hung it on the line. I was sanding and puttying up holes in the walls ready to paint.

My mother was amazing and helped heaps

Wednesday night once we had emptied the house I had a big hissy and said I am NEVER doing this again and I am not moving (my excuse was I was sooo tired). Anyway I woke up on Thursday morning to realise that in about 6 months we would need to do it all again when we paint the walls. (Yes I did say 6 months- part of the hissy was I rang EQC to find out about our earthquake claim which I had been guaranteed would be paid by 31 Dec, to be told that they can't meet that deadline and it could be anything up to the middle of 2013!! To say I was unhappy is putting it very mildly).
Anyway - what I realised on Thursday was that if I painted behind everything - the oven, the fridge, the washingmachine, the computer desk, the china cabinet while they were out now then we would not need to move them again when we finally could paint the room as a whole. Inspite of this being an excellent plan I do feel rather overdone and that I have just added yet another thing in to the juggle going on. So I am working on the puttying holes, sanding etc and even though I am a bit stressed I know that it will relieve a lot of stress later.

The twins!!!

At the airport I parked beside another Will  VI

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The need to blog

I have the most amazing photos to show you of the internet station Aaron has set up for me while he goes for  a run. I have no floor, no table, no chair and almost no PC. (the motherboards BIOS chip is stuffed!!) Clever husband working on it like crazy.

But for some reason I cannot download my photos to show you the extreme lengths I go to for Blogging. Sigh. No craft has been done as the house has been moved out to do the floors. That along with a aunt's funeral on Friday and my Mother coming to stay, mix in a bit of work and it looks like as much as I may think about it a lot, blogging is on the back burner for a  couple of weeks.

Will update the pictures when I can as you have to see it to believe it!!

Hi Visibility Bridesmaid Dress

the gorgeous safety bridesmaid!!! (love the matching hat)

I contemplated calling this blog post the 22 minute bridesmaid dress. As - yes- all it took to make was 22 minutes. We had our work  Christmas Do today and as the H&S rep for the company I felt that this is a very appropriate outfit. T-Shirts were the old style and could no longer be made to wear, I decided to put them to good use.

Another title could be - make a bridesmaids dress from 2 T-shirts and a Hi Viz vest.

I overlocked most of the seams so it is really rough. All the neck and other edges were left raw as T-shirting does not really fray.

I turned up to the work do in the new Longsilver uniform and got a great reception. I told them all that it was a trial run for the wedding in two weeks time. (Anna and Mark run Longsilver Construction Ltd). Anna was not amused that I would wear it to the wedding - told me I would not be let out of the kitchen. But I AM going to wear it (well while we set up anyway).

Cutting it all up

The begining - two t-shirts and a Hi Viz vest

The two vests for my nephews

I join Amanda at Crazy Mum Quilts for finish it up friday - I had been working the last two weeks on more Silk waistcoats and bow ties for my two nephews Albie and Jack. I finished them this morning before I got stuck into my dress for the wedding.

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