A luscious surprise in the garden

I have been looking after my niece and nephew. One of my things when looking after kids is being outside. Kids expel energy, are often calmer and can explore and use their imagination. Well they were both occupied with the sprinkler and getting "rained on" and I took a wee moment out to look around the garden.

Wow was I surprised when I looked under the strawberry bird netting. STRAWBERRIES GALORE. Now this might not seem odd to you considering it is a strawberry patch. But this is the earliest I have ever had a crop of such size. Last year it was the 23rd November and that was early, but this year has blown me away.

And they were yummy yummy, full of flavour mmmmmmm.

So I was taught how to be a proper ballerina, we drew with chalk all over the verandah, went to the park and played on swings and see-saws, got wet under the sprinkler and then got tired!!!

Mieke teaching me to dance

Mieke showing off her new hair clip I gave her

Alex had to have a clip too

The wee man does lots of eating

Drawing on the verandah

All was happy until she decided to get off while still swinging!!

Sleigh Bells are ringing

Just confectionery with a flower hair tie

So last night I finished the fabric flowers I had been making. I went out to morning tea with a friend and bought some hair ties and clips and hot glued them onto these. Then I have used them as the final flourish for these Christmas sleighs.

The finish hair accessories

So last night was production line with the hot glue gun. I now have all the "under $5" presents I need for all those Christmas do's that we ladies go to. And a few for some children who I like to give a wee something to. The boys might make some as a teachers present at the end of the year.

 

The great thing was that when I went to the supermarket yesterday (countdown) they had the kit kat bars for only $1 each on special and the other chocolate bars were 5 for $4.

 

This is not my idea but something that was linked to me on facebook - I have tried to get back to the original owner of the post but cannot find it. They just stacked piles of chocolate up.

 

For the boys for Christmas I am going to do some that have a lego minifigure on top.

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Fabric and button flowers

I finished these yesterday. What are they for? Well everything you can thing of..... to go on a clip for your hair, to be a broach, to be decoration for the hat or bag you make,..... I was thinking of it being the centre of a fascinator. So not quite  a finished product yet but I will keep you posted on how I finish it all off.

I was finishing my fascinator and started perusing the net for ideas as I want to make a couple more, smaller and better finished. I found the pattern for these flowers and they just took my fancy. Just a wee note. That I found if I followed the sewing instructions exactly that the flowers went a bit wonky. So once the petals were all pulled together and that tied off, instead of doing some diagonal seaming as instructed. I just went to the back of the flower shape and completed two more sets of running stitch through the bottom of the flowers. This tightened it and yet the flower kept a good shape.

It is so simple, easy to do in front of TV. So I got a bit carried away!! Just need a bit of scrap material and a button and you are away.

I would like your opinion - do you like the black background on the photo or the white? I chose the black as the photography of the flowers was better but I think if I had the composition right then the white would be good.

Do let me know. I link to these places.

Ciabatta Buns for school lunches

At the moment I think that my sister and I are in sinc. I had just made these gorgeous Ciabatta buns for everyone's lunch last night and she posted photos and a recipe for the bread loaves she makes. On Monday I was just posting about the asparagus lunch with poached egg and hollandaise and she posted a photo of her lunch - the same but sans the hollandaise.

The recipe I use is from a bread making queen. Jennie Shapter - Bread Machine - how to prepare and bake the perfect loaf. Oh it is so easy and the bread comes out like you would expect. Big holes, soft outside, it is amazing. As I get concerned about copyright I have not put her recipe in here, but go to the library and get the book out.

So for breakfast Eli and I had toasted Ciabatta buns with homemade raspberry jam (and I felt so good as I did not have butter!!!).

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A purple quilt

This is another quilt for the Orphans at Hope Homes International. As it is for children it is backed with a lovely flannelette. The quilt blocks I picked up from an Op Shop for $5, the border materials came from Hazel as off cuts from one of her quilts and the outer border and binding came from my stash.

This quilt has been sitting on my sewing table for about 6 weeks. Partly quilted. So I finished the quilting and bound it - as I already had the binding prepared.

Well today started very early with the boys all getting up for a soccer game. Liverpool vs Arsenal. Unfortunately once they got up I could not get back to sleep. I was feeling so blurry that we did not even get to church, though for once we were awake in time. By 9.45am we were all back in bed.

The scallop border I quilted

I only quilted on the cream to make the purple stand out

The quilting on the final border.

So we have had a very quiet day all catching up from lack of sleep. So for once instead of painting or catching up on the garden I spent a bit of time on my sewing machine.

Happy to have it off the sewing table and put in the pile with the others.

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A craft project finished

I finally finished the fascinator that I started on Wednesday at The Make Cafe in Christchurch. It has been a while since I have done any craft project let alone finished something.

This is what it looked like when I finished the class - and it is on the pink hat that I intend to wear with it.

The fascinator was really fun to do but I made it too big. The tutor suggested curling the petals, so I have done that all over and then I went to my treasure chest (aka button box) and found a 1960's button for the centre and glued it in.

I have a pink hat the I have put it on and it looks great, as you can see that with all my hair etc I think the fascinator does look better on a hat. All I need to do is adjust the dress and I am ready for Kerryn's wedding.

Though I have another outfit to make which the hat will go with .... but I will need to make a different fascinator for that. I am quite looking forward to improving my skills.

If you live in CHCH and you want to learn this skill The Make Cafe are running another class in a week or so.

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Asparagus and Hollandaise - a homegrown lunch

Ooh what a lovely lunch I have just eaten.  Egg from the chooks, laid this morning. Hollandaise made from butter and another chook egg. Oh it was delicious.

 

Asparagus from the garden (yes in spite of the patch being years old and me nurturing it and adding more plants I just can't seem to grow much - so this is the sum total of the stuff from my garden bed). 

  Egg from the chooks, laid this morning. Hollandaise made from butter and another chook egg. Oh it was delicious.

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The first strawberry

Here I was rejoicing over the first strawberry of the season. I photographed it, I picked it and I lost it. Where did it go? I searched all the usual places that I could put things but did not find it. Then this weekend I was telling Aaron and Ruth about it and Eli pipes up and says "I ate it", then instantly denied it and said he had been joking. Hmmm hard to tell.

Finishing a Fascinator

My not quite finished fascinator. Just need to do a bit of curling and the centre

Last night I joined several other like minded souls and learnt how to make a fascinator. I learnt that it takes a while and you need quite a lot of stuff!!!

Some of the amazing bits and pieces

Lots of material and hard work.

It was at the Make Cafe in Christchurch, always a good place to be. My fascinator is by no means finished as there are several steps and it took a while, but it looks good on the hat that I am going to wear to Kerryn and Barry's wedding.

Next time though I will make it with smaller petals.

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Have you ever been bitten by an Octopus?

The Octopus before it bit him.

Well Jakob did and it was NOT a good look. We were in Dunedin for the long weekend and canoeing at Purakaunui Inlet. A man was floundering and his Mum knew Ruth. So when they found a baby octopus they brought it down for us to see. It crawled over everyone's hands and then when Jakob got it, it was obviously too much, it bit him!! It was a little baby, half the size of Jakob's hand but you could not get it off and Jakob was screaming. So I rushed him to the seawater and he put his hand in and the Octopus swam away. It made a huge puncture mark and then the finger it had attached to started swelling, and swelling and looking red. So soaking a hand in seawater and using the cold milk bottle as ice and pressure, the pain took about 45mins to stop and the swelling about 1.5 hours. Far out.....do not let an octopus bite you!!

Apart from that we climbed up Signal Hill, using a very graduated track so I could do it.

Interesting face painting

We spent a couple of hours hydrosliding at Moana Pool. Watched a movie, ate good food and had a busy time. Visited a Fete at the Lady Thorn Rhododendron Dell. Where the boys got free face painting.

On the ridge on Signal Hill

On the way home we stopped at Riverstone Kitchen and had a lunch/dinner at 2.30pm. Oh it was sooo good. We were so busy eating that we forgot to take food photos. But enjoyed wandering the grounds and the kids loved the huge adventure playground.

The amazing Riverstone Kitchen Gardens

More of the gardens

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The boys loved the Karts

A treat in a milk bottle

Today was hot after school and the boys were grumpy. So I pulled out the little 300ml glass cream bottles that I bought when I was on my trip last weekend. Made a gorgeous milkshake with icecream in it. Served it up a little retro. Refreshing.

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