Do you see what I see?

That's right - there is nothing there - because I cleaned the windows!!  (I still have half the house to do).

This is all about a comment my friend Steff said. She said that all she had done was clean the windows and who wants to read a blog post about that. I thought she should have. I blog about all sorts of random things because I feel like it. If people read it or not it does not really matter. If they like it it's a bonus but if they don't it is no skin off my nose.

I blog because I enjoy it and it is a record of our family happenings etc. It is my pleasure. I also really enjoy reading unexpected posts from other peoples blogs. It keeps me interested, often gives me tips and makes me feel that everyone has normal everyday lives.

So Steff - I cleaned my windows today. It was 26 Degrees C and a lovely day for it. I took particular attention to the rubber surrounds etc that I often miss. I enjoyed doing it and did not feel it was a chore. I love it when I can make my normal everyday jobs enjoyable. It seems so much easier to do in the summer I have to admit.

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My husband is wrong and my husband is right!!

I completed a refashion of my original refashion!!!

The first refashion

1. My husband is right. Yes the dress did not quite work, I still don't think it is perfect and as flattering as some things I have made but I have now worn it twice and enjoy doing so. As you can see in order to try and make it a bit more cohesive I bound the neck edge with orange. I do thing it works better.

The first attempt

2. My husband is wrong. He recommended putting the netting on the fascinator as it was for the wedding we have just had. But I felt it just did not work. So off came the netting and I was thrilled that I did it. I got quite a lot of comments on my fascinator!! (take that two ways - either it was just so fab, or they felt they could not make comments on the dress!!)


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The mess that is our house

After the big wedding I came home on Monday to a full day at work completing an ACC WSMP audit. We passed!!! Yay. Then on Tuesday the vinyl layers came in. Wow the place looked like a construction zone but they were quick and then they got out of there.

Yep they even took the doors off the hinges! What a great job they did. Very professional

So on Wednesday (my first free day in a while and Aaron had flown away for work) to celebrate the vinyl down (no the bathroom still is NOT finished) I completed another full coat of enamel paint on the door frames in the hallway. I am trying to make the most of the fact that the carpet is not anywhere near being put down!

Christmas biscuit production line

Nice shiny finish with royal icing

Over the last two nights I have made a massive batch of Christmas themed and decorated biscuits. It all started last night when I rang my sister at 8.40pm on Tuesday and asked her for the recipe she always uses. It is the biscuit recipe from Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I looked at the clock and thought it was not so sensible to bake biscuits, my sister told me not to. So I did it and made a double mixture. Baking of them all only took about an hour.

But today the icing has been an exercise in patience. I have always intended to use Royal Icing to ice biscuits and make them look smart, as I had seen an article in the Good Magazine on how easy they are to do, but never had. Next time I will do it on a small batch!!! It was fun to start with but then just laborious. I piped an outside white line as I wanted a smooth royal icing finish and so it needed to ooze a bit and I did not want it oozing out the sides. I used a number 2 piping nozzle and it was slow. Then I had to make the colours and fill the biscuits in. At 8pm tonight the boys came to my rescue and put all the silver dots on as I was seriously getting over it.

So now I have the baking for Eli's class shared Christmas morning tea,  a good plate of biscuits to take to the Christchurch Bloggers Christmas get together (so long as Aaron's plane gets in on time) plus for any other thing I need.

Jakob is now asking where the Christmas Mince Pies are. So I guess that is next on the list.

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The Bride, The Bouquet and the Wedding

The gorgeous couple

Anyone who follows my blog will know that this wedding has been in the planning for a while now. Well it was perfect. It was teaming with rain when we woke, by 9am we were thinking it might clear and by 11am when the ceremony happened we had sunshine (with the odd shower of blessing) and it was gorgeous.

The fascinator on my hat is the one that I made at The Make Cafe.

I was hopeless pinning the flower onto Barry's suit, did it three times then had to get someone else to do it!! The bride was stunning, the dragonfly garden sculptures were made by my father in law and painted by a lot of people including my boys.

Gorgeous set of brother with the bride and groom

The grooms mother spent hours making edible dragonfly decorations for the high tea. They were amazing!!

High tea in a woolshed - you should try it. Best venue ever.

The bride made all the bunting. MILES of it. Stunning!!

Just had to put this in. My cousin in crowned a prince.

Relaxing before the evening reception

Yes I did wear my recreation for the evening event.

Raspberries galore

On Sunday we came home from the wedding and needed to pick the fruit that had ripened in the three days we were away. This photo does not look much but we got 780 grams of raspberries. This is the first pick of the year and normally we would be fighting over a small handful, but this was glorious abundance of raspberries. The strawberries were pretty big and gorgeous too. Raspberries and icecream for dessert. YUM

Sometimes you do not see things as others see them. Yesterday some ladies from a sewing group I go to, came around and raved about the garden. I see weeds, tending that needs to be done, planting required, edging to do and a bit of ramshackle really. They saw fruit and vege and an abundance of flowers and kept exclaiming about it. Changed how I looked at my garden, I feel quite proud at the moment actually.

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I tried to "Just whip it up"

I finished this quilt top two nights ago. It is another quilt for the orphanage that I support in Eldorat, Kenya. The material was donated by someone and came to me with all the centre squares cut (5 1/2inches) and some of the outside squares cut. To make it large enough I cut a few more of the big outside squares (8 1/2 inches). But somehow the maths did not work and I think that could be why the person gave up and donated it. I am sure that no child is going to look at it and criticise the red border as not being the same all the way around!! So I just got on with it.

I read so many blogs where the quilt was "just cut and made last night" or just whipped up over two nights. I thought that if that was ever going to happen to me it would be on this quilt where most of the cutting was done. But no, this still took me four nights to sew together. Maybe I am a slow sewer, but I think too that by the time I have the kids in bed and everything done it is about 9pm and so I sew slowly as I am tired and really have to concentrate.

I might get this one finished by Christmas as the wedding is tomorrow and so all the organising and sorting clothes etc , that has been taking my time, will be done.

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A retro style fascinator

Last night I got out all the bits and pieces in an attempt to make a fascinator to match the dress I made for the wedding. Now this is all a bit of procrastination for in-spite of the fact that I do need it, I also need to make some adjustments to the dress. The straight colour blocking of it just seems a bit too harsh.

I started with the basic pink rose that I had pulled of the pink hat I am wearing for the wedding outfit. Then I added a frill of the material from the skirt. Then I consulted with Aaron, who decreed that as it was a wedding - I should go a bit more over the top. 

So I added some hat netting (well I have no idea of the correct name). Then I had seen a technique in the Molly Makes magazine, where she punched felt using a hole punch and put the dots around the bottom. So I got stuck in (almost literally if you are using hot glue guns!!). 

So I now have this to go with

This...

I was determined to make one that had better proportions than the first one I made. I am much happier with this one.

So an alteration to the dress, some mats to make for under the flowers on the tables and off to the wedding I go.

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Wedding refashion done

This morning I finished all the hand stitching of the facings etc and the dress is done.

The front

 It makes me feel like the middle of summer, bright and cheery. Aaron did comment that if the entire top was orange instead of the pink it would look better. I have to agree, I think it does look a bit cut up. But I really wanted the sleeve detail that was in the pink top.

The back

 Yesterday after I finished the sewing I got desperate for shoes. So in a fit I went to the three local Op Shops and thanks to the Methodist Mission I have white shoes to go with it for $4.

The back detailing

So this dress has cost me $12.50 plus the shoes and a blue cardigan I got a couple of years ago for $4.

Here is a reminder of what I started with - A orange linen tunic, A pink linen top and a almost floor length floaty skirt.

I used the cap sleeves

This was cut down

This is the main top

All I need to do is make a fascinator.

I made this entire dress using my dress dummy and pining it to it etc as I have seen a lot on Project Runway. It was a difficult way to make a dress but it has worked!! I had wanted to use a pattern but it had not arrived in time.

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Glamping

Well a lot of our glamping seems to be food focussed. So the last long weekend when we trotted off I had strawberries from the garden, eggs from the chooks and bought some bread locally.

Ever since we bought the caravan we feel we are up in the stakes and glamping as it has all the mod cons.

French toast and strawberries for breakfast is such a winner for us. We tend to sleep in and not have breakfast till about 10am, always after our first swim of the day. So it keeps us going for our adventures.

No matter what the weather we jump in the river once awake - we have even done it after unexpected snow one morning (we ALL screamed that morning). This weekend was no different as most of the time it was hot but the morning cold and so we had a few overseas people in vans (all dressed in trousers and jackets) watch us and laugh as we jumped in.

On our way home we stopped at a "cafe". The local Hororata church ladies set up the church and gardens as a cafe every Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 as fundraiser to do the earthquake strengthening required. Most glamorous and the best value food ever!

Sweat, tears and bruises

Yes, that is what has been happening in my world since I last posted. Having said that we did have a glorious three days away in the caravan over the long weekend.

The bathroom, finally all painted

Though so much has gone wrong that we nearly did not go. Now for those who follow my blog you will know that we have been redoing the bathroom. We finally got paid the EQC money for our house and work has begun. But this is really the end of the happiness. Anything that could go wrong with this bathroom - has. To fix the crack in the floor twice as much resin soaked in than should and the crack was still there - so use another substance.

Go to put in a replacement shower only to find right at the last minute that our shower cavity is not standard, get the builders to extend the shower cavity for the new shower. The shower arrives (10 days late) and we find that it is too small!! by 25mm on all sides. Alter the shower cavity and the shower goes in, then the glass door goes in and by the time the builder gets to the lounge there is a huge noise and the door has disintegrated.

Yes we now have a shower door on

Then there is no hot water coming through the mixer and now we have a constant drip still to be repaired.

Decide (foolishly) that if all the bathroom is being redone then I should paint the ceiling. Start to paint it and the ceiling is obviously under wear and starts crumbling and cracking all over the place. Five attempts later I now think I have fixed all that and have one paint coat to do. (fingers crossed).

Paint the walls and the paint spits and bubbles - like little pop bubbles. Roll and re roll, sand and try again. The one part that has worked well is the enamel paint. But I think I am going to have to do a light sand and a third coat.

Book the vinyl layer, having been told that there is about a two week wait. Go in and pay the deposit and the earliest they can get me in is in 4 weeks!!!!!

So I went outside on Tuesday night and decided to take my frustration out on chipping the motar off the bricks for the garden redo. I hit my thumb and hand more than the bricks and although that stack is now ready my hand HURTS.

Sigh. Garden is a mess, house is a mess, have to get on with my dress for Kerryn's wedding next weekend.

So we may have a finished bathroom by Christmas (fingers crossed)