Our Genius

Last night at the school prizegiving three students at the school were given awards for outstanding results in international exams. Our Jakob was one of them. We are so proud. He completed the University of South Wales Global exams earlier in the year. He wanted to do the Mathematics exam. This covered children NZ and the greater pacific region in year 6. (which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand etc. ) He achieved a result in the top 1% and has received a certificate for High Distinction.
When they gave us his exam back we thought we would go through and work out how to calculate the few questions that he did not get right. Neither Aaron or myself could!!!!

Kaiapoi Christmas Santa Parade

Yesterday was our town (Kaiapoi, NZ) Christmas Carnival and Santa Parada. We always try to stay at home for the parade weekend. Had a lovely (albeit rather windy) day. A few snapshots.

The males in my life all patiently waiting

I wanted this trike!

Our local community garden had an amazing float

Santa and the parade had ended.

My Op Shop find

I am super excited with this Op Shop find. Paid more than I usually do $10, but it works really well. Cleaned it up so it sparkles and I am going to wrap it and put it under the Christmas tree as an extra for the boys.

I link to The Op Shop Show off.

Refashion an Op Shop find.

Well my latest refashion I did complete in a night. I guess it could just be called an adjustment. I chose the top at the Op Shop for several reasons -

Before

After

• I loved the pale pink colour
• It is linen
• It has sleeves

But it was too long, down past my bottom and then it looked like I was trying to hide myself. I also absolutely loved the neckline details and thought that it would look more cohesive if the same feature was on the bottom of the shirt.

the neckline detail that I replicated along the bottom of the shirt

So I chopped off about 5 inches from the bottom and straightened it. Added a self made binding to and top stitched it around the bottom to allow for a frayed edge like the neckline. Took the sleeves in more at the bottom binding. Sewed on new buttons.

Now I have a cool summer shirt for the days when I feel that I have had enough sun and need to cover up.

I link to these places.

Spring produce

I could not resist a photo of the produce I picked from the garden on Monday after the wedding. What I had not included in the photo was the strawberries that headed the way of my mouth.

So the night of the Christchurch bloggers get together I turned most of the raspberries into Jam as the boys told me that they had just had enough!! Already, so early in the season. With the veges I made a gorgeous fish pie and did not tell the boys that I sneaked in some broad beans.

At the bloggers get together my Secret Santa had me picked - I got a book of old fashioned traditional recipes from the southern USA and some absolutely gorgeous lace and ribbon peeking out from a Kete.
How lucky am I! My santa could not have picked better for me.

I link to these places

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.

I link to these places

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!!)


I link to these places

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.

I link to these places.

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.

I link to these places.