The last week of the holidays

I am rather late posting this but here is a wee set of photographs to show our wonderful last week of the school holidays.

Hair cutting in the bush. Getting ready for school

Eli

Underwater Aaron

Chess

Relaxing

Relaxing

A Refashion - was two shirts, now a skirt

It started with two shirts at a total cost of $2.50. The stripe being 100% linen man's XL and the white top being cotton/elastic woman's M.

I chopped off the sleeves and took off pockets and the gorgeous labels. 

Unpicked the pockets and cut some more pockets from the sleeves.

Then I sewed new pockets onto the old back of the shirt and added back the details from the labels.

Used the white T-Shirt by cutting it just under the arms, doubling it over and stretching it to the top of the new skirt. It makes a lovely big easy to wear waistband. 

Voila a new skirt 

This is the fit on me (with my T-Shirt up a bit to show the waistband etc.

I finished this at 10pm last night and went to show Aaron. He then commented that it was not "quite right" and did not suit me. I had used a linen skirt with this type of waistband as the pattern but was a bit worried about it being to tight on me. 

So I went back to the mirror and I have to say - He is right - (he asked if I would confess on my blog). This skirt is OK. I can muck around in it at home etc but it is not flattering like the other skirt is. Tow reasons I think - 1. It is a stripe and the other is plain and I mainly wear plain - so something we are not used to 2. I have been trying to loose weight and am so far at 9kg loss BUT I still find myself looking at clothes thinking I am too big to fit the. This would have been a perfect fit if I was my 9kg heavier. So I might wear it for a while and then pass it on. But I will keep experimenting!!!

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Yummmm - Homemade Hokey Pokey Icecream

Yesterday being the last day of the school holidays we did a bit of baking. I decided to make some Hokey Pokey (honeycomb) using the Edmonds recipe. It turned out really well but I obviously did not get it to a set enough point first so it was soft for a long long time.

Hmm - best use - add it to icecream. So today I made some of my icecream (see the 5 minute recipe here) and once it was mixed I added chunks of the Hokey Pokey. Let me tell you it was delicious.

Cheaper than shop bought, less sugar, used our chooks eggs, no additives or preservatives. I thought I had taken a photo of it served up but I forgot.

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What is in my Trug today?

A String of garlic I plaited after drying for a few days, butter beans,
french green beans, baby carrots and Jersey Benne potatoes.

I picked all these delicious things from the garden intending to make a Salad Nicoise as I had some fresh salmon. Then Aaron rang to say he was late so the dinner kept the same ingredients but swapped out the salmon for chickpeas and berlotti beans (for me) and sausage for the boys.

The tomatoes were hiding underneath

They became my standby curry. I made a vegetarian version and a meat version so we could have what we wanted.

Standard Curry recipe.
This recipe comes from a lovely Indian lady I worked with in 2008. It was her family's go to curry recipe and she made it for us all on her last day at work.
1 medium onion chopped
2 fresh green chilli (optional and can be substituted with capsicum if you do not like hot)
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1tsp ground tumeric
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander
2tsp chilli powder (depending on how hot you like it - I use curry powder instead )
1tsp crushed ginger
1tsp crushed garlic
60nl oil
salt to taste
2 potatoes - cooked and cut up into bit sizes
1 cup peas ( or as much vege as you want to add - I add about 4 cups veges)
500g meat (diced chicken, lamb or beef) or beans as you choose

Put oil in large pot followed by oinions and chilli/ capsicum on medium heat. Stir occasionally - do not brown the onions just sweat them. Add ginger, ginger and all the ground spices.Leave to cook for about a minute and then add the tomato. Stir well and add the meat (or beans) - raise the heat. Once meat is cooked add the potatoes and any vegetables. Add a cup of vege stock or the water from cooking the potatoes and allow all to simmer until cooked and ready. Serve on rice.

Tip - I buy chick peas in bulk and cook them all at once in a huge pot. Then I put them into meal sizes zip lock bags and freeze. Anytime I want them I can just pull them out of the freezer. 6 meals cost me $5 versus one tin of cooked chick peas at $2.89 per tin!

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Another thing crossed off my list

Now all covered 

Little boy material - gone.

Well it has been over two years since I redecorated Eli's bedroom and I have finally recovered the squab on his side table. He chose the fabric a long time ago as it is NZ themed and looks like the All Blacks material. He decided on a red piping. I used the zip from the previous squab cover.

So he has finally purged all the little boy stuff from his bedroom.

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Craft completions while camping

Over the Summer while we have been away I have been getting on with either finishing or starting various hand work projects.

I finished all the stitching blocks that I am going to do for a quilt that displays some of the kids Bible memory verses from school from last year. Yay, now onto the patchwork to put it all together. 

I started an applique using Asian woven fabrics  - eventually it will be the front of a  messenger style bag for me. 

I finished the hand piecing of these stretched look hexagons that I showed you when I started - here. I made a block big enough to make a new wallet and another little block to hold all my loyalty cards.

As you can see I am currently enjoying using my collection of Asian woven fabrics. So different to the normal American quilting cottons and such gorgeous textures.

I really enjoyed the hand stitching. Lately I have found myself reverting back to hand stitching things. I guess as the kids become older it is easier to do work by hand. 

I link to these places - I will be definitely linking this up to Finish it up Friday and WIP Wednesday.

Wow look what I found on my doorstep.

This parcel created super excitement at our house this morning. A big box was delivered and we could not understand why. The boys opened it and I had won a competition with NZ Gardener and Tui Garden products. Wow a real trug and excellent fertilizers for the garden. I am thrilled.

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A bit bonkers

Well last night we got home from another 8 days away camping. This time the weather was good and the swimming was great. Yay, I have had a summer holiday.

Anyway, we got home at 5.35pm and by 6.10pm I was baking. I felt bonkers!!! (hence the title) as there was washing all over the floor, unpacking to do, gardens to look at but no- I baked. All because before we left I forgot to put the bananas in the freezer for later use. So on the bench were five very brown bananas. Though once peeled they were just over ripe inside, where I had expected brown.

So I made a double batch banana cake that is yum! I used the Edmonds recipe but don't bake it as long as their baking time makes the cake come out a bit dry.

A few snapshots from today

I have been working on a few things, but often forgetting to take photos. Today both the boys had friends for a sleepover tonight.

I did some baking -Belgium slice.

Made some yummy club sandwiches for lunch.

I have been working on this. Using Taupe fabric from Asia I am making myself a new wallet. My old one is worn. I had cut out the stretched hexagons in order to take this hand stitching away on holiday. But while the boys were all swimming I started on this. I got the idea from Svetlana over at S.O.T.A.K. I had never seen the hexies stretched like that and immediately made two different template sizes and started on this long awaited project.

The boys made some huts on the deck

The younger ones did a bit of this

 

The older ones did a bit of this. Both lots of boys thought they should have done a bit more of the gaming. But hey!!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and other links here

I declared today a sewing day

And then I promptly did everything but sew.

I changed the beds, did four loads of washing and hung it out, checked the chickens, gardened for an hour, did some grocery shopping, baked a cake, heated leftovers for dinner...... and then finally I sewed.

I did not attack any of my many many uncompleted projects. But I did start and FINISH a project. I made a pile of pillowcases for the pillows in the caravan.

Now this might seem like a daft sewing project but I like 100% cotton, crisp and cool pillowcase to lay my cheek on at night. The caravan gets the rejects - the old towels, the grotty old pillowcases etc and I was sick of yucky polycotton that does not stay cool at night.

I had a fat quarter of the cool retro car and caravan material, the boys immediately tried to commandeer those ones. Then I used another camping themed material.

The main body of the pillowcase was a queen sized valance I purchased from the Op Shop (Charity Shop) for $3. It is a really good brand and 100% cotton.
The total cost of each pillowcase ending out to be about $2.00 each. My kind of price!!

The retro car and caravan material

The other camping themed material

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Dairy Free Zucchini Cake

The boys are going to their grandparents tomorrow while I work. The grandparents are going to be very busy as they also have my other 1&3 year old nephew and niece with them.

So to try and be of some assistance I decided to have the boys take a cake. My nephew and niece have been very dairy intolerant and although they are getting better I still omit dairy when I can.

The zucchini's are starting to really produce so instead of using apples I used zucchini. My spiced apple cake recipe is here - just replace the grated apple with 3-4 grated normal size zucchini.

Needless to say it is not going to the grandparents in one piece as everyone here has already had a slice!!!

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