Great family weekend away

Eli decided to carry the big 20kg pack

We took the Coastal Pacific train from Rangiora to Kaikoura, spent two nights and then took the train back home again. A great start to the school holidays. The train is such a smooth trip it is a shame NZ doesn't have more of a rail network.

Waiting at the train station

Aaron spent quite a big of time being sick in bed

If he wasn't in bed then he was here. Two lovely warm spa pools. The
boys spent time in the spa's but also the normal pool. Brrr 26 oC.

Rather than going walking with me the boys spent time putting
their bodies on the line

We had a gorgeous hot Saturday, rainy cold and snowy Sunday
 and cold but clear Monday

On Monday I found a walk in the Dunes by the beach.
Rugged up tight as the wind of the snow was freezing!!

Wow it has been two years since we could do this

The garage has been so chokka with stuff that we have not been able to play table tennis for at least two years!!

 It has had a house lot of second hand carpet, a little bit of reclaimed rimu from Aaron's parents demolished house, and just piles of junk.

One and half years ago Aaron told me to clear up all my stuff in the garage. I did a HUGE job and had a garage sale. Then slowly in the spare space people put stuff. Slowly I sell, junk or remove it.

We laid the carpet in the house, used the Rimu for shelving in the laundry and today the boys and I cleared out all the rest. A great productive school holiday day.

The boys really enjoyed rediscovering the table tennis table. Today more stuff is going on Trademe and I have yet to persuade Aaron to sell the gym. I talked to him two months ago about the possibility and he has not used it since!! (ok so he has been sick!)

I link to these places

Embroidery

Well I started and finished this but don't understand why I even did it? The night before going to Kaikoura I decided not to take the stitching I had but took some Hardanger material and flax thread and a pattern. As soon as I started I knew I did not want to do it, but I had a three day holiday and no other stitching. So I made a point of finishing it on the train home. Now what to do with it? Hmmm

I link to these places.

Thai chili beef salad

Getting down to the last of the beef. Wanted to do something different. This gorgeous dinner was from all the bits we had hanging around.

Made a salad base with iceburg lettuce, shaved carrot, shaved cucumber, coriander, spring onions then added thinly sliced fast seared beef which had been marinaded in lemongrass, fresh ginger, garlic and fresh ginger.

Delicious.

I am a starter

Yes I confess, I start gazillions of projects and heaps of them do not get finished. That is why I end up with "orphan quilts". All those blocks started with the intent of trying something new, being enthused and then either not liking the result, finding it boring, or surprise surprise - finding a new cool project to do!! My starting and not finishing has gotten worse since going back to work fulltime. I want to do inspiring stuff only.

This is some of what I have started in the last two weeks.

 Started this project to use the scraps from the projects below.

 Started this and decided to make it into a cushion cover. I might?????? be able to finish smaller projects.

Could not decide whether the low volume above or this bright look was the best. So did both!!!

Yes I am getting on with this. But still don't know what to do with it. Any ideas?

And I helped Eli to start a project of his own.

Linking to these places

Gorgeous Angora Rabbit wool

The Angora rabbit wool jersey which I got from the Op Shop, unpicked and re-balled three years ago has finally all been used up.

Well my finishing of things is not legendary. It is well and truely spring and I have finally finished a winter woolly hat for Jakob. He even went on a school ski trip and I could not get it done. So we are now ready for next winter.

The jersey has done well. It had enough wool to make me a cowl, Aaron a scarf , a couple of new born baby hats and now this hat for Jakob.

Linking to these places and Crazy Mum Quilts.

Reverse bricking

For those of you who are crafters', have you heard the term "reverse stitching"? There is no "unpicking" in my world, it is all stitching no matter what the direction.

The path and garden beds slowly being constructed

Well the landscape gardening we are doing has suffered from some "reverse bricking". I have been teaching myself to be a brickie (I will never make any money from it as a profession as it takes me over an hour to do about 16 bricks!!). Anyway, I have been merrily bricking the surrounds to the new garden bed. (sometimes not so merrily). While Aaron was in Australia for work I thought I would crack on with it.

Just a little fix to do after the reverse bricking.

Sigh, when he came back he pointed out the some of the brick was in the wrong place. So out with the chisel and we peeled away four bricks and there is only one hole to fill, which will be easy.

We have also redesigned the path, so part of the first section of bricking I ever did is going to have to come under the chisel for a bit of "reverse bricking". I got very frustrated with pulling down what took so much effort to put up. But hey - the altered layout will be heaps better.

I'm with Aaron

Yes we are a crazy family. The idea of these T-Shirts came from a photo I saw of an older couple on a cruise liner. So for Fathers Day we printed these all off and presented them to Aaron. We then wore them all to church and to the Market in the afternoon.

Aaron said it was really weird when people he did not know said "Hi Aaron". We got lots of laughs and look forward to wearing them camping etc.

Loom band craziness

Has it hit your place? I think we must be on the tail end of it as all the items are now at least half the price of what they were. So the other weekend the boys bought a loom and bands for the princely sum of $3. It has certainly given more than that in entertainment value.

Note the finished shirt on the left

The little shirt in Eli's palm took forever to get right. Three goes with me helping and more than that before my assistance was requested. It is great to see his tenacity in wanting to get it right. He has been following YouTube videos for instructions.

Linking to these places

What I am working on

At the moment I am working on foundation piecing. I am loving it. Amazing sharp points, easy to do little pieces and looking bright. I saw it on a blog, which then referenced you to the pattern.

This has been designed by Janice at Better Off Thread - Linked here to her tutorial etc for this block.
I was going to do an entire circle but then I have the begining of so many quilts that have no ending somehow. So I thought that a cushion or pillow will be better. I am also trying to do smaller blocks because spring is here and there is soooo much to do outside. Trying to fit that all in with working fulltime and presto, not a lot of sewing gets done. But in the meantime I am just getting a thrill from doing the blocks.

Linking to these places.

We get there step by step

Slowly being built

For a long time we have been slowly sorting out the living areas in our house. We opened up from the kitchen to the laundry and that created light but also cold. So tomorrow double glazed doors and windows arrive to fix that problem.

The mess in the lounge

Now I am sanding and sealing

Today our odd job builder has been in putting shelved in an alcove in the laundry. These have been built from recycled Rimu, the same planks that were used to replace our kitchen floor. One shelf has been made using the tiny bit of Rimu that Aaron managed to rescue from his old family home before it was torn down after the earthquakes. So progress is slowly happening to ensure the front end  of the house is all livable while we complete an extension on the back end of the house.

In the meantime everything from there is strewn all over the living room. This is just the beginning. Once this is done then we are back in the kitchen taking out cupboards and putting in extraction fans.

Do we ever finish fixing up our houses?.... and you should see outside. We are still in a huge mess where we are bricking and tiling in the garden.