Upcycling - Gorgeous 100% Cotton Duvet Cover

 Eli has a new bed (our old Queen bed) and I found a feather duvet at a Thrift Shop for just $10. It is a good brand but looked yucky and I knew it would wash up well. The duvet is just a king single so sits nicely on top of the bed.
Then there was the problem of a duvet cover. So I rummaged through my stuff and found two 100% cotton single sheets. With a bit of trimming in length these were perfect. Sewn together and then domes put on. I like a crisp finish to things so I completed the edges as French seams.

One of the sheets was $4 from a Thrift Shop and one was given to me by my sister. An old (1950's) sheet set that had never been opened. So gorgeous feather duvet and cotton cover for just $14.


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Hmm - family photos

So the Parents-in-law are taking photos of the family to take back to show all the relatives when they visit Holland in July. Hmm our picture taking is not so good but at least the picture in front of the computer is pretty accurate. I would say that was the hottest seat in the house.

A new sport in our house

The boys have been on at me for over a year to learn how to be a trampolinist. Trampoline classes are probably the most expensive sport there is where we live. Not only has the cost put me off but the travel too. Now we have moved we live only 500m from the trampoline centre. So this term they finally started lessons. Three weeks later and they both earned their first certificate. Eli also did his second certificate (blue) but they did not have spare ones to fill out so he will get it in a couple of week.

They already can do complete flips and land on their feet. I am hoping that it may mean the end of Eli cracking his head open as he learns to control what he does on a trampoline.

They insisted on goofy photos too.

 

How to make a cutting table - a bit of upcycling

Take one really manky Rimu set of drawers that were cut off a wardrobe and good for nothing. Ask the second hand dealers to screw a top on that is 1/2 inch bigger than my cutting board. $60 later and we are ready to get started.

Get stuck in with the sander, make sure you get dust all through the garage, all outside and over everything. Remove the handles of the drawers before you do the draw fronts. Grunty 60grit sandpaper is the way to get the varnish off. Then go down to smooth as a baby's bottom 180 or 200grit.

Use plain vegetable or canola oil and oil all sanded areas really well. Clean out all drawers etc.

Put a Scotty Dog oil cloth that you bought from HERE onto the top with a staple gun. Tuck it under well so that no one sees the work.

Put some gorgeous paper in each drawer to line it and then stand back and congratulate yourself. I am so thrilled with this it is not funny. Now it is time to sort out the mess that is my craft room to be.

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Mother's Day Cruise and a Celebrity suprise

 For Mothers Day we took the parents-in-law on a cruise on Lyttleton Harbour. It was a great day and we saw many things including the endangered Hectors Dolphins.

We could not avoid doing some posing around the boat. At one stage we found the exhaust shafts we were sitting by were really warm. So I spent some time lying on them. It was like being on an outside electric blanket - fantastic. When the camera came out I had to do some poses. 

The need to take updated family photos back to Holland with them in July. So lots were taken

The three generations

The requisite selfie

Doing a bit of posing

Eli meeting Gary McCormick

At the end of the day we went to Freeman's Bar and Restaurant for live Jazz on the deck. A favourite thing of ours to do. Gary McCormick was there and Jakob and Eli did not believe me. They listen to their show on the radio in the morning. So I interrupted his Sunday after to introduce Eli. He was so amazing and very generous with Eli. Thanks so much Gary.

My freezer is a banana graveyard

There was one banana looking sad in the fruit bowl, so I thought Ah ha, I will make banana muffins for lunches this week. I know there are other bananas in the freezer waiting for some baking as whenever my bananas look sad, I chuck them in there to keep until there are enough for a cake.

Well today when I rifled through the freezer I felt that it should have R.I.P on some shelves. Yes there was a total of 11 old frozen bananas. Some in pairs and some by themselves!! So now there are a lot of muffins. I guess it will make the boys happy!!

Now where did that other one go?

Karen "The Tool Woman" Schulz

There were many other names for the title of my post which I auditioned -
"This is how I relax before I go to sleep" (referring to me starting and completing this at 10.30pm in my PJ's).
"I normally start a DIY and then get my Father in law to fix it". A very common title for me to use but could not use that title as I did it all myself!!!
"How to make a fish smoker for $2.50".

So at 10pm (after a hectic day spending the price of a small car on various items for our new house) I had started making a fish smoker. And I finished making it 10 minutes later, which is just as well as all my family-in-law are over for lunch tomorrow as a thank you for helping us move. And I am making smoked salmon.

And yes you read a title correctly. I made this for $2.50. The metal lunch box and the cooling rack coming from the same Thrift Store at this bargain price. Due to all but one latch being broken it would be hard to sell it at all. When I explained to the shop that I needed a metal cake tin or similar for smoking fish I think they thought I was mad.
Anyway referring to the title of the blog - I have to fake my amazing DIY skills as I have NO IDEA what the name of some tools I wanted to use were. But have since found out that it is a wire cutter (grr do you know how many years I cut chicken wire with  - not sure the tool name but they are like pliers but with a cutting edge - only to find out that we had a special tool for this that took seconds to do and not hours!! sigh) and a hacksaw.

Cut the cooling rack down to size, put it in the tin, add some manuka shavings and we will be on fire tomorrow.

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ANZAC 100 years

On ANZAC day at 2pm we attended the most personal ANZAC service I have ever been too. Reading of letters from family members who were in the service. Very moving. One of the best wreaths that I have ever seen - from the local spinners and knitters group. Local native plants, red knitted poppies and flax crosses. Stunning.

My family

Anna Anderson added 4 new photos.

Lest we forget,
WWI
Private John "Jack" Brown, Killed in Action at Havrincourt, France 30 September 1918
Private James Brown, his brother, Killed in Action at Le Cateau, France the day after his 21st Birthday, 23/10/1918
Private George Anderson Bayne, Killed in Action, Chunuk Bair Gallipoli 8/8/1915
Private James Lews Bayne, Rouen, France 10/10/1918
Trooper Kenneth Anderson Bayne, died nr Pitcairn Island trying to save a child who fell off a troopship, already wounded at Gallipoli, 25/11/1916
Lieutenant Ashley Aston Heyworth, died in France 1/2/1918
Private Oliver Pickering, died Doullens, France 26/7/1918

WWII
Private James Peevers, Italy 19/12/1943
Flight Sergeant Thomas Alexander Peevers, Plane crashed St Arnault, France 2/5/1944
Private Ernest John Pickering, Egypt, 17/7/1942
Kenneth Anderson Chittock, Greece 25/5/1941
John Patrick Arthur Giles, died in Air Operations, Svino, Denmark,

While we were in the relative tropics of 1 degree.....

My husband, older son and later (when the weather was better) my parents in law were in -8 degrees C!!! And loving it.   Routeburn Track in the winter. Yes I have done it like this before and it is amazing. Well done to them.

My little trouper!!!

Getting some sewing done in the school holidays

Cutting mat, sewing machine and paraphernalia 

Concentration to avoid crashing

Tucked up in bed 

Very hard to turn corners on these bikes

In the middle of the school holidays Aaron took Jakob off to the Routeburn Track for 6 nights (and they walked in a blizzard, got snowed in, the track was officially closed etc etc.  In the meantime Eli and I had a few nights with Eli's best friend Spencer. We headed off to Hanmer Springs where it also snowed, hailed and was jolly cold. But we managed to squeeze in lots of activities. They boys favourite was these bikes.

We had a stringest safety chat before and we were clearly told that an adult over 16 had to be the driver due to the requirement to follow road rules. So we madly biked to the domain and then I let them have fun on the little bit of quiet sealed track. At night a pottered on with my pajama quilt I am doing at the moment.

Eli got so tired one day that at 7pm he put himself to bed. Spencer was amazed but popped into bed too and they both slept till 7am. Whew.

Apple - Peasgood Nonsuch

Such a funny name. We have two of these trees on our new property. When we first came to view the property with the potential to buy I spotted and immediately identified the tree. (Correctly too which I was pretty thrilled about). Since then I have done a bit of reading as there is no codlin moth, no disease which is amazing. I knew them as cookers but in reading they say they are really good eaters too, so will have to try that.

Trying to show proportions of the huge apple (compared to a jar of jam)

They are the biggest cooking apple grown and a lovely heritage variety that are very much back in vogue. Self fertile and tip fruiting. It is really important when you have apple trees to identify them as if you pruned this for modern standards you would get no fruit as it fruits on the tip of the branch and modern pruning is to take them back to nodules along a branches full length.

1 apple was enough for an entire pie which feed four people!!!

Anyway. The apple pie was Yummy. I made it with butter puff pastry as everyone says you should. Can't say I was very impressed with the pastry. Does not puff amazingly more like a flakey puff. Wont be spending that money again. Maybe seeing that this is a heritage apple I should make a heritage puff pastry. My granddad used to make the most amazing pastry that used a whole pound of butter!!!!