Ambitious Plans

The first complete purse

I still have not learnt the plan great achievements! My plan for the school holidays was to finish all the christmas presents for the females. So far I have only stitched 4, sewn the edges of three and finished one completely. I am using my book "the bag making bible" to learn to do zips and fully lined purses. So Amiria's is finished but the rest are not. Ah sigh.

Part completion of others

The shelving I have installed in Eli's cupboard

I had also planned to finish Eli and Jakob rooms by getting all the shelving done and toys sorted. I have started by getting shelving up into the top of Eli's cupboard, which took me a lot longer than I thought it would and I was super careful about where to put screws as there is plumbing behind the walls. But the rest is another unfinished item. Lots to do, Lots to do.

Baking and a busy day

Dairy, Egg and Gluten free rice bubble biscuits

Well today first thing I made rice bubble biscuit. This needed to be gluten free and dairy free, as Mieke is intolerant of both. So I adapted the recipe to suit. I have no idea when I first got this recipe or from who as it has been around since before I was a child.

Rice bubble cake
4 Cups Rice bubbles (make sure they are a brand that are gluten free - I used Kelloggs) into a big bowl.
then into a pot put
1 1/2 Tablespoons honey

I love ginger gems

3 1/2 oz diary free spread - i used Olivio as it is made from olive oil (watch out as some still have dairy in them)
4 Tablespoons sugar
melt all together and then bubble at low heat stirring until the colour darkens and the mixture thickens. Pour into rice bubbles, mix together quickly as it sets fast. Put into a lined tin, press down firmly with wet hands and cut. (it is very hard to cut it once it is set). I keep it in the fridge until eaten.

Then we went outside and Eli mowed the lawn for the first time ever! Wow at 7years old. He was dead keen and did an amazing job. So Aaron dug all the compost out and we put it all around the garden. I weeded all the strawberries and pottered like that. The weather was gorgeous but then it went very strange and blew and rained. So inside we came and I made some old fashioned Ginger Gems. I just used the recipe from the Edmonds Cookbook. After a lovely afternoon tea Mieke and Alex came to stay for the night. So all is on!!! Aaron has both the kids on his knee reading to them at the moment. I have dinner ready, Mieke has had two pieces of her rice bubble cake and the boys are watching Chip and Dale.

Aaron loves having babies in the house

The kids watching Chip and Dale

What I am stitching

Well it is that time of year again - yes 10 weeks to Christmas (or something close like that). So the Christmas present making needs to be in full force. So while I was up in Wellington with Kerryn I started the stitching for everyone's presents.

Here are the photos of where I have gotten to. I did a few error's - I did the wrong spelling for one niece so have to redo that. I also got some of the names not quite symmetrical so am having to sort that out. But not a bad result for a weekend away.

Of course my recycling ethos is working here. All the threads are ones I have hanging around, some from old projects, some given to me. The buttons are off shirts I have recycled into other objects and the material is 100% linen from two shirts I bought at the Op Shop.

 Linking to these parties.

Wow, I went to W.O.W

Outside the theatre

Yes my last blog was about leaving, this one is about how wonderful it was. The World of Wearable Arts was an amazing show. Not only did they do a two hour spectacular but they had entertainment prior to the show. An amazing Jazz band playing the whole time, various character circling and mingling. It was all I thought it would be and more. I was thrilled that Kerryn was with me.

Our front row seats

I matched the gorgeous men!!

When we got there we were shocked with our seats. I had booked the second tier back to economise a bit, But there was no first tier - we literally were the second from the front row. It made for spectacular viewing and meant we got to see all the garments really well.

We were not allowed to take photos during the show, so what you see is only the prelude.

One of the many Aliens

This Alien told me she would like to be the queen

On Friday night we went out to Dinner and it was fabulous. I forgot to take photos of other plates of food but the one of the entre tapas just gives you an idea.

Tapas on Friday night

Painting done - now the fight is on

Who will get the room?

Before

Before

After

After

 Well this is what I have been doing in my spare time - hahaha - spare time, what is that!!! Well I asked this myself but managed to juggle work so that I completed my paperwork before the kids went to school, did the practical stuff in the morning and that left two afternoons this week to paint.

Dawn had a room in her house that had a mouldy wall and the floor had sunk in the corner. So she got in Longsilver Construction to lift the floor, remove the wall, pink bat it and re gib. I said that I would paint it to save her the money. So the builders etc finished it on Tuesday morning.

Over Tuesday and Wednesday I got the undercoat/ sealer on and two coats of paint plus painted the trim. Boy I went hard out to get it done as I am leaving today for Wearable Arts Awards in Wellington (so so so thrilled as I have always wanted to go).

No, It's MY room!!

Anyway all the girls LOVE the room and they are now trying to work out who gets the room. Dawn said she should have been in the photo pushing the girls out of the room and claiming it for her. (my boys even got in the mix and said they would have the room!)

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Upcycle a tray cloth

The finished bag

 A while ago I posted about some of my Opportunity Shop finds. I bought the tray cloth for $1.00 as it had lovely hand embroidery.

So this weekend I finally got around to doing something with it. I did not want to do a normal zip bag or purse as half the lovely embroidery would have been cut off. So I went from 1 tray cloth, 1 linen shirt, 1 cotton shirt, to this little bag to put things in (a bit of handcraft maybe).

The back - finished

Inside - finished

The three items I started with

Linking to these parties.

Cake for House Blessing

Yesterday we were priviledged to go to the house blessing for the new Habitat for Humanity houses in Kaiapoi. A family from our church have been working incredibly hard as they have been accepted as one family for a house.

My goodness they do work too!! Not only do they have to contend with moving all the time while waiting for  the house to be finished. The earthquakes have put such pressure on housing. They have to do 500 hours work on the house. Richard is working in his paid job as many hours as he can and then all weekend and some weeknights he is plastering and painting etc on his house. But the awesome thing is that they will never have to move again and this is their house. I am so thrilled for them. Thanks Habitat - you do an amazing job.

So they had the house dedication with the local Mayor there, the MP Kate Wilkinson was meant to be there,  lots of the volunteers were there. So all we took a plate for afternoon tea, listened to speeches and prayed blessing over their new house.

I met a few people and we talked gardening and food, the took my blog details - so if you have logged on - welcome to my blog I hope you like it. Do follow if it interests you.

The cake I took was the one that was on TV the night before on the new Annabel Langbien programme - The Free Range Cook, simple pleasures.

I made two cakes. The round one is cranberry and walnut, the square is apricot and no nuts. Well I preferred the first. Interestingly it was all the ladies that liked the cake. My boys did not and Aaron did not particularly. A great cake to have with a cup of tea. Relatively low fat, easy to make diary free by substituting oil for butter (use slightly less). It does have an old fashioned taste about it and I think that is due to using Baking Soda as the rising agent.



But here is the recipe:

Annabel Langbein - Orange lightning Cake - so called as it is quick as lightening to make.

1 whole organic orange - cut it into quarters, put into the food processor and whizz to paste.
add
1/2 Cup water with 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in it
2 eggs
1 Cup Sugar
2 Cups plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( I use my homemade one)
125g softened butter - NOT melted.
Whizz together.

add - 1 Cup dried fruit, 1/2 cup walnuts and just pulse to mix in. Do not get it chopped up.

Into lined tin. Bake 1 hour 160oC

Linking to these parties