A boys Refashion

The finished hoodie - Jakob trying to be Dr Spock.

In a week we are going to Fiordland. It is predicted to rain, rain and rain some more. Which it does anyway (it is not called a temperate rainforest for nothing!). With rain comes the cold. The Merino jersey that I made Jakob last year was not so sucessful. The hood was too big, the Merino wool was a bit too light.

So I had a rush job on. Make a boys hoodie with pocket by Friday. And it is done. It took me two nights (approx 3 hours altogether). I am much happier with this one, the Merino jerseys I chose were heavier and so held their shape better. Also I was pedantic about the finishing and have used bias binding to prevent stretching around the hood / neck area. The sleeve ends look a lot tidier too, the boys love the semiglove end that a lot of tramping gear has and I know it will be handy down in the cold. I also used stitch number 15 on my Bernina sewing machine, rather than the overlocker and this was very successful.

So what started as two ladies Merino jersey's bought from the Op Shop, are now one boys hoodie to keep him warm.

The two ladies merino jerseys I started with

Chop off the arms

bind the edge of the pocket

stitch the pocket on at the top and bottom, matching side seams

Cut sleeve down to size and re-inser

Sew up the arm and side seams, then add the cuffs and hood.

I link to these places.

Fun on my Scooter

The front bars are a nifty place to put my handbag

Going to church on my scooter has become normal practise for me. I love that I don't need to use the car and get there a whole lot quicker than when I walk. So the boys jump on their scooter, me on mine and Aaron tends to run.

Last Sunday when the boys were away tramping by themselves I scootered to Church as normal. The funny thing is because I was by myself I had all sorts of people looking at me, some tooted and waved, others talked to me on the way past and one person even hung out their car window and took photos of me on their phone!! It all just makes me laugh as I know that my look is not what people expect. They see the grey hair and a dress or skirt and just about fall over when they realise I am on my scooter. I went Grey at 25 and a lot of people cannot get past the colour of my hair and think I am the boys Nana, well I don't care as it is me and I know I am young. BUT I must say that sometimes I play up to it and have a laugh at other peoples surprise when I do crazy things.

Church was awesome as the Sunday School were sharing what they had learnt for the last term. All about the Armour of God. They had slowly made their armour over the term. It was fantastic.

my boys trying to hide from the photo

I link to these places

Fantastic Food

This weekend has been very busy, but in amongst all that we have had some awesome food.

On our way home from Soccer at Oxford, Jakob and I stopped in to see Colleen. Had a chat and cup of tea and came away with a crayfish!! Wow, one of her friends gives her them occasionally and she gave it to me. We had it grilled with garlic butter for an entree for Saturday night dinner.

Then on Sunday I had some monkfish to cook for dinner and I wanted it to be quick. So I went to one of my recorded programmes for Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals and wrote down the Greek couscous recipe. Of course I changed it to what herbs etc I had in the garden. But his idea of whizzing all the ingredients up in the food processor was great and saved heaps of time. Also as I pick my veges from the garden I have a bit of cleaning and prep to do with them first.

And it was so fantastic that we all kept nibbling it before dinner.

My version of Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals - Herby Vegetable CousCous

1/2 cup cous cous into a bowl with a lid
1 cup boiling water into that bowl and put the lid on.

1 cup baby frozen peas into a small bowl, cover with boiling water.

Into food processor put:  (American names)
2 charred red capsicum (peppers)
2 green fresh capsicum (peppers)
5 Spring Onions (green onions)
1 Big bunch coriander stalks and all  (cilantro)
1 green chilli - seeds removed

Whizz using the pulse button until well chopped but not mushy.

Into serving dish put juice from half a lemon and 2 tablespoons oil. Placed the whizzed veges into the bowl. Drain the peas and add, Add the cous cous.  Mix well

I link to some of these places

Quilted and Bound

The boys declared the quilt very comfy

Aaron trying it out after work

The quilting

Well the quilt for the caravan is finished. Whew and finally. Over the week I have been quilting it. I went for a sphere shape based around the diagonal seam. Never again. For a couple of reasons....
1. It meant the quilt went through my machine on a diagonal which was just too much bulk to push through the arm of the machine. Horrible to quilt - would do a cot or throw like this but never a bed quilt.
2. I like geometry- quilting this with a sphere shape takes away from the definition of the hourglass block and merges it more together. Now that is the effect you want on some quilts but not this.

The binding also should have been unpicked and redone as the larger part of the binding is on the back. But I had sewn the binding on by the time I realised and as this is for the caravan, therefore does not need to be perfect, I just left it as is.

So now Aaron and I have a flannelette quilt for our big bed and both the boys have ones for their beds. We will all be snug as bugs in rugs!!!! you can view the boys quilts here and here.

To look at the making process you can go to these posts on my blog.
pining out the quilt
patchwork finished
starting the piecing

I link to these places.

The Simple Things

Lovely relaxing bubbles

snuggling under a quilt

Comfort food

Sometimes you just need to hunker down and enjoy the simple things. We have all been a bit overwrought which resulted in Aaron being off work sick today and Eli crying and beside himself this afternoon.

So all things cancelled, we did not go to swimming lessons. Instead we wound down and are having a slow night.

We are all having lovely relaxing bubble baths with the lovely lush bubble products. I have had mine and read a magazine, Aaron is in it at the moment and Eli is getting ready to jump into one after dinner.

Eli and Morris had a big rest and time out on my bed. Nothing quite like snuggling under a quilt and we have having comfort food for dinner. Pasta bake full of lovely home grown veges and little bit of salami made from my sisters beef cattle.

I trust you are all resting up and recharging too.

I link to some of these places

Emergency supplies bag

On Saturday evening my sister came and joined me for some serious quilting. Sigh... only Anna got some serious quilting in, mine went pear shaped (just to continue on from smashing the shower I guess). But we did enjoy yummy takeaways from our local indian restaurant.

Anyway Anna quilted heaps of her quilt. I was finding it hard to get into it so I decided to make a zip pouch from left overs. I had a little bit of left over laminate that I decided would make good lining, so I made an "emergency" bag. (great for presents for someone going away for the first time, putting in sunscreen, toothbrush and maybe some chocolate) Using a sleeve off a linen shirt and a wee scrap of green from when I made some toy dinosaurs. I was thrilled with the result but it was a bit tall. So I thought with the scraps of the scraps I would make a better proportioned one. Hmmph. It took me two hours!!! I unpicked more than I sewed. I put panels sideways, I sewed the zip inside out - basically everything that could go wrong did. But I am happy to have to presents ready to go when I hear of a need.

The inside of number two.

Today in the Mall I bought some Lush products to put into said bags (they may become emergency treat bags I think).

The inside laminate on number one

Anna quilting madly

I link to these places

A bucket full of glass

Pinning out the quilt

Croissants and coffee in bed

The bottom of the shower

The bathroom floor

A bucket full of glass

Morris on his walk

Well this morning I was enjoying a quiet lady's morning. The boys are away tramping. I woke up at 8.15am and while breakfast was baking I pinned out a quilt, then I took my gorgeous croissants and coffee back to bed and read the latest issue of The Simple Things.

At 10.30 I thought "righto" get going for the day. I went to have a shower and the bottom of the shower had a bit coming off that jams the shower door. Now this is a common occurance and about every 4 months I give it a bang to secure it back on and we are right as rain. This is NOT a hard bang - I used a the bottom of my coffee cup. And the shower door disintegrated on top of me. Tiny tiny bits of glass everywhere. All over the bath, handbasin, shower, the floor was covered in shards of glass. Not to forget all through my hair, my nighty and down my back.

So I clean up the glass but all the surfaces in the bathroom had what looked like glass dust. Very gritty. It was really hard to get rid of. The top of the door fell onto the floor and looks like it bounced as I have three holes in the vinyl. Ah well, here goes a bathroom redo.

An hour later I finally had my shower and then had to go shopping for a shower curtain temporarily. Took Morris for a walk and only now at 4.45pm I am finally getting to sew again!!

Linking up to these places

Hexagon pillow finished

Well this project has been a learning tool (I hope I remember). I love hexagons, the first project I ever completed was when I was 10 and it was english paper pieced hexagons which I made into a duffel bag and used for school until it wore out three years later.

When I was in my twenties I completed two queen size quilts all by hand as I was travelling Europe for one and on the Milford Track for the other. I could never go back to hand piecing.

So when I saw Leanne Beasley's gorgeous hexagon quilt I could not resist. So I started, as soon as I had though I realised that hand quilting is no longer me. Oh what to do. So I made enough to cover a European pillow (which I got from an Op Shop, thrift shop - 2 for $5).

The finds from the Op Shop

This has taken ages as I only took the project on holidays with me this summer. It has been staring at me as I just was not motivated to finish. But it is done. The quilting had to be unpicked as I did not like the first attempt. And the funny thing is that I don't know what to do with it. Think I may have to give it away.

Finished in time for linking with Amanda Jean and these other places.

Still madly harvesting and preserving

Well the harvest continues. Goodness I have to be really honest and say I feel pretty over the whole harvesting and preserving thing.

I absolutely love providing for our family from our own garden but boy harvest time is full on. Over the last weeks I have been thinking a lot of our forebears and people on the poverty line. How the harvest is so so important and without storing correctly and keeping as much as humanely possible, they would starve. Quite sobering really. I am so fortunate that I have a choice and do it because I want to (and I cannot bear waste).

So we are onto the Pear tree now. Goodness they take a while to do with all that peeling etc.

I have also been given tomatoes and decided to try to adapt the roast blackboy peach recipe (originally the roast Feijoa from my sister in laws book) into a roast tomato chutney recipe.

So here goes. ( I don't think I will ever make a chutney in a pot again)





Roast tomato chutney 
2.25kg ripe tomatoes chopped into 2cm chunks
750g onions finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 Tablespoon ground corriander
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or use ground)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons each - whole yellow and black mustard seed (optional)
3 Tablespoon salt
400 ml vinegar
500g sugar

Put all into a roasting tray and mix well. Roast for 2-3 hours at 180oC (it took me 2.5) on fan-bake (the fan bake assists the speed of cooking and evaporation of all the liquid). Stir once or twice if you remember. It is ready when it is looking thick and there is still a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan when you stir. ( it should have reduced in size by about half).

Spoon into hot sterilised jars ( I had assorted sizes and it filled 7 jars)

I link to these places

Upcycle drawers to Lego station

The messy room

The tidy room - thanks Lego Station

Well this has got to be the longest DIY project in ages.

It all started as I remodeled Jakob's room last year. As part of that I gave him new storage as I was sick of the stuff on the floor. But over the last few months I have realised (maybe from the number of times I have had to get him to tidy his room) that it just was not working for him.

He likes to sort Lego and keep it like that. He wants to keep all the things he has just made -actually made up. And I was sick and tired of not being able to walk in his room or vacumn.

I was sick of asking him to tidy up and looked at it from another angle - I had not provided him with what he needed for the way he played.

In the garage was a set of drawers that Aaron had remodeled when he was in his early teens. It had been painted white and he hand sanded and stripped it and polished it up. But it was looking tired.

There were a few glitches on the way - I did think this project would be done in a couple of days. But the first time I started polyethylene to finish it looked terrible!! I had hand sanded and it just was not enough. Then I hand sanded again, then I gave up and used machines!!

There is one more thing that needs to be added. The top is going to have a Lego baseboard glued to it so that his pieces can be built on it and not move.

I love that this has now been upcycled / recycled twice. That is really good use of resources without spending money.

The drawers before

Hand sanding - never again!!

big mistake - looking worse after the first layer of polyurethane

Put dividers into the middle drawer - good for sorting Lego - also added new handles

Put wheels on so it can move from room to room to play with

Finally finished after more sanding and 4 layers of polyurethane

The boys doing the big inspection. Lots of discussion and excitement

In Situ

Lego in the new Lego Station, no more lego on the floor.

My Easter Weekend

Add caption

Started working on a new project 

Our possie

At the drifting

Add caption

Lots of this went on

Well my Easter weekend turned out to be nothing like what was planned and booked. The boys and I were booked to be at Flock Hill backpackers in the Arthurs Pass, whilst Aaron and his brother Stephen completed the Goat Pass tramp. BUT...... Thursday night Eli started vomiting and was not well enough to move on Friday.

Flock Hill were amazing and let us cancel with no payment. We had a quiet day. ALL the bags and food remained packed ready to travel somewhere on Saturday. Eli was definitely better but a bit dubious about travelling. So we decided to stay.

Now packing took me all of Thursday, so then I unpacked for a good part of Saturday afternoon.

We still had a lovely weekend. The boys had a quiet weekend, I gardened -  managing to get some beds put down for the winter, sprayed the raspberries and boysenberries as they were getting raspberry moth, mowing lawn, trimming edges and tried to finish some projects. Then we had a big day at Ruapuna race track on Sunday - we went to see the drifting. The day went from 10-5.30 - it was good but I was exhausted when I came home.

Do you know that I was surprised to look at my blog and realise that I had not posted for 8 days!! In my head I have written heaps of posts, but I have also been rather tired this week and not really managing to achieve any finishes in my projects.

Hope you all had a good weekend.
I link into these places.