My tomatoes can see clearly now

Well two weeks ago I blogged about sewing while a storm raged. That storm trashed the glasshouse. Hmm.. what to do?
1. Listen to my Father in Law
2. Follow his instructions
3. Try to enlist his help
4. Buy all the bits
5. Make a date with said FIN

So this morning I did not go to work. After being depressed yet again with what is happening with the America's cup - if there was no time limit we would have already won!! My FIL came over and we set too.

I did have a lot of a dark cellular type plastic up in places originally. This is what came from the person whom we bought it off. Now what I did not realise was that this storm was a blessing in disguise.

We have used corrigated polythene for all the areas that required replacing. My FIL and I are blown away with what a difference that has made. Glued and screwed, pushed and cut, in it went and the glasshouse is so light!!

Wow I am now going to win the family tomato competitions!!!

The dark stuff you see still on the door was all along the side and also in one of the front panels. Now clear and beautiful.

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Who's that sitting on my quilt?

The newly finished quilt

Yes I am channeling the three bears. Last night I did it. Yes I finished my quilt for the second time!! Oh I am so so pleased that I redid the binding. I used a mottled grey that I bought at Fabric Vision. It is the exact colour I had in mind, but not having any in my stash and wanting to use my stash I tried something else. Never again. Next time I will go with my gut feeling.

I finished it last night and threw it on the sofa to photograph this morning. When I woke this morning there was no Morris on our bed. I commented to Aaron that it must be summery and warm for Morris not to sleep at our feet, BUT NO..... he was snuggled into my new quilt on the sofa!!!!!


I link to these places and am thrilled to link this to Crazy Mum Quilts - finish it up friday.

The new grey binding.

The previous mottled binding

Well Hmph

Just because I could not sleep in my bed last night, (Way too much coughing so vacated to the couch so that everyone else could sleep) does not mean that Morris gets my side of the bed. In the morning I looked in and this is what I saw... and head on my pillow even!!!

 Being rather tired from a very disturbed night, and the feeling tense because we lost a race in the America's Cup, the boys were late to school. Once they had gone I realised that Eli had left behind something he needed today. So off to school and a wee sidetrack visit to the Charity Barn in Rangiora - gave me this...

Oh I love retro, and in our family having breakfast in bed is seen as a real treat and special, so when I saw this butlers tray I could not resist.

Yes I did previously find on at the same place, so now Aaron and I can sit in bed like the King and Queen (hopefully the boys will cotton on to bringing us breakfast). But NOT tomorrow, no more nail biting stuff watching the America's Cup race. Go Team NZ.

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Oh so delicious - Poached Salmon

I am channeling spring!! Actually I was looking at my SIL facebook page about her going's on. She wrote the book Coromandel Flavour and when we stayed with her two Christmases ago we had deconstructed Salad Nicoise for Xmas lunch. (not sure if I have spelt that right). So thinking of her and the fact that I was going to have fish for dinner inspired this.

A yummy - almost summer - evening meal.

Poached Salmon
I put a side of salmon covered in water in a tray big enough for it.
Added - 3 bay leaves, 12 peppercorns, and a sliced lemon. Baked in the oven 20 minutes.

Boiled Nadine potatoes and finished them with mint. Steamed greens (a mixture of garden leeks and broccoli with shop bought beans) and made Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals cous cous salad.

Went to make some tar-tare sauce but had no gerkins so just put chives and coriander in.

What a fantastic meal

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AARGgggghhhhh

I thought I had a finished quilt to show off..... but now I have a Work In Progress (WIP) only.

Yes here is the picture of my lovely finished quilt. This could be called the procrastination quilt as after years I finally put the blocks together and pinned it out for quilting. Then it has sat again as how do you quilt it when there is so much handstitching and machine applique. Trying to work out a pattern just about did my head in.

So I finally stitched in the ditch. Then I auditioned bindings and opted for the best of the lot. It was not what I had in mind, but I could not find any dark grey in my stash, so in my attempt not to buy more fabric I used a stash material. Oh dear I just don't like it.

I have read before of people binding their quilts and then unpicking and putting on a new binding and at the time thought they were daft in the head. I would NEVER do that....... sigh....... last night I unpicked the binding!!!!!

So here it is finally ready to bind. Hopefully it wont sit in the never never pile again.
I link this up to  and other places here.

Poo and Pine Cones - every girls dream

Well it goes a long way with me. Pine cones to start those fires that keep me warm in the winter or in the hot tub, and some cow poo that will settle down in the compost and end up in the garden growing my summer food.

Today I collected bags of both stuff.

This blog post could have been titled "the Big Clean Up" - but that is too boring a title. We all went out to my sisters farm as the big storm last week took down 20 macrocapa trees alone their fence line. And they were let off lightly compared to some. Driving past peoples blocks of trees that is their retirement fund and seeing them smashed to the ground is pretty sad.

Anyway out we went with chainsaws and gloves. There are going to be many weekends of chainsawing and wood stacking going on there. The bonus being that there is firewood now for the next 10 years (I kid you not).

Anyway a lovely day out, very satisfying seeing the area that we cleaned up. Piles of wood, the kids had fun... all in all a great Saturday.

A new ironing board cover

my gorgeous new ironing board

A while ago there was a swap for ironing board covers. At the time I thought that I should have participated but I just had too many things going on.

the manky old worn out board

In the weekend I was ironing (no not household stuff - that never happens- it was crafty things) and my iron kept going in the holes on my cover. I looked at several of the ironing board covers that people had made and I thought of using my random sewing from the other day. When thinking about the practicality of it I realised that something with lots of seams could end up making my ironing bumpy.

I also realised that it gets a bit of a workout so I would need a heavier weight of fabric. I knew just what to get as I had seen it in The Make Cafe. So I went online to order and got a bonus free shipping!!! yay

The little embellishing

So 1/2 metre of Dandelion in Storm and half a metre of a matching drill in Slate was ordered. It arrived yesterday (wow super fast only one day). It arrived beautifully bundled up with yellow ribbon. I immediately realised that would make a great accent and in my stash I had some wide yellow bias binding and some smaller yellow, just enough for an accent and around the edges. I hunted around and found the measure ribbon that I had bought for only $0.60 per metre on trade me.

Even the underside is neat and matching!!

So during a stormy stormy night last night I re padded my ironing board, sewed and new cover and put it on. All the while thinking the power may go out at any moment.

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