On top of Mt Fyfe at 8.50am

Well yesterday the boys and Aaron set off in the morning to tramp up to Mt Fyfe hut in the seaward Kaikoura Range. Then on Sunday they were to be met by a group of our friends for the return trip.

In the morning the boys were both excited. It was the first time they have carried all their own gear and they felt and looked like real trampers. I got many calls during the day updating where they were. If you go to Aaron's blog

you can see the view from the hut.

By the last call at night the hut was overflowing. DOC replaced a big old hut with a little one! Typical. Sleeps 8. But 16 were there last night. Many camping outside (with no tents). So to give someone a bunk the boys topped and tailed.

This morning I get a call at 8.50am as they are on the summit. They woke up to watch the sunrise, had breakfast and tramped!!

Upcycling a bean bag

For Aaron's birthday I made a new bean bag cover as a square seat(poof) rather than the traditional bean bag shape. His bean bag has been redone a few times as the beans get old and tired. This will now be the third style and I think we are onto a winner.

yucky yucky yuck. I pulled the bean bag from behind the sofa and all I saw was yucky mould, manky tired bean bag.

So I made a cube bean bag. It works as a footstool when sitting on the sofa. It is a great seat to sit on and Xbox. It is clean!!!

I made one side straight red, just for a change if you want.

I was impressed with myself as I have only ever put piping into something and that was before Jakob was born - 11years ago! So I made the piping myself using the red material from the feature side and some cord I had hanging around. It sat really well when sewing and I am thrilled with the result.

The only thing that is still a mess is the garage where I swapped the beans from one bag to the other. There are A LOT of little polystyrene balls floating around our garage. It was not an easy task!

Happy Birthday Aaron.

I link to these places

Our school holiday break away

In the second week of the school holidays we took a four day break away to our favourite place. Geraldine Farmyard Holiday Park. My sister came too with her kids and we had side by side cabins.

While we were away our bathroom was meant to be done. The shower and handbasin had been ripped out, but sigh......... nothing happened. But it is all go this week and quite good to be here to answer questions and make last minute changes (poor builder!!!) that I seem to be doing a bit of!!

Good old Tinkerbell is the boys favourite but really had enough!! She tried to bowl Eli over so that she could get to the hitching rail. Not bad for an old girl. 

Here she is starting to take things into her hoof. 

Mr show off made lots of noise but did display a lot - really rather gorgeous. 

The farmyard park is so relaxing for adults, Anna and I got a lot of little knitting sessions in. A bit of rhubarb cake and tea. The kids just took off for hours at a time. Most of the time was playing mini golf or in with the baby guinea pigs. 

The weather was great but these were essential footwear. 

The boys had great boys time. 

Great walks were had. The traditional photo of the photographer taking a photo. I had a couple of awesome walks by myself and this lovely family one. 

Jakob the tramper who can zoom up mountains - way in advance - unlike Eli who was pretty grumpy about walking today. 

What a gorgeous destination 

Some happy and some not so happy

Great start to a cold and rainy day

It took a while to get up this morning, all snuggly in bed with the rain outside. But once I did and ran around putting things in the garage so the place was clear for the builder- it was only 8.50am. Checked the hot tub and it was still 37oC after we let the fire still tick over last night. So I made a latte and jumped in the hot tub, all by myself!! It was quiet an peaceful, heaven. The boys were watching TV so they left me alone.

Now the boys are in it. I have to say that it is a great cold day activity.

What is with the weather? I had decided that summer was almost here and have taken the electric blanket off the bed, taken off the flannelette sheets etc. And yesterday I planted a lot of stuff in the garden. Ah well - Murphys Law I guess.

Decadent ways to eat fresh Raspberry Jam

Eli's job today was to make Raspberry Jam. He followed my recipe as it is super quick and always works.
Our local fruit stall is selling the frozen berries cheap. $10 for 1.5kg. As raspberry jam is the one that is consumed the fastest here, we run out very quickly.

Although the raspberries are now setting on the canes I thought this would give us a pre season boost. Oh and it is sooooooo yummy.

It made six 375g jars and there was a little leftover. The boys were just eating it straight from the pot. So I got a little bit of vanilla icecream in a bowl and poured the hot jam over it. What a treat (after all it is the school holidays).

I link to these places, and this recipe idea will link up with Anne at Domesblissity.

Camping and a new quilt

Ahhh.... Camping again.

Lighting fires because it is not too dry so we wont start a forest fire

Having Milo and making damper on a stick, oozing with butter and jam in the hole made by the stick. Tasting of smoke, damper and a bit of charcoal.

The boys getting to stay up really late. Eli all cuddly with Dad having spent four hours building and then burning a big fire.

I really liked the mood shot but on my cheap camera I could not get the exposure to stay open long enough.

The new quilt on our bed. Now we all have a cuddly quilt for camping. Made from old PJ's and flannelette sheets, so warm and toasty.

The boys have their own bed but as usual somehow everyone migrates to our bed in the morning for our hot drink, reading and cuddles.

I guess the boys bunks aren't as spacious as our gorgeous queen size bed.

Ahh... We only went for one night.... away for 26 hours. But talk about relaxing. It is amazing what a night away can do. Fabulous weather really helps too.

So much has gone on in the last few weeks and the next couple of weeks will be hectic at home. But in the end we will have a fixed house. I have the next week off and am looking forward to relaxing some more, getting gardening done and then heading off with the boys for the last few days to camp again.

Linking to various places here.

Out with the old and in with the new

Well, I have not been very active in craft and blog land over the last bit and I expect that not to change for a couple of weeks. Yesterday after work I had 30 minutes and so went to de-stress and had a coffee at the Addington Coffee Co-op. Afterwards I went to the Salvation Army shop in Addington and found these fabulous shoes for $5

What is going out? - EQR work has been nightmarish and my boss has made the choice to limit work with them. So out go half my hours.
What is coming in? Well it means more time to Op Shop (though less money to do so!! hmm the conundrum). But also time to finally try and get the mess that is the garden sorted.

What is going out? Our EQR work is finally being done on our house, so out goes the bathroom next week. But that also means I have to remove the carpet in the hall and bedroom and the vinyl in the bathroom, plus all the bathroom stuff. Try to do that this week while Aaron has been called away to Nelson for work. Juggle the boys for the school holidays and try to visit every EQR house our work is doing as they are auditing every site operated by their Kaiapoi hub - Far out!!!!
What is going in? A new vanity, a new shower, a fixed floor crack and then lots of painting for me (as you can see my less hours at work is going to be well and truly used at home.)

What is going out? - Winter
What is coming in? - Camping time, family time, gardening time, all the painting etc I have to do time!! and hopefully in amongst all this I am going to get a bit more me time (Well maybe in a month or so).


So onward and upward and enjoy the summer then look for some new work in the Autumn.

Thinking of you all - especially Deb as she has and is going through the same stuff. Anyone who does not read her blog should!!! (Well in my personal opinion)

Linking to Op Shop Show off and other places here.

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.

I link to these places.

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.

I link to some of these place - especially here

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

I link to these places

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.

I link to these places