A Grand Old Day

Afternoon my dears!  Morning to my other dears!  Yes I'm chirpy today, am I not?  About time really.  I've been someone else lately I'm afraid.  But as from yesterday I'm back.  Yep and I'm back into my sewing which is very nice.  Not really sure why I've been a bit odd lately, perhaps it's because it's my last year with my darling little sausage at home and I'm missing her already.  Silly aren't I?  Never mind, I'm just going to get on with it again and start having fun once again.  Lots of sewing and doing fun things.  The man says I'm always much better when I am busy with my makings.

So let me introduce you to...  OK I haven't actually named him/her!  Not that it matters as it's my first toy to donate to my 'Gift of Love' Appeal.  An enormous thank you to you lovely ladies who have offered to make some things for the Christchurch people.  They will be much appreciated I'm quite sure.

The bunny came from the Softies book.  I've always like this rabbit for it's simply design and the fact that a little poppet can hold him/her so easily.  I'm betting those denim ears will taste pretty good too!   Do you like his tail?  It's a piece of Moda tape with cute dots on it.  I was also thinking that I could embroider some tape with a word like hope or love.  But I've run out of tape after making lots of name labels for No.1's school uniform.

Yesterday was a very grand day as I also made pumpkin soup for a special guest coming for a sleep-over on Thursday!   I know, a real sleep-over!!  All will be revealed later in the week.  And you know what??  That pretty pumpkin came out of our compost bin!!  Do you think I should hide this fact from our guest?  Yes probably!  It's it just the juiciest, orangey, pumpkin you ever did see? 

Last evening, after a great day, No.4 took her Daddy to kindy for a special Daddy's night.  They ate fish'n'chips and sang songs.  Sooo cute!  Anyway we weren't going to miss out on some fun, so the rest of us bought our fish'n'chips and ate them at a local park. 

Aren't we so very lucky to have this gorgeous park only ten minutes from where we live?  It's quite new so the plants are a bit small.  But the landscaping sure makes up for it.

The girls walked up this man-made hill.  I didn't want to risk breaking my shoes so I waited at the bottom.  Boring I know.  The big girls roller bladed around and No.3 enjoyed scooting on her squeaky scooter.  Must get the CRC out for that wee problem.

The evening was just perfect.  Warm, not windy and very peaceful.  Just look at that heavenly blue sky. 

Well I better get my boots on and get a bit of house tidying done before it's full of children once more.  Not that they will care of course!  Does your house always look messy?  Ours sure does, every jolly day!  Alright, have a super duper day yourselves!  See you next time!

He Loves Me...

 He loves me not :(

He loves me!

He really loves me!!

And I really love my girls.  I made them love heart pikelets for afternoon tea today.  What a lovely surprise for them this Valentines Day.

Someone clearly loves chocolate too!!  Goodness me.

Happy Valentines Day to you all!  I hope you all have a very LOVE-ly day today where ever you are.  Fourteen years ago hubby and I got engaged!  How cool is that?  He was in NZ and I was in England.   I still think he's fabulous.  He's improved with age too I think.  We compliment each other perfectly which is nice.  We keep saying the same things too which comes with spending many years together I guess. 

Loving you Mr P!!  xxxxxxx

Wholesome Living

I bought myself a new book yesterday; A Home Companion by NZ author Wendyl Nissen.  Thought it might kick start reading for me once again.  It's a fabulous read for those of us who want to return to a simpler life, growing your own veggies, preserving food, using natural products, you know like our Nanas did.  But this isn't one of those heavy reads, no this is a very light, humorous read.  It's got some awesome recipes for home made products as well.  I'm now keen to make my own moisturiser, washing powder, cleaning paste and bug sprays.

I needed my Mum's food processor for my first try-out recipe.  Mum's are great for lending equipment.  Oh and could you please get some cream for me too?

One container of cream, a dash of salt, pour it all in and turn it on for a few minutes.

Stop when it forms a thick mass.  It actually looks just like butter when it's ready.  Scrape all the butter out and form it into a ball in your hands.  Yes it's a bit yuck but it seems to stay in the right place.

Squeeze out all the water gently under running water.  Pop it in a container and enjoy spread on fresh home made bread.

It doesn't make a huge amount for a 500ml container of cream but it's not bad.  And it's all 100% natural!  Of course if you happen to have a banker in the family like we do, well you'll get asked how much it cost and is it really worth doing?  Well of course it is!!  It's not about the money, it's about it being better for us and it's so much fun to make.  It only took about 3mins to make.  Mind you, I haven't cleaned any of the greasy equipment yet!

And what did the family make of the taste?  Well No.3 said it tasted much nicer and hubby said he wouldn't have known it was different if I hadn't said anything.  No complaints at all.  Sweet success.

Check out how big my darling little pumpkin has grown since I last showed you!!  I'm sure you can see her growing.  I have plenty more growing as well.  Some on the fence too which is a little concerning.

And my tomato plants are so full of green tomatoes that I'm sure they will all be ready on the same day.  I'm going to make jars of tomatoes for the winter casseroles, pastas and the like. 

 And do you want to see my finished compost bin?

It's just perfect!  The front panels come out nice and easily.  A lid might be in order next.  Not sure what it will be made from but I'm sure it will have all the bells and whistles.  It's very neat and tidy looking, and to think, one day it will be full of rot. 

Cookie Swap Tradition

Our Cookie Swap Christmas Evening has become a tradition among my friends.  Dear Glenda has the task of putting it on, which is quite unfair, but she does have the most beautiful English looking house among us. She decorates her house for Christmas and has a pot of mulled wine on the stove.  It's the event of the year and not one to be missed for any reason. 

I think the most fun for me was making these little packages up.  I do like a bit of embellishing!  The girls enjoyed helping me too.

The day before most of us can be found in our kitchen preparing for the big swap.  Our houses are filled with the glorious smells of baking dough.  There are more often than not little helpers either making cookie cutter biscuits or licking the bowls.  It's a really exciting time for the whole family as they all know when they wake up there will be a visual feast for them.

Here are my chocolate macaroons just out of the oven.  Perhaps a little tanned but very chewy and rather delicious.  No.1 was home from school with a cold, so she was a big help to me.  The whole idea of getting my hands in and mixing was a huge turnoff!  Luckily she thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Here are some photos of the table when everyone had displayed their cookies.  All so nicely wrapped with ribbons and looking very festive.

It's the most exciting feeling when you go around the table selecting little packets put together with so much care and thought. 

Take a look at these very impressive tags that dear Glenda made for us.  They are wrapping papers cut to size and mounted on board.  Decoupage apparently.  Very nice and special.  A little momento of our lovely evening together.

 Oh lookie, there are my biscuits!!

And here is my filled basket that I took home at the end of the evening.  Can you imagine how much fun our girls had selecting their favourite cookie in the morning? 

And just look, two of them chose the same one!  Yes Liz, (devoted reader of my blog) they are yours!!!!  You are now a famous cookie maker!

 

And when the girls got home from school they were raving about them.  They have a big piece of peppermint chocolate bar in the middle of them - YUM!! 

If you haven't been to a cookie swap before, I'd say organise one, they are so much fun and completely worth all the baking the day before.  I've taken cookies to my mother, served them to more family members this morning and the girls are provided with a lovely selection for a whole week. 



Thanks so very much for all your hard work Glenda.  You did a brilliant job as usual and we all had a fabulous time.  My pretty tag is hanging on our Christmas tree.  I'm looking forward to next year's swap already.

A Little Jamaica

I'm off out tonight.  Yes it is a rare event actually.  I'm going to my stitch evening with friends and I'll be taking along my pillow swap cover to work on.  How lovely it will be to catch up with everyone, I hope they all bring something to work on as I do like to see what others are making.

So today I whipped up a tray of rum balls to take with me.  Would you like a very quick, simple recipe that only uses one bowl?  Well follow No.4 and me then...

First you will need 100 grams of softened butter or margarine spread in our case.   Yes these can be dairy and gluten free if you like!  Cream the butter in a large bowl.

 Add 2 cups of icing sugar, or confectioners sugar if you speak that language.

3 Tablespoons of cocoa.  Why is there always a little ginger kitten in the photos whenever No.4 is helping?!!  At least he's had a bath this time.

Add 3/4 cups of coconut.  Are we feeling ever so slightly tropical yet?  Can you feel that warmth on your face?

1/2 cup of sultanas, raisins or mixed fruit.

And now we add the little bit of Jamaica!!  No it's too early to have a swig I'm afraid, well OK, if the kids really are driving you up the wall we'll allow it.  If this isn't your flavour add whatever you jolly well like, it doesn't matter at all.

Grab a little ballerina and let her mix away to her heart's content.  An apron might be a good idea.  Whoops too late!

I'm hoping my little one isn't sent home from kindy this afternoon intoxicated!! She insisted on licking the beater! I only let her have one but I'm sure she was sneaking licks from the bowl. Oh gosh, my breath might smell too! Imagine what they will be thinking?

Anyway getting back to the recipe, roll the mixture into balls and throw them into small bowls of coconut, chocolate sprinkles or cocoa to coat them.  Or all three like we did.  The small one was rather keen to take the chocolate sprinkles bowl funnily enough.  Pop them in the fridge to set and serve them in a dinky little dish.  Sorry no photos of this stage yet.  Too little time and not enough patience either.

This recipe is fabulous to make at Christmas time.  Make a couple of batches, pop a pile into a cellophane bag, tie with festive ribbon and voila... you have a sweet little gift for a friend.  Great for a teachers gift too.  Just don't eat too many of them yourself!!!

Jam and Doilies

Today's lunch.  Freshly made strawberry jam on freshly made bread.  I found the bargain of the year last week.  1kg bags of frozen strawberries for only $4!!  I'm off to buy some more next week.  Seven lovely jars are sitting in my storage cupboard now.  Delish!

And look what arrived in my letter box today...

I won a special prize last week at Ted and Bunny's blog.  How exciting is that?  I need lots of these little doilies and mats for a bed cover I'm planning to make for our bed.  I have quite a growing pile of them now.  They are looking very pretty on our buffet in the meantime. 

Just look at the beautiful work(wo)manship.  These surely must have taken ages to make.  My grandmother and great grandmother used to make such things too.  I am quite sure I would not have the patience to be a doily maker.

This one has a cloth backing and would look lovely on a dresser.

And this square one is absolutely wonderful.  I love the dots scattered around it.  It reminds me of a butterfly.

Thank you so very much Mrs Ted and Bunny!  I will enjoy using these precious doilies in my bed cover.  Still not sure how I'm going to do it, but do it I shall.

I Love You!

Hello all my lovelies!  Do you know just how much pleasure it is to sit down at my computer (yes darling hubby it's mine, just ask the girls) and see a flood of emails coming through for little old me?  Do you know just how much I adore seeing all your very kind, supportive comments you write to me?  Well I can tell you it's huge.  It's right up to the sky and back and then some.  I enjoy writing comments on blogs too especially when you see how much of an achievement someone has made.  You just have to stop for a min and say "good on you".  So thank you all so very much!

My sewing class at school is going quite well although some of the students are getting a little too familiar and starting to misbehave a little - tut tut!  But mostly we have fun. 

Do you also know, I had no idea just how tricky they would find making yoyos?  Seriously I thought they would take about ten mins to do.  Try an hour!!  Good grief if only I'd known I would have made it a class on it's own.  They were however, impressed with what you could make with them.  I gave them an extra round of fabric to take home with them and one sweet student ran up to me today and said she'd made it last night.  It's so nice that they want to sew out of class.  It means that it's been successful and we now have a few extra sewers in the world.  And that's what it's all about.

And what have I been sewing?  Well I made these little Tilda birds last night.  I've got a wee idea up my sleeve, so no peeking up there.  It might work out and it might not, we'll see.  Anyway it got me thinking.  It seems many of you have a project you make that you enjoy and it's very you.  Some make bunnies, some make bags, some make aprons and the list goes on...   But I don't seem to have one of these signature projects.  I think I'd like one, but then I'm not too good at sticking to one thing because I get bored with doing things more than once.  But I would like one all the same.

The littlest one was itching to go outside and play today after the rain stopped.  She put on her jacket and shoes and off she went.  Several minutes later I caught a glimpse of her out the window.  Just look at how much fun she is having...

I just cracked up laughing at her.  She sure knows how to have fun that girl.  I could hear her prattling away to herself as a fourth child does without company.  Unfortunately she's since given up holding on to her trousers now.  I do hope those shoes were taken off before the first adventure.  Her boots are still soaking from the walk to school this morning.

I have a wee confession to make to you.  I am addicted to the purchasing of lemons.  Yes it's true.  Every week, for weeks now, I have come home from the fruit and veg shop with at least one, sometimes two bags of the little yellow balls.  I make lemon cordial with most of them and sometimes I make lemon curd like today.  Their little lids are popping as I type.  I must say though, I have mastered the art of making lemon curd to perfection!  Yes I rule in that area, the crown is mine. 

And now my darlings I really must go and see what the little one is up to now.  It's a bit quiet for my liking!  See you next time!