Merry Christmas…

…to all!! It’s 1.45am here and we’ve just got back from our first Midnight Mass…wow…it was really wonderful…I can’t really say much more than that!

The kids are in bed and we’re waiting for them to get to sleep so we can finish off the last few finishing touches if you know what I mean…nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

It’s kind of weird to think that most of the rest of the world has still another day to get through and here we are already there…one kid left paper for elves to make paper darts with…another left shortbread he made in hopeful exchange for a treat for his cat.

So I’m going to bed to get some little sleep until the onslaught begins….hope anyone and everyone who passes by has a great Christmas and an even better New Year!!

Three posts in one day…

…what can I say…procrastination, thy name is WordPress!!  But I did do my vacuuming and partial rubbish pick-up…the floors will be filthy again by the end of the night so why bother when there’s so many more interesting things to do!!!  Although I still have to take the photos for this post!

It begins here and here…I signed up then had to find something to make which Zakka Life prompt;y provided me with but a few days later…isn’t it great when that happens!  I’ve never really been a felt person and thought maybe I could get away with using fabric…two different fabrics stuck together with double-sided iron-on interfacing and then put together as shown.  It worked ok except it’s a bit flat…and I didn’t put in a ribbon to hang is as it was a quickie proto-type:

Then I went off to Spotlight and picked up some different Christmas coloured felt pieces and some beads and did it proper like!  Much better!  I really should know by now that following the instructions generally gets the best results!  So my six balls of Christmas delight are ready to send off to parts far and near when I get ro addressing envelopes and such…oh and if you’re one of the recipients reading this – they’ll get squished in the mail but should be ok if you give them a bit of a smoosh back into the right shape.

So, I’m not done with these balls yet…last week I wandered off to Spotlight yet again and collected several more sheets of felt in very unChristmas-like colours…enough for about 18 more balls…almost one a day until Christmas Day!  One colourset I’m giving to one of the women I work with in pinks and greens as we were sharing ideas about tree decs the other day and she bought some pink and green baubles…I’m going to call mine gaudles I think – gaudy baubles – yeah silly I know but just wait until you see them all on my tree! In the mean time here’s the stack of circles I have to work with!

The next piece of crafty goodness I’m working on is a bauble wreath.  I need a really good excuse to buy new coloured tree balls this year to match my gaudles…enter the bauble wreath I came across here (yeah, well the only thing I can promise is mine won’t look that stunning!!  )…and wouldn’t you know it there was a wire coat hanger on the clothes airer….I’m in the process of taking the plastic coating off it so as to allow for the smaller balls to fit on…so the end result will be interesting to say the least!

Last night we lit the first Advent candle.  I picked up some little coloured candles in glass jars that are sat in the middle of the wreath…all of which is double-sided sticky-taped to the top of a cake plate that seperated form the stand part in the dishwasher one day – and that’s after having super-glued it back together once already for the very same reason – can you say learning impaired!?!    Back to the wreath…so there was a Christmas project issue of Homespun a few months back that had a candle surrounded by a small wreath that was decorated with fabric leaves and berries…what I thought I might do is to add a leaf and berry set each week as we go through advent.

And somewhere amongst this making stuff I’ve got to finish my Mum’s cardy and make Thing One a guitar strap for the guitar she doesn’t know she’s getting yet!!  We’ll see how it goes as I’m making it up as I go along…there are no decent instructions for making a fabric guitar strap so I’m taking some ideas from camera straps and a leather guitar strap instructable…I’ll let you know how it goes.

For dinner tonight we’re having this and triple cheese sausages…so healthy but Thing Two won a can of creamed corn in the tombola at the school fair the other weekend and has been dying to get into it…so I finally convinced him this was the way to go…he reckons he really likes the stuff plain…and then told me he hasn’t actually tried it yet…Update:  he doesn’t like the stuff after all!!  Hahaha…how’d I know this.

 

 

First Holy Communion…

…photos from last Sunday…the kids all looked great and did a fantastic job of everything!  It was a lovely service, with a lot of work having gone in to this over the year of preparation by kids, teachers and parents…being as I am not Catholic myself I learnt alot about the Catholic Church along with the kids.

So…these three Things…Thing Three being demure…Thing Two being quiet…and Thing One being her usual self! 

So…demure…cheeky and…observant…can we get a serious photo at all?!?

Finally!  Don’t they look adorable?!?  Thing Two wanted a tie and a suit jacket to wear…he’d gone crazy over some fabric in Spotlight that you can see I made a waistcoat out of for him (without his knowing) and was happy to discover I had enough fabric left (thankful too I purchased more than I thought I needed!) to make this tie I eventually found after a bit of a Google search party!  We had a bit of a battle getting him to keep the waistcoat on but the tie is a keeper!  The pattern is a free download and the instructions are easy to understand.  I also made the girls headbands as their dresses were hired and I wanted them to have something to keep from the day.  Two plastic headbands, about 10 metres of white ribbon, various ribbon flowers and lots of narrow double-sided sticky tape…and they loved them…they both wore them out to dinner that night and Thing Three wore hers to school and then off to show her Mum the next day!

Here’s a close-up of her watching something that was going on – you can see a bit of the headband detail.  Blokey takes a great photo!

Cheeky monkey-boy!  Can you see the print on the fabric?  It’s ferns and NZ all over…the kids nothing if not patriotic…not to mention a huge All Blacks fan – Dan Carter’s his hero!  Next to being a chef he wants to be an All Black one day (don’t all/most boys)…failing that a Crusader will do!

This is Thing One doing the first Bible reading…she was the oldest of the group (there were 20 of them) and did a great job of the Maori pronunciation at the end.  Thing Two carried in the wine for the Communion (photos weren’t too good for that) and Thing Three did a dance with some others – we got photos but too many other kids were in it to be able to post any.

So there we are, three new members of the Catholic Church…and at least one of them has signed himself up to be an altar server next year…with out any prompting!!  I’m so proud of all three of them or going through this process together…each of them have their own view of God and the Church….I pray we can all work together to help widen and encourage that in them.

It’s Monday…

…9.30am and it’s raining…again!  Tomorrow is the first official day of summer and looking at the forecast there’s more of the same on it’s way!  Oh well, on the upside the garden’s staying nicely moist and things are growing before they’re being eaten so far!    Yesterday I planted some spinach right outside the front door…a rhubarb plant in a pot, and a cucumber and some chives were finally potted as well…so, I’m feeling rathr virtuous with my garden so far…still contemplating whether or not to get some peas…I just need to figure out where to put them so they’ll grow proper like.  I weeded the area where the lettuces are…thinking I may have room for some more…we have two guinea pigs here that like their greens as well as the five of us…well four…Thing Two picked a leaf for his sandwich yesterday and later declared to my Mum how much he doesn’t like the stuff!  I almost bought a lemon tree the other day too…but I’ve run out of pots to put it in for now!  So far I’ve lost one capsicum plant and a courgette and almost a second capsicum but I think it’s going to be ok now I’ve taken off the toy bowling set the kids left on it!    I was looking for my camera to take some photos but wouldn’t your kow it…it’s lost in the ether!  Might borrow Thing Two’s as it’s sitting temptingly on the table calling to be used…

You can  the results of a fair bit of wind lately…there are more leaves than weeds!  It’s nothing flash but it’s all still growing!  There are tomatoes over on the top right…and there was a marigold there somewhere too!  I have also got some beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower anc broccoli planted in there…I checked them all yesterday and everything is there although not in the numbers I originally planted!  I’m thinking if I do plant pease they will be along the left side as there’s a wall where I can attach string and things to…bit of a clean up needed first and some more potting mix!

**NOTE**  Because I used the large size photos from here down you only see half the photo – so what I’m talking about makes less sense than usual as you can’t actually see it unless you click on the photo – and I’m too lazy to go back and attempt to fix it!!  **

This patch definitely needs a weed to find the silverbeet that Thing Two lovingly refers to as his!  He loves silverbeet…when he was at creche they provided cooked dinners ofr the kids and he was always popular with Pam the cook because he’d eat all his silverbeet…so we had to get some and he had to plant it by himself!  There are six plants, a lot of weeds and some wild randomly growing parsley down there and a very dead large fern branch that fell off recently in the wind!  If it looks kind of weird it’s because I was standing just outside the front door leaning over the step railing – and it looks like the ivy needs a bit of attention too!

This is under our bedroom window…further down on either side are a coupld of climbing rose bushes that add some prettiness to the practicality here…there are  few more lettuces to the left as well…this lot I did weed a bit yesterday…not that you’d notice!  It’s nice to be able to step out the front door and pick a fresh leaf when ever you want one…although these aren’t near ready yet – Thing Two picke a leaf that lamost killed a plant yesterday…hopefully it’s going to be ok.

Ok, so here’s one potted and one unpotted cucumber…a nice mint that was almost dead when I decided to pot it and it’s come back beautifully (I’m hoping for some mint sauce for Christmas day with the lamb!)…a half-dead lettuce and the chives…can you tell I hate weeding?!?  I open my front door and look directly out to that…nice to see things growing instead of the weeds taking over everywhere! 

And here you can see a randomly potted lettuce…I’m thinking of putting some more in there with it to use the space…next to that is my rhubarb…my Mum used to grow it years ago and I remember rhubarb and custard for pudding in winter…the kids think I’m going to be making them rhubarb pies!  The small patch next to that is home to the half-dead capsicum way over on the right there…it used to house another capsicum and a courgette but the courgette was half dead when I put it in so serves me right on that one!  The crates right at the very end are used to perch the guinea pig cage on…they eat more greens than we do – it’s time to change the equation!!

Last but not least…the spinach and the one remaining mairgold of three or four I planted that just disappeared!  So, that’s it for the tour around my little make-shift garden(s)…as soon as the rain stops and the sun comes out I’m out there to pull those weeds and tidy things up a bit more…and maybe even plant those peas and some more lettuce or herbs…I’d really like some basil as well as a few other things.

Well,  I have to stop procrastinating now and go make a start on the tidying and cleaning…it’s 10.30 now so I should be sat down with a coffee by 12!  I have some photos of last Sundays’ First Holy Communion that I’ve been meaning to post and then later another post about Christmas decorations…yes, tomorrow’s the day…our tradition is to put our tree up on December 1…maybe I’ll post some photos, maybe I won’t…depends how gorgeous it looks (the kids do it!  ).

Do You Need a Budget???

…then you need YNaB 3…go check it out…NOW!!!  This is a shameless plug for YNaB which is the most awesome budgeting tool I’ve used…unfortunately I no longer have access to a Windows machine so I can’t use it, however the new YNaB 3 is rumoured to be useable on Linux and this post is worth three extra entries to win one of five copies Jesse and the team are giving away on it’s release…cross all your fingers and toes and eyes…and anything else for me please!  Now to head over to Facebook for another entry…I’m so hoping to get to be a beta tester too!!

Helen has a new BoM!!

…and a giveaway to go with it!!  The BoM is called ‘Life is Beautiful’, as is the quilt…done in my favourite colours…I have to make this…perhaps a combined present from a few people for Christmas…although Blokey doesn’t read my blog so that hint won’t help!

So the rules for Helen’s giveaway are to leave a comment on her blog including a quote about our own beautiful life…then post it on our own blog along with a photo of the quilt.  I found this quote by FDR:  “Happiness…it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”  I’ve certainly found this to be true participating in the Stitcher’s Angel swap that Helen has been running…it’s certainly bringing a lot of happiness to plenty of women on my list of blogs I read regularly!!  And now for the photo:

Looks delicious doesn’t it!

Ooops…I forgot rule three:  sit and think for five minutes about your beautiful life…!

I’m making…

…profiteroles for tomorrow.  I’ve made them once before and they turned out great…I’m using a different recipe this time so here’s hoping!  I turned on the camera to take a photo of the little balls of gloriousness but the batteries had gone dead already!  I only used them once a few days ago and last night to check some photos…so they’re in the re-charger for later…if Blokey gets home soon enough I can use his camera hopefully.  There shall be two trays of them…all from one cup of flour, 1 cup of water, 100g butter and four eggs!  So there are 77 little blobs of soon to be golden loveliness…36 are already cooking…they’re quite small so I hope there’s enough room to stash some whipped cream!  They’re puffing up nicely…can’t wait!  So they worked out reat…I ate two…one off each tray just to make sure!! 

While I’m waiting for the timer to go off I’ll show you the photos of the things I made for Cori – although she has some much better photos of it all on her blog already!

So, I made a few things…all from the patterns that were made available by the lovely designers, for the swap, selected some fabrics in the colours Cori said she liked and threw in a New Zealand flowers themed fabric I love that seemed to fit with the other colours quite well.  I’m not very good at making things up for myself and there was a point where I thought my fabric choices weren’t the best but I’d passed the point of no return by that stage!!  Usually I take my lead from whoever it is that has designed whatever it is I’m making, whether it be a quilt or whatever…as I’m normally attracted to the design and the exact colours as the design is made up rather than thinking how it would look in whatever colour selection I might have available to use.  So this was quite a challenge all round for me and I so enjoyed it I want to do it all over again!

I made the drawstring bag that Helen designed, Natalie’s lovely needlebook, Tracy’s pincushion and May’s notebook cover…although I put the stitchery for that one on the inside front flap as the fabric I used for the cover itself was a lovely flower (rose?) line drawing fabric by Alex Andersen and to cover it with the stitchery was going to lose what attracted me to it in the first place.  Then I found a few New Zealand themed things to add to the parcel…I found out about Cori’s love of decorating…and one day at work I found the cute Christmas jandal-wearing Kiwi decorations…some Whittaker’s Peanut Block and a few NZ themed stickers I also found at work finished it off just nicely.  I so enjoyed making and conversing and getting to know people I otherwise wouldn’t have known anything about!  Helen has done such a great job of putting us all together and making this such a great project to participate in.

 

 

I owe…

a couple of posts by now to two of the loveliest ladies I’ve had the pleasure to meet online.  I think I can fossick around and dig up a couple of photos if I’m lucky…here goes!!

First to Elisa, my Angel in the Stitcher’s Angel swap…wow, WoW, WOW…what can I say but thank you for such a lovely, generous gift of your time and talents!  Elisa is all the way from Italy and I am in awe of her stitching!  I took a few quick photos the other day…be warned….my photos do not do anything justice!  Elisa has better photos on her blog…go there to see them!! 

This is the needlebook Elisa made…complete with some lovely threads that I shall be looking to use for something soon!  I’ve already put a few needles in it and it sits open on the arm of the couch in easy reach when I’m sitting working on something…you can also see the scissors attached to the mini-pincushion – with my first initial stitched on it…the kids can’t take off with that one!  All her lovely work…..but wait!…there’s more!!

…a lovely heart that smells of lavendar and a delightlful pincushion to keep me from poking random pins into the couch when I can’t find my pin box – which is often!

…this apron gives a clue as to where Elisa comes from in Italy…Pisa…I’ve used it already and the kids are insanely jealous…especially Thing Two who aspires to be a chef one day – after playing for the Crusaders and The All Blacks…I might let him have a go one day 

Last but not least is the lovely lavendar scented angel that sits beside my bed with all my other special fragrant things…there was also a ceramic plaque that hangs over the top of my calendar to keep it from blowing away and some chocolates I had been told were rather yummy but had resisted purchasing…they’re long gone now and very nice (and yes I gave one to Blokey!) Ferrero Rocher Rond Noir (crikey, I think I spelt that wrong…but it’s the dark Ferrero Rocher balls…oh my!)…and also a package of green threads which will be used for something special!

I feel so blessed and I’m glad I signed up…although I may have started two new addictions…online swaps and stitching….I have a few more things to finish before I can start anything new but there’s more than one thing vying for my attention!

Thank you again Elisa for your lovely gifts, I will treasure these and every time I use them they will remind me of you!

I was going to add a couple of photos of the things I sent to Cori who I have been lucky enough to be Angel to…we’ve had some interesting email exchanges over the past couple of months about all kinds of things….now it’s her turn to ask the questions!!  Oh, yes…I was going to add photos and such ‘cept it’s now got so late (11.30) and I have to get up so early for work (unmentionable for a Saturday!)…I also have the final prep for First Communion on Sunday to do…the tie is finished…the waistcoat just needs buttons…the girls have cute headbands (ribbon and double-sided tape!)…medals need ribbons sewn on and profiteroles ned to be made….and there shall be more photos…maybe Sunday….definitely Monday…could be both!

I’m a lazy blogger…

…yet so often I think in trems of blog posts…it’s the getting around to it that gets me every time!

It’s been a splendid week gone by and I’m looking forward to what this next week might bring.  Yesterday I had a reasonable productive day…planted a capsicum, courgette and mint plants that were badly in need of it.  Then went on to prune some off the low hanging trees to get some more sunlight…I don’t think spring is the time to do that really but what the heck…I did it last year and it seemed to work ok. Then I had to go into work for a few things and came home with some beetroot and a yellow capsicum along with a few goodies for my Stitcher’s Angel Swap partner (they’re going in the post this afternoon finally!) and a family Christmas present. Oh also Thing Three had her ballet show yesterday…by all reports she was great, a real born performer this one…unfortunately I had to miss it as we had some changes in arrangements from when I bought tickets…but other than going to see her I wasn’t too disappointed to miss it really – went way past the end time and Blokey was rather unimpressed with some of the more tasteless performances…but they’re doing better than I could so good on them for trying!  Then we headed off to church for something they’ve called an eco-liturgy…this one was specifically aimed at kids (or the kid in all of us) with a clown and a theme of joy leading up to the upcoming Christmas period…it was really fun and something different from the usual service  that is held in the morning….so we may go to those more next year.  Then once we got home and had the kids into bed Blokey and I started playing with our new toy…but I’ll not divulge just yet, suffice it to say it’s rathre an awesome little piece of technology…and you’ll just have to keep coming back to find out later!! 

Thursday saw us in town for the evening at the water front for the Guy Fawkes display…awesome as usual and well worth getting there four hours early to get a park right by the water…it got really cold later on and I was thankful to be able to sit in the car until it was almost time for the fireworks to begin…and then we got out pretty quickly at the end but it still took ages to get home…the kids thought it was great though…and Blokey videoed the whole thing on his iPhone – I was hoping for a few photos but nver mind…I’m rather photo weak at the moment as someone’s nicked the batteries for my camera and we can’t find any spares…grrrr to the battery gremlins!

The kids have been having a week of outdoors education this week and came home on Tuesday after having done some bush skills…asked me if they could go build a hut…yeah, no worries, I thought they were just outside on the grass but then found out they’s scarpered down the bank and were doing something down there…we’ve not really encouraged that as it looks like a dangerous place but as they’re getting older now I figured why not…so they spent the better part of the week pottering around down there, discovered a walking track that leads to the steps down the road and a stream and all kinds of things.  Encourage the explorer in them!  The good thing was they came and asked if they could follow the path, follow the stream or whatever before they set off, which was a good thing…and they stuck together…it’s really cool to see them co-operating more.

I might leave it there for no and try getting some photos for another post later…my favourite blogs are the ones laden with photos and that’s where I need to improve really…I’m going on a battery hunt…actually it’s to avoid going into the kitchen right now which is a pig pit after the weekend…I’ve been busy doing other things and so has everyone else apparently!!  Putting a peg on my nose as I type!!   Ewwww.

I have however done my Weekly Home Blessing already so I’m picking fifteen minutes might go far right now!! 

 

I’ve been seeing…

…Stitcher’s Angel projects popping up all over Blogland as the deadline for mailing is today….I’ve just emailed my partner as I haven’t been able to finish my chosen projects yet…I may have been a bit too ambitious wanting to make it a good experience for both her and I.  That and sometimes it just took Blokey a wee few reminders (or a lot!) to print out the patterns! 

I really want to be more prolific with my making…I’m making more now than I have before but still I think I have it in me to make more…I’m also aware I have a tendency to over commit myself…mostly as I’m a really nosey person and it gives me an excuse to know what is going on…but in the end it really does me no good to be doing something for the wrong reasons – and the family suffers too.

Tomorrow is Halloween…and I’m not into it at all.  Normally the kids will head off to a church party but this year we have some work to do for their First Communion coming up in three weeks time…so I’m going to try and find out a bit about the beginnings of it all…where it really came from.  I know it’s to do with All Hallows Eve…with All Saints Day being the next day…but other than that I’m really not sure where it comes from or how it got turned into the commercial thing it is here…the cynical part of me says it’s about the retail business making something big happen at a quiet time of the year…but in a few days time we our own celebration of Guy Fawkes day…four days of hard out fireworks selling…we make more usually at this time than we do any other time other than the last day or two before Christmas…but hey, Halloween makes money between Father’s Day and now and that’s what it’s all about.  I really should get out of the whole retail thing and find a job somewhere else!  I’m too comfortable where I am and too lazy too look elsewhere…I’m not complaining really…just a bit cynical at how we have taken up something that doesn’t really belong to us without knowing (or caring for that matter) what it is really about…

Yesterday I came across a book at work and impulse bought it!  I’m not supposed to be doing that anymore!  However…it’s a book that has spun out of a website I joined the email list for a long time ago and regularly read their newsletters.  The book is called The $21 Challenge and it’s really a great idea.  I’m going to try it over the next couple of weeks (just need Blokey to remember to print out the planner sheet for me) starting from tomorrow.  Kind of a spontaneous thing…but it’s our usual grocery day tomorrow and I only go once every two weeks…so we shall see if we can manage two weeks on $52…the firgure of $21 is based on a family of four so I’m adding $5 more for our family of five…it could get interesing but I think I have more food inthe cupboard and freezer than I know I have!  So tomorrow hopefully I can do the stocktakes and then plan what we’re going to eat and what I ned to buy.  There’s a great recipe section that takes up over half the book…including some from my favourite Sophie Gray!  Another reason to recommend this book.  It would be good to be able to so this every couple of months as a way of keeping the pantry and freezer up to date and limiting the wasteage we have…I’m hoping to I can be more disciplined about putting down exact amounts on the shopping list and buying only those…maybe shaving a few dollars off the bill!  I’m thinking too I might post each day over the next two weeks with the days meals…how we go, etc…and maybe some photos if I can get the camera to work…Blokey’s is a little complicated for me right now….

Well, I have some stitching to do…hopefully tomorrow I can plant the last of my plants – a couple of herbs, a courgette and a capsicum…and take Thing two out somewhere for a bike ride or something…..