A weekend away...

A few weeks ago we had a trip away with friends to Mt Lyford. Just an hour and a half drive from where we live.



We had some sunshine which was just lovely, a glorious day.

We climed hills...

And had a picnic in what was probably the most spectacular location I've ever picnicked.

And living in NZ we're never too far from a fault line, but I had never stood directly on one until then.

But of course, it wouldn't be a holiday away with kids unless we had some of this.

It snowed on the first day of our arrival so we went snow hunting. Realising that Master L was tired we carried him the whole way up the hill only to carry him screaming like this the whole way back down again.

A quick snowman was built, thanks P!

And the children were oh so impressed, can't you tell?

What a weekend away and great to spend time with good friends.

Can we pleeeease make scones...?

...of course we can darling!

Miss E's new favourite thing to do is help with dinner prep or baking.

Here's my recipe for Savoury Scones. Basic scone recipe courtesy of NZ's Edmonds Cook Book and adapted to suit.

Preheat oven 200c Fan or 220c normal

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose/plain flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

75g softened butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup grated cheese

1 cup grated/chopped veges (I used courgette red and orange pepper and threw in a handful of finely diced salami)

1 to 1 and a quarter cups of milk

Dump flour baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well.

Add butter and cut in with a knife/pastry blender or rub with fingers until no lumps remain.

Add veges and cheese and mix well.

Add Milk and bring together until you get nice damp dough. I used around the whole 1 and a quarter cups here.

Put onto a floured surface and pat/roll to 3/4 inch thick.

Cut into desired shapes/ sizes. I got 9 adult portion sized scones from this.

Place on non stick or lined tray and bake for 15 mins or until golden on top.

Enjoy warm with butter or a slice of cheese sandwiched between.

Yum!

Stef x

Today's Handi-work...

A certain wee boy turns two next week. Where did the last two years go?

Spent the last week pondering what kind of cake to make him.

He had a train last year with some pretty awesome blue icing that stained everything it touched.

This year I opted for simple.

He loves planes and I love these jet planes by Pascall. Yummy!

The cake is a double batch of The Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake which with 4 cups of sugar and nearly 500g butter in my double batch should probably be called Cardiac Sheet Cake. Not to mention the butter icing. Never mind. If you're going to eat cake, better to do it properly or not at all.

Here's the finished article.

Happy Birthday my darling boy. X

Return of my Daily Joy...

A few things have happened since my last post.

1. We had a 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch and it had to be one of the most scary and surreal experiences of my life. Thankfully no-one hurt, just house and land damage and we were very lucky.

2. Aforementioned earthquake happened the day we were due to fly to Scotland. Which meant we were delayed by 4 days.

3. We survived the traumatic half way round the world flight with two kids and had an awesome time with my family.

4. Survived the jetlag and return flight only to come back to continued aftershocks.

I'm feeling back to normal last week and this week have gotten back into my crafty stuff again.

Do you recall this chair with its 80's shocking pink seat?


I visited my friend Karen at Plot to Plate for coffee last week and got inspired to get cracking on recovering it.

So this morning I've been busy creating this.

Doesn't it look awesome?? Even if I do say so myself :)

I used some gorgeous olicloth fabric from a local fabric shop and I am so pleased with the result.

Yesterday I got sew frustrated (pardon the pun). I tried to make some pyramid door stops only to realise that this gorgeous fabric from the same shop, liked to frey.

I think i'll start again and try to use the leftover oilcloth from my stool this time.

I'll let you know how I get on :)

Late frost to lost socks

Weather here has been relatively mild, marking the end of Winter and heading into Spring.

Buds are forming on the trees and the rhododendrons have had flowers on for a couple of weeks now. We have our first daffodil in the front garden. It looks a little lonely on its own though.

The thing about Christchurch is that you are often lulled into a false sense of security where things in the garden are concerned. Each year since we've been here there has been a late frost in September. The poor trees and flowers suffer the wrath of this.






We head off in a week to Sunny Scotland. I keep calling it Sunny in the hope that it will give us some unseasonably warm weather when we're there. The truth of the matter is that the weather here at the end of Winter is pretty identical to what they are having on a "good day" through summer. Yesterday and today I've been in short sleeves and it is just lovely to feel the warmth of the sun on my face.






Packing our stuff is forefront in my mind. It seems insurmountable at the moment. Take yesterday, I packed most of Ella's clothes into the suitcase on our bedroom floor. I should have known to move it. Whilst in the shower this morning, Miss E calls to let me know that Master L has kindly unpacked for me and using the suitcase as a bus. I should have known, and I chose not to listen to myself. Never mind, packing the day we leave seems the most logical thing to do. Hmm.

I have a problem.

I think most people out there suffer with it. It's called "a bunch of our socks have entered the washing machine and vanished into thin air". When I say our, I think our machine likes little girls socks most.

Where do you think they go?

Yours truly

Bemused

xx

It's the hardest job in the world....

...being a stay at home parent.

Some days this is me.

Yesterday was one. I hid in the walk in pantry.

If I had a boss i'd tell him I want a raise...and time off....and a bonus....and a terms and conditions defined within a contract.

I don't have a boss, so to whom can I tender my resignation?

Don't even get me started on occupational hazards.

Sunday Fright Night

*disclaimer* Anyone with arachnaphobia should proceed to view the next image with caution.








One of these crawled out from under the lapel of a business shirt I was ironing last night.

Someone somewhere wants me to die of fright.

Seriously.

I

am

petrified

of

whitetail

spiders.

When I lived in Scotland a HUGE (ok, a couple of cm diameter) common house spider crawled down the front of my dressing gown onto my naked flesh. There began my fear of spiders.

Miss E was bitten on her foot by what we suspect was a whitetail last year. She was fine, but watching the wee one in a lot of pain simply perpetuated my fear.

I don't know if I'll ever get over either event. I know it's irrational.

All I know is, I'm pleased Music Man was there to dispose of the critter. Last time I found one on my own It took me 30 mins to pluck the courage up to get a glass over the thing.

My heart nearly exploded out of my chest.

Now if you excuse me, I'm off to call pest control to get the entire house sprayed.

A Golden Moment

These are my in-laws, last weekend we had a lovely lunch with the whole family (minus a couple of toddlers) to celebrate their 50 years of marriage. 50 years! Wow, Music Man and I have been married for a whole 6, I can't imagine 50.

50 Years and 4 sons later. I don't know what life would be like living with 5 men in the house. It's no wonder my lovely mother in law likes to collect porcelain dolls.

Miss E with her best friend, Poppa. Poppa emigrated to New Zealand in his early 20's from Holland. He has a wonderful sense of humour, very much like my Dad.

This is Miss E's other best friend. Her cousin that is 10 weeks older than her. He had a tummy ache from drinking too much lemonade and his Dad had to tickle the tummy ache away. It seems to work.

See, this was him before. What a cute face! Daddy fixed it.

The eldest brother, winding his wife up. Getting him to behave for a photo seemed impossible! They have two boys.

Music Man.

The baby brother and his wife. We had our older children 10 weeks apart and our younger 3 months apart. We feel each others' pain. The pain of motherhood is a bond that men do not understand.

The second eldest brother and his wife. They have two girls.

It was a really fun afternoon, great company, wonderful food and a joy to celebrate this milestone.

A Project

I visited this little gem of a shop after a friend recommended it. Its a little haven of shabby chic and retro/ vintage stuff.

I bought this chair and intend to revamp it as a new stool for random use around the house. It will probably live in our music/ guest room as a softer seat to the alternative hard stool.


It's in pretty neat order.

It needs some new stoppers on the bottom.

The hot pink fluffy covering isn't to my taste so i'll probably replace with some vintage print oilcloth.

It's got a few specks of rust appearing on the legs, but my friend "Martha" who inspired me to find one of these stools has assured me that a steelo pad should bring it up bright.

Cost me $15 to purchase as is and probably another $40 to completely revamp it. I'll get the satisfaction of knowing I've done it myself.

Hope to update you in a couple of weeks with my "after" shots.

p.s I LOVE my new camera and taking pic's to share with you!! :)

A Week in Pictures

Boy, it's been a busy week. Birthday cakes, cooking, parties, sewing, socialising, and all the other stuff on top. Here's a sneaky peek at some of the stuff we've been up to this week. No pictures of the birthday party, some stupid woman forgot to put the memory stick into her camera!

Watching DVD's. My lifeline sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time.

Pre-school cake. Good old Edmonds One Egg Chocolate Cake.

Stef's tender meatballs. Recipe will follow. Unfortunately, slightly overcooked, but it was a huge batch and I erred on the side of caution with cooking them longer. Another silly woman moment.

New camera from Auntie and Uncle for birthday. Batteries....dead. New ones installed. Goodness only knows how long until I stop changing them altogether.

Happy Birthday Miss E.

Morning Princess.

Daddy's Princess.

The curse of blue food colouring. My fingernails haven't yet forgiven me.

Thankfully this stuff comes off easily enough.

Happy days everyone.

x

Photography. A work in progress.

Hello, my name is Gerald.

I am the subject of todays photography lesson.

I am also a slave to Miss E.

She insists that I comfort her at her will.

I am a reluctant participant.

I have never been washed.



I know I look happy, but I want to escape from this prison.

This woman has kept me sitting in this position for hours and hours whilst she interrogates me.

I have no water, no food. I have been subjected to multiple shots of bright light in my face.

I have cramp in my right leg, yet she still will not let me move.

I dream of escape.

I've been practicing.

Okay, so the shots aren't very exciting, but at least Gerald the Giraffe doesn't move.

My children move way too much for me to perfect my aperture and shutter speed skills on them.

I promise more dynamic shots for next time.

For now, PLEASE, someone send help for this poor neglected animal!

p.s. for some reason my formatting on Blogger goes mad if I type content before I insert photographs. If anyone knows why, save my sanity, please, I'm a control freak!