* Miss Smith at Home

May I introduce you to some old friends

2012-01-26T16:38:00.000+13:00

I have some lovely old friends: my vintage dresses. We've been friends since I was a teenager. The first vintage dress I ever bought was at a fair when I was 14. It was a size 8 chiffon 1950's dress in light pink and I wore it all summer. By the time I was 16 I couldn't fit into it anymore, but it was the beginning of something beautiful.
This is one that I bought 16 years ago when I was 23. I've been too fat for it several times over the years since then but I can just squeeze back into it now and the excitement of that event has led to this blog post. Hey there Red, good to see ya again.

Little Miss Sparkley Pink Paisley Lurex is another old friend from those days. I can just squeeze into this one too but breathing, eating, or drinking would be extra. Oh well. Another few kilos down and I'll celebrate by wearing it out and having a thimble full of champagne while breathing shallowly.

This blue house-frock is a little more age and life-stage appropriate for me- definitely has a hausfrau feel to it and it does so love to be worn while I mop floors and peg out laundry. I had a feeling this dress missed her old owner when, of all the strange things, a woman in town stopped stunned in front of me the other day and said "That used to be my dress!". We had a wee chat about it and since then I've felt like it's made itself more at home with me.

The thing about vintage dresses is that really, they're happiest hanging out together, so when you have one you seem to attract more to join in the partay. The green one below was a gift from a woman who I see when I drop the kids at school every day. I hardly know her, but she shouted across the playground, "I have a dress for you!". I've really enjoyed wearing this, it's so soft and it's a shape I wouldn't normally wear, but it feels exciting and different.

I like modern clothes too, really, I do, but there's no friend like an old friend.

Finishing and Starting Again

2012-01-12T15:56:00.002+13:00

I've finished two things since we last met: the year, and The Quilt.

I was glad to finish the year because there were times that it sucked. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but there it is.

I was glad to finish the quilt because it was so nice and I was so proud of it! There are some things it might amuse you to learn about this quilt. First, I didn't choose the fabrics. They were throw-outs from Melissa, who makes very beautiful things. I think the fact that my taste didn't come into it too much is a major reason in it turning out so well.

Second, I made two rules for myself in sewing it:

1. I would remember that I was sewing it as a gift of love for my daughter. Therefore, if she came and wanted my attention while sewing it, I was to be nice and not tell her to leave me alone.

2. I wasn't to buy any fabric for this quilt at all, in keeping with its status as a scrap quilt.

The first rule I broke about 50 times because I love to be left alone while sewing. In the end I decided it wasn't so bad if she remembers that I was sometimes a bad tempered mother. Everyone I know remembers their mother as being bad tempered at times, it's just how it is.

The second rule I broke when I needed a border. I chose the pink because it was girly and cute. I broke it again for the backing- I was going to use seersucker from my stash, but ended up buying some lovely soft pink thing from the sale table at Spotlight instead. Because I wanted to.

(No it's not your monitor, my camera is MIA and I am using crappy photos from my phone instead).

Anyhoo, here's to a great year of breaking rules and being bad tempered at times! Hooray!

Feeling Christmassy

2011-12-14T11:46:00.001+13:00

Only Sunday-week and Christmas is upon us! No wonder I'm feeling all festive. This year has been so awwwwwfully busy that it was easy to cut myself a bit of slack around Christmas organization. I didn't even feel guilty. Even though I love christmas decoration swaps, I didn't sign up for any because I knew we just had too much on. I didn't commit to organizing any end-of-year do's for school or sport. I haven't sent a single card. The only things I needed to organize were the one present for someone in my big family (easy peasy, since it's supposed to be cheap, second hand, or homemade) and a couple of wee things for each person in my wee family. It's been very painless and now the presents are all done and dusted.

Having said that, we still end up wanting to give a little something to various other folks, so it's nice to have a wee treat on standby for such purposes. This year I felt compelled to make little Christmas puddings to give as gifts. I used an exceptionally easy recipe from one of Alison Holst's kitchen diaries and then steamed it in large tea cups to make little puddings that would comfortably feed 2 or 3 people.

Christmas pudding

From Alison Holst's Kitchen Diary Vol. 9 (1986)

2 cups flour

75 g butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1 cup raisins

1 cup currants

1 c sultanas

1/4 c mixed peel

1/4 c cherries

1 t cinnamon

1 t mixed spice

1/2 c golden syrup

1/2 c milk

1 t baking soda

2 eggs

Grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon.

Whizz the flour, sugar, butter, and spices in a food processor until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. Warm the milk and golden syrup to mix them, then mix in the eggs and the baking soda. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix in the fruit. Tip into a large pudding basin (or several tea cups with a disc of baking paper in the bottom and well-greased sides), cover with greased foil, and steam for 3-4 for a large pudding or 2-3 h for the small ones. Longer steaming makes them nice and dark.

Turn out and cool. Sprinkle with a little brandy then wrap in baking paper and foil. On the day, steam again to reheat- an hour should do it for the wee ones, maybe two hours for a big one. Serve with cream, custard, icecream, and/or brandy butter.

Cards, and care with card allocation

2011-11-28T14:33:00.000+13:00

Home made cards, they're a welcome relief for someone who is a little overwhelmed by larger projects that seem to move at glacial speed. They're also a welcome relief someone whose wallet has been thrashed over recent weeks at the pre-Christmas sales...I've been buying clothes- very unusual for me but I had an uh-huh! moment a little while ago where I realized that I always buy things for the wee ones but seldom for myself, and it was beginning to show in my dismally drab, overworn, tired wardrobe.
But where was I? Oh yes, cards.
I do nothing fancy when making cards, no sir. No ribbons, no scrapbooky things, no buttons, bows, fancy calligraphy, or poems. Just cardstock and funny pictures from old books, that's my style. I even like to include some of the text if it's amusing or informative. I just made this series of cards, with a friend in mind who loves fishing.

Oh goodness, you have to be careful though. That same friend is also recently divorced, so I won't be giving him this one, no, no, no.

Next on my list is some homemade Christmas presents. I'm going "fancy practical" this year with an edible gift that is also healthy. I'll tell you all about it next time. What are you making for Christmas gifts? Any good ideas?

Friday Pie Day, and a Dolly

2011-11-11T12:30:00.000+13:00

Helloooo Friday! Random story: we have a friend who calls Friday 'Friday Pie Day' because he always gets a pie on a Friday for lunch. How I would love a pie for lunch.
Okay, onto craft activities. I have plenty to be going on with, you know how it is, but sometimes when you have a lot to do you end up doing something else entirely.
My very dear friend has a little girl who is about to turn 3, so I made her a doll. We had a cloth doll when we were little, she was called Rosie and we made her lots of clothes. True to form, Mary Anna made her fancy silk dresses and even a kimono, while I made her odd scratchy little trousers and other strange items. I think Rosie was made with no pattern at all, but these days you can get a cloth doll pattern for free straight off the interweb, hooray! The Black Apple has provided her doll pattern as a free pdf download via Martha Stewart's website. For a quick and easy and rather fun project, this is pretty hard to beat. The pattern is simple and goes together in about 40 minutes. You can use little scraps of fabric from your stash and therefore justify keeping all those little bits you have been accused of never using. And cute! It's so cute! It's genuinely cute, not even weird cute, which is how things I design myself always turn out.

I used brown wool suiting fabric for her hair, which I love. It looks oddly like my own hair with its wee lines of white. I was going to use felt, but I only had nasty brown acrylic felt lying around, and I despise it with its horrible squeakiness and nasty unnatural sheen. *Shudder* I must get rid of it.

I made her a little dress too, too, using my own pattern, hence it is a little weirdly cute:

Because everything I make has to have a little shot of weird in it, otherwise it just wouldn't be my own work.

Have a great weekend everyone! Ta ra!

Life lessons

2011-11-07T14:42:00.000+13:00

I once read a short story in which one of the essential details about a particular woman's character was that she had brown towels in the bathroom, because they didn't show the dirt. I was a teenager when I read this story, and I remember doing an audible "Ewwwww" about that, which amused my mother no end. She did one of those knowing sighs and said "You'll understand when you have children".
Blogfriends, today I bought brown bathmats because I am sick of tiny brown footprints on my white ones. I am now officially a responsible adult.

I'm sorry, the details of my linen cupboard are probably only interesting to me, but sometimes my blog is a space for very trivial thoughts. I can't help it.

In craft news, the extreme busy-ness of my children over the weekend with affairs of their own meant that I had a free afternoon to piece together my quilt. Now I must tell you, better than any feeling of accomplishment or appreciation for pretty things is the feeling that I am getting better at something. I really am getting better at piecing quilts. I will never be one of those engineering types that has it all matching to the last millimetre, but every quilt I make is pieced more precisely than the last, and that is a very nice feeling.

I'm sorry, I didn't iron it to show it to you. I'm a slob like that. I decided against putting any sashing inbetween the windmill blocks for this quilt, because I thought it might make it ever-so-slightly twee. I like how the blocks become a little lost, and it gets that jumbled-vintagey-hot-mess look. Now I just need a border to finish it off, oh, and the quilting and the binding. The border fabric I chose is the backdrop for the tomato relish I made the other day, voila:

Yes, it is awfully early in the season to be making tomato relish, isn't it? Well a greenhouse up the road was clearing out the last of their winter plants to make way for the new summer crop, so I was the Johnny-on-the-spot that got 6 kilos for $5. Now I wish I'd got two bags so that I could fob some off for Christmas presents. Christmas, goodness me, it was only 5 minutes ago that last Christmas was done and dusted. This speeding up of time must be another thing about being a responsible adult, along with owning brown towels.

Focus

2011-10-22T17:21:00.001+13:00

A holiday to Golden Bay is a wonderful thing. We watched 6 hours of ~~the delicious Colin Firth~~ Pride and Prejudice, did some walks, ate some chocolate, and drank some coffee, some of it on this rather spectacular little Espresso Boat parked up at the Pohara Docks. Then we nearly met up with a blogfriend but just missed her, and came home, feeling all holidayed-up and full of silly ideas for craft and Christmas gifts.

I was so overwhelmed by projects I could do that I started them all while the iron was hot. A friend came over when I had a half-stuffed knitted sheep and donkey on the chair, an apron all cut out on the floor, a skirt in 4 pieces ready to sew, my crochet blanked draped over the back of the chair so that I would remember to sew in all the ends, and a bag of vintage fabric on the other chair. She looked around, then looked at me, and said "I understand you're excited about having some free time, but you need to focus."
So true. First I focused on finishing this wee sheep. He is part of something very Christmassy.

Don't worry about the lack of legs, he is a lying-down sheep. I promise they have not been prematurely removed for the Christmas roast leg of lamb, although that would also satisfy the "being part of something very Christmassy" in a very comical way.
Then, I threw the bag of vintage fabric up into the air, whirled my arms around with a pair of scissors in each hand, and they landed like this:

It's gonna be another patchwork quilt. I've made three in my life, each of them imperfect but endearing in their own way. A bit like me really.

It's soooooo easy

2011-10-06T14:24:00.000+13:00

I said to my sister, I mean my uber sewist sister, I was going to use a Simplicity It's So Easy pattern to make up some vintage seer sucker I got an Estate sale recently.
She was mortified. "Where's the fun in that?" she demanded to know, "where are the welt pockets, the lining, the tailored features?!"
Well blogreaders, I am telling you that all such tricky features are rather delightfully absent from Simplicity 2231, and I did not miss them at all.
This dress has simple raglan sleeves and a gathered skirt. The sleeve and neck edges are simple elastic casings to gather up the fabric. All made up, it's just as I hoped it would be. In fact, it's probably my most successful sewing project for ages.
Here is the front view:

And the back, with the simple ties to pull in the fullness:

It was a 6th birthday present for my wee Sylvie, and she was good enough to love it. She wore it to school with some purple leggings with silver stars on them, blue T-bar sandals, and a thermal top underneath. It was very 'Tokyo street fashion' and absolutely gorgeous. I love her style.

Well, it's almost school holidays, and in a few days we are heading off into the wild blue yonder of Golden Bay for a week or so. I'm taking some wool, a pom-pom maker or two, some very silly ideas, my two small children and my sister, some magazines and books, and lots of coffee, chocolate, and nice dinners. It's gonna be fantastic. See you all when I get back.

Turning Six, with Pink Lamingtons

2011-10-01T18:39:00.001+13:00

There has just been a sixth birthday in our household, and we decided we'd have a classic after-school party to celebrate. We did all the old-fashioned stuff: pin the tail on the donkey, an egg and spoon race, pass the parcel, and lamingtons (pink of course), chippies, and sausage rolls on the afternoon tea table, with camelias from our neighbours garden and our best table cloth to make it all pretty.

I tell you blogfriends, I am an old woman trapped in a thirty-something woman's body. Actually it's not a bad place to be. It was worse when I was trapped in a teenager's body.

But I digress. I was about to tell you about making lamingtons. These are a NZ/Australian classic. They are sweet and delicious and so peculiar in their own way.

To make a lamington, you first need to make a sponge cake. I make a 3-egg sponge from out of the Edmonds cookbook*, but any sponge cake will do. You could make it easy and buy one. Here is a top tip: you can do this a week ahead and put it in the freezer till you're ready for assembly.

On the day of assembly, make up a raspberry or strawberry jelly with 1 and 1/2 cups water instead of the usual 2 cups. Add 1/4 c of sieved red jam. I used the last of the grape jelly I made last summer. Let the jelly begin to set. When it reaches the consistency of raw egg whites, cut your frozen sponge into squares and roll it in the jelly. Then roll it in dessicated coconut, and you're done. You have just made pink, fluffy, super-special party food, good enough for a lady of 6, 38, or 88.

It's always a big relief when the birthdays are over for the year. I enjoyed my lamingtons immensely, but enjoyed my two glass of wine after the party even more.

*Basic sponge cake (from the Edmond's cookbook)

Beat 3 eggs, 175 g sugar, and a pinch of salt until thick- about 7 minutes with an electric beater. Fold in gently 125 g flour sifted with 1 t baking powder. Then, add 50 g butter melted with 2 T boiling water and fold in gently. Bake in a square tin for 25-30 min at 180 degrees Celsius.

A microcraft activity

2011-09-22T11:57:00.000+12:00

It occurred to me the other day that I have now had almost a whole year with two children at school. I had deluded myself thinking that I would have lots of free time, but I quickly realized that a new phase brings with it substantial changes, in my case, doing more paid work. Not that I'm complaining, I really like my job, but it does cramp my style *craftwise*.

The upshot of this is that these days I'm a sucker for a quick craft activity that has the satisfaction of making something cool, and something homemade, just because it's fun. So...while I was standing at the stove cooking dinner last night, I made a candle. I had some beeswax lying around and a friend gave me some wick (bought by the metre from Livinglight Candles here in Nelson). An old can made a double boiler to melt the wax, an old cut-glass bowl (50 c at the junk shop) made the receptacle. I had googled making poured candles and saw all sorts of instructions re. sticking the wick in place and making sure the wick is the right size for the container. Well a job worth doing is worth doing badly, that's my motto, so I ignored all of that and just used what I had. I stuck the wick in the centre first with some hot wax, then held it in place between two skewers when I poured the hot wax in. Low tech.

Actually I'm right into cut glass at the moment. It's something I see all the time in junk shops and I find it devilishly tempting when it's so pretty and so cheap. I keep bringing it home with me and stashing it away at the back of the china cabinet, but I know you would like to see it.

Mmmmm, pretty, pretty, pretty. Have a great weekend everyone! Oh, it's only Thursday, isn't it. Well have a great end-of-week, then.

Beeswax (for minding, and furniture polish)

2011-08-26T08:17:00.002+12:00

You know how little girls make clubs? I had a club when I was little, it had two members, me and my friend Penny. It was called JP's potion club and we used to make truly disgusting mixtures of mud and leaves and food items. It was fun.
The truth is, I still like making strange concoctions. I think that's why I like to make to make jam and jelly and household items like glass cleaner, spray cleaner, laundry liquid, and now...furniture polish. Or perhaps it's because I am a total cheapskate. Either way, I have just made my own furniture polish, and now I am going to write about it on my blog.

Beeswax furniture/wood polish
50 g beeswax
1 C turps (and no, I do not mean the cheap alcohol you get drunk on when you're 18. I mean turpentine.)
1/2 c hot water
25 g soap flakes (I grated up some of the soap I made back here)

Melt together the beeswax and turpentine in a double boiler. I did this in a stainless steel bowl in a pot of hot water over a low-ish heat. You have to be a bit careful here because you don't want it to catch fire and singe your eyebrows off. Have a lid handy to smother any flames, just in case. Grate the soap and dissolve it in the hot water. Let it cool a little. When the beeswax is melted stir the two mixtures together. Cool and then use to polish your wood floors and any wooden furniture you might have.

The beeswax was from my sister, who among other things, is a bee keeper. She sent it up in a parcel via my Mum, and this is what it looked like.

Now, my Mum mistook it for muesli and poured herself a big bowl of it. Needless to say she was very dissapointed to bite into it and find that the 'oats' were wax and the 'seeds' were bits of beehive and bees arses. Pa ha ha ha ha ha! Some misfortunes just need to be laughed at.

Anyway, there it is. Furniture polish. It made a nice job of my bookcase. The recipes for the other bits and bobs are below.

Spray cleaner
Fill a spray bottle almost to the top with warm water. Add about 1 t dishwashing liquid and 2-3 T white vinegar. Add some essential oils if you like. I never do because have you seen the price of them?! It's only cleaning spray.

Glass cleaner
1/3 c methylated spirits or white vinegar
2/3 c water
1 t dishwashing liquid.
Use newspaper to clean your windows and they don't end up with linty streaks. That's true that is.

Have a great weekend everyone.

A parcel

2011-08-14T15:55:00.000+12:00

Recently I promised my niece a silly parcel to cheer her up. I was all set to make something very funny and ridiculous, like an evil bunny egg cosy for instance, but at the last minute I thought to myself; "Is a very silly non-edible craft item the best gift for in impecunious student who only has a few more months in the city?" and the answer was "No".

Instead I decided that something edible, hopefully both delicious and healthy, would be just the thing to brave the Wellington winter. Roll on the rolled oats!

Wheat-free muesli (for my niece, who can't eat wheat but is okay with oats) Recipe adapted from Alison Holst's muesli recipe in "Meals without Red Meat"

4 c rolled oats (porridge oats or wholegrain, or a mixture of the two)

1/2 c shredded dried coconut

1/2 c pumpkin seeds

1/2 c sunflower seeds

1/2 c almonds, cut into large pieces

2 T (heaped) ground flaxseed

1/4 c honey

2 T brown sugar

1 T water

1 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t salt

2 T plain vegetable oil

1/2 - 1 c dried fruit

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt together the honey, sugar, water, cinnamon, salt, and vegetable oil, then stir through the dry ingredients, mixing well. Spread in a large oven dish and bake at 170 degrees celsius for 15 min. Give it a stir and bake it 15 min more, checking regularly to make sure it's not burning. Let it cool completely before adding the dried fruit (I added 1/2 c raisins and 1/2 c sultanas). If you add the fruit while the muesli is still warm it will go as hard as nasty little rocks after the muesli cools; this is the truth and I know it from experience. Divide the muesli in half, give one share to your niece and keep the other half for yourself. Store in an airtight container.

And have a good week, okay?

Stuff. Beautiful stuff.

2011-08-02T14:14:00.000+12:00

I'm the first to admit there has not been a whole lot of crafty activity around here lately. However, that doesn't mean I'm not filling up the house with stuff I don't need and may never use. I just can't help myself, I love to go to junk shops and trawl for treasures. My Dad was the same, it's a genetic affliction.

I have a few favourite stops in the junk shops; kitchenware, bed linen, fabric, jewellery. These sheets were among the latest things to come home. The purple one in the background is my favourite kind, the white ones on top were totally unnecessary as I really don't need any more white flat sheets, but if some old lady has gone to the trouble to starch them (yes, really) and fold them so perfectly the least I can do is purchase them. I imagine that she was a retired nurse, who would smack my hands and shriek "stupid girl!" for not doing hospital corners when I make the beds.

Pinnies. These get comandeered for the dress-ups the minute I get home, but I have visions of actually using them one day. Especially that one with the pink swan on it. Classy!

Next, a fabulous dress, made in NZ back in the day. There is quite a lot of damage around the darts, so I'm going to cut it down into a skirt. You can't see in my crappy (sorry) photo, but this dress is sparkley blue lurex. It's gonna shock folks.

Lastly, these eight pieces of vintage cotton from an estate sale. Melissa from Tiny Happy was good enough to tell me about it, and my sister and I went and swooped like vultures, fighting over pieces we both wanted as only sisters can. What a show. Still, look at all the great stuff I got.

Well now I'm going to have to go and sew something with it all, aren't I. Any suggestions?

The Winter Sun

2011-07-30T15:52:00.000+12:00

It's the end of winter school holidays here, and it's like I've had two weeks annual leave from my life. Normally I am working on the computer, responding to emails, listening for the phone, and keeping an eye on the clock so that we're at school on time. But when we go on holiday over to our favourite spot in Golden Bay, there is no computer, no phone, my watch stays in my suitcase, and there is just the noise of the waves and the goings-on of small children.

Now this space of interweb is kind of like my memories, so I'm going to be honest so that I remember it honestly later. The noise of children is often lovely, especially when we have friends over. However, there is also plenty of this sort of thing:

"Muuuuuuuuum Harry used a grumpy voice with me and it hurt my feelings" and then "Muuuuuuuum Sylvie keeps interfering with my sandcastle and she won't give me any peace and quiet".

If I handle it right I can talk them into going back down onto the beach, down the little pathway into the winter sun.

And if I'm really lucky they forget their argument, and walk off after the tide to see what it left behind.

That leaves me sitting at the picnic table with my cup of coffee and my knitting and my thoughts, all of which are pretty nice most of the time.

May contain violence (viewer discretion advised)

2011-07-08T16:39:00.000+12:00

When I have big projects on like, oh, for example, crocheting a blanket (yes, still going), I sometimes need a small project that I can start and finish in one go, just to experience the satisfaction of finishing something. Making cards is a particularly satisfying project in this regard, since we always need them, I don’t like buying them, and my own rather questionable taste often makes me laugh.

For making cards, I have a box filled with pages torn from old magazines, tatty books destined for the recycling, or, sometimes, perfectly good books that I cut up anyway. Yes! It’s true! I’m a little ashamed but I’m telling you because I’m semi-confident that you won’t judge me. I also have a razor ruler to cut nice straight lines, and plain cardstock.

I hope you are still reading after my confession that I sometimes cut up books. I’m going to show some cards with pictures cut from a perfectly good book right now, can you handle it? Can ya?

The book: Action Man. From: The Hospice Charity Shop, $0.50.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, violence and guns as well… I don’t know about you, but a part of my childhood was reading Commando comics, and these sorts of pictures give me a warm nostalgic feeling more than anything else. Anyway, my 7-year-old boy loves these cards, and what mother wouldn’t love that??

Moving right along, here are a series of gift tags made from a perfectly good Yates Garden Guide:

Well, I think that’s enough crazy book-cutting antics for one day. I hope you are all exhilarated rather than shocked and affronted.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Funny Boys

2011-07-01T10:52:00.002+12:00

Funny boy Number 1: My dear sweet little lad in his medieval outfit, all ready for a party a couple of weekends ago:

Crown and sword: Piggy bank busters, $2 each.

Cords: Postie Plus

Boots: No. 1 Shoes

Frown and belt: Model's own

Blue top with gold trim: Made (poorly, hastily, but with all of a mother's love) by me ( pattern McCalls Easy Stitch'n'Save 5216 made up in blue stretch velvet). Actually, I scared myself by how much I liked that stretch velvet. In my continuing fight against the tyranny of good taste I think I may have to sew myself something in it soon.

Funny boy Number 2: My husband, who has been referring to this penguin popularly tagged with the name "Happy Feet", as "Sad Oesophagus".

Funny boy Number 3: Mr Thompson; his silly ideas made me laugh, his 'apology' made me laugh even harder, the irony of him throwing a sickie to avoid the furory was just delicious, and this protest gilded the lily of the whole sorry affair. Current events in NZ this week have been so entertaining.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Evergreen

2011-06-28T11:51:00.002+12:00

So I've been thinking about this blogging lark lately, what is it for, really? When I started it was just a wee creative diversion because I liked making things, but my life has changed over these last 3 years, and I wouldn't say that is my primary motivation any more. When the wee ones were very small I could only do quick crafty things because I just didn't have the time or head-space for anything else, and it was fun to have small projects for myself. Now my children are older and at school the things I can do and want to do have changed. Little craft projects are not required for sanity because I'm already pretty sane. I can put my sewing skills to more practical use like making curtains, but is that really blog-worthy?

Every now and then I look back through my blog and see what I was doing a year ago, two years ago, and it's nice to remember. Sometimes I'm surprised by what I got around to doing. I might have forgotten about it otherwise. That is pretty blog-worthy to me, and so here I am.

All this thinking about whether I was a seasonal blogger or a perennial blogger got me thinking about plants. (As you do, you know). I have a favourite wee plant, Fuchsia procumbens, it grows on the shady south side of the house where it never gets any sun, and it thrives there. I like looking at it; it's a beautiful lime green colour with little heart-shaped leaves, and when it flowers, the flowers have only sepals, and no petals. It's a freaky wee delight.
What, you want to see Fanny Osbourne's botanical illustration of it? Sure, I happen to have it right here.

It's not your typical cut flower, but I do love it in a wee vase in the bathroom, where I can see it all the time.

It's a consumate survivor, this wee plant. I've had it in that vase for two months and it just stays there, green and perky, because it's made itself some new roots.

Somehow I think there is a good life lesson in this.

While the boys were away

2011-06-16T10:35:00.000+12:00

Funny how families develop their own traditions, isn't it? We have a heap of funny wee things that we do, just because it's worked out that way. Among the traditions that have grown in our household are pikelets for breakfast every Saturday, alphabet soup only when on holiday at Collingwood, very silly homemade cards for all festive occasions (really, the sillier the better), and...one-on-one trips with Dad to see Grandad down in Christchurch. The kids love those weekends. They get to sit in the front seat of the car. Simon drives down after work at night, and there's the thrill of being out after dark and stopping in some small town on the way for tea.

Of course, there's always the other child whose turn it is to stay at home, and so they get to choose some fun stuff so that they have a great weekend, too. Being a crafty sort of a 5-year-old, when it was her turn to stay home, Sylvie wanted to choose some fabric from my stash and make a skirt. She chose some craft cotton and a doily to decorate it. The doily really cracks me up. It's neatly positioned so that when you sit down you can perch your plate of afternoon tea on it, just like on a table. She has such cool taste, I just love it.

In case you're off to go and throw up because this is all just too wholesome, I would also like to assure you that she also had a suite of unwholesome things on her list as well: a trip to town to buy some sparkley hairclips, a play at Chipmunks (shudder), and a fizzy drink and chippies from the supermarket. Life is so simple when you're 5.

The thrill of procrastination

2011-06-04T15:42:00.000+12:00

When I was a student and studying for exams I was a master procrastinator. The meals were never more carefully planned and executed, and the house was as clean as a whistle. Now that I'm a grown-up I still love to muck around when I should be doing something else. In some ways it's a great way to get things done.

Case in point: My crochet blanket project. Now I know I said right here on this blog that it was insanity for me to undertake such a task, but as it turns out, my tax return is due and therefore crocheting a blanket has become a wonderfully addictive, delicious task to prevent me sitting down with my stack of bank statements and the calculator.

This blanket is going to be for a certain 5-year-old girl's birthday, hence the pinky/purpley colour scheme. To avoid it becoming too sickly I sneaked some grey and dark blue in, and I'm reasonably pleased with the way it's looking. If I were doing it again I might do different colours, but I'm a firm believer that you learn something with every project and so I'm not about to start unpicking or anything crazy like that.

Okay so here is a close-up because I wanted to show you the join-as-you-go thing. On the last round of each granny square you use your two-chain stitches between the groups of trebles to link to the next square. This neatly avoids having to sit down and join them all at the end, and makes a lovely big woolly blanket grow before your every eyes. Like magic. Magic!

The full instructions for joining-as-you-go are over here, and I also found a great clip on youtube about crocheting in the ends, here (with the added bonus of a New Zealand accent). Sheesh! What did we do before youtube eh.

Well, that's all from me on this wet Queen's Birthday Saturday. Hope you are having fun, whatever you're up to.

Mares eat oats and does eat oats

2011-05-21T15:50:00.000+12:00

And we eat flapjacks. I fancied a flapjack the other day, as you do. My mum used to make these when I was a teenager and some days they were the only thing I ate in my lunchbox. I was skinny back then.

Back when I was a lass my Mum was good enough to lace the flapjacks with chocolate icing. If you haven't tried it then I recommend it, a really dark bitter chocolate icing is just the right accompaniment to a sweet and crunchy flapjack. It's a tradition that I uphold proudly.

FLAPJACKS: WITH CHOCOLATE ICING

125 g butter

1 (generous) T golden syrup

2 C rolled oats

3/4 C coconut

1/2 C sugar

1/2 t vanilla essence

1/2 t salt

Melt together the butter and golden syrup (at this point I remove about 1 T of this mixture and save it to make the icing). Then add the oats, sugar, vanilla, coconut, and salt, mix well and press into a cake tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 180 deg. C for 20 min or so. If you like it chewy bake until light golden, if you like it crunchy, bake it a little longer.

Ice with chocolate icing: 1 T melted butter (as above), 2 T cocoa, 1 C icing sugar, boiling water to mix until it's the right consistency for spreading (about 2 T).

I ice this slice when it's hot, about 5 min after taking it out of the oven. It makes the icing glossy and smooth and perfect once it cools.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Shiny, sparkley, matchy-matchy

2011-05-17T11:18:00.001+12:00

We have this old formica table, it's yellow and grey and white, and it's very dear to us. It's been the site of most of my craft projects, all of our dinners when there were two, then three, then four of us, it's where the wee ones paint, fold paper planes, draw pictures, and do their homework. I wouldn't buy a new table if I had all the money in the world. However, the chairs bothered me. They were a mismatched set of wooden chairs that just weren't right.

I see chrome kitchen chairs in junk shops all the time, but hardly ever do I see four the same. So when I saw four matching ones with rusty legs and brown velour upholstery, I knew I must seize the moment and begin a restoration job. The chairs dismantled easily, because they were made back in the day when you could take things apart to mend them, and then put them back together. Four screws to loosen, that's all. The chrome was a little daunting as it was pretty rusty, but I polished it up with fine steel wool (from an auto shop) and "Blue Magic" chrome and metal polish, and they looked as good as new (here's the howto on youtube). Really, as good as new! The upholstery I got done by professionals- $80 per chair in case you're wondering how much it costs)- and I would recommend that for most people as four layers of vinyl would be challenging for any sewing machine (and its operator for that matter).

So there it is. I now have a fully matching dining set and I'm as pleased as punch. And I must say, it's so satisfying to see how beautiful a professional finish is. If I had reupholstered these chairs myself it would have ended in tears, nothing surer.

It's that time of year again

2011-05-06T11:11:00.000+12:00

It's *that* time of year again. The time of year when leaves are falling, the sky is grey for days on end, and fingers start to itch for knitting or crochet.

I have just purchased enough double knitting wool to make a blanket. This is *insanity* for me because I have no patience for long or overly ambitious projects. But I was seduced, seduced I tell you, by all of these lovely crochet afghans I've seen on the interweb. Look at this, and this, and this, and tell me you're not off to buy some wool and hook.

To temper the insanity I tried out a smaller project to see if I would tire of it quickly, or whether I could potter away at it for ages. Hence, I now introduce my granny square scarf.

I love this scarf. It's my perfect combination of winter colours, combined in a semi-kooky homemade fashion item that screams "I made it!" and "laugh if you will!". As well, it was the perfect holiday project because I needed only 5 balls of wool and a hook. No pattern to follow as it's just simple granny squares (trebles with two chains between sets) and I could do it while I looked out at the ocean over at Collingwood.

Here's the back:

And the front:

And a shot carefully cropped to remove my double chin, and...other bits.

The squares were joined as shown here, but when I make the blanket (and I am going to make that blanket) I'm going to crochet in the ends (so much easier than sewing them in) and join the squares as I go (as shown here). And family, you should all be very afraid because when I'm done I'm planning to make a series of crochet cushion covers as gifts.

Quince paste v. 2.0

2011-04-20T13:52:00.001+12:00

I don't know about you, but it always surprises me that Autumn is so busy in the kitchen. I guess I feel like bottling and making jam is so summery, so the bags of stuff that turn up in my kitchen in Autumn almost catch me out. I was given a big bucket of fresh figs, two boxes of quinces, a bucket of pears, and two big shopping bags full of apples; one sort the nice eating kind, the other sort sour cookers.

Dealing with the figs first, I made some Fig and Ginger Chutney following this recipe here, only I didn't use the dried figs, substituting 1 cup of raisins instead. It's very delicious. This recipe is a keeper.

Next, fig and lemon jam (500 g fresh fig flesh, rind and juice of two lemons, and one sour apple, peeled and grated. Simmer all ingredients together for about 20 min until soft, then add 2 c sugar. Boil until you reach a set). This jam is quite nice, it's very sweet though and personally I like a little more tang to my jam. (I wish I could work that into conversation more often...I like a little more tang to my jam).

And then the quinces....I had seen a slowcooker recipe for making quince paste and the idea of that had me so excited I just can't even describe it. I charged ahead and put my cored unpeeled quince quarters in the slowcooker with some water and lemon juice, and cooked it on low over night. Next morning, I sieved the pulp, added an equal weight of sugar, and cooked it on high all day. And....it didn't set. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and dark and fruity, but nonetheless, unset. Just like quince paste, only sludgey.

Hmmmm. I thought about it long and hard, and after much deliberation I decided that the slowcooker was perhaps not the best way to do the first phase. My special booklet about jams and jellies has it that 40 min max. is best for the first cooking phase, because otherwise you destroy the pectin. Now I know it's true.

When in need of something that really works, look no further than Alison Holst, that's what I always say. Her recipe for quince paste is here. I threw out the failed quince paste and started again. I let it set in oiled friand tins and here it is. There, that's what I was after. I store mine individually wrapped in the freezer.

Num num num num. My favourite way to eat it is with cheese and crackers or on toast with butter.

We took it with us when we went down to the wild and windy west coast to visit the Pancake Rocks. If you visit, you really must go at high tide, because look what happens.

I love Nature.

Lars and Guy

2011-04-09T16:39:00.001+12:00

Lars and Guy: two civil servant robots. These chaps are very special gift for a very special person whose birthday was last week.

In keeping with his civil servant role, Lars wears brown scratchy walkshorts held up with a no-nonsense leather belt. He is programmed to fill in forms. Lars, may we see a close up of your walkshorts please?

Guy, being more a senior robot around the office, wears a neck tie. It's important to keep up the professional image after all. Guy manages other robots that are programmed to fill in forms. It is a very important role. You can tell by his stern expression and the rather demanding stare from his square mother of pearl eyes.

I don't make robots very often these days- no need to really when I have so many already. But I do so love it when someone I know wants one (or two) because then I have an excuse to get very, very silly and raid my collection of haberdashery and dream up ridiculous accessories. It's the most fun you can have with a box of buttons and ricrac.

It's good to remind myself of the fun you can have making stuff. Lately I've been feeling like I have No Time, the day feels like its too full of work and school and chores, and after the small ones are in bed I feel like I have nothing left. I haven't felt like that for a long time and it's a sign to me that some things have to drop off my list. Also a sign that the end of the term is only one week away and then I will have two weeks to pull myself together before we launch into it all again.

Until then,

Over and out. Beep beep.

Small-town NZ and man-craft

2011-04-01T13:25:00.001+13:00

With all the silence in this blogspace you might think I haven't been up to much. Well, in fact I've been as busy as a one-legged bloke in an arse-kicking competition. One of the things that has filled up weekends of late is going to a mountain bike race. Not for me, of course, but my husband likes to do these things now and again, and it's a great excuse for the rest of us to have a weekend away and a dose of small-town New Zealand. I love small-town New Zealand. I love the one main street with the tea rooms, the pub, and the hardware shop that sell everything. Usually I stop and buy something so that the shopkeeper can tell the regulars that there are loopies about.

Main St, Murchison

I know I'm normally rabbitting on about cooking or sewing or some such, but lately I've forced myself to do the most boring sewing of all, mending things and taking up jeans. See? I took up my jeans. Yes it's a thrill a minute around here! I always use jeans thread so that they look like they came from the sweat-shop like that.

And my good husband, the one who likes biking and reading the paper and watching sport but certainly not DIY or anything remotely related to it, spent a good few days on restoring an old cabinet to rehouse the vinyl collection and the *new* stereo. We have an expensive stereo now, which I think means that are finally grown-ups. He sanded, varnished, ordered glass inserts, fitted them, and didn't he make a nice job? I really like it.

I liked it so much that I bought him a gift at the junk shop. Who could resist a lady covered in whipped cream, against a background of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brassband? Have you ever seen something so suggestive coupled with something so wholesome? It made me laugh and laugh. Best 20 cents I've spent in a long time.

Well that's all from me. Have a great weekend everyone.

Jelly. The facts.

2011-03-15T20:52:00.000+13:00

The hit of this summer, when it comes to things to spread on toast in the morning and gobble down with a good strong cup of coffee, was blackcurrant and apple jelly. It was a particularly satisfying thing to make, because not only was it very delicious, but I used blackcurrants that I'd picked myself, for free, from a farm in the Moutere Valley, and windfall apples that I'd found when out on a wee bike ride one day. I wish I could show you a photo of it, but we ate it all up or gave it away as gifts, so I have none left.

However, I did get my jelly stride on again last weekend, and made a batch of old-fashioned grape jelly from the grapes that trail over our garden fence from our neighbour's house. To make old-fashioned grape jelly you pick over the grapes, removing all the sneaky spiders that like to hide on the stalks. Give the sorted grapes a wee wash and then boil them up with a little water, say, 1/2 C to a kilo of grapes, until it's all juicy and pulpy. Simmer for about 40 min or so, then pour into cheesecloth and let the juice drip through. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: For GOODNESS SAKES, don't squeeze the jelly bag. Old people who know about jelly will hit you on your hand for doing that, and they'll berate you about making cloudy jelly.

After all, or at least most, of the juice has dripped through, boil it up with an equal amount of sugar (500 mL juice, 500 g sugar) and some lemon juice or citric acid (1/2 a teaspoon or so) if you have no lemons. Boil until you reach the setting point. You know what a setting point looks like right? If you put a little on a saucer, cool it, and then push your finger through it, it will form wrinkles on the surface. Hey presto! Old-fashioned grape jelly!

I learned to make jelly when I was a teenager, when I should have been hanging out with naughty friends my parents disapproved of, and experimenting with cigarettes. Sigh...so many regrets, so many regrets.

When I'm making jelly I almost always just boil the fruit up, strain it, then add equal quantities of sugar and a little lemon juice to the strained juice. It always works, but if you want to be a true jelly expert then look out for this book:

It's the Otago University Extension Bulletin from 1966. What it can't tell you about making jelly isn't worth knowing. Does anyone want a copy of the chapter on jelly? I will load it up if you're interested. You can make jelly from most fruity fruits, you know, apples, berryfruits, citrus, currants, plums, elderberries, grapes, quinces, even rowanberries. If you're into it, that is. You might find it more fun to hang out with naughty friends and experiment with cigarettes, but I can't say for sure. One thing I do know is that when you tally up the cost of jelly made with free fruit the inner tight wad does a little jig with its short arms tucked firmly into its deep pockets.

Have a great week everyone!

For my love

2011-03-07T11:10:00.002+13:00

Ten years ago next week...we got maaaaaarried. The sun shone, the sky was blue. It was ace.

We don't normally do anniversary presents, but since 10 years is such an impressive round number we decided we would.
"How about a VERY silly home made present?" I said.
"...(Awkward pause)...um...okay" he said.

I'm sure his retiscence was just for show, because he secretly loves all my silly craft activities. We sure have a lot of laughs about them.

I wanted, needed, to make a wonderfully literal cross stitch motif of one of his favourite hobbies and put it on a T-shirt. Explaining why I needed to do this is like explaining a joke. Either you get it or you don't, and if you don't, an explanation will kill it anyway. I fully acknowledge that it is extremely unlikely this T-shirt will ever be worn in public. It may well end up being one of those things that only gets worn when all his other clothes are dirty and even then under a jersey. But did that stop me? No sir. This motif, man on bike, was just so hilarious that it had to be stitched.

It's from this book, and there are a suite of other fabulous designs of every day items and activities. There's even one of a woman frying an egg. Great, isn't it?

So this is the final gift: Cross stitched motif on cotton embroidery fabric using three strands of DMC cotton in assorted colours. The motif was pressed onto vleisofix and then ironed onto a plain T-shirt ($15 at Hallensteins). I pressed woven interfacing onto the back side of the T-shirt front and then edged the motif using a very wide, small-length zig-zag stitch.

Ten years, it sounds like a long time, doesn't it? It doesn't feel like it though. He has seen me at my fattest, my thinnest, my happiest, my darkest and moodiest, and he loves me anyway. What a sweet heart he has. Happy anniversary Darling.

Darker moments, lighter moments

2011-02-26T17:30:00.000+13:00

This is how my five year old daughter is making sense of the earthquake in Christchurch. She told me that her doll, Ella, was a bit bruised by falling stuff in the earthquake, but she's okay.

We haven't had the t.v. on while the wee ones are awake but still...there are images everywhere and it's no secret that there are many dead and wounded. I don't know how to make sense of it at all. I am reeling thinking of the loss of life, the loss of heritage, and how on earth a city can recover from such a thing. Cantabrians, I am so sad for you.

We have to take the lighter moments when they come in these troubled times. So...you might be amused to see my latest foray into bottling beetroot.

I plum forgot about it. I do believe this might be the universe paying me back for being so smug about all my preserving. It was a great laugh though, and on the enjoyment stakes I rank laughter higher than eating beetroot, so all's well that ends better.

But back to practical things. If you would like to make a donation to assist the people of Canterbury there is a list of places to donate here. Thanks.

You say 'tomato', I say 'tomato sauces'

2011-02-15T12:03:00.002+13:00

At this time of the year every roadside stall around Nelson is heaving with 'cooking tomatoes', which makes me very happy because making preserves is about the most fun thing I can think of. It's my perfect way to spend an afternoon.

If we're talking nana-style tomato relish I always use this recipe over at NZ Gardener. It's the old-fashioned curry powder-mustard type, but it doesn't have flour or cornflour in it, which I like because then there's never the risk of that goopy consistency that you sometimes find in that type of relish.

I like to try out something new each year, too. This year, Mrs Fernando's Sri Lankan Chutney from the Feast Maniototo cookbook. I see someone has put that recipe online over here, if you're interested. I'm not sure about it just yet. It has lots of good things in it, ginger, garlic, chillies, etc. but it's so very very sweet. I think it might be best used in the same way as sweet chilli sauce, rather than tomato relish. I'll keep you posted about how it works out over the year.

Then there's pasta sauce. It's something we use for lasagne or spagbol or pizza at least once a week, so I like to have plenty and a couple of different types. This year I did a roast tomato and capsicum one, made simply by roasting tomatoes and capsicums, pulling off most of the skins with the tongs, then cooking up the mixture with some onions, garlic, and marjoram. Then I add some vinegar (about 2 T per 500 mL jar) and bottle it using the overflow method.

Tomato salsa, my old friend. Secret code "10 rice crackers and salsa = 1 point". If you don't know what that means then clearly you do not have the same battles with weight that I do. Anyway, I do like salsa and rice crackers as a wee treat, and I very much prefer my homemade version to the bought stuff. I have 20 jars of this in the cupboard now.

Perhaps you would like the recipe? Here's the original, from my sister Miriam, as written in my cookbook:

Salsa Picante

2 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped

3 mild chillies, chopped

1 large onion, chopped small

1 green and 1 red pepper, chopped

150 g tomato paste

3/4 c white vinegar

1/4 C brown sugar

1 T salt

2 t paprika

2 cloves garlic, minced

Boil all together in a large pot, uncovered, for 1 h, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust chilli and salt. Add more lemon juice if you like it more piquant. Bottle and seal (or freeze). Makes plenty.

(Notes in the margin of my recipe book: I don't put in the tomato paste, I add 1 t cumin, and I use 1 C of a mixture of lime juice, lemon juice, and vinegar, the proportions of which change according to what I have available).

If I'm short on ideas or time, I deal with tomatoes by roasting and freezing them. Just the usual method (halve, sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme, olive oil, roast at 140 degrees C until collapsed, cool, then pack and freeze).

My sister Mary Anna accused me of being excessively smug about all my preserving. I think perhaps I might be.

Have a great week everyone!

National Costume

2011-02-05T10:07:00.001+13:00

My last project for the summer holidays was a project for me, which had to be completed by tomorrow, Waitangi Day, for patriotic reasons. I'd found this great New Zealand tablecloth at the opshop, and as soon as I saw it I knew it wanted to be a skirt. It elaborated, "Just as a feature panel though, not a whole garment. That would just be silly."

I've been listening to fabric ever since I saw the original fabric whisperer, my sister, do it. She should run classes.

I used my go-to skirt pattern for this, Simplicity 4369. A simple A-line shape with a yoke and a side zip. I've made this up several times now and it all goes together in a flash. The back and yoke pieces are black cotton drill. There is white top-stitching along the back yoke and hem, and red top-stitching along the front yoke. I really like how it turned out.

I said to my husband "What do you think of my new skirt? Not too silly?"

He said "No, just silly enough."

I said "Do you like the map?"

He said "Yes I do. I would like it even better if it was a map of Tasmania though."

And that made me larf and larrrrrf and if you don't know why then your mind is just not rude enough.

My children also made me laugh when they saw it.

Sylvie said "Hey! What a great idea! A map! We'll never get lost with that skirt!"

Harry said "Woah! That's a SKIRT with a MAP on it.

Well yes, yes it is. It's a map of my favourite place on earth.

Projects of the teenage variety

2011-01-28T22:14:00.000+13:00

Blogfriends, there's nothing like losing your camera to delay a blogpost, that's all I can say.
Well it's been a busy week at ours. My 13-year-old niece came to stay, so it's been a week of swimming in the river, going to the beach, shopping, cursing the contents of eachother's ipods, and (for me) learning 13-year-old vocabulary. I am SO with it now.

We also embarked on a project to sew something together. She chose the fabric and the pattern and I helped her out with the sewing. The thing I love about a handmade thing, this sewing project included, is that it is essentially a little glimpse into someone's mind. You see a unique part of their individuality and their creativity.

She chose this pattern, New Look 6872, made up with a cotton poplin fabric with a bright floral print. Now, she is 13 and she likes to shop, but there was a certain gleam of pride with choosing this fabric in that it was only $5 per metre, making this an $8.50 skirt. She does have that Smith thrifty-gene after all! And doesn't it look cool all made up?

She cut out most of it, sewed the side seams and the pockets, sewed the gathering lines, and applied the interfacing. Rather a good effort, don't you think? I did a few bits and bobs, but this is really her skirt. I love it.

Being the creative person that she is, she also found a great use for the offcuts. This little monster is going to go on her school bag.

And now that we've had our last trips away, and our last visitor, it really feels like the long summer holidays are on the way out. The last week will be reserved for haircuts and school wardrobe labelling and freezer filling and other such mundane activities, but oddly enough, I'm totally ready for it. Everything has its season, school holidays included.

Have a great week everyone!

Things We Need

2011-01-17T11:25:00.000+13:00

Who knew that New Year "goals" could be so satisfying? This year, I want to make things we need and things I enjoy making, and if there's some crossover between the two, then so much the better.

First on the list, some tog bags. For non-New Zealanders, togs are the NZ word for swimwear. I particularly like the word "togs" because it combines so neatly with the abbreviation for goggles. So, you can yell to your children "Go get your togs and gogs, we're off to the pool!".

For Harry's tog bag, some ultracute robot fabric combined with black cotton drill. The bags are lined with parka nylon, and instead of handles at the top, I put in two long channels to make them into drawstring bags. There's a wee loop at the bottom to secure the cord, so that when you pull it tight it becomes like a duffle bag.

Lets have a close up on that robot fabric. Awesome isn't it? It was a very kind gift from a friend.

For Sylvie's bag, some Japanese cotton-linen with wee bees and flowers. I was going to put a toggle on the cord...(okay, I'll pause here while we all laugh at the word "toggle". You know why.)...but the ones I saw in the fabric shop were too small for the cord, so I made a little fabric tube instead. It's several thicknesses so that it's nice and firm, and it functions in closing up the bag just fine.

Now that I think about it, this fabric was also a very kind gift from that same friend. I love these Japanese fabrics, not just the design but also the quality and the weight and the feel of the cotton-linen blend. They feel delicious.

Okay then, goals.

2011-01-10T14:05:00.000+13:00

In the last couple of days I've been thinking about this no-New-Year's-resolutions thing. I still don't have any as such, but as my sister suggested, I've thought of a few goals. Not that I want to call them that, though, even the word "goal" makes me feel like there is some unachievable endpoint.

I used to be right into goals. I spent a lot of time and energy and money chasing them, and then one day I realized that achieving them had given me very little satisfaction. I guess my new goal, if I have one at all, is to enjoy who I am, the people around me, and what I already have.

In terms of craft/cooking projects, this year I want to make things that we need, things I enjoy making, or things that make our family life better. I am less into making things simply because they're cute or because I want to be busy. My most recent cooking projects have been enormously satisfying on this front. I made some really delicious pasta sauce- 15 jars of it- using sauce tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomato paste, and herbs (marjoram, thyme) from our garden. To bottle this type of sauce, I use the overflow method and make sure that I have a good 2 T wine vinegar per 500 ml sauce so that it's acidic enough.

And remember those gooseberries? I made some gooseberry sauce as promised, but before I did I sorted out the wee red ones and made a gooseberry and almond cake, using the recipe here at Prosestitch (I used only 70 g ground almonds because I was too stingey to buy two packets). It was deeeeeelicous.

Well will you look at that? Now that I'm started I'm really on a roll. I'd like to read some really good books this year, do some sewing for myself, establish some new family favourite dishes for dinner, go on holiday with friends and family, and find out more about WWI so that I can understand more of what's between the lines on my other blog.

There. Goals. That wasn't so bad, now was it?

No Year Resolutions

2011-01-05T15:10:00.000+13:00

Ho ho! It's 2011 already! Happy New Year everyone!

Usually I start the year with some kind of flimsy commitment to drink less coffee or do more exercise, but this year I thought I'd save us all the charade and just flag New Year's Resolutions. I call it "No Year Resolutions".

We went away for New Year, off to Hanmer Springs for a few days to catch up with some of our favourite old friends. They make me giggle like a silly schoolgirl and I love it. *Sigh*. One of our highlights; visiting Molesworth Station. It's such a beautiful part of New Zealand, so remote, and so...New Zealandy. We stopped in at the Acheron Accommodation House, an old cobb house built in 1862. Here is what it looked like when people lived in it.

And here is what it looks like today. Lonely but still loved.

Cobb houses, these really old ones built from mud and tussock and so on, they just amaze me. They were built out of what was there, when most people would consider that there was nothing to build a house out of. I love how resourceful people were back then.

Another relic of the days when people lived there was the gooseberry and redcurrant bushes surrounding the house. The gooseberries were small, furry, sour, and fantastic cooked up and served with cream and custard. I picked a big bag full to bring home and make gooseberry sauce.

This rather unlikely sauce is the taste of my childhood. We ate it every morning on fried potato cakes. This recipe makes a big batch- I will halve it when I make it up.

Gooseberry Sauce

3 kg gooseberries

2.5 kg brown sugar

1 kg onions

50 g salt

50 g whole cloves

1.9 L malt vinegar

Top and tail the gooseberries, then boil with the other ingredients for 2 h. Strain through a coarse sieve or colander, and bottle while hot. Keep a while to let the flavours mellow before using it. Keeps for years.

Old School

2010-12-24T21:05:00.001+13:00

Christmas Eve: The children are chatting in bed, speculating about what their presents might be. My husband has taken the in-laws out for dinner, and so I have the house to myself, more or less. Whatever I haven't done, it's too late to do now. What a nice feeling.

The last piece of craft for this year is what you might call Old School. I've always had a soft spot for nativities, and I've been trying to make one for 3 years, but all of them have gone bad in one way or another. When I saw this embroidery pattern on a wet Sunday, with an embroidery enabler equipped with the pattern book, fabric, thread, and a hoop there right beside me, I just had to make it. It's my first ever cross stitch, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun.

Also old school, these dinky wooden decorations from the junk shop. I want to find whoever threw them out and give them a big kiss. They are just my cup of tea.

And for my last piece of Old School: Merry Christmas to You, and a Happy New Year. It may be a cheesy cliche but I mean it.

Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, thanks for having a laugh with me. See you next year.

The Xmas Deco Tour, 2010

2010-12-09T16:47:00.000+13:00

This year I took part in this swap, where you make a Christmas ornament for only one other person. I was paired up with Chantal, an artist who writes this lovely blog with some fannnntastic tutorials, like this one for a russian doll print, and this one for a woodland deer card. Chantal made me this wee Christmas elephant, who we have named Joy, because that's what's embroidered on the other side of her coat. Joy the Peace Elephant is a much appreciated addition to our tree. Welcome Joy.

Chantal makes beautiful prints and stationery, so I was thrilled to receive one of her amazing cards.

I made her a small set of Christmas tree robots, because that's the sort of thing I do when I'm engaged in a craft swap. I made some for myself while I was at it, because if you don't crack yourself up with your craft then what's the point?

You thought I'd forgotten about robots, didn't ya! Well ha! I never forget about robots.

Ritual sacrifice of a wooden spoon

2010-12-06T13:30:00.000+13:00

For aaaages now, almost my whole life I think, I have wanted to have a go at making soap. I think that's because my Mum used to make it, and it was a terrifying and very grown up activity because it involved hot mutton fat and caustic soda. Excuse me while I answer your questions: Yes my Mum did make soap out of mutton fat. No it did not smell like a roast dinner. No she did not make us wash ourselves with it, it was for washing the clothes, or the floor.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, the soap. At the age of 38 I have deemed myself grown up enough to give true soap making a go. I was a little put off by the long list of equipment that most instructions deemed necessary (special soap-making pot, two thermometers, a stick blender, etc. etc.). When I mentioned this off-putting list of needs to my Mum she chortled and gave me "the mother look" and then pointed out that people have been making soap for thousands of years without that long list of stuff. Good point, mother bear, good point.

So, I bought some lye from these kind people, who have a soap shop near my house, and I bought everything else at Binn Inn or the supermarket. I did not use a thermometer at all and all my mixing was carried out not with a stick blender but with a wooden spoon, which is now marked "soap only". I used stainless steel bowls for the lye and the soap mixture itself, and then washed them out carefully and popped them back in the kitchen cupboards afterwards. They have never looked cleaner, incidentally.

I followed a basic castile recipe here, and followed all of their links re. using a lye calculator and the basic soap making instructions. I added a couple of things, so I will write the full recipe here for the sake of interest.

800 g olive oil

200 g coconut oil

20 g beeswax

133 g lye

300 ml water

2 T honey added at 'early trace'

5 ml manuka oil (a complete waste of time, as you can't smell it at all)

And, to half of the batch, I added some oatmeal, because that seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I'm not so sure because it looks a little, well, horse-food-esque. Still, you live and learn. Anyway, badabing, badaboom, soap.

So there it is. If I die tomorrow I can consider my life fulfilled. Sometimes I wonder about what things my children will remember fondly, and what things they will roll their eyes about, when they recall their childhood. I have a feeling that my crazy schemes will not all be remembered fondly.

The Homemade Gift Round-up

2010-11-29T11:22:00.001+13:00

Christmas is only a few weeks away, but I don't feel that panicked about it because we have a very manageable gift regime in my extended family. We all get assigned one person and one person only to get a gift for. The budget is around the $10-or-less mark, and home-made or second-hand are perfect. I tell you, we are all as thrifty as eachother and it's a thrill to see what we can get for the smallest amount of money. With that in mind, I thought I'd do a wee 20-item round-up of ideas that might interest you if you like making home-made stuff. Some of it you may have seen before if you read this blog regular-like. I apologize for that, but this pony only has so many tricks. Are you in? Cool! Let's go.
1. A panettone to show off your homemade candied peel.
2. Some dried herbs from your garden.
3. A homemade apron, maybe this one, all packaged up with a wooden spoon and a nice recipe.
4. Some homemade lip balm.
5. A jar of lemon or passionfruit curd.
6. A jar of tomato relish or beetroot relish.
7. Make some labneh.
8. A bottle of homemade vinaigrette or herb vinegar.
9. An offer to do something, like babysit or clean the oven.
10. Sew some pillowcases.
11. Some homemade pancake mix and instructions how to cook it.
12. Homemade jam or jelly (it's the tight-wad's friend!).
13. Sew a cute reversible purse, or a lunch bag
14. I like this idea to make a trivet using old linens- doilies, tablecloths, commemorative teatowels...
15. Make some cucumber pickle
16. Print some lovely retro paper dolls on magnetized sheets, cut them out, and put them in a biscuit tin, all ready to be played with.
17. Print a little village onto some cardstock, all ready to assemble the little houses and shops as great accessories for a small person's trainset.
18. Give a christmas gift to a local conservation project,
19. Or, give something to someone who has nothing?
20. Or, ditch presents altogether and all pitch in for Christmas dinner instead.

What are your favourite homemade gift ideas? Go on, leave a link or two, I'd love to see what you'll be making.

Candied peel and Grandma's Currant Buns

2010-11-12T19:26:00.001+13:00

It is a very lovely evening outside tonight. The sky is blue, the week is finished, and I have another *homemade* adventure to report. This combines all of my favourite things; frugality, resourcefulness, a degree of retro, a family link. Yep, it's all here.

I'm talking about candied peel. As soon as I saw these amazing lemons at the farmer's market I knew those peels were too darn good to throw into the compost heap. I knew, straight away, that they would have to be turned into the star of the show.

Now, if you're not a candied peel person I urge you to give it another try. When it's homemade out of beautiful lemons and oranges it's sweet and citrusy and better than anything you can buy. And did I mention cheap?! You'd be throwing the skins away otherwise, what better starting material can there be? Here's how to make it:

1. Score the skins of your citrus fruit in nice long cuts down the length of the fruit so that it will peel off in nice neat sections. I used two NZ navel oranges and two lemons for this trial batch. Then pull off the skin leaving a big thick layer of pith on it because this will make it thick and juicy when it's candied.

2. Put the skins in a saucepan and cover with cold water, then simmer for about 40 min until they're really tender.

3. Meanwhile make a sugar syrup with 2 parts sugar and 1 part water (1 cup sugar, 1/2 c water) and put it in the slowcooker. Then, drain the peels, slice thinnner or chop into small pieces if you like, and put them in the sugar syrup. Leave the lid off the slow cooker and give them a stir every half hour or so. They won't burn in there, and they need a good long time to soak up that syrup. In my slow cooker there is a very gentle simmer around the edges of the bowl when it's on high, this was perfect for cooking the peel in the syrup.

4. Cook for 3 or so hours, maybe more, until there's only a very small amount of syrup left. It took about half a day in my slow cooker. Spread the peels on baking paper to dry, this could take a few days. I like mine sticky so I didn't bother with this step. If you like, you can roll them in sugar while they're sticky and warm to get that nice sugary coating.

Now, a recipe starring candied peel. These are currant buns with peel in them. I was asking my Mum about these this morning and she said OH YES I KNOW ALL ABOUT THOSE! GRANDMA USED TO MAKE THEM, DON'T YOU REMEMBER? As it happens I don't, because both Grandma and Grandad McLean died when I was very little. I don't know what her recipe was but I went through my old old old cookbooks till I found one that was probably similar. If you don't mind, I'll call them Grandma McLean's Currant and Peel Buns, because now that's what they are in my mind.

Grandma McLean's Currant and Peel Buns

1 and 1/2 c flour

2 t baking powder

3 T sugar

40 g butter

2 T candied peel, chopped fine

1/4 to 1/2 c currants, raisins, or sultanas

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c milk, plus 1 or 2 T if required

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius (or 400 degrees F). Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, rub in the butter with your finger tips. Add the sugar, peel, and sultanas, and mix to break up the lumps of peel. Mix the milk and egg together then add in and mix gently until you have a soft dough, adding more milk if you need to. It should be just a little softer than scone dough. Pat out into a circle on baking paper, then mark the circle into wedges. If you like, brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 min. Perfect with a strong cup of tea and a nice sit down.

And now I'm off for a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Frugal, nerdy, and proud.

2010-11-07T13:09:00.002+13:00

I love being a cheapskate, really, I do. I also love to make things, not just crafts and sewing but food and other stuff too, so it was only a matter of time before I had to have a go at making homemade laundry liquid.

There are about a zillion recipes for homemade laundry detergent on the world wide interweb. Here's 10 right here, and more here. For my first batch, I used this recipe on recommendation from my friend Nicola. Here is how I made it.

1/2 bar of sunlight soap, grated
3 T borax
1/2 c washing soda
1.5 L boiling water (i.e. one kettle full).

Put the grated soap into the bucket, add the very hot water and stir until the soap melts (almost straight away in my experience). Let the mixture cool a little, then add in the borax and washing soda. Top up to 7 L with warm water and give it a good stir, then add in essential oils if you are so inclined (I used eucalptus oil because that's what I have). Pour into bottles and let it gel overnight. Give it a good shake before you use it, and use 1/2 c per load (being a natural cheapskate I tried using less, but 1/2 c made the best job of the washing). I've been using it for a week and I can tell you that the clothes are clean and they smell nice.

For my next batch, I looked into using just washing soda and soap, and leaving out the borax altogether. This is not only because borax is the most expensive ingredient, but also, I'm a little suspect about discharging so much borax into the drainage system. I just don't think that lots of boron is a good thing in the environment, whereas washing soda, well that's just sodium and carbon and oxygen and those things are pretty harmless. So...reformulated recipe follows:

1 bar sunlight soap, grated
1 c washing soda

Dissolve the grated soap in about 2 L boiling water. Let it cool a little, then add in the washing soda and another 5 L of warm water. Let it cool, then add essential oils if you like (about 1 t eucalyptus oil). Pour into bottles (I use old 2 L milk bottles) and let it gel overnight. The gel on this batch was quite firm, so you might want to add some more water if you find it difficult to get it out. I left some shaking room in each bottle, so I could get it pourable by giving it a good shake. Like the other batch, use 1/2 c per load. It seems to work just as well.

And...because I am both frugal and nerdy I also worked out the exact costs to compare the price per load with commercial washing powder:

FIRST BATCH RECIPE:

Sunlight soap ($2.79 per 500 g: supermarket): 62.5 g per recipe = 35 c
Washing soda ($4.08 per kg: supermarket) 125 g per recipe = 51 c
Borax ($9.99 per kg: Bin Inn) 45 g per recipe = 45 c
Eucalyptus oil ($5.50 per 50 ml: supermarket) 5 ml per recipe = 55 c
Electricity to boil the kettle = 2 c per recipe

TOTAL: $1.88 per 7 L. At 1/2 c per load that's 3.4 c per load.

REVISED RECIPE:
Sunlight soap, 1 bar =70 c
Washing soda: 250 g = $1.02
Essential oil = 55 c
Electricity to boil the kettle = 2 c
TOTAL: $2.29 per 7 L. At 1/2 c per load that's 4.08 c per load.

Comparison: 1 kg frontloader powder (Ecostore) 9.19 used in 64 washes = 14.3 c per load

Okay that's enough nerdiness from me. Have a great week!

Halloween (Past, Present, and Future)

2010-11-01T14:26:00.000+13:00

Halloween past: Some time in the 1980s

My Dad answers a ring at the door, and outside are some trick or treaters dressed in spooky costumes

Dad: Hello, what can I do for you?

Them: Trick or Treat!

Dad: What?

Them: Trick or treat!

Dad:....What?

Them: You're supposed to give us a treat, you know, something good to eat.

Dad: Oh, okay then, hang on.

Dad went the kitchen and made them each a honey sandwich.

That is a true story.

Halloween, last night:

Sylvie: MUM THERE'S HALLOWEEN PEOPLE AT THE DOOR

Me: Oh, okay then. (I open the door, there are 4 trick or treaters. They say nothing)

Me: Aren't you supposed to say something?

Them: Trick or treat

Me: I guess it'll be a treat then, here you are (a chocolate frog to each person)

Sylvie: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? AREN'T THEY SUPPOSED TO GIVE US THE LOLLIES?

Me: No, we give them lollies.

Sylvie: (Tears of disappointment about how unfair life can be.)

Halloween in the future:

I want to ditch NZ next Halloween and head to Canada because I was there on Halloween in 2006 and it was awesome. Look at these great pumpkin installations in Quebec City.

And this house, which I thought was spooky any day, let alone on Halloween.

What about you, did you have an awesome Halloween yesterday? Comments from Canadians are most welcome.

The post in which I make homemade deodorant

2010-10-22T19:00:00.004+13:00

I was thinking aloud the other day, as I do, about things I'd like to make, and homemade deodorant was mentioned. I expected my husband to say something like "heh heh heh" because he often finds my propensity for all things homemade kind of amusing. However, he did not chuckle or chortle or tease me in any way whatsoever. In fact, he said, "I'd be right into that, because whatever stuff we buy makes my underarms itch and I end up scratching like a monkey all flippin day". Now that made me laugh ("heh heh heh heh heh") because it was a very amusing mental picture. And after I settled down, I went straight to work and made us some hippy-dippy-no-aluminium deodorant. Yes I did.

My recipe was based on this one here at Angry Chicken, but I will spell it out right here because I made mine according to what I had, so it ended up being a little different. I got the shea butter and cocoa butter from here, and I got the vegetable glycerine from the supermarket, next to the aspirin (strange but true).

Cocoa butter, 50 g

Shea butter, 50 g

Cornflour, 2 tablespoons

Baking soda, 3 tablespoons

Vegetable glycerine, 2 tablespoons

Essential oils as you please (I didn't put any in, and it smells like, well, nothing. Nothing is a good smell for a man or a woman, as far as I'm concerned.)

Melt the first two ingredients together (3 min in the microwave) then allow to cool a little. Add the cornflour and baking soda and mix well, then add the vegetable glycerin and mix again. Pour into small tins or jars. To use it, you get a little bit on your fingers and just smooth it on.

You know, the wee jar above is an old friend of this house; when we ripped out our bathroom and lifted the rotten floorboards it was there in the dirt underneath. It's one of my favourite little objects, because it was like finding buried treasure. Usually it has little flowers in it, but it's got a special guest-starring role as a deoderant jar for the time being.

Have a lovely long weekend everyone, over and out.

Update three days later: So far, so good. It lasts all day and no sweaty betty (thanks Emily Kate for the phrase). It did set quite hard, though, so next time I will consider using all shea butter (which is softer) instead of the cocoa butter.

Another update: If you plan to keep this for more than a month or two, then some vitamin E is a good idea as it acts as an antioxidant and stops the oils in the deoderant from going rancid. You just puncture a couple of capsules and add it in at the end.

Spoiled.

2010-10-18T14:09:00.000+13:00

Recently I've recieved some truly lovely and variously hilarious gifts from out of the blue. How lucky am I? Tell you what, I'm so lucky that if I fell in a sewer I'd be wearing a brown suit.

This robot fabric came all the way from Maine, USA. It was a thoughtful and unexpected gift from one of my favourite crafters, Iris. Thanks Iris! I will try to do it justice. By the way, did I ever mention that we were going to make Sylvie's middle name Iris, but when it came to filling in the birth certificate we forgot? True story.

This little robot soap-on-a-rope was a gift from my sister, Marg. I love these wee treasures. It's too good to use of course.

This rather amusingly anatomical lemon was a gift from a friend who knows how much I enjoy things with a rude twist. We have shown this lemon to many friends and visitors as a sort of personality test. I am pleased to say that all passed with flying colours by roaring with laughter. I hope you see the funny side. There's the funny side, right there, looking out at you.
Have a great week everyone!

"Sylvie is 5" It shouted.

2010-10-12T14:00:00.000+13:00

It's just as well I have lots of robots rolling around this house because otherwise how would I remember important events? This robot came in beeping the other day with a message on its screen:

In case you can't read that here it is up close:

Actually, I hadn't forgotten that Sylvie is freshly 5, we had a wee party for her when we were down south (Doon Sooth) and she got some pressies and all that, but what with illness and holidays we haven't had a party for her Nelson friends yet.

Can I confess that I am simultaneously terrified and delighted by children's parties? I love planning the cake and the dinky little snacks and the games, but the actual execution is quite stressful. It's the shy person's lament, loving the idea of a party but being stressed out by all the people. And that's another mystery- how on earth can it be that I come from a family of 11 and yet I hate being in big groups of people? Sheesh. Don't ask me.

Anyway, Sylvie and I have planned a cute little party in a couple of weeks' time: The Gingerbread Man Butterfly Party. I am open to suggestions of games but there will be decorating of gingerbread people and a cake with butterflies on it. What else can you think of?

There's no place like home

2010-10-10T11:29:00.001+13:00

Every spring, the wee ones and I head off to my home town, Dunedin, for a wee holiday to take in the town and spend some time with family. I love Dunedin, it still feels like home and it's full of good memories. The train station is one of them, because we used to head off on our Stewart Island holidays from here when I was little.

I remember my Mum waiting at these amazing ticket windows to buy our train tickets when I was just a little tot. All these ticket windows and the tiles are Royal Doulton don't you know? Dunedin does grand so well. I had great plans of taking my own children up to our next stop, Central Otago, on the train that goes from this station, but we spent all our holiday money on going to the movies, so we drove instead. I am pleased to say that we have a new memory of the train station, though, because we went to the Farmers Market there on Saturday morning, where I had a fabulous bacon buttie.

Next stop, Ranfurly, where the art deco buildings are so cute that they warrant a photo.

And if we're talking cute, how about this little car and garage on the way to St Bathans?

And the Vulcan Hotel in the St Bathans township, which is so iconic it's almost funny.

There aren't that many ruins in New Zealand, so if you find one, it deserves a photo: May I introduce the old school buildings in St Bathans.

Do you ever find that your past comes back to haunt you at the oddest times? When we were little, my sister and I used to drive Mum mad with giggling inappropriately during the Catholic mass on Sunday. The more angry she got, the more hilarious it became. We egged eachother on and drove her to distraction. On the way home in the plane yesterday, my children were giggling away together about kicking the seat in front, which I'm sure you can believe is a very annoying thing to do. The more I told them off, the better the game became for them. They kicked it every time I turned away, and dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. I asked nicely, threatened severe consequences, tried a dozen different control measures, but nothing worked. I was so cross I felt like I'd explode. Life comes full circle.

The Bridebot and Groombot

2010-09-30T14:21:00.000+13:00

She was beautiful. He was handsome. They were programmed for marriage.

She loved bikes and she didn't care who knew it. She displayed it proudly on her control panel.

And somehow, because she loved bikes so much, he loved them too.

Their robot wedding was beautiful. They danced the robotdance and kissed each other with their robot lips.

The bridebot and groombot were a special commission job, which only encouraged me in my silly robot ways. In real life, the bride and groom both love biking, but she was the one who got him into it, hence their informative control panels. I haven't had so much fun making a robot since, oh, well, last time I made a robot. I chuckled away to myself as I stitched them up. They've gone to live in the big ole U S of A now, but I think they may have been cavity searched at customs because the package arrived disheveled and torn. Well, it's not surprising really. They are extremely technologically advanced and I'm not at all surprised that someone thought they might threaten national security.

First, you need a plan

2010-09-12T12:38:00.000+12:00

Forgive me for being so blatantly sexist in the following description, but I am reasonably good at "girl" craft. You know, knitting, sewing, crochet, cooking. I'm not so good at the "boy" craft, like making things out of wood, putting up shelves, stuff like that. So when the kids come to me with ideas for things they want to make out of wood I feel quite nervous and inadequate in my ability to help them with it.

Harry came to me the other day with an idea for a car ramp "like Stanley's one". Stanley's dad is a builder. I internally freaked out. To buy some time, I asked Harry to draw me a plan.

Bottom left: One wide piece of wood, two narrow pieces of wood, screws at the side to hold it in place.

Bottom right: Hasty sketch of how one would use such a ramp. Propped up on a saw horse with cars scooting down it.

Top right: A plane towing a banner "Have fun". That was a good reminder for me.

You know, we did have fun making this ramp. We went to the hardware shop and bought precut 1.2 m-long pieces of wood, one wide and two narrow. (I can feel the disdain of all the handy types who are thinking- what, you can't saw a piece wood? Um....not neatly I can't. And we don't have a saw.) We charged up the cordless drill. We talked about how it could all go together, and then we built it, just like in the plan.

The cars scoot down it very quickly, and you can fit two on it side-by-side which I believe is an integral part of the design.

This project was rather satisfying for an unhandy person like myself. I did have a very good plan to work from, though.

Chicken pox, nude robots, and a happy place

2010-09-07T16:21:00.001+12:00

It's chicken poxy at my house this week. After 6 days of being at home with a sick 7-year-old lad, I would like now to extend my personal thanks to the makers of Lego, Club Penguin, and DVD players, all of which have made our week tolerable under the circumstances.

But enough about chickens and their disgusting contagious diseases. This week I started on a very thrilling commission: two robots who are in love. You can tell they're in love because of the soft focus in the photo. You know why I am so fond of making robots? Because they are shamelessly silly. I never want to take my craft passtimes too seriously, and making robots, I know I never will. I stayed up late last night making some really hilarious control panels. I literally laughed out loud. That's LOL to you computer types.

There have been many moments this week where I caught myself wishing I was on holiday somewhere beautiful with no work deadlines and with healthy, non-irritable children. I kept going back to look at the photos from our last holiday in Collingwood. I know there are people out there who like going to different places each time they go on holiday, but I like going to the same place again and again.

When we were small, our parents used to organize our family of 11 to Stewart Island for our holidays. I was asking Mum how she managed the logistics of it, especially since we lived in Dunedin, which is quite far away, and we didn't even have a car. She started to list off some of things she did, and then she paused, and said "Actually, I have no idea how I did that." I'm glad she found a way to do it, because holiday memories are happy places in my mind.

She also told me that when we were little, the oldest four children got measles, mumps, and then chicken pox all in a row. That put my week in perspective. Thank goodness for mothers, and thank goodness for those clever people who formulated vaccines for most of these diseases.

The post in which I start to dress like a robot.

2010-09-02T10:09:00.000+12:00

A while ago now, oh, 2 or 3 years ago I guess, I bought some lovely woollen fabric from the junk shop. It was 150 cm wide, 100% wool, soft and beautiful and only $6 for 5 metres or so. I thought it might be good for a big patchwork blanket or at least a nice woolly hot-nerd type of skirt. While I was thinking about what to do with it I tried some out on a robot. It made up reeeeeal nice. Beep!

Anyway, never say I don't get things done. I did make that skirt, I made it in a knee-length A-line with acetate lining and intentionally mismatched strait-to-bias yoke-to skirt design. Is that a robot on the wall next to it? Of course it is. That's just what we do at our house.

Anyway, this warm little skirty is a little late for winter because the first day of spring came and went yesterday. However, we still get nippy weather in the spring, and I'm sure I will get a few wears out of it before next year.

I wish it didn't take me so long to get around to things. Now that school is in sight for my youngest child I'm deluding myself that I will have loads of time to get stuff done. Does that really happen? Someone tell me it does.

Cheap and Weird

2010-08-23T10:51:00.000+12:00

We have a new tag title for our family's dominant personality trait: Cheap and weird. My sister came up with it but it describes us all perfectly. It is meant in the nicest possible way, of course. I just had the best weekend hanging out with people who are as cheap and weird as I am.

What better to celebrate a significant birthday of my sister than a cheap and weird present? I made her a knitted bunch of flowers to decorate her sewing room. They never wilt (unless a small person pulls the skewer out from the stem, ahem), and they never die. They go on blossoming for a soft, warm, crafty, home-made eternity.

The bunch of flowers contained some knitted roses. Link. They're knitted on two needles so they're easy as pie (changes: I used double knitting wool and 3 mm needles, cast on 60 or so stitches, and knitted a stem instead of leaves using my own pattern, as follows:

Stem pattern: Cast on 12 stitches on dpns (4 each needle), work in the round for 2 rows, k2tog at the beginning of each needle in the following round (9 stitches remain), knit two more rounds. k2 tog at the beginning of each needle in the next round (6 stitches remain), k another round. Transfer remaining stitches onto one dpn. k 1, k2 tog, k 1, k 2 tog (4 stitches remain). Knit an icord to desired length using remaining 4 stitches. Link to youtube for how to knit an icord. Sew onto flower at the base. Insert a skewer or pipe cleaner to make it rigid.

I also knitted a few tulips. Link to tulip pattern. These are knitted on 4 needles so the're a little more fiddly, but they're pretty quick and they're a great stash buster.

And here they are, all together. There is a rogue petunia in there too. That wasn't so hard to knit but the weaving in of ends was too much hassle for me to contemplate knitting another one. The pattern for the petunia, as well as several other flowers, is available free here at Lion Yarns.

And here's Auckland, in case you've never seen it, or forgotten what it looks like. It's a great city for a weekend with your cheapest weirdest friends.

Happy as a little pup

2010-08-19T13:31:00.000+12:00

Yes, I am as happy as a little pup (even though I burnt the pikelets this morning) because I'm off to Auckland tomorrow for my sister's birthday. I've made her something really cheap and really weird, because that's her favourite type of gift, and also our familial personality type. But you have to wait till next week to see it because I can't spoil the surprise.

And do you know what else? I'm now among the ranks of people who live in warm houses, because next to our nice warm tapa cloth there now resides a nice new warm heat pump. Who says they don't belong in 140-year-old houses? They are awesome in 140-year-old houses, let me tell you that for nothing!

Happy long weekend to me! Woops, I mean, to you!

Make my oysters cinnamon

2010-08-08T13:46:00.000+12:00

Sometimes I become obsessed with a recipe. Okay, maybe 'obsessed' is a little too strong, but you know how it is when you think of that delicious thing the minute you wake up, and you look at pictures of it in cookbooks just to remind yourself how good it looks, and you look for any occasion, any occasion at all, to justify making it?

Actually 'obsessed' was the right word, wasn't it.

My name is Jenny and I am obsessed with cinnamon oysters. To fulfil your cinnamon oyster obsession you need a genuine cinnamon oyster tin, this 'Bonco' tin with no rust and no dents was waiting for me to find it at the local antique shop, and I paid a full $15 for it without even blinking.

Then you need a recipe. There's a good one in my favourite baking books, these two little treasures.

I wont bother writing out the recipe because it's already available online, right here. Now that you've assembled everything you need you can whip your cinnamon oysters up in a flash. If you want to get all fancy pantsy you can make these glamourous alternatives, ginger and lemon oysters.

Oh but they are good. They are so good. All the obsessing just made them even better.

Practicality and flattery

2010-08-02T12:26:00.000+12:00

Sometimes my frivolous, fun, but ultimately rather pointless craft projects must give way to practical items required for day-to-day living. This isn't a great burden because I like making even the most pedestrian of household items. I just like making stuff.

In this most practical of categories lies hottie covers. I perused flickr groups (check out the recycled sweater group for lots of great ideas) and various blogs looking for inspiration, but in the end, I went for the ultimate in practical - polarfleece. Machine washable, soft, cuddleable, it's got everything except retro charm. For decoration ideas I turned to my favourite designers, Harry and Sylvie. I shamelessly copied Sylvie's little person for her hottie cover, and she was delighted.

And for Harry's I just had to copy his octopus that he drew on my mother's day card. I think it's hilarious.

The back of each hottie cover has a simple envelope closure, with one side overlapping the other and each edge finished with bias binding. No buttons or velcro because they just end up being uncomfortable when you're resting your feet on them.

Next sewing project: A party dress for myself to wear to my sister's birthday party in a couple of week's time. I just know she will have sewed something for herself, and if I sew something too we can participate in our favourite pass time- checking out eachother's sewing mistakes and teasing eachother about our degree of good/bad taste. Sisters love to bicker. It's a fact.

H-G7

2010-07-23T14:12:00.000+12:00

I said to Harry I'd like to make him something for his 7th birthday, which is today. I was thinking he'd probably grown out of/got sick of my robots, so I was surprised and delighted when he asked for a nice new robot in green. Ah Harry, I love how you like my silly robots. You are your mother's son.

I am particularly fond of corduroy for robots. It adds an extra goofy factor that I find very amusing. I also really like the mother of pearl eyes, because they glint stealthily in the moonlight. This robot will be added to allll the other robots, who are pushing Barbie out of the doll's bed.

Have a lovely weekend every one. Robot on.

Guava jelly, and a haiku

2010-07-20T12:02:00.001+12:00

Good morning,

Today I bring you a haiku that I wrote about making guava jelly from cherry guavas, from my friend's garden. I wrote a haiku because today I am a little bored, and I am avoiding doing paid work and housework. Would you like to meet those cherry guavas? Here they are. Hi guys!

Cherry guava jelly- A haiku

Sugar, lemon juice
Guavas, sour, red, beautiful
Now jelly, for toast

Here's how to make guava jelly. Barely cover fruit with water and simmer until soft, about 30 min. Cool, strain through a sieve (don't squeeze it! no no no! don't make it cloudy for heaven's sakes!) and measure the liquid. Add an equal volume of sugar, the juice of 1 lemon, and boil until you reach a set (to test for the set, I keep a stack of saucers in the freezer, then test a spoonful on the saucer every couple of minutes after about 10 minutes boiling. It's set when the surface wrinkles as you push your finger through it). If you are so inclined, write a small poem about it, and post it on your blog where people can freely laugh at how silly you are.

Holiday projects

2010-07-17T17:07:00.001+12:00

I had a special mission for these school holidays, something I'd been wanting to do for the longest time - to make some rewena paraoa, also known as Maori bread, using this recipe from one of my old community cookbooks.

Rewena paraoa is made from fermented potatoes and wheat flour and not too much else. Once I had seen the recipe in that old cookbook I started seeing recipes for it everywhere, including a very detailed one here (to save me writing out instructions myself). I don't know why wild yeasts interest me so much, but somehow it seems like a good thing to let the yeast do the work on the flour in its own good time, without flour treatment agents and all the other bits and bobs that go into commercial (bread maker) yeast.

Well, I stirred up my flour and mashed potatoes and let it all happen in a nice warm place (in a chillybin with some warm water in it, because everywhere else is too cold at the moment). The starter got nice and foamy and smelled all sour and delicious, but it took its own sweet time about it (5 days if you please! Sheesh!).

And then I took it all over with me on holiday to my favourite little seaside town, Collingwood, and made it into a nice big yummy loaf of bread, which we ate with bacon and butter while we sat in the winter sun, gazing out at the tide and the clouds.

This was a fun project, and yummy too. I thought it might sneak in as a microbiological science experiment for the wee ones, but they were totally uninterested so I will drop the pretense of it having any educational value. Lets call it what it is: Microbiology for gluttons.

*Sigh* I love the holidays. Have you been doing anything interesting in the last coupla weeks?

Transtasman Relations

2010-07-06T13:21:00.006+12:00

Readers, you may or may not know about the funny relationship that exists between New Zealanders and Australians. New Zealand has a weird sort of younger sibling-type rivalry with Australia. We are really sore losers when they beat us at sport, and we are even worse gloaters when we win. We mock their accent in our clipped voweled voices, and we go there for holidays and then complain about how hot it is.

Like a true younger-older sibling relationship, the older sibling has no idea that this rivalry exists. Australian friends I've made throughout my life are genuinely bewildered by it all. So Australian friends, I love you dearly but I can't help my NZ urge to antagonise you just a little bit when I make presents for you. That's just the way it is.

My Australian friends Julia and Martin just had a little baby girl, and I couldn't stop myself knitting some Saartje booties out of wool that included possum fibre. Yes, I am delighted to inform you that these ittiest bittiest booties have one of Australia's native animals, plucked, cleaned, dyed, and knitted into them, alongside some merino fibre, some alpaca, and some nylon for strength.

These are probably one of my favourite baby presents to make ever. You can whip them up in a couple of nights watching telly, and they take hardly any wool. Why, I can probably antagonize another 4 or 5 sets of Australian parents with the wool I have left in one 50 g ball.

Scott's Farewell Slice

2010-07-01T12:13:00.002+12:00

My favourite thing about having a blog is that it's a fun way to be in touch with the world, but my second favourite thing about blogging is that I'm always learning new things. For example, when I made Scott's Farewell Slice from Ladies, A Plate, just the other day, I thought to myself that I must find out more about poor Captain Scott and his ill-fated mission, just to put this slice in context.

Captain Scott was in a race with a Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, to reach the South Pole. England whipped itself into a frenzy of excitement and financed the mission, and a party of 65 men set off aboard the ship Terra Nova in 1910, well provisioned and enthusiastic. They sailed from England to New Zealand, and left Dunedin (my home town, incidentally) for the pole on 29 November 1910. They were farewelled by thousands of people who had been given a half-day off work for the occasion. Five men from that mission reached the North Pole, but only a month after Amundsen, and were disappointed but not entirely surprised. On the way back one of the men died when he fell down a glacier. Next, Captain Oates, who felt he was slowing the party down as a result of his frostbite, walked out into the snow never to return. As he left, he said "I am just going outside and may be some time."

The three remaining men made it to within 11 miles of safety, but died when they were caught in a storm. Realizing that they would not make it home, they wrote some notes and letters, which are rather moving reading. Here is one of Captain Scott's:

"... I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of providence, determined still to do our best to the last ... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for."

The final letter to his wife, which he begins "To my widow" is described in some detail here, and it is one of the sweetest love letters I've ever seen.

Also sweet, of course, is the slice. It's a chocolatey kind of slice, with lots of other delicicous things in it too. Here is the recipe:

4 oz butter
6 oz brown sugar
1 D golden syrup
1 egg
6 oz flour
pinch of salt
1 t baking powder
1 T cocoa
3 oz coconut
2 oz walnuts
4 weetbix, crushed
4 oz chopped dates
2 oz raisins

Cream butter and sugar, then add egg and combine well. Sift in the dry ingredients and add the weetbix. Mix to combine, then add the fruit and nuts. Tip into a sponge roll tin, press flat, and bake for 15-20 min at 190 degrees celsius. Cool, ice with chocolate or chocolate icing (1 c icing sugar, 2 T cocoa, 1 T melted butter, and hot water to mix) and sprinkle with coconut.

Ittier and Bittier

2010-06-24T11:43:00.000+12:00

Hello viewers, how are y'all today? Sometimes time just flies by and before I know it it's two whole weeks since I last updated. Sheesh! Anyway, last time I was debating whether to decorate the little red shoes I made, and I must say thanks for all those great suggestions and comments. In the end, I decided that a fusion between decoration and practicality was in order. I love those little shoes, heavens to Murgatroyd I do, but I suspected that they would fall off in a trice and leave Mother and Baby both cursing in their own favourite fashion. Hence, I added some elastic with a button either side to hold it in place.

Those little red shoes may have been itty and bitty, but I have since made some that are much ittier and bittier. That's because my friend just had a lovely, itty, bitty, tiny girl named Nola, and tiny girls named Nola need tiny crossover booties made from flecked sock wool. That's a fact.

These were knitted from the free Saartje's booties pattern, here, found via ravelry. Super quick, super cute. Super way of using up the leftover sock wool, too.

By the way, who out there is fond of a little schadenfruede every now and then? If you want to see possibly some of the meanest ever comments about a craft item, have a look at the comments here. My favourite one was the person who said that it looked like a pile of clown vomit. Aiyeee~!

They're itty. They're bitty. They're booties.

2010-06-07T14:21:00.000+12:00

I've been wanting to make these bitty booties by Heather Bailey for the longest time, and goodness knows I've had plenty of good reasons to what with all the wee babies my friends keep having. (I'm sorry friends, I am dreadfully tardy when it comes to making and sending new-baby-presents). Anyway, this weekend, being so wet and wintry and all, it was the perfect time to give them a whirl. Easy as can be, I have to say. Two pieces per bootie, blanket stitch on the edges, and bob's your uncle. I used some felt that I made by felting a woollen jersey in the washing machine. For this, I buy jerseys at junk shops that are 100% wool, and I make sure the washing instructions say handwash only. That's a sure sign it will felt up a treat. Then, I put it in the washing machine on the 60 degree (celsius) cycle, with plain old washing powder. Like magic, you get an incredibly thick felty fabric that you can use for toys or slippers or fabric boxes or little purses or anything that takes your fancy.

The pattern has some decoration ideas, and they look pretty nice in the photos. However, I am a little conflicted about the decoration aspect. Do I add something or not? I'm a little hesitant because...well...it can all just turn into clown clothing before you know it. You know what I mean? Craft treads that line between cool, tragic, and comic, and it's so easy to lose your way.

Winter colours

2010-06-01T11:59:00.000+12:00

Now I don't know what the weather's like where you are, but here in Nelson, New Zealand it feels like we haven't seen the sun for weeks. It's been grey skies and lots and lots of rain. Winter has truly arrived.

I know that winter calls for dark colours; grey, brown, blue, black. However, sometimes I want a little pick-me-up, a bright something that leaps out from all the navy and black. I had just the thing in my stash. Not my usual fabric choice in that it's 100% polyester, but I just couldn't resist the bright colour, the apple blossom broccade pattern in gold and white, and the price ($1 per metre in the Spotlight clearance sale last year).

I had bought this fabric thinking I'd make some kind of crazy, over-the-top princess dress for Sylvie, but when I spotted it there in my stash a couple of weeks ago, I thought "I'm gonna make something for Myself".

So, I made something for Myself. It's New Look 6921, if you're interested. If you read my sister's blog you'll know that she's a rocket-scientist type of sewer. When I was talking about this top I told her I was going to leave out the interfacing and topstitch to hold the edges in place instead of understitch. She said something that sounded like this "Blah blah blah de blah blah layer the seams blah blah blah understitch as far as possible blah blah blah sit properly blah de blah blah just use light interfacing blah blah blah." Meanwhile, I thought about what to cook for dinner that night.

So I made the top, completely ignoring all her good advice, Now that it's finished I can see it would have been better if I'd used light interfacing, and understitched instead of topstitched, but you know what? I like it anyway. It's so bright and cheerful.

You know, I'm just getting back into clothes sewing after a very long absence. I just couldn't face big projects when the wee ones were very small. I think I really like this new phase we're in, where I have enough head space to sew a top, and to appreciate it even though I know it's not perfect.

It was a raaaaaspberry beret

2010-05-26T11:12:00.000+12:00

Actually, it was a ruby slouch hat, but how could I miss an opportunity to introduce my latest knitting project with a circa 1984 song by the artist formerly known as Prince?

My raaaaspberry beret is not the kind you find in second hand store, no, it's the Turvid Slouch Hat, the *free* pattern for which is here (found via Ravelry, of course). I finished knitting it at a knitalong last Sunday (with generous helpings of sticky lemon slice and other good things to keep our strength up- thanks, fellow knitters).

When I finished knitting this hat it was not especially slouchy. I despaired, briefly, before remembering that my knit-tastic friend Linda had suggested blocking it over a plate, like you would a beret (who ever knew that you block berets over a plate? Not me). I used a crown lynn Royal New Zealand Navy plate, but I'm sure any plate would do.

You wet your slouch hat, stretch it over the plate, and dry it. Hey presto, slouchy!

I must also go on to dispel another myth in that song by the artist formerly known as Prince. If it was warm I wouldn't wear this hat at all, because it is 100% wool and is therefore quite toasty on the noggin. No, if it was warm I would wear a skirt and a t-shirt, probably.

This pattern was easy peasy lemon squeezy, and they are just the kinds of patterns I like. It comes very highly recommended by Me.

Botanical Strip Show (Discretion Advised)

2010-05-19T11:11:00.000+12:00

I love this time of year. As well as the beautiful soft late-autumn light, which somehow makes me melancholy yet happy at the same time, there's the fantastic show put on by the trees. Is it only me, or does everyone love seeing what's under those leaves? I just love plant architecture- the branching patterns and the way plants' limbs occupy space. My family got the 'quirky interests' genes in spades, I think.

These lime trees are so lush in summer, but in winter their knobbly skeletons are just as beautiful.

These two oaks by the dairy crack me up. Why does the one on the left get its kit off so quickly while the other hangs onto its leaves till the last moment? Is it just modesty?

Then there's the conifers. Too modest by half. They never shed their leaves, they just snuggle down under their needles and keep their branches away from prying eyes. Selfish.

New Zealand plants, even though few are deciduous, are much more obliging. This wee Stephen's Island kowhai doesn't let the leaves mask its cute zig-zig branches.

And here is a seed pod that should make you all guffaw. Remember our discussion a while back about Yonic Symbols? Get a load of this?!

I found it while I was out walking with the kids the other night. I roared with laughter. The wee ones rushed back to look. "What's so funny, Mum?"

"Kids, sometimes plants just make me so happy!"

Happy muthes day

2010-05-09T15:10:00.000+12:00

There's nothing I like better than a home-made card for Mother's Day, especially one that comes in an appropriately labeled envelope, on my breakfast-in-bed tray (coffee and honey on toast, yummy).

Harry thought a lot about what to write in his card for me. I think he was remarkably thoughtful- "Dear Mum, Hey mum how is your sewing going? Are you making any of those robots? Bye."

He also made me a robot because he knows I like them. Isn't it awesome? I can see I'll end up copying this in some form next time I'm sewing a robot.

And Sylvie picked this lovely flower for me, made me a beautiful card with a flower on it, put it in an envelope, and wrote "Mummy" on it.

What a great Mother's Day. You know, I never thought I'd get into Mother's Day in a big way. Part of me thought it was just a big tacky commercial campaign to get people to buy pots and vaccuum cleaners and perfume. But now that I have two little children who make me special things and beautiful cards and who go out of their way to tell me they love me, I like Mother's Day a lot.

What do you do when you can't do nothing?

2010-05-02T18:48:00.002+12:00

Blogfriends, the curtains we talked about last post attacked me. Slowly, surely, hanging those curtains resulted in a shoulder sprain that has laid me low all week. Did you even know you could sprain a shoulder? Well you can. I did.

You'd think that complete rest of my right arm would give me a free license to do nothing and revel in it, but frankly, I was bored out of my friggin tree. Days 1 to 3 of said shoulder sprain are best not dwelt on. However, after 4 days some light activities could resume so I set about making some cards with an old 1960 NZ Pictorial Magazine.

Card No. 1. A power station. I think a 2010 Pictorial Calender could feasibly show people protesting against power stations and mining and so on.

Card No. 2. Volcano and farmland. I like this because it could be 1960 or 2010. Some things just never change.

Card No. 3. Camping by the lake. Get a load of that tent. Get a load of that lilo! Those were the days.

Card No. 4. Enjoying the outdoors courtesy of a sun umbrella. I wish I had been doing this all week, instead of lounging on the couch shouting to anyone who'd listen for more painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and cups of coffee.

Oh! I also started work on my new blog. It's all my Grandad's letters from WWI, typed up as I get around to it. Probably only interesting to family and military types, but feel free to go have a look. What do you do to pass the time when you can't sew?

Bright and shiny new curtains

2010-04-25T09:57:00.002+12:00

With all the lack of posting lately you could easily have thought there was no crafting/sewing activity going on around here. Actually, that is quite the opposite of life chez moi over the last few weeks. It's been a frenzy of sewing activity because I was making some huge and fluffy warm new curtains for my living room, and I was on a strict, no-procrastinating-by-blogging schedule.

We live in a really old house. Well, really old by NZ standards. It was built sometime between 1870 and 1880, back in the days when people didn't worry about insulation cos they just stoked up their coal ranges and stayed warm that way. The other thing about wooden houses is that nothing is quite square any more, so there are lots of draughts around doors and windows. Hence, we needed a giant curtain that would cover a draughty window and a draughty door that open straight into our living room. The quote to get a custom-made curtain came in at over $1000, so I laughed in its face and said, "Ha! I'll make them myself!".

First, lets meet the fabrics: Cotton ticking, because I love it, and some incredibly fluffy James Dunlop lining fabric (polished cotton on the back with a core of dacron, like a duvet really: $10 per metre at Morelands fabric- a bargain really). I needed 12.4 metres of each. Aiyee!

The sewing. Oh my. It was a big job, because that lining has to be sewn in. Here are some of the other titles that were running through my head for this post:
24 metres of torture
Sewing helllllllllll
The perils of being a tightwad

Anyway, they're done now. My fingers are covered in punture wounds from all the stabbing-myself-with-pins incidents. Simon said that my language while sewing would make a sailor blush. But blogfriends, it was all worth it. I love them.

This little tool is a trick my neighbour uses when she makes curtains. It's just a piece of cardboard with all the measurements I needed marked onto it. You measure up your curtains, decide on the finished length, then decide what your seam allowances and fold-overs are going to be. You make yourself a wee one of these and go around your curtains measuring and pinning as you go. This way the pinning is pretty quick and each curtain ends up exactly the same length.

And finally, since it is ANZAC day today, here is a letter written on a small scrap of paper by my Grandad on the day before he went to fight at Gallipoli in 1915.

It's quite difficult to make our the words, so here's what it says: "Lemnos, 3.6.15, There is a mail going ashore, this is probably the last opportunity that we will have before we go forward. We will have a chance of doing a bit soon, some of us will come out of it alright, and will all do our best. Love to all, Rawei."

It sends shivers through me reading that, partly because of the scrap of paper it was written on- all he could get old of- partly because so many young men didn't come out of it alright, and partly because Simon always ends his txts to us "Love to all", so this letter feels so very real. Grandad spent 4 years of his life fighting over there. I can't imagine the horrors he must have seen. If he was alive today I would say, "Thanks for doing that". For me, that's what ANZAC day is all about.

My special things

2010-04-18T09:25:00.001+12:00

I love a good rummage through the junk shops. When I'm junk shopping I see all sorts of objects that make me think about other times and other places. I never get that looking around shops full of new stuff.

Here are some of my favourite recent finds.

1. My tea pot. Actually, I don't really like tea. When Simon and I first went out for a friendly drink after work, all those years ago, he invited me back to his place for a cup of tea. "Sure!" I said enthusiastically. I did, in fact, drink tea at his place. Ever since then we've used it as a euphemism for when someone is hitting on someone else. E.g., "He REALLY wants to invite her home for some tea".

2. Irish linen tea towel with crocheted edges. This reminds me of going to the King's place on Saturday morning with Dad. Mrs King was very houseproud and had lots of doilies and nicely pressed linens. She used to give us a glass of lemonade, which we thought was the biggest treat ever.

3. A cute retro board game. Sylvie is really into the alphabet at the moment, so I thought this would be fun. It reminds me of going to cribs and rifling through the living room bookcases as soon as we arrived to find what games and books they had. We went to some great cribs, but our favourite was a run-down cottage on Stewart Island.

4. A Phoenix Glassworks jar. Actually I didn't find this one, my Dad did. He gave it to me for my birthday 3 or 4 years before he died. I love the colour and the shape. This jar reminds me of Dunedin and my Dad.

Have you found anything interesting lately?

Only for robots

2010-04-06T10:18:00.001+12:00

There are many times when my children's artwork inpires me to make a toy, but never more so than when it involves a robot. This is Harry's robot shop; I love its name, "Only for robots".

See that one second from the left? I love his control panel. I had to make one just like it.

Here he is. His name is "Bill", and he is going to be a birthday present for a person I know who likes handmade things. Even silly robots.

Easter is pink here.

2010-04-03T17:12:00.004+13:00

Yippee yi yay, it's the start of the Autumn holidays! Yes sir, we now have two weeks of mucking around at home avoiding jobs that we've have been leaving until we have time. But no mucking around this weekend, no no no! This weekend I had an important mission (apart from making hot cross buns with lots of mixed peel in them, of course); I had to finish a quilt.

I started it way back then, and it was to be a crazy concoction with too much pink, because that's the way Sylvie likes things. It sat pieced and almost-finished for such a long time because I was conflicted over that blue stripe there, that one in the middle, you see it? I just didn't think it fitted and I couldn't think what to do about it. It was my friend who came up with the solution: Do nothing and finish it and then you won't care.

It's totally true, too. I don't care. I'm just glad it's finished because I have other things to get on with, like 12 metres of curtains for our living room (gulp). Do you like the way I didn't even clean up the floor before I took the photo? It's because you're my friend and I know you won't care about my messy house.

It's great finishing things you've started. Unfinished projects just clutter up your brain and kill any kind of creativity.

What are you doing this Easter? I hope your weekend activities include some kind of chocolate.

So passionate. So fruity.

2010-03-24T10:13:00.002+13:00

I'm talkin' 'bout passionfruit.

It's passionfruit season and I am very happy about that. I love them. I love them passionately. I love them fruitily. I love them raw and cooked and on top of pavlova and stirred into yoghurt. I love their funny, silly, purple-black wrinkly skins and their crazy seed-to-fruit ratio.

It was my friend's birthday last week, so I gave her the gift of passionfruit incorporated into passionfruit curd. I also made a goofy homemade card with an image snipped from the 1960 NZ Holiday Annual, because that's just the sort of person I am.

Get a load of that scenery- how's the serenity!

Passionfruit curd: Just like lemon curd, only passionfruity!

100 g butter
1 c sugar
juice of 2 big juicy lemons
3 eggs, beaten
4 passionfruit

Microwave method: Melt the butter gently and cool it a little, then add the sugar, lemon juice, and eggs. Mix well but don't let it get too foamy. Then microwave on high for 1 min at a time, stirring at the end of each minute. It takes about 6-8 minutes to thicken in my experience. Add the passionfruit pulp at the end. I strain the passionfruit pulp through a sieve first, then add a few seeds back in, because I don't like too many seeds.
Stovetop method: Heat butter, sugar, and lemon juice in a double boiler until the sugar is dissolved. Add this mixture slowly to the beaten eggs, then return to the double boiler and cook until thick. Add the passionfruit pulp at the end, strained if that's how you like it.

Here's the jar I made for myself.

Sometimes I'm such a guts I shock myself. I'm a little dissapointed with myself, because I thought this would be great in Neenish tarts. However, it was also very nice straight off a teaspoon.

Make it smirk

2010-03-20T16:28:00.003+13:00

Blog friends, I have been a very uninspired blogger of late. I was sick of everything I make. This kind of craft fatigue meant that I needed something new and interesting to do. Something nice for myself, because goodness only knows my wardrobe could do with a boost.

I settled on a worthy project: A second attempt at making something grey, since the last time I tried to do that I accidentally ended up looking like an elephant.

Pattern: Simplicity 2656.

I made it in grey rayon, because it hangs nicely and I thought it wouldn't need ironing. In case you think the same thing about rayon let me tell you right now, it does need ironing. I chose a pattern with a design feature that would show off a trim because I had a lovely lichen coloured trim I wanted to use. What do you mean "What's lichen coloured?". It's something that's the colour of lichen growing on rocks at the top of Mt Arthur, of course!

Lichen on a rock, see? Anyway, here are some sewing details. I used bias binding to do the hem because the edges just kept on fraying so I thought it best to just cover them up. I handsewed the hem using herringbone stitch, which I had almost forgotten how to do. I tried and failed to do an invisible zip, so I did a crappy old style zip instead.

And now I'm going to show it all made up, with me lifting up my top just a little small modest amount so you can see the top. Yes I KNOW my eyes dissappear when I smile. I'm sorry. It's the best I can do. At least I'm not scowling like SOME people I know.

Now, the reason why I called this post "make it smirk" is partly because this post is a little like my sister's blog, all of this talk about sewing garments. The other reason is probably immediately obvious to anyone who went to Logan Park High in the 1980s.

Yep, I have accidentally made my school uniform. Oh dear, dear, dear. Please console me by sharing a sewing disaster of your own. Log in as anonymous if you have to.

Jelly! It's the tight-wad's friend!

2010-03-12T10:55:00.002+13:00

Recently I was given some free apples from a friend's tree. They were quite tangy (read, 'sour and horrible') so were no good for eating. At the same time, a school notice came home begging for contributions to the school gala. "Home preserving" was one of the items requested.
Aha! said my inner tight-wad. (Actually who am I kidding? My tight-wad is not inner at all, it's an intrinsic personality trait that I wear proudly for all to see.) Let's make jelly!

Jelly is so delicious. It's a bit of an old lady cupboard item, I'll admit that. But it's beautiful like stained glass and has a delicate flavour that's good with pikelets or toast, or brushed over fruit tarts as a glaze, or even alongside roast lamb if you're into that.

This is how I make jelly: Don't even bother to peel or core your apples, just wash them and chop them into chunky pieces. Add other fruit if you have some to get rid of (I added four sour plums, just because). Add some water to the fruit- almost cover it but not quite. Simmer the fruit until it is soft. You can press it gently with a wooden spoon but FOR GOODNESS SAKES don't break it up too much or your jelly will be cloudy. When the fruit is soft, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. Then, strain it though a clean cloth (I use a new 'chux' cloth) and let it drip through over night. You will be tempted to squeeze the bag, but I again I say DON'T DO THAT FOR GOODNESS SAKES or your jelly will be cloudy and old women will tsk tsk when they see it.

Then, measure your juice and bring it to a simmer. Add 2 c sugar for every pint of juice, and the juice of 1 lemon. Then boil until you reach a set (I have a stack of saucers in the freezer, then I put a little on the saucer and see if it forms a skin when I push my finger accross it).

Total cost: Jars, free. Apples, free. Sugar, $1.50. Total cost per jar, $0.30.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! And if you have any good tips for other things people like to buy at school fairs, please share!

Delusions of craftiness

2010-03-09T13:38:00.002+13:00

Hello craft friends and others. I say "others" because my statcounter tells me that my most popular page ever is the one about making a lemon battery, so I know that many of you have not come here to talk about craft. The second most popular page is the one about acids and bases, and the other experiments for small folks are all in the top 10 pages too.

Oh well. Not to worry. We are all complex mixtures of interests and talents, aren't we? There's no need to be one dimensional, even on a blog that you feel should fit into a clearly defined niche. Well, niche be damned. I now deem my blog to be a "craft, kids science, home made items and robots blog". I bet you've never visited one of those before.

Speaking of craft (were we speaking of craft? Oh yes, we were, this time), do you ever feel like you're a one- or two-trick pony? I do. Most often, if I am faced with a birthday, I make either a) a robot or b) some pillowcases. Pillowcases appeal to me on all sorts of levels. First, they are just straight lines and I never mess them up. Second, they are practical, and deep down I am a very practical person. Third, they are a fun way to put fabrics together. No one ever matches them up the same as I do. Fourth, they are a great stash-buster.

Pillowcases: Back of each pillowcase is blue with white dots; front is beige with a teal paisley trim.

These pillowcases were made on the auspicious occasion of my friend's 35th birthday. She is very sweet and funny so I made her some sweet and funny pillowcases. She thanked me sweetly and funnily.

Are you a one trick pony? What do you like to make?

Professional Development

2010-03-05T18:51:00.001+13:00

I may have mentioned previously that I cannot pride myself on my housekeeping skills. However, I am quite proud of the fact that I bottle fruit and make jam rather well.

The way I learned to bottle fruit was the simple and functional way that my Mum did it. (Mum, I hope you don't mind that I call it simple and functional). But that's what it was. You boil up the fruit, add some sugar, ladle it into hot jars, fill up the jars with syrup, then seal. It's simple and quick and it tastes delicious, but you don't get that A&P show look, you know?

What was your favourite section in the A&P show? Can any of you claim to have won a prize for your carrot cake? (You know who you are, Nicola). My favourite section was always the bottled fruit and the jam. I couldn't have cared less about the farm animals, but I did so love the preserving, the baking, and the craft items.

One day, I thought to myself, I will learn how to bottle fruit like the jars with the blue ribbon at the A&P show.

Ta da! My friend Sue taught me an easy overflow way to bottle fruit, A&P style. Here's what to do. Have everything ready: clean jars keeping hot in a low oven, a syrup simmering on the stove top (1 part sugar to 1.5 parts water), lids ready to go. Prepare the fruit, place the cut side down on a plate or board to stop it going brown. When you have enough for 2 jars, drop the fruit into the hot syrup. Bring the syrup back to the boil, this is usually enough to cook the fruit. Then, move it off the heat, and put some hot syrup in the bottom of your hot jar. Using a slotted spoon, quickly arrange the fruit in the jar, top up with hot syrup, then seal as usual. Hey presto!

And now for a few little ditties about apricots: Each one looks like a little bum! (Well, someone had to say it). They are native to China. They travelled to the moon on the Apollo mission. There. I think we've all learned something new today.

Office craft

2010-02-23T10:09:00.003+13:00

The end of the financial year approaches, and I am once again scrambling to get all my financial affairs in order so as not to incur the wrath of the tax department. You don't wanna mess with those guys.
What do you think of when getting financial affairs in order? Folders, right? Well sure, I use folders, I use them all the time. See below, a folder in action.

This year, though, I had strange office-craft fusion thought pop into my head. What if I was to craft a folder? An A4 sized sleeve to hold all of my bank statements and receipts. Would that be crazy or cool? I made one, just to guage how it felt to combine office consumables with crafting.

Now that I've made it, I'm still undecided. I can't decide if it's silly or useful. I can't even decide if I like the fabric. I think that the rudimetary accounting that I have to do each year is scrambling my brain. Next project: A knitted calculator that runs off a lemon battery. I'm sure it's possible.

Beetroot

2010-02-16T13:40:00.002+13:00

Now, who among you will confess that in the privacy of your own kitchen, out of earshot of small people, you refer to beetroot as "beet me root me"? Anyone?

Really? Is it just me?

Well, if you don't you should, because it gives you a great lead in for funny one-liners while you cook dinner.

Me: "Would you like some beet me root me with your dinner darling?"
Him: "Oh yes, I always want that"
That sort of thing.

Now that we've got the smutty intro out of the way, I would like to inform you all that this year I grew spectacular beetroot. Yes, in my garden. It was as big a surprise to me as to anyone else, because many things in my garden die of neglect or just sit there, sulking. I forgot to take a photo of it freshly harvested to impress you all so here is a photo of my purple dwarf beans instead.

Okay, back to the beet(me)root(me). I bottled them for later, because I have taken a great shine to beetroot salads, like this one, or this one. I based my recipe for bottle beetroot on this one, but mine has enough changes that it warrants me writing it out in full, I think.

Bottled beetroot
About 1 kg beetroot, washed but unpeeled
Water
3/4 c white wine vinegar
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1/4 c sugar (or more if you like your beetroot sweeter)
2 t salt
a few grinds of black pepper
Spices: 1 T coriander seeds, 1 t black mustard seeds, 1 t cumin seeds. Dry roast in a hot pan, then crush a little in a mortar and pestle

Cover the beetroot with water and simmer until tender. Rub off the skins, they should come off quite easily. Slice, halve, or quarter the beetroot into whatever size you prefer. Return to the pot with 1 C of the cooking water, the vinegars, salt, sugar, pepper, and roasted and crushed spices. Simmer for another 10 min then ladle into hot jars, top the jars up to the very top with the cooking liquid, and seal.

Ideally, you should use jars that you just got at a garage sale so that your husband can see that they are extremely useful after all.

Housework crimes

2010-02-08T13:01:00.003+13:00

I'm fairly domestic, I admit that. I can knit, sew, crochet, take up hems, and sew clothes and silly fabric robots. I am a good cook and my baking's not bad and I can do all the Granny stuff like making jam and sauce and preserving fruit.

But...I am a crap housewife. I often let the house get disgracefully messy (When I had a desk job, my colleague used to sigh as she looked at my chaotic desk, and say "Does the inside of your brain look like that?"). Yeah? So what?

Simon, who is a very tidy person, does his best to live peaceably with such a messy person. I promised him that I would contain my fabric collection in two suitcases only. I never promised the suitcases would be closed.

The bookcase in the dining room was to prevent every flat surface from filling up with paint and making-things and DVDs and glasses cases and pencils and keys. It was a good idea, but it's not working.

And don't even get me started about the wars we have over jars. I save them, hiding them in out-of-the-way places until I need them for jam or whatever. Simon finds them and sneakily recycles them because he thinks I won't use them. But this weekend, I happened across 5 dozen jars at a garage sale for only $5!

"Hooray" I whooped, delightedly.

The phrase Simon came out with rhymed with "Duck's cake!" and it had a swear word in it. Oddly enough, he accidentally hit himself with the electric fly swat soon afterwards, which I do believe might be the jar gods telling him what they think of his attitude.

He'll be SO happy when I've filled them with apricots and greengages and apple and jam. I just know it.

And since I haven't been making any craft items over the last week, you might be interested to know what we do with too many zucchinis. I grate them up and put them in pizza dough. I use 2 c plain white flour, 1/2 c rolled oats, 2 t sugar, 1 t yeast, 1 t salt, 1 T olive oil, a grated zucchini and enough water to make the dough the right soft-but-springy consistency (about 2/3 c). I leave it to rise, roll it out, put pizza toppings on top, cook it, and we eat it all up, even the small zucchini hater that lives in this house.

What do you do with too many zucchinis?

Balice

2010-02-01T14:24:00.003+13:00

Ever since I made Harry's double-headed seamonster, Sylvie has been bringing me pictures at regular intervals saying "What do you think of this one?". It look me a while to figure out that she wanted me to make a toy out of her picture, just like I did for Harry. Out of maybe a dozen pictures that were presented to me in this context, we chose this one to make up:

When I use the kids' artwork for things like this, I really try and preserve their vision. Part of me, the uptight adult part, wants to make the shape symmetrical, the arms the same size, the legs a little longer. But if I did all those things, it wouldn't be Sylvie's design, and that's just not the deal. So together we choose some fabric, and we make it up. Here she is, she is called "Balice":

Balice really makes me laugh. You can tell she has a rip-snortin sense of humour. I wish there was a little squeaker available from craft stores that made fart sounds. If such a thing existed I would definitely have put one in.

Oh dear, I think the school holidays are getting to me. Lucky it's the second-to-last day or who knows what I might write.

Waiting for the moment

2010-01-30T14:04:00.005+13:00

I'm all for living in the moment, I really am. However, this week Simon and I went all by ourselves to Wellington for a concert, and as we made our way there I loved, loved, LOVED, the thrill of antipication that I felt about the day ahead. Looking out from the ferry the sea had never looked so sparkley, the song on my ipod had never been more catchy, and the sky was blue and infinite and open and seemed to be full of the future.

I know what you're thinking, you think we were off to AC/DC. Well, never say never, perhaps I will do that at some point in my life, but in fact we went to see The Handsome Family. Ahhh, The Handsome Family. They are just so good. This trip was our first ever night away together since we had children. It was kind of a wedding anniversary present to ourselves.

We had 24 hours of grown-up time. We had long conversations about nothing. At one point Simon said "Hey, it's really nice talking to you!" and I blushed. We had no conversation while we read newspapers and books uninterrupted. We went to a movie during the day, and it wasn't a cartoon. We went out for brunch and dinner. We went to the concert and loved it, and didn't get to bed till 2 am. Simon went and looked through CDs at the music shop for 2 hours straight. I went to the Day in Pompeii exhibition at Te Papa and got to read all the captions on the exhibits. Oh my stars, I love grown-up time.

I love time with my children, too. This week Sylvie, who is 4, and I have been working on bottling tomatoes in various forms. If I'm in a can't-be-bothered mood, I just peel the tomatoes, cook them up with a little salt and a little vinegar (to make sure they're acid enough for the overflow bottling method) and bottle them just like that. But this week I was in a rip-roaring haus frau frenzy and so we made a yummy tomato salsa, tomato kasundi, and spaghetti sauce with lots of fresh garlic and herbs from our garden. Sylvie really was a great help. She chopped tomatoes for more than an hour before she got sick of it. Here are the fruits of our labours:

What's that they're sitting on? Our souvenir teatowel from Taihape of course. It was one of our favourite spots on our North Island holiday. But that might be a blogpost for another day, I think.

Holidays, Volcanoes, and Back to Work

2010-01-21T08:34:00.005+13:00

Sometimes my life has a certain symmetry with the lives of my sisters, like this week when my sister wrote a blogpost called "Volcanoes, Holidays, and Back to Work". My week could be summarized in exactly the same way.

Each year, we meet up with some old friends of ours, and our two families go for some beachy-bachy holiday somewhere. This year we went to a little bach in the North Island, about 90 min north of Opotiki. I hardly ever get to the North Island. The landscape looks so exotic to me, it's so different from the South Island. Not least of all because of the amazing volcanoes and the Rangipo Desert. Mt Ruapehu is like a kid's drawing of a volcano, don't you think?The bach was fantastic. It was all alone on a headland, surrounded by old pohutakawas that grow down to the water's edge. There was a little stony beach that was perfect for making a little fire to cook marshmallows, for swimming, and for listening to the sound of nothing but water and children.Our friend Matt, bless his little self, loves diving. He came back with two or three crayfish each day for dinner. It's what holidays taste like. (An aside: every where I go, there is a yellow formica table. Strange but true).I didn't take much craft stuff with me, because baches are traditionally for lounging around in and reading books, but I did take some yellow and black wool to make some little bees for Amy. I had best get my skates on and get these into the post. Aiyee!These were crocheted and I made up the pattern as I went along, but it was something like this: Chain 3 with yellow wool, then sc 6 into second chain stitch, forming a ring. Inc to 12 stitches in second round and 18 in third round. Alternate yellow and black wool crocheting sc in a round. Decrease 18 to 12 to 6 stitches over three rounds, the same as you cast on. Stuff before casting off. Embroider eyes and a mouth with black wool. Crochet rounds for wings (a ring of 6 sc increasing to 12 in the second round, and 24 in the 3rd round) and sew on.

My crochet instructions are very vague because I always just crochet by feel. It's just the way I am.

The elephant woman

2010-01-12T14:47:00.002+13:00

My Mission: To sew something for myself. No crafts, nothing for the children, something just for me.
My selection: New Look 6807, which I had seen made up over here and thought it looked fab.
The fabric: A gorgeous slatey grey microfibre. Mmmmm.

I geared up for my mission on Friday night, and after a glass of wine for good luck, a phone call to my sister to sort out the tension issues on the machine (reduce the pressure on the foot, and change to a walking foot, in case you're interested in tricks for sewing knits better), I got started on my easy 2 hour top.
Easy?
Yes.
2 hour?
Ahem. Um. 4 hours.

I finished my top. It looked great on the hanger. See below, where it's looking great on the hanger.

I put it on and looked in the mirror and, well, what with the gathers making the wrinkly folds and the slatey grey colour and my, well, generous torso...I looked like....like...like...an elephant!
"I am not an animal!" I shouted into the mirror. The mirror said nothing, but looked at me accusingly.

I hope whoever buys it at Savemart likes it. Meep.

Lotta and the very silly hat

2010-01-09T12:22:00.002+13:00

Once there was a wonderful designer called Lotta, who wrote a book of simple sewing and included in it a pattern for a very styley sunhat.

"I'll make that" I said.

The hat was carefully cut out and even more carefully constructed, because as I said, it was very styley.

However, the hat pattern was actually for a very silly hat, because the brim was far too long and far too steep. In fact, it was more like a lampshade. A quick google search found that there were plenty of creative types cursing this very pattern. The hat was so silly that all you could see when wearing it was its insides.

My old Dad used to say "laugh, and the world laughs with you; cry, and you cry alone". Not on this occasion though. I had a good old whine about the very silly hat over on Miss Flossy's blog, and she very kindly sent me a much better hat pattern. Much much much better. Using the new pattern as a guide, I trimmed down the Lotta hat's brim by a massive 5 cm. That left a rather ungainly edge so I made a strip of bias binding and sewed it on. Then I took a photo of it so that I could show it to you, yes, YOU.

And that is the end of my story.

The view from 37

2010-01-07T08:16:00.003+13:00

January 5th has been and gone, which means that I am now 37. Good lord, 37. It sounds very grown up.

My very favourite thing is a nice long sleep in and then a cup of coffee and a piece of toast in bed. So that's what I got.

I also got a lovely new cookbook and a magazine subscription and lots of lovely flowers and cards. Simon made me a card with some knitted undies on the front. Now that's love.

In craft news, we've been busy with the flower press Sylvie got for her birthday. Real life Botanists still use these you know. Maybe that's why I took Botany in the first place? There's lots of crafty stuff as part of the job. Not to mention all the amazing botanical art.

I thought Sylvie might like to glue her pressed flowers onto some cards, but no, the 4-year-old craftsperson's tools of choice are sellotape and photocopy paper. Oh, and a hole punch. Still very beautiful, and a much better idea in the end because she gets to keep this, whereas cards are for giving away.

I wish I had some craft news of my own to share, but I am busily finishing things off that don't qualify as craft, like curtains for instance. Very boring, but very satisfying to see my to-do pile shrinking at such a good pace. Next on my list is...unfortunately...more curtains.

2010 and the craft forecast is fine

2010-01-01T15:39:00.002+13:00

Hello and Happy New Year to you!

At the end of last year I set out to finish things I'd started, get rid of things I don't need, and de-clutter my brain and my house. Whatever I did on that front must have been good for me, because on the last night of 2009 I had the most fantastic dream:

I was rushing to a maths exam, which I hadn't studied for. I knew it would be hard and I would fail. When I got to the exam venue, there was a sign saying "Choose your own exam". There were lots of bedding plants, all laid out in boxes, and one exam option was to use them to make some kind of design. I made mine into a robot with blue pansies making up the body and yellow marigolds for the eyes.

One of my sisters loves doing dream interpretations, but I can read this one pretty well myself. You can choose not to do the maths exam. You can do whatever you like. What a nice end to a garden-variety anxiety dream, don't you think?!

So- lets talk about craft! Okay! This pink fabric was chosen by Sylvie way back in October and I promised I'd make her a wee skirty. This morning I made that wee skirty, more or less following these instructions over at Two Little Banshees. I know, I know, hers has two layers and mine has three, but I'm just wild and crazy like that sometimes.

Next, the last incredibly practical item made from the repurposed old jersey first featured here. This is an ovencloth that will stop Kelvin and Beatrice burning their hands while roasting their very own sheep off their very own farm.

And finally, since the little felty boxes I made keep getting comandeered for dolls and morning tea and goodness knows what other treasures appeal to a 4-year-old, I ripped up an old book and made these little origami boxes to sort out our craft supplies. They fit two-deep in our craft shelves like they were made for it. How satisfying.

Oh yes, and my Christmas was fine, thanks, just fine. Ate too much, got some lovely presents. What about you?

The Student Environmentalist's Man-Bag

2009-12-22T14:36:00.001+13:00

To reduce a bit of brain (and house) clutter around here, I'm on a mission to get rid of things I don't need, and finish things I've started. The former is easier said than done, especially for a magpie such as myself, but I am following this 5-day program to get rid of things, and so far so good. As far as finishing things I've started goes, the sewing pile is getting smaller as I either ditch half-finished, badly thought-out projects, or finish the ones I still like the look of. Which brings me to....the Student Environmentalist's Man-Bag.

This was made from a felted jersey plus a few bits and pieces from my sewing box. The jersey belongs to my friend Kelvin. It was handknitted from handspun wool, and was worn until even all the darning couldn't hold it together anymore, so one could say it had had a long and useful life. However, Kelvin does not like to throw things out, and so I offered to see if I could make it go another round as a new item. I felted it the usual way (60 degree cycle in the front-loading washing machine) then cut the usable pieces out to make into the bag. The pieces deemed as unusable have been used to stuff a draught stopper.

Anyway, the Man-Bag has a certain rustic style that I hope he will like. He's not a student anymore, but it looks like the sort of bag a student would carry, and in any case, we were students when we became friends. The Environmentalist part is definitely still true.

On that note, can I show you some photos of some rather beautiful plants from my last tramp into the hills? First, New Zealand eidelweiss, and below, native Clematis in flower. Perty.

Have a lovely Christmas every one!

Storage of the fluffy and red variety

2009-12-20T11:45:00.002+13:00

Aaaaages ago, maybe a year ago even, I bought a red wool jersey from the junk shop and machine felted it (The 60 degrees Celcius cycle in my front-loading washing machine, in case you're interested in details.) It came out amazingly well, thick and deep red and felty felty felty. It was so thick that I had trouble sewing it, which shelved my immediate plans to make it into Christmas decorations. It went back into the sewing pile so I could have a good long think about what to do with it.
Last night while blog-surfing I found the right project, which conveniently fits a current need in this house for some small storage containers. I made some little boxes, more or less following these directions over at Applehead. I didn't bother making a lining, because the felt is so thick that it easily holds its shape anyway.

The small one is now my lipstick container.

The large one was immediately stolen by Sylvie "It's my little red riding hood basket." Of course it is.

The double headed sea monster

2009-12-13T16:38:00.004+13:00

I love my children's artwork. I have a box of Stuff-I-Must-Keep-Forever and it's packed to the gunnels with pictures and stories and paintings. Some are just little doodles that took only a few minutes, like this little picture of a double-headed seamonster. I couldn't take my eyes off this one, I just love it.

Imitation being the most sincere form of flattery, I immediately set out to recreate this fantastic drawing as a toy, complete with the frowning faces (no they're not frowning Mum, they're just naughty, but they like being naughty) and the expressive eyes.

Like all copies, mine is not as good as the original, but it is nonetheless taken to bed with Harry at night, to snuggle underneath the covers. You see why it takes me a year to make curtains? Because I have much more important sewing to do.

Deck the halls with crocheted pavlovas

2009-12-12T08:51:00.003+13:00

Oh, hi! How are you this fine Saturday? Look what I bought from the Ka Pai Kitsch'n on Nile St, Nelson...

A small and perfect crocheted pavlova, complete with crocheted cream and crocheted strawberries, all ready to hang on my christmas tree. It was difficult to decide because there were also very gorgeous little crocheted christmas puddings and icecreams, too.

Speaking of decorations, I finished my contribution to 20c mixture's christmas ornament swap (Flickr group here). Originally I was going to make one fabric star for each person, but just one looked a little like a lame duck. So I made two for each person, so that each lame duck would have a lame duck friend to hang out with.

I've gotten some pretty sweet christmas decorations from my swapmates, too. I'll have to do another post next week with the full round up. Today's plan, though, is to get ourselves a christmas tree and decorate it to within an inch of its life.

Joy (to the world)

2009-12-04T14:06:00.003+13:00

My first ever job was working as a kitchen hand in a Salvation Army Retirement Home. Most of the people who worked there were Salvation Army themselves, so staff morning teas always started with prayers. I'm not a religious person myself, so I usually just drifted off into a dream world while all this was going on. One day, the receptionist was leading the prayer session. I don't remember the exact words, but it was something like "Please God, please, remind us to stop and smell the roses..." The pause lengthened to a point where bowed heads began to look up, and we saw her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. Someone quickly jumped in to finish off, and she said nothing more. I have often thought of that moment, how we saw a moment in her life that she probably only intended to be a private one.

I thought of that incident this week. It was when I popped over to my neighbour Joy's house to smell her roses. She has really, really beautiful roses. She prunes and fertilizes and sprays and we get to enjoy them. I have time to smell them, every day if I want to. I am a very lucky person.

As well as having fabulous roses, Joy has a great fruit cake recipe. I made one this morning and the house smells so good.

Joy's light fruit cake

3 lb mixed fruit
1 T golden syrup
1 c wine
1/2 lb butter
1 and 1/2 c sugar
6 eggs
3 and 1/2 c high grade flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 mixed spice
1 t rose water essence

Mix the fruit with the syrup and wine, cover, and leave overnight. Cream the butter and the sugar, add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add the fruit and the flour and mix. Bake 4 h at 130 degrees C in a 10 inch square tin.

It's the rose water essence I think, that's the secret ingredient. It smells amazing. What's on your Christmas baking list?

Experiment 4: Electricity for very small folks

2009-11-28T19:34:00.003+13:00

As regular readers know, I am doing science tricks with my 4 and 6-year old at the moment. It's really exhilarating when their little faces light up and they say "Woooooow coooooool!". My biggest problem is finding something that has the requisite wow factor for their age group, when most science education resources are aimed at older kids. This week I was convinced that I'd found The GREATEST Science Trick ever. I was ridiculously excited.

One super awesome idea: Check!
One lemon, some copper wire, a copper nail, a zinc-coated nail, a 1.5 V tiny light bulb: Check!
One battery made from a lemon used to power above-mentioned light bulb: Ready for lift-off!

Here's what to do. Insert a zinc nail into the lemon. Insert a copper nail close by, but make sure it doesn't touch the zinc nail. Attach a copper wire to the zinc nail and another copper wire to the copper nail. Now attach the other end of each copper wire to one of the wires of the light bulb. Stand back, and ..... oh dear...

The lemon didn't supply enough voltage to power the light bulb. Hurrumph. What to do, what to do, what to do....

Wire up several lemons in series! I tried 2, then 3, then 4. Oh dear. That didn't work either.

I know, we'll find something that takes less voltage. Ah ha! The pedometer! (Some people use them for counting steps would you believe! Much better for use in science experiments for small folks I reckon).

You see? See the LCD display ALL LIT UP?! See it working?! (Battery placed nearby so you can tell it's not a rigged shot). It really, truly worked. I was beside myself with glee. "Wooooow coooool" I said, congratulating myself heartily.

There was an eerie silence from the children. My point earlier: most science resources are aimed at older kids. My children don't know how a regular battery works let alone one made from a lemon. They see things lit up from batteries all the time and lighting up the pedometer didn't impress them one bit. As well, all the problem-solving was done by me- I wired up the extra lemons, then knew enough to know we'd need something with a lower voltage drain. They had no investment in this experiment at all, and conseqently no interest. Back to the drawing board then.

Something simpler. Something visual. Something that they can do themselves with tools they use all the time: A simple circuit with a battery and a tiny light. The kids connect the wires to the battery all by themselves using cellotape. (Approximate cost: $3.00 for the battery and $0.86 for the little light from Dick Smith Electronics). They soon worked out that both wires must be attached (it must be a complete circuit) and that the wires must be touching the metal itself. That's pretty good problem solving and they did that all by themselves.

And this is the reaction I was looking for:

The light they made all by themselves was carried around all day, taped to a hat to make a head light, pushed into tiny spaces to see what they could see in there, and was frequently connected and disconnected. That's what I call an experimental success.

(P.S. Even though my very little children weren't interested in the lemon battery, it would be great for older kids. I have loads of copper wire, copper nails, and zinc coated nails leftover and I will gift them to NZ readers until I run out. Email me at misssmithathome@gmail.com if you would like me to post some to you, along with the wiring layout for making a lemon battery. NZ readers only, sorry, postage costs get a wee bit prohibitive to anywhere else.)

First aid

2009-11-22T13:32:00.003+13:00

I've got lots of little half-finished projects lying around at the moment.
Case in point: A small first aid kit that's been waiting for me to sew it up. I made it from a felted woollen jersey that I bought from the Red Cross Shop for $3.00, with some ticking lining. Very appropriate, don't you think? An item from the Red Cross Shop being made into a red first aid kit, with a cross?

(Okay, I'm whispering this to you now. You know the term "phallic symbol"? Photos of little purses like this with the zip undone, well, they make me laugh because they seem to me to be the female equivalent of a "phallic symbol". Stifled giggles~ fnur fnur).

If you don't mind, I'd like to quickly gloat about how neat the zip is. It's become a point of pride because there have been periods of my life in which my zips were not neat at all.

I followed a tutorial for the first wee purse I made like this, and it was a piece of cake. For the life of me I can't remember which tutorial I followed, but it was similar to this one.

After sewing this I realized I should have used a walking foot to stop the seams from flaring- there's quite a bit of stretchiness in felted wool, and it's pretty bulky. As well, I ran a couple of lines of hand stitching around the inner edge to hold the seam flat and stop it getting caught in the zip. The little cross is a piece of felt, handsewn on at the end with a simple edgestitch. Easy.

What dinky little handmade things are you making at the moment?

* Miss Smith at Home

May I introduce you to some old friends

Finishing and Starting Again

Feeling Christmassy

Cards, and care with card allocation

Friday Pie Day, and a Dolly

Life lessons

Focus

It's soooooo easy

Turning Six, with Pink Lamingtons

A microcraft activity

Beeswax (for minding, and furniture polish)

A parcel

Stuff. Beautiful stuff.

The Winter Sun

May contain violence (viewer discretion advised)

Funny Boys

Evergreen

While the boys were away

The thrill of procrastination

Mares eat oats and does eat oats

Shiny, sparkley, matchy-matchy

It's *that* time of year again

Quince paste v. 2.0

Lars and Guy

Small-town NZ and man-craft

Jelly. The facts.

For my love

Darker moments, lighter moments

You say 'tomato', I say 'tomato sauces'

National Costume

Projects of the teenage variety

Things We Need

Okay then, goals.

No Year Resolutions

Old School

The Xmas Deco Tour, 2010

Ritual sacrifice of a wooden spoon

The Homemade Gift Round-up

Candied peel and Grandma's Currant Buns

Frugal, nerdy, and proud.

Halloween (Past, Present, and Future)

The post in which I make homemade deodorant

Spoiled.

"Sylvie is 5" It shouted.

There's no place like home

The Bridebot and Groombot

First, you need a plan

Chicken pox, nude robots, and a happy place

The post in which I start to dress like a robot.

Cheap and Weird

Happy as a little pup

Make my oysters cinnamon

Practicality and flattery

H-G7

Guava jelly, and a haiku

Holiday projects

Transtasman Relations

Scott's Farewell Slice

Ittier and Bittier

They're itty. They're bitty. They're booties.

Winter colours

It was a raaaaaspberry beret

Botanical Strip Show (Discretion Advised)

Happy muthes day

What do you do when you can't do nothing?

Bright and shiny new curtains

My *special* things

Only for robots

Easter is pink here.

So passionate. So fruity.

Make it smirk

Jelly! It's the tight-wad's friend!

Delusions of craftiness

Professional Development

Office craft

Beetroot

Housework crimes

Balice

Waiting for the moment

It's that time of year again

My special things