A party

Josh and I are born on the same day, four years apart... uncanny.

So every year we have a great party to celebrate both our birthdays. This one might be the last one in a while!

It was great fun, we'd postponed it a week because of bad weather but it was worth it. We had a beautiful sunny day, Josh had put up lots of sails for shade, and dragged the couch outside. Everyone should have an outdoor couch!

There was plenty of food and drink, people had a good time. I always feel a bit frustrated because I never feel like I manage to catch up with everyone, but it was so nice to have all our friends around!

The kitchen and bathroom are slowly shaping up, interesting to try out the new kitchen's layout for a party, definitely ten times better than our old kitchen!

mini art journal challenge: week 42

I just realized I still haven't posted a card,  even though I made it a couple of weeks ago (and I still haven't finished last sunday's one either). I've been lying low all week, my mum arrived from France (yay!) and caught the flu en route (boo!). She was very sick for 2 days then gradually got better. Unfortunately I managed to get it too, and have been feeling pretty tired and low in energy.
Week 42: "Grateful week". That one was easy, or almost. On some days I found myself wondering what I could be grateful for! Obviously I need some practice!

Homemade

My mum arrived from Europe a few days ago with a suitcase packed with goodies (including french cheese.... eeeekkk!). Among them was a pasta maker. I'd been wanting to get one for ages so I was as excited as a child. Mmmm... if you've never tried fresh pasta you definitely have to give it a go. No comparison to the packaged stuff.
Another bonus I've been looking forward to as well is that it reduces the amount of packaging that goes through our household quite significantly.
it took me half an hour to make the dough and make the pasta in the machine for 4 people, which I don't think is too bad. There was so much pasta we couldn't even finish it all (and we are big eaters). Josh worked out it was 3 times cheaper than buying the dried packages stuff (if you buy decent quality pasta).
Now... we just need the chooks to start paying again so we can have enough eggs to make some dough!

Magazine rack

Here's one of my Trademe buys... a magazine rack for the toilet (I was getting sick of books and papers lying on the floor). I've always had a thing for antiques looking objects, and this one also has a chinese twist to it which I quite like too. The design is also more practical for small spaces (as opposed to the more common inverted triangular ones).

I also made this diaper bag from a pair of pants someone had given me a while ago, inspired by the messenger bag from cargo pants by Noodlehead.

And I finally succeeded in making mozzarella! Hurray!!! It still needs to be perfected, but how yummy it was in a tomato/mozzarella salad...

Treasure hunt

I've been shopping... lots. Whenever I start looking for one thing on Trademe, I always end up with a huge list of items "on watch", because all of a sudden I can think of billions of things we don't really need but I'd really like to get anyway. and maybe it's also the first time in a long while we've had some money into our account!
So I'll have to post pictures as I keep receiving all my little treasures, starting with an entire set of crockery! I'm not sure anyone else would get that excited about it, but I've been dreaming of having a matching set of plates and bowls ever since I started flating. I found a gorgeous one at a local garage sale, I was so excited to find it I kept looking down the drive to make sure no one else was going to show up and try to grab it! It was a good deal too. The design is called "Autumn Splendour" and is made by Crown Lynn. I just love the simplicity of the design and the theme of course. So now I've got matching dinner and dessert plates, bowls and even cups with their little saucers.

Now all I need to do is wait for our kitchen to be ready... gnnnn, I wish I could fast forward!

Due in February

one of our chooks is broody, so we got some fertile eggs on Trademe and stuck them under her. Apparently it takes 21 days for them to hatch, so the chicks are due to arrive early Feb! A lot of new additions to our household...

Josh built her a special little house, she didn't seems very sure at first and wanted to get back to her friends, but she finally sat back on her eggs, so let's hope all goes well.

Cosy nest!

mini art journal challenge: weeks 40 and 41

Wow, I can't believe I'm almost at the end of this challenge.
week 40: "Not anymore". Ok, so we all grow up, mature, change... but I can't really say I am not something anymore. I see myself today as the result of my past experiences and what I've lived through. Sure, I've had good and bad moments, days, years. I am ashamed to think back on some memories, others I love to think back on, but really, everything I've been through so far in my life has made me who I am today. So instead of saying some part of me is "not anymore" I'd say that the present is the sum of our past experiences.

Week 41: "Magic carpet:. Again, this week's challenge has been so well timed with what I am going through at the moment. If I'd been asked where I would go if I had a magic carpet at any time in my adult life up until recently, I would have had a million destinations lined up. Right now though, I just feel like being here, at home. A few weeks back I was having a lie down on a rug in our garden, while Tahi had a nap, and I felt so at home, so cosy, so happy and content. I am five weeks away from my due date now, and all I want is the peace and quiet of our home (even though the kitchen and bathroom are still at the building site stage). I feel like this baby wants to be born here. For once in my life, I don't want to be anywhere else than where I am now!

Busy busy

I got a bit carried away last week sewing lots of purses. I'd seen this really cool and easy tutorial on Noodlehead and had been wanting to try it out for ages.

So I got out some fabrics and started chopping away. Next thing I know, I've made 8 of them!
I'm really happy with the result though, and I'm sure they'll all find a happy place in a nice handbag. A woman never has too many purses, and they will be great for late Xmas presents or birthday presents.

The tutorial was super easy to follow, and once the fabric is cut out it takes less than half an hour to finish the project. I had to redo the first three ones though because I started in the evening and didn't read the instructions properly, as I often do.

I might have to keep one for myself too!

Why go camping?

When you can do it at home!
This is the current state of our bathroom and kitchen. Josh has been slaving away this summer, and is making good progress but it will still be a few weeks before the kitchen and bathroom are fully functional.
We've got an outdoor bathtub, which has actually been great during the very hot days we had last week!

A week goes past

Tahi's granny and her daughter left yesterday, they'd been staying with us for a week. Tahi was overjoyed by the company and attention, he had a great time!
It was really nice to have some visitors, and we gave them some little thank you presents (although I forgot to give them a jar of olives... next time). I made a cookbook for Viv, the daughter, from an old battered children's book called Alexander's outing. Some of the pages were completely torn so there wasn't anything else to do with that poor book but repurpose it. Viv is 18 and decided this year she is going to get into cooking, so I thought this would be ideal for her to record her favourite recipes. Whether she liked it or not and whether she will use it or not who knows, but it was quite fun making something different that didn't involve a sewing machine for once.

I also made a cake the night before they left, a healthy one I could eat too (I am on a sugar free diet, which means I avoid all processed sugars). It uses agave nectar instead of sugar, and it was oh so nice. Even Josh who usually can tell when I make a "healthy" treat was sold. It's called a "Banana Choc Chia Cake" and I got it from Knifelovesspoon. It's not the first time I use a recipe from this blog and so far I haven't been disappointed.

back in the making

Haven't even started on the Xmas presents though, how terrible. I'm almost tempted to slowly get into it then use them for next year. At least I might be in time!
I have just finished a custom order (probably my last one) and the clothes were so cute I decided to make some for our little flea too. The baby bug is getting to me, I have been browsing Etsy and Felt for baby items, stay posted to see what I find!
Here's a little photo gallery of my latest creations:

upcycled organic fair trade cotton (from KowTow) short sleeve top

Merino sleeping gown

Long sleeve merino top

Garden goodies

I have been a bit obsessed with my backyard in the last few months, and it's paying off! We're now right in the middle of summer, the big growing season and our garden is producing beautifully. un fortunately I wasn't very on time for planting veges such as tomatoes and cucumbers, so there aren't any to pick at the moment, but we are getting lettuce, potatoes, beans, peas, broccoli, cabbage (red and white) and carrots. We also just picked our first garlic crop, yeepee!

While Josh was away, I was very grateful to have veges available right in my backyard, it meant I didn't have to go very far to get what I needed for our meals and most of all I didn't have to cycle with shopping bags full of groceries! So hurray for gardening!

We spent New Year's eve at the beach, walked up a hill with some friends to watch the sunset. It was a bit cloudy but nice nonetheless. Afterwards we went to our friends' batch. Tahi stayed up til midnight! (he was pretty tired though)

Sunset from Makorori point

New Year's cuddles!