An afternoon's work

...and a bee for my friend Barbara's birthday...

Kumeu Show 3

The indoor exhibits are always my favourite part of the show. I think I'll enter next year - maybe some eggs, greens, preserves and a craft. The photography section is tempting too. And I know we'll have lots of fun with the children's classes in years to come...

Kitchen creations

I've been busy cooking over the last few months. I made my own mincemeat for the first time with cranberries and orange peel. I learnt how to sterilise the jars in the oven and it has kept well.

Chocolate bark was another festive success though Lark's teachers didn't thank me for this gift at the start of term when it compromised their New Year's resolutions...

I've been experimenting with cake decorating too - using a crocheted doily to make a pattern with icing sugar on a Somerset cider cake. (If you try this, do it just before you're ready to serve the cake otherwise the icing sugar is absorbed and you can't see the pattern - it took me three attempts!)

I attempted a buttermilk glaze for this plantation prune cake but it didn't really work - tasty but lumpy - so I covered it up with more icing sugar! The cake itself was popular at one of our gardening group gatherings.

I've been doing some more preserving with grapefruit cordial, using the remaining fruit from our tree...

... and pickled cucumbers (though I didn't serve them together).

Next, I think I'll try some more adventurous bread-baking - maybe rolls or hot cross buns in time for Easter...

Christmas Cases

Winter always seems a good time to start thinking about Christmas, even though it's six months away. The colder, darker, wetter months are much better for creativity and crafting than those long, hot days when you need a sea breeze in your hair not scissors in your hands.

So I've started work on a fancy dress set for our daughter. I took two suitcases - snaffled during an inorganic collection a few years ago - and tidied them up with some green washi tape. Next, I added stickers to the outside to make them look even better-travelled.

The two suitcases will have different themes - one will be a dressing up box - jewellry, scarves, handbags, ties etc - and the other will contain fantasy costumes - a dinosaur, wild beasts, a clown etc. I've picked up quite a few bits and pieces at thrift shops and dollar shops already. Now I need to pick up a needle and thread and start work on the costumes that I want to create myself. Wish me luck!

A stitch in time

Apparently I have a problem with plastic bags but I wouldn't need to hoard them if someone stopped bringing them home. 

Anyway, all those plastic bags now have a better home rather than being let loose in the back of the cupboard after I made these bags for bags. I made them from the bodies of two old shirts with a little bit of ribbon to perk them up. It only took me about two hours. Two hours over the course of two years, that is. 

Gold rush

With Christmas rapidly approaching, I was keen to make a few more decorations for our tree. These are pine cones that I gathered as firelighters - I sprayed them with gold paint and will put them around the base of our tree.

Midwinter Christmas 3

I've been busy making more mini-wreaths for our Christmas tree. I had intended to make a full-size wreath for the front door with all these shells but they were too heavy for the wire and pulled it out of shape so I changed tack.

Next I'm pondering using a wicker wreath, some smaller shells and a glue gun to create a wreath for the front door. Watch this space!

Midwinter Christmas 2

Here are the mini bead wreaths that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

I'm a dreadful hoarder. Actually, I'm a really good hoarder. Great at storing things up and admiring them from time to time. I'm just useless at using the things that I hoard. So I took out some of my favourite beads and some old earrings which I no longer wear but couldn't bear to part with and turned them into these crafty Christmas decorations.

I've no idea how they'll look on the Christmas tree but I'm hoping for a homemade, found-objects kind of look. More of a faded pioneer Christmas than a modern, glossy Christmas. I think I just need one more collection of baubles to balance the look - probably some pine cones or seashells if I have any left over from the larger wreath that I'm planning...

Midwinter Christmas 1

As winter approaches, I'm feeling festive. I don't think we'll bother to hold a mid-winter Christmas celebration as some kiwis do. Instead I have been busy making Christmas decorations.

Our local community has recently set up a swap system whereby things that would otherwise be thrown away are offered up to neighbours who might find a new use for someone's unwanted goods. When someone mentioned that they had a box of textile swatches, I thought this was a good way to start a fabric stash. A bag of pinecones for firelighting was deemed to be a good trade and so I picked up the box of scraps and started sorting.

I've found lots of pieces suitable for making rag rugs and some lovely bits which will make baby clothes. I wanted instant gratification though and set about making some mini rag wreaths for our Christmas tree.

Bold red, gold and green or icy silver colour schemes seem strange for a summertime Christmas so I'm planning a a more natural, sun-bleached Christmas display.

I've been busy making bead wreaths in co-ordinating colours too - check back tomorrow for a sneak preview of those - and I'm planning on a seashell wreath for the front door and some bunting for the deck. Watch this space!

A Little Library

Over the last few weeks, I've been busy unpacking all our books after they've been in storage for the last three years. It's been great fun discovering old favourites and forgotten volumes. And the only mouse-nibbled book was a dictionary, oddly enough.

The sci-fi/fantasy collection has now been housed on the bookshelves on the stairs but my modern classics need a home. We have some flat-packed shelves to put together and then I'll be able to alphabetise them all and get them in place. I really hope we'll have room for them all. I don't want to have brought them all this way just to have to give them away!



Even though I'm concerned about space, I couldn't resist snapping up a few bargains at a school fair and a garage sale over Easter weekend. I picked up some classics that I remembered fondly from childhood - The cow who fell in the canal (now out of print), Milly Molly Mandy (or Milicent Margaret Amanda to her angry mother), What Katy Did (in honour of my sister) and Myths and Legends of Many Lands (including my favourites the boy and the dike and King Canute).



I was tempted by this crafting book too. Dyeing and printing sounded rather intimidating, even though I'm the daughter of a printer, but when I realised that the patterns were all made with household objects like string and punched card, I couldn't resist. I'll look forward to attempting some of these projects soon.

Craft Corner

Here's the finished product - my craft desk, bookshelves and my writing desk, all set up in the rumpus room. I've divided all my bits and pieces into paper crafts, sewing, jewellery making and other crafts and lined up all my writing paper and postcards on the windowsill using the lovely desk furniture that my grandfather has made for me over the years.







Now I just need to sit down and work on some of my projects...

Bumps in the Road

We found this fantastic knitted road sign at the Corban Estate Arts Centre.

Live Wires and Pipe Dreams

The sparky has confirmed our suspicions - that the whole house needed re-wiring. This isn't particularly good news but it's not bad news either. I'm looking forward to logical light switches, reliable plug sockets and no more fluorescent tubes whilst J is eagerly anticipating his movie projector in the rumpus room. Another exciting feature is going to be the possibility of retro-fitting a generator (to make us self-sufficient in the event of a power cut) and photo-voltaic solar cells (to help us get a bit closer to being off grid).

The copper pipes have deteriorated over the years as well so new plumbing is being put in across the house. This should mean the potential for a higher water pressure from our tanks though we may need a new pump for that as well.

And lots of old copper piping for me to turn into some kind of art - maybe something along the lines of this installation at Kaipara Sculpture Gardens.

Doorstepping

Our chickens spend too much time on our doorstep for my liking. They peer at us through the glass doors, intimidatingly, and crow under our bedroom window. Sometimes they even rope in the peahens to help.


Which means I have to sweep the front porch more often that is ideal. On the other hand, they do leave us some lovely feathers. I've started to make a mini totem pole with them by the front door, to ward off intruders (bottom right), but I do need some more crafty uses for them. Any ideas?


(And yes, I know that the paving stones need weeding. All in good time!)

Basket Case

I have been following in my mother's footsteps and building up quite a collection of baskets. My two most recent purchases are pictured here - a beautiful round fairtrade Bolga basket from Ghana and an ali-baba style basket picked up at a garage sale for just $5!

Fortunately wicker is definitely a 1960s-1970s look so the baskets will fit right in once we've finished our renovations.

(Check back tomorrow for more ways in which we'll be putting our house in context.)

Books Galore!

I went mad again buying second hand books at the school fairs last weekend. This selection has some fantastically useful volumes - from home canning and finger foods (more morning teas) to crochet. And two copies of the same gardening book. Told you I went mad!



Can't wait to make some of these special seventies creations from the crochet book...

Bread Bag

I recently purchased a new all-singing, all-dancing sewing machine. After repairing the edges of my old bath towels, I set about making a bread bag for my home-baked loaves out of a rather lovely tea towel and some ribbon from the Japanese $3 shop.

Here is the finished article:



Next stop? Covers for my yoga bolsters, complete with buttonholes...

Mosaics

One day, when we stay still for long enough, we're going to take some mosaic classes.

For now, I'm busy gathering ideas and seem to have found most of them in toilets like the Hundertwasser toilets at Kawakawa and this one at the Funky Fish Cafe at Baylys Beach near Dargaville.

I think we'll keep our attempts outside though, at least until we produce a masterpiece...

Winter Warmer

I've asked James to crochet me a hat to keep me warm on our forthcoming trip to the UK - and next winter, just in case our renovations haven't progressed far enough by then. We picked up some interesting yarns at Spotlight this morning - my new favourite shop.



But whilst you're waiting for a picture of the hat, here are some knitting art from the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens, especially for Helen.







Knitting is cropping up in all sorts of odd places across New Zealand - just look at the yarn-bombers in Christchurch. Will crochet take off soon too?

Doodle Stitch

This is what I made when I got home all-inspired from my trips to the quilt show and the sculpture gallery recently - a doodle stitch from a kit that I found in my stocking at Christmas.

I've done a little bit of embroidery before but always from a pattern so it was fun to start from scratch this time. For those, like J (and J), who can't work out what it's supposed to be, it's a collage of scenes from New Zealand native bush. From left to right...

• Tui and a pohutukawa
• Flax with flower
• Monarch butterfly
• Koru (new tree fern frond)
• Fantail
• Kowhai blossom
  

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the real thing for comparison purposes...