A bucket full of glass

Pinning out the quilt

Croissants and coffee in bed

The bottom of the shower

The bathroom floor

A bucket full of glass

Morris on his walk

Well this morning I was enjoying a quiet lady's morning. The boys are away tramping. I woke up at 8.15am and while breakfast was baking I pinned out a quilt, then I took my gorgeous croissants and coffee back to bed and read the latest issue of The Simple Things.

At 10.30 I thought "righto" get going for the day. I went to have a shower and the bottom of the shower had a bit coming off that jams the shower door. Now this is a common occurance and about every 4 months I give it a bang to secure it back on and we are right as rain. This is NOT a hard bang - I used a the bottom of my coffee cup. And the shower door disintegrated on top of me. Tiny tiny bits of glass everywhere. All over the bath, handbasin, shower, the floor was covered in shards of glass. Not to forget all through my hair, my nighty and down my back.

So I clean up the glass but all the surfaces in the bathroom had what looked like glass dust. Very gritty. It was really hard to get rid of. The top of the door fell onto the floor and looks like it bounced as I have three holes in the vinyl. Ah well, here goes a bathroom redo.

An hour later I finally had my shower and then had to go shopping for a shower curtain temporarily. Took Morris for a walk and only now at 4.45pm I am finally getting to sew again!!

Linking up to these places

Hexagon pillow finished

Well this project has been a learning tool (I hope I remember). I love hexagons, the first project I ever completed was when I was 10 and it was english paper pieced hexagons which I made into a duffel bag and used for school until it wore out three years later.

When I was in my twenties I completed two queen size quilts all by hand as I was travelling Europe for one and on the Milford Track for the other. I could never go back to hand piecing.

So when I saw Leanne Beasley's gorgeous hexagon quilt I could not resist. So I started, as soon as I had though I realised that hand quilting is no longer me. Oh what to do. So I made enough to cover a European pillow (which I got from an Op Shop, thrift shop - 2 for $5).

The finds from the Op Shop

This has taken ages as I only took the project on holidays with me this summer. It has been staring at me as I just was not motivated to finish. But it is done. The quilting had to be unpicked as I did not like the first attempt. And the funny thing is that I don't know what to do with it. Think I may have to give it away.

Finished in time for linking with Amanda Jean and these other places.

Still madly harvesting and preserving

Well the harvest continues. Goodness I have to be really honest and say I feel pretty over the whole harvesting and preserving thing.

I absolutely love providing for our family from our own garden but boy harvest time is full on. Over the last weeks I have been thinking a lot of our forebears and people on the poverty line. How the harvest is so so important and without storing correctly and keeping as much as humanely possible, they would starve. Quite sobering really. I am so fortunate that I have a choice and do it because I want to (and I cannot bear waste).

So we are onto the Pear tree now. Goodness they take a while to do with all that peeling etc.

I have also been given tomatoes and decided to try to adapt the roast blackboy peach recipe (originally the roast Feijoa from my sister in laws book) into a roast tomato chutney recipe.

So here goes. ( I don't think I will ever make a chutney in a pot again)





Roast tomato chutney 
2.25kg ripe tomatoes chopped into 2cm chunks
750g onions finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 Tablespoon ground corriander
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or use ground)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons each - whole yellow and black mustard seed (optional)
3 Tablespoon salt
400 ml vinegar
500g sugar

Put all into a roasting tray and mix well. Roast for 2-3 hours at 180oC (it took me 2.5) on fan-bake (the fan bake assists the speed of cooking and evaporation of all the liquid). Stir once or twice if you remember. It is ready when it is looking thick and there is still a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan when you stir. ( it should have reduced in size by about half).

Spoon into hot sterilised jars ( I had assorted sizes and it filled 7 jars)

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Upcycle drawers to Lego station

The messy room

The tidy room - thanks Lego Station

Well this has got to be the longest DIY project in ages.

It all started as I remodeled Jakob's room last year. As part of that I gave him new storage as I was sick of the stuff on the floor. But over the last few months I have realised (maybe from the number of times I have had to get him to tidy his room) that it just was not working for him.

He likes to sort Lego and keep it like that. He wants to keep all the things he has just made -actually made up. And I was sick and tired of not being able to walk in his room or vacumn.

I was sick of asking him to tidy up and looked at it from another angle - I had not provided him with what he needed for the way he played.

In the garage was a set of drawers that Aaron had remodeled when he was in his early teens. It had been painted white and he hand sanded and stripped it and polished it up. But it was looking tired.

There were a few glitches on the way - I did think this project would be done in a couple of days. But the first time I started polyethylene to finish it looked terrible!! I had hand sanded and it just was not enough. Then I hand sanded again, then I gave up and used machines!!

There is one more thing that needs to be added. The top is going to have a Lego baseboard glued to it so that his pieces can be built on it and not move.

I love that this has now been upcycled / recycled twice. That is really good use of resources without spending money.

The drawers before

Hand sanding - never again!!

big mistake - looking worse after the first layer of polyurethane

Put dividers into the middle drawer - good for sorting Lego - also added new handles

Put wheels on so it can move from room to room to play with

Finally finished after more sanding and 4 layers of polyurethane

The boys doing the big inspection. Lots of discussion and excitement

In Situ

Lego in the new Lego Station, no more lego on the floor.

My Easter Weekend

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Started working on a new project 

Our possie

At the drifting

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Lots of this went on

Well my Easter weekend turned out to be nothing like what was planned and booked. The boys and I were booked to be at Flock Hill backpackers in the Arthurs Pass, whilst Aaron and his brother Stephen completed the Goat Pass tramp. BUT...... Thursday night Eli started vomiting and was not well enough to move on Friday.

Flock Hill were amazing and let us cancel with no payment. We had a quiet day. ALL the bags and food remained packed ready to travel somewhere on Saturday. Eli was definitely better but a bit dubious about travelling. So we decided to stay.

Now packing took me all of Thursday, so then I unpacked for a good part of Saturday afternoon.

We still had a lovely weekend. The boys had a quiet weekend, I gardened -  managing to get some beds put down for the winter, sprayed the raspberries and boysenberries as they were getting raspberry moth, mowing lawn, trimming edges and tried to finish some projects. Then we had a big day at Ruapuna race track on Sunday - we went to see the drifting. The day went from 10-5.30 - it was good but I was exhausted when I came home.

Do you know that I was surprised to look at my blog and realise that I had not posted for 8 days!! In my head I have written heaps of posts, but I have also been rather tired this week and not really managing to achieve any finishes in my projects.

Hope you all had a good weekend.
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Cleaning a Mess just makes more Mess

Argggghhhhhhh.... what a mess!!!!

This mess

and this mess

and this mess

Were all made trying to find this thing....A label maker

So that I could clean this mess!!!!!

How does this happen to me???? But at least now my sewing stuff is SUPER tidy (well it will be in a few hours).

I have been meaning to sort and clean my pantry since my friend Steff did hers. But it was Eli's comment this morning when he told me that everything was a mess. That made me think it really must be done. When a 7 year old untidy boy thinks it is a mess then it must be horrendous.

The other day i made him re tidy his room three times. In the end I was happy and he told me "That is not tidy Mum, it is pristine!".

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The last of the summer camping

This weekend felt like the last of the summer... We went camping locally again, just 1 hour up the road.
We swam - but it was a lot cooler and more like a scram (half swim half scream).
We sat outside in the sun and felt the sun beat down and make us toastly - but it was not too hot, we did not need sunscreen or get burnt and there was a feeling in the air of cooling down.
I got some hand stitching done. Actually finished - wow amazing. Though this too has taken longer. I thought I finished about 3 hexi flower ago and it just did not fit, so had to keep doing more.
We relaxed - that never changes no matter the season.

Ahhh, I am already sighing about the wonderful summer that has been.

A little bit of stitching

A busy boy making a hut

The Hut

Jakob

Eli

Our gorgeous sunny camping spot - quilts for a hut

Grrrr - fiddling with my phone.

Aaron did not have his cellphone with me so he fiddled with mine!!! I never know whether to be happy or not about that as it gets too techy for me.

Bloglovin - trying to make it available

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I have an account and it says it is set up for anyone that want to follow that way. But I have no idea how to put any kind of gizmo on my blog to allow people to click and follow. If anyone has any link they can direct me to a tutorial??? Would appreciate your help

A patchwork cross pillow

The finished cushion sitting on the couch

with the matching quilt

the back of the cushion

Well after my moan about not finishing things. I am working on the last few details of Jakob's room. The pillow to match his quilt has finally been made up. It sits on the black couch and just gives that part of the room a colour punch. I love doing cross quilts and feel another one coming on.

I am doing more DIY (gasp I know) and upgrading an old set of drawers for the final storage in Jakob's room. Hope to post that finish soon.

If you go to my previous post you can see all the details about how this is made from businessman's shirts which I got at the Op Shop (thrift store)

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DIY Genius (or not)

Well I will let you judge this for yourself. I am trying to finish off all sorts of things. I am sick of stuff half finished and hanging around. I get things 3/4's done but not completely. I am driving myself nuts!

But note to anyone who will listen - do not try to become an amazing handy woman when you also have two injured boys, are trying to cook dinner and vacumn and think that you can get some DIY in there too. You can, BUT it might not be great.

I call it modern!!! I was putting on the new door handles for Eli's room which I redecorated last May, yes I did say May. This wardrobe has not had knobs for 1 year and now he has ultra modern knobs.

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Scrummy and easy chutney

The chutney roasting in the oven

My sister in law's book

The finished chutney

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I had chutney cooking in the oven while I was working (and blogging - shhh don't tell the boss that I multitask, drat that's right- he reads this!).

Yes I swear to you this chutney is that easy. No standing over a pot for a couple of hours waiting for the chutney to thicken, worried that it will burn. I chopped the ingredients then put them in the oven to roast and then put it all into jars. How easy is that!

Oh and did I mention it is some of the best chutney ever. My husband said it was like a Barkers chutney (now you need to understand that is the highest praise possible from him. Barkers in Geraldine make the closest to homemade tasting of all jams, chutneys, sauces etc).

The recipe I used was based on a book published last year by my sister in law. Deborah Hyde-Bayne. Called Coromadel Flavour. They live in the Coromandel and these recipes are with the seasonal produce from there. This book was three years in the making. Debs has worked hard and it is a beautifully produced book.

Anyway the recipe I used as a basis was the Roasted Feijoa Chutney recipe. I used my blackboy peaches. I altered a lot of the recipe as the peaches are a lot less subtle than feijoas. So I did not use the whole spices that she used but supermarket bought ground spice. The rest of the ingredients were just what I had in the cupboard so there was a bit of substitution. But when it comes to feijoa season I am going to follow the recipe to the hilt. I loved the fact that the recipe was low salt too.

If you want to buy one of her books just click on the link above and it will take you to her site.

My Blackboy Peach recipe - this quantity made three little jars
1.1kg  Blackboy peach flesh
350g   Normal white onion
2         Long medium heat green chillies
360g   Brown sugar
1         Dessertspoon salt
115ml White Vinegar
2         Lemons - juice and zest
2         Teaspoons ground cinnamon
2         Teaspoons ground cardamon

Cut the flesh of the blackboy peaches into about 1.5cm chunks. Chop the onion quite finely. Add all the ingredients together into a smallish sized roasting dish and mix well. I used a high sided non stick slice pan, the mixture looks quite dry. Leave it to sit overnight. This releases heaps of liquid and will fill the dish up.

Roast for 2-3 hours at 180oC (I roasted two hours and it was still really runny, so I fan baked it for 30 minutes. You need to do this until the mixture caramelises (goes thick and brown and sticky)

Spoon into sterilised jars and seal. Debs recipe says to leave a week before use. It was pretty yummy at the time. This was so delicious that I am going to make a batch double this size as it will be good for presents etc.

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