Things that make me happy..

My brussell sprouts have pea sized babies on them. Im so excited. Sprouts for tea soon?

Finishing the patchwork on my sheep quilt. (even if I did find that I had stuffed up the sheeps position in the middle thereby seriously upsetting my day for a while) I have bought some backing and wadding and cant wait to start to finish this once and for all.!!

Things that dont make me happy:

Owing money to the IRD. I dont understand how this can happen when oth you and your hubby are getting the same pay all year..

These Chinese(?) blog comments. What up?? I seem to get one then a whole flurry will attach themselves. its seriously disconcerting.

Good bye Moko

We were absolutely devastated to hear the news that a dolphin had been found washed up on Matakana Island and is likely to be Moko. The girls cried and I just felt gutted.  Years ago when the GHIU Dad was a boy he got to swim with his local dolphin Opo. We never thought wed get the chance to do this and then along came Moko, now like Opo he has died at four. GHIU does a lot of work in Mahia where Moko first surfaced and lived for a couple of years and people would come up to him from overseas and ask him what time the show started. to which GHIU would reply that he was a wild dolphin!!! We just loved swimming with him for a few days and were very sad to leave. it was one of those things that really is a once in a lifetime thing.

Good Bye Moko..

Scrappin' once more

Close up on the fun bits learnt in class (I can make roses out of tissue paper and brads!!)

the finished page... as I said eleven years in the making..

The next kit i purchased yesterday and had to work out how to do by myself ;(

And the fun bits again. Lots of cutting circles and distressing on this one. It took ages!!!

And one i took from a Library book...I LOVE using tags!

Okay..Im over scrapping for now and I am off to Patchwork

Happy crafting

Cherry

news from the cold homestead

Brrrrr It is freezing here in NZ at the moment. Cold southerlies are blowing in straight from the Antartic! The chooks were let out for a free range around the garden today as it was the first day in a while it had stopped raining in biblical proportions. They enjoyed it and I dug up the new area of vege garden I developed days ago in order to treat them with some fat earthworms. In return they turned up the newly dug sods a bit and fertilised the area! A fair trade. Here two of girls find the driest bit of soil to dust bath. They look a mess when the soil is damp but still seem to enjoy it. When I see them enjoying chooky life like this I find it nasty to think of their lives in the battery farm and worse still for all the poor chooks still there.

Sam examines the old tyres from the jeep now used to house some strawberry plants. It is covered with bird netting and will be joined with the matching tyre soon. It doesnt look much right now but come spring...

Bounty from the neighbours. They always share their tangerines with us. This year we have traded in eggs..The tangerines are still alittle tart at the moment. we also enjoy the fruits of their apricot tree that hangs over our fence.

The pok Choi is doing so well in this freeze. Shame the only ones enjoying it are the chooks. I will have to learn how to cook it and with what. GHIU picked this up to day from winemaker friends. We will cut it in half and plant out some things. Alex wants her whole half to grow her wheatgraass in!! I have planted some tomatoe seeds from last years tommies in the hot cupboard. A bit rash Im now thinking. If they do grow i guess I will put them in the barrel and cloche them up and hope for the best! Im just so keen to get things growing!!!

And I shreiked with joy when today I saw that my row of garlic had emerged. I was SOOO happy with this discovery as I have been having a peek every day. This particular row was from an organic Hawkes Bay garlic and there is no sign of any others yet.

CRAFT:

I went to my first ever scrapbooking class the other night. it was fabulous and I didnt want to leave!! I came away with a gorgeous made page for my wedding album and went back the next day to purchase a kit from the last evening I hadnt gone to to do another page for the wedding album (elevan years in the making!!) I am so pleased with the results but my battery died on my camera and so I will post them next time. I also made a couple of small homemade accordian albums for presents and have almost finished my sheep wallhanging. Just doing the final appliquea around the sides. Very nice doing this late at night knowing theres no school tomoorow, Ghiu  off for the week. Doing the things I love by a roasting fire while outside the wind blows in from the southerly ice mass!

Tomorrow is Symbas last day as a boy cat with boy bits. Catching him wandering around the neighbourhood dangerously crossing roads etc has propelled us into making THE appointment. And tomorrow morning he is going to the vets. Poor gingy

We have taken advantage of the poor weather by catching up with Videos. Today it was Valkyrie..sad Didnt realise it was a true story..and Precious..what a OMG movie that was. GHIU watched it with me even though it wasnt a war moveie and he was glued to it too. Thankfully we walked away from the video hire without renting Cold Snow a movie about Nazi zombies...

Happy wintering

Cherry

my neworn baby is ten !!!

And just like that ten years passed. Yesterday i held her in my arms and suddenly realised what i was put on this earth to do and today I watch on as my ten year old confidently sails through life independant and beautiful. Happy birthday Georgeous! (I found these photos on the camera when i went to download some blog photos. Sometimes there are alsorts of crazy photos awaiting!)

HOMESTEADING IN THE KITCHEN:

It is that time of the year again. The time of the year when overwhelming urges to make soap overwhelm me. This soap below is my absolute favourite and you can find the recipe at this blog (Also a super simple life blog!)

 but first I got a self sustaining type book out of the lirary and following the instructions made some castille saop (awful photo..it doesnt look THAT bad!) i am still waiting for it to set properly.

If this fails I will be repurposing it into another soap. And I havent finished yet I still want to make some more of Rhondas delicious soap. 

For years now i have been trying to buy Borax. no one sells it around here. Then I wandered into the new into the new Bin Inn shop and there it was..49cents a KG. I was ecstastic. Now I could finally make some clothes wash!!!

I visited this site and printed off the instructions, only half reading them as I did so to ensure I had all the ingrediants on heand (i did) Unfortunately the printer page got a bit screwed up but other than  afew words missing I could read the general instructions. I did have this little voice going off in my head telling me to check the website again, ut i chose to ignore that..until I had made two batches. Then I read that to each batch i needed to add 5 litres of hot water before pouring into containers. I had made two atches so with great effort I had to try to remix the water evenly in some even type fashion into the mix. Now I have a thickish mix, but I am proud to say I have used it this morning on two washes and it melted into the wash leaving no residue or gluck, and it was a cold wash..so i have abandoned my fears!! I made SUCH a lot on so little of the actual ingrediants.Its amazing. When clothes wash is so cheap at times i had wondered if price wise (not eco wise) it was worth it, ut it is sooo worth it. I could make bathces and batches and batches on the stuff I have left over. I feel very pioneer woman about this!!

ON THE URBAN FARM:

The plants are continuing to slowly grow. I have had to use derris dust and cover some of them in tin can cloches ecasue some sneaky ugs have een having a bit. I have heaps of Bok choi!

Yesterday we had threee eggs after days of unbroken five egg clutches and I thought Uh Oh here we go, ut today there is five eggs again. My beautiful hens! 

CRAFTING:

I have finished the main part of my sheep wallhanging..Hurray. Now it is the school holidays i can spend lots of late nights sewing by the fire....bliss!!