School Holidays

I took five kids to Coalgate. At Coalgate we have built a cottage, it is 45 minutes from our home in Christchurch, but the life style is light years away from our frantic life here! I took a 14 year old, a 13 year old, two 12 year olds and a six year old. We made stuff, we sat by the river, we lit a huge fire and cooked marshmallows. We watched movies and tv and generally hung out. It was good, tiring but good. What was I thinking? Motivated 5 kids to get organised was a mission!!

Yes I am sewing!!

This weekend I've started the quilt for David. I'm making it out of his old shirts. I hope he likes it. I'm also making some progress on the wall hanging for my brother. I'm hoping to visit him in June so it would be cool to take it with me. The kids and I are going to be in Coalgate most of next week so hopefully I should get heaps done! I want to make another one for another little boy too. Nothing like being ambitious!

ANZAC Day

Yes we were in the City at 6am to join the ANZAC day parade. Here are the photos to prove it!

Here are some of my lovely BB Boys in their uniforms waiting to march in the parade. It is actually really great to get up early and remember all the young men who went off to war for us. The BB Boys love going (plus I take them to McDonalds afterwards!!!). Its that thing again of being a little part of something big.

Orange Squash!

Here is my 142 blocks for step two of the orange squash quilt. they look great, shame they don't match the first 150 blocks!! I'm hoping this will all come together although I am having doubts about my ability to choose colours.

They have arrived!!!

The first three designs by Chrissy for her Candy! land T-shirts! Well done Chrissy, you are an absolute Champion. I love you honey xxxx

ps the t-shirts are $25 each if anyone wants to buy one!!!

Reuben's last day....

Here is the very large cake I made Reuben for his last day of Hillview! All the children really enjoyed it. They made him cards which was very cool.

Chocolate Cake

8 oz (225 gm) soft butter
2 c sugar
2t baking soda
2 C milk
3 eggs
3 C flour
¾ C Cocoa
1 t salt
1 ½ t vanilla
1 T vinegar

Soften butter. Sift in dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes, add eggs and vinegar and beat until well mixed. Divide between lined well greased tins. Either 4 x 19cm tins, 2 x 23cm tins or 3 ring tins. Bake at 180 deg.C for 45-75 minutes.

For girls only...

I don't think any guys will be reading this blog. Why is it girls that the one weekend in living memory that you get to go away with your husband, that you WILL get your period? Why? does this just happen to me?

Another week, another cycle ride!

100 km, 2 hours 45 minutes!

What can I say? He's just so fast! This weekend the Grape Ride in Blenheim. David is to happy with his time, I am so happy he got in safely!!

We are having a lovely time with our Cuzzies! Blenheim weather is mild, the country side is great and our children are in Christchurch - its all win win!!

Orange Squash Mystery Quilt

These are my fabrics for the Orange Squash mystery quilt. I don't actually have enough of some of them, but I'm determined not to buy any for this quilt, so will see how I can fake it!!
Here are my 150 4-patch blocks in progress. They are all leftovers from other projects.
Actually I reserve judgement on whether this will work or not. Will have to wait and see!

Its officially autumn....

I've got socks on!!!

A Challenge to you all....

I just spent the evening putting things in an Album for Aunty Jean. I can't believe someone can get to 87 and not have a photo album! She is turning 87 on Thursday. I got her handful of photos and added a few more, I got four certificates she got in the 1930s for playing the piano. I got some of her birthday cards and some of her cards with Bible verses on and I put the whole mixture into an album. I put all the dead people (from the funeral cards) at the back!! It actually looks amazing and I managed to fill the whole album which I am stoked about. It took me the whole evening but it was worth it. I think everybody should have a photo album. I'm a big fan of them myself. I make them for my mum and dad and David's mum every Christmas. I make them for my kids and I make them for our family.

Life is full of ups and down, and its great to sit on the sofa for an hour under a quilt with one of the kids and look at photos and remember the fun times! Ian Grant says "Children need a past, a present and a future" and I agree. I take photos of my Boy's Brigade boys and make an album for them too. Their parents don't do it, and the boys LOVE to see how much they have grown! I take it to camp and they spend heaps of time looking at it.

It's important to take photos of the ordinary stuff too, because things change, but when you look at the photo it helps you remember. Digital cameras are great, and people take heaps of photos, but they don't print them out. I think that is a shame, print those photos people, stick them in albums. Technology changes so much, you could easily loose them when time marches on and you can't access them anymore because you have upgraded.

I challenge anybody reading to go and print their photos. Let me know how many you print. I would love to know! I will give a prize to the person who prints the most photos...

Fire in Hamilton...

This is a poignant picture of the firetruck from a terrible fire in Hamilton over the weekend. It is still burning and one died and six fire fighters are fighting for their lives in hospital.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Firefighting community at this sad time for them.

What I actually did this weekend was...

Quilt for Tara's baby....

• Tidy most of the house including the two messiest bedrooms. (One was so bad it made me want to cry!)


• Visited David's Aunty Jean


• Had coffee with Shenleigh


• Cooked a yummy dinner and had our friends over for dinner


• Purchased new hair clippers and cut David's hair!


• Baked three fruitcakes


• Baked 60 chocolate chips cookies


• Sewed binding on quilt for Lynley and finished it.


• Gone to church


• Backed, bound and finished quilt for Tara.


• Sewed some circles for the Japanese Folded Quilt


• Sewed 150 4-patch squares for Bonnie's Mystery quilt (when I've worked out how to put the link up I will!!


• Made a roast vege salad


• Went to the Park with the kids


• Gone to mum and dad's for tea


• As welll as all that I have done load after load after load of washing as our washing machine was fixed on friday after over three weeks of being broken!


• Folded laundry mountain created by all the washing

I'm pleased with what I achieved!!

Plans for the weekend....

This weekend I want to...

1. Finish binding Aunty Jean's quilt for her 87 birthday
2. Finish binding quilt for my cousin Lynley who is dying of cancer in Australia
3. Sew the gathering thread on the circles for the Japanese folded quilt.
4. Sew my squares for my Orange Squash mystery quilt.
5. I want to get up to 10000 words written on my book and get my house tidy.
6. I want to watch a dvd and eat some popcorn.

I'm going to be busy!! have a great weekend everyone :)

Need a laugh?

A man was riding his Harley beside a Sydney beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice, "The Lord said. " "Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish." The biker pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to New Zealand so I can ride over anytime I want." The Lord said; "Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking, the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind."
The biker thought hard about it for a long time. Finally, he said, "Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand our wives. I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy".
The Lord replied; "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?

Boys Brigade

This is the boy's brigade prayer. It's amazing. I love to hear my boys praying this, it is amazing.

God our Father;
Thank you for life;
Thank you for health;
Thank you for every good gift;
Thank you for The Boys Brigade

Please help us to serve you
and act as you want us to act.
Please give us wisdom to do what is right;
Please give us courage to say what we believe;
May we always be willing to listen to your word;
May we always be willing to help others.

Please help us to be a good friend
Please help us to be honest in all we do
Please help us Jesus to be more like you.

Amen

City to Surf...

Before..... After....
City to surf - 12kms, time for me 2 hours 40 minutes. I did it, I thought I might not make it, but I gritted my teeth and kept on going. I was a little person playing my part in something big!

Earth Hour...

We switched off our lights (and a few other things) to do our bit for earth hour!

Le Race

Here is my husband David who is very happy with himself, he did the Christchurch to Akaroa race which is 100km over monster hills in 3 hours 19 minutes. Amazing!!

Unlimited Camp....

Home made cookies
Me making pizza bases.
The pile of pizza trays!
Some of the kids (and dads) doing dishes
The lunch machine. Filled rolls down one end, cookies down the other! Just a few pictures from camp. Quite frankly I'm too tired to clean up and put away all the gear, so have taken a break and thought I'd post these pictures! We had a fabulous time, the weather was fantastic, actually warm, and the kids were all lovely (well most of them). The food went really well and no major disasters! It was a bit tricky as there were two ovens, but only one rack in each and as we nearly always needed four trays it took some nifty moves to get it all done in time. Not too many complaints which was good. I was lucky and got to sleep in a cabin with one of the teachers. Peel forest is absolutely lovely and I might post some of Chrissy's photos sometime. I'd definitely go back there as a family, it is a truly unspoilt beautiful spot and less than two hours from Christchurch. Amazing. We are so blest in this country and I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to leave my busy life behind for a bit and enjoy the serenity of the countryside and the majesty of the mountains!

My lap top is back!!!

I got my laptop back this afternoon. I am so happy, I missed it so much!! Last night when I was praying with Reuben, we prayed that I would get it back today (before camp tomorrow) and that I could get a haircut and both our prayers were answered! I thought best I don't look too frumpy in front of all Chrissy's friends - didn't really want her to disown me!
These are the two quilts I did on Sunday. Just need to buy 9 inches of fabric to finish the binding on the one on the right otherwise they are sorted. They are not fancy, but more than adequate for the dear old ladies they are going to!!!

Camp Menu

Speaking of Camp I am cooking for Chrissy's School Camp this week. We are off to Peel forest on Wednesday. 65 kids and adults should keep me busy I think. Tomorrow I am going to take Chrissy James and Jessie (James' friend) to Pak 'n Save and give them each a shopping trolley and we are going to buy all the food. Here is the menu....

Day 1
Packed lunch
Afternoon tea: Homemade Cookies and fruit
Tea: Homemade pizza and homemade oven chips
Supper: Deb's famous chocolate self-saucing pudding

Day 2
Breakfast: Cereal and toast
Morning tea: Cheese and crackers
Lunch: Rolls with ham, lettuce, cheese, tomato, mayo etc
Afternoon tea: Scroggin
Tea: Nachos
Supper: Homemade Apple Crumble

Day 3:
Breakfast: Pancakes
Morning tea: leftovers!!

Easter

The wireless hardware in my laptop failed so my laptop has gone off to be repaired. Its a real pain to not have it I must say. Anyway I'm blogging on David's one but I can't post photos. We've been at Coalgate for Easter and yesterday the weather was amazing. Its really Autumn here though, with a bite in the air at night. I love the freshness of the air and the colours of Autumn. Yesterday I made two quilts. They are very simple strip quilts but they look fine. One is for a lady who is going to be 90 on wednesday and the other is for David's Aunty Jean who will be 87 in two weeks. I'll put up a photo when I can.
James went to the Pegasus Cycling Development day on Saturday. It was great for him to ride against people his age and I think he really enjoyed it. We miss Chrissy this weekend who is at Easter Camp. I can't wait to get her back again. She will have had fun. Four thousand, five hundred Christian Kids at Camp - amazing.

At last another project!

It seems like ages since I finished a project. I just put this together for Jackson, who turns Five this week and is having a pirate party today!! Its adapted from a pattern I saw, and its really easy to do, but look effective for kids, especially with his name on!! I've got two more of these to do in the next couple of weeks. Its a great design for quickies, also you can cut the stripes out of fat quarters, thereby using up stash fabric!! You can't see the design on the border, but its all school fabric, suitable for a boy starting school after Easter!!

My new project....

Last night I went to a class to learn how to make this quilt. It is a Japanese folded quilt. I love the fabrics for this one (all from my stash). so I have to make a whole lot more (400) as many as possible in one month for the next class. Its very cool though, each square is aready bound and quilted ready for sewing together.

Weekends....

Here are our beautiful children taken the other saturday when we went to Lyttelton. I have done no quilting this week, and the only sewing is to make a batman cape for david to wear to a fancy dress party tomorrow! I need to get moving on something. This weekend is full of fun social activities which will be great. Maybe I'll get sewing next week.

Sally Barbara Becker 1969-13/2/07

Tomorrow it is one year since my friend Sally died. Sally was the bossiest, most straight-forward person you could meet. She loved to laugh and have fun. She did everything just so. She lost her hair, her figure, her memory and her control over her body, but she never lost her desire to live. I miss her so much, I feel like I just lost her yesterday. I think we have friends who fill different roles in our lives and the Sally hole is still very much empty in my life. She was the one I could go to and share my struggles and we could pray together. I felt safe sharing with her. Sally bossed us all around, but we all did what she said. Sally was always right.

I have no photos of her, we just did ordinary things together... watch our kids play, go for a walk, sit on the sofa and have a coffee. Sally's legacy to me is that I always carry a camera in my bag, every moment is precious and i want to be able to capture them.

I love you Sal, I miss you so much xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quilt for Ashleigh...

This is the one for Shenleigh's dad who is 70 in may. I did post it before, but i wanted to remember it all done!! These four are all quilts that I sewed over christmas (my UFOs) and Verina has quilted them, I just had to bind them, which I did yesterday. But now I have no UFOs, just a project I'm working on. I'll have to generate some more, I feel naked without them!!

The triangle quilt...

This one is going to England. It was me trying to do triangles (which I'm a bit scared of actually) but it turned out perfectly fine, so i might have to try again!!

The finished baby quilt....

This is the baby quilt it made and then my friend had a boy so I thought it was too girly!! Anyway the lady who does the quilting has brought it for her grand-daughter, so its actually sold! amazing.

At last some completed projects....

Finally some projects finished. I made this from some Amy Butler fabrics and I'm please how it turned out. I may give it away or sell it, can't decide which!!

Another dress quilt....

Look at this awesome quilt. I'm so stoked to see it. It was made in Thailand after I left by Samphan Crafts. They copied it from a minature one that I was making. Its just such a buzz to see things that people are making that you had a hand in! This will be a large twin size - they make enormous quilts in thailand.

Sarah's quilt... (at last)

At last some quilting success! Finished the quilt for Sarah's baby (its only four weeks old!!) considering how little my heart was in this project, i'm happy with the result. I made a quilt but it turned out quite girly so this is quilt number two. (Quilt number one not bound yet so not shown on here!)

aWW MUM!

Can you see what my daughter is saying "go away mum"! it's just not cool to have your photo taken on the first day of your new school! She looked so grown up in mufti.

Saturday morning...

We saw this truck this morning. Isn't it funny? Great line! We went to the Lyttleton Farmer's market this morning. I can't believe I haven't gone before. I will be a regular now. It was great to buy things and ask the people how to cook them. We brought a courgette that was over 1m long and we used 6 inches of it and made fritters for lunch which we ate with a dip we brought - yum!

Books I've read this summer...

Another one of my goals for the summer was to read at least five good books. Here are the ones I've read so far...

1. When Fish Fly by John Yokoama and Joseph Michelli - this book is fantastic. As a small business owner I am inspired and encouraged by reading this book. We are making it compulsary reading for our staff!
2. An Unbrian Love Story by Marlena de Blasi - quite a slow pace this book, but having read two others of hers, its kinda cool to follow her story.
3. Tell it to the Skies by Erica James - loved this. I think that Erica is getting better and better!
4. How Starbucks Saved my Life - this was great also. Kind of follows on for me by When Fish Fly. It helped me see "being" in action.
5. From the heart - On being the mother of a child with special needs - I was just so keen to read other people's stories. As we have struggled these holidays with Reuben, I wanted to see how other people felt. I think more needs to be written, or maybe I just need to find it out there somewhere! Any suggestions?
6. The Memory Keepers Daughter - a story about secrets, but also I felt about redemption. It was heart warming and sweet.
7. Wisdom of daughters - two decades of the voice of Christian Feminism - This book is so refreshing, it makes me want to cry. I may not agree with all if it, but gosh there is a lot of insights here. What a relief.

Now isn't that an eclectic lot of books? I brought a book last year to record the books I read, and its great, otherwise you forget what you read and what the book was about. I would have said I was a bit of a chicklit girl, but this list shows me that no, I may enjoy a girlie book, I do actually read all sorts!

Dream @14: Plant more flowers

One of my goals for the summer was to plant some more flowers in our garden. So this afternoon Reuben and I have weeded and planted this plot. We planted the rose on the left, it's a lucky dip cause the label has fallen off! and three other plants, I hope eventually to have this plot filled with flowers and foliage so you can't see the ground!