Harvesting

In spring I grow far too many plants so I give seedlings to all my favorite people. It's always interesting to see how things grow in other peoples gardens compared to my own. I didn't have much success with the Luffa I planted but one of my friends rang me yesterday for instructions on what to do once they've grown, so if you have luffa in your garden here's how to turn them into great back and foot scrubbers. Leave mature fruits in a dry place with the ends cut off and the seeds extracted. The flesh will wither leaving a network of cylindrical fibre. Easy eh? I also gave away lots of these Austrian oil seed pumpkins you just cut them in half and dry out the seeds for storage. You know it's ready when the pumpkin starts to go orange. I got about 3/4 of a cup from the first one I did, which isn't too bad considering if I'd bought the seeds from the shop they'd probably have been heat treated to stop them sprouting and flown here from goodness knows where, so I guess I'm doing my bit in my own garden to help towards stopping global warming. Now if only I could use the pushbike instead of the car sometimes. The catalogue says the flesh is lovely to eat but I find it quite watery like squash and give it to Skatey Boy's pet rats or the chooks, who incedently have stopped laying, autumn is obviously turning into winter for us here in the southern hemisphere. Wharepapa our Mt Arthur mountain range had a sprinkling of snow the other night but it would be very rare for us to get any down this low.

After Easter

It's a relief have Easter over and done with. Schools out, we can sleep in and blob around. Visitors come round and there's not a time limit on anything, don't have to get home in time for anyone after school and don't have to get up and organise anyone. The kids have lots of friends over so the house is full some days but the best part of that is that they go to their frinds house too so it's empty sometimes. My mission for the holidays is to clean up and dung out the house. I made a tentative start on Monday going through all my clothes and the baby stuff. I tried not to get too emotional about it all, just looking at baby stuff makes me cluckky ( I had baby dreams last night) but I don't want to keep so much stuff. I'm not a clean and tidy person by any stretch of the imagination but I do find myself getting miserable as the hallway and craft room pile up with stuff. Also I really enjoy giving to people now, I use to try and sell everything but get a real buzz out of giving now. After all money just passes through the purse too quickly, I've already spent all my takings from the Easter Fair. We had a lovely day at Mapua on Sunday, the weather was perfect and the Easter Fair was popular as usual. I love to walk round and see what new ideas people have come up with since the last Fair. A huge house bus was parked down from us selling beautifully crafted wooden furnature, these butchers blocks took my fancy. I also found some handknitted then felted bags, I wish I'd had my camera as I've been thinking about making myself one this winter. My stall didn't look as good as it usually does, I still havn't figured out why it didn't come together nicely.I think I need to figure out a good way to display bags and probably book L his own site for Manuka seats, he sold three. Also I had a friends T shirts on my stall which was probably a mistake as they take up alot of room. I caught up with lots of friends and sat quietly in my friends coffee cart watching her run off her feet, by 3 o'clock talking to herself "flat white, flat white, flat white" so she'd remember what she was making. It's still making me smile three days later. Market folk are great.

What a score

Can you believe the dealers over -looked this clock? I put it on the most disgustingly dusty shelf in the house but I'm so loving it. It didn't have a key to wind it but L managed to wind it and it has a beautiful chime and keeps great time. $6 Yay didn't even break the budget! The weekend garage sales were a bit of a let down except for this. I can't understand how the dealers get to every house before me and then I waste time coverting what they've got! Arrrah. Caught up with some good mates though, the garage sale scene is really taking off here, there use to be about 5 of us but last weekend there were about 12 cars racing each other round.

Meeting tomorrow for the Education Review Office visit to Playcentre, then head down bumb up finishing stuff for the Easter Fair. Hopefully the grumpy teen will give me a break for a few days, it seems I'm the baddest Mum ever because I think an English assignment is much more important than computer games. Currently we're at a stand off he won't read and I won't let him play games. I can still make him smile when I tell him he's georgous though so all is not lost. Help does anyone have a manual on teenage boys?

Count blessings

My bad mood nothing's working mojo ends today! It's been one of those weeks in the kitchen, the garden and at the sewing machine. Thank you to my blog friends for the constant stream of new comments on my blog I often try to reply but am unable to. I always check out your blogs though and have alot of "favorites" to catch up on in the school holidays. Thanks to my local friends who've called and visited and listened to my moaning. I'm not having any more bad dreams about the upcoming Education Review office visit to Playcentre, what will be will be. Just remind me to count my blessings every now and then please.
Do you like my wooden spoons? They were my Christmas present to myself from local woodworker PJ Heath. The long one is especially fabulous for preserving. You can find him at the Pokororo Fair and the Motueka Market.
I put the call out for a Sweet Chilli Sauce recipie. ( Thanks Mum)This is a beauty.

20 oz Sugar
20 oz Red Peppers
6 oz Chilli peppers
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
5 large cloves garlic
1 packet of jam setting mix
2tsp salt

Process chilli, peppers and garlic until pulpy. Heat vinegar and water disolve sugar and salt in it. Add pulp and boil 10 minutes. Add setting mix and boil til thickens about 10 mins. Bottle into sterilised jars. YUM.

Not so good at finishing things

I have changed alot in the past few years, my house is never spotless and I always have alot of projects on the go. I use to finish one thing before I started another, now when I get an idea I run with it incase I forget it. Sometimes they come to me at odd times and I do a sketch. Here's what I've been working on in the weekend. I must admit Mum had two of the kids for me so there were alot less arguments to sort out.

Just need to sew in the linings on these bags. I kind of did them on auto pilot while talking to a friend in Australia, she spent the best part of a 2 hour phone call trying to convince me life's better over there. We're both pretty different and I think we're both where we belong. The bags are destined for the Mapua Easter Fair.The mint ballet jersey just needs sewing up, it's been in my sewing bag for a week, PJ will LOVE it when I give it to her. She's a shoe girl though and will want a pair to match. Mum bought her THREE pairs in the weekend, one was the most girly pair of soccor boots for the upcoming season. The blue and gray on needles are my nephew's booties, they're a "must do" tonight. I'm quite liking that colour combo and might do a jersey to match.
I made the red head a xbones sweater and it didn't fit so I made another, then PJ wanted one so I made another now I have three which need their neckbands added and a few more cut out because I quite like the way they are turning out. The tweedy wool hat half finished was for me but it was getting too fiddly for me at 10pm so I abandoned it for now. PJ has a lovely pink and paisley pair of pants waiting for elastic. So you can see I had a productive weekend even if I didn't finish a thing! We also spent Saturday evening at the skate park with the "skatey boy" and it was just lovely doing something especially for him. It was good to get out too and get some fresh inspiration. The local youth were awesome on their bikes and boards and I was pleased to note none of them were smoking even though most were unaccompanied at 6pm.

op shop goodies

The other day after a long day in Nelson visiting people and an appointment with the chiropractor I decided to call into my favorite op shop on the way home. I just wanted to stretch my legs really. Imagine my delight when I found this bag of quilting " fat quarters" and a few bigger bits too, it was just what I needed to inspire me to do some sewing. I don't quilt yet but love flowery fabric and will use for applique. The browny bits are very inspiring for autumn. I'm half way through alot of projects but instead of working on them I'm full of excitement waiting for my brother to send me photos from Adelaide of my new baby nephew. I'm a first time Aunty so it's pretty exciting. I'll have to settle with photos for now as I visited them last year for their wedding, I'd so love to be cuddling a new baby today though.
I'm off to make booties for my nephew now. He's a darling.

Lemon Honey Tea

We got a bit of Autumn rain last week, even a bit of snow on Mt Arthur. Unfortunatley the small kids and I got colds to go with the change of season. So we've been drinking lots of lemon and honey tea. I make it with a few extra goodies to fight the germs. The kids don't really notice the garlic if you put in plenty of honey.

LEMON AND HONEY TEA FOR COLDS.

To make 4 or 5 cups of tea:

Juice of 2 to 5 lemons,

as much honey as you need to taste, (manuka honey has healing properties)

Add any of the following for extra healing and soothing.

Fresh garlic 2 to 10 cloves chopped depending on your taste,

Fresh thyme 2 to 4 teaspoons chopped, (lemon thyme is nice)

Fresh Echinacea root 1 or 2 teaspoons,

Cover with about 4 cups of boiling water and drink hot or cold. Experiment with your favorite herbs to create your own recipie. Sage or ginger would be quite good too. My music teacher swore by black tea for sore throats. When we all got sore throats before our musical of "Annie get your gun" she had us drinking pots and pots of it, so you can add a teabag too.

Look what popped up in the garden. Usually I drive in the country looking for mushrooms when the Autumn rains come. Couldn't find any last week I don't think it was wet enough, but last year I spread some spores on the lawn and yay ONE mushroom. Will leave it to spread it's spores.
Long awaited rain, Neudorf Road near Motueka. ( No mushrooms though)

Retro Jam

You know how when you have something you have to do you'll do all sorts of other things just to avoid doing it. I've had that kind of weekend. A playcentre assignment is due and I've done everything but. Still the results are very satisfying anyway. I made "Retro jam" for presents and the market, blackberry flavour is supreme and will be in very limited supply I think. I'm also being tempted back into the garden as my back improves. With rain forcasted, I did some harvesting of herbs for teas and sunflower seeds for planting next year before the birds get them all. I've raked the lawn in preparation for planting some fresh grass seed and cleared a few small weedy patches to plant some more brassicas. I dug one patch over and then realised it had brassicas in spring so I'll put peas in there instead. Peas are good to sow after rain. But I'm hoping to get those brassicas in before. I like to lime the garden at this time of year as it sweetens the soil up, lawns like it too. I'll be desperate if we don't get rain as I've noticed the water pressure has dropped right off which means we havn't got much. I've been saving water from the bath and washing machine and bucketing it onto everything. I wish my good Kiwi bloke would jack up a hose so it goes straight from the washing machine to the garden. I've been threatening to "get a man in" to do it 'cos usually that gets some action but it's not working. The plumber doesn't even need directions to our place any more he's been out so many times since we bought it, I think the pipes got such a shock changing from one old lady to a family of six. I'm too scared to put in a dishwasher incase the system can't cope. The 13 year old asks for a dishwasher every birthday and Christmas!

Blogs for beginners

It's great to hear from so many friends that they've tried my tomato soup recipe, it really is yummy isn't it? Someone asked me today how to make a blog. I'm still making mine but I can tell you how to get one started and introduce you to some of the best ones I visit. Most of them have links down the side of the page which direct you to other good blogs or highlighted words that you can click to look at other things, I havn't quite sussed out how to do that yet. So to make one for free go to http://www.blogger.com/start and just follow the directions. You should be able to click that address to get there. Ask a teenager for help if you get stumped. I know there are other places where you can make blogs too, I think you have to pay for some. If you like you could google blogs or blogging to find out more.

The blog I visit every time I'm online is Melissa at tinyhappy. I don't know how to highlight a word to get you there but click this address and check it out. http://www.tinyhappy.typepad.com/ Melissa is a brilliant, creative young mum and blogs almost every day. Through her blog I've found some other real beauties, I like the nz blogs but she has some fantastic international connections too. Here is a great list discribing some good nz blogs. http://stripysockstudio.com/index.php/site/entry/new_zealand_blog_posse_wahoooo/ my apologies for not knowing how to make a proper link. I hope I didn't have to get permission to link, I have a feeling there is blogging etiquette but I havn't really sussed all that out yet either.You can comment on peoples blogs by clicking the comment button at the bottom of each post where you can also read other peoples comments and click their names to see if they have blogs too. I have noticed alot of craft bloggers put on photos of their beautiful children which kind of worries me cos you don't know if you've got creeps looking at your blog, but each to their own you'll never find a picture of my kids on my blog. Happy blogging/blog reading. Here's a picture of my craft corner today, a few projects on the go and a few ideas cooking.

Huts and Pups

When I asked my son who's 10 to stack some wood in the wood shed his creativity got the better of him. It happens alot, he's the dreamy creative type who get side tracked by a better idea. Often they are marvelous like this, but sometimes when he's supposed to be getting ready for school and is building a city for his cars I get a little bit snotty. Just as well we live close to school as he often doesn't get there till 5 to 9. He rushed in to get the camera after about an hour "just in case it falls down" then when it was finished called us all out to have a look. He suggested to me that it was big enough for him to sleep in!I guess it will remain in the garden as a sculpture until the wood is required. The nights are definatley getting colder and I'm waiting for the Autumn rains so I can collect mushrooms in the country and plant bulbs and do some weeding again. The ground is as hard as rock and although my back is getting better I daren't attempt any digging yet. You can see Willow's puppies have grown, they are very amusing to watch play now and the whole family watches them after tea instead of the TV which is nice. They know my voice, my walk and all come running out of their box when they hear me coming. It's been a great experience but I look foward to them going to their new homes now.