Button stuff

Awhile ago I made myself this fabric brooch, it always annoyed me cos it didn't seem to have any character. It's been tossed around the living room and in and out of the toy box since then. Yesterday my "skatey boy" sat quietly and created his own version of the brooch without any input from me except to ask "can I use this material?' I think the boy has more creative talent in his little finger than I'll ever have. He was also inspired to make some button jewelery after spying a vintage jewelery book I got from the library. I made the cushion for him to display his work at the festival next weekend. We might have to whiz over to Nelson to buy some clasps for his necklace unless anyone has other ideas of a nice way to join the copper wire on the necklace?

Weekend waffle

There are not enough hours in a day for me at present. My time is being sucked up by meetings, community networking (sometimes known as coffee with visitors) and little extra things like Drs visits and dropping PJ at school. Ususlly she walks and I'm often still in my jarmies saying "whew" to my self "thank goodness they're all out the door". Often I go round and round in circles too as any Mum with kids can probably relate to, just when I finish the chores kids sweep in and create a new pile of something else to be done. They're excellent with helping out it's just that four busy kids + wet weather + small house = Clutter!!!!!!!! The garden hasn't had much attention, we've had very heavy rain and then when the weather comes out fine for a day I have to tackle the mountains of washing. It is great to have the rain though as I always have water issues in summer so hopefully the more we have from mother nature now, the less I'll have to worry about the well running dry in summer. If you're gardening in the top of the south watch out for those frosts this week if the rain clears quickly because it feels like we've had some late snow today.

I'm trying to create some stock to sell at the upcoming Ngatimoti school festival, the progress in the evening when the children are finally in bed is slow. Some leather booties were this weeks effort: I'm making a few quick presents for friends,a zip up purse which I saw on Melissa's blog by Jessicah of Spinning a yarn is a quick way to use up little left over scraps of fabric. I was going to add a handle too but got visitors again and forgot. Thanks for the neat idea guys.

Short and sweet

Mum always said if you havn't got anything nice to say don't say anything at all. That's why I havn't posted for a bit. I have been reading though. Check out The Daisy Patch , a new blog where I'm looking foward to watching the progress in the garden and the needle felted creations. Some cool links there to cruise through too, Pea soup has super cleaver knitted fruit. I smiled at Sally Anne's pile of library books because that's exactly what I did when the weather was all wet and nasty. This is my pile:

A new baby whose brother and sister died in the yuckky weather is keeping PJ company.

Quick applique

Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes after PJ broke her leg. She is coping very well considering she cannot seem to get the hang of walking with crutches. We bought home a little wheelchair so that I don't wreck my back again moving her around. She has had parcels in the post and lovely visitors bring her little things to play with and colour in but seems to need me every half hour or so to help do something for her. I'm not a particularly patient person so it is testing me quite a bit. I have new found respect for parents of special needs kids. My Mum is a godsend. She's taken a day off work today to give me a little bit of relief. PJ adores being with her and she's much more patient and understanding than I am!
A friend requested a skull and x bones t shirt for a new born. I'm so pleased with the result. Instead of sewing the t myself I found a few white singlets at the op shop in fantastic condition and attached the applique to them. I prefer the little brown kiwi at the top, that image has been in my head for a couple of months when I was given the scraps of brown cotton. I hope they wash and wear well, I think I might even make one of those for myself. I do hope everyone else who is on school holiday break at the moment is getting a few moments to sew, craft, garden or steal a few moments peace.

Perfect Plans...

Spolied perfectly. Three sons and a daughter, the only one to ever visit the emergency room is my girl. First day of the school holidays, broken leg, cast to her thigh, too small for crutches and now Granny can't have her for the week as planned. That will teach me not to make plans for the most kid free constructive break yet and it might teach her not to play on the shed roof like her brothers when she's told she's too little.

Asparagus

I love early spring when the asparagus pops up. We've all had enough of our winter veges and the summer ones are nowhere near ready. My last few weeks have been quite unsettled I've been a real grump to everyone and I'm not really sure why. My theory is that I'm trying to do too much and not doing a very good job at anything which really frustrates the perfectionist in me. I'm exhausted at times so have tried adding a bit more red meat back into our diet thinking I might be low in iron, but also I've become more aware of how many convenience foods have crept back into our diet lately and wonder if it's preservatives and colourings effecting me. I'm in denial about coffee still that will be they last thing I try to get rid of. So this week as I went round the supermarket I realised there were not many things that I could purchase which were preservative and/or colour free. Some things surprised me too like yogurt and Vegemite. It will have to be a gradual change and we don't need to be really radical about it. One thing I can do better is utilise the garden and store the produce for winter. Currently I bottle quite a bit of fruit and freeze berries and tomatoes but I'm going to make alot more effort this year including drying a lot more fruit as I've even noticed dried fruit is not just simple dried fruit, some have preservative added. Where before these activities were just a hobby I'm going to make more of a commitment to them. I have a good lot of seedlings started, tomatoes for bottling, drying and freezing, sunflowers to feed the chooks and pet rats. Wouldn't it be nice to have a machine to take the shells off them? I've also decided to grow more pumpkins this year, last years ones were beautiful but I ran out a wee bit early. Every day now I bring the seedlings outside the glasshouse to harden off, this time of year a Woofer would be very helpful.


Spring has inspired me to make some different coloured bags I still haven't developed another pattern that I like as much as this one. I have quite a few ready to sell now but am putting off approaching outlets. It's mostly nerves but I don't know if I want to turn a hobby into a business.

Steiner Spring Fair

This week was pretty busy potting up heaps of seedlings in the glasshouse, working and sewing. I'd been looking foward to the Steiner Spring Fair for two weeks, and it wasn't dissappointing despite fairly heavy showers of rain while we were there.My favorite stall was the felted dolls and creatures......
White unicorns! I want one. All exquisitely made. My red head came home with a wee gnome with a felted hat, but as his favorite pass time at the moment is to throw things until they disappear out of sight I couldn't find it to photograph. Hopefully it'll show up sometime this week if I get round to doing housework. Ha! The Fair is a beautiful event for children, like a medieval fair. The candle dipping and felting tents were very popular. I foolishly took L with me and he was bored in under and hour. Baby G and I at least had a chance to enjoy some music, food, lucky dips, buy some plants and watch the fairies weave through the crowds. Next time I'm leaving L at home!

Motueka Market

Early frosty start this morning to set up a cake stall at the Sunday market raising funds for Playcentre. The crowds were pretty slow in coming, word is that everyone stayed up late to watch the All Blacks playing in the rugby world cup. I took some photos but realised too late that they all had people in them so I won't include them on this blog.
After I finished my 7-10.30 am shift I went to the HOTTEST COFFEE SPOT at the market for a flat white and to enjoy some people watching. The market is really buzzing with the arrival of warmer weather and lots of great food stalls so if you haven't been for a while it's definitely worth coming back. Make sure you stop here for great coffee and service! My partner L is not known for his thoughtfulness so it was a lovely surprise to receive this old tin full of buttons he found while searching for tools and old toys, it made my day. Motueka market has a great mix of car boot stalls, fruit, veges, plants and quality local craft. Thankfully for now not too many awful imported goods, I hope it stays that way. Supporting local food producers and crafts people is a step in the right direction towards contributing to the community and of course has the benifit of reducing carbon omissions. Ideals which are becoming alot more important to me these days.

Some sewing

Sewing day actually produced some results today. It took me several goes at getting the sizing right for some spring t's for my red head but I'm pretty pleased how they turned out. He's not at all keen on wearing the colourful ones, it might be the hood or perhaps he's been watching the way his sister behaves over clothes. I'm just happy the overlocker behaved itself for once and I didn't have to do any unpicking. If everything goes to plan I might even get in another day sewing tomorrow!
Garden's getting up to date: tomatoes in the glasshouse, peas and carrots planted, pruning finished except for one hairy boysenberry and at least halfway through the weeding.
Best achievement over the weekend: I got an assignment finished that I've been putting off for months. In the post today.

The chooks are rocking the boat a bit, flying over the top of a 1.8 metre fence to create havoc amongst my seedlings. If they weren't laying so well some of them would be shipped off to new homes. Bees have appeared and are busy in the plum tree. !!!!!!! SPRING!!!!!!

Ode to chickweed

Especially in spring when I'm out in the garden, I recite the bits of a poem my friend Elaine wrote for a course we were doing:

Oh chickweed your green-ness delights me
Succulently surrounding sprouting seeds
wetly nurturing their growth

Oh star lady all gardens you visit
Blessed is the gardner who values your magik
As you greenly grow over earth mother
holding nitrogen for her sake

Oh chickweed your earthy tang inspires me
constellations of pentacles burst from you
no cooking required for me to
indulge in your furtile feast

Oh starwort many are your favours
bringing smooth coolness to the heated and moisture to the dry
I wish you abundant and on going growth

Oh chickweed.

Confession: I talk to plants alot.


White blossom is the best thing in my garden this morning. I'm concerned I didn't see any bees hard at work amongst it. Last summer I heard the council announcing on the radio for people to report wild swarms so they could eradicate them to try and stop verroa mite from spreading. Great plan for the apiarist's in the region but what about all the home gardeners?