weekending

A few pictures from the last week, some yarn I spun!, rainbows and raspberries.

spun

Things have been quiet here on the blogging front, the above gift has everything to do with that! Hopefully I'll drag myself away from it sometime soon to tell you all about it and show you what I've been up to.

peachy

from this

to this

to this!

Walking past a nearby house recently I spotted a big peach tree with all it's bounty scattered over the long grass beneath. I was later describing the house and it's tree to my mum, commenting on what a shame it is when people don't make use of their fruit trees and what they produce. She new the place I was talking about (got to love living in the same small  town your whole life and knowing what seems like everyone) and said she'd ask if we could make use of some. A large supermarket bag of the unloved peaches arrived at my front door, with their strong peachy perfume greeting me first. I cut out all the black bits, it was suggested by the owner of the tree that once all the bad bits had been cut out there wouldn't be any peach left. They couldn't have been more wrong! I got a very large pot full to the top. I made a cobbler topping, sprinkled just a bit of sugar over the sweet peaches and baked it. Yum! The best part was there were so many peaches that I made a smaller cobbler too, to pass over the fence to a kind neighbour.

suds

I've made a number of crochet soap holders over the years, some shaped like fish, some just lacy and pretty. But then I saw this idea on, well you guessed it Pinterest! (I'm surely not the only one spending way too much time on that site?). It's basically and quite simply it's  a crochet square with a button and a loop, that folds over the soap, a bit like folding up an envelope. I think it could make a nice present for new mums, it's hard enough holding on to a slippery baby, you don't need slippery soap too! Just a good idea to make sure the button side isn't rubbed on the baby! In the past I've been asked to make some for people who suffer from arthritis who struggle to grip slippery soap too.

friday finds

I'm trying hard to stay out of the thrift stores this year, and so far so good. I've only popped in to the local ones on a few occasions. Each time however finding some real gems! Like this tin of embroidery threads, all wound on vintage wooden cotton reels. I'm hoping to try my hand at a little embroidery this weekend. Covering up some stained patches on some old embroidered linens.

Some other gems found several metres of lovely vintage fabric, some unused vintage tea towels, and a curved cane basket perfect for crochet projects on the go. You see all these gems are trying to convince me that I should be visiting the thrift stores more often, my bulging cupboards are telling a different story. My husband suggests I should listen to the cupboards!

Have you had any great finds lately?

for friends

I know there is a big debate with mums about goodie / take home bags for parties. They either love or hate them. Being a crafty mum I do quite like to do a little handmade something as a way of saying thanks, I don't like to spend much though and certainly try to avoid a whole lot of plastic. I've done a lot of different little things over the years, play dough with little cutters, little handmade notebooks with pencils and other little things. This time I did something a little bigger cause there weren't too many coming and  this time I wanted miss E to help me too. Inspired by this pin, we used a Pebeo porcelain pen (from Spotlight) to draw the designs on some thrifted mugs. It was fun and I enjoyed watching all the little designs that she came up with, most were bumble bees (we seem to have loads in the garden this year). Once the drawings were completed we "set" the images by baking them in the oven.

 I had grand plans of making some hot chocolate mix to go in the cups  (see this pin, this one too) but I realised I'm not "super mum" and just bought some instead! I also popped in some mini marshmallows and some sipper straws. They were a big hit and I'm thinking that they would make a great gift for grandparents too. Perfect  activity for a rainy afternoon.

holding on

It seems like there is suddenly a crisp feeling in the air, like Summer has disappeared (some would argue that Summer never really arrived here in NZ this year) in a flash. Before it starts to get too cold in the evenings we decided we better get to the beach for a picnic dinner. We travelled to our favourite local spot, the best thing about heading to the beach in the evening is all the crowds have left and we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. We sat and ate our dinner on this mat that I made way back, when the little feet that walked on it were much, much smaller than they are today.

Just before we headed home my husband spotted the above "treasure", we breathed a big sigh of relief that neither of the kids spotted it and wanted it for their collection! I imagine that someone, somewhere is missing it!

when good pins go bad

I had seen some cool cupcakes on pinerest some time ago, cooked in ice cream cones. Miss E was having a little party on Friday and at the last minute I thought I'd give them a go. I had read the instructions when I first "pinned" the recipe, but in the last minute rush of getting ready for an afternoon party I didn't get a chance to re-read the instructions. Mistake right there. OK that's a bit dramatic cause as you can see from the top pic they did turn out OK. But when I checked on them in the oven just 5 minutes before they were due to be ready I was greeted with the above sight! Arrgh! But you know what?
1:Butter cream hides lots of baking mishaps
2: A photo from the front won't show the world how the backside doesn't look so good (not good at all)
3: Kids won't notice and gobble them up anyway (leaving minimal crumbs too, big benefit of the cones)
4: You'll feel a lot better about how they turned out after they have all been eaten and you get some sleep
5: Reading the recipe always helps especially the part about what level to have the mixture

I did try another pin today and I followed the recipe instructions this time. Slow cooked honey sesame chicken! Yummo! I only had around half a cup of honey though, not the cup that the recipe suggests and I added a few extra thighs in the pot too. There was still plenty of sauce to cover the extras and it's been suggested that I make it again soon. Now that I can do.