Easter crafting

 I've been busy this week making a few things to celebrate Easter (leaving it to the last minute again!) Unfortunately I can't show them to you yet, least I spoil the surprise for my family and friends! But I'll show you a couple of past Easter projects.

Easter bark! A big hit with my little man who hates the peppermint Christmas version. Below, a cute way to recycle an egg carton and egg shells. It makes a great table centerpiece/runner and I make a long row of them nearly every year.

Any Easter makings at your place? 

forgive me

Hey! It's been a long time I know, forgive me I've been in holiday mode, easy meals, a messy house, no fixed plans and not blogging! But in order to start back in this space I need to do a quick Christmas wrap up. It's hard for me to do, seriously!  I'm the person who strips down all the Christmas decorations down on Boxing day! I can't stand them up a minute longer and the house just seems so much fresher once they are packed away, that being said the box of decorations still hasn't found it's way back into the cupboard yet! So here goes, I'll keep it brief so hopefully not too much forgiveness required!

I love now that the kids are older and we can make the most of some twilight Christmas traditions. Visiting MOTAT for their Christmas light nights, and also local houses that get into the Christmas spirit. The bonus was taking them out late on Christmas eve gave my husband and I a wee sleep in on Christmas morning too.

The Waiuku Christmas display has become a firm family favourite Christmas tradition. The Waiuku town hall, jammed packed with musical and mechanical Santa's and the biggest array of amazing Christmas decorations that you have ever seen! It's noisy and so magical.

This year I started another tradition too, new Christmas Pyjamas for Christmas Eve. I hope that some years they are homemade, this year I went with bought ones (I didn't want to start a precedent!) . They were a total hit and they stayed in them all day, convincing all the visitors that they just looked like normal clothes and there was no need to change. I think that personalised anything always goes down well, especially have a name that isn't common, if only they came in my size! Thanks Stuck on You!

I made some simple drawstring bags to put the pyjamas in, complete with their initials on them I also popped a handmade decoration in each for them to put on the tree before popping into bed. It was a lovely way to celebrate Christmas eve and I'm looking forward to doing the same next year.

So that's me all caught up now. I'm looking forward to sharing lots of things with you this year. I've got a feeling 2014 is going to be an amazing year, I hope you'll join me!

crossed

For the last four years I've made a big batch of hot cross bun dough to take along to our playgroup for the children to make into buns. This year I really didn't feel that enthused about the prospect and was secretly hoping I might get away with not doing it! If no one asked I decided I wasn't going to volunteer. What a grinch huh? But I was asked and I got a up a wee bit earlier to make the dough this morning. I must admit that when I saw what fun some of the kids were having I couldn't believe I'd been such a grinch! So much so I'm going to volunteer next year to do it even though Mr A won't be there anymore (a big school boy!).  The buns turned out amazing considering they didn't get too much time to rise.

I've made a batch of Easter bark - no peppermint and a sprinkling of candy coated chocolate eggs, I've also made a few Easter bouquets for preschool and school teachers too. They look so nice as a center piece on my table it's a shame to gift them away!

I've got a bunch of stuff to share with you dear readers, including a very exciting product review and giveaway! Yes! I've been working on quite a few other things but I'll have to wait a wee bit longer till they can be shared.

I wish you a safe and happy Easter!

felt garland tutorial

After I'd cut out all the pretty green and red pieces from my holey woollen picnic blanket - I was left with lots of other little pieces. I didn't want to waste them (no surprises there huh?). I wasn't really sure what to do with them. Working around all the holes I was only left with small pieces. I started cutting circles - not sure what I was going to do with them. A garland came to mind. It's hardly a tutorial at all really, just a few easy steps. The same idea could be used with any felt, or stiff material for that matter. I've seen acrylic/felt blends at Spotlight that have a glittery finish, might be perfect solution for those who like a bit more "bling" in their Christmas decorations!

Cut lots of circles from your chosen fabric - My circles were 7cm in diameter.

Fold one circle in half and place under your sewing machine foot. Have a second one, also folded in half butted up against it. The two folded pieces should form a complete circle. Sew along the middle of the circles.

Have another circle ready to follow on from the first two. It should be folded in half and in the opposite direction to the last circle. Carry on folding and adding circles and sewing till you've run out of circles or you've reached the length that you want.

I wanted to add some strings on each end so I could tie them on to things. I cut a slightly smaller circle and stitched it on, with a folded length of red string underneath. Easy.

Possibilities are endless, you could have large and small circles, have a colour pattern of circles, you could sew smaller circles in the middle of each larger circle group........ A great way to use up little scraps.

golden

I was really lucky to win two tickets to Valerie Adams' Olympic gold medal ceremony in a radio competition. Valerie (if you are not a NZer) is a New Zealand shot put athlete. She competed in the London Olympics and came away with the silver medal. Once the games were finished it was discovered that the gold medal winner had in fact taken some performance enhancing drugs. So the New Zealand Olympic committee put on a special ceremony for her here in New Zealand.

Miss E and I had an amazing time, I think she might have enjoyed it more than me though! That's her in the purple skirt (and rabbit hat) in the picture above - dancing and cheering in the aisles! I don't often get one on one time with her so I really enjoyed taking off on an adventure just the two of us, train trip, dinner in town and of course those amazing fireworks! It was the chance of a lifetime and I hope that she remembers what an amazing time she had.

for mums

I hope all you mums out there had a lovely mother's day on Sunday. I had a lovely day, my one request was not to cook dinner! (I can't be the only one over cooking evening meals every night!) I received some lovely cards and a few special treats made at Pippins.

We had a nice afternoon tea with my mother in law with some yummy treats that disappeared very quickly.

Although I don't like to buy into all the commercialism of such a day, it's nice however to have some handmade treats and little ones that give you extra special big hugs too! (their words)

and to all a good night!

The berries are ready, some edible gifts have been made and distributed. It's late and I've played Santa. Now to get a little bit of sleep before the wee ones awake with excitement.

Thank you for stopping by this year, I've so enjoyed reading all your comments and reading your blogs. I wish you and your families a very merry festive season! I hope it's a happy and safe one. xxx

celebrate

It seems my resolve to blog more has gone out the window along with my resolve to eat less home baking and  finding time to exercise more all that slackness aside, earlier this week I celebrated a my birthday.I must say  the best thing about having a birthday at this time of year is the bouquets I receive from my Nana's garden. Isn't it just lovely? I had a birthday and was a wee bit spoilt, with some thoughtful gifts and Indian takeaways for dinner, yum!

I had some great thrift finds this week ( nice to have some birthday money up my sleeve for some guilt-free thrift shopping), some green ceramics for my shelves (they are mostly covered by cards in this photo unfortunately) and a cute wooden bowl and I think this is a dibber? yeah? A thing for planting seeds? Even if that isn't what it is, it's what I'm going to use it for. I do feel a bit bad about getting it all muddy though.

silver

Recently my local Salvation Army store was overflowing with silver, framed needlepoint and some fabulous vintage fabric in pristine condition. I got the feeling that they all came from the same person and perhaps a deceased estate, which seemed really sad. All these lovely collections ending up there, but it was nice for me to have a peek through all the collections. I picked up a little something from each collection, a lovely framed needlepoint of nasturtiums, some amazing fabric that I'll share once I get back into sewing mode and this silver centerpiece. I've been looking for a centerpiece for sometime and never seen anything that I liked or any centerpieces for that matter. Anyway I thought that this was perfect for what I was looking for, it's got a bit in the middle for pushing flower stems through but it can also be removed if you want to fill it with something other than flowers or float a flower in the middle. We celebrated my husband's birthday last week and the kids loved eating by candlelight, so much so we have been eating by candlelight ever since!

I'm really looking forward to bringing it out lighting the candles at many more celebrations in the years ahead.

for the basket

I've been making some of these fabric covered eggs today to have in a bowl as Easter decorations. Here are some instructions if you want to make your own. I found that I got better at covering the eggs as I went along so don't worry if your first ones aren't perfect, it's all part of the charm of handmade!

You will need: Some blown eggs, Mod podge, paint brush, fabric, scissors (not your best sewing ones)

1: Cut a piece of fabric to wrap around your egg, it needs to be long enough at each end to reach the end of the egg. If unsure make it a bit bigger you can always trim the extra off later.

2: We need to cut some triangles out of the fabric so it will wrap around the egg nicely. I folded the fabric down the middle so each end was cut the same (and twice as fast). They don't have to bee even, but make sure you leave a band across the centre that is uncut.3: Paint on the mod podge around the middle of the egg. Place it on the fabric and check that each end will be covered by fabric once pulled up.

4: Wrap the fabric the whole way around the egg. You might find that the triangles that you cut aren't deep enough, the fabric will pucker as you wrap it around. So if you need to cut some little slits do that now. (this is why I suggest not using your best shears, just in case some mod podge gets on them)

5: Your egg should look like the below picture at both ends now. Paint on some mod podge on the egg and wrap the triangle points down so the egg is all covered.

6: Once all the points are down, paint over a layer of mod podge over it to seal it. I'm not the most patient crafter so I do both ends at the same time, but it does work better if you do one end and then leave that to dry and then do the other end. You can just place it in an empty egg carton to dry and then do the other end. If you are like me you have this sticky thing that you've got to place somewhere to dry without it sticking to something. Please be patient!

Hope that is easy to follow, make them with your favourite fabrics and they are a decoration that you might want to have out all year round! Best part is that they pop into an egg carton to keep them safe when you don't want to have them out.

... and to all a good night!

Well it's almost 11:30pm and I'm finally heading to bed after a busy day. A few last minute preparations turned into a few more and well you know how it goes. One thing I really wanted to fit in today was baking some shortbread. You see I found these great biscuit moulds at a thrift store around mid October, at first I didn't know what I was looking at as they were lined up on the shelf with the handles pointing up. I went over thinking they looked interesting and I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw what they were! and that excitement grew when I saw they were $0.20c each!!!! I grabbed them as quickly as I could. I took them home, cleaned them and almost forgot about them, remembering I had them a few days ago I decided I must use them for this Christmas. I'm so pleased with the results, the top photo is of the shortbread before it was cooked and the bottom straight out of the oven and I imagine that I'll be using them every Christmas from now on till I can't bake shortbread anymore. The four designs are, a Christmas tree, a candy cane with ribbon, a rocking horse and a wild card of a Dinosaur!

I want to thank you for stopping by here this year and for all the lovely comments! I wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday!

all weather

We are full swing into Christmas decorating here, and I'm really starting to feel the Christmas spirit. I crocheted these little "all weather" stars to decorate the trees in our garden. I call them all weather because they are crocheted from plastic shopping bags. First to be decorated is our little fig tree, hopefully as I make more we can decorate more of our little trees.

Pop by tomorrow, I'm going to do a wee Christmas giveaway.

little hands

These little hands (seen here picking little alpine strawberries) turned one yesterday. We celebrated with a small gathering of friends and family. I tried to keep things as simple and as green as possible, no paper invites, a request for no presents and a plate of food to be brought to share, fabric bunting and no paper plates or cups. Of course close family ignored the no presents request but I was pleased that everything gifted was made to last, wooden toys and books and a few special homemade items. The few children that attended were given a small package of homemade play dough to take home along with a few cookie cutters (alas the cutters were plastic, I left it to the last minute to look for some and the only ones that I could find that didn't cost me more that the total cost of the party were plastic), they seemed well received by all. A big bonus of everyone bringing a plate was there wasn't a huge amount of leftovers nor a mountain of dishes to deal with, which has got to be a good thing.

The cake was a construction theme, my little boy already seems to gravitate towards little cars and trucks so it seemed a perfect choice for him and simple enough that I didn't spend hours labouring over it. I can't believe how fast this first year has flown by and I'm acutely aware how fast he's growing up. I am making the most of cuddles and little chubby feet realising that they will disappear all to quickly and one sad day he might not be overjoyed to give his mum a hug. His mumbled mummumumms and daddaddads will change to a clear mum and dad. I just want to bottle him at this age and never let him grow up!