By broccoli you are magnificent

I am by no stretch of the imagination what you'd call a gardener, not even having a green enough thumb to keep silverbeet alive, well until now that is!   

I'm not sure if its the wondrous garden boxes that Grant built with the right mix of compost and top soil, or if it is just that I'm actually remembering to water the vegetables every day but something is definitely working as everything is growing magnificently.

It has become quite a little routine for Gus and I to remember to give the "Beges a nui drink" (Veges a big drink) each afternoon, and if I'm not quite quick enough off the mark, it is usually followed by a wee drenching of a certain little brother whose legs aren't quick enough to get away from the hose.  Poor Felix - destined to be forever tortured by his big brother.

Despite going through a "I don't like peas Mummy, I'll put them on Felix's plate", resulting in peas going everywhere phase, Gus is terribly excited about the peas growing in the garden.  When we're out doing our watering Gus takes care to thread any lose tendrils around the support frame while whispering words of encouragement to grow "Nui nui" (big big)!  It is so very rewarding to see Gus taking such care in the garden, learning about how and where the food that appears on his plate arrives there.  I suppose it is the real reason why we decided to have a vegetable garden in the first place.  It certainly hasn't saved us any money to grow our own vegetables, perhaps later on down the track if I grow from seeds instead of seedlings, but right now we're just happy knowing that we're keeping it local by tending to our own little patch, encouraging the children to develop knowledge, and enjoying the reward of our produce.  Ka pai!

Time to be happy

I am feeling particularly blessed at the moment - dare I say that everything seems to be chugging along nicely (hmmm, am I setting myself up for a crazy weekend by daring to voice such bliss?).  Although both this week and last I was doing the solo-parent thing, with a brief and busy appearance of Grant on the weekend, the boys and I have had a great time.  A friend and I have arranged to do a child swap on Gus' kindergarten days, so once a week I have two hours of blissful time for me and for another two hours Felix and I get to enjoy the company of a sweet little lassie.  Last week we wandered off to the library where both of the children tottered around exploring the spaces and eventually choosing a couple of DVD's and books to borrow.  Felix really seems to relish the opportunity to be the alpha child, despite our wee friend being older than him.  He takes her hand to show her where to go and what to do, and gets right close to her face when he's explaining something as though it is of utmost importance.  One of the best things about having our little friend visit us is that it has reminded me of the importance of stopping and just playing with the children.  I often find myself dashing around madly, trying to fit in as much as possible on Gus' kindy days and then feeling guilty because I know that I should be making the absolute most of the time and just sitting and playing with Felix.  It is such a struggle to find the time to just 'be' with the children whilst also finding the time to get everything else done.  Oh my, will parental guilt never end?

However, the weather has been incredible these last few days, so I decided this morning that as soon as the washing was on the line we were off to the beach with picnic in tow.  Needless to say, getting everyone and thing to the point where the washing is on the line is usually an incredible effort, and today was no different.  Gus did a great job of helping me to pack the picnic, applying his usual sensible judgement with food choices which meant that if I hadn't of sneaked in a couple of jelly babies it would have been healthy, healthy and more healthy food because even the stuff that doesn't look like its good for you is, and that includes the Annabel Langbein Carnival Cookies which were both gluten and (mostly) dairy free .  It was an incredible day at Days Bay and I snapped many gorgeous photos, but my favourite was this one of Gus pretty much dragging Felix down the wharf in anticipation of the wonderful things to explore.  

Gus collected all kinds of 'treasures' as we wandered along the beach, which as soon as we made it back to the wharf, he and Felix quickly returned to the sea.  

I threw all caution in the wind today, resisting the urge to get Felix home by midday to ensure he was asleep in bed by 12.30 pm and just have fun with the kids.  I reasoned to myself that I do really need to be a little less rigid about ensuring that bedtimes are adhered to at all times and that he'll probably fall asleep in the car.  Hmmm, well no matter what planning and reasoning you come up with it never works out does it?  Felix didn't sleep today and so both he and Gus were beside themselves with exhaustion tonight as I tried to shovel food into them before a quick splash in the bath and into bed.  Not a peep from Gus as he went down but Felix, not being used to having his sleep needs put before all else was not happy. In fact I've just had to pop in and give him a wee cuddle now - that is what over tiredness does.  I hope its not going to be a long night ahead of me!  But look at the smiles on their faces - it really was all worth it.

I have concluded today that despite my most stellar efforts, both my ginger beer bug and my sourdough starter have karked it.  I think it was the cold snap a couple of nights ago that did it as since then they both have completely lost their spark, or bubble in this case.  So I am going to start again with my ginger beer bug and just not worry about the sourdough for a while. Instead I'm going to try making No Knead Bread which my lovely friend Annabel sent me the link for a while ago but I hadn't got around to trying.  Here's hoping I'll have more luck!  

Baking, sewing and gardening

Both my knitting and my blog seems to have been somewhat forgotten about lately as I've been baking, gardening and sewing instead.  We've recently found that both of my boys have food intolerances to different foods which cause different reactions in both of them so I've been experimenting with creating dairy free, gluten free, potato free, honey free kai for my boys whilst also reducing and/or eliminating sugar that actually tastes like something you'd like to eat.  It has been a really frustrating time as I've had a lot of failures.  I really don't like to waste food and I also don't have time for failures, especially as the boys only really eat fresh food or food that I have made.  But after my lovely Mother-in-law sent down a copy of The Family Friendly Gluten Free Cookbook by Anna King I have been experiencing some success at last.  Here are the chocolate chip biscuits that were my first success in gluten free baking.

I have two little pets now - a ginger beer bug and a sourdough starter. I started with my ginger beer bug; giving it a little ginger and sugar every day and ensuring that it was kept warm day and night.  Before I go to bed each night I sneak into Felix's bedroom and put him on the shelf so he's warm all night long.  Within 24 hours my little bug started bubbling away as the natural yeasts got to work.  It doesn't smell all that pleasant yet but its not entirely unpleasant either.  I think that its only going to be another week before I can 'put down a brew'.  I'm a little excited about it!

My little sourdough starter is something that I've been interesting in experimenting with for a while but haven't had a lot of luck and then I just got bored with it.  We had been baking our own bread in our friends' breadmaker for a while but after Felix was found to be intolerant to dairy, gluten and bakers yeast we pretty much stopped eating bread.  So I thought that if we're only having bread very infrequently it had might as well be good, homemade, delicious bread.  Well that's the plan anyway!  The proof will be in the pudding as they say.  As with the ginger beer it is just a few simple ingredients (namely water and flour) plus the natural yeasts in the air that are doing all the work. Here it is bubbling away so magnificently!

Our little vegetable garden is doing great. We harvested our first bunch of silverbeet last week to make the delicious Annabel Langbein Saffron and Baby Spinach Risotto.  The risotto was a real hit with the boys and it was absolutely delicious - I'm sure that it was even more so because the silverbeet came from our garden!  I can't wait for our courgettes and peas to mature.

My sewing machine and overlocker have been getting a lot of use lately as I've been sewing trousers for the boys to wear to their Uncle and Aunty's wedding next month and also dresses for my niece and friends' daughters Christmas presents.  The trousers are nearly done - I've left the cuffs incomplete just in case the boys have a growth spurt in the next few weeks.  They look pretty spiffy in their red knitted bow ties, white fitted shirts and charcoal trousers. This gorgeous little dress is the one that I'm making for the girls' Christmas present - I've made three and have three to go. They are really sweet and pretty straightforward to make too.  Love that!

XO!

You're the best Peter Pan!

I get to see my niece this weekend (big yay!!!) and I had cut out this dress a while ago from vintage and gifted fabrics for her. Grant got home quite late last night so after the kids were in bed and the dishes were done I thought I would see how much I could get done before the weekend - and I finished it!

Earlier in the year I'd made the same dress out of a light cotton which came out lovely too but I have a real fondness for corduroy dresses especially when they are teamed up with tights and skivvys so I was really keen to make this for her. The perfect winter outfit for a girl even though we're in spring now! Xo

Little busy body

Well, I have truly been a little busy body, working on lots of small projects whilst still plugging along with Gus' jersey, plus a vest for Felix and I have also started a wee cardie for my friends soon to arrive pepi. 

So busy busy busy!  My very good friend had made one of these needle cases and I just loved it so had to make one for me.  It actually took much longer than I had anticipated as it is made with 4ply wool and it has a lovely little pattern to it which required me to really concentrate!  I loved how it turned out and the gorgeous bright red yarn which is from Holland Road Yarn Company.


We have been on a couple of trips lately so I thought I'd make the boys each a drawstring bag for them to put their things in so that we don't have the hassle of them wanting to bring everything.  They can only bring what fits in a bag.  Gus was very excited when I gave it to him and promptly filled it with everything he could fit in.

So whilst I was in the bag-making mood I whipped up these little bags for paper and crayons to put into the boys bigger bags.  I got them each to draw a picture, and being a stereotypical boy Gus had to draw a monster, which I then scanned and printed onto iron-on transfer paper which was then transferred onto the bag material.  It took all of an hour from woe to go and that includes getting the boys to draw their pictures.  How neat to have something that they've helped to make for them to play with.

I just love this suitcase which I found up in Pahiatua when we were up visiting Mum and Dad a couple of weeks ago and I got it for a steal at the local Sallies - $4.50.  I had been looking for a case to put the boys' baby treasures in but all the suitcases I had found were either quite expensive or had damaged interiors and locks. Gus was so very excited to help me put his gorgeous treasured baby shoes, knits, clothes and other special things in the case and thoroughly enjoyed reminiscing his baby days. I'm so glad that Gus is growing up to appreciate the precious things in life.

We've been really enjoying the movie Wall-E lately and after watching it a few (read lots!) times Gus has started to ask questions about waste, rubbish, recycling, exercise, food, obesity and all these other wonderful things that are so pertinent in our current society.  It truly is remarkable to watch his mind tick away as he grapples with these issues that so many adults seem to pay no attention to at all.  As our garden grows and the other things we're doing around the house (like breadmaking, making our own nappy wipes and cleaning products, cloth nappies, etc) evolve hopefully Gus will continue to explore what this all means and his impact upon the world.  Xo

Nifty knitting needle holder

It was Mum's birthday yesterday and I made her this handy little needle holder (although I haven't given it to her yet so I hope she doesn't read this post!)  I had seen a couple that I liked but thought that they looked easy enough to make.  So after some maths - not my strongest subject - I mapped out a pattern and would you believe it - it worked! I was quite surprised as when I usually make up my own patterns things don't always go to plan.  Might have to make one for myself now as I'm forever losing my needles and this is the perfect solution.

 
I've been busily making bread since I last posted and have decided that remembering to feed and stir the sourdough starter was just another something to remember - as a friend said when she tried it herself "I've got enough mouths to feed without adding another".  But we've been busily making the French loaf and tomorrow will try a 50/50 wholemeal and white loaf in our fabulous borrowed breadmaker.  I'm hoping that our friends' don't need it back in a hurry as I'm loving it.  Grant walked in the house on Monday night to the smell of bread cooking and was instantly hungry!

We had an incredible Pockets of Craft night last week with a record 13 people showing up to learn how to make sock monkeys.  We had a lovely evening - it really is a great way to get to know people in our community with similar interests.  I may also have found someone to teach the group another skill - re-purposing adult t-shirts into little girls dresses.  I attended a Learn how to use your overlocker class on the weekend and had so much fun learning how to properly use my overlocker.  I had used it just for tidying up seams but now I'm ready to give rolled hems a go too! Fun, fun, fun!

Xo

Lovely things

Whoops! I wrote this ages ago but just realised that I hadn't posted it....

Seems like forever since I've posted....  I've been busy working on all sorts of different things and not really finishing anything.  Gus has a chunky roll neck snuggly jersey in the works and Felix has a vest which now that I'm a wee bit through it, I've realised that its my old school colours - yellow and brown.  Wonder if there is something hidden in my subconscious or if I secretly liked the colours but just complained about the brown because everyone else did? Or perhaps even brown has become so fashionable that Bream Bay College was ahead of its time??? Ha ha!

My skinny and a little-on-the-short-side Felix was running out of pants so I finally got around to taking up his trousers.  Gus' pants from about the same age don't quite fit yet but the smaller ones aren't quite right either.  I thought he looked quite dapper wearing his 'flash pants' as Gus calls them, however they do for some reason remind me of golfing pants.  His Great Grandad would be proud!

Having had Gus allergy/intolerance tested has got us thinking about the hidden ingredients in food, so another step in the direction of trying to reduce or eliminate the hidden nasties in our food and environment is to try my hand at breadmaking.  My generous mother has kindly agreed to loan me their breadmaker and I've just now finished making my sourdough starter (well, its not strictly a sourdough as it has active yeast in it but after doing some research it seems that when using the breadmaker the active yeast is necessary).  I'll see how it goes.  Let's see if it bubbles away and if I'm any good at the whole bread shenanigans.  

I discovered these delightful books at our lovely Hutt Library last week.  Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett is a beautiful knitting story which Gus thoroughly enjoyed - particularly the bit about the awful Archduke who tries to steal the neverending box of yarn.  I wondered if Gus could relate on some level with my seemingly neverending suitcase of wool! Its such a cute wee story.

Labour of Love is a necessity for any keen knitter with a girl aged 3 and above.  The designs are just totally gorgeous, in fact almost too nice as I'd be too worried about all my hard work getting destroyed.  I can't wait until my niece is a little older so that I can knit something from here for her.

This fabulous concertina sewing box was a birthday present for Amanda Baker in 1975 and I am now the proud owner of it.  It came complete with some miscellaneous sewing items, including a couple of wooden cotton spools - I couldn't believe my luck as I've been looking for some for a while now.

....Well I'll sign off and write another post as some lovely things have been happening lately on the craft front. Xo