It's all over for another year!

Well, I don't even have a photo to share from Christmas Day, sorry.  This year, the kids went to their dad's on Christmas Eve. My family is very small...I only have 1 sister and her family and she was off to her in-laws for the day and my mother was spending the day with her friend who is also on his own. This happens every second year and last time Tony and I went to Mellow Manor which was absolutely divine.  Mellow Manor is a fabulous old house that has been done up to cater for wedddings and functions. It is just beautiful inside and the grounds are well manicured and perfect for lazing around on after one has gorged on too much Christmas pud!

So we booked ourselves in again and it was just lovely.  I am surprised by how many families go out for Christmas lunch. It's got to cost them a small fortune as it is $90 a head for adults!  Anyway, it's always fun people watching!!

It is a smorgasbord type lunch with the usual Christmas foods and I gorged myself, I must admit. Oh my, I haven't eaten that much in a very long time. I was going to get my money's worth, that's for sure!! So we headed home 10kgs heavier and had an afternoon sleep to recover!!

Because I was in no shape to tackle anything physical after such a lunch, I continued with my Christmas tree wall hanging. Too late this year I know, but it will be all done for next year now!

Still got 2 boxes and the pot to stitch but need to get some silver and metallic blue thread

Santa has arrived!

I finished him a couple of days ago.  He was very easy to make. Yo yo makers are the best invention!!! 

Anyway, he looks like he has had a little too much eggnog in this photo!! But I think he is kind of cute.

We have a winner!!

Firstly, a big thank you to all those who have entered my giveaway.  Some of you I already know, but I see lots of new faces. I am looking forward to visiting your blogs over the next few days.  I loved reading all the comments and have learnt so many new things about my quilting friends around the world.

 Anyway, without further ado....I used Random.org to pick a winner. For the life of me, i could not figure out how to paste the random number generator thing here. I am on a Mac, so not sure if that is why, but I have spent far too long pondering and wasting time.

So, the lucky person is 

Missy

 Missy said...

I'm a follower from the US. I'm in South Carolina and this part of the state we call a black hole for rain and snow. Everything parts right around us.

Congratulations Missy and I will send you an email to get your address.

Giveaway Day!

Sew Mama Sew is having its fabulous annual Giveaway Day on December 13th. I will participating this year with some lovely New Zealand fabrics. Up for grabs are 3 luscious fat quarters named after our New Zealand flora and fauna.

Source: http://www.paua.net.nz

Paua, also known as abalone, a univalve shellfish, famous for its irridescent blues and greens in its shell. The inside is also edible and is often made into fritters. The inside of the shell is glorious in its colours and is often used for jewellery, ornaments and trinkets.

Source: nzalpineplants.co.nz
Tussock, found throughout NZ, in alpine regions, forests and sandy dunes.

Source: nzpublishing.co.nz

The bush weta is about 4 inches long and is only found in NZ.  It is so old it has outlived the dinosaurs! There are 5 different types of weta in NZ and about 70 different species.  They are one of the heaviest insects when they are fully grown. They have ears on the front of their knees and can feel the vibrations of noises around them. They live in the forest and in dark damp places like the inside of rotting trees. My son has a fascination for them much to my disgust!!

Anyway, the giveaway is for this....3 fat quarters of Paua, Tussock and Bugs in the Undergrowth! Don't worry, I won't send you a real weta!!

Now that you know a little about my country, I would love to know a little about yours. To enter this giveaway:

1. Become a Follower

2. Tell me something interesting about your state or country.

This giveaway is open until December 17th and I will ship internationally. I will draw the winner randomly on the 18th.


Please check your blog email is set to receive replies. I am receiving a lot of comments that are set to No Reply and therefore will not be able to contact you if you are the winner. If you are unsure what this means go to your Dashboard, select Edit User profile and select Show my email address. If it is not selected then you are set to No Reply.  I reply to all comments via email so if you do not receive a reply from me, it more than likely means you are set to No Reply.

Good luck!

Giveaway!!

Sew Unique  is offering this amazing giveaway of a wonderful bundle of 28 fat quarters from the Shelburne Calico Garden fabric collection. Pop over there before December 16th to enter this fabulous giveaway!

Melbourne!!

Well, I have just returned from a fabulous 4 days in Melbourne.  We left early Friday morning and I crawled into bed at 3.30am this morning. Yawn! So that meant 4 very full days of shopping, eating, drinking and sightseeing. I lived close to Melbourne back in 1991 and spent a lot of time in the city, so I was looking forward to going back.  However, it has changed immensely and there has been a ton of development.  I didn't recognise some parts of the city, but other parts haven't changed at all.

 On Sunday we went to St Kilda on the tram. Trams are such a great way to get around Melbourne and we caught the tram just about everywhere. St Kilda is a fabulous wee seaside suburb about 15-20 minutes from the CBD. It that used to be famous for its red light district that developed after the war and then it developed a slightly alternative lifestyle with many bohemians and artists living there.  In the 1990s, as more and more people decided it was a great place to live due to its proximity to the sea and the CBD, the image of St Kilda changed and the lower socio-economic group was pushed out. It has lots of fabulous old buildings and architecture and I had fun wandering around exploring.  It is well known for its markets on a Sunday there and I managed to find some lovely gifts for family back home.

It was incredibly hot there. The temperature got to 31 degrees Celcius and the humidity was terrible.  I don't know how these people were managing to lie out and bake in the sun. 

Every day was hot with temps around 30 degrees C.  Here we are trying to keep cool in the shade of a tram stop!! It wasn't working.  

One of the little shopping lanes sprinkled throughout the CBD.  I spent lots of time shopping. Managed to find Material Obsession One and Two by Sarah and Kathy at a great price. These books were on my Xmas wish list so I bought myself an early Xmas present! Also managed to pick up some quilting mags that I have never seen in NZ and the latest edition of Australian Homespun.   Didn't come across any quilting shops though, which really didn't matter as there was so much else to look at.

Anyway, back to work and reality tomorrow...sigh

NaBloPoMo Day 30: Yay!!!!

Yay, I did it...30 days with a new post every day for National Blog Posting Month.  And very appropriate to finish today as I finished the binding on my Kiwiana quilt last night. I love how this turned out, and as it's my first finish since I have gotten back into quilting, it's even more of an achievement.

I am off to Melbourne in 3 days for a long weekend. I am counting down the hours.  Can you believe this is my first girl's weekend ever. And we are hardly "girls" as all of us are well past girl years!!  Still, it will be fun to get to spend a few days with some good friends, shopping, eating and drinking.

I popped by Elizabeth Hartman's shop last night. Even though I have ordered her book, I do like her design style so ordered 3 more patterns as she had 25% off...New Wave, Rec Centre Picnic Quilt and the Simple Baby Quilts. Will use this last one to make a quilt for my friend who is expecting a baby that I mentioned a few posts ago.

NaBloPoMo Day 29: Breast Cancer and Pink Cupcakes

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer among New Zealand women, with more than 2500 new cases expected this year - also approximately 20 men will be diagnosed.
• More than 600 women will die from the disease this year - making it the leading cause of cancer-related death in females.
• 1 in 9 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.
• 90-95% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease.
• Getting older is the most common risk factor: over 70% of new cases are among women 50years and over.
• Women of all ages, especially those over the age of 40 years, need to be ‘breast aware'.
• Early detection of breast cancer increases a woman's chance of survival. Today, close to 85% of NZ women diagnosed with breast cancer will survive 5 years or more, and the death rate has decreased by nearly 24% between1995-2005⁴.
• New Zealand's free, nationwide breast screening programme, BreastScreen Aotearoa, checks women with no breast cancer symptoms - ‘well' women - for early breast cancer between 45-69 years of age with a screening mammogram every two years.

Source:  NZ Breast Cancer Foundation website.

I am sure most of you have been affected in some way by breast cancer whether it is from personal experience or you know someone who has or has had the disease. The Breast Cancer Foundation does amazing work and raises the profile of breast cancer in NZ.  It relies totally on grants and donations so we try to support them each year by having a pink cupcake week. We have no problems selling them at work...the hospital is a pretty big place and there are always hungry staff!! In fact last year, we had so many pre-orders we couldn't keep up! All proceeds go to the Foundation. 

I have been baking cupcakes all day and here is a little sample of what they look like.

NaBloPoMo Day 28: Giveaway at Stray Stitches

Linda at Stray Stitches is having an amazingly generous giveaway of a year's worth of Thimbleberries BOM.  Head over to her blog and let her know what your favourite movie is to enter.  

Image source: straystitches.com

NaBloPoMo Day 27: Summer vegetables

With all the gorgeous weather we have been having, the garden is flourishing. I grow all my own vegetables as you can't beat going and picking a fresh lettuces, aromatic herbs, sweet tomatoes and tender cucumbers to throw together to make a quick salad.

Unfortunately, we are in dire need of rain. Being on a lifestyle block is awesome, but it means we rely on our own water supply which consists of a large water tank and nature being generous with its rainfall! Last year, I forgot I had the sprinkler on the garden and it drained our tank dry overnight. Yikes!!! Had a  fab growth spurt in the garden though !

My zucchini plant goes into overload every year. I have become very inventive in the use of zucchini...Zucchini Chocolate cake (moist and so so delicious). stir fries,  zucchini and feta fritters with freshly made salsa, grated and added to meat dishes, zucchini and potato soup that I freeze for the winter months ahead.  And if they suddenly turn into marrows overnight, then the chooks love pecking at them.

Mmmm, strawberries....it's a race to get to them before the birds do. They only have to have a hint of pink and them and that pesky starling can spot it from a mile away! Lots of flowers on the plants and a few green berries...a few more days and I will be eating fresh strawberries and home made ice cream.

Lemon thyme and marigolds

Broccoli...my favourite vegetable. So good for you too with its high level of vitamins and antioxidant properties.  It's been regarded as a superfood as it has so many health benefits.  

A new type of telegraph cucumber I am trying this year. I swear it doubles in size every day!!

NaBloPoMo Day 26: Yay, Kiwiana quilting done

I thought this would never end!! Because it was black I found I couldn't do too much at night on it so it meant having to do it after work. I am pleased with how it turned out. Will do the binding tonight and over the weekend.  Each square represents something from NZ that is uniquely New Zealand. It was supposed to be a wallhanging but might be too big for that now!!

NaBloPoMo Day 25: Giveaway.

Samelia's Mum  is hosting a giveaway on her blog to celebrate her 100th post. A gorgeous Bronwyn Hayes tote with fabric and 3 Christmas fat quarters.

Image source: http://sameliasmum.blogspot.com/

Image source: http://sameliasmum.blogspot.com/

NaBloPoMo Day 24: RIP Pike River Coal miners

Image source: lisaglanville.com

Today is a sad day for New Zealand.

29 miners lost their lives after a second explosion today at the Pike River Coal Mine. 

I know we were all hoping for a miracle after the first explosion last week and that these miners would be able to be rescued. The youngest, just seventeen, at his first day on the job and the oldest 62.

My heart goes out to all those who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.  Such a catastrophe and so, so sad...

RIP

NaBloPoMo Day 23: Nearly done!!

Oh I am so close to finishing the quilting on my Kiwiana quilt I am not even going to post anything tonight.   I am so wanting to finish this as I have just ordered a ton of Bliss form a couple of online stores and want to be able to tackle my next project when it arrives.

Back to the machine.....

NaBloPoMo Day 22: A house without books is like a room without windows. ~Heinrich Mann

I love books and reading and cannot resist buying books.  I seem to have a weakness for cookbooks, quilting books, and good novels.  So when I saw this below on a friend's facebook page today, I had to nick it for myself and just see how well read I really am!! I was very surprised...there are so many books I have not read. I often buy books at the op shops or second hand stores and pop it in my library for a rainy day!! I have shelves of books I need to read

And if I start a book, I stick it out even if it is boring the pants off me. The Time Traveller's Wife was one of those books. All my friends raved about what a fantastic book it was, but I just kept persevering as I thought it's gotta get better!!  It took me like THREE months to get through that darn book!

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this and bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. 



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (I have this in my library to read!)

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (haven't read any of the HP series yet)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (Have this on my bookshelf too!)

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk (also in my library!)

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (have this in my library)

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (in my library)

52 Dune - Frank Herbert 

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce 

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

NaBloPoMo Day 21: Orzo Salad

You know summer's coming when friends start dusting off their BBQs and inviting people over.  It's kind of a mystery as to what will be lurking under the BBQ cover when winter finally disappears and the days start to get longer. We haven't had our first barbie yet, but I think Tony is planning to attack the BBQ tomorrow and see what awaits him!!

We went to a friend's place last night and as in the Kiwi tradition, we were asked to take a salad or a dessert. I almost went the lazy way and piled up a plate of strawberries with chocolate dipping sauce, but thought probably half the others going will have the same idea, I'm sure!! Delicious but there is only so many strawberries a gal can eat.  So I decided to go with an old faithful dish that always gets rave reviews and I always get a heap of requests for the recipe.  Orzo Salad is a bit like the frittata, where anything goes and it changes every time I make it. 

Orzo Salad

1 cup of dried orzo pasta

½ cup finely diced salami, finely diced

1 red capsicum (or yellow), finely diced

1 avocado, sliced or diced

big handful of cherry tomatoes. halved

spring onions, chopped finely

100g feta cheese, crumbled

½ cup toasted almonds 

handful of coriander or parsley, chopped finely

I also use vegetables such as asparagus, cucumber, zucchini, peas, grated carrot, red onion, broccoli etc. Just depends what is in season or in the garden. I don't always add the salami. I also might add pumpkin seeds, pinenuts or sunflower seeds instead of the almonds

Cook pasta until al dente. Mix some olive oil through it to stop it sticking together and when cool, add the remainder of the ingredients.

Dressing

1 garlic clove, crushed

¼ cup olive oil

2 tbsps lemon juice

1 tsp sugar
splash of sesame oil

Shake well and stir through salad.

NaBloPoMo Day 20: Mining tragedy

Dominating the headlines in New Zealand today is the terrible explosion in the South Island at the Pike River Coal mine. The explosion happened yesterday and there are 29 miners and contractors trapped underground until conditions are deemed safe for rescuers to start the rescue operation.

NZ Herald has a good summary and time line of what is happening.  My heart goes out to anyone affected by this terrible tragedy and thoughts and prayers today have been with the miners and their families.  This is such a tragedy. I am holding hope that there is a miracle and that they all make it out safely.  Chile gives us hope....

NaBloPoMo Day 19: TGIF

Image: http://www.onlyfunnyjokes.com

Oh I am so glad it is Friday and I can have a sleep-in tomorrow.  Weekdays, the alarm goes off at 5.45am and I can barely drag myself out of bed.  What are the odds though that tomorrow I will wake up before my alarm goes off, I will be all bright eyed and bushy tailed and won't be able to get back to sleep. 

Murphy's Law!!!

NaBloPoMo Day 18: Ric Rac Jazz

This is one of the patterns I picked up at Calico Christmas a couple of weekends ago.  It also featured in the exhibition in more pastel colours and was one of my favourites from the start.  (Katrina, if you're reading this, it's the same designer that designed the bolster cushion).


So I have been playing tonight with fabrics and have found a few that would work well with this design. I thinkI do need to go fabric shopping this weekend though to get a few more greens ...

NaBloPoMo Day 17: Fourteen!!

Fourteen years ago today I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Look at her now!!! She's 2 inches taller than me, and the same size as me. This was taken just before we out to tea tonight with her younger brother and sister.

We always celebrate birthdays with a tradition of going out to tea at a restaurant.  When the children were younger we used to cook a special meal at home and have a birthday cake. They would get to choose their favourite meal and we would make it a party atmosphere.  As they have gotten older, (and their table manners have gotten better lol) we now go out for a meal. Tonight we went to a local Indian restaurant and I can hardly walk now due to eating copious amounts of butter chicken and lamb korma!!

Does anyone else have anything special they do as a birthday tradition??

NaBloPoMo Day 16: Eggs-cellent idea!

The girls have been extremely diligent in their egg laying lately, so much so I just cannot keep up with the production!!  Over the last few weeks we have had omelettes, eggs and soldiers, poached eggs, scrambled eggs, egg korma, gado gado, quiche, egg sandwiches, stuffed eggs, scotch eggs and lots of baking! Unfortunately, Tony is not a big egg eater, so I need to make meals appear like they don't have eggs in them!!  However, last night I was in the mood for something easy for tea and remembered a roasted vegetable frittata that he actually loves. That would also use up a great deal of my eggs.

Roasted Vegetable Frittata.

Dice a selection of vegetables cut into 1-2cm cubes and coat them with a tbsp or 2 of good quality olive oil. I used potatoes, golden kumara, carrots, and pumpkin. Bake at 180 degrees C until soft. Add onion chopped into wedges about half way through the cooking time, along with softer vegetables such as broccoli, capsicums or cauliflower.   I sometimes roast a couple of garlic bulbs and squeeze out the cloves as well.

Break eggs into bowl. I used about 12, I think. Depends on how many I am feeding!! Whisk eggs together. 

Add 500 grams of cottage cheese and 2 tbsps parmesan cheese to eggs and mix well. 

I also added some gruyere I had floating around and sometimes I add feta.

Add fresh herbs. I use whatever is in the garden so last night it was parsley and lemon thyme.

I also added a tsp of sambal oelek for a bit of heat, but you can leave this out.  Add seasonings such as salt and pepper if you want.

Once vegetables are cooked, spread into dish and pour over the egg and cheese mixture.  Flatten it out and sprinkle with a couple of tbsps of parmesan cheese. Add a handful of pumpkin seeds sprinkled over the top as well. Bake for about 45 mins.  

NaBloPoMo Day 15: Summer strawberries

Take one bowl of strawberries

Add a splash of Heilala Vanilla Syrup

Finish it off with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Mmmmmmmm!!!

NaBloPoMo Day 14: Melbourne

Image: http://www.sydney-australia.biz/victoria

In 3 weeks I am off for a girls weekend in Melbourne, Australia.  I love Melbourne, and used to live about 3 hours north of there, so spent a fair bit of time in the weekends down in the "big smoke".  I haven't been there for years and years, so I am sure it will have changed somewhat.  I guess out of all the Australian cities, it probably remind me of NZ the most.

Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations for good shopping or quilting shops in Melbourne?? We are going for 5 days so should be able to fit in some shopping amongst the drinking and eating!!

NaBloPoMo Day 13: Christmas Projects

Someone told me today that it is only 6 weeks until Christmas. Yikes!!! Where has the year gone?  I had great intentions of being very organised this year and having all my Christmas decorations done by now.  All I have done is sew 26 yo-yos so far for my Yo Yo Santa!

I have several Christmas projects I want to do before December and I have a feeling unless I get a wriggle on, none of them will see the light of day.  I bought this Christmas kit at the Craft Fair in September from Tirau Quilt Cottage as I loved the glitzy festive look of it. So I will start this tomorrow...

I seem to get waylaid by spending far too much admiring other people's work on their blogs and perusing and drooling at the online shops! I wonder if anyone else has this problem??

NaBloPoMo Day 12: Rosalie Quinlan Giveaway

I just adore Rosalie Quinlan's fabrics. Leanne Beasley uses them in the Down in the Garden design that I am working on at the moment and I was VERY disappointed when the store supplied different fabrics for the BOM.   It was the freshness and cheeriness of Rosalie's fabrics that drew me to this quilt in the first place and I do like the antique pastels that the store supplied, but I really, really wanted Rosalie's fabrics.

Anyway, just guess how excited I was when I found this Rosalie Quinlan giveaway of Sweet Broderie fabrics.... Oh my, how luscious are those fabrics???

NaBloPoMo Day 11: Guess what I have bought...

A new toy......