Blue Moon

With last nights blue moon looming high and shining its all mighty glow, I attempted to sleep!

Haha who was I kidding!!

A full moon like this almost makes you feel like you are wasting your time in bed, its so bright and eerily day time that you should be mowing the lawns or walking the dogs!

So I went outside and took some photos, just to make sure this once in a blue moon!! opportunity didnt go to waste.Who knew a blue moon actually had a blue ring around it!!  not me!

Maybe its just the camera??

The photos Im about to show are more interesting that visually stunning OK!

I havent let my 'precise pictures only' guard down.  I just didnt want to alter a thing..

This is how day light it was.....

In the next photo the shutter stayed put for 10 secs and I moved and saw this wonderful streakyness and thought hhhmmmmmm, this could be fun!!!

What if I drew a heart with my camera?? would the moon be a heart??

and it sure did but it was upside down??  I have no idea why! but all I need to do to remedy this is do a heart upside down, pretty simple really!!....

What the!!!  am I drunk???, so far from a heart, I had to laugh!! great upside down heart drawing ability!!!

Hmmm thats much better, and I love the way it makes the gas station lights into hearts too.

Well done, 15 pictures later! but well done!!

I love the moon, like a fire or the sea, it can be stared at forever.

and the wonder has so little to do with astronauts......

just witchy dreamy mysterious mooniness....

So moons aside, tomorrow is April fools, probably the only day of the year I religiously listen to the radio, there is some funny stuff going on out there in radio land on April Fools, I love tricks!, just not on me!!

So we need a new winner for the March Comments, 107 wonderful, inspiring, beautiful comments xxx

This months winner is getting a precious little Paper Moon Apron

They fit from 2yrs to 9yrs approx, so cute on baking kids.....

My wonderful model Lucy Goosy is 9yrs

The print on this apron is called 'The Hut', for all those tree huts I used to build, to be in the trees with the birds, making feasts and leaving them for my feathered friends, till I return in the morning and see if my fat and old bikkie cakes were devoured.

Little golden treats for our friend that tweets....

The print is screen printed on 100% cotton...

Satin edging with lace and roses......

and a dilly doilie in the bottom corner, sew sweet xxx

So who is the lucky winner you say???

why it was comment #69 which was on my Changing A Celebration post

Theresa from 'Faerie Moon Creations'

Check out Theresa's blog and see all the beautiful Jewellery she creates, I know she will be so excited when she spys this!!

Thanks for all your comments Theresa, hopefully there is a little munchkin you know who will love this apron and can cook you up some treats....and I suppose you can thank the random number choosing thingy online, although I had to giggle because it seems the machine was in a rather naughty mood!!!

Thankyou to every one who comments on my blog, I live a little hidden country life so its good to get out there in some way.  I treasure everything that is coming my way xxx

Well I must get this posted before 'LOST' is on... I am a LOST addict, many have come and gone but I seem to be the only one of my friends who has stuck with this programme to the end, only 10 episodes left, whew what a long haul, I feel like this needs to be on my list of lifetime achievements when they talk about me at my funeral.  I am so emotionally invested in this programme, I could never give up on it but also its gonna be an amazing feeling to be free.

But will I be satisfied, or still lost?????

do do do do...do do do do (twilight zone there!!)

So enjoy your moonlit night, bring back the domestic apron and enjoy your TV time, I dont like how it gets such a bashing, TV writers are amazing xxx

Congrats Theresa  Yay!!!!!!

xxxSheree

Princess Danger Berry

There was once a princess who loved all the fruits of the world

blue ones yellow ones orange ones purple ones black ones and especially red ones.

She knew that red was for love so she wanted to fill up on as many red things as she could find

Her search took her to a secret garden with an orchard in it, so many treats to collect, today was her lucky day for all the fruit was red!!

She pulled her yellow carriage along side an apple tree and picked to her hearts delight, so much redness, so much love, but how was she to consume all these red things before they spoilt??

she would surely have a stomach ache or something worse!!!

Ohh dear...what to do???

Hmmm "if I pick apples that are red and green then I will only have to eat the red part, so thats only half of each apple"!! hurrah what a solution she had come to!

So the princess munched through her carriage of red bits and left tattered bitten apples all about.

She kept walking in the garden, leaving a trail and with tattered apple in hand she came to a jetty...

there she found a wise eel awaiting his next feed

"please little princess, drop in some food to me,

there is cat bikkies in the jar on the bench"....

"Cat Bikkies!!! you silly eel, wouldnt you rather eat my fingers, here we go, they look like little pink sausages!!!  ohh so yummy!!" said the silly princess...

"come on...come on.."

with that the eel swooped towards the silly girls fingers to have a tasty treat indeed!.... but just then, to her rescue came the princess's loyal dog Pipi, forever her protecter!!  "be gone evil eel!, go eat your bikkies!"

and the dog chased the eel away...

Hurray for pipi!

"look my princess" said Pipi  " I have found a wonderful flower for you, so pretty and sweet just like you"  "princess"???  "princess"???

but the princess only cared for danger and didnt like flowers at all, "come back eel...I have a present for you"...."instead of cat bikkies I have an actual cat for you to feast on!!!"

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!

Just then she was scooped up into the air by her father the king

"what are you up to naughty princess, I saw you teasing the eel"

"I will throw you into the clouds where you can sit and watch us all have cakes and tea because everyone else has been good and you have been rascally!"

"No dad please I love cakes and tea, please let me stay for the party"

I promise to be a good girl and keep away from danger from now on....

"but could you throw me just a few more times "

I cant give up my pleasures quite that easily!!!"

So the king and princess played and played till the poor kings arms were sore.

Do you think she kept away from danger after that day???

No way!!! Danger is her middle name!

and so is rascal and darling and sweetie and cheeky and grumpy and happy and sookie and smartie and........

cakes and tea for every one

Thanks for reading my tale

have a wonderfully rascally day

xxx

Sheree

Treats In The Mail

What a wonderful treat to be on the other end of giving.

I love to be the giver myself but when something special does come my way, it feels amazing

This is what I was gifted by Shona Cole from 'An Artful Life'

and I also got my copy of her book 'The Artistic Mother' in the mail too so it has been a Shona Cole inspired few weeks. How to make this butterfly is included in the book too...

'Pray Constantly' is the message she has sent me.  I was told last year by a tarot reader that I only pray or speak to higher powers when things arent good and I need help.  I was told that I need to address them everyday with anything thats going on good or bad, keep my connection alive...

So maybe this is that little message I need to see to remind me to pray/talk every day to something higher, Im always affirming to myself and Kel how great things are for us, so now I will remember to send that thankfulness a little further....Thankyou Shona, I love it, such a treasure xxx

I have hung my butterfly in my special place, next to all the little things I love....

Natures treasures and my daughters bedroom door....

Here is where all my treasures rest, when I come in the door from adventuring and finding natures pretties, they are placed somewhere on this cupboard.  This was my fathers when he was a boy, he has written his name all thru the drawers in crayon.  I have all my tea cups safely away in the top and wine glasses and beautiful table cloths in the bottom, wine! in the right corner, table setting thingys in the top drawer and munchy has the bottom drawer as her junk food drawer, chips and bars and bikkies  We feel its important that she can have these things whenever she wants and chooses not to have them, it means she dosent crave them because they are the same as normal food for her, not treats, she hardley ever goes in there....

And of course our poster from old times.  We lived in a portacom, which Im sure is equivilent to a trailor home, this was 6 years ago, we were so free it was amazing, we worked in a mandarin orchard and only had the two of us to worry about, we spent alot of time playing pool at the pub, aahhh the old days xx

I posted about this picture here a while ago

So here is something to make for your kiddies, dont you just love the cross eyes!!

We took a twig and glued it into a block, painted the twig with glue and sprinkled on glitter.

You can hang or glue other bits to your tree like paper or leaves but we put beads on the end of the branches..To make spring blossoms you can scrunch up bits of tissue paper to look like flowers and hot glue gun on...

A sparkley love tree xxx

And I have a thankyou to send out too

It is to Theresa from 'Faerie Moon Creations', she has been helping me understand blogger a bit better, I have been finding it really hard to reply to the comments you leave but now with my new set up, EVERY comment will be replied to privately, I was going around it a very time consuming way or generally not getting there at all, I wasent being rude, just had no idea how this thing works!! 

so thankyou Theresa for making me a better more polite thankful blogger.

Well its now 8.30 am on a Saturday and we are off to Nana's to pick Guava's to make Guava Jelly for our family and friends.  As well as involving Munchy in her first Dye mission, we have an abundance of petticoats to get thru today.  Lots planned for the girls, looks like dads going surfing!!!

Have a wonderful weekend

Sheree xxx

Autumn Harvest

Well thankyou so much for all the lovely birthday wishes and helpful advice on how to have a wonderful birthday.  It turned out pretty great, nothing like I planned at all.  We woke up early and went to the market in town and brought junky treasure gifts instead of expensive mass produced thingys.

I have two pairs of beautiful earings, a wrought iron cook book holder (much needed) pastel coloured ceramic bowls set and a fairies drawing book.  Such wonderful treats xxx

Munchys best friend came over in the afternoon and we let them loose in the kitchen to make me a vintage sponge cake which turned out so beautiful, we had a normal dinner and sang happy birthday 10 times over and over and over  YAY!!!!

It was great, Im going to save the tea party for the "Fanciful Twist" get together which is coming soon.

I thought I would take you back to last weekend when I went camping.  On the Saturday us mothers abandoned our husbands and children and went to an art gallery for coffee.  It was such an amazing place, the kind of place you want to curl up and live in, to be surrounded with such beauty evey day.

Its a 1/2 hour drive from the beach up steep winding hills and on the way we came across a quaint little honesty box, which honestly! wouldnt last five minutes in my neck of the woods!

Check out these cool letterboxes....

Coles Stall, with cute little jars of treats, eww which ones to pick, the were all so sweetly cheap...

I adore the little gingham draped lids...(what are those things called???)

stewed pears, plum sauce, pickled onions, guava jelly, chillies......

fresh apples and capsicums, pot plants too....

I spent $5....

and treated myself with guava jelly and pickled chillies for the boys, all men love a good chilli eating contest...

We used to grow chillies for a sauce made here, its called "Kaitaia Fire", so chillies are never far from my mans heart......

onwards to the art gallery, look at this beautiful porcelain out door art, So very native NZ...

the gallery inside was huge and it wasent till I got back that I realised my photos did not do it justice, I was so busy looking I forgot to photograph stuff!!....

this painting was huge, I just wanted to touch it to feel her soft wrinkled skin....

we sat down in the cafe and stared at the view, feeling on top of the world...

the cafe was stunning, cosy and open, I will be going back for sure...

but alas all good things must come to an end and once the Chai Latte was gone we went for a walk around the garden......

beautiful sculptures layed everywhere....

Ohh wow a mermaid in the pond.....

would you like to take a seat and stay for a while, or maybe forever??....

This was a wonderful morning to spend with two of my most wonderful friends, we had the best camping trip and laughed and talked non stop, so much to say before we go our seperate ways and meet again later in the year, thank the gods for effortless friends who you can just be yourself around and no one cares or judges when you get things wrong as we all do. Life is so fun and honest when we are together xxx

So holidaying aside, this weekend was the Autumn Equinox, we spent the day making a greenhouse from a whole set of great old windows I found at that magical place... The Dump!

We planted seeds so they will be ready to plant out by the time it starts to rain after easter.

Oh joy for veges!

We went down our drive to our neighbours, Bushman Pete's and picked veges from his huge gardens which are now abandoned because he has moved to an island to fulfill his dream of being John Locke from LOST ! haha just joking (sort of!)

anywho we had fun picking so many veges for our dinner and corn for our feathered friends

I cannot stress enough how important to us organic vege gardens are, we are not certified organic and probably never will be, but we know exactly what we put with our plants and therefore trust our food like a friend. the feeling of eating something so fresh and wholesome is so relaxing, so we feel its not just about chemicals thats good for you, its the relaxation you also get from knowing there is no mystery to what is being put into your body, and the taste....oh but I think I have found heaven...you can have your chocolate!

I decided to include how I love love love to eat each of these veges the best.

So this is like a recipie list coming up..

CARROTS

this recipie reminds me of old times when we worked in mandarin orchards, it was our staple food every day..

carrot salad made from grated carrott, chopped parsley, sunflower seeds toasted in salt and oil with a few cranks of pepper.

add some more oil, peppery pure olive oil if you can

Beautiful, thats it! and colourful too!

ROCK MELON

We have a restaurant in town which is the best in the world, everyone who eats there would agree, its called 'Beachcomber Restaurant', you will be addicted if you go there.

In summer when these melons are available, there is nothing like sitting with a plate of melon cubes, if you feel you have over eaten ( ahh yes me!!) this melon makes you feel great!

The best after dinner mint ever....

PUMPKIN

In NZ we dont eat the orange kind of pumpkin we see in American Traditions, our pumpkins are usually grey but orange inside, this is the best salad ever.

Roast pumpkin cubes in oil and salt, let cool and put on platter over rocket leaves with finely sliced red onion, feta cheese cubes, toasted pine nuts, oil and balsamic vinegar

mmmmmmm...

BEANS

I love to par boil my beans then fry them in oil with garlic and sesame seeds, or there is always drowned in good old butter!! hehe

KUMARA

which I guess most of you may call sweet potato, in NZ our main one is purple skinned

there is nothing better that boiled kumara in salted water tossed in butter and violently mixed so its part mash part chunks and so dreamy when they are freshly picked, the most heavenly vege ever..

BROCCOLI

Munchys favorite, we tell her she is a giant and she has to eat her trees, she loves to make monster noises and eat them violently, ripping their heads off! at least shes eating them

we make a salad from broccoli and cauliflower, cut all the top parts off, no stems so you have tiny florrets that are like finely chopped broccoli, but you just shave off the top of the entire thing?? sorry hard to explain, just finely chop but omit the stalks! ok  Mix with grated parmesan and a little mayonaise (best foods)

its amazing, maybe a bit coleslaw like, you can put finely chopped onion in too if you like..

SILVER BEET

Now I know Americans call this swiss chard, and most people hate it

I chop 8 - 10 leaves (no stalks)  into thin strips and fry in a heavy pan with about 25g butter, once it has wilted pour in cream, till it is just covered and cook for 10 mins, I usually do this with a lid on so the cream stays put, cracked pepper at the end and salt to taste last thing, for some reason it drags its salt from somewhere and dosent need any added. Its a creamy green sludgy mess of a thing which will scare the bejesus out of kids but is amazing with curry night!

RED ONION

This is the best to be caramlised onion

Slice into rings and fry in butter till soggy and wilted and pretty much done, sprinkle with a tea spoon of brown sugar and splashes of balsamic vinegar and mix fast, turn the stove off and let it sit, tossing it around occasionally

divine on home made burgers and essential to have with turkey and garlic, lemon mayonnaise.
ohh my drooolll!!!

So go eat some veges, better still go and grow some veges, you dont need a garden, you can have a pot or a bin or a bucket.

I feel so happy to able to share with you my tastes in food and not just life

Im so passionate about plants, they are like my babies, my babies that I love to eat.

mmmmmm gobble gobble gobble mmmmmm

Yay for veges and friends

have a yummy dinner tonight everyone

xxx sheree