A Little Dash Of Christmas

Hello Lovelies!!

Never too early to put your tree is it???...not when you have a 2 year old!

and who is this little guy waiting for??

We decided the theme under our tree this year is 'Fairy Tea Party'... but we have no food!!! and as of yet..no guests!



My little 'Pohutukawa Fairy' looks ever so hungry and lonely, and he still has 40 something sleeps till the big day!  I went on the net and did some shopping, and I know you cant buy friends with money!! but for this little darling yes you can!  I went here to 'Woodlands Enchanted' and brought him four new friends to celebrate with.  They are the most beautiful fairies made of NZ sheeps wool, no made in china labels to be seen!

So while guests are being shipped in the mail, we can get on with collecting little lovely nature treats for a fairy Xmas Lunch!

I felt a bit naughty putting the tree up already but reasoned that the adverts have started on TV and soon the radio will be following so we had forgiven ourselves.....and then I went over to visit Miss V and saw she was in the spirit too!

She had made some Xmas trees from cotton balls (which you can see here) and so we got to work and made one for Nana.  Nana has the snowy ornaments at Christmas time, in our house we rage against the stereotypical so no snow inspired creatures to be seen....

making this tree was so fun and easy for little hands, I did the hot glue and she popped on the cotton balls...

This got me thinking about what kind of tree I should make then, if not a snowy one, and realised I should be making  Pohutukawa trees, Its our National Xmas Tree, not that we decorate it but just that it flowers at Xmas and you go to the beach to be with them.  They arent brought into the home, its illegal to cut them!!

So to any New Zealander this sight speaks Xmas and summer and bbqs and swimming and drinking and relaxing.. ahhhhhh Christmas...so lets get to work then...

Green Felt and thread ahoy!

I traced the top of the tree and cut out matching backs and fronts...



I want my trees to have real trunks form the actual Pohutukawa tree so off to the beach to collect twigs from our favorite tree..which you may remember from this tale...

Here are the blosssoms ready to burst!  ewwww...wait...wait........

Back home skippidy skip and I snap the twigs to look like trunks and glue to one side of the tree foliage..

I blanket stitch the sides and bottom and then stuff thru the top...

For added magic every tree has a leaf slipped inside it too, so that these are real trees!, like little parcels of the beach to hang at home...

Stitch all the way around and sew a string loop in the top so it can hang and there is the tree...but wait..now it needs summery red flowers...

Glitter bug alert, i dotted PVA glue over the top and covered with glitter and flicked the excess off...

and you are left with the most delicious little tree all ready to hang once it dries...I love the twig trunk, it brings the tree to life...

So we made a whole bunch and they are all ready to be packaged up and sent to our families so we can all be connected by a very special creation....



Now about that fairy food......

Hows your Christmas lists going my lovelies

tick tock tick tock its getting close

eeeekkkkk!!

I absolutely love presents, dont you??

xxx

Sheree

Creative Kids

Arent self portraits hard????  I am always behind the camera and whenever I take photos of myself they come out soooo posed because I always know the exact moment I am going to go CLICK!!!!

Must have Kelly takes photos of little old mee this weekend......

Or get Munchy onto the camera for some training so she can be my photographer, shes 2 and 3/4 now, thats old enough right????

Well apart from our vanity we have been playing with other things this week, we went a walking and found a branch that had snapped off in the wind, so we brought it home to do some art with it, giving it new purpose..

Puka Leaf Printing

Paint your leaf with lashings of colour..

flip onto paper and roll or press over the back (she loves to use my tools!) famous artist here we come!

carefully lift off while holding the paper (excuse the washing in the background! ehhem!)

and sprinkle with sparkley happiness...

we also made an apple stamp and printed that.

Im surprised the terms that Indi has picked up with her art work, she knows this is printing and not painting and then she knows screen printing too, I cant wait to see what kind of art she will produce one day when she has been introduced to so much at such a young age, she does it all, with help from mum, but she understands every process....

So will I be a little disappointed when she turns her back on art and becomes a businesswoman in high heels who wants to study Law and live in an Apartment!!

Sad but true I think I will be!...thats why Im embracing my grubby little artistic wild child while I can, before she realises that we dont all live on a farm surrounded by cow poo, merrily creating here and there..

What else can we get up to??

I feel some Xmas spirit coming on!

xxx

Sheree

Firecracker Firecracker Boom Boom Boom

Firecracker Firecracker Boom Boom Boom

Firecracker Firecracker Boom Boom Boom

the boys have got the muscles

the teachers got the brains

the girls have got the sexy legs

and we won the game

Woooooooo!!!

anybody remember this one???

I can see myself at about age 6 singing it with a group of girls in Primary School,

good old 6 when you think you know everything!!!

Well the weekend would have been the perfect time to be 6 again because it was Guy Fawkes, november 5th where we light fireworks to honour a man (guy fawkes!) who tried to blow up english parliament with bombs!!

but just like everything else dangerous in this world it has been tapered down to practically nothing.  no more rockets, no double happies and no more spinning wheels  : (

 

So we made do with modified crackers made into bombs and emergency flares for sky rockets!

run kids run!

This was Indi's first time holding a sparkler, I think they are just a tad hard to comprehend with mummys explanation 

" Ok so hold this little exploding stick but hold it at the bottom and dont touch the glowing part because it will burn and its ok, dont be scared because the sparks wont hurt you but watch out for where the left over glowing red stuff is because that will hurt you.....now have fun!!!!"

?????Muuuuuuuuuummmm?????

dosent she look elated!! haha

Lucky she has a Lucy to help her out!

My favorite firework was the chinese lantern, it used to spin around and in the end a paper lantern dropped down and it glowed from a little flame that was left lit inside it, I used to keep it all year till I got a replacement...

Do you remember your favorite fireworks??

xxx

Sheree

The MacGyver Approach To Crackers

Last post I told you I was on a mission to make my own crackers, and what success Ive had!!

They are very yummy for a first try so Im hoping to get far more experimental with practice.

and what is this thing I hear you ask??? Well its my latest invention.  The recipie tells how you have to prick the entire surface of the cracker to keep them flat.  I dont have all day so I made this multi pricker....

from cardboard, double sided tape and tacks, it made the job much faster...

it also said to use a brush to brush all the crackers with oil before salting, but being smart I used a new sponge from my art room, one dab and it was all done....

the finished results were very yummy but a bit odd.  I now know how to make Pita Pockets!

So if you dont prick the surface enough (just breeze over it..woops!) you end up with puffing, still yummy but hard to balance toppings on! (you could put topping in though!!)

Lesson learned, 'Donot skim on pricking'

Ohh Yummmeeeee....

Now I had to rush.. I had to go pick Munchy up from grandmas....

and Im walking today!!

 but it is beautiful,

I love it when its finally spring and the drive way dries up and turns to soft sand instead of mud, no more gumboots! woo hoo.

I have a beautiful walk down.....

see some friends along the way....Hi friends!... yummy friends hehe!!!...

ohh the lovely drive way, its quite legendary for being one of the most hideous drives around, keeps our visitors elite, only the brave arrive for a tea!...

after picking little miss up we walk next door to grandads work, uncle Troy is fixing up this rather strange battered go cart from the dump ( yes we all shop at the dump round here)

My little tinker fairy just cant help herself, she is in there with her tools fixing it up...

Home for the last game of Peek A Boo with some puppies before they are shipped to their new homes... quite sad really, this one Jem was my favorite, she loved to play dollies xxx

BOO!

and then to settle down with some crackers to eat...



I get more excited about food every day!

Raven Moon Magic Crackers

2 cups Flour ( I used 1c spelt and 1c wholemeal)

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4cup butter

1/2cup milk

1 large egg

poppy seeds or sesame seeds etc

sift dry ingredients and knead in butter

add milk and egg and seeds to make a dough

add more flour if too sticky

roll out thin and cut,

poke holes all over to stay flat when cooking!!

dab with oil and sprinkle salt over tops

Bake for 10mins @ 220'c  or 400'f

store in a very airtight container

YUM YUM!

Well I hope some of you feel inspired to make these, so easy and cheap, I ended up with 82 crackers, over two box fulls if they were brought.

and I have to end this post with my Xmas wish list seeing as its November in a few days.

November!! Time to start dropping hints...ehhheemmm..

I want these two books so bad.

I feel if I get the green one (which I have just looked thru at my brother house) my stomach will be fulfilled in every way, it has everything and is amazing.  All such basic ingredients which Im so happy about too, and lots of new skills to learn.  It is a very fat book indeed!

and I had a wonderful blogger comment on my last post and told me where I had heard about living like your Nana from, and its this lady who is a New Zealander!  ohh joy!

so yes please santa, Im in need of this one too!! 

please pretty please with a cherry on top!



Whats on your xmas list this year??? 

if your partner is the proof reader/editor of your blog posts (like mine) then here is the perfect place to project wishes from!

I like it!

Happy Halloween to all this weekend, Nothing much going on here but a whole lot of horror movies on TV...yikes!  I think I'll retreat to my lady cave and sew  : )

xxx

Sheree



Fencing In The Beautiful

Sometimes things can start with the greatest of intentions and seem wonderful when they are small but before you know it you have looked away for a second and it has bloomed into something you can no longer feel you have control over.... a little bit like love.....and a lot like lavender

This was the scrawniest lavender that I adopted, it had one stem and never looked like it would grow, but Im a sucker for 'hospital plants', the chance to help something live after a rough start.

So instead of cutting this wonderful lavender I decided to fence it in/up..

 

Magic Twine...

 

and Magic Sticks...

 

Voila! a little fence in 10 mins, no more squeezing past, and no need for trimming..

all bound up with love...

Seeing as munchy was asleep I went into the garden to weed the lettuce patch ready for planting, and as I dug there were potatoes everywhere, little missed treats just waiting to be found, they were so sweet for dinner last night...

Seeing as I am on a 99% organic diet now, until my body can harden up a bit, I have had to go back to extreme basics.  I read somewhere about a diet where you are supposed to live like your great grandmother, and if she cant recognise it then you shouldnt be eating it, I wish I knew where I read that!! damn...anywho thats pretty much me, back to basics, so I have been creating this week

I have made preserved lemons for morrocan cooking..

Mullberry Jam with cardamon, cinnamon and vanilla...spiced jams are like heaven.  I make Hummus twice a week and yesterday was my first attempt at making organic yoghurt using brought organic yoghurt as a starter with organic milk.  We have all our goodies in the garden to eat and sooooo much coming on and this afternoon or maybe tomorrow I am going to try and make crackers!  wish me luck.

All in all Im feeling very healthy and are having fun finding wonderful foods.

This journey has been a wild ride which I can finally now see as beautiful because of the transformation I have made, so now I need to to keep on track and fence in all the beauty I have created so it can one day burst from me as a ray of light that will hopefully touch everyone.

Wish me luck on this one too!!

Hopefully all my garden prep work will be finished this week and we can get back to some art work, lots of tutorials to come.

Have a healthy week all

xxx

Sheree

Not Your Average Evening

We had a little bit of a shin dig down the beach for a friend the other night.  He has moved to an Island off New Zealand and now has a catamaran to get there instead of the ferry.  So we went to have a little bon voyage bonfire, a little good luck, we hope you make it gift too.

Hmmm whats that on the fire you say???

Bushman Pete is his name and he was our neighbour till he left, Indi adores him.  Come down for dinner he said, but alas I know this man too well and his feral eating ways so I got something out for dinner just incase we didnt stay.  When we got there the sight of these two pigs heads roasting away over the fire confirmed for me..yes indeed, we were going home for dinner!!

Crispy ear anyone, all Indi would say was 'mmmm delishisssss'....umm we obviously have differing tastes. Bushman Pete is a hunter and had caught these the day before, his friend got the bodys and lucky Pete got the heads woo hooo.

All I could think was 'sunscreen' for some reason! eekk

Anywhoo the kids had fun getting very wet and cold, which my very sick daughter is paying for now!!!!

A lot of work was put into carting wood out to this raft so they could follow Pete when he left, busy beavers indeed!

She loves a mission to complete..

The dogs slept happily not realising they are to become sea fearing creatures the next day....

and I screen printed a flag for the boat, any pirate would be proud of..

and we left him with his pigs brain dinner and many well wishes of good luck.  The boat looks a little like a  'Kevin Costner Waterworld' type boat if you know what I mean!! ; )

!Good Luck Pete!



Hope you all enjoy your dinner tonight, what are you having??

We are having fish!

Fish without heads!

cant believe I just posted this! haha

xxx

sheree