Sweet zombie Jesus.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:30:57 GMT

I'll be going to Craft 2.0 in a couple of weeks. Whee!

These are a couple of the things that I'll be selling:

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:18:27 GMT

Today, it seemed like my job was "poo and puke cleaner-upper". It's amazing how much a little girl can barf.

Still love being a teacher! :)

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:33:30 GMT

One thing that I appreciated about living in Auckland City was not finding a cockroach the size of my fucking THUMB sitting on the bench waving at me! It is so wrong that bugs that size can exist.

*shudder*

Yeah, I did scream like a little girl and make C take care of it... She's so tuff.

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:17:25 GMT

It was -1 degrees celsius this morning, and the water in the kiddie's play trough at work was frozen solid! :O There was frost everywhere, just like I remember seeing as a kid in Auckland.

It's kinda awesome.

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:01:19 GMT

Nerdy started up a gardening blog, for those of you that are interested in that sort of thing:

http://nerdysgardenofeden.blogspot.com/

Life in Napier.

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:04:20 GMT

Our wood shed! Nerdy and her mum spent a couple of hours yesterday sorting it out as it was just a mess of old bark and miscellaneous rubbish when we moved in. They also laid the corrugated iron on the ground and stacked up the wood that they picked up in the morning.

This is the sad little piece of dirt beside the garage. I think it's where the old tenants kept their dog - there's a fence and door where I stood to take the picture. It was full of weeds and rubbish along with other random crap before Nerdy and her mum cleaned it out yesterday.

We're going to put pavers in so we can move around it and turn it into a lovely little vegetable garden (the soil is really good, apparently - we should have more luck than in Akl). The fence/door will be good because it'll hopefully keep most of the animals out. Nerdy drew up a plan yesterday and we made a list of veggies we want to put in. :D

We also have two lemon trees - one in the front garden, and one in the back. Nerdy is going to plant strawberries under them!

AND! We're starting up a compost heap!

What I've been working on when avoiding study...

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:49:38 GMT

Owl brooches, felt and buttons with handstitched detail and pin back. I've made a few different colours (have a look on Flickr).

Flower brooches in progress. They still need to be handstitched and have the pin back attached. The design was inspired (traced from!) a vintage table cloth that's covering our dining table!

Last week I borrowed Nerdy Dad's camera. I seem to be able to get much better pictures out of it as long as I have good light. Yay! As soon as I have a spare minute after exams, I'm going to attempt to make a light tent from this tutorial: http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent/ which will hopefully improve things even more.

Today's experiment with baking...

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:30:54 GMT

Bran, walnut, and date muffins. They are delicious, with just the right amount of golden syrupy flavour. Nice and moist too.

I used the Alison Holst recipe (silly me realised yesterday that I have one of her muffin books) and used dates instead of raisins, because raisins should not be a food. Blech.

Recipe:

2c wheat bran
1/2c flour
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1/2c chopped dates
1/4c chopped walnuts
1/2c golden syrup
1 egg
1c milk

Put the brain in a large mixing bowl, sieve onto the bran the next three dry ingredients. Add the dates and walnuts and mix everything together lightly with your fingers.

Warm the golden syrup in a saucepan until runny. Remove from the heat, add milk then egg and mix well. Pour the liquids on to the dry ingredients and fold together only until the dry ingredients are barely dampened.

Divide the mixture evenly between 12 medium sized muffin pans that have been well greased.

Bake at 200C for about 10-15 minutes or until firm in the middle when pressed lightly.

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:55:28 GMT

Today I played with babies, changed nappies, fed babies, gave lots of cuddles, and tickled babies until they squealed and giggled. And, I got paid for it! :D

Moving to Napier was SUCH a good decision.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:56:49 GMT

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for bran muffins? Nice golden syrupy moist sticky ones? I tried the Edmonds recipe but they're a bit bleh.

Thu, 29 May 2008 08:10:11 GMT

Meet Owlton. So called because the buttons used for his eyes reminded me of Elton John last night, and the stupid jokes started... It was funny to us, anyway. :)

The photo isn't amazing because it's night and I haven't got lighting set up properly yet, but I had to show him off because I think he's cute. :) Owlton is going to be part of one of the hot water bottle covers I'm creating for Craft2.0 in July.

(Hand and machine stitched felt applique on 100% recycled blanket wool with button eyes.)

Autumn

Mon, 26 May 2008 08:35:49 GMT

A duvet, cup of Horlicks, the Kent warming us, and purring kitties.

*beam*

(... and brain gymnastics getting my head around a reading on the role of culture in our pedagogy as teachers. Meep.)

Pineapple upside down cake

Sun, 25 May 2008 09:07:39 GMT

Nom!

I'm tempted to try and use pineapple juice instead of the milk in the cake batter, but I'm not sure whether it'll make the whole thing too acidic and not bake properly. Hm.

I'm quite enjoying experimenting with baking! The Edmond's cookbook is a great starting point. Tonight I made my first ever rice pudding which was delicious but incredibly rich so we couldn't eat much. This was a good thing because I used cream instead of milk. ;)

Fri, 23 May 2008 11:14:33 GMT

How long can we look at each other down the barrel of a gun?

YOU'RE THE VOICE TRY AND UNDERSTAND IT
MAKE A NOISE AND MAKE IT CLEAR

WHOOAA OHHH OHHH OHHHOHOHOOHOHHHHHH

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:29:09 GMT

Don't go breaking my heart!

I won't go breaking your heart!

Apple upside down cake.

Sun, 18 May 2008 01:56:55 GMT

It's cold today and Nerdy isn't feeling well, so I thought I'd make us a yummy healthy (hah!) Sunday lunch.

Nom!

Yummo.

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:31:41 GMT

Cinnamon and vanilla apples, cooked in the crockpot with lots of soft brown sugar. They taste a lot better than they look and smell delicious. At least they did last time I made them - I can't smell or taste anything much right now!

Sat, 10 May 2008 22:14:17 GMT

Yesterday afternoon I changed a pooey dirty nappy for the first time, then stepped in it. Uuuugh.

Later on I cuddled the bubba and put him to bed for his nap! :D

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:46:20 GMT

Yep, I still hate fucking Auckland fucking traffic. @*(&#*&@.

Woo.

Sat, 03 May 2008 03:33:13 GMT

http://monkeysews.com/

It's just forwarded to Etsy so far, because I am no web page developer. :p

And! I'm in the process of having some lovely quality woven labels made.

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:56:24 GMT

I made anzac biscuits for the first time tonight. :D

... also lots and lots and lots of chili.

Domesticity!

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:24:31 GMT

This is the end of our second week in Napier, and I still love it. :)

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:57:14 GMT

Has anyone ever owned or used an electric lawnmower? We need to mow our own lawns and I wonder whether an electric mower would be okay as we don't have a huge amount of lawn...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:14:23 GMT

Just experienced my first Napier 'rush hour'. Hahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:56:41 GMT

We live near Dick Place and Bill Hercock Street.

Hur.