Calorie overload

Warning, this post may add calories just by looking at it!!!

Feijoa Shortcake

It's started to chill down slightly, not too bad yet - we are still have 18-20 degree C days but slightly cooler overnight. We've had the fire going a couple of times, and as much as I loathe cold weather there is something lovely about the warm fire and winter dinners.

Roast Beef with perfect Yorkshire Pudding was the first winter meal request.

My Yorkshire Puds are pretty tasty!

and Pies, lovely homemade meat pies

The other half had a birthday, chocolate cake was the request from the children (although I knew he'd secretly prefer Carrot Cake - but to keep the girls happy Chocolate it was).

We went away for a lovely family weekend just an hour north of here in Waitangi. The girls loved the hotel - especially the swimming, and I just loved the chance to have a wee change of scenery for 24 hours.

No crochet to show sorry, I've just bought an e-reader so I've been spending my spare time reading a few ebooks - loving it! Love that I can now take all my patterns with me on the Kobo though without having to print out paper. So handy.


Head on over to my lovely friends Becs' blog "Born Again Creations" to check out her gorgeous giveaway - she is so super talented!

Have a lovely week xxx Kylie

Another year goes by

It's my littlest girl's 4th birthday today, where has that time gone? Next birthday she will be a big school girl! We just had a teeny-tiny party with a couple of her little "boyfriends", some friends and us.

Numberjacks "4" cake

I'm linking up here with my friend Bec's blog as she has the most lovely idea of posting Make-Bake-Grow Sundays. I love this concept to really show off creations made during the week.

MAKE 

With the little one's birthday I've done a heap of "making" for that, including more of my Sweet and Spicy Macadamia nuts, and I've been doing more on my giant granny blanket.

BAKE

Birthday cake of course, see above. Green icing as requested by the birthday girl (I don't have very "girly girls" ).

Now I can't take the credit for these - but they are really really cute. My Mother-in-Law arrived with these for the party today - Tidy Teddy racers. Mini Moro (you could use Mars bars) bars with pebble wheels and tiny teddy drivers. Luckily there are a couple left over for us now that the children are in bed. I'll be making these for sure for future parties.


GROW

I haven't planted anymore since my last seedling post, but I love these Fragrant Stock that I picked today from the garden for the birthday table. They are abundant in one little part of my garden currently so I didn't mind cutting a few stems (I usually prefer flowers to stay in the garden, not in a vase - I love seeing them all when I look out the windows). My plan for next year is to plant a cut flower garden in an area that I don't see so much (we have a huge expanse of gardens) so I don't mind cutting them so much.

I thought I might add another category of my own. "DO". We can be a little guilty in this family of not going out of our way to do different things - we get a bit caught up with routine and what needs to be done. So we are trying to make more of an effort to get out and do fun things.

DO
We took the girls into the farmers market, for a hot drink after and then a play at the cool park at the Town Basin. Spider girl loves to climb (as opposed to her vertigo suffering mother!) so here she is up the frame. Makes my stomach churn just looking at her up there. I'm terrible with heights. She did get right to the top but I didn't have the camera out then.

Have a wonderful week xxxxx Kylie

Kiss me over the garden gate

My girls are in love with the name of this gorgeous Heirloom annual, so the seeds are in the fridge chilling for a couple of weeks before I plant them.
http://www.about-garden.com/a/en/2455-polygonum-orientale-kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate/

I've had some seeds arrive that I ordered online to get my Spring seed planting a kick start. I'd saved a fair few seeds from the garden last summer as well so I should be pretty set.

I've planted some in seedling trays but I really need just slightly warmer evenings before I tackle the rest of the seeds.

I've gone for a very electic mix of seeds - from Vegetables (Celeriac, Rainbow Carrots), to medicinal herbs (Motherwort), flowers and and Bee attracting plants (Bergamot), and many more that I haven't listed.




I was reading littlewoollie's  blog yesterday and she was talking about her chickens laying very odd sized eggs - I'm having the same thing with ours. One of out older hens laid an egg the size of a quail's the other day. It was very odd inside (possibly she's getting a bit old to lay now??) The girls thought it was pretty funny though. We've had a couple of bigger than usual ones as well.

Mmmmm the Chicken, Leek and Mushroom pies I made for lunch earlier this week were divine - will be making those again for sure. Amazing what you can throw together when you think you have nothing left in the cupboard or fridge.

Anyway, a certain Rugby World Cup has been taking over our wee nation this last week or so. The hubby is a huge rugby fan so my girls have been right into it as well. I made them All Black cupcakes to kick off the action last week - they were a bit of a rushed job but the girls loved them.

We went to a game here in our little city the other night - Canada vs Tonga. We have no affiliation to either team but everyone was loving supporting both teams and we were all dressed in red. My lovely friend Leah (from whydidntanyonetellme ) sent me a photo that she had taken of us on TV and I was actually sending her a text message at the very time I was on TV.  Here is another photo of just me that shows how crazy I looked that day!!  Such fun!


Must go and get dinner on for the kidlets and us now - yay it's the weekend. Time to get some baking done (it's the little ones 4th birthday on Sunday, I really need to get the party food organised) and I'll try and get the crochet hook back out!

Bye for now  Kylie x

Madness

We have a tap dancing lamb. Seriously she likes nothing better than to come a dance on the deck. It's pretty funny! (I tried to upload a video but it seems the file is too large, so you will have to imagine her dancing and jumping around- pretty cute!)

The last two weekends have been really busy with a family birthday party complete with a South African Potje (first time I'd tried that - yum!!), playdates, garden work and refereeing bickering children ;) I've been busy making some yummy recipes the last few days too.  We have a fair few Avocados so I've busy creating new recipes for using them up.

My latest one,Creamy Avocado Mousse with Sweet Chilli Syrup is pretty yummy!

Another thing I've been making a fair bit of is Chocolate dipped Macadamia Nuts (oh so divine!!)

I have a new household cleaner recipe as well. It is amazing! It's from one of my favourite household books "A Home Companion" by Wendyl Nissen.


Peppermint Paste

1 cup baking soda

1 tbsp cream of tartar

10 ml liquid castile soap (She recommends Dr Bonners Castile Soap which you can buy directly from her website or places like Bin Inn)

5 ml water

1ml peppermint essential oil

1. In a bowl mix together baking soda with the cream of tartar.

2. In a small jug mix liquid castile soap and water. Slowly pour into the powders and mix with a fork until you have a paste. Add more water if you need to. (I actually left out the castile soap as I had none and it worked perfectly well, in fact I don't know if I would add it as it's great without it!)

3.  Add peppermint essential oil and stir to combine.

4. Store in an airtight container and use to clean kitchen and bathroom sinks, baths and toilets.

Do you remember the tea towels I bought the other day? Well here's the first cushion I made out of one - that will look so cute in the caravan.

Busy too doing a little hooky goodness (a giant Granny blanket for one of the girls - which one hmmmm they both have their eyes on it - think I will need to make two).

I'm not sure why these colours look screwy - the peach is actually a pink and the grey/brown below it is really lilac! Odd..

Night all, I'm off to watch a little trash TV since hubby is working - I have the remote all to myself!

K xxx

Fun filled days

What a beautiful weekend, busy but fruitful. Little bit of Knitting, a little bit of crochet, loads of baking and cooking, and lots of time for fun with the children.

My granny squares are progressing, I'm making a blanket for the caravan which is retro green, so I'm having a bit of colour alternating with the green of the caravan. I'm loving the mix!

 I also made some body butter that Leah from whydidntanyonetellme makes. She made some for me recently and I've been loving it so much that I decided to make some for friends that I'm heading off on a girly weekend with in a few days.

 Last nights sunset was one of the most amazing ones ever. I love living in the country on days like this so I can gaze up at the sky with nothing blocking the view. Gorgeous - don't you love the colours?





This weekends baking/cooking efforts:

Raspberry and Apple Loaf
Rocky Road (with our own Macadamia nuts in it)
Homemade pasta - courtesy of The Chief and the girls while I was at work.
Chocolate Chip Slice

A piece of cake

My youngest girl has a bit of an allergy to milk so I'm always trying to find yummy baking for her that still looks good. unfortunately I can't do buttercream icing anymore (I guess that's better for my waistline though), so colourful plain icing keeps her happy. Yummy dairy free (it really is a nice moist one) Chocolate Cake with Pink Icing for afternoon tea.

We live on an old subdivided farm (we only have 3 1/2 acres of the original hundreds that the farm would have been in the day) but we often find loads of *treasures* deep in the garden that have been dumped many moons ago - antique bottles are a common find. The Chief rolls his eyes and wants me to chuck them out but I keep them all over the house as little posy vases.

I've started hooking a beret/beanie for myself, but I'm a bit worried what the final shape may be. We'll see in a couple of days, but it looks so cute on this Greengate tray that I just had to share.

Finally, comfort food is needed today. I'm trying to keep positive with all the sadness in NZ at the moment so I thought we would enjoy some farm sausages, mash and caramelised onion gravy. The colours in the onions before I started cooking them looked so scrummy!!

Taking a few shots in the garden before the rain started. Huge crop of Avocados this year (the big fat Reed ones, so creamy), some lovely bright flowers, a bit of a spicey casserole base, a young one in her favourite spot by the Blueberries and the last of the Plums.