A perfect day in Byron bay....

We spent a perfect summers day swimming in the crystal clear waters of Byron bay and sunbathing just a wee bit too long . 

After lunch at one of the many local Cafes we drove up to the lighthouse to take in the breathtaking views of beautiful blue ocean and coastline.

From this vantage point we watching whales and dolphins playing in the water.

You wouldn't guess by looking at the photos but at about lunchtime a thunderstorm came across with thankfully no rain just loud thunder.

Sculpture by the sea..

Yesterday in the early evening we went to a very cool sculptural exhibition held every year at Currumbin beach. The weather was coolish with brief showers and just a little windy which all added drama to the photos taken of some of my favourite exhibits. I love this one of the word 'Mum' with all the people running around in the wind trying to get a photo quickly and the dramatic sky and breaking waves in the background.

This was one that first caught my eye as the wind made these 'jellyfish' sway as they hung in the tree which is how they would look in their natural setting under the sea.

An exhibit that needed to be viewed from front to get the full effect of what it was. It was interesting to see how each feature placed in exactly the right position made up this comical elephant.

This dragon was very cool and quite cleverly made from what seems like chains joined together.

A very simple idea but definitely not what you expect to see on the beach. Once again the wind blowing the washing around and the dark clouds hovering over the cityscape on the horizon gives this whole scene a little drama.

This beautiful lion was my favourite exhibit and was very cleverly made from chicken wire. The details were amazing and I can only imagine the number of hours put in to create this exhibit. He was very tactile as there seemed to be a constant flow of children around him making it difficult to take a photo of him on his own.

And I couldn't help but take another couple of shots of the sea and the darkening sky.

Untouched and peaceful....

For the past couple of weeks I have had my eldest daughter Amelia, home from university for the mid semester break along with her boyfriend, Bayley. Its been really lovely to have a full house again and to hear her and her sister Caitlin, have there normal sister banter going on and to also have a male voice added to the mix as well. Their visit home also coincided with Caitlin's 16th birthday and Caitlin's first school ball which was nice for them both. 

 Unfortunately I was working most of the time they were here but I did manage to get a couple of afternoons off to spend some time with them and show Bayley around our part of the country. These photos are taken at Opoutere beach, an untouched and often deserted beach north of Whangamata. Its easy to take the scenery around where you live for granted so when you show visitors around its like seeing those places with new eyes. Plus it's also a reminder of how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful part of New Zealand. 

 The afternoon we did this beach walk was quite windy and it had showered intermittently all day hence the dark clouds in the photos which I think adds a little moodiness to them. 

Our latest additions....

Just over 3 weeks ago my brother and sister-in-law purchased and bought over 2 young hens and a very cute hen-house for the girls and I.  My brother has had hens for a while now and when I mentioned we'd quite like to have our own hens he took it upon himself to search out a hen-house and hens for us. They arrived late one Friday evening along with enough food to last a few weeks and a couple of feeders for food and water. The girls have named them "Rosie" (Caitlin's) and "Lemon-pip" (Amelia's) and they are lovely, quiet hens that are becoming quite tame already. This past Sunday my parents came over for lunch and then helped us erect a fence of chicken wire so we can let them out of their house and have a peck and scratch around in a larger area which they love. 

We were rewarded and excited to find our first egg last Thursday which we think was from "Lemon-pip" as she is the slightly bigger hen. And because Caitlin is the one who feeds them everyday and also found the first egg she had it for breakfast the next day, soft boiled with 'soldiers' just how she likes it.

Many thanks to my brother Andrew and his wife Mandy, our new 'girls' are providing much pleasure to us all. :-)

Something pleasant to come back to....

When I arrived home from camp I had a lovely parcel from Heather Bailey's shop waiting for me which softened the prospect of the 3 loads of washing that was also awaiting my attention not to mention that the housework fairy hadn't been around while I was away. 

Anyway a week or so beforehand I had ordered some laminated cotton to make a new swim bag for Catilin to take to school. I let her choose the fabric design and then thought I should make the most of the postage cost and order some more Nicey Jane prints to add to my collection that will be put to good use in my Farmers Wife sampler quilt.

So earlier this week I whipped up Caitlin's new swim bag fairly quickly except I got stuck a little with the buttonholes for the drawstring to go through. I've done heaps of buttonholes before of course but not since I've had my new machine. I read and re-read the instructions and was still stumped until I finally figured out the 'buttonhole lever' that they were referring to was on the machine not the buttonhole foot! Duh!

 I lined the bag with some pale blue toweling that I had leftover from a previous project, to soak up the moisture from a wet towel and swimsuit and to make it a bit more sturdier. The recipient is pleased with it but I don't think she will get much more use out of it until next summer as it certainly feels like autumn has arrived this week.

And I have also finally gotten around to printing out some templates for the first 10 blocks of the Farmers wife sampler quilt. I am feeling quite eager to start this quilt and use some of those pretty Nicey Jane fabrics. This Saturday promises to be wet, windy and wild so the perfect day for hunkering down in my Sewing Attic and working on these blocks. I love a good storm, don't you? :-)

For my inspiration mosaic this week I've put together a few of my favorite FWS blocks from the flickr group here.

1. Farmer's Wife , 2. 02.26.12 135, 3. Farmer's Wife Quilt, 4. Farmer's Puzzle, 5. Farmer's Wife Quilt - finished, 6. Farmer's wife quilt sampler, 7. so far, 8. blocks, 9. Weekend blocks (33), 10. Farmers Wife Quilt-a-long, 11. Farmer's Wife Quilt Top Complete, 12. Corn and Beans

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Back to reality......

 My time away last week ended up being a lovely break from reality with no cellphone coverage, no TV or radio, no newspapers and of course no internet. I love being completely away from what's going on in the world and just enjoying the moment. The Blue Mountain Adventure Centre is located in the tiny settlement of Raurimu with no shops, just a few houses and an abandoned and sadly desolate primary school. (Seeing empty abandoned schools always makes me feel sad)

We stayed in their new lodge seen on the left-hand side of the above photo. Their 3 acre property is nestled in a lovely tree lined setting and backs onto a normally tranquil river. It rained quite a bit of the time we were there so the tranquil river was changed to a brown raging torrent of water that would have been dangerous to do any activities like rafting on. Because I had been before to this camp with our eldest daughter Amelia 3 years ago I opted out of the activities this time around which meant I was able to take photos of Caitlin and her classmates pushing themsleves out of their comfort zones.

 I think Caitlin's biggest fear (like myself) was heights but she did really well and enjoyed the abseiling and the high-ropes where they get flung into the air on a harness. This activity was aptly named "The Flying Kiwi".

 Another Mother and I did a couple of nearby bush walks while the kids were off doing caving and canoeing. It was lightly raining on both of these walks which made everything seem clean and fresh and the bush lush with lots of ferns and moss growing everywhere.

 Mosses and lichens covered the trees....

 Being so close to the mountains the alpine plants are quite different to what we are used to on the Coromandel. The waters in the streams are beautifully crystal clear coming straight off the snow topped mountains of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.

 The walk to this waterfall starts just up from the Chateau Toingariro in the Whakapapa Village and was an  easy undulating walk through beautiful bush and alpine plants. We were told by one of the guides at the camp that they often abseil just to one side of this waterfall.

 Near the end of the walk the low clouds cleared a little giving us this hazy view of Mt Ngauruhoe to our right. We were walking along for some time chatting away before we realised it was there for us to see. There are numerous walks and tramps in this area which I would love to come back someday and do. The Blue Mountain Adventure Centre also does 'Women's only' weekends that the 3 other Mothers and I are plotting to do someday :-) 

Playing favourites...

Over the weekend I read a post on Mary's blog Molly Flanders   about her favourite all time fabrics. You know the ones that you hate to do without but know that one day they will go out of stock. Well I thought I would never be able to choose just one or two favourite fabrics because I have many and I keep adding to my list of favourites when new fabrics arrive in my stash. But then I remembered this strawberry print that I absolutely adore! I bought this print 'years' ago to make up into a twirly skirt for my now 14 year old daughter who I think was about 4 years at the time. So it's certainly no designer print that's for sure but I love it all the same. You can see I only have a scrap of it left now and also that the original skirt underneath is a little faded but it was a well worn skirt by both my girls and I can't bare to throw it away or pass it on to another family.

I have though used the scraps well by adding them to various blocks in Caitlin's quilt like this applique heart....

.....and these scrappy hearts......

and little bits in these scrappy flying geese. So even when I do run out I will still have some to remember, along with that faded twirly skirt.

So do you have a favourite fabric that you never tire of?? Please do share then go on over to Susan's blog Patchwork and Play and link up so we can all see your favourites!

A rainbow cake of sorts....

Ever since I saw this cake on pinterest I have wanted to make it and thought it would be the perfect birthday cake for Caitlin this year. Unfortunately on the morning of her birthday I was fast running out of time. Going to bed late the previous night didn't help as I slept in a little :) So inspired again by this cake I made a quicker version of a  rainbow cake. 

 We still had 6 different colours and yes six different bowls to wash. I used a Victorian Sponge recipe and just divided it into 6 to mix in the colours. The girls loved helping me out with this stage of making it and thought it looked a bit like the coloured playdough I used to make for them when they were younger. I was a little concerned the extra mixing would spoil the lightness of the cake but I'm pleaed to say it turned out beautifully.

As you can see it was so nice it was half gone on Sunday afternoon and it is now sadly all gone. The yummy butter icing also added to it's deliciousness! You can find more Rainbow cake inspiration here.

Amelia also helped out by making these yummy chocolate cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting. She has made quite a few cupcakes recently but these have got to be her best yet. 

The humble square

Even though I have 3 projects on the go at the moment last week I pulled out some fabrics for yet another project. With my youngest daughters 12th birthday fast approaching I realised I'd better get going on the things I wanted to make her. Why I leave things till the last minute I do not know but all of a sudden I realise I have a mere 3 days left to get the ideas out of my head and made. I'm sure I'm not the only busy mother who does this. Anyway I had decided to make her a memo board for her new study/play area that used to be her sisters bedroom. I knew what colours she liked from her helping me out with the layout of the crochet rug, which were aqua, purple and red and had also decided to make her board the same way I made my memo board here. I really love how just a simple patchwork pattern of squares really shows off the fabrics I chose. I think sometimes in an effort to be original or different we can over complicate things. These squares reminded me that a simple shape is all that is needed to let those favourite fabrics shine. 

 I did however go to town on the machine embroidery which meant getting to play with all the decorative stitches on my new Janome. I started off just using ordinary thread then switched to some nice shiny specialised machine embroidery thread which really made those stitches stand out.

As you can see I actually made 2 memo boards because one big one wouldn't fit in the space I had in mind. I chose purple buttons and a mauve ribbon for one board and aqua buttons and ribbon for the other. I even sewed these squares in front of her without her knowing what they were for. I guess I do so much sewing that she doesn't take too much notice until I finish something.

Here's a close-up of some of those pretty, decorative machine stitches I used. I think these 2 are my favourites. These boards are really easy to make but just take a little time especially sewing on all those buttons! (16 on each!!) And just to prove how last minute I am I was up until 1am Saturday night finishing these boards off and wrapping her presents for her birthday on Sunday.

Two Sidewalk Satchel's

For the past couple of weeks I have been teaching my youngest daughter Caitlin and her friend Tayarni the basics of sewing. I thought the best way to keep their enthusiasm going was to choose something to sew that they really wanted and would get a lot of  use out of so a bag was agreed upon. Last year I bought Anna Marie Horner's pattern for her "Sidewalk Satchel" but had never gotten around to making it for myself. I had shown the girls a few patterns which they thought were 'okay' but it was a definite 'yes' when they saw this pattern.  

Tayarni (left) and Caitlin(right)

We did a quick little photo shoot yesterday after school and as you can see from the above photos they were trying really hard not to laugh but....... not succeeding. They enjoyed every step of making this bag right from choosing the fabrics from my stash to cutting out and ironing on the interfacing and finally putting all the 'pieces'  together to create the actual bag. Tayarni's bag is the gathered version made from some lightweight denim and a selection of some pretty blue floral scraps for the lining, pockets, flap closure and also the outer side piece. 

 

Inside are two pockets, one large and one small plus a little label  saying "Made by.....

Included in the pattern is a sculpted rolled flower to decorate the tab which has a magnetic snap closure.

Caitlin chose a selection of purples for her bag. The lighter floral piece used for the bottom/side is one I have had for a few years and was given to me from one of Caitlin's great Aunts. I always like it when I can incorporate some fabrics like this that have a special meaning or a little history to them, into an item I am making.

For the outer fabric Caitlin chose a floral needle corduroy that was leftover from a dress I had made her when she was much younger, and her flower is made from a leftover piece from my bridesmaid dresses:)

I think the girls did really well putting these bags together and certainly have gained some sewing confidence to do more sewing.  Did I mention they are just 11 years old !