Creative Chaos

Creative Chaos

Friday 31 May 2013

Crafty pursuits

Finished quite a few weeks ago - this cardigan! Love it!! Knitted 2 needle sizes less than pattern and perfect.
Fantastic to wear over light merino jersey this winter!

Started-

An Alicia Paulsen Maggie Rabbit - adorable and easy so far! Bit of machine sewing and knitting of cape to do

Socks - first pair for a friend

Hat - slouchy hat for youngest kid. Must have a  pom pom on it he tells me!





Wednesday 29 May 2013

And Darkness Fell



We had no power for the entire night from 5pm last night.

We ran up to the Evil Empire (the local Westfield shopping centre) for takeaways and then came home and sat in front of the fire all night with candles surrounding us. Unfortunate that the power cut occurred on the coldest da of the year - extreme cold for Auckland! My parents had driven up from down south and said Auckland was colder than further south in Feilding!

We did homework, knitted, went through past physics exam papers and talked and lit more candles (kid now obsessed with candles.)

We had no hot water either.

 This made us think even more about poor Christchurch, a small city down south still recovering from two big earthquakes in Sept 2010 and Feburary 2011. A place where people are living in tin sheds, rents have sky rocketed, insurance companies have stuffed people around, where people are paying a mortgage on a house that can be no longer lived in and also renting elsewhere, where schools today have been ripped apart because the Minister of  Education is merging or closing them, where children and adults have sky rocketing cases of mental health issues, where the government has very very badly let down thousands of them. (why anyone would vote for National again is totally totally beyond me from both a Christchurch and an education point of view. We owe it our kids as a country to ditch Donkey.) We have nothing to complain about up north and are lucky (The Unitary Plan though is of serious concern....) to live in a stable city, which while it does have serious issues, these are nothing compared to Christchurch. 

I will be there in 3 weekends time seeing my dear friend April.

Kia Kaha Christchurch! 

(I am amazed at how well these photos came out in a room which only had candle power!)




Sunday 26 May 2013

Productive Day

Hunting in cupboards and found fabric and turned my day into an impulse sewing day of pyjama pants! 
Four pairs sewn, another pair cut out and the gorgeous fabric I bought in Hilversum, The Netherlands back in October 2011 ready to cut out! I think I will have enough of the fabric to make a shoulder bag too. This pair will be for the summer which is a long way off. I decided pj pants were the best thing for this fabric . I remember the shop clearly - it had rolls and rolls of gorgeous fabric and I bought some sock wool too which I still need to knit. I think it is just as well I do not live n Hilversum - although I could easily!

And to end the day a quick shopping trip with a girlfriend - a new baking cooling tray and cupcake tin purchased and bran muffins already made and cooling using both!

Finally a clean house too and lots of laundry dry outside in sunny weather. Yippee!




Winners

The 12 year old just pulled two names out of the bowl for the winners of "Mollie Makes" and "Making" magazines. Both are new penfriends of mine - Annee Apple and Sarah Lou! Yippee for you both ladies.

I will post the magazines to you with your next letters - is that okay?

Busy here sewing and knitting! 

Friday 24 May 2013

Hum bug

End of a week.
House is a TIP.
Not vacuumed for two weeks.
Bathrooms terrible.
Laundry piled up with wet stuff everywhere and 2-3-4-5 loads to wash.
Just burnt the dinner.
No other food in the house. With a birthday dinner and takeaways already this week, have already spent around $150 on eating out (teenagers are NOT cheap eating out!).
Wet weather.
Wet soccer boots and sneakers (I cannot get them dry to wear next day - friend said to turn heat pump on to do this. Have had fires more this week...).
Threw those in the clothes drier and killed said pair of sneakers.

Oh dear! 

At least I met the opposition leader David Shearer at school and had a good chat with him on poverty etc. he is a good guy -  I think several kids were brainwashed by his charm - they are the future of the country! It was fab to see him sitting around with some boys playing the ukulele and guitar with them!

I think a weekend spent at home is a good idea!

Monday 20 May 2013

Candles

Happy 12th birthday to Kieran. Born 2.5 weeks early (and quite frankly lucky I went to the hospital as my placenta had come away and his kicks were getting less and less.... This never hit me until the first day of school for him and I cried and cried and cried ), screamed for the first 5 months and the took till 11.5 months to sleep through the night and was hospitalised twice too in his first year with bronchiolitis !

Our cruisy kid, over- scheduled but when he is knot everything in a huge way, what do you do?? (thankfully the other two do zilch activities by their choice!). A perfectionist!

Rest of the weekend - sorting out old toys to take to school and BARGAIN book buying at Scholastic - a BOX of books started at $20 and by Sunday afternoon was down to $5 - huge amount for school!!!!!
Just a few for home.
This even I have had another good clear out of the boy's bookcases once again! I have boxes and boxes of childhood books up in the attic but cannot throw them out. As they get older , we do keep less.

What do you keep from your children's childhoods? 




Friday 17 May 2013

Week's End

Winter blankets out for the boys-  crocheted ones and quilts both made by my mum.
Loving new magazine (3 hours pay for these! Did get the husband a computer one too.) Outrageous cost in NZ!

Loving tulips .


It is bucketing down ! We go from the worst drought in 70 years to rain, rain, rain and decent rain! I need to get my winter vege garden planted too as it is also still quite warm!

Dinners this week - orzo salad and chickpea, feta and spinach parcels - neither eaten by the boys who got themselves something else! This bugs me when they will not eat it!!

Goodness this new layout for blogging on the I- pad is doing my head in but practice will make perfect!

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Giveaway and Penfriend hunt

I have a " Mollie Makes" issue 23 and a "Making" issue 32 to give away- I have ended up with duplicates of both.
(they both are an issue or two behind what is available in England as being down under we are behind with things anyway! :)

Comment and I will pick two lucky winners to post them to!

I would also love some new penfriends worldwide - comment below or send an e -mail to me -
Kimberley@atkinson.org.nz

I could even organise a penfriend swap if people are interested. Please pass around to other bloggers you know!

Sunday 12 May 2013

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the gorgeous women out there.
And lots of thoughts to those who are unable to be mothers.

A quiet day here - my own mother is down south and the husband's mother we saw last weekend.
I have been knitting and over the road to a cafe for afternoon tea. And shopping with the husband - a very rare treat! He hates shopping but I managed to get him some new shoes.

Treats for me - gorgeous tulips in a sweet bucket (from the supermarket no less!!), stationery from Kikki K and a WHS Smith box of stationery too, a gorgeous bag from www.emmamakes.com (gorgeous items - lots of stationery too! This basis made from a vintage NZ made woollen blanket - I adore it!!) and L'Occitane bubble bath. (how hard is it to find bubble bath in the country.)
And NZ made socks and tights. My favourite little things!!

The best part of the day? Boys who have not had one fight and boys who have out away the pile of clean washing in their bedrooms! Clean bedrooms would be great , but I am grateful for little things!

The roses bought on Friday are gorgeous in the sunlight. Love bacon and eggs for breakfast too!

















Saturday 11 May 2013

Planning to

Fold up lots of laundry
Another 4 loads on clothesline
Get a kid to clean this room up (he was so good until he started the next school and voompf! His life is crazy!!!)
Roses. Gorgeous $12.99 roses from The Warehouse. Went up to buy kindling - we have lots of fire wood but no kindling and too lazy to chop some... Came home with roses , mugs for school at $1.29 each, NZ made at $1.50/2.50 (great for swaps - might grab a few more), Halloween items sooooo cheap (swap items) and the Adele cd.
Beautiful Saturday.
Apple mac and other e- waste disposed of and collecting items for our forthcoming inorganic collection. (every year or two the council collects everything from old fridges, couches, bbqs etc!)
Loving my new NZ made tights.

Off now to shop for me for Mother's Day!
















Tuesday 7 May 2013

Bits and Pieces

A new school term. Walking around my library looking at it and moving things around. Looking at some fiction which sits for months on shelves with no issues and wandering how to promote.

Making won tons - were so-so.

Cousins reading together.

Messy kitchen. (yes - keeping it very real!!!)

To much laundry to catch up on already!

First fire of the winter season a freezing yesterday and 23 degrees today!

Chocolate self saucing pudding which I (surprise) seem to have no taste for any longer.



















Saturday 4 May 2013

Bam! Gone!

There go the school holidays! quiet ones with not huge amounts done but I am happy with the cleanish house, new hallway etc mats made, op shop visits etc

At least we got an excellent game of soccer in this morning against the top team in division one before the rain came and we beat them 4-2! First time any other team had scored against them too. A pity that, quite accidentally , one of their goals was scored by my son.... It this happens with top players too...
So we should be second on the table now! Yippee.

Raining. Really really really good rain! For hours!! I have knitted and knitted and yes knitted. Husband sorting out food. :)

I frogged the other pattern and have started a "Miss Jane" by Tikki. This has made me think and I am thrilled with it so far , but think , for the first time in my life I should have gone up a size.....
Yes I should have listened to the pattern but am a loose knitter, so figured I would do it how I normally do it... We will see.

Plus have started A dishcloth or pot mitt from the "30 minute knits " book.

And a gorgeous mat and bag of wool found in an op shop opposite the soccer ground this morning!

Back to school on Monday - not much planned for that yet...