A PUBLIC HOLIDAY TODAY

 

I reckon every single shop in this country is having a freakin' sale today.

It's Kings Birthday today, not that I consider that prick MY King.  Whoops, shoot me now, I disparaged Charlie the cheater.  

I was a staunch supporter of Princess Diana, and just cannot stand Camilla, or Charles.

I don't often express my feelings/opinions on such matters, but having a public holiday to celebrate HIM does my head in.

Anyway.... that being said, it is a holiday so Stew is home.

We are planning a quiet day, after doing quite a bit yesterday.

I'm thinking of buying a cheap little vacuum cleaner, so we can suck the air out of vacuum bags if/when we need to open the ones we used yesterday.  Also, having a conventional vacuum will come in handy for cleaning out the car etc.

Our stick vacuum refused to work with the vacuum bags, and it's a right shit to use in the car, even taking the stick off bla bla bla.

And I now have room in the linen cupboard for a small conventional vacuum cleaner.  WIN WIN.

So yeah, we might just go out to Briscoes later on, seeing as they are having a SALE (of course they are).  Vacuums are between 40 and 60 % off today.

Later on today I shall possibly attend Craft Group, and do some work on my next runner.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  I bought 4 more flowers yesterday, and raided a really big bunch I already had in the lounge, and boom.  My gorgeous new blue pot has flowers in it, in our bedroom. I'll have to 'tweak' the bunch a bit to make it look a bit tidier, but still, lovely.

Stew's in the shower and I'm waiting for him to be ready to go out.  

My gosh it's a dreary looking day out there today.  Totally overcast, threatening to rain.  Just ikkk.  

ABOVE:  Taa Daaa!  A lovely new vacuum. Chosen after doing quite a bit of research, reading reviews etc online.  It was 60% off, so a real bargain.  Ours is a blue one, not white like on the box.  I tried it out on our diabolical carpet, and OMG!  It picked up every single little bit with ONE swipe over!  I used the Turbo Head, it was amazing.  While I really don't like this style of vacuum, I will be using it when I vacuum the entire house from now on.

And Lacy needn't bring hers over again. 

It is now 11.10 am, and I suppose I should get my stuff ready and go down to Craft Group.

I went to Craft Group.  No one else did.

So I worked on my own and got these two projects finished:

ABOVE:  First to get done was my bird panel... it's taken bloody ages because I just don't enjoy mosaics at all.  This will be my last project using mosaics.

If I can't find anywhere to hang it here, I will gift it away at Christmas.

ABOVE:  After the bird panel was done (in the mosaic room), I went into the Craft Room.  I expected there to be at least a couple of ladies already there, but NO.

I was on my own the entire time I was there.  I got that runner finished, then packed up and came home.

It is now 1.40 pm, Stew is watching a shoot 'em up, bang bang movie.  I think I will do nothing for the time being.  

I woke up this morning feeling like I actually needed to go back to bed, just tired and my shoulders are aching something rotten.

I can't even get my sweatshirt off on my own at the moment!

I think I have arthritis in my shoulders, or something like that.

The Doctor wanted me to have steroid injections last year when my left shoulder was killing me, but HELL NO!  Me and injections?  Yeah nah.  AND I'm told steroid injections hurt like bi'jezzus (made up word), so again, NAH.

It clearly gets worse over winter... bugger.

Right, enough bitching... I might sort out a snack to tide me over till dinner.

Dinner was ho hum, a pasta dish that turned out kinda tasteless.  I do have flops sometimes!

We are both bloody tired, and ready for bed and it's only 7.30 pm!

I think we will both be in bed fairly early tonight.

Catch ya tomorrow.

FINALLY GETTING TO THAT LINEN CUPBOARD

 Today we are doing the job that's been put off for the past couple of days, tidying up the linen cupboard.

I'm really looking forward to sucking the air out of heaps of blankets etc, and making more space in there.  

Stew and I should get that job knocked out in a couple of hours.

But first, Stew is off to do the weekend shopping.  Can't have us running out of Diet Coke!

While he does that, I will get the other housework done, bed made, washing on etc.

With any luck, all that will be done by lunchtime, and I can get back to my sewing.  I would like to think I can get one runner totally finished, per day, for the next 10 days.

I don't normally sew when Stew is home, but he won't mind.  He'll be perfectly happy spending some time watching sport on the telly.

Here's what I bought yesterday in Taupo:

ABOVE:  This is my new wallet.  Isn't it so pretty?  I have had the same plain black wallet for a few years now, and I've had some cards fall out of it, as it's card slots are not 'enclosed' within the wallet as such.

This new wallet is fully zipped up, so no cards can fall out.  I am very happy to have found it.

AND it kinda matches the gorgeous jacket I was wearing yesterday.  FYI it is a 'SCRIBBLER' jacket, made here in New Zealand.  It can be purchased online.

ABOVE:  Stew spied a small group of four houses in a gift shop.  We hadn't seen this particular series before, and thought they were so lovely.  We could not resist one, of course.  I am rather proud of us, we didn't buy them all!

So there ya go, it was just a little 'shop' in Taupo. 

Now, hmmm... back to that housework I suppose.

ONWARD...

10.45 am, and NO Sharon, the linen cupboard is far from finished!

I did the housework.  I put two ginger loaves in the oven.  And now, finally, I am working on the linen cupboard.

How many towels do two people need?

I have about 30.

Some are going into the 'give away' pile.  But how many????

ABOVE:  My lounge right now.  *sigh*

Once everything was out of the cupboard, I started putting a few things back in... then ran out of energy.

So we went out for lunch, to The Lookout again.  Another lovely lunch.

Then we went to Mitre 10 for a couple of things, had a quick look in Early Settler and came home.

We just had a piece of ginger loaf each.. his with no crystalised ginger in it, and mine did have some in it.  I also 'tweaked' the recipe a bit, and added crushed pineapple to give it a bit more moistness, as the original recipe was very dry. VAST improvement I must say.

I'm now about to tackle the rest of the linen...

🤣😉 ALL the excess linen has already been picked up and taken to a new home!

And we have finished the linen cupboard as well.

I've now got some stuff from Crabby Quarters on the two empty shelves in the linen cupboard.  So much less clutter in C.Q. now. 

THAT WAS A BIG WIN WIN on so many levels.

8.10 pm.  Coco had a play date over with Steve, Bex and family this afternoon.   So we went over and picked her up late afternoon.

Once home again, we both just blobbed out, and will continue to do so until bedtime.

I'm happy with how much we got done today.   Ya gotta love productive days.

ABOUT FACE

 

Last night when I signed off, I said we were not planning on going anywhere this long weekend.

Ha ha... change of plans.  We are now going to spend the day in Taupo.

We have not seen my Aunt Ethel and Uncle Frank for at least 18 months, and they have been on my mind a lot of late.  I don't want to lose touch with them, so I rang them last night and arranged to visit them today.

While down there, we will also visit my dear friend Sharon, who's recently moved into a new home.  She's very happy in her new abode, so it will be lovely to see her again as well.

ONWARD...

..

ABOVE: 11.18 am. Good  Morning  Kinloch. 

ABOVE : Kinloch donkeys... so cute.

ABOVE: 4.36 pm.... Last minute photo op'.... before leaving for home. Holding Cedric the Cat, our house warming gift to Sharon. 

Best sort of cat to have. 

6.45 pm, and we are home.  JUST in time for Stew to watch the rugby.  Poor man could have gone to the actual game with his mates, had we not been in Taupo.  But, we didn't know that when we left this morning, so NOT MY FAULT! 😂😅😖

We had a very enjoyable day out. It was nice to see family, Ethel is just two weeks out from having a hip replacement, so our timing was great.  She wasn't in TOO much pain, and well on the road to recovery.

Seeing Sharon, and her son Samuel was really lovely as well.  I was given a huge bag of foam chips from Sharon, I can use them with my Scrappy Dolls.  Thanks Chick.

The traffic was heavy coming home, but everyone was doing a steady speed, and there were no idiots.  

I got a pie I'd cooked a while ago out of the freezer before we left, so dinner is sorted.  I just have to get this update done then I can warm it up.

ABOVE: We did a tiny bit of shopping while in Taupo, a gift for Sharon (shown in an earlier photo), and couple of things for us.  I will show you tomorrow.

ABOVE: Pretty much the only time we saw the sun today, as it was trying to break through the clouds.  The clouds won.  It was just the most miserable day weather wise, cloud/fog/and more fog.  At least it didn't  rain! 

I'm going to bugger off now, get our dinner, then relax for the remainder of the evening.

Catch ya tomorrow.

LINEN CUPBOARD NIGHTMARE

 

In our last home we had 3 linen cupboards, and even more room when I used a wardrobe as well.

When we moved, I gave away a mass of linen, and only kept what we needed, plus a few spares.

But the linen cupboard here is just too small to even hold our minimum.  Some is in the attic in black sacks!

Today I am going to buy some of those vacuum pack bags... so I can suck the life out of some things, so they take up less room.  I'm hoping my stick vacuum does the job, if not... I'll have to borrow Lacy's vacuum.

This is the first home we've had that has not had much storage.  Don't downsize unless you are prepared for having to squeeze ya shit into smaller spaces!  I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was.

At least I've stopped crying now!  😂😅

After I've done that, I will make a start on quilting and binding the 11 runner tops I've just finished making. 

ABOVE: For weeks I've been stressing out about where I could lay out a big roll of batting in this house?

I thought I'd end up having to take it over to Steve 'n' Bex's to use their huge patio.

But no !  It fits (just) in my lounge.  So I cut out all 11 pieces I need for the 11 runners last night.  Now I shall cut out the backing fabric, then quilt... bla bla bla.

A few photos from last night:

ABOVE:  Lily loves having her photo taken!

ABOVE: And Archer does not mind at all.  He's blossomed over the past year, it's so wonderful to see.

ABOVE: Dante was like, NOPE, don't want me photo taken, rolling around on the floor with his shirt over his head.

ABOVE: And then he relented, and posed as only he can, with his baby sister.  She's so tiny next to him!

ABOVE: And not to be left out is our Marley.  She's giving me the side eye, cos she doesn't like having her photo taken either.  😂😅😖
ONWARD... 

11.05 am, and I've been out, bought vacuum bags, picked up the vacuum from Lacy, gassed up my car and now I'm home.

ABOVE:  I'm now going to do this job tomorrow, with Stew's help. He will LOVE that.  😂😅 

So now, it's back to sewing.  Something I can do on me own.

ABOVE:  Well, I only got this one totally finished today.  It didn't have the red border fabric originally, but I decided to add it, to give it a bit more oomph, and size.  I think it looks awesome.  Bright, but awesome.  Somebody is gunna love it.

I started the next one, but only got half the quilting done before Stew arrived home.  I don't like to sew once he gets home, as that is 'our' time together.

So, a nice evening stretches ahead, and a long weekend to look forward to.

We don't have any plans to go away, bearing in mind his knee is still slowing him down too much.

So, we will have some small outings, nothing too far from home.

Catch ya tomorrow.

USUAL THURSDAY AROUND HERE

 

I shall start today with some boring old housework, followed by starting my next runner.

ABOVE:  I have laid out the fabric for this one already.  I'm feeling quite excited to be doing something really different this time.  I even found a nice fabric for the centre piece too.

I'm thinking of adding something (in applique') to the centre piece as well.  but that will happen later on.

I will be taking a break from the sewing at 10 am, and heading down to the Community Centre for Coffee and Chat.

I wonder if the man who was going to take 'The Headmistress' to task at the meeting yesterday turns up.  If he does it will be interesting to see if he says anything about 'it' or not.

I know he owes me and a few others an explanation, after insisting we all attend that meeting to 'support him'.  

ONWARD...

9.10 am.  Housework - Done.

Quick morning walk - Done.

ABOVE: It was looking promising...

ABOVE:  There is a river there... somewhere!

ABOVE:  But the fog was sooooo thick, I couldn't even see the river!  I did a quick walk, until I didn't feel safe, and turned around and came home again.  It was just too secluded, dark and foggy.

Better to be safe than sorry.

I am now heading over to Spotlight for more plain black fabric for the backings of all those runners.  

ABOVE:  Black fabric acquired, and on sale as per usual. Spotlight is now like Briscoes, there is ALWAYS a sale on.  

And then off to the supermarket for FOUR things.

And a MIRACLE HAPPENED.  

I only bought those FOUR THINGS!!!!

Next, off to Coffee and Chat.  Which was nice, not as many there today as it is cold and miserable outside.

Now I'm home and making some lunch, then I can get into Crabby Quarters and get some work done.
Sorry, I forgot to say, NO ... Big Mouth did not turn up.  Funny that.

ABOVE: Today's runner top is done.  I was going to embellish it with a maple leaf in the middle, but now that it's done, I can see it doesn't need it at all.  It's already really beautiful.  

I am now going to take a break until Stew gets home, then I'll take him to the pub and visit the kids.  Just the usual Thursday evening.

11 pm:  Well as I thought, it was a normal Thursday evening.

I got to spend some time with the kids, which is always enjoyable.

Picked Stew up from the pub then came home.  Watched a bit of telly then... off to bed.

YET. ANOTHER. RUNNER.

 

There I was thinking Stew loved ginger cake/loaf, and I put heaps of crystalised ginger chunks in, and on top, of what I baked yesterday.  ONLY to discover he doesn't like crystalised bloody ginger!

WTF?  He likes ginger cake/loaf, just not the chunky ginger.  I'm the opposite, of course I am.  😖😕  So now I get to eat the top half of the loaf, and he gets the bottom! lol

Today I am starting another really GREEN Kiwiana Runner, like the one I got done yesterday.

I think after that one I'll make 1 or 2 brown hued runners, then move on to quilting and binding them all.

That's going to take a bit of time, cos there's going to be about 12 to do.

Oh well, just as well I like being busy eh?

There is the monthly Residents Meeting in the village this afternoon.  I don't usually bother going anymore as they are usually a bit boring.  But I'm going today as I know shit is going to hit the fan!  At Coffee & Chat yesterday one of the men there said he was going to take 'The Headmistress' to task about 'something', and we all should be there to see what's going on.

Hmmmm.

'The Headmistress', as he calls her, is the Chairperson of the Residents Committee, and also the lady who 'runs' our Craft Group.  She used to be a teacher, and you can tell.  Hence the nick name this man has given her.

So... the meeting might be a bit more interesting today.  It's not on until mid afternoon, so I'll be sure and let ya know how that goes... later.

ONWARD...

11.35 am.

I've not started sewing yet.  Instead, I went out to Tamahere (Bower Bird Fabric shop), Matangi (Tis The Season Fabric Shop) and lastly, back here in Hamilton, Backstreet Bargains.

ABOVE:  I got all but one piece of those fabrics from the first two shops, and the last one piece from Backstreet Bargains.

I WISH I had remembered that Backstreet Bargains Kiwiana fabrics are the cheapest anywhere!  I bought some up in Auckland the other day for $36 a metre, at Backstreet Bargains it is $24.50.   Grrrr. 

So anyway, I'm pretty well stocked up again with Blues and Greens.  I doubt I'll need to get any more for the remainder of the year.

Shit it's been an expensive year for my sewing!  New machine and lots of fabric.

I told Stew the other day I'm stocking up NOW, cos one day we won't be able to afford it.  Forward planning and all that.

I've just had an early lunch and will take a little while to relax, then head into Crabby Quarters until 2 pm.

2pm..  the meeting has just started....

AND... I and several other people who specifically attended the meeting today left feeling quite disgruntled.  He who was going to cause a fuss and 'blow The Headmistress up',  DIDN'T. He totally backed down and gave an apology for 'misunderstanding' instead.  WTF?
I was so looking forward to a good, heated discussion.

I have to say it, that particular man is obnoxious, a total bore, and a few other adjectives not so nice, all rolled into one.  Worse, he's a very close neighbour. NOT the one who caused a stink over our shed either.  Seems there's a few arseholes who live quite close to us, sadly.

But thankfully, on a whole, most people in this village are lovely.  

I'm now warming up under my heated throw, cos I got really cold down in the village Community Centre.  When you walk into the Centre from outside, it feels really warm, but once you sit down for a length of time, it's NOT warm.

Remind me not to attend any more of those meetings, they really are damn boring. 

ABOVE: Runner of the day, and I am almost ready to turn around and start quilting and binding them all!

ONE more to make though, a brown hued one.  Tomorrow.

Stew went down to the gym, as he's been doing several nights in a row now.  I joined him after finishing that runner.

Now we are going to be boring old farts, and watch the telly, have something to eat then head off to bed.

Catch ya tomorrow.

A LOAF, A HOUSEKEEPER, ANOTHER RUNNER

 

Today I plan on making a ginger loaf/cake.  I had a piece at craft group last week and it was delicious!  So, Stew is keen for me to have a go at making one.

I bought all the necessary ingredients over the last couple of days, so I'm ready to go.

I've got Lacy coming over today I think? Not 100% on that one, she might be coming tomorrow.

ABOVE:  The centre fabric is what I tried to buy more of yesterday.  Apparently it is a Nutex fabric, created 8 years ago.  No longer made, which is so typical.  I find a fabric I love and can only get the very last of it.  😕😔

I managed to get 1.3 metres of it, so possibly enough to use it in 3-4 runners.

I'm looking forward to making it today.

There is a 'Coffee & Chat' meeting down in the Community Centre this morning, so if I get the loaf made in time, I'll wander down there for an hour or so.                                            

I enjoy the coffee and chats.

ONWARD...

9.05 am and the loaf has been in the oven for WAY longer than the recipe said!  It was supposed to be done after 45 minutes, but so far it's been in for 75 minutes, and it's still not cooked in the middle.  Maybe my oven is not as HOT as I think?

I'm keeping a track of how many times I 'up' the time, for next time I cook it.

ABOVE: Finally, after 80 minutes, it was done.  It split in the middle because I had to ram a knife in it to keep checking if it was done or not!  Next time I won't have to do that.

Once it's cooled I'll take it out of the cake pan and ... taste it!  lol

I put chunks of crystalised ginger over the top of it, which wasn't in the recipe, but as L had done it, I did too.

It's a cold, foggy, miserable day... the sun is trying it's best of win.  Maybe in another hour or two it will have burnt through?  But right now, it's COLD.  Probably not as cold as other places, sorry other places.

Morning tea and chat was nice, always some interesting topics discussed.

Lacy did a wonderful job of the housework, and cleaned the exterior of my car as well.

I have another ginger loaf in the oven.  I have changed a couple of things.

1.  Upped the temperature to 180 instead of 170.

2. Put the crystalised ginger throughout the entire mixture, not just on the top.

3. Put the mixture in a cake tin, instead of a loaf tin.  So it's thinner, should cook quicker.

4. Put a tiny bit of Baking Powder in the mix, as it was VERY dense.  

Let's see what happens with that shall we?

Lacy does not like ginger, but she tasted the loaf.  HATED IT.  Weird girl.

ABOVE:   5.30 pm.  I finally got today's runner top finished.  I love it, there's no aqua in this one.  It really is totally green.

And look at that, I FINALLY found the best way to take a freakin' good photo of runners!  On the back of a door.  Why the hell didn't I think of that like... YEARS AGO?

I just need to paint said door white, so it's a 'clean' background.  Maybe I shall do that very soon.

In fact, I want to paint all the interior doors white, so perhaps that will be my winter project.

I am attending WW this evening, just for the meeting side of it, and of course, to say hi to those who I've come to know a bit.  

7.15 pm, and I'm just in from the WW meeting. It was a nice meeting.

And now it's time to wind down for the day, and just blob out.

Catch ya tomorrow.

IS HE FIXED, OR NOT???

 

This morning I am driving over to the lake, having a walk, then going into Frankton to pick up Mc DREAMY!  

FOR.  THE.  FIFTH.  TIME.  He has been backwards and forth from Sewing Machine World's repairman since December 18th last year.

MAYBE, just maybe, this time he is fixed?

I am NOT holding my breath to be honest.  If one technician can't find and fix the problem in 5 months, how can a new repairman do it in a week?  I'm so sceptical. 

Let's hold our breath and see... I can't pick him up until 10am when the shop opens.  I won't be leaving the shop before making the lady test it in front of me, FOR SURE!

If all goes well, I will take Mc Dreamy to the Village Craft Room and use him there. 

Late yesterday I finished the first of two (for now) Red/Black/White Braid runner tops.

ABOVE: And there it is.  It needs to be quilted and have binding added, but not yet.  I'm working on having about a dozen ready for those steps, and do them over a few days.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: He's back! He works!

And I'm at craft group, so I'll do a fuller update once I'm home later.

Well it is much later!   

First up, I got to Sewing Machine World and spent an hour there, getting Mc Dreamy and a few fabrics.  NOT a lot of fabric, but it took forever cos Neil can TALK, and talk and talk!

I told him if he didn't hurry up he was buying me lunch, cos I'd still be there at lunchtime. lol

So he hurried up, but it still took him an hour to cut up about 8 pieces of fabric for me.

After that I went to Craft Group, and made this runner top:

ABOVE: It is very similar to yesterday's one, but not identical.  I used Mc Dreamy, and he went like, well... a dream.  😂😊

Funny story.

The group of us ladies at Craft Group were discussing how we are often asked by various people to 'hem this, alter that, make this for charity' and so on.

I said I always just say NO, cos I'm too busy doing my own thing, or I simply do not support that charity.  Or I don't like that person!

So that was the discussion going on when next thing, a lady from the village walks into our room and starts asking 'any sewers' if we could sew up these dresses for Samoan children???

There was only three of us 'sewers' in the room.  I turn around and catch the eye of one of our ladies and she almost bursts into laughter.  My look must have said it all.

I SUDDENLY HAD SELECTIVE HEARING LOSS... and although the lady asking for us to make the dresses went on and on about it, I just kept on sewing my runner and ignored her.

Once she left, there were quite a few laughs.

After craft group, I decided one of the fabric I had bought in the morning was just adorable, and I thought, I'll go back to Sewing Machine World right now and buy more.

It was DELICIOUS walking back into the shop just to see Neil's face drop!  He thought I was back to say Mc Dreamy wasn't going!!!!

I let him sweat for a minute, then put him out of his misery.  He called me a bad word... in jest of course.

It was a wasted trip, cos seems I had bought the last of the fabric I wanted more of, and there's none left anywhere.  Damn.

I'm now home, and about to unload the car.  I used it to get around today, I had too much to do, carry and so on.

And now, it's 8.45 pm.  We are watching the telly.. and will be off to bed fairly soon.  We are both tired... too many nights with interrupted sleep.  Thanks to the knee pain still.

Catch ya tomorrow.