Sorry Little einsteins

But Jake cant help you on your mission this afternoon (for those who dont watch LE, they ask the child to help them solve the issue and go on a mission, Jake said No, I asked why not?) because hes....
"To big to fit in the TV" !!
Oh dear I said, Im sure you can squeeze you in if you wanted Jake?
"No its square, Im not."

Fair enough I guess.

Anyway today I was bored waiting for the porridge to cool down this morning so made a bag for Jakes inhaler. I used some monster fabric that was used to wrap a swap I recieved a while ago (... 2 yrs ago...) and always planned on making something out if it. See it pays to put things off and stock pile fabrics sometimes you do NEED it ;)

The inhaler goes in the pocket (still to be snapped) and spacer in the main body of the bag.

I even got out the hammer and put in a proper eyelet.

And for good measure, Jake with his inhaler, I covered it in stickers to make it more fun. But hes actually accepted it well and already asks for it when he gets wheezy (not bad for a few days of use!)

Then this morning we went Strawberry picking. Much easier then Blueberry picking... almost too easy... Didnt take long to fill four icecream containers at all.

Jake and Mum

Grans bum was in the way of some good ones... and yes she knocked him over when she stood up and yes I just stood there and took a picture and didnt give any form of warning about the child behind her...

M, L and Z, L was the master at picking the green ones... ;)

The loot. 3 icecream containters full. (M took one)

And Ive been Pav and meringue making! I wanted to do some meringues so Jake didnt miss out, as the pav is going to have cream on it. (Mean mummy will NOT have pav without cream!! ;) ) I put 100s n 1000s on them. Will take most of them to the bbq tonight at a friends. (odd looking because I dont have a piping bag, tried to make one but the bottom seam brust and I had mixture oozing ut of two places! so mish mash meringues it is!)

And my Pav... Its a pretty good looking pav too if I dont say so myself!

I think I may have found the secret to pav making..... At first when I started I thought I was a bit mad.... towards the end I decided that yes I was in fact a bit mad... but look at that pav! And what secret weapon am I talking about???.....

A hand held mixer! Haha, I have a normal big mixer but it is missing a beater... for the last three years! I dont think it will ever show up :( but Yes I did make both a pav and meringues with a $12 warehouse handheld mixer!! It got a bit hairy towards the end, when the handle even got too hot hold and the pav was cooking on the beaters, but Im sure that happens often?? I pushed forward and figured hey worse case I kill my cheap mixer, $12... I can spare it so long as the pav works! then it got a bit smokey smelling (well a LOT smokey smelling!) so I stopped... Decided it was beaten enough anyway. Wonder if it will work next time I try to use it!

Ive also finished off Jakes outfits and made a last minute crayon roll. Im suprised I got the clothes done! Just have to snap them tonight, Im wanting to use jean snaps but I cant find my tool for it!! Dam! Will have a proper hunt for them later, fingers crossed its somewhere simple!

Kmart tree day

Jake was still too sick for care today (First time on a new antibotic so I wanted to keep an eye on him, plus he was still a bit wheezy and needed his inhaler a few times) So we jumped on the bus and dropped the presents off at Kmart. They had a scale this year aiming for 5000! 5000! Thats lot of kids in Hamilton going without! (I assume its for local kids because they collect until xmas eve so dont have the time to transport the gifts else where) Sadly it was only at 250-300 :( I wish we could do more. Jake took great effort in carefully and nicely placing them under the tree, so cute :)

After this we went for 'icecream' Jake was limited to a choice of two sorbets (only dairy free items) but he really wanted one of their monster icecreams so I asked the girl serving us if she could make it a monster and she did, right down to rolling it in the coating (but it didnt show agaisnt the bright red) Thank you very much Wendys :) She didnt even charge more for it. Totally made his day :D (He had eaten the nose and mouth before I got a chance to take the pic but you can just make out the eye balls on the last pic.)

Oh and apperently waffle cones "taste like wheatbix" hahaha.

Today I did Jakebs name out of wooden blocks covered in scrapbooking paper, I totally stole the idea off Laura http://kahurangiskies.blogspot.com/2009/12/manaia.html Which makes for a change ;) I think it looks great, wonderful idea, now I have to work out how to put it on the wall still...

'Tis the season...

For Blueberry picking!!
Jakes most loved berry (He begs me to buy them if hes spots them, at $6 a punnet eeeek!) So decided to go and pick them ourselves, which is more fun then supermarket shopping, and teaches Jake were food actually comes from (not a clear plastic container shock horror!)
I was hoping it would cheer him up a little too as hes unwell today so missed out on his last day of homebased care (But we popped in to say bye and deliever the lolly tree, so he was happy with that.)
The Berry company is just past Ohaupo and it costs $8.50 kg (and punnet is 250g!! MEGA savings!!)

Inspecting the berry...

CLose up of a wee bunch.

The car was down the end there.... somewhere... We went in deep in the row to get to where it hadnt been picked muched but....

There was still miles behind us untouched! And there where rows and rows and rows of this! Amazing, and both sides of the road. Great set up and the staff were lovely too. Plus it was a lovely sunny day.

Blueberry bush, I was hoping to show all the blue but couldnt get close enough, just believe me when I say there was alot of blueberries!

The smaller one of the three containers we filled. We ended up with 6kg! We though it was Much more, total cost was $50, which is brillant. We are going to freeze a lot for blueberry smoothies, blueberry icecream, mum brought me an icecream maker a few weeks back to make Jake dairy free icecream, I imagine homemade blueberry yoghurt icecream will be divine!! *droool* blueberry muffins, blueberry cheesecake......

They taste fab too, much nicer the store brought, theres no tarty bite to them. Next we are going strawberry picking, Jakes second fave, hoping for xmas eve day. I just have to hunt down a place that does it.

And then to finish off the day we ended up at accident and medical with Jake :S Will add pics later of his new toy! Hes all now good tho, him and his 11 items of medication!!! Thank god hes free to medicate! Again lovely staff and very quick process, we probably waited the same amount of time you would if you were at your normal GP with an appt. Just awesome, I dont know why more people dont use it instead of waiting up at the hospital or Accident and emergancy (and pay for children!) for hours.

Why I love my house

Even if it is a very dodgy area, it has so many benefits.

1st one being the massive plum tree right outside our lounge! (My landlord owns next door too which includes the vacant section he wants to sell off, so we have permission to help ourselves) If the pic was closer you would see the whole branch Jakes holding has plums all the way along it, hes so excited! The weight of the plums is making the bunches sag within reach so even better.


Rubbish picture, but its an apple tree covered in apples :) Theres two on the section, two different types too! Double bonus! Theres also a peach tree, Fejoa tree and Orange tree. Im in self seffcient heaven, soon our fruit bill will be zilch.

My garden that I installed. I need another as I run out of room. off the top of my head theres silverbeet, lettuces, toms, corn, cauli, brocs, brussel spourts (purple ones) onions, Marigolds and cornflowers, Chickpeas and spaghetti squash and more. (soon vegie bill... Zilch ;) )
Close up of one of the Spaghetti squashes, one vine is HUGE (mass of green growing upwards in the far left corner in the above pic) and is producing a lot of female flowers (as well as male) so looks like Ill be getting a good crop *touch wood* I've never grown it before so was going to be happy with just one squash as a tester.

My Chickpeas, spourted from dried peas out of my cupboard, I was not expecting much from them but they are starting to flower so they might be furtile after all! (they are ment to be heat treated and not spourtable! Ha!) Never grown them before so will be interesting, I cant wait to try fresh chickpeas, yum!

Strawberry patch!! Its doing so well I might have to expand it out next year to make room for the new growth. Theres also garlic growing. (Companion planting) Sadly none are ripe at the moment a couple more days and they will be. (Second round of fruiting) The round tub Jakes standing on and the far one has Rhubarb in it and Ive just planted Popcorn in one, I was hoping to have another raised bed ready by now for it but life has been in the way so we will see how it goes. Hopefully its not too close to the sweetcorn so we wont get cross pollination.

Plus I have four bedrooms, one of which is full of my sewing and craft stuff and a garage. I am happy to overlook the horrid street for a little bit longer, esp. while the sun is shining and making everything look so wonderful! :D

Trees, Poop, Jake and chooks.

I am totally loving the fact I have time to do things this year for christmas, normally I end up working hiddous hours and have no time to do any of the things I want too. This is definately a bonus and reward for working my butt off at tech!
Trees: The best kind of all... Lolly ones! These three were made the other night, the sliver one has Guylin chocs and is for Jakes homebased carer (he goes there one day a week) The other two were for friends of Mums.

I just love the green one. It looks very tree like ;)

And the mother of all trees....

For Jakes childcare center teachers and staff, I brought 10 bags of lollies and about one bag worth was left! It weighed a ton, but Jake managed to carry it in to the center :D he was so proud.

Poop.... ??

Reindeer poop of course. Quick wee gifts, Im giving to friends. *note to self dont make all the bags up and leave them on the table in the afternoon sun!!* Arrrgh. I had to start all over again, but at least I scored some poop out of it ;)

Jakeb, not a very good shot :( but hes dancing and I think its cute! Hes got so much more energy now that hes not eating Dairy, Im amazed. In the background on the ranchslider is a big painting he did, apperently its me ;) :D

And Jake "building mum a house" Im going to hold him to this... I expect a similar house built when hes a fully trained architect!

Chooks, my youngest babies! Who still think they belong inside! (I hand raised them form a week old, so they did use to be inside) Cant wait until they start laying, Im hopeing it will be my xmas gift! I love the fluffy butts at the top of the pic lol

Thats a roll.

Ive been busy sewing for christmas, I decided to do a felt roll as Jakeb's Santa gift at the childcare party last week (Colourful elephant one on the left in the pic below) and I loved the effect so I made some for my best buddies two boys, by now Ive finded tuned the process and can knock them out in 20mins including material deciding time ;) and ironing. So I decided to make some for the Kmart wishing tree. Fingers cross the boys and girls that recieve them like them! Ive modified the 'orginal' concept of ribbon closure and use elastic to close it as I found Jake cant manage the ribbon very well (yet) and the elastic is quicker then winding the ribbon around a few times.
All rolled up....


Crayon rolls (top to bottom) Denim with dog paw and bone print - Kmart tree (4-6yrs?), Cowboy bears - Logan (friends son), Flowers in yellows and greens - Suprise gift for someone ;), Black fabric with small skull pattern - Tazman (Friends son) his has Magic markers in it which change colours.

Bigger rolls (T 2 B) Jakes elephant roll, Two flowery with contrasting dots inside pencil rolls - Kmart tree - Im hoping the flower print will appeal to older girls (14-16yrs) as they are one of neglected ages, I also included ballpoint pens and writing pencils. Camo print felt roll - Kmart tree - preteen boy? (9-12?)

Now we just have to go and buy a gift with Jake's advent calendar money and we are ready to drop them off at Kmart :)

How to make christmas last forever

According to a 3 year old?...

We refill the empty pockets of our advent calendar with our felt pens and blocks! Bless him! He must of noticed they were all almost empty and didnt want the daily fun to end. Sadly Mum is a party pooper and is not doing christmas forever ;) Just wait untill he discovers the last day = lots of presents the next morning.

Excuse the odd photo the wind was blowing the calendar around.

This has to be one of the best purchases I ever made in relation to Christmas (bar my wonderful living totara chrissy tree). I got it last year from a fabric store in ChCh, I think it was really cheap like $5 a panel and just needed sewing up, so glad this year to have it now that Jake is Dairy free so those horrible choc ones are definately out now. Its filled with small toy cars, bikes, parachute men, stickers, the odd lolly and money. The money gets saved up and then we go to the shops and Jake picks a present to put under the Kmart wishing tree. This year will be interesting because Jake has a bit more understanding now, and we have been having converstations about children that dont get any presents because their mummies and daddies have had a hard year. (Altho Im sure this contradicts the 'Santa' story?! yet another reason Im not keen on 'Santa' but thats whole other post ;) )

First post!

Wow that was easy to sign up! Thank goodness. I thought it was time I started a blog, after all everyone seems to have one!
Mostly I have started this to track what I have been doing with my self. The next 2.5yrs are going to be crazy ones, so this might be the only way I remember it. Plus I think Jake will have fun looking back at it too :)
Crazy n loud but fun?? Anyone that knows me will understand this ;)