A tale of two dresses...

It must have been years since I sewed myself a successful garment...I've done plenty of sewing, but haven't managed to make anything which is actually wearable. I was inspired to try another dress (this one didn't really work out like I'd imagined) by this post. It is a really easy dress to make and I am pleased to say my first effort was so successful (the chambray one) that I followed it up with a matching one!


And even better: now I can match our cushions.

Applesauce

Applesauce is not as exciting as it sounds - it's actually just an American name for pureed apple with a teeny pinch of cinnamon. Anyway, I saw this recipe the other day and seeing as I happened to have truckloads of pureed apple lying around (truly), I thought I'd whip it up for last night's NZNTM final.



Now, mine is not nearly as nice looking as the one in the recipe I used, my icing wasn't as thick and white and gorgeous looking, and I am not as flash a photographer as the folk at Smitten Kitchen, and I actually was unable to taste this as I still have a blocked nose, but the half dozen people who have tried it all say it is delicious...although I'm sure no-one would tell me otherwise anyway!

...and Danielle won, which was terrific - we whooped and clapped and shook our fists in the air!

Butterflies in my stomach...

I tried to distract myself by making a lovely time-consuming quiche for my lunch....


..and by finishing my latest sewing project with this fabric...


...but nothing can calm the butterflies I get in my stomach when I think about watching the final of New Zealand's Next Top Model tonight!!! OMG! Who will win? Danielle? Michaela? Elza? I so want it to be Danielle but I'm just not sure she can quite pull it off...

Eeek! I can't wait!

Feels like summer..

It was so lovely and warm today...I wore a short dress! And we ate lunch outside!


Salads, and smoked chicken and bread (which I am ashamed to say I didn't bake myself - I've had a cold this week and things have slipped a little in that department)..


..and we even got the deck chairs out for some lounging around. Matt sat on one and it broke. Total bummer. He is not fat. We don't know why it happened.


Boo came and sat with us too. Clem slept - for a brief while it felt like old times with just the three of us. Bliss.

Baking like a demon..

I'm not sure if it is the crazy weather we're having (at one point today I sat in the sun and thought I was getting burnt but now I am wrapped up inside with the heater on while it howls and rains outside), the huge aftershock we had today (a real doozy, the whole house felt like it was lifted and then smashed back into the ground), or just a general desire to go nuts in the kitchen, but I have really challenged myself in the baking department over the past day or so.

Firstly I made a chocolate and orange cake of Nigella Lawson's - from this blog. It wasn't so hard, but used muscavado sugar which was a little exciting for me. It was delicious and moist but unfortunately I don't have photos to prove it.

Then after reading this post this morning (that blog is an odd one - it's kind of sponsored by Fisher & Paykel and so you would expect it to be a bit sucky but it's actually pretty nice - they have lovely photos and good recipes), I got all excited about Belgian Biscuits and got down and dirty with a rolling pin.


These are a fiddly cookie if ever there was one - firstly you have to make the dough then refrigerate it, then roll it, bake the cookies, fill them with jam, ice them and then sprinkle them with red sugar that you also have to make along the way. What was I thinking? And the whole process was interrupted by the aforementioned aftershock and the ensuing phone calls and texting... Anyways, it was worth the effort because Belgian biscuits are probably in my top five of favourite cookies..



...and I had two sets of visitors and I took some round to a friend's place, so I was also able to be showered in baking praise which is always gratifying. Except for Sylvia (age 3) who outright told me she didn't like the cake. Ah well, you can't please everyone.

You know you're serious about baking when..

...you buy flour in a bag which comes with it's own handle.


Yes, the daily bread is still trucking!

New bunting!

Recently I saw some lovely bunting somewhere (I forget exactly where) - it was made with circles of lovely fabrics. This weekend I thought I'd try and whip up some of my own...



I'm not sure if it is exactly what I was going for, but it's kind of cool, and I think it could look nice in a little kid's bedroom, yes?

One step backwards

Well, we all thought we were on the downhill slide towards summer but then yesterday a massive storm blew in from Antarctica, and it rained and hailed and there were even a few flakes of snow at our place.


Matt biked to work (yikes!) but Boo and I spent the day indoors and I got a little sewing done.


And I tried not to listen to this song which has been stuck in my head for nearly four days now. Seriously. Don't listen to it unless you want it stuck in yours too...you have been warned.

The luckiest fish in Christchurch?

Christchurch has a number of significant landmarks including the Ferrier Fountain outside the Town Hall...


...Neil Dawson's Chalice in Cathedral Square..


..the giant chess board (also in Cathedral Square)...


..the Peacock Fountain in the Botanic Gardens...


...and Phil Price's Nucleus sculpture on High Street.


Well, now some very lucky goldfish in C1 cafe also have these well-known Christchurch sites in their little city too!

This is getting ridiculous...

Okay, a bit of a baby rant here...I have lots of baby books (touchy feel-y ones, harsh routine-y ones and everything in between) And they all have bucketloads of advice for how to get your baby to sleep and how to trouble shoot when things aren't going well (waking due to hunger, crying due to tiredness etc etc blah blah blah).

But I can't find a chapter in any of them on how to tackle the problem of your baby waking up at the crack of dawn because some stupid earthquake has jolted them from their slumber....!!!


(source: nzherald.co.nz)

This is happened two mornings in a row....hrmph.

Da best...

Remember how the boys had six websites in the finals of the Best awards? Well, the award ceremony was last week - and they like, totally cleaned up....This website won gold, and they also got two silvers and three bronzes and a purple pin to say they are the bestest of the best web designers...


Here they are on the big night with Dean Poole from Alt Group. Whoop whoop!

Sunhat

All this sunshine has necessitated a sunhat for the kid. I made him this one yesterday and we went to the park to try it out. I think he liked it, but I'm not sure I do. I didn't really intend to go for the multiple patterns when I started, in fat this was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Not sure what happened there. I'll have to give it another go - I'm thinking a thin stripe or even seersucker could be cool.

Doggy love

We have had some amazing weather this past week - bright, cool mornings and glorious long sunny days. On Saturday, we made the most of it by starting the day with a walk with Jo and Digby...


These guys are totally in love. They have known each other since Digby was a puppy. One of these days I'll get a decent video of the two of them playing. Until then, this action shot will have to do:

Icky but amazing...

Just another pair of bare feet? No, these belong to Ron Mueck's Pregnant Woman. I was lucky enough to go to the preview this morning at the Christchurch Art Gallery of the exhibition which opens this weekend. It was amazing, and icky. He makes such life-like sculptures of people of all scales - some gigantic, some tiny, some dead, some alive, some old and some young.


Photos don't do it justice. If you are in Christchurch then go. Please.


Although I was particularly impressed with the feet, it was the sheer scale of some of the works that blew me away....


...and I was quite taken by the big hairy man with a big hairy back who had such a realistic pimple on his back I just wanted to reach out and squeeze it...it didn't feel right to take a photo of a pimple so I didn't, but now I regret it.

I took Clem - he wasn't as impressed as I had hoped he'd be. He was more interested in my companion...giant babies? Enormous bearded men? No thanks, I'll take the real life lady in the bright blue cardigan.