Spring?

well I have some flowers at least.  These ones will be winging their way to Rachel for a very belated birthday present!

As for the weather - bah humbug.

What has been happening round here?

1. We have had a run of birthdays - Sept is our "birthday" month in our family.  My 2 sisters, SIL and Mr7 all have birthdays one after the other.  Mr7 was stoked to get lots and lots of lego which is his current obsession.  (Thomas is on the out and out).  Fortunately I've been keeping an eye on the sales and got some good deals.

He had a low key party with some mates over to play lego.

And of course, the inevitable train cake which he requests every year since I bought this particular cake pan.  Worth the NZ$25.00!

2. We have had more than our fair share of sickies.  Various permutations of the cold virus with a bit of tonsillitis for Mr7 thrown in.

3. I have to give a paper at an e-fest in Hamilton with a colleague of mine. Neither of us were particularly keen but we were shoulder tapped to do it. It's the first time I've done this sort of presentation.

4. DH got 9 images accepted for a book being published in November by the publisher Potton.  It's going to be called New Zealand: Eye on the Landscape so if you see it take a look.  DH is feeling chuffed about this one and rightly so.

Personally I am ready for some decent weather and a few days off during the school holidays.  

Have you read/listened

To my librarian colleague Michael's podiobook The Spiral Tattoo?

Here is the blurb:

When you're six inches tall and can fly, life can be tough in a big persons world. What better then than to be partnered with a seven foot troll. She’s the brawn and I’m the brains, and if you believe that I have a castle to sell you. She joined the guard to gain respectability, I joined the guard to escape. I’m Gurt and she’s Elanore Fursk. Don’t forget it.

In the darkened alleys of Delvenport the discovery of a naked corpse sets off a surprising chain of events. Leads will unravel at every turn, although Elanore appears to know what’s going on. I just tag along for the ride. With the rising tide of drugs, magic and ambition that threatens to engulf our city, trouble will lurk in our every shadow. But as long as no-one puts a knife in Elanore, or calls me a girly voiced fairy then the bodies won’t be piled too high.

Otherwise all bets are off!

I had the honour of reading the manuscript and enjoyed it a lot - am looking forward to the sequel. :-P  No pressure Michael!

If you like crime, mystery and especially in a different world then this one will appeal.

In which more felting is done | Reading round up August

This one is for a friend.

August Reading Round Up

This month has been a slow reading month.  I've had a bit of stuff going on which means I've not had time to sit and read.  I realise how much I read/ate by myself at lunch time in my old job whereas here I tend to eat lunch with colleagues and chat.  I miss it actually.  I think I need the downtime. At the Main campus I don't have easy access to the public library's collection like I do at Waitakere so actually getting to the library requires an effort.  Having the iPad means DH has been buying quite a few ebooks so he hasn't been inititating any visits either. 

Hobson's chance / Jenny Haworth.
Travelling to England in 1830 with her brother, Anita Hobson is desperate and in love. She has been torn from her homeland by family who believes she will be implicated in the actions of her criminal fiance who has been transported to Australia. In a desperate bid to see him Anita takes a job as a governess in Australia. ~from the blurb
Her choice to take on the governess position eventually leads her and her ward to Australia and then to New Zealand.  I found the plot a bit plodding to be honest.  Some of the story seemed to be purposefully written to encompass particular events happening at the time that I'm not sure actually added anything to the plot.


Rifling through my drawers / Clarissa Dickson-Wright.
Autobiographical riffing.  I have to confess I didn't finish this one.  It got a bit boring and I didn't agree with some of her ideas so all in all I wasn't particularly motivated to finish.  It had heaps of holds on it so I took it back to the library.

Ashes to dust / Yrsa Sigurdardottir ; translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton. 
Bodies are discovered in one of the excavated houses at a volcanic tourist attraction dubbed 'The Pompeii of the North'. Markús Magnússon, who was only a teenager when the volcano erupted, falls under suspicion and hires attorney Thóra Gudmundsdottir to defend him - but when his childhood sweetheart is murdered his case starts to look more difficult, and the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up..."-- Publisher description
Great read - would read more of her work.  It kept me reading and had a surprisingly twisty ending.  I say surprising because I didn't expect the killer to be the person it was!


Six feet down under : memoirs of a New Zealand funeral director / Chris Mann.
There is an element of mystique about the funeral business that often leads people be very curious. This is Chris Mann's story from his early days as a Funeral Director's assistant through to becoming a Funeral Director himself. It covers stories of tragedy and laughter, from funerals attended by high class society to occasions when nobody at all attended"--Publisher's description.
This is a self-published book from what I can see, and as such it would have benefited from a skilled editor to enhance the story telling of some of the material.  Having said that I found it interesting given the location from which the book is written (Auckland) and the era from which is comes (80s-90s) is basically the time and place I grew up with.  I also find the whole ritual of funeral/death/grieving interesting from a sociological point of view.

Blogosphere Bookcircle of the Month

Novel about my wife / Emily Perkins. London : Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN: 9780747596509 (pbk.)

Tom Stone, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom's stalling career and their spiralling money troubles. But soon Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As their child grows, so too does Tom's sense of an impending, nameless threat. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.~ from the blurb

I have to admit, it has been a while since I read the book as it arrived in the library for me earlier in the year.  I do remember struggling a bit trying work out if the wife's problem was real or if she was imagining it, and the ending was decidedly confusing for me.  I had to re-read that part several times and I still don't actually understand how she dies.  But there it is. The story was gripping though and really gave a grimy, urban feel.

In which iPads are purchased & I make another scarf

I was sitting in the TELSIG plenary when I get a txt from DH saying "I can't have a camera but can I have an iPad?" [Back story = we're saving to replace my vehicle so I have said no new cameras until this is achieved]  The iPad was released in NZ on the 23rd July and while we had discussed their desirability - hey, this is a geek household - I hadn't thought more about it.  DH uses his iPod Touch a lot.  He travels for work regularly (been away 3 times this past week around the country) so it gets a work out.  So I gave him permission. :-)  Shortly after I got a txt saying it was charging up!

So yeah, a bit of an extravagance but sometimes compromises need to be made.

I have been allowed to play with it a bit and it is neat.  The children find it intuitive to use - Miss 3 now tries to press the screen on the laptop to make things "go". Tonight the Angry Birds app has been downloaded and there are 2 males agog trying to devise tactics to get rid of those pesky pigs.

My Mum turned 60 last weekend and we had a surprise party for her.  It's been hard work keeping it secret from her and also doing organising!  Her cousin and sister came over from Australia for the party.  Mum knew that J, her cousin was coming but not that her sister was also going to arrive.  So she had a surprise the morning before the party when N turned up on her doorstep!  She had asked me to felt a scarf for J so I made one in autumn colours.

It looks a lot less like a cow hide IRL! :-P

The party went well but I'm glad the stress of organising it has finished.

My new job is progressing.  I am finding it tricky because the role is new, the boundaries are fuzzy and I'm trying to build relationships with a bunch of folks we've not really had much to do with in the past.  It's crazy in a good way but I am really, really tired at the end of each day.  I am feeling some pressure from various sources to produce some feel good stories and that makes me nervous.  I had a bit of melt down on Monday over it which DH and kids had to bear the brunt of, (Mummy crying is never nice for them), but I hope I've managed to get my head above the water again.  I shouldn't be feeling sorry for myself and I'm not really - just would like to be able to meet the expectations of those I am working for (even though in 100 years it won't matter anyway). 

This morning I came out to the kitchen to discover a tiger was making me coffee ...

More felting & a recipe

I had a scarf for Mr6 laid out for a week before I finally got to felt it.  I wanted to try something I'd seen in a book whereby you embed marbles into the felt and use them as resists creating cell like structures as texture.  Mine didn't entirely turn out like the picture in the book but I've learned a few things along the way which may be useful for future creations.

Here it is laid out and sprinkled with soap before I put netting over the top.  The marbles are under the lime green ends.

Here it is wetted out and the felting process started.  It took quite a while actually.  I think the wool got cold very quickly and I've noticed the wool I got from Designscape seems to be harder to felt than the stuff from Kane Carding (the wool we used in the class).  I sopped up some excess and added some more hot water and soap (the white stuff on the ends) in the hopes that it would felt a bit more.

Working around the marbles was quite tricky.  Some of them popped through before I was finished which was annoying.  I did place them under 2 layers of wool but suspect more would have been better, however, that would have made the scarf too thick.  This technique would probably be better for things like bags.

Finally it was ready to roll 400 times.  The weight of the marbles meant I needed to wrap the outside of the roll with a tea towel so it didn't flop open all the time.

You can see one of those naughty escaping marbles here!  The fulling process has begun.  It gets folded up in the bubblewrap, wrapped in a towel and beaten against the table.

Now for the final fulling process.  Throwing it onto the bubble wrap!  Felting is quite physical work.

You can see the little cells the marbles make beginning to take shape on where the odd one has come out.  The scarf gets rinsed in clean water, then briefly soaked in a white vinegar/water mix to get rid of any remaining soap, and restore the pH of the wool to neutral.

Then the scarf must dry entirely before the marbles are cut out.  The final result looks a little like sea squirts, or the cells bumble bees make in their underground hives.

I made this recipe the other week - it was amazing.  I didn't bother with the individual pie thing, just served it as a stew with a mash.

Beef & caramelized shallot pies with cauliflower tops from Dish Issue 30, July-August 2010, p. 64

30 g butter
1 1/2 T olive oil
18 shallots, peeled but left whole
3 bay leaves
1 T sugar
1 T white wine vinegar
sea salt and pepper
1 kg chuck or blade steak
3 T flour
1 T tomato paste
1 cup red wine
2 t Dijon mustard
2 cups beef stock

Topping
1 large floury potato (about 300g), peeled and cubed
1/2 small cauliflower, about 350g, cut into florets
45g butter
3-4 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
6x individual pie tins

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.

Heat the butter & 1 T oil in a large saute pan until sizzling, add the shallots, bay leaves, sugar & vinegar.  Stir well then reduce the heat & cool the shallots slowly for 10-15 mins or until lightly golden but still holding their shape.  Season with a little black pepper then remove from pan and set aside.

Trim the beef of gristle, cute into cubes and toss in seasoned flour.  Heat remaining oil in the same pan, add the rest of the beef & cook until golden all over.  Stir in the tomato paste & red wine letting the wine bubble away then stir in the Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and beef stock. (Have to be honest here and say I didn't bother with the browning step.  It all got dumped in my clay pot, including the wine... none of this "bubbling away business thank you very much!)

Transfer the mixture to a casserole and cover the surface directly with baking paper. (Didn't bother with that step either.  Am so bad).  Cover the pan and cook in the oven for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours.  Remove from oven and leave to cool completely, preferably overnight.

Topping: Cook the potato and cauli in boiling salted water until tender.  Drain well and mash with the butter and Dijon mustard.  Season and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Line the pie tins with pastry and prick the base a couple of times using a fork.  Dived the cold filling & onions between the tins then top with the cauliflower mash.  Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins or until the tops are golden brown and filling is piping hot.  Serve with sauteed greens e.g kale.  Serves 6.

July Reading Round Up

The last two weeks have been frenetic.  I started my new position, spent 2 days there and then went to a conference in Wellington for 3 days.  The conference was good - will be blogging about it at Diligent Room - and I got to FINALLY meet Beverley who was good company while we browsed Wellington retail offerings.  And I got some new boots.

But all this stuff combined with newness of work routines has been quite tiring and yes, I have to say, a bit stressful.  It will get better I know.  As soon as I climb down from this wall.
 
Silent in the grave / Deanna Raybourn.
After receiving a threat, Sir Edward Grey - the darling of London society - dies suddenly. His widow Julia engages the enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's death.~from the blurb

Silent in the sanctuary : a Lady Julia Grey mystery / Deanna Raybourn.
Lady Julia returns to celebrate the holidays only to find her fathers home crowded with family, friends, and Nicholas Brisbane, the one man she had hoped to forget. The celebrations take a ghastly turn after a guest is found brutally murdered, and one of Lady Julias cousins confesses to the crime.~from the blurb

This is a new author for me and I'm rather pleased to have found her.  Her style is romantic suspense with a bit of Victorian Gothic novel thrown in.  I do like her characters too.  So far I've read these two (2nd one is the sequel to the first) and the two main characters haven't even made it into bed together yet so there is a lot of unfinished business you might say. 

Eat cake : a novel / Jeanne Ray.
Ruth draws on her talent for concocting delectable cakes and desserts when her family begins to disintegrate around her--her husband loses his job, her mother moves in, and her long-estranged father shows up at the door with no place to go.~from the blurb

Honestly?  It is a bit of marshmallow fluff really.  Made me want to eat cake.



The girl who kicked the hornet's nest / Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland.
"Lisbeth Salander will have her revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and against the government institutions that nearly succeeded in deliberately destroying her life... After sustaining appalling gunshot wounds to her head and her shoulder, she is in Intensive Care, and her most dangerous enemy is in the next-door ward. If she survives, she is set to face murder charges. Officially under police guard, she is allowed contact with only her surgeon or her lawyer. But Mikael Blomkvist, editor at Millennium magazine and Salander's self-appointed guardian angel, will not give up on this strangely compelling girl... With the covert aid of Blomkvist and his journalists at Millennium, Salander must first prove her innocence. Only then can she unmask the people behind the corrupt and secret manoeuvers that ruined her childhood and remain the rotten core of Swedish society"--Publisher description.


The last in the Millennium series and it didn't disappoint.  Really enjoyed this series.

Blogosphere Book Circle | July

Wolf Hall / Hilary Mantel. London : Fourth Estate, 2009.

ISBN: 9780007230181

"England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages."-- Publisher description.

It took me a while to get into the style of this book which is surprising for me given my penchant for historical fiction.  However, once I did tune into the writing style it hooked me.  I particularly enjoyed the glimpses into "everyday" life in Thomas's household.  I think the author brings out the complexities of the age and the struggles that were starting to change society at the time very well.  It is easy to see how a noble person's fortunes could be so quickly turned into fear and suffering all at the change of royal whim.

I was reading some contemporary views of Thomas and the writer opined he was a highly talented statesman in his time.  He was not only a skilled diplomat dealing with foreign policy but also was a talented administrator.

It's a good book - quite long and detailed, but worth reading.

felting class

Today I spent the day in a felting class with 8 other people.  It was a lot of fun and I'm feeling quite inspired by it! I really like my scarf - I think it looks like the sea with sea creatures on it.  DH thinks it looks like a dog's breakfast. Humph!

Most of us were beginners so we made scarves with a lot of different embellishments.  One lady who had been before made a hat, and another a table runner.

This is my scarf and a little ball I made.



Close up of the dread lock loops on the end.


The little pocket.



A surprise!



Another surprise and the silk frill.



And the other layout I did yesterday.

Cards & a layout

Some cards I made to fill up my card supply box! I suddenly had no birthday cards left... still need to make a few suitable for children.

And a layout which isn't that great except for the fact it broke a drought in terms of scrapbooking.

Holiday wrapup

The school holidays have gone really fast!  I didn't achieve all the things I had on my list.  In particular, the sewing machine has not been touched which peeves me. 

We went away for a long weekend down to Rotorua.  We usually stay in the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park which has been very good.  However, this time I thought we'd have a change of  scene and try the Cosy Cottage park. This was a mistake.  There a number of things that were annoying (eg. half a toilet roll for a family of 4 for 3 days) but the biggest one was the flatlet had one room so any adult activities conversation when kids went to bed were not possible.

It was frosty every morning.

We visited Hamurama Springs.  It's well worth a visit and very easy walking.

The spring itself is impressive.  It's the deepest natural spring in the North Island and produces an estimated 4 million litres of crystal clear water per hour. I found it quite moving and would have liked to have stayed longer to enjoy the peacefulness and serenity there.  Unfortunately we were soon joined by a bunch of rowdy walkers so we moved on down the track.

The light wasn't that good for photos - too much contrast, but you can see how clear the water is in this one.

Part of the walk goes through redwood trees.

You note that "baby" also came too.

We also visited the Caterpillar Museum.  I thought it was overpriced but it is an interesting museum.  Mr6 and DH particularly enjoyed it.  Miss3?  Not so much.  "Come on!  Let's go!" she kept saying.  But she did like the play bulldozer.  Even "baby" was discarded for that.

Being married to The Mad Photographer means you get to visit some amazing places.  It also means you get to work on your patience while waiting for him to get the king hit shot!  Patience is something Miss3 is not so good at (especially when it involves long walks in the bush). 

Luckily for the two kids there was a good playground next to Lake Tarawera and opportunity to float some "boats" at the water's edge.

On the way home we visited the Maungatautari Ecological Island.  It is well worth the visit.  The view at the gate was amazing the day we were there.  I could even see Mt Ruapehu.

During the walk we saw takahe, hihi, kaka and yellow crowned kakariki.  I was impressed with the work that is being done there.  Definitely going back.  But not to climb the forest canopy viewing tower again.  Once was enough of that one! *shudder*

School Holidays

So far I have

1. Managed to twist my ankle and nearly faint in the car as a result. It's getting better.  Compression bandages are my friend.

2. Spent far too much at Spotlight. Now have even more fabric to Make Stuff. No really!

3. Took the kids to Greedy Cat at the Pumphouse.  They thought it was great. :-)  Miss 3 was really cute calling out "There!  There!" when they were looking for Greedy Cat.  She then went up to the actor after the play and was patting her like a real cat. Bless.

4. Have not found any shop that sells pool noodles.  "It's the wrong season" is the answer I get.  I need one for my felting class.  Hmmmm.

5. Discovered that there is a dearth of borax in West Auckland.  Well, you can get it with a script from the doctor. I'm not sure why... I checked the uses of it on Wikipedia, and while one of the uses was "to clean the brain cavity of a skull for mounting" I can't see why that should require a script. I'm not going to pay $12.00 for a script for 1/2 cup borax so I'm making washing gloop without it.

Melting the soap.  I managed to find some pure olive oil soap from the craft shop place at Westgate.  NZD$7.50 per 110g bar.  It wasn't cheap!  Then you add the washing soda crystals (and borax if you find some).

Mixing it all up in the bucket with all the water.

Put it in some bottles.

Looking forward to trying it out!

6. Ran various errands, visited dr for check up, set traps for cockroaches *disgusted shudder x 20*
7. Have not even attempted any crafting so far. Meh. Hope that will happen soon.

Princess and Fairy skirts

Yesterday we had an invitation to a princess party.  I was a bit dissatisfied with the present I'd got for the little girl so at the last minute decided to make a fairy skirt for her.

Of course, I couldn't make one for the birthday girl without having one for Miss3. I need to get some more tulle for hers and remove the pink lace.

I also made a princess skirt each.

Ever since Sally posted about her French Knitting I've been thinking of getting one of these knitting bees for Mr5 to help with his fine motor skills. 

At first I wasn't sure he was going to get it but he was intrigued by the mechanics of it all and got stuck into making a "tube" as he's called it.  He seems to be enjoying it. ;-P  Gran might be getting a pot holder for Christmas!

I've had to do the odd bit for him because he does get himself mixed up sometime.  In fact, much of the one below is me redoing it because he managed to unravel a whole heap.  We've solved that problem by finding a bottle lid that fits over the prongs and prevent inadvertent unraveling.

I used to do this when I was a little girl but always had to get Mum to cast on for me.  Now I am the Mum so I had to quickly work out from the instructions how to do it!  I found it rather fun too and am seriously considering re-teaching myself to knit.  There are so many cool fibres out there and I can't really ask my Mum or my MIL to make stuff for me even though they would do it.

I'm on leave for the school holidays.  Here are the list of things I want to do while on leave!  Remains to be seen how much I will get done.

1. Various "health" related appointments e.g. dentist, "women's stuff"... not exactly what I want to do but rather have to do.
2. Make a dress I have planned for work. 
3. Sew up the pj pants I cut out for the family and never made up.
4. Sew the pinafore for Miss 3 that I cut out and overlocked. (I have a matching one!  She will hate me for it when she is older).
5. Go to Greedy Cat with the kids.
6. Have a long weekend in Rotovegas.  We're staying in a different place to our usual.. this one has a place you can cook your tea using steam from the thermal activity down there.  Mr6 is SUPER keen to do this. 
7. Have lunch with Em.
8. Learn felting
9. Make some cards and do some scrapbooking.  I have run out of cards for birthdays and kids cards.
10. Some other sewing things I hope.  Need to make a cover for my wheaty heaty.  Would like to make some pants for DH and Mr6 with matching hoodie tops.  We'll see.
11. Clean and tidy house.  Yeah, that'll last for about 5 minutes.