National Scrapbooking Day Challenges

There were plenty and I didn't get them all done. But I've got them jotted down for future reference! These were for SBO's challenges. The birthday one was for a layering challenge. The Rotokura one was for a paint challenge.

Not sure I really am happy with either but at least they are now recorded. I need layering practice I think.

Woohoo Wednesday

Your post today is to shout Hooray
About the good stuff in your day
Janine's meme is the theme
Here's my list, you'll see what I mean...

My biggie woohoo is I have won a kit from SBO in a challenge draw! I am totally stoked about this! Now go and order lots of stuff from Andrea.... hee hee hee!

I am anxiously waiting for the sweet sound of the courier. It's a bit of a bummer that the neighbour is a courier driver and every time he comes home I think there is something for me... *hums: The Wells Fargo wagon is a comin' down the street so please let it be for me!!!*

My second big woohoo is that the most excellent Tamar from Tarisota Collections is sending my Mum an Addiction collection for Mother's Day because I mentioned her in an entry on her Mother's Day giveaway post.

3rd: DH is still on vacation so it's nice to have him around. :)
4th: Shell is sending me a RAK. :) I am a lucky chicky!
5th: My tooth is still not hurting. It has to last until the 30th when I will be emptying out my wallet at the dentist to have a root canal. I had to go to the emergency dentist on ANZAC Day to get it looked at and he put in a temporary dressing so we could have a vacation. So far it's holding up. x-fingers.

And just so you know that DH truly is a better photographer than me here are some of his so called "feeble offerings".
Waitonga Falls
Tawhai Falls
Blue Duck

He won't toot his own trumpet so I'm doing it for him.
*ahem*

Holiday Antics

Enjoy the show! I've captioned the photos so you know where and what they are. Naturally, DH's 286 photos are far superior to mine, but they don't have people in them. :-)

Even though the weather turned to custard the week we were away *aside: this always happens to us* we managed to do quite a bit. DS managed to complete two 2 hour walks so we were very proud of him. Towards the end of the week though he was saying, "No more walks Daddy okay? No more walks." So on Friday we stayed back at the bach and I caught up with an old school friend who lives in the area.

I managed to lose another kilo - yay for me! Only 3 more to go before I reach my goal.

We stayed in Turangi in a bach from the Holiday Houses website. It was a good little bach, very simple but served the purpose. Most days we spent out and about in Tongariro National Park. DH had several places he wanted to photograph - most of them involving water and streams. The Mangetepopo tragedy was rather high in my mind but fortunately most of the places he went were not in the risky category.

We visited the Tree Trunk Gorge, Pillars of Hercules, Waikato Falls, Taranaki Falls, Mangawhero Falls, Waitonga falls (where Gollum eats the fish from the Forbidden Pool in LOTR) as well as Lake Rotopounamo and Lake Rotokura. I really wanted to have a swim in the hot pools at Tokaanu but we didn't get time.

DH did a lot more on the Friday and one morning when I stayed back with children at the bach. However, he did lose his lens cap in the Rangipo Desert which caused me to taunt him with this:

In the Rangipo Desert
Covered in sand
Lies a languishing lens cap
Dropped by Rod's hand

Alas for the lens cap
For now it is lost
Rod'll have to replace it
At significant cost.

I might add that this is not the first lens cap/piece of photographic equipment that he has lost or forgotten to pick up or dropped off the side of a precipice.

Menu Plan Monday

So much to do after a holiday but here is this weeks menu plan. Holiday pics and replying to emails will get done soon!

Monday (vego night) - Spinach crepes with blue cheese (and mushrooms for me), roast capsicums, Tempe Goreng Tepung (fried tempeh in batter).

A bit of a labour intensive dinner but if I can get the chance I will make the crepes earlier in the day. I'm trying tempeh for the second time. I wasn't sure what to do with it the first time and it wasn't that nice. This time I'm using a recipe from someone in the know - a New Zealand Malaysian food blogger Arfi Binstead who has some gorgeous recipes on her blog accompanied by lovely photos. Tempeh is supposed to be good for bones.

Tuesday - Chicken noodle soup
Wednesday - Malaysian Beef Crockpot, rice, stir fried veges
Thursday - Pasta of some kind
Friday (DH's request) - Lamb rogan josh, our favourite tomato/potato curry, rice. Might even bring myself to make some roti since I have some atta flour. The flour is in short supply here in New Zealand so I'm reluctant to use it up!
Saturday - pizza and some left over soup (recipe below) from the freezer
Sunday - inspired by Nigella I'm going Keema, rice and then sticky toffee pancakes.

Last night I made Yellow Split Pea and Frankfurter Soup from Nigella's Feast book. It is a yummy option for these autumnal evenings. You can substitute vegetarian frankfurters if you wish.

Yellow Split Pea and Frankfurter Soup
from Feast / by Nigella Lawson pg. 114 Serves 6-8 (freeze the extra if that is more than you need)

1 onion
1 carrot
1 clove garlic
1 stick celery
2-3 T oil
1/2 t ground mace
2 1/4 cups yellow split peas (I used a mix of red lentils and moong dahl because that is what I had)
5-6 cups chicken or vege stock
2 bay leaves
approx. 8 frankfurters

Peel the onion, carrot and garlic and cut the onion and carrot into rough chunks. Put them all, along with the roughly cut up celery stick into the food processor and blitz it until they are finely chopped.
Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and put on med heat. When warm, add the chopped veges from the processor and saute until soft but not coloured.

Add the ground mace*. It really does make a difference to the taste so if you don't have any, try adding some nutmeg. Stir well and add split peas. Stir until they are coated and mixed with the other ingredients. Pour over the stock and add bay leaves, then bring to the boil. Cover and turn down the heat. Cook for about an hour or until everything is tender and sludgy, adding more stock as needed. Taste for seasoning.

You can add the sausage when you want. I cut it into chunks and toss it in towards the end of the cooking. Nigella heats hers in the microwave and puts it into the individual soup plates before serving the soup in them. Both my kids really like this soup.

*Mace is the outer covering of a nutmeg and is stronger in taste than the nutmeg. Replacing mace with nutmeg is possible but doesn't entirely replicate the taste. I buy it from Mahadeos in Mt Eden, Auckland.

I also made this (it's jolly good):

Chilli-cinnamon Chocolate Pudding
from Feast / by Nigella Lawson pg. 229 Serves 6

This is a "self-saucing" pudding. Great with ice cream.

1 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
pinch salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 chilli powder
1 cup caster (super fine) sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup oil (e.g. canola or rice bran, not olive oil)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup dark rum (Leave this out if you want. It makes a nice addition, but it's not vital).

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C (350 deg. F) and butter an approximately 8 cup capacity round baking dish.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt, cinnamon, chilli, sugar and half the cocoa. Beat the milk, vanilla and oil together in a jug and pour over the dry ingredients. Mix into a smooth batter. Spoon into the greased dish.
Combine the remaining 1/4 cup cocoa with the brown sugar and sprinkle over the batter in the dish. Pour 3/4 cup boiling water over the batter/sugar and then tip in the rum.

Cook for 30 mins by which time the cake will have risen to the top and the sauce will be lurking underneath in it's unctuous chocolate chilli glory.

baaaaaaaaack

from holiday!
Weather was crap not so nice.
Did some walks though.
Took some pics.
Saw a native frog! Wow! Dh saw some blue ducks. (me so jelly!)

more later... heaps to catch up on.

Mel did this on her blog, and here is my verdict.

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I'm not sure I like being a colon. It's rather too intestinal for my liking. Actually for some of the questions I could have chosen another answer, so maybe I'm just a semi-colon.

April Reading Round Up

Didn't seem to read as much this month, but some of the things I read were rather detailed and "meaty".

Reading Round Up

It must be something I ate by Jeffrey Steingarten
A series of articles about food and cooking. I learned some things from this book - did you know that breast milk has a natural glutamate in it? And cows milk does not. Which explains (a bit) why DS wasn't so keen on going from one to the other. Mum's milk tasted better ;-) Anyway, interesting articles written by someone who goes to rather amusingly obsessive lengths to test some of his ideas. Like, trying out 10 different coffee machines. He kept blowing the breaker switch on the house doing that one.

Doctored Evidence | Blood from a stone | Uniform Justice all by Donna Leon
Yay! I discovered a new crime series that I enjoy. Love it when that happens. Guido is the detective and it is set in Venice. Well written and kept me involved to the end. Plus all the descriptions of Italian food makes me salivate.

Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver
After waiting months for this one from the library (think I was about 150 on the list originally) I finally got to read this. It was worth the wait. I think I will be blogging a bit later about this one in greater detail but in the meantime - definitely pick it up, I do recommend it. Her message is one I have been trying to do, albeit on a smaller scale. I had considered scaling back my garden because I really struggle to keep it going these days with so many other projects and pressure on my time. But having read this book I went out and planted more stuff. Buy local!

Catching the current by Jenny Pattrick
Author of the Denniston Rose and sequel Heart of coal, this story is about Con the Brake and his life prior to the two Denniston books. The endings segue together with the other stories. Great read. I love reading about early New Zealand. A love story but with a bit more.

The Teahouse fire by Ellis Avery
This is one of those books that stay in your head for a while. Aurelia goes with her Jesuit priest uncle to Japan at a time of great change for that country. Western thought and influence are beginning to affect the life and culture of Japan. She runs away and grows up with a Japanese family who are famous for teaching the tea ceremony. Her fortune ebbs and flows with the trends and pressures that come on the family as they live through this time of change. Engrossing!

Layouts
7

Interview with a 4.5 year old

Having interviewed DS at 3.5 years and made a LO of it, I decided to do it again just for fun and to use it for journaling later.

How old are you?
Too old.
I think you are 4 and a half!

What is your favourite colour?
Black & green.
What is your favourite food?
Pizza, sketti and sausages.
What is your favourite bit about yourself?
Let me see.. I know... jumping!

What are you going to be when you grow up?
A Mantis.

What do you like to play?
Byron, Alfie and George (Thomas the tank Engine and friends)
Mobilo
Harold
Being a mantis
What does a mantis do?
They walk around really quiet.

What do you like best about Mummy?
To play with me.
What do you like best about Daddy?
To play with me and set up my trains.
What do you like best about Lydia?
To play with me.
Okay - think I get the picture here.

Who is your best friend?
Conor
Any other friends?
Ella and Clayton.

Who do you love?
Mummy.
What about Daddy?
Yes.
Who else?
Gran & Grandad. Uummmmm... Stuff to play with... aaaaaaaaaah.... Aunty... Aunty Nellie... Nan & Pop... Lydia.

3 Friday Night Challenges from Scrapbook Outlet

SBO had a challenge last Friday.

1) Use a song lyric or title: Was tempted to use All the nice girls love a sailor but it didn't quite work... so stuck with Sunday morning by Daniel Boone.

2) Scrap lift a layout from the gallery - I used this one from Bronny. Top photo is me asleep by the fire with my bottle of choccy milk. Bottom photo is Missy Moo, leg propped on the table with her bottle of water.

Apparently the only way Mum got me on to the bottle was with chocolate milk. No wonder I have chocolate addictions.

3) Use fabric on your layout. Missy Moo has learnt where the frozen blueberries live. So she opens the freezer and brings them to me to have a treat :-) I dyed some calico and tore it into strips.

Real Nappy Week

First of all - let me translate. Nappy=Diaper.

This week is Real Nappy Week in New Zealand so I'm bloggin' about one of my favourite green habits... using cloth nappies/diapers.

Why did I decide on cloth? Firstly, I wanted to save us some money. Cloth can be cheaper than using disposables. Secondly, I really dislike the idea of putting human waste into landfills. There is a place for human waste, and it is the sewerage treatment plant. Thirdly, I did hope that it would encourage early toilet training. That last one turned out not to work on DS! Maybe on DD it will be more successful! LOL!

I know some of my friends think I'm nuts to do cloth. But for me it has been very little bother once I have my "system" in place.

Two things are in my favour in terms of cloth usage a) I'm a SAHM and b) I usually do laundry every other day. I have a dry nappy bucket in the laundry where the naps waiting to be washed get stored. It's a sealed bucket, and I normally put a bit of white vinegar in it to help keep and odor at bay. As I do laundry at least every 2nd day, it rarely gets very full.

Washing cloth naps is simple. If I use a washable liner in them "#2 gets flicked in the loo" off the liner. Or if it is a disposable liner, the whole lot gets dumped in. I rinse if necessary. Naps get washed on a normal cycle with the household wash (though I do separate them from the tea towels). I use a fragrance free laundry powder (EcoStore is good but there are other options) and put white vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. Fabric softener should not be used when washing cloth naps as it will spoil their ability to soak up moisture.

Naps are hung on the line and the sun bleaches them for me. :-) Occasionally I will use some Nappy soaking product to help bad stains.

This is part of my stash of cloth naps. Some of those in the top picture are now in my collection.
I use a mixture of nappy types. I make my own nappies (I made the ones in the top picture). I bought some from Nap-Naps and Snazzipants. I also have some pre-folds that were given to me by a friend. Each one has it's pros and cons, and so I can't really promote one over the other. It's good to have a mix in my experience.

Check out nappy stockists in NZ.

Check out the events happening in your region.

Just to really convince my friends I am nuts, I have actually made my own wet wipes too. I ran out one week and instead of making a trip to the supermarket I used some

• Aloe Vera juice (the plain liquid stuff - I drank it while I had chicken pox & had some left over. You can get it from the health section in the supermarket. I see you can buy the gel at the chemist).
• Liquid Baby soap
• A bunch of soft washies/muslin cloths

and put it all in the plastic wipe box I had already. It worked fine!

You can find other recipes for home made wipes here, and here.

I know I'll probably get some comments about how cloth wasn't an option for you. That's okay - I'm not trying to condemn anyone here for using 'sposies. (Hey, I use them for overnight and if we're travelling -I just try and use the more environmentally friendly type).

My purpose in posting is to raise awareness of the possibilities. And they are so cute. Who wouldn't like to have cow print undies eh?

Menu Plan Monday

Having use the Healthy Food Guide's menu planner to write up my list I then proceeded to leave it at home when I went shopping! Just as well I remembered what I was planning!

Monday - roast chick legs, salad, roast vege medley
Tuesday - Star anise beef with rice, stir fry veges
Wednesday - Vego burgers using falafel mix for the patties
Thursday - Chicken satay, rice, salad
Friday - Beef and carrot stew, mashed spuds, beans
Saturday - quintessential NZ take away.. Fish 'n' Chips
Sunday - soup and pizza

We're going on holiday this week hence the takeaway. DH and I had some great FnC at the place we're going some years ago so we're hoping they haven't changed hands since then! We're renting a bach through Holiday Houses for the first time. Normally we'd stay in a cabin in a camp ground but this time we thought we'd try this option seeing we're staying for a longer period.

It seemed a good idea with the children the age they are. DH has great plans for landscape photography which will involve some day tramps - not all of which are suitable for a 4.5 yr old and a mummy carrying 10.2kg of little girl on her back. The good thing about this option is that we can eat normal meals because there is a proper kitchen. I'm going to cook and freeze some stuff this week to take so that I have a bit of a break too. Three litres of Pea and Ham soup on the stove as we speak!

NZ Dare #43

here is my entry for the NZ Dare 43. Miss L was allowed to get out of the pram and venture onto the play ground at Western Springs. She didn't like the swing much.

This one is about DS and how his favourite colour is green because he pretends to be a praying mantis. All. the. time. If the green shirt is in the wash then it's a struggle to find something with green on it so he'll wear it without a fuss. I've explained about different coloured mantis (manti?) but it's not working.

We have great conversations about them -what they eat, drink, and how they smell. We censored the bit in the life cycle book about boy ones being eaten while mating though. He was most offended when Grandad squashed one with his shoe. "I saw his guts Mum!"

Dinner time conversation

Picture the family eating dinner calmly together. Mum and Dad talking about something inconsequential.
DS bursts into heart rending sobs.
All turn to look at him in surprise.

Me: What's the matter sweetheart?
DH: What's up mate?
DS between sobs: I love you Mummy! Don't die! I don't want you to die! I love you!

Me taken aback to say the least: Um... I wasn't planning on dying just yet darling.

Later I tried to find out where that came from. I'm still not sure but I think I'm going to have to watch what I say in terms of my death.

Death is something my family aren't afraid to talk about - in fact we have a very pragmatic approach to it and sometimes even joke about it - but I think DS might be starting to understand what it actually means.

No added colour

No added colour
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

My little cropping group got together finally and I managed to create one single LO in the evening. I'm still not entirely happy with it but am not sure what to do to to make it better.

I have all these ideas but putting them into reality is another matter. My mojo is blocked or something. How to spark my creativity? Part of the problem is time and being able to feel free to sit down and do things. Last week was hopeless because I didn't feel I should disappear into my scrapping lair while the ILs were here.

DH has been playing with his toys he got for his birthday.

He is a fan of the Strobist website and has got some flashes etc to play with. He's been 10 years at his place of work and they gave him some money as a gift which he used to get some other gear too. Here is his effort.

Licorice Allsorts (Copyright 2008 Rod Dugmore)

BTW - Wordpress hates me right now. It tells me I'm posting comments too quickly. Even though it can be a day between each comment! So my lovely WP users - I'm reading but don't be surprised if my comments are sparse.

Favourite Things

Favourite Things
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

themommykelly is back with Flaunt it Friday and so here is my take on her theme: A few of your favourite things.

This would be a great meme for those of you doing a BOM! *hint hint*

From top left-right:
* My Great-grandmother's hat resting on my candle-wicked quilt that my mum made me for my wedding. My g-gma was a bit of a fashion follower and my g-gpa complained everything she got had to be top quality! LOL! The hat doesn't fit me but I wish it did. My quilt is awesome.
* My bookshelf. I need more of these.
* My cake mixer. I use it every week, probably more than once. It's red which is one of my favourite colours and one of the reasons we forked out the money for an expensive brand.

Bottom row left - right:
* Neem granules - my favourite "green" gardening pest management. Great for controlling sucking/chewing pests organically.
* My gecko - I collect these and this is my favourite. One day I will have a china cabinet to display him.
* Coffee from Atomic and chocolate (Lindt in this case).

What are a few of your favourite things?

hinderance or inspiration?

hinderance or inspiration?

One reason why getting to my scrapping desk is tricky.

Two of my friends (who also scrapbook) are blogging now as well... check out Rachel and her mum Kaye. :)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - roast chook, veges etc
Tuesday - Nasi goreng
Wednesday - Lamb chops, spuds & greens
Thursday - Chicken tortilla things
Friday - Beef skewers and fragrant rice (yeah yeah I know, but I like 'em)
Sat/Sun - flexiplan meals i.e. I haven't decided.

Last week's plan went well, the party went well and a good time had by all. I made a lot of stuff prior to the day so that meant I didn't have too much to do on the day. The birthday cake wasn't such a success though because I didn't entirely follow the instructions.

Making DH's birthday cake seems to always cause me grief! Kids cakes and every day baking cakes don't seem to be an issue. I don't know why but it seems of all the cakes I've made him in our 9 years of married life, so far only one has been a cake I've been entirely happy with! I always seem to do something wrong. One year I left out the sugar. How stupid was that?!

My darling FIL has been toiling all day today fixing up our windows. He discovered my kitchen windows were rotting in several places so he's been scraping, gouging, treating, bogging, sanding and painting to get them fixed. He's up on a ladder - the kitchen is up on the second level - and it gives me the heebee jeebies to see him perched up there with concrete below doing all this work.

Mum and MIL have spent the day hitting the shops and both of them have had it! LOL! But it was all successful anyway.

sketch challenge

This one is for the Paper Pesto sketch challenge. Actually it could go into the NZ Dare 42 too, but I'm not sure if I can enter 2 competitions with one layout!

The sketch was so nice to work with :)

The journalling reads:
When I was in Standard 3 and 4 we had an inter-school concert where all the choirs joined together. For this one we had to dress up as the theme was songs from around the world. I wore a fake kimono. Then in 1985 I got to try on a genuine kimono which belonged to a Japanese friend.

These photos bring back good memories for me. I might write more on the back of the layout.

The concert was exhilarating because I love to sing, and especially in a choir. I still can remember most of the songs we sang at this particular concert. My friend Michelle (from this LO) is the other girl in the photo.

The other photo was taken when we lived in Germany for a year. My Dad was doing a 12 month sabbatical at the Max Planck Institute in a small town called Bad Nauheim. Those were the days when the university let you do this! This time was a struggle for me. I was at that awkward age when puberty mucks around with your emotions and your body, and I was far, far away from anybody I considered "best friend". But this day I did feel special. I was the right size to wear this adult kimono and it felt so luxurious. I grew about 3 cm that year and the height combined with all the other "stuff" happening meant most of my wardrobe was too small, too tight, too babyish etc etc. My mum had dreadful trouble trying to get clothes for me and I ended up with a lot of hand me downs. Luckily kimono are very forgiving!

NZ Dare 42

The theme for this dare is scrap a childhood memory, so thus I have duly done.

Gotta love those orange tinted photos. I did scan this one and change it a bit, but it is hard when the original isn't good to start with. Never mind!

This LO is about my best friend from primary school. We were inseparable from about Standard 1-4 (7yrs to 10yrs). Funnily enough I can't remember the kinds of games we played. Makes you realise how quickly you forget this sort of stuff.

The chipboard letters have been done with crackle paint but they don't show up so good in the photo.

Freecycling

Do you know about this? I discovered it some time ago and have been enamored of the idea since. Just the other day I discovered that there is a local group of Freecyclers so I signed up.

Freecycle Network is a not for profit movement designed to keep stuff out of landfills. It's about reusing things that still have good use. It is totally free to join.

I have a number of baby oriented items that I need to move on now that the children are older. They aren't worth listing on Trade Me (my ambivalent feelings about that site aside) and yet somebody could use them. Most of the folks I know no longer need the items in question so I can't pass them on to a friend like I normally would.

So last week I put on an old LL Bean backpack we were given. It was worn, faded and hardly flash, but I had lots of interest in it. I also offered a baby recliner/rocker thing that we'd had for 4 years. Again - heaps of interest. It gave me a good feeling to choose someone to give these items to, and know that they would be used rather than go into landfill. Haven't managed to pas on my pile of maternity sewing patterns yet :-)

Why not see if there is a freecycling group in your area?

The types of things being offered are varied. So far I've seen fejoas, desks, laptops, fridges, freezers, plastic containers, wooden blinds, Kodak Camera dock and net curtains.
You can also ask for things. So far the wanted items have been varied too! Clothes, fridges, freezers, modems, fejoas for wine making, old copper hot water cylinder...

Give it a go!