Bits and Bobs

Its strange how a week can pass so quickly and you think you've achieved nothing. Thats been my week but after downloading my pictures I feel like I've had a great week.

I've spent the week making baking soda and vinegar volcanoes and silly putty with a great bunch of Year 7 and 8 boys, building boats with Year 2's, exploring our local rocky shore with Year 6, I've finished my first ever sun hat for Lucy, I've taught myself how to make a lined zippered purse (without a seam at the bottom!) and made one and I'm reading a great book!

Suddenly finding myself as a science and technology teacher, I've begun to remember some of the fun things we did as kids, anything that made a mess, tasted great or just weren't supposed to do was fantastic fun! Hopefully I can give some of these kids a taste of that. I've been exploring growing crystals, without much success, and so this week its finding the perfect recipe to make hokey pokey - what better way to explore chemical change? I'll post my most successful recipe for hokey pokey next week. I'm secretly chuffed with my reversable hat! I joined this Sew Along and so followed Hazel's blog each week. Lucy loves it too so I can see I'll be making her another one, and perhaps one for me too. What bliss I have every Monday night. Sewing class. Three whole hours of just sewing and chatting sewing. Perfect.

Oh, and my great book. The cover caught my eye at the libary the other day. The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow. There's just something about the main character, Cassie, who is a single mum and a water diviner. I'm only about a third of the way through and am finding it hard to put down.

Summers End

Last weekend we made the most of what must be one of the last lovely summer weekends. Off we headed to our favourite beachside park. Once again we were able to enjoy our favourite spot in Queen Elizabeth Park. A private, grassy patch for ball kicking, shade for sitting under and our own sandy slide down to the beach. Just perfect. It seems every time we visit, the spot has been saved just for us.

While I gathered shells for a class rocky shore study, Lucy enjoyed playing in the surf with her dad. It was hard to leave.

I've also been trying to get organised and try just one new recipe a week.

Last week I ventured down to the local Saturday morning fruit and veg market and came back with a big bag of tomatoes - relish or sauce? Having been given Annabel Langbeins new book The Free Range Cook, I decided to try her Harvest Tomato Sauce. An easy recipe and as a result, delicious sauce. I have now some ready in the freezer and I'm off to the market to stock up on more tomatoes and make some more sauce!

Last year I came across 100+ Tasty $10 Meals by Sophie Gray from the libary. For me, it was one of those recipe books where almost all of the recipes look simple and great and you want to try them. I renewed and renewed the book and tried a number of the recipes. In the end, I came across the book in a little book shop in Petone and so had to buy it. So this week, I also tried Pork and Peanut Noodles. The recipe included something called kecap manis, I found this easily at our local asian food market. It was the secret incredient, suddenly what seemed like a simple stir fry, suddenly had that tasty, almost "great asian takeaway" flavour.

And on the craft front, sewing class saw me almost finish little Lucy's pinafore, and how to sew buttons. I also managed to figure out how to make a little lined zippered purse without a seam at the bottom! Hopefully next week I will have pics of one finished pinafore, one finished hat and one finished zippered purse ...

Small Steps

One of my goals this year is to learn to sew. At last I am about to start evening classes and just can't wait. In the meantime I joined a Sew Along via Hazel's blog - there are 30 of us making a reversable sunhat and each week a new post is put up with a few more steps. Today I have completed step 2, attaching the band to the crown - and boy do I feel proud!

I have managed to make some cute little bunting for Lucy's bedroom and I have almost finished her curtains, they are hanging but I just need to get around to finishing off the folded back bits so that they don't keep unfolding, if that makes sense!! Last year I was shown how to make some little pants and that was my first sewing attempt since intermediate when I made a skirt that didn't match up at the zip, and the letter 'J' which I still have!

I've also been busy with making my own clothes washing liquid. A couple of weeks ago I made the powder (well, it was more like clay) and so this week I got busy and made Wendyl's Green Goddess Liquid Detergent. It was very easy to make but I have to admit the viscosity is quite a bit different to her own which I sampled from the internet. My detergent is a little bit more slime like, I have to be careful when pouring it that a big glob doesn't slip out and go everywhere. But hey, the lavender smells good and the clothes are clean, and I've done my bit for the environment and for our budget - managed to make 7 and a half litres in one go!

Summer is coming to an end, it's getting cooler in the morning and the garden is slowing down, my poor dahlias haven't done much this summer but suddenly this week they've added a little brightness to our back yard. Lovely when our news has been so sad for the past two weeks, Christchurch will never be the same. I still feel so sorry for everyone down there, I just can't imagine what it was like but it has been truely amazing how wonderful the whole country is getting behind Canterbury, makes you proud to be a kiwi.

We went out today and got our survival kit organised, along with half of Wellington, amazing how much had been sold out but great to know more of us are taking note and doing something about looking after ourselves in an emergency. We got to the supermarket and asked Lucy what she thought we might need in an emergency, her reply; "Chocolate" - I think she's right so we've added a block!