Getting the ball rolling

Check out the before and after! And I credit myself for getting the ball rolling. Sometimes it just needs a set of fresh eyes to think "Geeze that fence is ugly". 

Well, I asked my landlord about 5 months ago if I could paint it. Never heard back, so a week ago I got out the wire brush and just started doing it on the sly. Naughty I know, but I'm scared of people including my landlord. But I shouldnt have been because my neighbour came out and said "Youre doing that by hand??? I've got a waterblaster!!!" and proceeded to waterblast the whole thing the very next day. He also said the landlord should at least pay for the paint, and rang her. Apparently shes a little old lady (and noone to be scared of) and the very NEXT day I found 2 big buckets of fence paint on my door step.

So  VOILA... lovely new fence to look out my window.

And speaking of getting the ball rolling, my OTHER nieghbour, as soon as he saw me painting the fence, went and painted the garages! I don't have a before and after sorry, but lets just say they were pretty grotty too.... I'm not sure about those flurescent pink numbers he did though :)

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And something totally unrelated. Catherine turned 8 on the 2nd of January and since shes decided shes a tom-boy after I read her the Famous Five, she asked for a soccer ball birthday cake

Felt like this...

chopping wood with an axe yesterday.

Yeah baby, I'm Bronson.

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Also framed a picture I did for church. They wanted a Joseph for christmas to go with Mary and Jesus. I'm a bit embarrassed about what came out of my psyche. Is this my dream guy or something?? He ended up looking like a bit of a rock star.

I did the funniest thing the other week! (From my point of view anyhow). I found these old boots in my garage with all the other stuff from my previous tenant and thought, wow, still good... I think I'll be arty and stick some plants in them. Well they fell over in the wind, the dirt fell out and the next door nieghbours kid laughed at my attempt to be arty. But that's not it. I'd been contemplating it for a couple of weeks, and then went ahead one day and did it. The very next day I went to Nigels house and he goes " Hey, have you still got those boots of mine?". Haha! I could have died! I had to tell him I'd just planted them with herbs!!

And church is having it's fundraiser for camp this

Saturday and I went out and bought a special flower petal tip. As you can see I still need a bit of practice. I've always wanted to make those little white flowers on top you can see and I still havn't quite got the hang of it. Plus I couldn't afford a proper icing bag (30 bucks for a plastic bag??) so I was using an old rice bag which was quite awkward to hold.

Im going to have the opportunity to practice again soon, because our neighbours went and gave me a whole bag of deer meat of all things! Im sure that would be quite expensive! and just on the week I had decided not to buy meat. Thanks Lord! So anyhow, I'll make them some cupcakes as a thankyou.

Well, I'm not the most on-to-it Mum in world at the best of times. But this morning I decided to do Catherines hair for school in a style I saw on pinterest. It looks more impressive in real life, honest. It's 3 plaits, all plaited together! Go me!

Been hankering after some wedges!

Well, I realised when I looked at my bank balance yesterday that I wasn't  going to be able to afford the $80 I usually allot to myself for groceries this week. Nope. I had $40 for groceries and nothing for petrol.But has the shine worn off my flatting experience yet? Nope! My grocery list consisted of toilet paper, milk, fish cakes , bread and for a treat 3 tubs of herbs, poppy seeds and pepper. That was $25. Then off to the vege shop  where I got a substantial amount of veges and fruit for ten bucks including a big bag of potatoes. (Hence the the herbs and poppy seeds I bought earlier). And we had a yummy-as dinner. In fact I don't feel impoverished at all!

Catherine turns 7

Catherine is turning 7 on Monday! We are going to the Zoo and this is the cake I will be taking to church. Can you tell it's a 7, or does it look like a 2?

I may have some exciting news to share this Thursday... or I may not. I'm not blogging about it because I decided I should wait and tell my Mum first before I tell blog-land...but get ready for a loooong blog post if it eventuates!

I really need to change the title of my blog.... Precious, Peculiar, Purposeful?... who am I kidding??? I have no sense of purpose whatsoever. I guess God has one for me. Just don't ask me what it is!
I am also dreading the school holidays. I am looking after Catherine and her cousin for 4 weeks probably. I'm totally freaking out! But I remembered the other day that God only gives us grace for one day at a time... not 4 weeks in advance, so I'll just take it as it comes.

Here's what I got up to today.

This is the table Mum bought when she moved in and got married. She wanted a nice big dressmaking table and this is what she bought.

In the last couple of years the legs have become wobbly. I did a rough job about 3 times, quickly unscrewing the legs and using whatever screws I had to move, and put them back in.

The legs became seriously wobbly again, and everything almost tipped off the table, so I decided it was time to finally do a proper job. A few screws and some scrap wood, and hopefully I've saved a sentimental piece of furniture.

Well, almost saved. The glue takes 3 days to harden. I will be putting the legs back on on Friday.

And here's my Datsun as you know it....

Soon to be wearing these lovely new bumpers I just bought today! I think I'll be waiting a while before I spend any more money on her... my savings are seriously deminished now, what with this car and my teeth!

From trash to treasure!

Remember this manky old chair I got from the inorganic collection? (ie. outside on the side of the road...). Well, I've been having alot of fun with it..

Sanded it all back...

Cut a piece of signply for the seat and gave it two coats of undercoat.

Bought a piece of foam for it, for just $10...

and voila!




Painted it black and covered the foam in a piece of upholstery fabric that only cost $4.50.

I made stuff!

Ok, I made some stuff.... and I'm so excited about it! First thing I made is this extention for my bench saw... yes, I totally got welding today!

It looks like a bird pooped all over it... but that's beside the point. (The point being 'I welded today!')

And in my defence it was a cheapish gasless mig welder which splatters and even Rob (who leant it to me) has trouble with it.

So check it out! My bench saw that used to only cut to 400mm wide now has a removable attachment which can cut to 900mm!

(And price wise I saved a couple of hundred dollars by doing it this way instead of buying a dearer saw!)

And not quite so exciting but still nice are these little wall reminders to remind certain family members under the age of 7 to turn off the lights when they leave the room.

Quite pretty and I even made the glue myself. (1/2 a cup of flour boiled in 3 cups of water if youre interested).

school holiday fun

Well, I got the idea from another blogger who is also having school holidays over in Oz. She has 7 kids though, so there's a bit of a difference, but Catherine has the energy of 7, so there we go.
Anyway... Lollie biscuits. YUMMO.
Pretty fun if you ask me... and it was, coz I made some too.

And we put the new mattress to the test. We set them out and slept in the lounge. Well, that was what it was for anyway. Catherine always asks me to sleep with her, and last time I did I slept on squabs, and boy that was uncomfy! Now we can camp out together in relative comfort.

Captains log, school holidays. Day 2.

School holidays here in New zealand. Two weeks. I'm leaving to put up a sign in half an hour, and then I'll come back and do some school holidays activities. I've written myself a little list... it may just end up being tidying the house, but I remember when I was a kid, being at home while mum did house hold tasks was so much fun, and all I ever wanted to be was a house-wife, because of the life I saw my mum live.

Oh yeah. We are still doing faith-box as a family. We are doing fruits of the spirit at the moment. This weeks fruit are Peace, Patience and Self-control... things I definitely need to work on!

Super-princess

Well, after my success at making meringes the other day, I had this overwhelming urge to make marshmellow. Aaagghh... success! Rolled in coconut and everything. I'm sure the last attempt to make marshmellow was as a kid when I took some to Luarna, with half of it still jelly!( I have an electric beater now Luarna, so I did alot better this time!)

We also have a super hero party this weekend, and Catherine decided to be Super-Princess, so I quickly made a skirt and cape today. If I was going to do it again, I'd make the skirt fuller. Hopefully this skirt makes it through the day without getting ripped. Last time I made her a space-skirt, and she went on the bouncy castle and she ended up half-clad!

Yummy marshmallow!

Catherine shoved a piece of paper under my nose one day, on how to make marshmallow mushrooms. What the hey, I thought, and uncharacteristicly went out and spent $10 on ingredients. She needed meringue tops, but they didnt have any, so I bought these yummy little yogurt biscuits, but no, Catherine didnt like them (they are now in my food stash in my bedroom) so I said, "ok, we'll make the meringue tops". And WOW. These are the best meringues I've made in years! For some reason my merangues always come out like cat-poo. What did I do this time? I added a bit of water and beat them a bit longer is all I can think of. I'll have to commit that to memory for next time. In the end I managed to make them too big to sit on top of the marshmallows! But I don't think Catherine was too dissapointed. She made do in the end...

Saw horse.

I'm partly showing this to show what I did today (phew!!), but also to point out the cool wood horse my Dad made. Isn't it cool? It folds up and you sit the wood on the top to cut it... and the legs are different widths apart for different lengths of wood.

My Dad made some cool stuff. When he retired he decided to set about perfecting the perfect pie, making his own pastry. (And excitingly enough I've recently rediscovered the recipe he marked in the Aunt Daisy cook book). Anyhow... it was a big solid piece of pine , which sits perfectly over the sink one way, then fits just nicely inside the sink for cleaning the other way. It's the coolest thing ever.

The bible says "Train a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it". Dad often used to say "people have forgotten how to be poor... always buying plastic rubbish and chucking it out when it breaks".

Dad taught me alot of good things, and left me alot of good things, like the fire wood setup at our house for one thing. Four big bins to store it, a chainsaw and an awesome saw-horse... not to mention the experience as a teenager, holding the wood for him while he chopped it so now I know what to do!