Love is…..

Homemade macaroni cheese with onion, bacon and chorizo for a Valentines day dinner, then a date at Carter Observatory.

Celebrating Life

This evening we meet the latest addition to our extended family. Spencer is simply adorable!! Mikes brother and his wife asked if we would be his godparents. We, said yes!!

On the way home, from the hospital we had stopped at a major intersection, cos that’s what you do at red lights. Mike and I were jabbering away when we heard an enormous bang and we were thrown back and forth in our seats. The car behind us rear ended us. Nothing like a shot of adrenalin to get you going. The bumper suffered minor damage and in the big scheme of things we got off lightly just a sore neck for me. Nothing a cup of tea with some sugar in it to calm the nerves and a check up from the chiropractor wont fix. Celebrating and counting our blessings tonight.

Long Weekend + Ideas = Changing Round The Kitchen

One of the things I liked about this house was the size of the kitchen and the fact it had a pantry. All the things our previous kitchen didn’t have. Mike and I thought it might be great to open up the wall between the lounge and the kitchen and go open plan. This was how the kitchen looked in July 2011, before we did anything to the kitchen. Now our kitchen is a work in progress and funnily enough I am okay with this.

This photo was taken when we did the walk through in Jan last year.

This weekend we decided to change the kitchen around. Mike removed the rest of the gib between the lounge and kitchen. In the plans we have the width of the gap will be longer than what you see in this photo. This is what the view looks like from the lounge.

We moved the fridge and placed it at the far end of the kitchen, we moved the freezer out from our new pantry to sit along the fridge. The dresser that sat along this wall and housed our plates and glasses etc, is now located where the old pantry and fridge were.

We pulled the kitchen bench that was against the wall and moved it into the middle.  We have taken the table out. This bench space will stay until the renovations. We plan to buy some kitchen stools to use the other side of the bench as a kitchen bar. In the new plans this pantry wont exist, but will be replaced with built-in storage running along the wall. Until the renovation start, we decided to buy some shelves from Bunnings to use until then. We can then recycle the cupboards within the home.  A view of the pantry from the right hand side.

A view of the pantry from the left hand side. I still need to sort things out.

We had a meeting with the architect on Thursday and Mike and I love the new ideas for the new living areas. We are currently waiting on the engineer to report back to the architect, about the wall between the lounge and the kitchen. We will be doing the renovations in stages as our budget permits. For us the priority is removing the wall between the lounge and kitchen to come out first. Then the new kitchen followed by the renovations to our upstairs area.

BTW: We have a new nephew, “Spencer Lee” born at 2.10pm this afternoon weighing 6 pound 3 ounces.  They will be in hospital until Friday. Mike and I are hoping to meet him tomorrow evening. What did you get up to this long weekend?

Tea Towel Swap Details

Details for the Swap:

Please read the below and then email me with your details and any other information you would like your swap partner to consider when buying your tea towel.

1. To register your interest in this swap, please send an email to me at janine@xtreme.net.nz with your name and address.

2. Close off for sign up will be Sunday Feb 12.

3. Once the swap is closed I will email you with your swap partners details.

3. Post off delivery date will be Monday 27 Feb 2012.

4. Your tea towel can be bought or handmade.

5. If there is a specific colour or theme you would like please include this in your email to me.

5. Include a little something special for your swap partner (eg. bookmark, candle, notebook or magazine, you get the drift).

6. Remember, it’s all about the packaging too – wrap it with love and care so its special to open at the other end.

Now the awkward fine print about costs and perceived $$ value. I was umming and ahhing about how to word this without offending anyone. In the end I will just be blunt and say I don’t want to put a dollar value on this, however this being said, I don’t want anyone to be disappointed in this swap nor do I expect anyone to spend huge amounts of money on this swap. We have all been in swaps where we put out heart and soul into it and then gotten something back that you felt slightly disappointed in receiving, or you felt no thought went into what you got. I don’t want this swap to be like this.

If you have any questions please email at the above address.

In other news, our sister-in-law will be giving birth to our nephew tonight or tomorrow. Mike and I are looking forward to meeting him, and having a nephew in the same city will be fun.

Five things Friday – 5 iPad Apps I love

We have only had our iPad a month and I am still in that honeymoon stage of exploring apps. Currently we have a mixture of paid and free apps on it. I thought I would share five apps that I like.

1. Fruit Ninja – Puss in Boots ( I blame our friend “M” introducing us to this game.

There are two games to play; Desperado and Bandito. In Bandito you need to progress three acts to get to the finale.   Within each act there are four challenges to try. You need to complete all four to move on to the next act. You have three lives in total and you have to try to protect them throughout the Acts.  In Desperado you slice fruit, avoid bombs whilst protecting your three lives against the clock. There are several versions of fruit ninja but I like this version, as Puss in Boots as a sexy spanish accent. A fun game that little and big kids will enjoy. Other games I enjoy playing on the iPad are Hangman, Solitaire, Pacman and Phase 10.

2. Donna Hay Magazine App

I have downloaded two of her magazines which are free. While most magazines have their own cool features within the magazine, such as videos, techniques and cook mode. In cook mode it breaks down each step and increases the font, whilst you are cooking you can read it easily.

It also lists the ingredients that you need to add or use in each step . I can see that this would be fun to use when cooking. I like that I can bookmark the recipes that interest me and have them on hand when needed.

3. Organize App:  Love this App. I like that I can use this on my phone or on the iPad. My fav feature is the 5 min and 30 mins box. Makes doing jobs around the home fun.

4. Kindle App: I have a kobo and whilst it is good, having this on the iPad means I have the best of both worlds. I have downloaded a few books already.

5. Zinio App: I love love love magazines and I subscribe to a number of  hard copy magazines. This year I  decided to not renew a few of them and to cut back on buying magazines for the sake of it. I have switched to online subscriptions for a few of my international favourites. This has saved me some money and I get to read them as soon as they are published. With a few of my international mags we are often two to three issues behind which bugs me. Another advantage is I don’t have to think what to do with the pile of magazines that would build up after a few months. Each of the magazines I subscribe to have their own features. Another advantage is that I can  buy a single issue of a particular magazine, or subscribe to a continuous service.

Do you have any apps that you can recommend?

Today I….

• went op shopping with Bev and bought some cool things, my best buy would be a suitcase for $2.50,
• had my three-week eye brow threading appointment,
• made a chocolate cake for our neighbour get together tomorrow,
• filled in the enrolment form for this course,
• decided on a book lovers theme for my birthday tea party,
• feel like the month of Feb will be”organisation” around the home month,
• received a phone call from my mother in law this afternoon, to tell that my sister-in-law may have her baby in the next two weeks instead of the end of Feb,
• made a “to do” list for the next few days.

On another note, I will post details of the tea towel swap in the next few days.

Over the tea cups

‘Excuse me if I sit on you,’ the cup said to the saucer.

 ’I fear I’ve been here all the afternoon.’

‘Spare excuses,’ said the saucer; ‘you have sat on me before, sir.’

 ”Oh, I’ll stir him up directly,’ said the spoon.

‘Stop your clatter! Stop your clatter!’ cried the bread-and-butter platter

’Tittle-tattle!’ sneered the tea-pot, with a shrug;

‘Now, the most important question is my chronic indigestion.’

’Ah, you’ve taken too much tannin,’ jeered the jug.

‘Hey, hey, hey!’ sang the silver-plated tray,

‘It’s time you had your faces washed. I’ve come to clear away!’

- Clarence Michael James Stanislaus

Hey, I am so pleased we can catch up today.  It’s been a while since we have had a proper catch up. What have I been up to?

• Spring cleaning in the kitchen, ugh at taking everything out of cupboards and wiping the cupboards down,
• Cleaning the fridge and oven another ugh!!
• Taking an inventory of what is in the fridge and freezer and pantry, more on that in another post,
• Organising a recipe folder,
• Making new recipes for dinner throughout the week. I have some new crock pot recipes to share courtesy of Joan Bishop,
• Thinking about paint colours for the two guest bedrooms on the living area
• Meeting one of the two new additions to our neighbours family (they had premmie twins at the start of December. Last week they were  discharged,
• Getting organised
• Clearing the way for new opportunities to come into my life,
• Feeling content and happy about the changes afoot.

So while, you fill me in with what you have been up to, let me pour you a cuppa.

Five things Friday – I want to create a;

1. printed candle thanks to Sparkle and Hay.

2. gift wrap station in a small suitcase, like this one here.

3. tea-cup light like this or a lamp like this.

4. tea towel pillow for the couch.

5. spoon or fork ring like this one here.

As the images/ideas are not mine I am linking to the sites where I originally found these ideas.

Tea Towel Love- Mondays Child

I have a small collection of tea towels that I want to get framed and hung throughout the house. I certainly don’t own 300 odd tea towels like Richard Till, however in an odd twist of fate I picked up his book “Every Tea Towel Tells a Story – Richard Till’s Special Collection” for $4.99 a few months ago and discovered two of my tea towels are in his book

First up is this cute tea towel that “Save The Children” put out . Mondays child is full of grace………what day are you? I am Friday’s Child – Loving and giving.

Next up is this Kiwiana tea towel, that I bought two years ago for around $3.00. I liked this tea towel because of the colours and it matched the colours of our old kitchen at Newlands Road. This will form the basis of the colour scheme for our new kitchen.

This tea towel is a bit faded, however once framed it should be fine. I bought this tea towel as a slice of New Zealand history and I even remember some of the packaging. This tea towel is in Richard’s book, and he paid $106 for it. Um, I am pleased to say I didn’t pay anywhere near that.

Last but not least is this Home League tea towel. This I bought for sentimental reasons. This tea towel celebrates 100 years of  “The Home League of New Zealand”. Besides it being the 100th anniversary tea towel, I bought it because my nana was a home league member until her death. I have many memories of attending home league with her. This was another tea towel in Richards book.

While, I may collect a few more tea towels, they will be to use and not be used as artwork for the home. Do you have any special tea towels?  I wonder would there be any interest in a “tea towel and send a little something extra nice swap”?

***Edited to add: The tea towel doesn’t have to have a kiwiana theme. I envisage you would send one tea towel to one person. I would match people up and info about fav colours or interest could help with tea towel selection.

A cup of positivi-tea

Last year, I collected words of wisdom, prints and canvases, for some reason or another they haven’t quite made it onto the wall.  Mike helped me out tonight by hanging this trio on the wall at the end of the hallway.

I find that having inspiring words around the home acts as a visual reminder for those days when the glass is half full.

Now I just need to get some of my other prints framed.