Bread

Last night we went round to friends for a lovely spaghetti and meatballs supper. We took the starter of breads and dips. As usual I kind of overcatered and made far to much bread. My cooking often ends in disaster so I usually cook more than is actually required, just incase things go wrong. This time everything came out ok.

Renovation Shopping #1

This is the tap I want to go over my new sink. Not what we planned on, but as soon as I saw it I thought, yip that's it. The very helpful man in Carters in Hastings held it up for me to take a quick snap so I could show Peter. Sorry about this, but you will have to be patient with me while I bore you to tears with pics of bathroom fittings for the next few months.

Big Plans #1

This is some of my before pictures. I have been planning our renovations for a while and I think we are just about ready to start, thanks to the little sink accident. The front door of my house opens on to the kitchen, which I have never liked. So we are going to move it into the middle, with a window either side, and get rid of the ugly plumbing pipes.
Our front door will then be where are toilet is at them moment. We will move the toilet into the bathroom next door. The little alcove in the kitchen which the door opens onto at the moment will become my walk in pantry. I have always envied Keriann her lovely pantry, it will be so cool to have one of my own. We can then get rid of the big ugly pantry cupboard in the kitchen and move the fridge and freezer down a bit. But before all this happens, we will have to do the bathroom. First of all we are going to strip out everything. Put in a nice frameless shower with a ceramic base. A new lou and a new hand basin. I am having great fun sourceing our bathroom fittings. Once all the above is done, we will move on to the other bathroom, which as you can see below, with its scratched, pink, plastic sink really needs a lot of TLC.
To cut a long story short by removing an alcove in a bedroom and moving the door frame by 90 degrees into the corridor, we can double the size of the other shower room which will leave room to put the bath in there. But that is stage 4 and a very long way off. Meanwhile I would like to put two sets of french doors. One in the dining bit of the kitchen, so we can add a deck and sit out and admire the view down the garden. And the second in my sewing room, which opens onto the veranda. So I can open them up in the summer and feel like I am sewing outside.

This is all going to take a long time. I will probably be retired before we are finished, but it will be worth the wait.

Today's Daisies #62

Today's daisies were a present from my youngest. He spotted them as he walked back up the drive and thought I would like them. As a parent, I am sure you will agree, tiny little things like this make up for so much.

Sunset and Moon

Another beautiful sunset with a little fingernail moon floating on it.

This is ........ my trade secret

The theme for this weeks "this is" is my trade secret. Apologies here if this comes out a bit slushy but ......... My trade secret is having Peter around to bounce my ideas off. Quite often he comes up with ideas that are definatly out of the box and just the inspiration I need. Somtimes I don't listen to his suggestions, ignore his opinon and go my own way. But that also is good, because it strengthens my idea that I am making the right design choices, and dissolves my indecisions. I really do appreciate that he is there to listen to me rabbiting on about my latest projects ideas.

That sinking feeling ......

I've done it again. Did you know that sinks shatter very easily. I didn't. I came out of the shower and picked up glass jar with wet hands and guess what. The glass jar slipped out of my hands into the sink. Ooops I thought, there goes my $3 jar. Unfortunatly the $3 jar survived the fall, but our slightly more expensive sink didn't. There is an up side to this though. We decided a while ago to update our bathroom next year, rip out the bath and put in a big shower. We can move that date forward a lot and update the bathroom now. There is no point in paying to replace the sink in the wrong place and move it again next year. Which means that the house renevations are going to start at last. Will post some before pics soon.

Time off for good behaviour

Peter and I actually got to go out for a quick meal and a trip to the movies tonight, by ourselves. Well I mean both of us together, not by ourselves separately, without kids.
We went to Pippi's for pizza. Which arrived very quickly and tasted brilliant. I think Peter perhaps enjoyed his bottle of beer.

The film we went to see was "Married Life". Not quite what I expected and quite slow, but ok. All that and we were back home by 7:30pm.

Sorry about the dark pics, I don't like to use the flash in a restaurant as it can be a pain for other diners.

Who's trying to hide in the cabbage tree ....

Who is that hiding in the Cabbage Tree? Is it a bush baby or a lost kola? Or is it the Cheshire cat?
Nope, its a fluffy Buffy cat.
Can you spot the cat in this picture.
Yip, its Rana taking a rest from chasing old cabbage tree leaves around.

Today's Daisies #61

As I haven't posted any pics of daisies for a while, here are some that survived the storm.

Down at the creek today #8

Down at the creek today, now the torrent is gone, there is a new lair of muddy sludge.

Down at the creek today #7

Down at the creek today there was a lot of water. A big storm just past through dumping a tons of rain on just about all of NZ. This is where our lower garden usually is, with a creek running through it. Today we have no lower garden just a torrent running over it. I do have a video, just can't get it to load at the moment. Our house is in the upper garden, so well above the water level, no worries there touch wood.

This is what it should look like down at the creek.

This is ......... what I did last night

This weeks this is topic was kind of free form, each blogger taking part in the meme could chose their own theme. I choose .......... this is what I did last night. No this is not a normal night's meal destruction in the Daisy household. We had a bunch of very good friends over for a meal. Peter cooked Pizza and did some salads. Katherine brought the cheese board and dips as a starter and Keriann brought her brilliant Tiramisu as dessert. Really I should have taken a picture of the before, not the after, as the table looked so cool.
Unfortunatly it was all too much for Peter who collapsed at the end of the evening, groaning that he could not cope with cooking and drinking wine at the same time. Now has that ever stopped any of us girls, I am sure cooking improves with a glass or two of wine.
The last remaining bits of pizza were polished off by an errant teenager when they managed to get home.
Unfortunatly the washing up fairies did not visit us last night. So I just grabbed a bowl of yogurt and went back to bed to wait for them.

Finished with minutes to spare .....

Last Sunday I went to my first baby shower. Baby showers are not a Scottish tradition. Obviously I waited till the last minute to start making a cot quilt as a gift. There I was on Sunday morning still in my PJ's busy quilting away. I did finish the quilt, but with just minutes to spare.

A project finished at last. Maybe this will spur me on to finish some of the other projects. Maybe that is what I need to finish my other projects, a deadline. Or maybe I should spend more time quilting in my PJ's, instead of running around at the weekends washing, ironing, shopping (the dull supermarket kind) and being a taxi service for my teenagers.

This is ............ things that make me happy.

This is a list, in order, of the things that make me happy.

My family laughing together.

My wonderful hubbie and his strange sense of humour. I had to kiss a lot of frogs before I found him. Incase you are wondering what he is doing, he is trying to hide his double chin, that he doesn't have.
My garden, other people's gardens and gardening.

Having outings, dinners and coffee with the brilliant friends I have made in NZ.



Quilts, patchwork, quilting, my stash of fabrics and quilting shops.

Life in general, when everything lines up.

Coming out of the movies after seeing a great movie. Saw Momma Mia last week with friends, a very feel good movie.



Walking in the early morning sunshine.


Finding a truly beautiful bargain in an op shop (thrift shop, junk shop, charity shop).

The beauty of the unexpected simple things in life.

Shopping. Yes, I know I am very shallow.

Oh and winning the lottery would make me happy, then I could travel back to see my Mum and Dad whenever I wanted.



BTW there is a very cool quilt give away over here, shhh don't tell everyone. I would feel pretty happy if I won it.

Travelling

Above travelling in the UK. The roads from Manchester were really busy, but the closer we got to Horncliffe the quieter and narrower the roads got.
My trip back from work in New Zealand in comparison to travelling in the UK above. Sorry this one is not in order, but you get the idea. No traffic hardly at all. Peter was driving this time, so I could take pics from any angle.
These pictures I took a couple of days ago while going to work with Peter in the morning.
They are to good to include in a mosiac type photo.

The mist was just lying beautifully in the fields.

I love the shape of the poplars in the winter.

Today's daisy #60 has been stolen

Peter has whipped in quickly and stolen my today's daisy. They are now over here. The mangosteens (not to be confused with langoustines) did taste very very nice if I kept my eyes shut. But as soon as Peter pointed out that they looked like grubs that was it for me, I could not eat them anymore.

This is ........ what gives me goosebumps.

Music is what gives me goosebumps. Some songs just cover me in goosebumps, bring tears to my eyes and let my mind soar. This is not the list of my favourite songs. This is the list of the ones that make me feel. I would probably give my right arm (as long as there was very little pain) to be a musician. Unfortunatly I never will be. My two eldest have inherited the musician gene from their Dad, so far they have not used it, but I know it is there just under the surface and one day might bubble out when they need it. There are a few of these tunes so please be patient while I share with you.

The all time best and greatest song for me is this one, Kiss from a Rose by Seal.



And Roachford "Only to be with you", tingles my spine every time.



And another one. I am sure this one does it for most of us girls.


Almost finished my list, I love, love, love this song. Maybe tomorrow by STEREOPHONICS!!!



And lastly this song just picks me up so much when I need a good kick up the bum. Coldplay and Clocks.



Almost forgot to add, isn't you tube so cool. You can look up all those old videos, music and comedians, they are just there when every you want, almost live on your laptop or PC. I know that it has been abused in the past and probably will in the future, which is a shame. I have just spend a brill Sunday afternoon, watching the above videos and others that I had not thought of for years. I am just off back to oggle Paul Rodgers and Bad Company.

Personality

I love to do personality tests, so when I saw this one over at Curly Pops' blog, I could not resist.

The results were spot on for my personality. Not so sure about my job, clergy or missionary, I don't think so. I did spot photographer in there, not a career but definatly a hobby. I am a software developer and I love it, it is the perfect job for me. My brain just loves puzzles and finding a way through them. Guess I better not change career path any time soon.

Just gone back and looked at Curly Pops' blog, she seems to have my career recommendatations. Perhaps we could swap suggested careers Cam if you see anything in my suggested careers that you would like.

Nicola's personality type:

Quietly forceful, original and sensitive. Tend to stick to things until they are done. Extremely intuitive about people and concerned for their feelings. Well-developed value systems which they strictly adhere to. Well-respected for their perserverence in doing the right thing. Likely to be individualistic, rather than leading or following.

Careers that could fit Nicola includes:

Counselors, clergy, missionaries, teachers, medical doctors, dentists, chiropractors, psychologists, psychiatrists, writers, musicians, artists, psychics, photographers, child care workers, education consultants, librarians, marketeers, scientists, social workers

Distant Castles

North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders are full of castles. Some of them ruins like Norham castle and some of them in pretty good nick and still lived in like Bamburgh. Due to lack of time we did not actually get to visit any of them on our recent trip. We just got distant views of Bamburgh and Lindisfarne castles from the Barn restaurant at Beal. Bamburgh is my favourite castle, but I have never been to Lindisfarne castle yet.

The Barn at Beal is worth a visit also. It has really good food, very helpful service and a fantastic view over the causway to Holy Island.

You can see the full pics here.