Cat on Computer

I spent a great deal of yesterday afternoon on the computer sorting out things and deleting copious amounts of the stuff that collects in various folders especially the Temporary Internet folder and defragmenting...Whee the computer works twice as fast now.  A tip from an IT friend clean up your desk top remove unused  short cuts these slow the opening of your computer when you turn it on....True it does you know.

So what is with the Cat...well he insists on sitting very close to the computer when ever I am on it

Move him across and with in 30 seconds he is back down the left hand side...

I was daft enough to think he just wanted to be close to me...then I realised why he insists on sitting or laying there... it is the fan keeping the laptop cool and it blows out warm air that side... silly me I thought he wanted to be close to me.. fooled again.

Midday on Saturday it is done.

Midday on Saturday and it is done and dusted, not colour sorted that has to come and also refolding so fabric fits on shelves and does not pull other fabrics off with it when you remove some..

It is working perfectly making a blank space behind a door into a working space.

Thank you Iain

I did not wait long

A bookcase, in my last blog posting  about my sewing room

I did mention that I needed more shelves, and my Daughter sent me a message that

Warehouse had shelves on sale all shapes and sizes.

So I took myself off to the Rotorua "Big Red " Warehouse and saw for myself

finally decided on a 5 tier bookcase ( a whole $39) to stand behind the door in the sewing room..

All I need now is a galant chap to help assemble it for me ...hopefully my son will be visiting sometime tomorrow and he will get roped in to help me.

Day at the beach

Today we ended up at Ohope Beach close to Whakatane

When we left home at 10am today Claire, Ellis, Harvey and myself

 it was not to go to the beach..

We were to visit my brother in law and his family camping at Lake Rotoiti.. we drove and drove visited campsites and could not find them...

we came to the end of the campsites I knew of...

so we finally made a decision to continued on to the coast.The moral of this missive is "Take the name of the campsite with you"

Never mind we had a great day at the beach.Now Claire is not a water baby at all and normally does not get wet let alone "Boogie Board" but I have pictures that tell a different story.

This has to be easy

Just in case no one believes us this is Claire out deep with Ellis.

Harvey in the campervan he had had enough of swimming for the day

You have to see these pictures

You just have to see these pictures... Now I never doubted for one moment that I would get it done...it has just taken a while that is all, you know how life gets in the way sometimes.

Voila!!!

The sewing room is completely turned out and put back together, I have a list of things I need,  you know the sort  of thing, containers, more shelves or another bookcase.

YES!!!

You can see every inch of the floor and I managed to vacuum it, there was not to much noise when the pins shot into the Dyson. The bin is no longer flowing over the side.

Bets on how long it lasts ..... No save your money I can give you the answer......... tomorrow or next day it will begin to look like it's self again... but I will try very very hard to not just pile things on the surfaces... may be I will just use the floor it is a much larger area.

Okay, just have to start on the cupboard now and all the fat quarters and the UFO's  and try and make some order out of chaos in there.
That will not be so bad as I am an "Aries" 
Aries  like things in neat lines, so I just love to get the iron and stand and refold and line up the quarters into their colour range containers, I just have a problem with keeping them like that ... I am always in a hurry to start a project and unused ones just end up back on top of the containers and fall or are pushed aside when I am on the hunt again.

Bread and Jam

In the small village where I live,  we have a "Hot Bread Shop" now this is a chain of Asian owned bakeries.
They produce some lovely bread good old fashion type...mainly white but they do  have wholewheat as well...
So when I popped to the shops a little while ago I bought a loaf, still warm and smelling delicious.

So I have just had a "Doorstep" of bread, butter and  plum jam..... there is just not any thing that tastes like it...it also brings back memories of tea when I was young, we always had afternoon tea when we got in from school..... it would consist of savory pastes made of sardines or chicken liver a bit like a pate  without the posh name......and of course breads with jam, my mother was also a very dab hand at Victoria Sponges again with jam in the middle.

If you have not had Bread and Jam for years ...go and try one and savour the memories....

 It goes with out saying this jam was all home made.  Bought jam never entered our house, I remember with the Robertson's jams they gave away "Golly stickers '  you collected them and when you had 20 you could send off for a Golly brooch, as you can guess I never got one  because Mum never bought the jam... I guess today  I would be classed as having a deprived childhood and I would have to have
counseling for it.....



A doorstep of bread... is a real old fashion English saying for a very thick slice.

A day of good intensions, a good breakfast and some sewing

Yesterday I spent quite a long afternoon in the garden trimming and pruning and generally making things look more presentable, as mentioned the other day we have had some storms and the flowers took a bashing and the trees lost a few smaller branches, so a lot of dead heading to do and picking up debris.

I also trimmed the Plum Tree, this tree was planted 5yrs ago and it finally produced some fruit this year, I have had 3 dishes like this one it is a Black Doris so they are quite sweet but not yet ready to eat. Hopefully next season it will produce a few more

So today's good intention was !! ... to continue in the garden but when I finally got around to it I was not in the mood...over did it yesterday I would guess.

So I have been in the sewing room and produced these for my " present stash" I try to keep some things made ready so when I have to produce a gift at short notice...voila! there is one in the stash..

I love making  small  "thread" rubbish bins they are a real "no brain-er" once you know how to do them. it always amazes me how each one turns out so different from the last, I think it depends on the fabric used, some fabrics are stiffer than others thus it  will stand well and a soft fabric like the pink one, will just not stand so well,  So I would suggest more stuffing for softer fabrics.

I also tried a lovely Porridge dish for breakfast today.....

Banana Porridge

I expect everyone has heard of it and I was the one who had not ...but here goes just in case you have not heard of it....

Add a half a mashed  banana to your porridge a minute before it is finished cooking
then serve and top with rest of banana and a large spoon of  real maple syrup.

It was delicious and  gives you good things to help lower the colesterol

My followers have returned

My followers have returned home

But they have come back on a different  background

I will just leave it as it is I think.

Holiday booking

I have just spent an hour or so booking our up and coming train journey through New Zealand.

So March 2nd sees Prue, Mhairi and myself climb aboard the Overlander train from Hamilton to Wellington which is just a mere 11hours of train journey, the next day we will cross the Cook Strait by ferry to Picton and the the Coastal train to Christchurch.

 The return journey will be the same in reverse.

I am getting so excited I have wanted to do this adventure for ages now and finally I have made the decision to go for it.........so here are few pictures of what we will see.

Ferry across the Cook Strait

I wish it was always this calm it can be one of the most awful crossings, but as soon as you get over the Strait you then cruise up the estuary to Picton and it is beautiful.

Followers seem to have gone.

I seem to be having trouble with some of my gadgets.

My followers seemed to have disappeared and I am having great problems locating them...

if you are one of my followers could you try signing in again for me, if this does not work

Any ideas ??

The day got worse

My day just got  worse as time passed...

The rain has continued all day and the wind has been blowing a bit of a gale

During the morning there seemed to be a commotion in the garage like cats fighting... I knew it was not my cat as he was sat beside me.. on investigation there was a cat crying from somewhere in the garage, I could not see it at all.... another cat was running away....

the crying continued and finally I realised the cat was between the wall and the siding boards..

I tried to coax it out but it was not having any of it   ...  just cried and cried... so I went away and left it to calm down.

 a couple of hours later it was still behind the wall.

Having no idea how I was going to handle this I called the SPCA....

they would only come if urgent and then not before another 4 or 5 hours had passed,

 they told me to demolish the garage wall from the inside with a crowbar to let it out.

Me just a mere female was not taking a crowbar to the wall

So I went back to the garage and rattled the food box .. nothing happened

I decided to play the waiting game again and finally  after about another 4 hours the cat began to climb up the wood on the inside of the wall and got right to the top and flew around the rafters as though it had been scolded, I decided to leave the doors open and go away I guess he or she has gone by now I may go and have a look.. but it was so angry and frightened that it was dangerous to be near...

The thing is they must have gone through the cat flap just installed on Monday into the garage

for my cat to use when I am  away......SO

I have decided to have an early night and start a fresh day tomorrow...

What have I been doing

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time

you may have read about this tassel class I took last year.

Well! after posting the photo on the internet

I have been inundated with requests for the pattern

from all over the world,of course this pattern

does not belong to me so I can not pass it on.

This was then obviously the next question by people

" Who was the pattern published by?"

I had to say no one, it was not a commercial pattern.

The long and the short of it all is....

 I approached Marjorie

who designed this beauty right here in Morrinsville NZ

and asked if she would be interested in publishing the pattern

With some persuasion she decided to go for it,

so with re-writing on her side and me on mine getting

the printing done and dealing with the customers

 We have printed the pattern and put it on sale.

 $25 NZ including postage (NZ)

$27 NZ  including postage ( overseas.)

 The pattern can be obtained by emailing me, it will not be available from shops

The tassel is about 4 inches in length and will need basic hardanger experience to complete it

How not to start the day

We are in the throws of a storm and a half here.....rain like we have not had for months...in a way it is good...BUT!!!

I woke up at just after 6am to an almighty bang in the garden and got up to see what was going on ...table and chairs all over the yard and a couple of flower pots rolling around ......decided I need to pick up the umbrella which was in danger of getting broken.... so opened the door, by the way we  have to tie it back when open or it will close on it's own  ....YES !!! you can guess while I bent down to get hold of the cord to tie the door ..whoosh the door shut

There I am outside in just a nightie and no glasses so can't really see properly......with no other doors around the house unlocked ... so had to go across the street  to the neighbours, who are up ( early risers as well ) to get the spare key ...all ok!.....  all good but when I put key it in front door ... Oh no !! the CHAIN is on...so back I go for bolt cutters and then I am in ...not a good start to today..... all this before 6.45am  the day can only get better.

I do just that

I realise you are going to end up reading this message before the next one...which was the first one posted.... if you have not read the first one do so now and come back to this one......

Yes! I use the best china every day....most people coming to the house for the first time always comment on this, and I say it is for using not looking at that is why it was made in the first place.

I wear  my good jewellery and clothes I  keep nothing "for best" if I like it I bought it to wear not look at in the wardrobe.

There are somethings I want to do...the first one I organised yesterday A Train Tour of New Zealand.

so with a couple of girl friends on 2nd March for a week we will take all

the trains available to us from North to South Island.

And I am determined to go to some other places I have been hankering after seeing

in the next few months be it in NZ or Overseas.

Prue and I have been booking for concerts and any thing that is going on around us...

with an almost " to hell with the cost..we want to do it" 

So don't hold back with " I will one day" that day may not be there.

You may be saying to yourself has this email made me do this...

NO is the reply, it is because I have seen so many of my friends and acquaintances

die of breast cancer in the last few years...

BUT the main reason is I am a SURVIVOR of breast cancer,

I had my mastectomy 25 yrs ago....

So ladies please have your mammogram when your notice

 comes through or your smear,

It can save your life ...

 I know of so many ladies who say

 " but I am older or had an hysterectomy years back. " or

" I don't need a smear"...the answer to that is YOU DO!!

One Day ----

This last couple of months I know of so many people losing loved ones and heard of so many others, I think this is the first time I have heard of so many in such a short space of time... May be it is to do with my age, that portion on life where losing someone is almost expected.
I have also heard and know of people becoming very sick,
and had just had this conversation with a neighbour.

Then yesterday via email I recieved this message, so I am passing it on to you.

A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package:

'This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package.'

He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.
'She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago.
She has never put it on , was saving it for a special occasion.
Well, I guess this is it.
He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing
he was taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died.
He turned to me and said:
'Never save something for a special occasion.
Every day in your life is a special occasion'.
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to,
not survived through.
I no longer keep anything.
I use crystal glasses every day...
I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.
I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to.
The words 'Someday...' and ' One Day...' are fading away from my dictionary.
If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now...
I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be
there the next morning, this nobody can tell.
I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends.
She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels.
I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favourite food.
It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come..
Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one.

Happy Birthday Ellis

Happy Birthday

Ellis  9yrs old today

Tomorrow ( Tuesday) we are off shopping together

as he really can not think of anything he would like as a present