My Secret Project

This week, I'm linking up to the awesome Paisley Jade

Following Kristy's blog made me want to learn how to crochet soooooo badly

I googled, you-tubed, stole my mums crochet books and hooks and finally worked it out, hurray!

I made this cute little teeny tiny newborn set for a friend

I worked on this for surprisingly less time than I originally thought I would and now the recipient has received it, I'm not spoiling the surprise by posting a photo

The hardest item was the first bootie, but once I unravelled it a few times, trying to figure it out, emailed the website for help twice, I ended up making the second one in about an hour

Now I know the persons website where I got this from (well, the jacket and booties) says I can't post the pattern because of copyrights blah blah blah etc, but surely I'm allowed to show you a picture of the finished product!

So here it is:

I really want to make a few more sets, I just need people to give me enough warning to make it in time before their due date!

I've been busy again...

So you've been wondering where I've been

I know you've missed me

I really wish I had the time ( or a laptop ) where I could sit and blog every week, its not practical for me to go upstairs, sit on the computer, think about what I want to write, wait for AGES uploading photos and then when I've finished, I've realised I could have been doing something practical

My last post was about how I got a new job

I'm now a Personal Assistant

I started on the 1st of December and its great, I'm really enjoying it

I've also made something so fantastic for my skill level in crochet that I just HAD to share it with someone, so I decided to instead of keep it just to look at and say " I made that as my very first proper project " I sent it off to a pregnant friend

I want her to open the present before I post a pic 

( as you would expect when you send someone a gift ) 

so you most definitely will hear from me in a week when their package arrives and I'll be putting up a picture!!!

So since I love sharing photos, here's a picture of Miss Holly and what she does every night when I get home from work until I feed her

She makes me laugh every time!

Oh, and I'm looking for a house sitter

Anyone???

Wide Awake

Hello Again!!

Guess what? I'm not sick anymore!

Well, actually, ahem... thats not 100% true...

Ask anyone who's been around me or spoken to me this past week.

I still sound awful

Last week I started getting sick again

It wasn't as bad as last time

But I managed to go to work at least and only have half a sick day instead of consecutive 7 sick days. 

So in my books, thats a major improvement

What I didn't mention last time, was the stress. I wasn't just sick. I was stressed too. Stressed out mostly because I was sick

My husband was in Christchurch, and I always worry when he's down there. I mean, come on, its shakey-town. When I went down there last I felt an aftershock and while it was very small to the locals, it was  quite scary for me

Secondly, I applied for a new job. That gets my nerves going at the best of time. I had a job interview on the Tuesday that I went home sick in September

I felt really bad applying for a new job.  

Leaving the familiarity of my current job to do something totally different?!? Thats pretty scary stuff

Same company, different role

The week after, found out I got the job

What I forgot was that I'd have to leave five years worth of work & customer relationships that I worked hard to maintain. 

Then, after I took two weeks to get over that, I realized I'd have to actually tell those people I was leaving them.

I cried for days

I told my work colleagues - the ones not in my office, but based in another city, last week. 

I did start to cry after reading their 'good luck' replies to my email, they were so nice to me

I still haven't told my customers... I'm too scared

I'm buzzing with the chance of a change and excited to be starting my new role ( about 3 meters away from where I sit in the office currently ) on December 1st

My first task is to buy Christmas presents for the 50+ children coming to the 'Kids Christmas Party' - Eeek!

So thats just my work story

Next is my home story

I've been super busy at home with Jeremy

I've built a fence, built a mini retaining wall, cleaned out the garage, built some shelves, planted trees, mowed the lawns ( it takes 2 hours - on the ride-on lawn mower )

and numerous other things

My weekends are pretty full on and now my biggest job is to oil-stain the fence

Then Jeremy's sister got married, sorry I don't have any good pics but here's one of Jeremy and I

Here's some slippers I made by stitching granny squares together

This pair is for my nephew

and this pair is for my Mummy

and while I was sick I made this cute little beanie for a toddler

I don't know any little girls so I gave it to someone at work who is going to give it to her granddaughter

yay!

and of course I've been busy watching the rugby for the World Cup, it finished at the end of October, but because I was too busy I didn't post

Here are my Mum's decorations. We went to her place each week to watch the games

and thats all for now

I will try to post more often but with summer coming I'll be outside a whole lot more and getting time in front of the computer will be a challenge!

Becky

I've been busy

Hi Everyone

I've been uber busy

I plan to give a MASSIVE update

I'm just too busy to do one though

I promise I won't be too much longer

x Becky

My sick week

Its Tuesday today

Last week on Monday my throat started hurting, then I went home on Tuesday because I was starting to loose my voice and my chest was really heavy/hard to breathe through - I thought it would make sense to have the afternoon off and ' recover '

Boy was I wrong

On Wednesday, I called in sick, my throat was hurting like it was on fire

I woke up every two hours the night before in serious pain

I endured it, I wasn't thinking straight, I wasn't getting enough oxygen

( I later found out that my boss could barely hear the message I left on his voicemail )

On Thursday, with the burning fire in my throat keeping me awake all night, I called work again

I should have tested my voice before I picked up the phone, so my 

" Hi its Becky " turned into " cough, hawk, icky "

My boss said he couldn't really hear me, but get well soon

On Thursday night I did some heavy breathing, got some oxygen to think straight and figured out that having Panadol and throat spray ( among the other drugs the pharmacist gave me ) by my bedside would help me

At 12pm, 2am, then again at 4am I sprayed like my life depended on it

It helped, but only enough to get 2 hours sleep at a time

On Friday I didn't bother calling in, I emailed, there wasn't any point they would have thought it was a prank call and hung up on the silence on the other end

On Friday afternoon I caught a ride to Auckland with one of my husbands workmates boyfriends

I had tickets to go to Christchurch, I would never have been able to drive myself & I was so grateful that someone else was going too

It was meant to be a ski weekend

It turned into a me almost falling down and collapsing every 5 minutes weekend from exhaustion

My husband took care of me and on Sunday I started feeling much much better

On Monday I headed off to work with no voice but keen to prove I was well enough to be there

My boss sent me to the doctor

The doctor sent me home for two more days

The doctor said I had an infection of some kind, she wasn't really sure what it was, but all the congestion in my chest was making my oxygen intake limited and that was wearing me out

She also said I had an ear infection and my ears were very very red

The doctor said that she really had no idea so much so, that if the antibiotics worked, it was bacterial and I'd feel better on Wednesday ( since thats what she prescribed )

If it was viral, then I wouldn't 

( since that was not what she prescribed )

I've been taking antibiotics now for two days and I THINK I feel better, I'm not sure

I haven't really tested myself

All I know is, I'm heading off to work tomorrow to prove once more that I'm better

I'll loose my voice in about 10 minutes

Fingers crossed I remember to take my prescription to work with me tomorrow

Wish me luck!!!

** If this blog doesn't make sense at all, you know why** 

Orchard

I can now say husband and I have finished planting our orchard & installing an irrigation system 
( hurray! ) 
because no way am I walking around with a bucket watering them like last summer! 

We only had 13 trees in then but even so, it was a mission!!!

We now have 46 trees/vines/bushes etc.... whatever they are called

I know you're curious wondering just what there is so here goes:

5x Apple 

3x Apricot

2x Avocado

1x Blueberry

1x Boysenberry

4x Feijoa

3x Grape

1x Grapefruit

1x Guava

2x Lemon 

1x Lemonade

1x Lime

5x Mandrin

2x Nectarine

2x Orange

4x Peaches

2x Pear

4x Plum

1x Quince

Notice I'm missing one? Thats because there was a citrus tree already here when we bought the property

It hasn't attempted to grow any new fruit so until it does, its the mystery tree!

When we moved in, there were already 2x apples, 1x lemon, 1x mystery citrus and 1x quince

And it cracks me up every time that one of my trees is called Orion  ( my mums cats name ) and another called Richard ( my brothers name )

I think to know which tree is which for my yearly diary of what the trees do, I'm going to have to remember all their names. Some poor trees didn't come with any so I'll have to make them up based on their character that comes out 

We're trying to get them to establish their roots but they are intent on producing fruit

So far I've had to pick off teeny tiny lemons, mandarins, nectarines and tomorrow, peaches

I feel like I'm taking their babies away.... 

In preparation for the upcoming ( years away ) 46 trees worth of fruit, I've been practicing using other peoples fruit 

( and my quinces ) 

...so last week I made some grapefruit marmalade

I had it on my toast this morning for breakfast, it was yummy!

and to think, we still don't have a vegetable garden going yet!!!

Busy - Or Not?

You know how you get one of those weeks where you feel like all you've done is sit around and do nothing?

I feel like that, but instead of doing nothing, I've been super busy!!

I've almost achieved everything on my "Things I Really Should Do While Jeremy Is Away But Probably Won't Do" list. It used to be called the "Things To Do" list but I needed to be honest with myself

I made more quince jam....

I'm going to dress up my jam looking all old fashioned etc 

I'm really excited about my plans for my jam 

I'm going to be making a TON of it so I figured, why not make it look all pretty??

I've got sooooo many jars in the cupboard, anyone want some?

Here it is, the long awaited crochet pic:

Slippers with flowers on!

I made these, I'm so impressed with myself for following a pattern and everything!!!

( okay so they are slightly different sizes by a few stitches but not bad for a first attempt )

You can find the pattern here

Dealing with Holly the menace 

She likes my ball of wool, every now and then a paw will start working its way towards the piece dangling in front of her before the crochet hook snaps it up

I'm so pleased she knows what "No" means!!

I'm so pleased I learnt to keep my distance from her when I get my wool out after the time I accidentally dropped it on her and had to prise it out of her mouth!!

Today my niece Miss 5 came over for the day

We made cupcakes

 she couldn't resist a little ( *ahem* 'lot' of mixture off the spoon while I wasn't looking )

...no I'm just kidding, she was an angel

but did lick the beaters

And, believe it or not, the only thing I did was cut and soften the butter, turn on the mixer and handle the hot finished product

I then made the icing and piped it onto the cupcakes

She did everything else! 

( I must admit I was worried when she cracked open those eggs... )

Ta-da!! 

The finished product 

 Yip, she even did the sprinkles and designed the colour scheme

The Week That Was

I love to blog, its so much fun, its like keeping a diary with pictures, but everyone gets to read it and comment too!

So here's what I've been up to this week:

Husband and I finished our entranceway!!

This is what it looked like when we bought the house just under a year ago

This is what it looks like today

I made quince jam

 ...not that quinces are in season or anything, they come out around March/April 

I had cooked and frozen some all ready to go :o)

We've had a frost every single day this week and weekend

I took this on Wednesday 

We had hail too, Miss Holly had great fun getting out and chasing all the little balls bouncing around on the deck

I worked on my crochet, no I'm not putting up a pic - yet

I've made something awesome and thats a whole separate blog coming up this week!

Who's excited???

I AM!!!!

Things I'm Loving

Linky thanks to the awesome Paisley Jade ( I really hope I've done this linky thingie right )

Here are some of the things I'm loving right now:

My crochet hooks - they're pretty colors!!

( I'm loving the way this pic turned out too )

The fact that I turned this very first ever attempt at a granny square

 Into this in one night just blew my mind!!

 Then into these over the next two nights

I'm finally learning to crochet, big unattemptable projects not meant for beginners here I come!!!

 My mischevious rascal Holly Dolly, snapped trying to free this orange tree

 All she really wants is all my attention
( the newspaper doesn't deserve it )

My confused peach tree Orion -it thinks its spring

( and before you ask Mum, yes the tree's name really is Orion like your cat )

Mt Hutt

This weekend I flew down to Christchurch for a ski weekend

I was sooooo excited!!!

I left work early so that I wouldn’t get stuck in traffic and since my flight was delayed, waited 3 hours in the domestic terminal

After locating my luggage and taking ages to find out how to get the boot open on the rental then driving to the hotel, I didn’t fall asleep until around 11:30pm

( I still didn't figure that boot out, I had to load my stuff over the back... )

We got up at 6:15am on Saturday

Jeremy’s workmate was up at 5am, amped and ready to go, bounding down the corridor in excitement

Once we were loaded up we were off and got to the mountain just as it opened

There was snow the night before so we had fresh powder and it was
amazing!

     
The view was amazing, it was the first time I’ve been up the Southern Alps and the weather behaved itself, as it does in the south

I was pretty sore by the end of the day and while none of us wanted to leave, our muscles were pleased we did

The next morning we left later, but arrived earlier (???!!!???)

The Kea’s were busy pulling apart the snow truck so stayed away from our rental ( I don’t even know if we were even insured against them… can you be insured against Kea’s?? )

  

I paced myself so that I could last until 4pm since we were all pretty sore from the day before

When us girls stopped for lunch, we noticed some random Japanese guy taking our photo on his phone… weird

Then he came over and asked us to take a photo of him, turned out he wanted one with me… even weirder… People stare at me, but that’s another blog altogether!

At the end of the day we took to the beginner slopes for fun to wind down and it was great to practice my turns

I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve missed, like the boys saying it was ‘warm’ when it was 6 degrees outside on Saturday morning, then on Sunday when it was 0 degrees and we stopped briefly on the way and they said ‘it didn’t feel very cold’

Rocky Road

On Sunday night I made Rocky Road for the first time

Yum Yum!

I love it, its one of my favourites

I thought it would be difficult but after I read the instructions, I laughed! Is this simple or what??

I don't know why I didn't make this sooner

350g Chocolate

250g Marshmellows

1 C Peanuts

½ C Glacé Cherries (I just used one whole box since there was no point saving the rest)

Cut the Marshmellows in half (hint: wet the scissors first)

Cut the Peanuts to desired size

Cut Cherries in half

Mix together

Melt Chocolate

Add Chocolate to everything else

Put into a slice tin and pop in the fridge to set

Easy Peasy!

Next time, I’d use more chocolate to hold it together…

My Wedding Dress

Today I sold my wedding dress

My dress was beautiful, I couldn't have wished for more

It had sparkels!!

 I couldn't breathe for most of the day but it was worth it

I'm sad to see it go, but happy it went to someone who loves it just as much as I do

Goodbye Grandad

Last week my Granddad passed away

 

Ian Gordon Hamilton
 

On the lighter side, the cat who lives in the house next door to the funeral home decided to come in and smooch everyone during the ceremony

The lady in front of me nearly sat on it as it jumped up on her chair for me to pat it during a hymn

 

 

South Island Adventures

I can now officially say that I've been to the South Island

I saw the seals at Kaikoura

They didn't smell

The one on the wall in the background had a nasty temper and showed me his teeth 

The one on the grass could have let me touch him, I didn't want to risk it.... 

The public toilets were so clean at Kaikoura you could have had a picnic in the cubicle

Northland/Auckland - you need to step up your game!

We went to Hamner Springs Thermal Resort

It was so clean and new, it made Waiwera look like a dump - and it was way cheaper

On Sunday we drove around Christchurch looking at the damage, I felt bad waking around taking photos. Then I counted the tourists doing the same thing

This road was packed with cars that had pulled over to take pics of the houses perched on the edge of the cliff

This road used to be flat

This bridge used to be straight

There are lots of these signs in the Red Zone

This is how they hold up the walls in Lyttleton

...and so for all who are curious, no I didn't feel any aftershocks

There's always next time when I go down again to tackle Mt Hutt, which opened today!!

Waa-hoo!!