House, Harvest and a Hip old lady.

Our house went on the market 1 week ago. Look at that lovely red door! I've always wanted a red front door.

2 More weeks and we will have to say goodbye to it.

Little old Dana walking up to me wanting a cuddle, she is 14: we hope our 3 cats will cope with the move. They are not young anymore and have never lived anywhere else, except for black De-ja-vu. He was a stray.

Lots of people have already come through our house, either with a real estate agent, or at the open home. We have worked very hard to make our house as presentable as possible, tidied and scrubbed everything, got rid of clutter ( a big job!), even put a new special coating on the kitchen benches.

But I feel very restless at night, I am not starting any sewing or art projects, those empty surfaces have to stay empty. It is so tidy, I feel I ought to be sitting at the edge of the chairs.

Last Saturday we all got up early and had a garage-sale, combined with friends. It was very successful, we made enough to pay for a bill and extra money for all members of the household. The rest of the things that didn't sell, we gave to a charity shop: a carboot full !

This week some people want to come back to see our house again for the second time!

My tomatoes this year did very well indeed. As a matter of fact, even though they were all staked up, the weight of the fruit made them all fall on top of each other into a big jungle. These messy plants have all been removed of course, but not before I managed to harvest 5 kg of tomatoes. I still have another kilo ripening up on the cut-off vines .
This year I also tried an aubergine or egg-plant. I managed to get 2 fruits from one plant, but an awful lot of flowers that didn't develop. Next time I might have to do some pruning. I put the egg-plants into a lasagna, yum!
Very pretty flowers though. But aubergines would have been better...

From this harvest I made pasta sauce. A big bunch of basil, 5 kg tomatoes, green bell peppers, zucchini, loads of chives and perpetual spinach, all homegrown!

I added onion and garlic and a few spices.

And ended up with 9 big jars of pasta sauce, which I will use in the winter time when I like to make macaroni with mince and cheese added. Very pleasing results for a small-time domestic goddess like myself!!
This is, or was, my Hip old lady. She is a Husqvarna ( or Viking)2000, model 6030 from 1973. She is mechanical and is self lubricating. She has an ingenious "colourmatic system" for embroidery stitches. Little cogs can be installed into the back and then by putting the dials onto the correct colour codes, you get different stitches.

I usually only use the zigzag and straight stitches, mind you. But the possibilities were there. The length and width of the stitches are fully adjustable and there is a reverse and the feed dogs can be dropped for free embroidery.

I got her from my sister-in-law years ago, when my simple little toyota sewing machine broke down. That was my first machine which I got from my parents at the age of 21, because I hadn't started smoking!! (I still pat myself on the back for not doing that, it helps when you get bronchitis at least once a year. Or like to smell flowers. Or hug your children without them turning away their faces.)

The husqvarna was not in a going condition when I got her. Her main shaft was seized up and she had to see the doctor, he managed to get her going again, although he admitted that he nearly gave up on her. I am glad he didn't though, for she has rattled along happily ever since with me through many hours in the studio.

And now I have sold her to a friend of mine , who wants to teach her young girls the funky art of sewing! You see, I have gone and updated my scandinavian lady for a much newer machine. A Janome probably from the late 70's!

Yes, still mechanical.

No, not a microchip in sight.

While sorting through my linen cupboard, I came across this old wall hanging my Mum made for my brothers. I remember it hanging on their wall when they were wee boys. It is made with a combination of felt applique and embroidery. She enjoyed making things for us when we were little.

My brothers will laugh now and at the same time roll their eyes; for here is proof yet again of their sister's hoarding abilities/ syndrome. I will of course simply smile and blame 2 generations of ancestors who have downloaded these genes into me without asking.

A sweet little front door with a golden lantern. Those flowers would have been fun to make.

A tiny fantasy bird. Teeny stitches with shiny mercerized cotton.
And 2 little baby toadstools, very fairytale like. When did she find time with 3 small children and a puppy spaniel?

Did it stir any memories, boys?

More mundane banality, please....

So 22 February was not a very nice day, to put it mildly, for New Zealand. Another big aftershock in Christchurch; smaller than the one in September last year, but much closer to the surface. Most of the older brick buildings in the business part of the city were destroyed, many people were killed and injured. The ground liquified . The death toll presently stands at 166, still a large number of people are missing.My family-in-law there are fine, they live in a suburb on the northern edges of the city.

If you want to know more please just google it, I feel too emotional to relay it all. This has affected everyone in this small national population. Everyone knows someone with Christchurch connections. There are countless ways to make donations too.

And now the absolute horror in Japan...

My sister-in-law is Japanese and her family are o.k. as well.

My thoughts are with all the victims.

We live on a live and kicking planet; we are so vulnerable...

Yet we are also a resilient species.

Here a link to a teacher's description of the first day back at school for Christchurch children . She manages to capture that bittersweetness much better than I can.

So some normal and more mundane happenings .

In January I visited the Napier Weavers to say hi to some of my fibre friends. Here my friend Heather is showing another friend's daughter how to paint designs on fabric. Heather is a very talented lady and knows her way around many and varied mediums, be they clay, paint, fibre or stone. Although she is now 70 she still teaches art, and works with young adults at risk.

Some of the gorgeous looms for the weavers use. Printing your own fabric is one thing, but actually designing the fabric itself from scratch is a whole different kettle of fish.

One of the members "dressing" the loom with the "warp". A precise job which needs some maths beforehand. And dexterous skills , not to mention good eye sight.

Which always makes me wonder how the old weavers in the 1800's did it in their little dingy cottages without electric light..?
A gorgeous hand-dyed silk warp is put on . Each thread goes through a different set of metal "heddles" depending on the pattern she wants for her cloth. This is a 4-shaft floor loom; it has 4 frames of metal heddles, which can move up and down independently when you push down their floor paddles.

A clever machine that doesn't need electricity to work!

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging lately ( apart from being completely distracted by the ongoing plight of Christchurch) is that things here at home are "afoot".

Most people in the world are nice. I really believe that.

A few are not. Just our luck they decided to live next door to us. We've had noisy neighbours before. Behind us a 16 year old keeps having his stereo confiscated by the noise control officers and then he quitens down again for a while. Too young to learn and an un-supporting parent who is hardly ever home. It's bearable.

The 28 year old next door however, has sunk lower and lower since his girlfriend left him. ( I will always call the police when I hear and see evidence of a bloke hitting a woman.)

The flatmates he got in, in order to pay the mortgage, love partying. 3 Times a week preferably and on the front lawn from 3p.m. to sometimes when it gets light again. Much manly roaring and swearing, girl's screaming and death-metal "music". Our girls started sleeping in the livingroom to get away from the noise; the man was un-approachable, became aggressive and abusive. Even worse after noise-control came to take away their stereo. Although we would have carried on with calling the authorities, it was becoming increasingly stressful in our household. My love didn't like coming home in case he saw them busy on the lawn, knowing what kind of night we had in store for us. So we started eye-ing up our street: a number of elderly women, with more health issues over the years, in houses that hadn't been updated for decades; cheap places once they'd have to go into a resthome or decided to leave. What kind of people would buy their houses? More of the same kind as next door if we were unlucky.....

Maybe it was the right time we should sell?

The thought alone at first made me weep, I couldn't even talk about it.

This has been our family home for 15 years, our girls grew up here. I have never in my life lived anywhere so long...
This picture shows the weeks' drinking by 3 people (fishwife drinks wine) without having a party. Other weeks it's one of those green wheelie bins stuffed full. You'd think they'd have a liver problem.

Certainly there seems to be a fore-brain problem with the concept of action and re-action.

Well, to cut this story short : we have bought a new house. And we will be shifting soon. And we are excited!!

In Napier, an opportunity knocked, and we opened the door to the cheapest house in a very good street. Now we have to sell this lovely home. So my love is finishing off his painting, there he is;
It is going to go well! It will be tip top looking inside and out, I am culling my hoarded treasures aggressively, cleaning curtains and throwing out spiders.

To add to our delight (and cursing Murphy's Law) the neighbours have been pretty quiet lately....

Weird Impulse Buy

from some time ago. Well not really weird, but unusual.

This vintage necklace and brooch in beautiful condition. Enameled metal leaves in soft sage green with flowers inset with coloured sparkly glass stones.( also called paste stones)

Sooooo Pretty! Don't know from what era, but I have been making it this era by wearing the brooch. I'd like to wear the necklace, but it is a bit too short. I might need to get a necklace extender or something like that. It was $5nz. Love at first sight...

It's just so girlie!

Rumble, and jumble.

Boxing day was the anniversary of Ma's passing away. But it actually started quite early for me; with earthquakes. Not everyone in the house felt them then already, but I felt the one at 2:o7 (4.2Magnitude), closely followed by a faint tremble at 2:08am(3.8M.) The creak of the house, as if a windgust hit the walls, is what woke me, and a very distinct rumble. Like a truck was driving down the street.

I had just dropped off to sleep again, when a 4.3M. shook at 2:38am.

It sure gets your heart going in the middle of the night.

The next one was at 3 minutes past 8(3.8M.) Everyone felt that one. We checked the Christchurch earthquake map to see how big they were. You can do that too if you click on the link and go to 26-12-2010. You will see that there were 33 that day. Some so small that you don't feel them.
Some beautiful dunes at the Christchurch beach. I love the way the wind is moving the grasses.

We all felt the next one though at 10:30(4.9M.) This one caused more damage in town and parts of the shopping areas (all ready for the big Boxing day sales) had to be closed off.

Where was I?

All soaped up in the shower, with my eyes closed... Rumble, rumble!

I squealed, held on to the wall, saw that the walls were moving in opposite ways to each other, realized the wall I was holding was a glass one (not good!) . Took a breath, realized the power was still on, and the water was still going, and just waited.

It stopped.

I rinsed.

Husband came running, "Yup, I'm o.k. That was interesting!.."

I don't usually feel like having a stiff drink that time of the morning, but I did that day.

I think we felt 2 more during the day. I have never experienced more than 1 in a day, and I felt very on edge; I think I can understand how frazzled the people of Christchurch must feel.

And they are all deemed aftershocks from the big one in September.

The 6th, 7th and 8th of January saw me doing a printing course at my bookarts club. We tried our hands at lots of different methods of mark making, with printing ink on lovely thick paper.

I really liked this method of creating my own plates with sealed cardboard cut-outs. I tried to make it look like late 50's early 60's botanicals. The teal and mustard colours helped .

The composition is terrible, but I know what I meant...

Wouldn't it be cool if I could have my own yardage of fabric with these, just like tiny happy has done?
And this is the best, I want to frame it. I used the same method.

Love the birches!
We took all the pages and bound them into a book. I used some nice green linen thread from Ma-L. and green glass beads.

This way I have a neat record of different techniques all tidily put together for later reference.

Treasure Hunt Show Case.
These haven't even been washed yet. I was so pleased to be able to go op-shopping again, since most of them close for 3 weeks around Christmas.

Yellow seer-sucker with little chickens destined for kids' clothes, several floral tablecloths for bunting or such like, quite a few stains I'm afraid. But they are soaking in the nappisan as we speak, so they might turn out o.k.

A red rosed serviette for zipbags, and a very sweet pussy-cat tapestry. Would look good for a bag I think.

I got a treasure of vintage doilies in December. I get picky , I only buy the ones with the finest stitches. One has the willow-pattern on it, just like the tablecloth on the right.

And a nice dutch souvenir tablecloth as well, good for the dutch bunting I make.

A child's sheet and pillowslip set from the 50's or early 60's; to be used for a little dress or a pinafore.

And another tablecloth in very good condition.

Weird Impulse Buy.
Knitting needles.

I don't actually like knitting very much. But these oldies have such pretty lollie colours, I think they look as good as a bunch of flowers!

The end of a school- and craft-year.

A Happy 2011 to you all!

Aren't they cute... The teachers of year 3 at the primary school where I work decided to give each child a little blackboard with the child's name on the back. The kids had to paint on the layers of blackboard paint and chose the colour for the back.

They then asked their enthusiastic teacher-aide (yes that's me!) and an arty student teacher to put the child's name on the back with some nice twirly letters. Well, we started to outdo each other, and it got out of hand, didn't it...

I spent about 3 schooldays painting with the kids hanging over my shoulder. Boards for about 85 kids, of which I did over 60. No matter, since the last 2 weeks of school were very irregular, full of singing practices and finishing off art projects.

I painted moths in the moonlight, bats and cats, snails, hedgehogs, owls, crickets and bugs and spiderwebs, blossomtrees, rain on ponds with dragonflies, 2 gnomes and 1 fairy. Each board different. And oodles of spirals, because that's my thing.

They loved it, and the parents were suitably impressed! I got lots of hugs from the kids and many thanks. It was great fun!!

I'll show you some photos from my working/school life about the End of Year Assembly or Prizegiving for our school.

Since there was no way all the kids (over 400) and their parents could have fitted in our small school hall, we had it at the nearest highschool, the one our youngest daughter has just said goodbye to.

All the children had been practicing their repertoire of songs for this evening. You can see their school uniforms and the principal and deputy sitting on the stage with all the silver cups and certificates .

I am not personally in favour of children wearing uniforms; I can see the advantage of keeping teenagers in line with behaviour and fashion competition by wearing uniform, but I feel children should be able to dress in all the colours of the rainbow or come dressed as spiderman or a fairy for the day.

It's all very British from a long time ago.....
The evening starts with a welcome song, followed by the national anthem in English and Maori.

So the boy in the foreground obviously scored big time in the cup department, but luckily they also give out certificates now and during the year for being the one with the most cheerful or helpful manners, or the most improved in work, not necessarily the best at a particular subject.

It's time for the Kapa Haka group (Maori song and dance) to show their stuff. Accompanied by guitar and singing, the girls show welcoming hand movements, the boys singing behind them.
Now a song complicated by rhytmic waving and slapping of the poi (soft white balls on a string). It looks spectacular. The girls look most confident in front of hundreds of parents.

Some speeches are made about the seniors leaving, people that have helped the school during the year, some teachers leaving or getting married. Our senior pupils get a weekly rock'n roll lesson , our principal is a big fan. So the best dancers get to show off their steps, it's great for confidence and boys and girls having to interact. The other kids think it is so grown-up!
Everyone cheers and claps along!!
Apart from all the holiday songs sang by all the children, the kapa haka group has another go, this time it is the boys turn, with a spirited haka(challenge), with much footstamping, shouting and chest slapping. The leader memorized a long haka in Maori, all about making the right choices and finding your mana (self -worth and respect). The 4 new Young Leaders for 2011 are standing behind them on stage, all the kids can go to them with a problem, or they have to represent the school at events.

And that was the end of the evening, all the parents find their kids and it's a madhouse for 10 minutes! See you all in 6 weeks!

I hope you found this interesting, especially if you are not from New Zealand! Here is a link to a haka done by another local school, it looks like they had many of the same movements.

The boys love doing it, and it boosts their confidence.

Originally a haka was used to call up the influence of one's ancestors to gather strength before going into battle. But anything can be a challenge; doing the right thing, starting something new, giving up a bad habit, and sometimes to gather strength after a sad time. Hakas are sometimes performed at the end of a funeral, at which time they feel very raw and overwhelming. It is also a controlled way of letting anger out.

Here some more of the gorgeous things I made for the Christmas Fairs I had a stall at, some sold, some will sell later. (think Positive). A few of the brooches I made using beltbuckles dating from the 1930's to 50's, embroideries of the same date and words cut from an ancient book.

Also some little zippered pouches made from vintage embroideries and serviettes, even the zips and lining are recycled. They are fun to make and can be used for anything.

This was a big post, but I'm on holiday and have lots of time!

Christmas Time 2010.

I hope you all had a good Christmas time, with some over-indulgencies and laughter.

We went to Christchurch for our Christmas, to spend it with Pa and brothers and family from both Ashburton and Spain. It was a fun time with loads of laughs and boardgames around the table, but it was also a sad time. We all missed Ma badly.

Standing in her kitchen with her apron on and using her cutting knives, rummaging through the cupboards for pots, pans and ingredients.

Sitting in her seat at the table, or finishing of some sudoku puzzles she had started. I'm afraid the tears were very close to the surface the whole time.

The first year has passed now, and that was full of first times without her.

On Christmas Day we took a walk on the beach. A bit too fresh for a dip, but lovely to sniff the salty air and build an appetite for later. Miss 19 glazed the ham and I made roast veges for our late dinner for 7.
And we are still a family. Middle brother took us all to a restaurant for lunch on Christmas Eve. Just for you a lovely family photo, which you will not find often on this blog!

We all came together again on Boxing Day, for a shared meal at Pa's home. My love helped me cook nasi-goreng extra for 11 people! That got rid of most of the left-over ham, haha!

Earlier in December I attended the end of year get together of my Book-arts club, of which I am a member. Our hostess had put out lovely book projects to admire, and a sumptuously spread table awaited us, of course we had all "brought a plate" in the kiwi manner. But the best plate that was contributed was the one with the cupcakes!

Above I am holding a teeny weeny book. All handsewn and cut and pasted. Very clever and precise.
A table full of book-arts goodness! My books look pretty messy compared to these little beauties. Very nice binding techniques.
A Lady's tea table with embroidered tablecloth, pretty china, silver teapot and delicious titbits.

Super feminine!!
They were just too pretty to eat.

Well nearly....
One evening last week, the light was peachy apricot for a quarter of an hour. Gorgeous!

Weird Impulse Purchase:

This called out to me about a year and a half ago. It's the Christ child on a 1950's bevelled edged mirror.

Yes, what can I say... pretty kitschy. In a sweet vintage way.

But now I have found His Mama! There was a grown-up Jesus as well but He looked way too sad, and I'm afraid I don't believe in the whole original sin thing. So He was left hanging in the opshop. Now I have a duo. Apparently when you have 3 of something it is a collection, so I'll stick with 2.

For now...

Season's greetings all!

Hedgehog pixie girl.

This is a copy of the Mecki postcard I used to have as a child. I think it said happy birthday, can't be sure. So cute!

I believe the dolls were made by the famous Steiff company, the one that produced the (now) enormously valuable teddy bears. You can learn a lot from watching Antiques Road Show.

I miss discussing the episodes with my mum, she loved that show too.

But I still watch them and think of her at the same time. Quite nice!