Gift Idea :: All About My Dad

Back in my blog hibernation we celebrated Father's Day.
I thought I'd share what we made here. While it's a while away until the next Fathers Day (whether you are in NZ, the UK or somewhere else) I think this could be easily adapted for a Christmas or birthday or just because present!

I had seen some great ideas and inspiration for children's questionnaires on Pinterest and as Mr Mischief had recently turned 3 I thought it would be a great time to have a go.
I did a search to see if I could find a template to use but some of the questions weren't quite right for our situation or there was American spelling so in the end I came up with my own version.
I jotted down the questions and one morning over breakfast posed the questions to Mr Mischief. I noted his answers and then created an electronic version in Word.
Once the questions were typed up I added a recent photo of Mr Mischief and his Daddy, had a play with fonts and colours and got it printed in colour. Then we found a frame to fit the trimmed down questionnaire, added some scrapbooking paper for the background and popped it in the frame.
G loved it and it now sits on his desk at work to make him smile.

I've copied below the text so you can see what questions we come up with. This is something I'd like to repeat in the future asking the same questions to see what answers come out differently!

I'm happy to share the Word file if you'd like to adapt it for your own gift. Leave a comment here or email me (the link is in my blogger profile) if you'd like me to email you a copy :-)

All About My Dad

By: Mr Mischief        Age: 3

What is Daddy’s Name? Umm...Gxxxxx

How old is Daddy? Like this much (holding up 2 fingers)

What does Daddy do for a job? Go to the shops, he works hard all day

What is Daddy’s Favourite Colour? Like that (pointing at Rhett who is black)

What is Daddy’s Favourite Food? These (Honey Puffs, which Luke was eating for breakfast)

What Colour are Daddy’s Eyes? Same colour as Me (Grey/Blue)

What Colour is Daddy’s Hair? Like Mummy’s

What does Daddy always say? “I want to go to work”

What is your Favourite Thing about Daddy? Giving Him a Cuddle 

Why do you Love Daddy? Because I love him lots 

--- HAPPY FATHERS DAY – SEPTEMBER 2013 ---

This week I'm joining in with Show and Tell

Recipe :: Homemade Basil Pesto

My husband makes an amazing Basil Pesto. He's been making it for years. Our Basil plants don't tend to live through Winter so up until now it's mostly been a Summer treat.
This year has been different...we kept our Basil plant inside in the kitchen near a window and it's thrived. To the point where we decided we had to make pesto to use up some of the leaves!

Luckily I talked hubby into sharing his recipe so you can have a go at making your own :-)

G's Homemade Basil Pesto

Ingredients:

30g Basil Leaves

30g Parmesan Cheese

30g Pine Nuts

1 clove Garlic

Pinch Sea Salt

Drizzle of Oil

Method:

Stick it all in the food processor and mix. Easy as that! Spoon into a bowl. Find a cracker and get stuck in. 

Delicious spread on crackers, mixed in with pasta or even added to pizza!

Enjoy :-)

Linking up with Fun with Food

To (hopefully) make you smile...

Hubby shared this YouTube video with me last week. It's a collection of misheard lyrics. I laughed and sang along as the clips played and it cheered me up after a rough day. Some of the misheard bits show how crazy peoples minds must be (and rude too!)



So what song lyrics have you misheard? I used to think that "Forever in Blue Jeans" by Neil Diamond was "Reverend Blue Jeans" and was about a vicar/minister who wore jeans!

3 years ago today

Today is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. Those 3 years seen to have flown by in the blink of an eye and yet we seem to have gone through so much since then...

And all going well, we will be celebrating with a child-free lunch followed by a shared bottle of decent red wine this evening.

Love you G x

(I know I've posted these photos on the blog before but I REALLY love them!)

Goodbye House

You were the roots that kept me in New Zealand right back near the start when I’d wonder what I was doing here and not on the other side of the world with people I loved.

You were a surprise. A place to meet someone to discuss real estate the weekend we found out we’d been granted permanent residency. We loved you. You had an amazing garden (we kidded ourselves we would keep it that way). You had 3 bedrooms at a time when we didn’t even know how we would fill that much space.

You were where our couple became a family and we welcomed a puppy who’d been a bit battered. He stood at your doors and barked, he peed on your carpets, he shed his hair everywhere.

You witnessed arguments. Not the screaming, throwing and highly strung arguments of our early 20’s but the slow brewing silent arguments that would eventually be gotten over and we would make up.

You stood empty while we headed off to explore New Zealand and other parts of the world. And always welcomed us home with a comfy bed and our own stuff.

You seemed to expand in size to make room for our close friends and relatives that travelled to come to the wedding. You provided great acoustics for many a SingStar competition and lots of space for flying chickens on the Wii. You held my wedding dress, protectively packed and hung up on the curtain rail.

I was sad and hurt and angry when one of your windows was smashed and someone snuck in to steal from us. I didn’t feel safe within your walls for a while after that. We had to replace our belongings but it was more than that that was taken from us.

We didn’t have lots of time to dwell on that thank goodness though as we were preparing for a new addition.

You were where we brought home our 3 day old son in his carseat capsule, sat him on the floor and wondered what the hell to do with him. You were warm and cozy to keep our newborn bundle healthy and well. You stood protectively around us while we spent many sleepless nights and our lives changed unequivocally. You witnessed tears and tantrums when I couldn’t get my head around this ‘being a mother’ thing. You sheltered our little family when we were learning all about each other and how to live together.

You got a little covered with baby sick and spilt milk and then rusk crumbs and other abandoned food. You were a safe place for our baby to explore his world and learn to sit, crawl, stand and walk.

You were decked out in the best Kiwi finery to help us celebrate our citizenship when we finally took the plunge and decided to become New Zealanders.

You held our art, craft projects, photos, memories, laughter, love, tears, sadness, and happiness so well within your walls.

In the end we filled you a little too much. There wasn’t much space leftover. But putting you on the market has meant we’ve tidied up and decluttered and you are looking pretty shiny and special once more.

I hope that whoever lives in you next enjoys you as much as I have. Here’s hoping they’re a better housekeeper though and maintain you a little better.

Thanks house, you’ve been awesome. Goodbye House.

On the move: Goodbye Palmy, Hello Wellington!

Goodbye Palmy :-(

Hello Wellington :-)

Sorry for my absence since mid-July. It's been pretty busy around here! 

My husband has been head-hunted and was interviewed for a position down in Wellington. We spent the day down there while he had an interview and met the team and Mr Mischief and I wiled away the time at Te Papa.

We took a stroll along the waterfront boardwalk and discussed our options. It was a lot to think about. A BIG decision. And we decided to go for it.

We love Wellington, have visited many times - there's a great zoo, great museum, an amazing hotel and we got married there.

And it felt like the universe had been pointing us in this direction. There were a few coincidences lately that -  for a superstitious person like me  - seemed to be helping to guide us.

Sure you can commute to Wellington from Palmy but it's not an ideal situation for a young family so we decided to all move down there.

So G (hubby) has handed in his notice and has 2 weeks left a work then a week at home (to help get us sorted out!). He will be commuting in the short term until we can shift the house. Our house is on the market and the first open home is tomorrow!

We are going to give the house a month up for sale and if there's no offers by then may re-consider renting it out.

And then we will be looking for somewhere to rent in Wellington and getting settled there.

*Deep breath* 

My to-do list is at least a mile long but I am plodding my way through it. I'll probably be keeping a low profile here for the next wee while but will try to pop in from time to time.

And if you live in Wellington or have stayed there before I would love some tips on places to live, places to visit etc.

Take care x

My Creative Space: Crochet Yoda

It was recently my hubby's birthday and I wanted to make him something as well as buy him some gifts. He likes Star Wars and I'd bought him some Star Wars DVDs for presents so thought I could have a go at crocheting a Star Wars character to go with his other gifts!

I did a search online and found this free tutorial for a crochet Yoda.

It was a wee bit fiddly and to be honest I didn't follow it exactly (I am useless at counting stitches as I go!) but I was really pleased with how he turned out.

I couldn't find my stock of googly eyes so ended up using card and a black pen to make eyes which I glued on.

I am pleased to say that hubby knew who it was supposed to be as soon as he opened the parcel and is very happy with his mini Yoda!

He's not super sturdy so he's been put up high on a bookshelf away from little toddler fingers (Mr Mischief was most keen to play with Yoda when he saw him!)

Now I might have to aim to make one Star Wars character each year for hubby's birthday!

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces.

2 years

Happy Wedding Anniversary to my lovely husband :-)

2 years married today.

Love You G 

x x x

Sharing on Sunday - 4th September

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad's out there. We've had a lovely day - I made Scotch Pancakes for breakfast and then we headed down to the park to see the ducks, go on the slide, swings and seesaw and a certain someone practiced his toddling :-)

And onto some linkies to share with you on this lovely Spring Sunday...

First up - I HAD to pin these when I saw them on Pinterest - Cream Egg cupcakes - yummy. Might have to have a go at these or something similar at Easter... 

pin and original link

Given how popular moustaches are these days I thought these were worth pinning. I just need to work out how to use them in a project. I'm thinking some manly cards :-)

pin and original link

This is something I found via Kiwi Mummy Blogs...The Golden Adventures of a Very Dark Horse is using old beach towels to make some awesome things. I especially love the first project - a jandal door mat!

original link

And yes I am still collecting Christmas ideas. I'd never seen anything like this before but think it's a great idea. Upturned ice-cream cones decorated to look like Christmas trees!

pin and original link

Have a lovely week everyone :-)

A Week in the Life :: Sunday

And here's how Sunday has gone so far...

Here's my Sunday title photo... we went to see HP7 pt2 today - it was immense!

Breakfast for the rosy cheeked bubba...

I couldn't resist buying him All Blacks nappies....(not long to go until the Rugby World Cup starts)

Playing with the pompoms...

Breakfast al-fresco for the puppydog this morning because he had muddy paws...

It was a lovely sunny Sunday in Palmy...

Baby went to friends from coffee group whilst me and G went to the movies. He had a great time and was so exhausted from all the playing and mischief that he fell asleep within minutes of being in the car home (still only slept for 40 mins though...crazy baby!)

Footie kit on the line...

Late afternoon tag-pulling and puppy annoying playing...

Roast chicken for Sunday dinner...yum!

It's funny because I feel I kept the momentum for this project going pretty well through the week but I am so glad today is the final day. I've struggled with remembering to lift the camera and jot down the notes today which is a sure-fire sign that I'm not as enthused as I was earlier in the week.

But I am excited about seeing how it all comes together in an album. I hope to share more on that soon. In the meantime we should be back to more regular posts this coming week.

You can see all of my Week in the Life posts here and you can find out more about this project over at Ali Edwards site.

Happy Sunday everyone :-)

A Week in the Life :: Saturday and some thoughts on bringing it all together

The weekend is here...hang on a minute, it's nearly halfway done :-(

Today actually seemed quite long for a weekend-day. Probably because I've been awake since 7am and the baby slept all night! WOOP! I got 8 hours uninterrupted sleep last night. That is cause for a HUGE celebration in this house!

Here's how Saturday has looked...

G dragged out the mini trampoline which baby took an almost instant liking to... 

I had a bit of time to myself before G headed out for football. Updated some Week in the Life stuff (sorting photos into folders for each day, deleting duplicates etc)...

Plus I made quite a simple front cover window title page for what will become my Week in the Life album...

We spent some time watching birds playing in the garden...

I refilled my home-made baby wipes spray...

We spent some time in the warm sunshine in the back garden...

the dog was in heaven...

I've been taking an Instax every day for this project (to go in the album) and lined up all the photos so far and took a photo...

Chopping apples to make an apple pie...

:: As for album progress :: 

I've got each days photos to be printed down to around 30. 

I need to have a play around with my album and see how many photos I think I can fit in for each day. 

The album is 8x8 and I am allocating 4 pages for each day. I've also been working on each day's title photograph. I edited a photo for each day so far to show the day name as well. Here's an example...

I'm planning to print this photo 6x4 or 5x7 for each day and have that on a page with the instax shot (if it'll fit) and possibly some notes. Then the next 2 pages will be mosaic type style of mini photos from the day (this is where I need to work out how many I can fit in depending on orientation. I'm also wondering if I can crop them all to square shape?). I'm not 100% sure about the 4th page yet. I'm guessing I'm going to need more room for notes and maybe a couple more highlighted photos (but printed small rather than 6x4).

This could all change, of course, once I have the images printed in front of me!

I'm hoping to get the photos sorted and printed during the week and then *fingers crossed* start scrapping them next weekend. I'm excited to see how this is all going to come together as an album :-)

You can see all my Week in the Life posts here and learn more about the project at Ali Edwards website here.

A Week in the Life :: Friday

In some ways the week has flown, in others it feels like it took a while to get to the weekend!

As part of a week in the life, here's how Friday has looked for us...

Sleepy bubba....

Whenever I sit on the floor, I have instant company...

Heading out on the country road to coffee group...

Back home from coffee group and playing in the living room...

Supermarket shopping. G met us there and we all headed home. I also saw some old friends that I haven't seen for AGES...like, before I was even pregnant AGES. That's a long time in Palmy!

Cuddles with daddy...

And then came the second burst of energy so playing with Daddy and Rhett...

Baby in bed, I had a lovely bath and read a magazine and then sat down with a wee drink (Malibu and Diet Coke - still an Essex girl at heart!) and some snacks...

The weekend is set to be quite busy - here's hoping I can keep up with the picture and note taking!

Sorry this post is lacking in words but my bed is calling my name :-)

Have a lovely weekend folks :-)