Sew Sweet Swap

One of these days I'll find a way to blog with more regularity - in the meantime I thought I'd share news of a swap I've signed up for today :-)

Cat over at Catalina's Cottage is running a Sew Sweet Swap:

"The idea of this swap is to send a small handmade zippered pouch (or similar) to your swap partner filled with some yummy treats.

This is not a secret swap and is open internationally

What To Include In Your Parcel

•  a handmade zippered pouch (or similar)
•  some sweets / chocolates / lollies 
•  a card or postcard, with your blog and email address 
• extras? - absolutely , if you wish but OPTIONAL 

Sign up is by WEDNESDAY 22nd January 
Partners allocated FRIDAY 24th January
Deadline to ship your lovely gifts will be FRIDAY 14th February"

To sign up head over to Cat's blog to leave a comment/get some more information.

Now I'm not skilled in the art of sewing and the thought of zips completely terrifies me so I am planning to make a drawstring crochet pouch instead...just so you know you don't have to be the best at sewing to join in!
I'm really looking forward to it and the opportunity to get some more blog posts done too!

Hope to see you all again soon.

12 Projects Aged 32

I do love a list and in equal measure I love a fun project. 

I have had reasonable success in the past at birthday lists. At ages 27, 28, 29 and 30 I made a list of (the same number of things as my age e.g. 27 things at 27) things to do. Most have been a combination of mostly-fun and some-serious-ness. If you'd like to see what I mean my 29 list was a particular favourite!

Last year (aged 31) I took a break from this. Over the last few weeks leading up to my 32nd birthday I toyed with the idea of a new list for this year. 32 seemed an awfully high number of things to come up with and commit to doing so I made a shorter list. A list of projects and ideas that have recently been rolling around in my head. And that list is here...

12 Projects Aged 32

1. Celebrate the 22nd of every month with some me time or pampering of some kind
2. Celebrate G on the 20th of every month
3. Celebrate Mr Mischief on the 10th of every month
4. Do a “less 365” (find something to throw or give away for each day of the year – do not necessarily have to this daily but do need to do 365 things over the year)
5. Take part in a 30 days of Lists project
6. Have a child-free night with my husband
7. Document our special Christmas ornaments
8. Have a family “date” once a month with proper planned out things to do (try to include Rhett sometimes and try to have no technology i.e. phones)
9. Make our 1 weekday at home each week more sacred – less rushing, more time to enjoy Mr Mischief's company
10. Give something each month e.g. RAK day, Ninja Bake, Operation Christmas Child
11. Get Rhett out of the garden (for a walk) more often
12. Find relaxation methods that work and encourage better sleep 

And here's a little background behind the items on the list...

• The point of the top 3 is to find a way to celebrate our little family on a small-scale but regular basis. Not just waiting for holiday's and birthday's to acknowledge each other. The reason behind the dates being they are our birthday dates. I have a separate small list of ideas for things to do here - things such as baking for that person, cooking their favourite meal, letting them pick a day trip etc.
• A Less 365 project has been at the back of my mind for a wee while - we have WAY too much stuff and after 2 moves in 6 months I feel every unused and unwanted object weighing on our house and energy. It's time to do something about that!
• 30 days of lists looks awesome and good fun!
• Hubby and I haven't had a child-free night together since Mr Mischief came into our lives. That may not seem like a big deal to some people but with no family close by we don't have anyone to offer him a sleepover. We may have some opportunities come up over the next year and think it will be good for all of us.
• I love journalling Christmas and through that I have started to document our special ornaments but I'd like to make a mini album to keep with the decorations that tells the story behind all the important ones. I think this will be awesome to pass on through generations with the ornaments so they can read the stories!
• Family "Date" - another way to celebrate each other and spend quality time. We often go out and do things all together (especially at weekends) but mostly this is on a whim. It will be great to actually plan ahead and come up with ideas of what we can do together to have fun.
• With my new job I'm working more hours and Mr Mischief and I have 1 day off in the week together - lately that day has ended up being a rush of errands and all the jobs that are being missed the rest of the week. I want to get some jobs and errands done but also spend some relaxed, quality time with Mr Mischief - especially with the holiday season approaching!
• I've had such fun taking part in Operation Christmas Child and RAK day the last couple of years. And this year for the first time I took part in the Sisterhood Ninja Bake. I'd love to find something similar for each month of the year to participate in!
• I've put a lot of focus on our wee family in this list and it's so important to include our gorgeous dog in here. He hasn't been getting enough excursions lately and it's time to take him on more adventures. 
• My sleeping patterns have been really up and down lately. If I get woken in the night (by storms, wobbles or Mr Mischief) I REALLY struggle to get back to sleep so I'd like to develop some techniques to help me relax.

Phew there you have it! Wish me luck!

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

A Crocheted Baby Blanket

I have a long time friend that I've known for 20 years (give or take). She used to live a few houses down the road from me and we used to get the bus to and from high school together. 

We've not been fantastic about regularly keeping in touch since leaving school (not to mention me moving to Scotland and then NZ) but a couple of times a year we normally catch up via email and notes in Christmas cards. And everytime I've visited the UK since leaving we have had a catch-up. 

A wee while ago my friend, M, got in touch to say she was pregnant with her first baby. She was fairly far along when I found out and I instantly knew I wanted to try making her a blanket. 

Mr Mischief and I headed to the wool shop and he "helped" me pick out some neutral colours as we didn't know if M was having a boy or girl. 

I got busy with a small ripple blanket and worked on it everyday. 

I worked it up to be a similar size to my rainbow ripple. It's a small blanket designed for tucking around baby in the buggy or car seat. 

The ripple worked up fairly quickly and then I added a simple border all the way round. I did think about trying to fill out the ripple to make the border straight but decided to keep it ripply in the end. 

I was really pleased with how it turned out and it was a bit of a wrench packing it up and sending it off to be honest.

The good news though is the blanket has arrived safe and sound and my friend M and her lovely baby boy are both very taken with it!

Linking up with Show and Tell.

NZ Mug Swap 2013 :: What I Received

In case you missed yesterday's post you can  read all about how the mug swap worked and see what I sent for the Mug Swap here.

Today I want to share the parcel I received in the swap. My parcel came from Becky Boo.

I received a lovely blue mug with it's own accessories!

Becky had made a jumper, a scarf and a hat for my mug...

Aren't they cute!?

Thanks Becky! And Thanks to Alisa for organising the swap.

Here's hoping it will become an annual swap!

NZ Mug Swap 2013 :: What I Sent (including a crochet cup cosy)

I recently took part in the #NZMugSwap2013 hosted by Alisa. You can read more about the swap on Alisa's blog.

The swap was random rather than being assigned a partner and buying for each other. It was up to the sender if they wanted to remain anonymous or not.

I decided to make myself known when I sent my parcel...partly so I could blog about what I sent here!

My swap person to send to was Sima J and luckily she wrote a blog post especially for me about all the things she likes!

Here's a look at what I popped in her parcel...

I bought her a Tea Infuser mug which is a plain blue mug but it comes with a little "net/basket" inside so you can infuse loose leaf tea in hot water. The mug also comes with a lovely lid for infusing the tea.

I also added in:

• Organic Peppermint Teabags (I love peppermint tea!)
• A little purple windmill
• Horse stickers
• Handcream
• Organic Chocolate
• Some face cleanser sachets  

And I also crocheted a mug cosy. Here's some extra pictures so you can see it close up...

To make the cosy I crocheted 5 little two round granny squares which I joined together as I went along. I then added a scallop border all the way around the edge. At one end I added a chain loop and at the other I sewed a button on so that the mug cosy could be clipped around any mug. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out :-) 

And you can see Sima J's reaction to the parcel over on her blog :-)

Come back tomorrow to see what I received in the swap!

Linking up with Show and Tell.