Drying Flowers

Agent Smelly's NZ Grandma gave her a flower pressing kit for Christmas.

I just realised I hadn't picture of her with it and this is the pose I got!

Reminder to self to not to take pictures of cheeky little monkeys at bed time!

It is quite a simple apparatus. you simply unscrew the wing (butterfly) nuts and place the flowers between the tissue paper which sits between cardboard. There are a number of pieces of cardboard so you can make a few layers of flowers. You then screw the nuts back down as tightly as possible and set it aside for ten to fourteen days.  An excellent exercise in patience!

To Agent Smelly's credit she did wait and didn't keep opening it up ... she did once but we agreed it would be a good opportunity to see what happens after a few days.

These are the finished flowers. AS is still playing around with them trying to get a design that she likes best. Once she does I thought I'd pop it through the laminator.


This is a great craft for AS as she simply LOVES picking flowers and she really gets a little impatient with some of the crafts like knitting, crochet, etc. We now just have to get moving planting some more flowers for her ... or keep raiding Grannie's garden.

The Mama's First Card Making Class

Tonight I attended my very first card making class at the local Presbyterian Church hall and oh did I love it ... a lot!

You simply turn up, pay $5 and get shown how to make a couple of cards. The cards are a little like scrap booking which I have done in the past. I love the fact that this is so quick and you end up with a finished project very quickly, which is usable!

My first card ... I just love it!

A close up of my pansy.

For the second card, they showed us a completed one, then gave us all the materials that they used, showed us the techniques on how to achieve them and then it was up to us to put it together however we wished to. We could leave off things, or even add them.

Here's my second card.

I think it would be lovely attached to a hamper as a gift card, it's very rustic.

There is a class held in town once a month, so I am hoping to get to the next one.

The only problem that I can see, is me wanting to purchase every little stamp and cutter that I come across to continue making them at home ... I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Walnuts are brilliant!

I received an email from someone full of tips and one of them was to rub a walnut over the scratches on your wooden furniture to disguise the dings and scrapes.

Before               and                 After

The leg was pretty scratched from certain pooch when he was a puppy and left in the house on his own but, one little walnut has made it look so much better!  Those that you can still see are very deep, so I am really happy with the result.

"We be jammin' man"

On my way home yesterday from taking the girls horse riding, I stopped in at a fruit shop for some bananas. I came across a box of fruit that was battered and bruised and was for sale at $2.50. I cannot resist a bargain, so I thought I would take it home and make what I could with it. Whatever can't be used in our house goes out to the chooks so I wasn't too worried if half of it was too far gone.

Here's most of it. We already had eaten a few pears and peaches that weren't too bad.

I spent most of the afternoon producing jams and sauce. There wasn't too much that had to go directly to the chooks, in fact the apples only had small bruises on one side.

I used a simple recipe; basically whatever the fruit ended up weighing, I added half of that to it in sugar  and simply added some freshly squeezed lemon juice. With the apple sauce I added a small portion of sugar just to sweeten the pot a bit and again some lemon juice.

2 jars Peach and Apricot jam, 4 jars Apple Sauce and 2 jars Nectarine jam

The Pig and girls have already taste tested the jams and apparently they are "delish". The girls are looking forward to having some apple sauce on their muesli tomorrow.


I still have the kiwi fruit and pears left so may make a crumble tonight (if my aching feet can stand in the kitchen any longer!) and I will just squeeze the mandarins and orange and have some juice with those few pieces.


Now at the beginning of this, I mentioned that I went in to buy some bananas, which I did. Well The Pig saw some banana's for 88c a kilo last night after his shift and not realising I had gotten some earlier in the day ... well, now we have about 20 bananas!!!


I mashed 4 of the ripest looking bananas and froze them in mini zip lock bags for later use in a banana cake or muffins.

2 mashed banana's fit perfectly in each.

Well that's it for now ... but I am quite enjoying all this preserving so don't be surprised if something else turns up on here real soon.

New Years Eve 2011

Sadly NZ has been experiencing rather awful weather. We have had lots and lots of rain (although it has been very, very humid), so much for a sunny summer!

Taken New Years Eve afternoon from the ranch slider to my dining area

Due to this, our local New Years Eve event at the Huntly Speedway was cancelled and we ended up spending a quiet evening at home.

We played lots of board games, much to our daughters delight and shared a block of chocolate and drank loads of ... water.  We really kicked up our heels people.

Despite the rather wet beginning to the year I am feeling very positive about 2012.

And did I make a New Years resolution, well heck yeah!  I am planning to be better organised this year. Last year I felt like I was just "winging it" and life seemed like hard work. It never seemed that I ever got on top of things, (ie housework ... groan) and so this year I want things to go a little smoother.

Lets hope prior planning prevents poor presentation! Wish me luck ... and wishing you all a content and satisfying life in 2012.