My apologies

To all my extremely loyal followers


I owe you a huge apology! This blog and several other projects went completely out the window when things in life went pear shaped! We managed to go from both working full time to me resigning and having to move house within about 5 days. Everything we own (pretty much) is in storage, apart from half the craft room, our clothes and of course our precious little puppy! We are currently living with DH's parents, which I'm sure is testing for them! They have just been fantastic and made this journey so much easier!


Since I have been off line I have made a few things that are firsts or nearly nevers... Lemon Curd (YUM!), custard, enchilada's, pop out box (photo to come), princess quilt, quilted bag (not quite finished) and I have purchased material to make a dog jersey. I have also made a new friend!


I am doing my best to do something new and exciting as I know so many of you were following my blog - so let's get back to it and I will start with monthly at this stage as it's the only committment I can give right now and see how we get on! I will post on the last day of the month! Stay tuned!


Here is my puppy for those of you who haven't had the pleasure in meeting her!

Until next time, take care


Broni

Week 9 - Invitations

Hi there!

A very dear friend of mine is getting married - next week in fact! You might have seen the post a couple of weeks ago of the veil I made her... well now it's time to show you the invitations and name cards that have been done. I am also working on the seating plan and whipping up an actual wedding card. These are to come :) It will be an added bonus post!

When asked to make the invites I was blown away that someone would trust me with such a big task! I set to with some samples and put them in a safe place to take with me when I went visiting. Now those of you who know me, will find this hard to believe ;) but I couldn't find the samples! So I had to make some more!

Please see below for the samples I came up with.

Megan choose the top one - however, you can only print in white ink if you do it professionally - who knew! So back to the drawing board. I wanted to create something for my friend that was similar to her original choice - so I came up with the following:

I have used Whisper White and Night of Navy card stock. Printed in Navy writting and then white embossed the flower. I used Night of Navy ink to spong over top of the flower in a technique called emboss resist. I also sponged all the edges. And of course a wedding invite is NOT a wedding invite without some bling - so there it goes in the centre of the flower! For this invite I have sponged the whole front - I didn't do that for the rest of them - I only sponged the edges. While I have permission from my friend to post these, I have blanked out all details to identify them or where they are getting married - just in case you are thinking of gate crashing ;)

Given the awful weather this weekend, I set to and made the name cards. Here is a photo of them - even my friend hasnt' seen them yet! The name tags I have sponged all the edges to give the same effect as the invites before mounting them on Night of Navy card.

Don't forget to let me know what you think - what would your favourite one of been or what would you have changed? Random gifts for comments!

Until next week

Broni

Week 8 - Hmmm

Hi Everyone,

I have to say - today I was talking to a friend and realised I missed last week completely! Aside from my crazy life being somewhat crazy over the past month - I have NO excuse!

I can only apologies profusely and treat you with something this week - I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks
Broni

Week 7 - Compost

For those of you who know me - you will know I DO NOT GARDEN! Simple as that... it's not in my make up and I have beautiful nails - so why would I?! Part of me would love too, simply to be outside getting a tan - however, that isn't even enough of a pull!

However, one of the properties work owns was looking rather over grown and run down so on a whim I decided to clean it up - what was I thinking right!?!

These are the before shots! Even the dog joined in the fun - by running around and keeping watch!

After spending 2 days at this property, I had a mountain of weeds and no where to put them! I couldn't even fit them in my car.. that is when the idea of a compost bin was born! I must admit - I cheated a little and brought it from Bunnings - I did however, put it together with a little help from Kay - although I think she was more interested in playing games rather than constructing a compost bin!! What do you think!?



Not sure if you can see in the photo - but the WHITE dog ended up BROWN after playing in the garden! Naughty Miss Gizmo! Just after these photos were taken the skys opened up and we thought we were saved by the rain - however, it wasn't mean to be - the rain stopped and we had to pick up all the weeds and actually put them in the compost bin!

Can you spot the compost bin in amongst the excess weeds? I think I should have brought three of them! 1 was clearly not enough! While I was doing the gardening I did discover the worms in Aotea are like small snakes!! See photos below for finished result - what do you think? Who knew there was actually plants in amongst the mess! I'm pretty pleased with myself! (And I didn't break a nail!!)

Don't forget to leave a comment!

Until next time!

Broni

Week 6 - The Veil

One of my oldest friends (length of time known NOT age wise!) is getting married and I helped to arrange her hens night - it ended up being an epic night with lots of fun had by everyone! How we managed to keep 20 odd people entertained and laughing I have no idea - but we did it!

Every bride needs a veil so I decided rather than buying a cheapy that would ruined by night's end - I would make her one! Off to Spotlight I go! I purchased some white sparkly fabric - every bride needs sparkle right! and a hair slide (comb?) and of course some cotton. The next 2 weeks flew by and next thing I know it's the night before the hens party and I still had the bits in the spotlight bag!

So after 2 or 3 beers out they all came and I proceeded to make a veil! Not much can be said for how I made it apart from - I MADE IT! and it looked pretty darn good I think! See photos below!

What do you think? She loved it and it made her look like a Bride! Her 3 year old daughter was wearing it the next day - I think it was a hit!

Don't forget to leave a comment!

Until next week

Broni

Week 5 - Plum Jam

Last week I got a phone call from my mum asking if I wanted any plums and of course, given I don't really like plums I said no thanks... then I thought hang on.. I can make plum jam! So my lovely mother went and hand picked 2 shopping bags full of plums for me to make jam! I have to admit, mum did tell me what I had to do: pre-sterilise the jars, keep the windows and doors closed (why?!), make sure there is a tea towel on the bench to put jars on and of course you need to seal them with cellophane not a lid - who knew!

Another friend of mine causally mentioned last night that I should get Jam Sugar - he husband told her about it. Again, who knew! So off to Karori shops I trek to get my cellophane and Jam Sugar.

Surprisingly, it was easy to make the actual jam. Even I can't muck up add plums, add sugar and stir occasionally! I guess the proof will be in the jam if it's set! I only make three jars last night, so will head to the shops today to get some more sugar and make some more today.

I am yet to make the material covers for the tops, but see below!

The jars waiting to be sterilised

The ingredients

Sterilising the jars in oven

Dissolving the sugar over a low heat

Boiling the mixture on high



The finished product - note the tea towel




The Jam up close! check out the seals!



What do you think? Have you ever made Jam? Next time I might try Raspberry Jam! As a kid I have fond memories of mum making jams and pickles etc and I always thought it was super hard and it make truckloads but this has shown me it's not too hard (although I am sure my mum did it differently back then!) and it doesn't make 500 jars that I can't store anywhere!

Hope your week goes well with a Public Holiday to start! Mine is exciting: extra day off work then my sister arrives then we are going to Napier for a girls weekend!

Until next week

Broni

Week 4 - Pavlova

Hi to each and every one of you!

Well what a week it has been! Very up and down and flat out! However, I did get some baking done and it was right at the beginning of the week! Sunday night MIL called to invite us for dinner the next night - well I'm not one to turn down a dinner invite so I eagerly accepted thinking hmmmm maybe I will try my hand at a Pav. Knowing that I had never made one, I figured I shouldn't mention it - just in case!

So out came good old KenWood and Mr Edmonds!

And then hubby got interested in what I was doing and decided to help me by measuring out the suger and putting it in the bowl.

Slowly but surely the egg white/sugar mix got stiffer and shinier just like Mr Edmonds said! I was having faith in this! This is going to work totally! Finally after at least 15 minutes of high speed beating we got the pav onto baking paper - it was a team effort - I think I slightly over beat the mix as it was rather sticky but we got a perfect circle formed!

Into the oven the master peice went!  I couldn't stop looking at it and checking it! My mum has a histoy of making the bestest pavs EVER and hers tend to get that big they take up the oven tray! I was secretly hoping that it would happen with my pav - however, as you can see from the photo - it didn't happen! Oh well they say practise makes perfect right!

After what felt like ALL day, an hour later it was ready to come out the oven and we were ready to go off on a our merry way with a cooked (hopefully!) pavlova to have for dessert at the inlaws! Because it was still a little warm, we decided to wait til we got there for the final dressing of it! Whipped cream and fresh raspberries! Yummo!

When bitten into it was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle - just how my dad likes it! I guess I learned something from my mum after all! It was delish!!!

Don't forget to let me know what you think... random spot prizes for people who comment :) You never know you could be invited for dessert!

Hope you have a fabulous week!

Broni