Aurora from Putaruru

We never see the southern lights where we live but tonight we sure had a show. Over the back fence looking toward the south the sky just came alive, amazing!

Volcano Cake fun

Sometimes you start a cake without a clear plan and just think phew when it works out okay!

Okay, so it’s baked and has its crumb coating….

Attempting to make brown fondant from left overs. Way too much red. Had to use so much gel colouring to correct!

Covered with brown fondant and a crater created at the summit.

Then went crazy with runny royal icing, fondant grass etc

And from the back.

Gardening tool belt from old jeans

Had an aha! moment when I was looking in my box of old fabric for something to make a tool belt from for gardening. There was an old pair of men’s jeans with one leg already cut off. Hey presto, ready made pockets so all I needed to do was cut out the shape and finish off the edge. Job done!

Orange Combine Harvester Cake

Grandson, John, turned 4 and was keen to have an orange combine harvester cake. The main challenge was how to lift the body of harvester up high enough to fit big tyres on the front. A block of wood covered in foil made a good base for the cake to sit on 🙂

Felt Embroidery Oven Cloth

I really like doing felt embroidery but not in big doses. An oven cloth is about the right sized project and if it gets scorched to pieces then it’s a good excuse to do another one 😉

King Cobra Snake Cake

It was an interesting challenge making a King Cobra snake cake for Ari’s seventh birthday. I did lots of web browsing trying to find ideas how to do it.

In the end I made three ring tin cakes for the body and covered them with fondant. For the head piece I covered an L shaped piece of dowling with rice cereal and marshmallow then squeezed it into shape, wrapping it tightly with cling wrap to stop the ricies falling off. I waited for it to dry before covering it with fondant the next day. The hood is a cut out piece of edible decorating paper (or sugar sheet) with the clear plastic still on the back. I tried to make it with rice cereal but it crumbled apart and I didn’t have time to try again. Edible glitter and gold dust were dusted on afterwards.

Happy Birthday Ari!

Knitted Bear Graph

Our two and a half year old grandson chose a bear for the front of his new vest. Since I couldn’t find a graph for what I wanted I made one up and here it is. While knitting it up I realised it was going to be too short so added another ten rows into the body. The eyes, nose and mouth were added afterwards using duplicate stitch, that saved all the fiddly business knitting in small pieces of wool and keeping it tidy.

From waste space to harvest

Stan let me take over a rubbish corner of the paddock to plant vegetables that were too sprawling to grow up by the house. It’s a dusty little corner that had gravel and blackberry and solid grass roots beside the driveway. Fortunately a friend gave us a load of chicken poo and rich cowshed compost that has grown some awesome veges. Tonight I picked the first sweetcorn to mature and there will be pumpkin, potatoes and watermelon (under the pumpkin vines), hopefully kumara and popcorn still to come. I’m surprised to see how much taller the popcorn is than the sweetcorn. Thanks Stan for turning the sprinkler on for the last few months 🙂

I could have sprayed it out but wanted to clear it now!

Chicken poo and cowshed compost going on, thanks Allan

Stan’s kill switch so the fence stopped biting me.

Planted out and ready for watering several times a week

The popcorn on the left is taller than the sweetcorn on the right and was planted a few weeks later.

Looking lush compared to the paddocks drying out around it.

First fruits of our labour 🙂

Birdhouse Tummy Time Quilt

With a supercute new granddaughter arriving it was time to design and make a floor mat for her to have tummy time on. Here is the finished quilt, again I thank all those who put their images on line because I did lots of browsing of what others have done before drawing up Zoe’s quilt.

Soccer Ball Cake

It’s a few weeks ago now, but in December I made Eli a soccer cake for his 10th birthday, the first time I’ve tried to make a round ball cake. Turns out they aren’t so hard after all. There are several ways to do it. You can either bake flat cakes and layer them together, then carve out a ball, or bake two cakes in bowls, buttercream them together and tidy up your ball shape. I did it the second way and was happy with the result. Eli was happy too and a happy grandson was the main aim!