Busy as a Bee

Today was all about cleaning, I got my kitchen/laundry floors scrubbed, cleaned the grease filter in the range hood, the bathroom scrubbed within an inch of it's life, bathroom cabinets cleaned out, picked up the kids from school and cooked dinner.

Having written it out it doesn't seem a lot really, but it's autumn cleaning time, you know that deep intensive cleaning that you do every 3-6 months.

That's dinner, a quick and on fly version of Thai chicken cocoanut curry and rice.  I seem to have run out of or misplaced my green curry paste so I substituted red, the WG hates hot curry so there's a can of cocoanut cream and a dash of lime in it, as well as fish and soya sauce.  Some red onion, finely chopped mushrooms (finely chopped because if the hubs knows they are there he will object) and some frozen veg because the WG left the veg box on the floor in the laundry on Friday and my dogs ate them overnight while I was at work!

Yes they ate the fruit and veges,  they did leave the leek, onions. oranges and potatoes but everything else is gone burger! They really love banana's best but happily ate the rest too.  Weird dogs! I found the remains spread all over the laundry floor and two very burpy dogs greeted me at the door.

The Henna tattoo on my hand got darker overnight.  When I scraped off the paste yesterday it was yellow, overnight it went brown.

I got lots of interest in it when I went out today to get coffee.  I have a weakness for BP Wildbean cafe's mocha and we were out of milk so I popped up to the local BP.  The barista grabbed my hand to look at it, she wanted to know all about it.

My youngest brother arrives tomorrow with his fiancé.  They live in Australia and came over on a cruise ship for Dad's birthday, and to have a holiday.

I'm excited to see them again.  I will be picking them up at the port tomorrow morning after the kids are dropped off at school.

My middle brother called to make arrangements for a get together and when we are together we will sort out the plan for Dad's birthday bash.  It's going to be a big weekend!

The African flower scarf hasn't been forgotten here is how it's shaping up.  I decided to do a single row and I am working on making the scalloped edges straight.

The monochrome bags (there are two on the go) are nearly done for the trip up.  I shall put Easter Eggs in them as treats for the grown ups.

I think when my niece arrives from Tauranga to stay for the school holidays, I shall get her and the WG working on some dyed eggs.  I found a great tutorial for silk dyed eggs on Pintrest using old silk ties from second hand stores.  I'd quite like to try it.

The girls like doing projects and it keeps them from begging to go to the movies...

Happy St Patricks day!

It's 9am and everyone is sleeping.  Last night we went out adventuring till late.  The husband had a rare night off i.e. he wasn't "on call" for fires, which meant we could go out and not worry about having our evening interrupted by the pager.

We took the children out to play mini golf, something they've expressed an interest in doing over the years.  My hockey playing children were somewhat confused by the golf putter but adjusted well, the man child got a couple of holes in one.  The match took about an hour and was won by the hubs who has previous experience playing golf but professes to be useless at putting.  The man child came second and the wee girl 3rd.  I brought up the rear as usual my lack of competitive spirit and skill at things sporty no doubt had a bearing.

Then we tootled down to the Wynyard Quarter for dinner.  The man child showed a great interest in the "hot" girls walking down Quay St to Vector Arena for the Taylor Swift Concert.  We had an awesome meal and got home around 10pm, everyone was in bed before 11pm.  And now I am up alone as they slumber on.

Spotlight are having a sale and whilst wandering looking for odds and ends for my squares (I have 30 now and I've used up quite a bit of my stash) I stumbled upon this:

Moda Vera Willowy, 100% Viscose for $4 a ball.

It was calling to me to play with it, I swear!  I've never used 100% viscose.  It has a pretty sheen and it's soft.  So beautiful and soft!

I had to buy some, had to!

So I got 3 balls, the pink, green and white.

I brought them home...

I sat and contemplated...

What does this want to be? I asked myself.  I thought and thought.

Flowers, definitely flowers.

And so I hit on African Flowers.  They are unbelievably soft and pretty.  I put aside my squares to make them.  This is going to be my scarf this winter.  Two hexagons wide and as long as I can make it to wind around my neck.

There is a darker purple I might have to go back for as a contrast, I haven't decided yet.

It's going to be just warm enough for Auckland and I have wanted a new scarf for a while now.  The wee girl has her own flower scarf but this stuff is so pretty and so lovely to work with, I might have to make her another!  It glides over the hook and feels absolutely silken as it runs though my fingers to create the tension.  I'm in love!

My days off have been busy this week.  With my new sew pouch I have created a cellphone sock in cotton.  fiddly to work with but I think it looks pretty good.

It looks better on the phone but I couldn't take a picture of it with the phone, while it was on the phone.  I could have gone and borrowed one of the other phones but they were all tucked up on their chargers, in the bedrooms of their slumbering owners and if I have learned one thing being a mother, it's to let sleeping husbands and children lie, if I ever want time to myself!

And of course today is St Patricks Day.

May your pockets be heavy, your heart be light and good luck pursue you each morning and night.

Slainte.