Welcome to my world
“HVM’s” ha ha ha ha ha…. seriously.. sigh, my world. There has to be a new one every other day…
A little update of things
I have moved into a new place in the last two weeks. It was an epic effort of moving alot of stuff. I used to live in a house I rented, furnished and stocked with kitchen stuff including a dedicated studio. To ONE room in a friends place, with the idea of doing the house thing again in a year or so. Lets just say, it involves storage and alot of effort and organising. I could not of done it without Kylie and help from friends with larger vehicles 
But i still sit behind the computer most of my days and occasionally see lovely links and tutorials that i think.. “must blog about that”.
Here are a few..
- Craft 2.0 coming to christchurch! Yay yay. Now I hope to give you guys a sneak preview of some friends work, so stay tuned.
- Clever Bastards, a New Zealand based online shop selling handmade nz artist’s goods! Don’t forget Felt for that too, sell your own things, has the etsy feel to it
- Studio Home, A blog I am loving for its NZ flavour and delightful posts
- Wardrobe Refashion: I have asked to post here and got accepted! I have yet to write a post as the acceptance came mid move. Will be thinking about it this weekend. But basically you choose time where you will buy nothing more new clothing wise and you adjust/work with what you have already got. YIKES! But I thought this would be a great motivation and learning curve to get comfy and happy in sewing again.. i used to do quite a bit without thinking about when i was growing up, but now i’m grown up, I’m all scared to experiment!
Right thats me! Enough blabbling! Sorry no piccies today…
Commuting Bikes in New Zealand!
I have been slightly obsessed over bikes again. Its happened with the purchase of a road bike. The excuse: training for triathlons. I brought the beauty off Trade Me for alot less than what it was worth (or so i like to think).
In the spirit of bikes here are some cool commuting bikes, all available (some even made) in New Zealand!
From the top left: Yuba Mundo, The Euro Folding bike, The Euro Commuter, The Euro City 2473.
Now for some cool links:
- Urban Bicycles : A personal page put up with cool links and even an essay on commuting in New Zealand, the aim to get everyone out on their bikes.
- Gofa bikes! Funky commuting bikes
- Clever Cycles : A Bike Blog
- Trio Bike : A carrier bike!
- Copenhagenize : Bike blog, nz, chch video!
- Feeling Bikey
Ok thats me for today, have a good one!
Lake Daniels
A friend and myself decided to attend (fairly last minute) a pirate party in Lake Daniels. I didn’t know the birthday boy for whom the party was for, but he didn’t seem to mind. We dashed off after faffing in town at about 1, we drove through drizzle and rain for twoish hours. Arrived at the hutt in the dark around 6ish. It rained the entire time we walked but never enough to get to upset about, as we were under the bush canopy and fairly well protected.
After fun frivolty and many “arrrrgggggg” with fists shaking… we all went to bed to wake up to this:
I happily ran around with my camera and and took ALOT of photos…
We dashed off because we had to get home quick like. There was no stopping but as we drove up the pass there was SNOW and I took even MORE photos out of the car window.
All in all a lovely weekend really…
Yummy Lemon Cupcakes
I made these scrummy cupcakes awhile back. Thought I might share the recipe. I made them in different sizes, some muffin, some cupcake. But next time i’d keep them all cupcake size. They are sweet lemony morsels that way. A massive muffin takes a while to get through!
Lemon Cupcakes
Found at dianas desserts.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 18 minutes
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/8 oz/226g) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 (8-ounce) cartons dairy sour cream
2 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
Lemon Frosting:
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz/42g) butter, softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
Milk (2 to 3 teaspoons if necessary)
1 teaspoon shredded lemon peel
Garnish (optional)
Grated lemon or orange zest Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F (180 C). Line thirty 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and vanilla; beat until well mixed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. (The batter will be thick.) Stir in lemon peel.
3. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the batter into each prepared muffin cup *(See Tip Below). Bake in preheated oven about 18 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack before frsoting and topping cupcakes with lemon or orange zest (optional).
Makes 30 cupcakes.
To Make Lemon Frosting:
In a medium bowl, beat butter with 1 cup powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in lemon juice and vanilla. Gradually beat in additional 1-1/4 cups powdered sugar. If necessary, beat in enough additional milk (2 to 3 teaspoons) to make of spreading consistency. Stir in shredded lemon peel.
*Tip:
If all of the cupcakes do not fit in the oven at one time, refrigerate the remaining cupcakes while the first ones bake.
Saturated colour and a sunday mood.
Its labour day in New Zealand. I am sitting on my sofa cuddled up in a knitted hooded jacket I found in a second hand shop, (made in Nepal and it is the warmest pinkest thing I own) with a cute cat on my lap.
Just about to put the laptop aside and start on the chores I have avoided this weekend so far. But I wanted to share what was found whilst surfing the net reading my usual blogs. They are called Spoonflower, you can print your own fabric through them (not yet.. soon, they are in beta). I have to say right now.. I LOVE the internet. People can print their own books, fabric, tea shirts and who knows what else.. Its all rather wonderful really.
And just cause, here is another autumn shot. Such beautiful views around Christchurch at the moment, the colours are making up for the colder temperatures.
Yarn Dying Adventures
I went in on some gorgeous carded merino with a friend and my mum (mum by the way has a blog in the works..) I was a bit woosey to start dying by myself so Jessicah offered for us to have a dye day at her house. The results is some blue yarn for me (I have yet to spin it..maybe tonight) some lovely mauvey yarn for Jess and a tutorial for you! Go Jess! She has already spun hers and seriously… its beautiful.
Also here are some photos I took of Jess’s rainbow yarn, she has been experimenting with colour in her “year of fibre”
Inspiration everyday in your bag…
Find artists work on lovely notebooks at Modofly
Latest Web Design : Floozy
Well its been a long hard road, but we have launched our first ecommerce shop at LeftClick. Many things we will be doing differently next time and thanks to Tantek and the microformats (a review coming soon, still writing it!) workshop I think the programmer guru is converted to helping create nicer HTML markup… ALSO thanks to LeftClick’s business plan we do get to change the website and work on it to improve it for the next year at least.
I got to be a very girlie web designer for this site. With lots of pretty things. Check it out www.floozy.co.nz the handbags are pretty gorgeous, mind you I have looked at them so much I feel slightly “over” them. But one can still appreciate good design.
Links : DIY Homemaking projects
Been madly busy this week, on purpose because the boy has left to work overseas. I get him back next Friday or Saturday for week! Already looking forward to it. FINALLY I have let myself look at crafty fun sites for some light relief. Here are some picks of the bunch.
First its a sandwich wrap! From the thesmallobject PERFECT for me. I have re-used plastic bags up until now. I can’t believe I haven’t thought of this. I think if the trial one works. I might make a dozen of them.
Second is this funky idea for distilling your own plants to create fragrances… from seanmichaelragan. I think this could be one my boy might like to get involved with… seems sufficiently mad scientist for him.
