Homemade Cookbooks

For as long as i can remember i have been making my own cookbooks with pages from magazines that inspire me. I think it stems from my mother telling me i cant keep all those magazines i had piled up in my room!. so i started to rip them up!. and i created scrapbooks, long before i even knew what scrapbooking was. I had one for decorating and one for recipes and bits and bobs. over the years i have kept this up and i love to go back and look at the earlier ones, see how my tastes have changed. i dont have any of those early ones here in the UK, but in the almost 10yrs i've been here this time i have been ripping and sticking to my hearts content. sometimes i am good at keeping up with it and other times, i let the magazines pile up and then have a marathon session!. i need to have that marathon session again, so in preparation, i sorted out and stuck in the pages that had been piling up since the last stucking session!. i usually decorate the covers but havent done for the newer 2!. i love these pukka project books, cos the come already sectioned and the dividing section has a pocket for those articles that cant be stuck down!. these books are mainly recipes although one has a decorating section. i divide the sections into mains, baking, desserts and other things!, and have magazine pages, my hand written things and even mums hand written things. i love to flick and see that to try, and i do try things!. some good, some not so good!. anyone else make their own cookbooks?!.

good things and sad things.....

i have made a couple more squares for my blanket and am really loving the plain colours at the moment. I plan to a few in the non white colours, as i think theres enough white in each of the squares. so this is the progress as of today, both laid out and piled up!!. thats the good thing!.

the sad thing......dear wee lily....the cat in my header, has disappeared from home while my parents were away in australia over xmas. the general consensus is she has taken herself off to die somewhere as she was frail, and acting strange in the hours leading up to her disappearance. she was being looked after by a family friend. so my family have lost both their cats within a 3wks period and everyone is feeling a little sad about that.

I've fallen in love......

......with a house!. Once in a while i look at the Christchurch property listings....just in case that euro millions lottery ticket pays out more the £6.70!. while looking today i found this......swoon!. click on 'this' to see the whole listing, but i have used a couple of photos here... its a spit level home that hasnt been renovated for donkeys!. so much potential!.

i love the size of the rooms, and here in the living room....i'm thinking bookcases along that large wall!.

this shows the split level....up to the kitchen, dining and living rooms, bedrooms on the entry level...the level this pic was taken, and garage and a 4th room on the lower level.

and finally, a good old kiwi kitchen!. so much could be done here!!

it goes to auction on the 2nd feb....if i win the euro between now and then, i'm sending my dad off to buy this!!. admittedly, it lacks curb appeal at the moment, but i love that its different....different from the usual homes in its layout. the split level is a common one in NZ, but i've not see one laid out like this, which is why i love it!. i'm all for having something different!. i dont do sameness....something that happens alot here in the UK!.

Doing things!.

Well, in an effort to being positive and shift this bad funk, i have done nice things today!. I baked a batch of sultana cookies to go into my lunch box this week.....back to work tomorrow!. I also crocheted another square for my blanket....this one a solid colour to break up the blanket at bit. the light was ok in my bedroom so i have photographed progress so far. This is by no means the finished ordered....just how i laid them out to photograph!. i think i need to look into blocking the squares and then joining some up now!.

I also think i need to do some more squares that dont feature white as the white seems very dominant in these pictures. Still, its exciting to see it all laid out like that. the square today took me an hour to do, because i havent really crocheted for over a month. when i was doing the squares before the mad 6wks at work, i was down to about 3/4hr with all the colour changes!.

A Brief Year in Review - 2011

As I come to the end of this year there doesn’t seem to be a lot to look back on that has been positive, and maybe that’s why I still carry this whole bar humbug feeling. The big things for the year for me where my hometown of Christchurch New Zealand falling to the ground on Feb 22nd. While I haven’t lived in the city for nearly 10yrs, a lot of the buildings that were destroyed or subsequently demolished are part of my history…..buildings I cycled past as a school girl at Rangi, or drove past as a Plunket Karitane. The headquarters of my job there was demolished….it had started life as the city’s fire station. It still upsets me to this day about home, and has made the pull to return very strong. I find the idea of being part of the rebuild very appealing. The other big change happened in the summer….the Captain who had been in my life for the best part of the previous 2 yrs left for good, and with him went my car. My trusty old Volvo finally gave up the ghost and the Captain couldn’t keep it on the road any longer so the decision to scrap was made, and with that the Captain scrapped himself also!. Due to the loss of the car, I ended up giving up my allotment. The round trip on the bus was up to 1 1/2hrs, and with no loos on site, didn’t leave much time to get much done and it started to become overgrown. I left my shed and polytunnel to 2 of the fellas who I chatted to the most and feel happy about that decision. I have some pots of berry canes on the patio here as well as some leeks. Until I know what I am doing I shall keep the canes alive!. Finally, at the beginning of the month dear wee Robbie was put to sleep, a much loved and cerished family member. The positives…..I learnt to crochet!. I made a cushion cover and a scarf, and am trying to make a woollen blanket….probably for next winter!, since this one is half way thru!. And that’s all I can think of as a positive!. I have a tough 5mths ahead of me until I can move into a place on my own, then I hope my spirits will left and normal service will return. Until then, I imagine the posts on this blog will be few and far between, I simply don’t have much to say at the moment and am not churning out much in the way of crochet!. Despite my bar humbug-ness, I wish the few of you who read this a very Happy New Year, and hope all you wish for, for the new year come true for you xx

Robbie

xxx

On friday back home in NZ one of our family cats had to be put to sleep as he had developed an incurable tumour and deteriorated very quickly. he was a lovely cat, if somewhat of a fruitcake!. we believe he was inbred at the cattery!. he was a ragdoll, the last of 3 my family had, and he last 14yrs. he thought he was a dog and adored my father, following him around constantly. my last memory of being with him is back in feb/mar when i went home following the earthquake. towards the end of my visit he had to go to the vet to have a tooth extrated. so he wasnt allowed breakfast that morning....well did he grovel for africa!. he gave up on my parents pretty quickly and came into me and headbutted me, kissed my cheek, purred loudly, 'talking' to me.....everything to try and convince me to feed him!. i kept saying i couldnt!. so wee rob, sleep well in heaven and give rosie and henry a big snuggle from me

Suffering a lack of Christmas spirit this year!.

I'm finding it very hard to get into the festive spirit this year....i dont even have an advent calender i realised yesterday!. I started making the cover for my JYC this year, but have decided not to do an album this year, mostly due to how i'm feeling. so, i'm ahead for next year.....cover made, supplies brought!. lets just hope there is more festive joy next year!. I'm putting this lack of feeling down to my living arrangements.....i'm not happy where i live at the moment, for a variety of reasons i wont share publicly. I'm also working 6 day weeks at the moment to get students finished before Christmas, and i'm just knackered. i havent done much crochet lately either...although, i have started a granny stripe scarf which i hope to finish over the next few weeks. my blanket is currently up to 12 squares and i have restocked the wool, so once this crazy week has finished, i will get back into that, and also finding out about blocking it so i can start joining the squares up!. So, thats where i'm at.....not much to say, not much to show, not much at all!!.