Nestle keeping up

Ooooh, look what is on the shelves at PaknSave!!

An afternoon in the orchard

A job perk...being on-hand as the school photographer :)  Aaron's class was planting an orchard, with trees generously donated by Greenleaf Plant Centre.

While the kids worked well together, sharing spades and holding trees in place, the real hard work had already been done by Mr Rentoul who measured and dug the holes in preparation.

And here's my other lovely boy, just returned from his Monday afternoon at TTEC (Timaru Technology Education Centre) where his class does hands-on training in various fields every week.

Made over

While Nick was away this week (returning just before 2 am Friday morning), I sewed...and sewed and sewed.  Finished the jacket in time to wear to the orchestra last night :) Overall I'm reasonably happy although the image I had in my head prior to starting was very unlike the finished product.  But it's wearable!

I had a bit of a mishap with the lining during the early stages of sewing, and melted off a large bird-shaped chunk of facing.

Fixed! 

Magnificent Mozart

Red letter day today...I had long been looking forward to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Mozart performance at the Theater Royal this evening.  We were not disappointed!  The orchestra performed The Abduction from the Seraglio: Overture; Sinfonia Concertante and Symphony No.40 in G minor.  The solo violinist (Vesa-Matti Leppänen) and violist (Julia Joyce) were outstanding, delivering (to my ears) flawless and apparently effortless performances with superb communication between the two.  Loved it!! 

After the performance we met up with Andreas, Danielle, Joan and John who had been seated on ground level to go out for a coffee.  We had thought to sit down somewhere sophisticated but all the local hangouts seemed quite full, so we opted for Burger King which gave us unspoken permission to be loud and silly :)

Deserted Wives...wives have desserts...

The Deserted Wives Club met for the first time tonight...hopefully it will be the only time! Andreas was the only deserted husband left at home, as all our other hubbies are away.  Nick and John left early on Monday morning to drive a truck to the north island to deliver John and Joan's household goods to a storage facility (so with Nick being away, bible study was cancelled, hence our free night on Wednesday); Mark and Graham were off hunting with a group, and Rene with a different hunting group.  The ladies gathered for a dinner and craft time at Liz's place.  First order of craftiness was to try fix up Liz's boots which suffered the injustice of the potroast bag exploding all over them (and the floor, and the bench, and the cupboards), leaving great oily splotches all over them.  Joan and Betta took up the task of rubbing cornflour into them which will hopefully absorb and break down the oils.

Liz stands back while the rest of attack the deliciousness that is roast beef and veggies. Yum!

The glass is never half-empty with Aaron...

Dishes in the dishwasher, pudding done (thanks to Viv, a blackboy peach crumble), we tucked into the crafting.  Everyone had different things to do - Betta showed Danielle how to crochet, Joan had embroidery, Liz made some amazing paper creation thingie, Viv was scrapbooking, Bronwyn produced an array of cards, I did some hand sewing, and the boys and Genevieve made cards for Father's Day.

"Some kind of celebration"

...at least that's what John said when he announced from the pulpit on Sunday that the ladies would be gathering at Ballantynes for afternoon tea come Tuesday.  What he forgot in the moment was that his lovely wife Joan was celebrating a birthday!  I couldn't stay long as I needed to fetch the boys from school, but it was super to join this special group of ladies for a short while.  I sat opposite Cynthia who graciously posed her hands on the teapot for a photo.

Joan looking contemplative...we will miss her steady company and wisdom as she and John are shortly to relocate to the North Island.

You're a winner!

Frockstars 2013...remember the ugly dress that became something wearable?  Judging happened yesterday and I'm thrilled to say that my frock won the "Envy Award"...the dress that the judge most wanted to keep for herself!  Now I'm not sure that I want to instigate envy in anyone, but still, I'm thrilled to have won a category :)

So, what's next then?  I found this old coat at a second-hand shop which was begging for a make-over.

 The fabric is lovely - wool, I'm sure, in a blend of burgundy, red, brown, cream

It took all of Saturday afternoon to take it apart, which was when I discovered that there wasn't as much usable fabric as I'd hoped...so Saturday evening was spent puzzling over the new pattern pieces on the lounge floor.  I also used a pillow-case in co-ordinating colours from the same second-hand shop, and the coat's original lining made up the rest of my lining.  All I needed to buy new was some interfacing.  Now I'm ready to sew!

About time

Well the blog is slipping!  I claim the excuse that not too much photo-worthy happens in winter, so posts are few and far between.  We're into week 3 of term 3 and so far so good.  Our days are now rapidly lengthening, with more than an hour and a half of extra daylight since the winter solstice and the anticipation of even longer evenings when daylight savings starts at the end of next month.  With the angle of the sun at the moment, we often get lovely sunrises and sunsets (assuming that we do this happening which lately has not been the case with a lot of rain, cloud and drizzle). 

 Our Friday night pizza and movie tradition continues...with the exception of my departure mid-movie to attend orchestra practice - my second term of involvement with the Youth Orchestra of South Canterbury as a first violin.  This term we're playing a selection of movie favourites - our favourite is surely the Hobbit Suite!  We're also doing Forrest Gump, the Wizard of Oz, Les Miserables, and Harry Potter, amongst others.  Speaking of the latter, we've finally allowed the boys to watch the first in the Harry Potter series of movies.  This has followed years of putting it off, but Nick would like to take the 'learn to discern' approach in this case.  We won't allow them to watch all the movies as they progress from a PG rating as the themes are more developed and darker.  Afterwards, while I was still at orchestra, Nick and the boys washed and dried dishes over a conversation discussing the themes and controversies.

Sewing has really been keeping me busy lately - since Frockstars, I've made three more dresses, a skirt, a blouse, and a waistcoat for Nick.  I'm redeeming the time spent at the sewing machine by listening to audio books - have thoroughly enjoyed "What did you Expect", by Paul Tripp, on the topic of marriage.  It has been a real eye opener and cause for much heart searching and repentance.  I would highly recommend this book, audio or otherwise, to every married couple who are earnestly seeking to honour God in their marriage. 

Nick was happy to stand in the drizzle for the few minutes it took to get this pic - helpful that the model is so photogenic!