2014 - A New Year

So 2013 is now history, and I have a new year to start a fresh with.  Things will be different for me this year, I will be a working mum and wife - at this point I am unsure as to how many hours per week, because it is casual work, but hopefully it will be enough to bring a little extra income in,  and I will still have time to do the things I enjoy and be there for my family.

I haven't set myself any personal goals or resolutions this year, however I do have a few sewing/crafting goals I want to achieve:

• to make my son's recycled shirt quilt - in time for his 11th birthday in February 2015
• to finish my Jacobs Ladder Quilt - that I started in December 2013
• to bind my place mats started last year, so we can actually use them this year
• to make as many birthday and Christmas gifts as I can
• to participate in a couple of Flickr swaps which challenge my sewing skills (at least a little bit)
• to learn to knit in the round (this is carried over from last year)

What goals have you set yourself this year?

Christmas Wishes

I am going to be having a little break from my blog over Christmas and New Year.  Thank you to all my readers who have shared my first few months with me.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Merry Christmas
Julie

Scenes from my Week

 

From the sewing Room:

•  badges getting sewn on scarves for the Scout Jamboree which starts on December 27, still waiting for another 40-50 scarves to arrive though - nothing like working under pressure

From the garden

• one of my favourite cannas in flower

From the letter box

• a job offer, from that interview I had about a month ago, which I have accepted - it is only a casual job with our local libraries, so hopefully I still get time to cook, garden and craft.
• happy mail in the form of a decoration sent to me from a friend

From the Christmas preparations:

• gift wrapping before the Miss B and Mr J finished school yesterday - so now it is officially summer holidays

From the kitchen

• using up some of my zucchini glut to make a Chocolate Zucchini cake from this recipe

Scenes from my Week

 

 

 

From the kitchen:

• Honey Rice bubble slice - recipe here
• Lemon and Raspberry loaf
• Christmas fruit mince meringues - this weekend we are having an early Christmas with my husband's family - this is my dessert contribution

From the Christmas Decorating:

• my lovely new table topper, made by my sister for our Christmas swap, topped with my favourite bowl, filled with Agapanthus

 From the reading pile:

• The Art Forger by BA Shapiro - and interesting read based on a true  ( and still unsolved) story of stolen paintings from the Gardner Museum, but using a fictional piece of art by Degas

Have a great weekend!

Morning at the Museum

 

This morning I had an outing to the Auckland Museum.  Currently they are showing an exhibition from the V & A Museum called Selling Dreams - 100 years of fashion photography.  Lots of beautiful, mainly black and white photographs from the early 1900's through to modern day.

I also wandered down to Wintergardens,  to see the Corpse flower, unfortunately (or fortunately - cos it wasn't smelly anymore) it was starting to die off - it was still pretty large though. There were still lots of other lovely and some very unusual flowers and displays to see in the gardens.