Bathroom renovations

The pink wallpaper in the bathroom and toilet had been peeling off for years and I decided I wanted it gone. Early in December, a builder stripped the wallpaper in the bathroom but forgot to do the toilet. At least I managed to get a photo of the wallpaper though!

 Details of the little diamond shapes on the wallpaper

We (but mainly Colin) stripped the wallpaper in the toilet earlier this week and we got ready to paint. First the holes (many of them) had to be filled. Once the filler was dry we sanded and then washed with sugar soap. Yesterday morning the undercoat went on

We also took off the cistern so that we could strip and paint behind. Those are holes in the wall!

Today we finished! We painted the walls in Resene's Corn Field, a very pale yellow

 In four week's time, I will be able to put the wall decals up that I bought. It was hard work this weekend (and who chooses to do renovations a few days before Christmas) but well worth the effort

Christmas is coming ....

and I'm so excited! The presents are all wrapped and out waiting for the Tree to be moved. The tree is currently in the family room so I can enjoy it at night. Next week it will go to the lounge where we'll open presents.

In the holidays I usually wake the boys at a reasonable hour - on Christmas morning I will leave them to sleep. I'll wake and get coffee and go back to bed to check out the online world. When I'm ready, I'll get up, shower and dress and then start the cooking. I'll go out to pick up my mom, come back and we'll open presents.

Then it will be lunch time: boys' favourites - ham, roast fillet, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, cauliflower cheese, peas and corn!

For dessert I'm doing little morsels of deliciousness! Everyone's choices and then some. Brandy snaps (petite baskets); ice cream (served in Santa cupcake papers(; jelly and cream (red and green layers served in tiny sherry glasses); chocolate cases filled with very-merry-cherries with a dollop of clotted cream; meringues with chocolate, raspberries and cream. yes, it sounds a HUGE amount, but they're all going to be small and this way we can have a little all afternoon

After last year's dreadful  Christmas, all I can say is "roll on Christmas". it's going to be a lovely family day with lots of love and sharing

Cake pops

Another new technique that I learned! 

On Saturday I went to a cake pops class - cake made into little balls on a lollipop stick, dipped in chocolate and decorated. These are the ones I did in the class - Rudolph, Santa's hat; Christmas tree and assorted others decorated. What a fun class!

Wednesday was the day for me to have a go myself. Here's my preparation  cake pops some on sticks; stars for the tops; chocolate to stick the sticks to he cake pops; and the green candy melts

Dipping the pops in the green prior to getting a star and "Christmas lights"

Finished pops

And a close up

These are very time consuming but look awesome when they're done!

Today

12/12/12 at 12:12 I was having lunch at Parson's in Wellington with some wonderful WSD friends

Just before we ordered

I didn't take the photos!

No matter that the photos are not great - it was a great lunch with friends and I was pleased to have the "auspicious" time with them

New Traditions

Christmas is a tough time in the new family. Your traditions of years gone by won't feel the same with one person missing; so make new traditions! My H bought a huge Christmas tree 15 years ago that we stopped using about four years before he left - last month I gave it away! He also bought a white fibre optic tree that is going to the Hospice Op Shop next week. Lots of shops have sales on now so I bought a new tree - it's mine - I chose it for our new traditions.

I also bought a new angel for the top of the tree

As a family, we would get up early have a special breakfast and open our presents. Then I would fetch my parents for for lunch. Our new tradition is that the boys and I sleep late, then I get up and fetch my mother and we open presents together before eating lunch. (My dad died 2.5 weeks after my H left so it's tough on all of us.) 

I cook some of the same dishes because that's what my boys want, but I've changed other dishes to cook what I want.

New traditions!

Colin's birthday

It's Colin's birthday in two weeks time but lots of his friends are going away, so we had the party tonight. And it had to rain and blow and be cold when we were having a bbq! meat and potato bake ... 2.5kgs of potatoes!

Colin and Phil at the bbq cooking

More meat cooking

Birthday boy cooking

BBQ fondue!

Strawberries, bananas and marshmallows for the fondue

Dipped in white chocolate

 Cake batter ready to be cooked 

Iced and decorated

from the top

Happy Birthday chocolate

Inside

 

A slice .. and yes, it really was blue and white!

1st December

My first blog post was on 1st December 2005 and was all about .... Advent Calendars! Here it is Seven years of blogging and with the introduction of Facebook, I haven't blogged as much. I think I will remedy that. So here are this year's Advent calendars. They would not let me take a photo of them holding their Advent calendars, and I think Colin was pleased, but Ross was not impressed! Too bad

I have a friend Karen in Auckland who has been through the same trauma as I have over the last couple of years. I "met" her in mid-December last year and together we have laughed and cried through the year. This is what she sent me today! Made me feel so special

Paper bags for my Mom

I am going away in December/ January so I have made a simple paper bag with a little gift in it for my Mom for each day that I am away. Here's all the bags in a box

All bags laid out to see

A couple of close-ups

 

Including the cards I made

"Bubbles" for 31st December

Playing cards I had made

Top view

I am hoping that someone at the residence where she lives will be able to give her a bag each day

Chess board cake

Today's experiment - I bought the cake pans and decided that today was a good day to try it out. My normal cake recipe; I just think that I over-cooked the cake slightly

 Butter cream icing to sandwich the three layers together and stick the chocolate fingers around the outside

Whipped ganache spread over the top and piped

A view from the side

A slice

The inside

I can see all sorts of combinations here - pinks, blues, colours .....

It was quite easy to do once I worked out how I was using the pans

And some great goodies to be won

My friend Hilary runs Scrap it Simple in Christchurch. She is so very creative and has just got to her 400th blog post so is offering a wonderful prize - go and look here: http://scrapbookngfromtheheart.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/my-400th-blog-post-giveaway.html

A month of catch up

In October, a few trees fell on to SH1 which meant that all the pine trees at school had to come down. This photo shows the before

And this photo shows the view from my deck with all the trees down

 Colin and I did a catering job - here's one of the two groaning tables!

 A selcection of sweet treats

 Sandwiches, mini blinis with salmon and some crudites

 Hot savouries

So we worked really hard and were "all caked out" but there was plenty of food that tasted good


I also decided to make a Rainbow Cake - this is the outside - covered in white icing. The original icing I had on was a complete mess and I had to scrape it all off and start again

 The inside - it looks fantastic when cut

In other news, we are well in to exams with only three weeks of school left. Then I have two weeks to Christmas and a lovely holiday!