And the winners are.....

Don't you love saying that? I'm afraid you will have to put up with me in my cardigan and jeans for the presentation of these prizes. My evening dress is still in pieces on the sewing room floor.....

And so without further ado, the winners, as drawn by my two lovely assistants from the ridiculous hat are.......

NZ Green Buttons (Tape Measure Brooch)

Kelly of Reclaiming Me (Teacup Teatowel) (should those 2 words be 4 words? I never know)

and last but not least

Dash Robin (sock monkey)

Thanks to everyone who entered and wished me a Happy Blog Birthday. Thanks too to all of you who follow me and pop in for a visit. I really do appreciate it. Now I'm off to google a good recipe for Prawn fritters. Happy Friday everyone!

My Creative Space - Something for me

My Creative Space today is this tunic/dress that I made using the material I bought from Global Fabrics last week.

Don't you love it when you make something and it fits right first time and it looks like you wanted it to?

I'm really pleased with it.

It's made using Burda 7798.

I am smiling here ... honestly.

I'm also thinking about what I'm going to stick in the kids' lunchboxes, wondering where my oldest daughter's school shoes are and thinking about what to get out of the freezer for dinner. Know the feeling?

I've finished the back of Maddy's sweater. I don't think I'm going to have enough

of the recycled wool to finish it but I'm sure it all work out in the end. I'll figure out a way to stretch what I have even if I have to make the sleeves shorter. Any other suggestions?

Eloise's Creative Space is this mad hairstyle she gave herself this morning.

It's been a year since I started this blog and I have a giveaway to celebrate. Enter here if you want to!

What's your Creative Space today? Thanks to Kirsty at Kootoyoo for hosting this great game.

Raining Cats.

Cats hate water. It's a fact. Isn't it?  Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell our cat this.

He chases Richard around the garden in the hope for a drink and a splash from the hose and is a regular visitor at the kids bathtime. He happily sits on the side of the bath whilst the girls are in it and lets them splash him with water. Not good for our wooden floors let me tell you!

He loves the rain too.

Yesterday it didn't just rain here, it bucketed down. The rain filled our paddling pool and washed a rubbish bin down the street. And guess who went and stood out in it? And guess who then came in and decided that because I was kneeling down on the floor doing some fabric cutting, I would make a great towel to rub against?

And guess who then lay down on the pile of scraps on the floor to dry himself off?

Look at that face. Would you dare try and move him?

And here's another thing about cats that someone forgot to tell Kipper.

That they are dignified, regal creatures.

And aren't they supposed to have great spatial awareness too?

Trust me to get the cat that doesn't conform to the norm :o)!

Ballet and Banana Cake

It's cold and windy and very damp outside today. Eloise and I went to her ballet lesson this morning.

My eyes were hurting with the pinkness of it all by the end of the lesson!

So cute though!

Doesn't it make you smile?

We went to the supermarket after ballet and found a whole pile of brown bananas on special. Perfect for banana muffins. I won't give you the recipe as I'm sure you already have a good banana cake recipe. If you do want it, do leave a comment and I'll happily post it.

 Whilst I was doing the baking, I remembered my Aunty Peggy's recipe book. She was the best baker and made the most amazing flapjacks. When she passed away, I asked if I could have her recipe book. I've been having a read through of her recipes today and had a good giggle at all the notes she left by the recipes.

"* GOOD But Messy"

" Jane's Recipe. Don't really understand her writing (like mine) so have to hope for the best."

There are little notes like this all the way through her recipe book. It's like she knew she was going to be passing it on to someone and every one of the little notes makes me smile. She was such a wonderful Aunty and it's so special to have this. There are many blank pages left in the book and I have started adding my own favourite recipes to it. I'll share a few of hers (as well as her comments) as I bake them. Do any of you have a family recipe book that is special to you?

It's been a year...

It's been a year since I started this blog and I think I should celebrate don't you? Since you are one of  the main reasons I publish this blog, you should be the one getting the gift don't you think? So to celebrate I'm going to giveaway some Cotton Kiwi goodies. I'm going to have three giveaways.

One is for a Cotton Kiwi Tape Measure Brooch.

The next prize is for an appliqued teacup tea towel

and the final prize is for a sock monkey.

If you follow my blog already, or are a Cotton Kiwi fan via facebook, all you have to do is leave a comment below or on my Facebook page, telling me how you would celebrate your ideal birthday.

If you aren't a follower or a fan on Facebook already, just become one and leave a comment as above. If you blog about the giveaway, let me know and I'll give you an extra entry. 

Don't forget to leave me some way of contacting you. The winning names will be drawn out of a hat on Friday 30th April at 5pm so check back here on Friday to see if you've won! Good luck!

Beautiful Day

Our family attended a beautiful Anzac Day rememberance service in Devonport this morning. Maddy marched in the parade and made us proud. She is just old enough to understand a little of what Anzac day is all about.

We took the girls up Mount Victoria after the parade and they had a great time sliding down hills on pieces of cardboard and playing on the toadstools.

I hope it was a beautiful day for you too.

Parcels from Nanna

There is a great deal of screaming and jumping around in excitement when a parcel arrives from Nanna. One arrived yesterday for each of the girls. Maddy's contained a very cute bear and a bracelet with elephants on and Eloise had this in it.

Beautiful isn't it?

This is one very pleased little girl.

I'm hoping to get a few crafty bits done today myself. I need to finish this painting.

which is for Maddy's school art auction.

And I want to do some more work on the Maddy's sweater.

I bought a pattern yesterday to make something for myself so hopefully I can cut that out.

What have you got planned for the day?

I was brave

and made a start on the scarey sweater last night. Nothing like my daughter's high expectations (and all the wonderful encouragement from you lot) to give me a boot up the backside and just try.

This is the lace edging at the bottom. I have to pick up the stitches along the top to start knitting the back once this edging is done. The main body of the sweater is knitted in reverse stocking stitch and I think I will be googling that one to work it out once I get to that stage. Do any of you know of any good links to learn that stitch?

Thanks to everyone who wished my Mum a speed recovery yesterday. She has an appointment with the fracture clinic today so fingers crossed they will give her good news.  Here's a picture of her in full action mode last Christmas. She's a pretty outstanding lady and doesn't let much stop her so I'm sure she will be back on her feet in no time.

My Creative Space

Today my creative space is quite destructive (in a good way of course). I spent yesterday digging out our winter clothes from the huge cabin trunk in our bedroom. Most of the space is taken by about 50 beautiful handknit sweaters. My lovely Mum who is a very talented knitter, knit most of them for my now 12 year old neice and they have been handed down to my girls. She is still knitting beautiful sweaters and so we have ended up with quite a few. There are a couple that Miss Fussy Madeleine just won't wear including a beautiful green sweater that is a little tight around her neck. So I unraveled it using this tutorial.

This is what she wants me to re-knit it into

I love it but I don't know if I'm brave enough to tackle all those new stitches!

She chose it just before she went to bed and said to me "So will it be ready for me by the morning Mum?" I really have to start managing my daughters' expectations of what I can do a little better!

And because I always have several projects on the go, I'm working on some slippers for Maddy.

At some stage today, I need to get to the post office with this beautiful piece of art.

It's a combined effort from Maddy and Eloise and is going off to their Nanna in Brisbane as a get well soon card. My poor Mum fell down some steps in an airport last week and broke both her feet. Nothing stops her though and she was out pruning all the shrubs on her deck from her wheel chair just a few days afterwards. Hope you are back on your feet soon Mum!xxx

What's your Creative Space today? For hundreds more, visit Kirsty over at Kootoyoo.

Cozy

When you own a ridiculous Wee Willy Winky hat you definately need the rest of the outfit to go with it.

Eloise is such a wriggle bum in bed. The bed clothes are always off (and sometimes across the other side of the room) when I go and check on her before bed. She is also going through a nighty only stage (grr, typical when I have loads of hand me down flanellette pjs!).

I remember wearing a snuggly flanellette nighty when I was a little girl and feeling so cozy (and pretty with all the lace and gathers) so I was thrilled to find this pattern last time I went to Spotlight. I made a start on the nighty on Sunday afternoon. I had just enough of the flanellette left over to make Maddy some pj bottoms and made those quickly so Maddy could wear them to bed that night.

That was a big mistake! Eloise threw the most almighty wobbly and kept asking over and over for me to go and make her nighty immediately so that she could wear it to bed. I felt really bad (especially as I knew before I gave Maddy her new PJ pants that it was a bit unfair on Eloise not to get hers at the same time but I was just too keen to see the pyjamas on!). As soon as I had calmed Eloise down and put her to bed, I went downstairs and made the nighty. It took me a couple of hours and when I sewed the final button on, I went into Eloise's room and put it on her. Crazy I know. I would NEVER attempt that feat with Maddy who has the sleeping habits of an owl and would be up all night if you so much as nudged her.

Eloise woke up in the morning and ran to her sister's room to show off her nighty and then spent a good half an hour parading around like a princess. I think I will have to make more or I will end up washing it every other day for her to wear again that night.

I love it when I make something that my children love!

Look at that mad hair will you?! It's a good job she has a big hat to wear.

Treats

The lovely Cat of Cat Taylor Design emailed me last night to tell me about the merino special on at Global Fabrics. I've just been and now wonder why on earth I have never been there before (it's probably a very good thing for our mortgage that I haven't.)

Look at those beautiful colours! I'm planning some tops and

leggings for the girls and a little something for me too.

This is a gorgeous heavy weight cotton (don't know the technical word for it).

It's destined to be a tunic for me.

And talking of treats, I bought myself this gorgeous gorgeous sculpture piece at the Smashed Pipi Gallery whilst I was in Mangawhai at the weekend. I am totally in love with it but haven't quite decided where it is going to live yet so it is sitting on our mantle piece until we do.

It's by Angela Hockenhull. You can see more of her work here.

Have you treated yourself this week?

Blissed Out Kittys

It was the last day of school holidays for us today. Maddy's school had a teacher only day today and Eloise's kindy doesn't go back until tomorrow so we took advantage of it and went to Auckland Zoo.

The animals seemed to be totally worn out after the school holiday traffic, but they were all out working on their tans, so I was able to get some great photos. The ones of the blissed-out big cats are my favourite.

Here's another much smaller, blissed out kitty. This is our cat Kipper helping Maddy with her drawing yesterday. He follows the kids everywhere.

We really are so lucky having Auckland Zoo on our doorstep. It has a fantastic array of animals and they are all so well cared for.

This is one of the tiger cubs that were born last year.

This emu was having a major bad hair day! I know how he feels sometimes!

This is one of the Asian otter brothers.

Four years ago, a female otter called Jin escaped from the zoo by digging under two walls and scaling a 1.6m fence. She swam down rivers and waterways to get to the harbour. She was spotted, a week after she escaped, in Devonport near where I live. Given it takes me half an hour to drive to the zoo that's a long way for a little otter to travel! She was eventually caught after a month of being on the loose and now lives in Wellington Zoo in an otter escape proof enclosure!

Eloise, my little rainbow girl (she loves to paint with every colour

under the sun), fell in love with this bird.

I was amazed that this photo turned out. The kiwi enclosure is pitch black as they are nocturnal.

And finally a Tuatara.

The girls had such a great time (and so did I).