day 284: fall bucket list

our fall bucket list ready to frame and have up as a reminder of all the cool things autumn offer :)

day 284 and things have been hard round here, that's an understatement but not as hard as others and my heart goes out to those families. my family have completely rallied around me and taken up all the slack i have left.  my operation is set for monday and i wanted to make sure the family (including me) had things to look forward to for the rest of the autumn season given the first month has been such a non event.  we haven't even been to a rugby game yet :(

i went to my autumn comfort board on pinterest looking for inspiration for today's creation.  looking at all that inspiration was just what i needed and i found the perfect thing to do today, an autumn bucket list.  i love these seasonal bucket lists that make you realise there is so much that each season offers your family that's worth doing.  i subconsciously know all these wonderful things happen each season but sometimes the grind of each day gets away on me and i forget to make the most of all the opportunities out there.

i found this great fall bucket list by katie at loves of life, unfortunately it is more fitting for the northern hemisphere seasons so this free printable wasn't going to work.  however i did find this free printable for a fall bucket list that allows you to create your own.  the free printable is from jessica of live as mom, her writing is so funny and a little bit addictive to keep reading!  jessica went with a limit of 25 things for her autumn bucket list.  given a month of autumn has almost gone i am going to limit our family list to the 20 things listed below:

the freely printable fall bucket list from jessica at lifeasmom.com, it's also available in colour if your printer hasn't run out of magenta ;)

• go to a blues rugby game
• make a pumpkin pie
• make apple prints bags with the peeps
• make mum's famous carrot and pumpkin soup
• go to the movie the best exotic marigold hotel
• make decorative easter eggs with the peeps
• go to the anzac dawn service at parakai (we go to one each year, this year it will be a local one)
• read a classic storybook, book must have been written at least 50 years ago  (each member of the family)
• make wednesday nights into movie nights with an easy dinner and cuddled up under blankets with hot chocolates
• visit with nana at the mount
• have a family craft day to make an autumn banner
• make an apple pie
• make some mini egg cookies
• make time to play games with the peeps on sunday evenings
• make homemade easter buns
• go to takapuna beach for an autumn walk and finish with hot drinks at the beach cafe
• go to a netball game to support the northern mystics
• make a dessert pizza for doing in the pizza oven
• send easter eggs in the post to all the peeps friends
• make an 'autumn' inspired dinner each week for the remainder of the season

outcome:  we won't know until the end of this season but i already feel more positive and excited about the weeks ahead and doing lots of fun family-focused things.  it is so true, when something is written down rather than thoughts swirling around it is far more likely to be done because it is out there for all of you to remember and make time for.  i love the idea of bucket lists for the everyday and always, it's a way of remembering how important each day is and not just the festive, warm seasons.  i am a great one for getting excited about christmas, birthdays, easter, and all the holidays way in advance and forgetting about how rewarding the every day can be if you put a little effort in.  hopefully a list like the one above with be a great reminder .... now i just need to get steve to go out and buy a frame for it!

my thanks to both katie at loves of life and jessica of lifeasmom.com for their wonderfully inspiring fall bucket lists.  they are such a great idea and something i hope to adopt for my family during every season :)

day 283: home school learning units

the units we printed out, heaps of pages of knowledge, advice, worksheets, and projects

day 283 and steve and i made huge progress during the morning before i went to the doc's for a meds checkup.  we discussed how we were going to make home life work: enable steve to get HIS work done, continue the peeps schooling, keep the house work done, and do a pinterest creation each day.

we were having morning tea together in our bedroom (because lets face it that's where i spend all my time at the moment) discussing how to make the most out of the peeps learning at the moment given it couldn't be done in the usual way that we did things.  the four of us decided unit focused work would be the best way to go as that would suit the fact we couldn't guarantee what each day was going to bring at the moment.  steve and i went on pinterest to my home school projects board and found some great units that would allow us to focus on a topic but cover different areas of the curriculum.

the best ones we found were from the home school share group.  we printed out their beethoven lives upstairs unit and their ancient egypt unit.  they are both pinned to my home school projects board along with many of their other units  both units cover various areas of the curriculum and have the facts, mini projects, suggested reading books, and lots of ideas.  the ancient egyptian unit is centered around making a mini book for each learning area and i love that idea.  i find with my littlest peep if she has to make something to do with her learning she retains the facts and knowledge much better and much longer than if she just does a worksheet or writing on the subject .. that quote that says "involve me and i will learn" is very apt for her!

outcome:  as sensible parents (yeah right!) do we had the peeps do their daily spelling and maths test after we returned from the doc's before we got started on the exciting new units.  i had meds to take and then things went down hill .... VERY fast and the learning for the afternoon was cancelled due to limited numbers.  so we haven't yet trialed the units but given how fast the peeps got down to their maths and spelling so they could get to the unit work, is a very positive sign~!

my sincere thanks to the homeschool share group for all the amazing units they have that are freely downloadable.  the homeschool share website is one of the very best home schooling resource websites i have come across and i can definitely recommend the site for all sorts of resources for learning :)

one day late ...

hello all, it's been a couple of days since posting sorry.  unfortunately i had a trip to the hospital due to a reaction to some of the medications i am on for my back.  i require an operation (in a week or two hopefully) to fix a problem with my back causing crushed nerves down my left side so life is a little complicated until that is fixed.

thanks mo for updating on yesterday's comments.  the good news is i had my first trip in an ambulance, the bad news is i can't remember much of it!
the good news is steve also got his first trip in an ambulance and he remembers it, the bad news is he spent his time doing that and not helping finish the pinterest creation we had started before i was whipped away ... geez i don't understand this guys priorities ;)
the good news is i am now home and recovering, the bad news is i have even more medication to take to counteract the effects of the other meds!
the bad news is we missed a day in pinterest creating, the good news is we will carry on and just finish one day later than originally scheduled.
the bad news is this is totally gutting to me, the good news is it's not going to stop me finishing my personal challenge :)
the good news is the eggs seem relatively unaffected by the family's experiences over the last two days (there are just more of them now!), the bad news is steve will still probably find a way to make sure they keep popping up in each blog post ... sorry!

i will be back later today with a creation and the creation we had started the other day, which is now also complete ...

standard hospital accessory to go with pretty gown (no photo of gown!)

eggsactly what kirsty is doing right now

day 282: muesli slice

day 282 and i am so lucky to have amazing friends.  one of my dearest dropped around some scrummy smelling dinners for the ENTIRE week today and didn't even stop so i could give her a hug ... i love you miss lana xx. we had the chicken casserole tonight and it was divine.  it often baffles me how some people know what you need even when you don't know it yourselves.

speaking of food, i sent my creative team back to the kitchen today to make some snacks for the coming week. i found this recipe from your cheeky monkey for muesli slice on pinterest that will definitely fill the tins.  the recipe is also pinned to my recipe must do's board.

we love this type of baking in our house.   i don't often buy muesli bars for the peeps as the homemade ones taste so much nicer and you can can make them according to your families tastes or whatever is in the pantry ;)  i  really liked the sound of this particular recipe as it has lots of coconut in it, a favourite of steve's, so it was a good way to get him on board with today's pinterest creation!  the other thing that intrigued me about this recipe was the use of oil instead of butter, something i don't think i have done with muesli slice/bars before.

not even the pretty eggs are safe!

dry ingredients....now simply add the wet ones and stir

polly helped, ben didn't

outcome: this went down very well with my cup of coffee this evening.  in fact the whole family thought it was a brilliant recipe and declared it was really simple to make as well ... that advice was from the male component of the kitchen team too.  the taste was really hearty and filling with all the oats and i have to say i really enjoyed the flavour and texture of it with the oil instead of butter.  i think the lack of butter made it less rich and chewy so you could really taste the coconut and oats, which i loved.

my thanks to your cheeky monkey for this recipe, it is definitely one i will use again and i loved that it didn't need butter in it, something i often run out of but never remember to buy at the supermarket :)

day 281: pistachio fudge for st patty's day

day 281 and my sweet husband has set me up in bed with a computer i can use lying flat on my back ... SO tomorrow i am going to spend all day catching up with what all my lovely web friends have been up to! but for today, i am in charge of the typing for today's creation while the peeps and steve do the making ... haven't yet figured out how to do baking from my current position!!  anyway, enough of me and on with today's pistachio fudge creation which comes from the recipe goldmine and is pinned to my st patrick's luck board on pinterest.

the original recipe is courtesy of mccormick and i am sure would be perfect for lots of festive occasions given it is green in colour :)  it also contains plenty of festive ingredients like chocolate, nuts, and sugar!  so for st patrick's day it goes without saying, it will be perfect for supper with the rugby tonight.

i talked the kitchen team through the melting of chocolate and the importance of not over melting, from which there would be no return!  it's important to get this point across to those in my family who have plenty of will but limited knowledge of our kitchen and how things work ;)  we then had a brief discussion about the fact there was no green food colouring, but combining two of the colours we did have would probably work just as well ;)

melted white chocolate into the cream cheese and sugar mix

pistachio nuts and colouring

in the fridge to set....its eggstremely cold in there!

outcome:  i'm guessing i will make this plenty of times over the coming years as it is easy to make, yummy, and would make the perfect gift for family and friends for all sorts of different festive occasions.  imagine making a batch of this for gifting to friends at christmas, awesome aye!?!

my thanks to mccormick for the recipe and also the recipe goldmine where it was featured.  great idea for finding recipes that work from all types of different sources and makers.

i hope you can tell how excited i am to have a computer sitting in front of me for the first time in ages without wincing!  thank you, once again, for all your continued support for my family and i on our challenge to create 365 (+ one leap day!) pinterest creations over a year ... it has meant so much to us :)

day 280: treat bags for st patrick's day

day 280 and i am back to creating today, if only for a brief moment!  today while the peeps were out at friends and steve returned to work for a couple of hours i made some treat bags for them for st patrick's day.

i loved these leprechaun inspired treat bags by julia at sweet serendipity, they are all so cute!  for today's creation i decided to go with her rainbow bags but add in some gold rolo's given these were destined for the end of a rainbow :)  this idea from julia is also pinned to my st patrick's luck board on pinterest.

you will need smarties or m&m's, rolos or other gold covered candy, some green ribbon, and some cellophane bags to make these gifties.  i used m&m's and rolos as my loot but did omit using the brown m&m's because they aren't very rainbow looking (but were steve-supper looking!).  i used the my memories software to make some very quick tags using julia's sentiment.

'you are my treasure at the end of the rainbow'

eeeeee fiddle de deeeee! (steve cant help himself)

creating the tags with my memories suite

lego leprechaun minifig used to attach the tag

outcome:  this was just the ideal little craft for me today and it is even more perfect with st patrick's day tomorrow and my need to treat my family for all they are doing at the moment.  we love the lego minifigs so the leprechauns will no doubt wind up on the peeps walls as part of my previous creations (day 70 and day 204).

my sincere thanks to julia for this lovely gift idea that is perfect for st patrick's day.  her blog sweet serendipity has so many wonderful ideas that are great for making the everyday just a little bit more sweet and exciting.

day 279: shamrock hand-print art

hi everybody,  just wanted to let you know how grateful and heartfelt i feel reading all the lovely comments and support steve and i have received over the last week where i've been unable to do anything.  i am really dopey with all the pain medication while i wait for the operation, but tomorrow i hope to make a comeback and do the creation for the day! :()

at the start of this 365 project, i said my family had agreed to support me in my efforts and nothing could be truer right now because i need them for everything at the moment! i just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my sweeter than sweet husband (even though he is obsessed with eggs ... honestly honey, sometimes i wonder how your brain works!) and my awesome peeps for keeping the p365 project going AND for taking such amazing care of me while i can't care for myself ... you guys rock my world and i couldn't have coped without you :)    as for my awesome blog friends and followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to support me .... your comments have spurred steve on ... the other night i saw him checking the new comments at 3am in the morning while he was giving me some medication!  we wouldn't have carried on without the amazing support we have been given over the last week, so a big hug of thanks to all of you :)

ok, over to steve and the peeps for today's creation :)

thank you honey......my only comment is that calling yourself 'really dopey' is a bit harsh!

day 279 and day 9 with steve.  tomorrow is st patricks day and there has been a particular paddy's day themed craft the kids have been itching to do.  this shamrock handprint art was inspired by shelly buck's pinterest board my handprint art.

ingredients: four kids hands, two 12"x12" canvas boards, green paint and one smart-ass egg

polly loves art and getting her hands dirty!

ben loves art and hates getting his hands dirty

see the little bit of paint on the end of his finger?  that was required for ben to 'test' the paint!

ben really hated this bit

nearly there ben.....

polly had some glitter paint and was desperate to use it, so she added a border

not to be out-done by little sis, ben added one also

outcome:  comparing our efforts with the original hand-print art, my kids either have grotesquely massive hands for their age or we should have used 16"x16" canvas boards.  i suspect (and hope) the latter.  the important thing is the kids loved the exercise, including ben even though polly and i spent five minutes chasing him around the property trying to convince him to paint with his hands!

regarding my allegged obsession with eggs, i have apparently passed this onto my first-born as he was responsible for todays guest appearance!