love this ... back on the creating horse again :)

i have missed not doing something every day ... sigh

fourth of july ... new zealand style

happy fourth of july :)  i used the hot milk cake recipe from here :)

it's the winter school holidays here at the moment and the days have been stunning.  bright blue skies, warm(ish) sun, and lots of happy peeps wondering around the place ... almost like summer, almost ;)  the peeps and i have been studying countries in preparation for the olympics, which being a sports mad family, we LOVE.  as a small country, we send a good number of athletes and a few even have the prospect of winning a medal.   however, we have nowhere near as many as other countries and not in the diversity of sports as in other countries.  


to make up for our lack of numbers for all major sporting occasions i give everyone in the family a 'second' country to support. everyone gets a goodies bag with their country's map, team info, flag to colour, other printables relevant to the country, foods from the country, and some recipes they have to cook during the event for the family.  it's a great way for the peeps to learn about a different culture and all that a country has to offer!  as with all hands on learning, it seems to stick more ... during the last summer olympics polly was three years old and had jamaica as her second team.  she doesn't remember the names of the athletes but she does remember they had really fast runners and what their flag looks like! 


anyway to cut a really long story, slightly shorter, ben's 'second' team for the olympics is USA!  he is delighted and i decided the best time for him to cook his american meal was not during the olympics but on the 4th of July.  because i like to make things more work than they need to be i also decided we would have a fourth of july crafting day, have hotdogs for lunch, and then finish off the day with an all american burgers feast and fireworks ... why go small when you can go bigger!

we did a LOT of crafting!

all the peeps made these canvases, first painting the strips on and then making the paper 3D star to attach on top ... instructions for the star are available here from happy life, crafty wife :) and the inspiration for this craft came from here at bee in our bonnet

the peeps also made firecrackers with pringles cans ... such a cool idea and a great take home gift given all the containers were full of pringles! printables for this craft came from here and they were all FREE :)

some of the happy crafters, the boys weren't into making flax flowers!

... but they all came back when we started to put this stuff on the table!

dinner, with the make your own burger bar, curly fries, potatoe salad and plenty of red, white, and blue ... 

this guy had the biggest burger i have ever seen!

this was it ... honestly, what was he thinking!

then we headed outside for some fireworks and a warm up around the brazier :)

ben and the fireworks ... that boy and fire, it's a worry ;)

we had a great day and night!

we had a great day, awesome friends, fantastic family, brilliant food, happy peeps, and pretty fireworks, not to mention bags of crafting ... definitely a great way to celebrate america's independence, kiwi style (we had beetroot in our burgers ;))  and where did all this inspiration come from?  PINTEREST of course, and you can find it all on my fourth of july board!

a crazy week

a crazy, crazy week of learning, catching up with family, saying goodbye to family, and way too many people coming to look at our house ... meant i didn't complete my chair!  sad but true and i got SO stressed about it, i promised steve i wouldn't put any time limits on my pinterest creations for this year ... and this sits surprisingly well with me.  i will still be here, making, baking, and creating but life gets in the way of putting a time frame on these projects, especially as i am testing my personal creating boundaries with the things i have planned to make!  it will still be 52 weeks of meatier projects but not necessarily one finished every week.

i hope you will stick with me as i continue to enjoy all pinterest has to offer in terms of amazing projects to get you teeth stuck into, but this year i need a little more flexibility with regards to time. i hope you will stay tuned and learn along with me as i continue to turn pinterest inspiration into real life projects.

week one: cape cod chair

week one's project will be to make one of these from free pallets ... just as this one was :)

i've picked an easy but a scary first project for year two of turning pinterest creations into my reality ...  so why is the first one easy? well it so happens the inspiration was first pinned to my outdoor boards and it was from a really local creator, my sweet husband.  a few weeks ago he made this cape cod chair out of FREE pallets ... yes, this cape cod chair cost the price of its nails or screws or whatever was used to put it together.  can you guess the scary part?  yeah, i'm not a builder or even handy with a power tool.  i can tell a screw and a nail apart but that's about as far as it goes!

ok, so the project is chosen and i have the week to complete it starting today (monday NZT time) and will have the finished project ready for you to view sunday NZT time.  so over the next couple of days i will show you some progress reports (i hope or the injuries!) and how my first foray into building develops ... i am just hoping my husband will stay patient with me for the entire week of building we do together ... wish me luck!

the plan for the next 52 weeks

has anyone seen these three, i have a new plan to tell them about .... anywhere? ... i'll let them bring back the eggs?

i absolutely loved doing pinterest 365 but needed this last week off to reinvigorate and have a wee break!  having said that, i was also very aware that once 365 days were over i wanted to carry on doing something and set new goals for the coming year.  pinterest has given me that little something i have been looking for ... motivation ... to get up and do rather than just admire from afar others ability to create.

without getting too personal, i have always had grand ideas but never figured i was good enough to carry them out ... apparently flooding therapy works because not only did i decide that finished was better than perfect i also shared my imperfect creating rather publicly on my blog ;)

the only downside in doing a creation a day inspired from pinterest was the lack of time to do any BIG projects ... you know, the ones that take more than a day for mere mortals to finish.  so a couple of months ago i formulated a plan for once pinterest 365 was complete.  this new plan involved weeks, thus giving me the time to do larger projects ... my sweet husband hid at this point when i began telling him of my new plan ... i have yet to find him.

so for the coming 52 weeks i plan to take on one BIG pinterest inspired project a week ... and by big i mean anything that will take me more than a day to finish.  no i will not be building a house, boat, summer collection, shed, studio, or any combination of the above!  i will be posting throughout the week about the project's progress and showing the finished project on sundays (NZT).  and because i LOVE pinterest recipes, saturday will become pinterest baking day, where i'll be trying a new to me recipe each week that i have pinned and just NEED to try :)

so that's the plan for the coming year, project one will start on the 25th of june so it gives me this week to have some fun relaxing before i take on a new year of creating!

my top ten ... err 12 ... pinterest 365 projects

these are actually my top 12 because i couldn't narrow it down any further and actually the list was much bigger but i had to have a cut off somewhere :)

12.  apple butter cake

i can't state enough how amazing this cake was hot .. and so easy ... seriously, give it a go! 

11.  iced coffee

i made this while i was pinteresting in singapore, and it hits the spot like no other iced coffee has ... not for the healthy, this is pure indulgence. 

10.  dry erase weekly events pin board

while it doesn't currently have halloween papers in it (they are all red currently) this weekly dry erase schedule is still in use EVERY SINGLE DAY!

9.  cookies in a jar

this is why i love pinterest so very much, simple gift ideas like this that don't cost a lot but mean lots to give ... i love giving and pinterest has allowed me to give lots of happiness to lots of people without breaking the bank :)

8.  christmas tee upcycled into a pillow

i have so many christmas t-shirts that i have been unable to part with sentimentally but are too small for the peeps to where, this project provided the perfect answer :)

7.  thinking of you card

this is for totally sentimental reasons, it was through this card i made some amazing blog friends namely jen (who's card it was i cased!) and jenny another amazing paper crafter i found through jen's blog.

6.  honey glaze for christmas ham

hands down the best glazed ham i have EVER had!

5.  pretzel hugs

couldn't have a top 10 12 without these babies!

4.  i love you because frame

this frame gets used all the time in our house and it has meant so much to both steve and i to see the appreciation in the little things people in our family do for each other ... even the real estate agents go each open home to check out who's currently loved because .... :)

3.  lego minifig storage

again, couldn't have my favourites for the year without this project, it has been an incredible success in our house and we are about to make yet another one as the minifig collection continues to grow.

2.  hot milk cake

this cake has become my go-to cake, it is ABSOLUTELY delicious, easy to make, is still beautiful and moist days later, and is the perfect birthday cake that can be turned into any shape you like ... oh, and it's a big substantial cake that can feed a large number!  i have made this cake more times than i can count over the last 300+ days, just as well i made it early on :)

and my number one is reading is dreaming with open eyes

never have i seen so many inspiring quotes as i have on pinterest ... this one made my heart melt, my eyes water, my throat dry as pure honesty does.  it describes one of my children so beautifully and made me understand him more than any other words, feelings, or advice has.  these words changed our relationship because as soon as i gave him the pillow he knew i understood him ... him and the thousands of pages he reads each week

nothing came close to my number one but it definitely wasn't the only life changing moment of the year i have had.  i couldn't have done it without the support of my family, they were amazing and that's an understatement ... love you guys :)

steve's top ten

steve's top ten creations from pinterest 365

10.  lego picture frame

it involved lego, what more do i have to say :)

9.  lemon yoghurt cake

this was totally divine, definitely i good choice!

8.  reindeer bottles

i totally didn't see this choice coming, it's amazing what others see and apparently these were just too cool not to add into the top ten!

7.  honey glaze for the christmas ham

6.  black board

black board paint was a total addiction for everyone in the family ;)

5.  brownie trifle

apparently this is the quickest way to my man's heart!

4.  tipsy pots

had to bring the egg's in somewhere, but these pots are well established in the garden and are so cool!

3.  lego minifig storage

his favourite things together, good design and lego!

2.  the bored jar

steve's number two because of the amount of fun we have had watching the peeps deal with this jar!

and his number one which totally surprised me but we use daily is the i love you because frame