pallet wood art

aahh, the joy of having a pile of pallets to use on ... well ... anything!

we are totally getting into pallet wood creations in this neck of the woods.  steve and i have been thinking up all sorts of ideas and projects to make with this collection of pallets we were given by some awesome friends ... part of the deal with getting these pallets was returning some of them in the form of cape cod chairs, we will get to that i promise sue!

so many friends and family wanting steve to get busy and make some more ... hint, hint honey!

but for today we are into making some art for ben's bedroom wall with the pallets.  all you need for this project are the top slats of the pallet.  so your first job is to take them off as carefully as you can with a crowbar or similar.

next you need a thin piece of mdf the size of the artwork you are making.  this acts as the base of the project and will be what the pallet slats are glued to.  find a place to work and have your mdf laying flat then start laying the slats in rows along the mdf, making sure to fill the entire board with pallet wood.  for interest make sure you have the pallet wood at all sorts of lengths so the joins aren't symmetrical.

these stencils we made ourselves by choosing a font, printing them out on card and then using a craft knife to cut the letters out, leaving their silhouette.  we have used them heaps and they continue to do a great job.

once you have the slats where you want them go at it with some stencils and spray paint and work your magic :)  we decided to use ports around the world as ben's room has a bit of a travel thing going on and the pallet wood makes me think of big packing crates ready to ship off around the world ... remember the old tea chests, that's'a what i'm thinkin!

spraying painting over, time to tackle the overhangs with a saw and fix it down to your baseboard.

once the spray painting is complete cut any overhangs off and adhere to the mdf with liquid nails or similar.  once fixed, add some attachments to the back so you can hang your masterpiece :o)

and there it hangs ... cheap, fun pallet wood wall art :)

the edges have been sanded to add a nice finish to the piece ... best part is, ben loves it!

the best parts of pinterest 365 ...

• was the awesome t-shirts leslie from pinterest sent out to us since completing the 365 days ....  thank you so much leslie :o)

it's so nice to have handwritten mail from such a large company ;o)

• inviting blog friends to come and stay if they are visiting new zealand and then meeting them in person ;o)  hannah from young and crafty i met through her mum jenny from crafting in the country and she has been staying with us for the last week on a whirlwind holiday of new zealand. 

we had to get her making her own pizza for the pizza oven, a first for her :)

we managed to get to rotorua and see the sights but winter time isn't ideal for seeing them at their best ... the geothermal areas are still amazing though even if it pouring with rain!

we took in some of our awesome culture

we took a trip up the gondola ....

and we even made it to Hobbiton ;o) ... total highlight for me even though i don't know much about the movies!

• having the confidence to carry on and make lots of projects you never would have tried otherwise

these pallets and ...

these stencils have been made into a great project ... tutorial later this week, i promise!

we've been away ... exploring new zealand in a campervan

is there any better way to spend a winter holiday than campervaning with friends ... somewhere near ohakune

we are lucky.  but it is only we you hire a campervan and go off the main trunk lines that you realise just how lucky you are to live in this awesome country.  in fact, we had such a great time we extended our holiday by two days and carried on searching out fresh snow and incredible beaches :)  here is a quick look at some of the places we took in.

we started with the central plateau and camped by beautiful lakes ....

the peeps thought the scenery was amazing ... almost zen like ;)

spending the days exploring the geothermal areas ....

and the national parks

we then hit the snow covered volcano mt ruapehi for some serious winter fun!

pollyanna's grasp of the sledding was far better ....

than her mother ;)

it was then on to raglan where spring looked like it had arrived and we didn't want to go home so we didn't ....

instead we went up and over to the coromandel ... where it felt like summer couldn't be too far away

the views were amazing

that view above was what we had to endure during lunch ;)

cathedral cove on the coromandel peninsula

we ended the holiday at some thermal hot pools in miranda ... we still didn't want to go home ... but this time we had to :(

cheesecake, london olympics style :)

quick post with a couple of photos from our olympics activities through the first week :)  steve had to make a british cheesecake as one of his contributions to our family olympic activities.  he did a great job so i wanted to share.  inspiration for this was found on pinterest from woman and home who made a very british cheesecake in honour of the queen's jubilee.  steve did a fantastic job given it's winter here so no fresh berries around, he used frozen ones instead.  they did the trick though, maybe not as full of colour but definitely worked to make the union jack :)

the finished cheesecake, complete with hobnob biscuits from the uk :)

this was the perfect dessert to watch the new zealand black sticks with!  the live games coverage starts ~8pm at night for us, so it is making for some tired peeps but they have coped well ... maybe because of the delicious food we have been eating from our second countries!

lest we forget

... as much as we are enjoying the olympics, when you hear the news this morning with the loss of two new zealand soldiers in afghanistan it makes you realise .... just how incredibly lucky you are to be enjoying sport while others are fighting on your behalf ... 

kia kaha to those that continue and to those we have lost ... we will remember

we are ready, bring on the olympics!

this is the ever changing chalk canvas that resides in our kitchen and is always changing, i added some felt rings with bluetac to complete it  :) tutorial for chalkboard canvas here

the british dinner was made last night,

roast beef and yorkshire puddings ... very tasty!

he loved the british dinner :)

the yorkshire puddings were totally new to polly and she loved them :)

the goody bags were handed out this morning,

i had my first ever walnut whip during the opening ceremony this morning (NZT), YUM!

the flags were hung out the front of our paddocks,

lucky for me it's a breezy day, so they look totally awesome ... but interesting to see if they survive the day out in that wind though!

the decorating was completed,

the four nations that make up great britain were aptly bought to life through lego ;)

ben made sure we had many olympic sports represented by our lego family, he did a great job with them :)

and we HAD to have some new zealand support going on ... we went with some large letters so no one can mistake who our number one team is ;)

the cupcakes were made,

we made over 60, some for steve's workmates, the peeps hockey teams, and our real estate agents :)

the peeps did a fantastic job of deocrating and making the cupcakes

 the peeps got busy making their 3D london buildings to add to the décor

hard at work

one of the finished london iconic buildings, they really are worth the investment as the peeps had the best time making them

and we are finally ready for the start of the games ... 

let the competition begin :)

i have linked up to the following parties :)

olympic survival kits

we are ready to go, are you!

ok, its a day (or two) late but late is better than never ;) after blogging every day for a year, it's hard to get back into the habit after a break away from it, it kinda goes lower down the priorities list ... i'll get there though because i love sharing!

the olympic kits i have made for my family to get us involved with the games AND to make it an enjoyable learning experience for us.  i home school ... so sure, learning is important to us but even if you don't home school, getting actively involved with all life has to offer must definitely be a top priority and that's why i find any excuse, occasion, celebration to get excited about and i MAKE my family join me and i encourage you to get on board too!  you can make the celebration fit into your budget, i guarantee you will find things around the home that will work and if you have a computer and LOVE free printables as much as i do, you are home and hosed.

if you are new here (welcome) i will catch you up with the idea behind our olympics celebration, home-style.  each member of the family has been given a "second" country to support at the olympics.  i make sure for every event i chose different countries so there is always a new culture to explore.  each person gets a goodies bag full of printables, recipes, foods, flag, books, craft ideas, information, and other bits and pieces from our country (new zealand), the host country (england, we've expanded this out to include the four british countries), and their "second" country. for this summer olympics we have usa (ben), australia (pollyanna), belgium (me), and switzerland (steve).

i made these bags, the same tutorial as i used here for the halloween goody bags ... just a bigger version of it!

i went onto the book depository (they ship free worldwide, love that!) and chose an official olympics activity book for each of the peeps, plus a fiction book that takes place in their second country.

some books to keep the learning going through the whole event :)

i then spent some time on the net researching some traditional recipes for each country and the host country.  i printed them out as each person will need to make a sweet and savoury recipe from their country and the host country during the games.  i made sure all the recipes were authentic ones and also something the peeps would be able to make with only a little adult help ;)

i have provided each person with their team lists for each sport and also included the new zealand team.  if you use the team lists from wikipedia you can download them as a pdf and print four pages to one.  the wikipedia lists are fantastic and my favourites as they provide the draws and tables the peeps can use to fill in as they see the athletes competing.

i then used a whole lot of free printables to put in each goody bag, every thing from opening ceremony bingo cards, word searches and crosswords, bookmarks to personalise, olympic writing paper as the peeps will have to write something everyday about what they are witnessing, colouring pages, and some fantastic free country units from currclick.

the free printables and recipes

the next step is to make full use of the international section of your local grocers/supermarket.  before i went i googled the favourite foods for each of the countries so i would have some idea of what i was looking for.  for example, i had no idea (even though we are next door neighbours) that tim tams were an australian invention! the world is such a melting pot you will be amazed at how many things are in your local grocers that you use weekly that actually originate from somewhere very different :)  if you want some good ole' new zealand products check the lamb in the butchery dept, the kiwifruit in the produce dept (if it's zespri, it's from nz) ... you get the picture!  make it an adventure, i always learn SO MUCH putting these goody bags together for the family.

a table full of goodies from usa, australia, swiss, belgium, english, and new zealand. 

i added a couple of other bits and pieces, this time we went with real flags rather than colouring some in.   i found some truly british landmark puzzles, and a couple of other trinkets.

some more goodies

then fill the bags and you are good to go for 16 days of all out fun, culture, laughter, and crazy excitement ... jut the way every day of the olympics should be ;)

bring it on :)