Heart Felt

Bye Bye Blackbird

This morning we woke to find a dead Blackbird on our path.  Charlie took the opportunity to inspect it's beak, claws and feathers closely.  I took the opportunity to introduce him to the concept of death - sounds a bit grim, but we follow the seasons and nature so closely it only seemed right to give him a lesson in life cycles.

   

We talked about how the bird was 'dead' and it wasn't going to wake up.  I then asked him if we should bury the bird in the garden.  He thought that was a good idea and off he went and came back with his spade. Charlie dug the hole, Charlie picked up the bird, Charlie put a little flower in the hole, Charlie put the dirt over the bird and patted it down.

   

While he was digging he disturbed some worms and I explained how the worms would eat up the bird and make good soil to help our vegetables grow big and strong.

Charlie told Ian what he had done and Ian asked him if the bird was going to wake up and Charlie said "no because it's dead".

I'm not sure how much of this concept Charlie has understood, but I feel it was a good introduction to the subject and a memory we can bring up later on when the topic arises again.

To lighten up the subject we went for a 'spring hunt'.  Hunting for early signs of spring peeping it's head up from the cold damp ground.  We found some early bulbs in flower and remnants of autumn and had fun foraging in the bushes for Mother Natures little treasures.  It was a good day. xx

  

Thrift finds for June

It's been a very busy week in the Heart Felt household - so excuse the rushed and sometimes bad photography, but here are some of my best thrift finds for the month of June.

Vintage fabric - enough to make a summer skirt once baby boy has arrived.

 

Adorable hand made wooden squirrel book ends.

 

 

Hand made and hand painted wooden stacking acrobat men

I don't come across aprons often - but I was lucky to find these ones. 

 

 

Out of need I have been hunting down kitchen ware, I found two enamel mixing bowls, small green enamel pot, wooden spoons, preserving jars, wire racks, dishes, plates, sieves - the lot!

 

Decorative side plates.

 

Crown Lynn dish with a fern pattern - LOVE!

 

Little glasses with a lovely ivy pattern.

Two sweet little glass etched dishes - I love the one that looks like lace.

 

Happy thrifting! xx

Heart Felt baby @ 21 weeks

Heart Felt baby @ 21 weeks, originally uploaded by Heart felt.

We are half way there already! Everything is well and normal and he jumps around like a little rabbit. Charlie is excited to have a 'boy man' like him. As for me, I'm savoring every moment. xx

Jam making

With our bounty of Kiwi Fruit we picked over the weekend, many people suggested making jam out of the excess.  To tell the truth I have never attempted to made jam.  Mum use to make jam, pickles, chutneys and preserve fruit.  I have lovely memories of fruit bubbling away on the stove top, jars in the oven - cupboards packed with all her preserved produce.  Ian's mother makes jam regularly and often we go home with a lovely jar of rich red raspberry jam or golden preserved peaches.

Thinking back, Mum use to keep us out of the kitchen when she was preserving or jam making because she thought it was too dangerous to have children around with hot jars and scolding pans of sugary fruit.  Maybe this is why I have never made it myself - until today of course.

I use the jam recipe found in the "Edmonds Cookery Book".

1 kg kiwifruit, peeled and chopped                                          1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup water                                                                        3 cups of sugar

Put kiwifruit, water and orange juice into a preserving pan.  Boil until fruit is soft and pulpy.  Add sugar. Stir until dissolved.  Boil briskly for 30 minutes or until setting point is reached.  Pour into sterilized jars.

Makes about 3 x 250 ml jars.

My critics (Charlie and Sadie are both jam connoisseurs) will give it the taste test at breakfast time with their morning toast.

Using the very same kitchen scales Mum use to use.

I got to wear my 'new' thrifted apron - just covering the baby bump! (21 weeks)

The final result - a bit darker than I expected - hope I didn't burn the sugar!

Making some handmade labels - one jar will be going to Grandma and another to Glen and Maureen who gave us the Kiwis.  I still have a basket full of fruit, so if all goes well I will be making some more. xx

Winter fruit picking

I just love the seasons, especially the seasonal fruit and vegetables.  At the moment we are enjoying Kiwi Fruit from a friends garden and sweet juicy Mandarins from Grandma's garden.

The Kiwi Fruit is not a usual fruit you see growing in someones backyard, they are more prolific up north where they are grown on farms.  This is a very old vine, so the fruit are slightly smaller and much hairier than the commercially grown ones found in the stores.  Sadie adores them and she didn't need much encouragement to help in the gathering.

She helped our friend Glen carry the baskets and buckets back to the house.

The little pixie hat Sadie is wearing today is made from a recycled pure wool jumper.  I found this tutorial and it really only takes 10 minutes or so to put it together.  I bought the jumper from a thrift store and I will get two hats out of one $4 jumper.  I have added my own touch with the felt heart and vintage buttons on the side.  With the next one I think I will try an alternative option for the neck ties - these were too chunky for under Sadie's neck.

Later on Charlie and I went to Grandma's to swap some Kiwi Fruit for some Mandarins.  Grandma's Mandarin tree grows down the back of her garden near a stream.  It is laden with fruit this year to Charlie's delight!

I was a a bit camera happy today - so there are a lot more photographs on my Flickr. xx

Facing my Sewing Fears

I'm not a procrastinator, I just have so many things I want to do and not enough time.  Last year I started out learning to sew using a machine.   I made this, and this, this and this.  But I haven't had my sewing machine out for months now.  The longer I was leaving it the more nervous I was becoming. I was scared that I had forgotten the little knowledge I had gained.  Thrifted fabric was beginning to pile up, waiting for me to turn it into something.

Last week I picked up this divine piece of fabric from the thrift shop, it's just a small piece - enough to make Sadie a dress.  It was enough to motivate me to get the machine out and face my fear.

      

To warm myself up I decided to make some pants with some plain fabric that was given to me.  I used this tutorial for a pair of "10-minute trousers".  Pleasantly surprised how well and easy they were to put together it motivated me to cut into a piece of one of my thrifted fabrics.

My next sewing project was inspired from one of our favorite dress tops made by Anknel & Burblets. It's a simple but effective design using elastic and a cute beaded drawstring around the neck.

  

Now I was on a roll and felt brave enough to cut into my favorite thrifted fabric using the same design again.

 

One pair of pants, two dress tops for an afternoons work and seven months of being fearful of my sewing machine - I'm happy and hopefully over my fear. xx

Sunday Painting

Painting on a wet day can be a lot of fun.  Here are some Heart Felt tips for a fun painting session with your kids.

1.Limit the colors to two + a white.  That way they can learn how various colors when mixed create a new one and you don't get a horrible brown/black mess.  Here we used blue and red - which also made a nice purple.  Using a white will lighten the tone up.

2.  Stretched canvas are really quite cheap and accessible now, so why not let your kids have a go painting on one.  Once dry you can introduce a new combination of colors and make it a work in progress.

3.  Offer a variety of tools - paint brushes, rollers, cut off tubes, straws, fingers etc..

4.  Of course a washable paint is advisable - and have a bath ready for a quick clean up.  Use old shirts or aprons to cover their clothes.  I find a plastic sheet is better than pieces of newspapers to protect the floor.

5.  It is messy, but a lot of fun - so join in too, kids artistic side can be flamed when they see their parents joining in. 

For more photographs check my Flickr. xx

Close up

It's been quite a week here in the Heart Felt household.  Thankfully we can take it down a gear this weekend, reflect and regroup.  My goal this weekend is to get close up to some nature. xx

 

 

O.E. 2002

O.E. stands for "overseas experience", something most young Kiwis aspire to do sometime in their lives.  In June 2002, Ian and I did exactly that.  We put our lives on hold in New Zealand and traveled to the United Kingdom on a six month adventure.  Ian was between jobs, my boss agreed to give me leave without pay and we were recently engaged.  It was an exciting time in our lives and recently I have been reliving the experience through my travel journal.

I thought for prosperity I would share my journal as a blog.  I will be adding entries gradually over the next six months.  You can link to my travel blog www.heartfeltnz@blogspot.com or just click on the link on the left of this blog.  

At the time I didn't have a good camera, so many of the photographs will be from other sources and any sentences in square brackets [like this] will be sentences I have added to make my journal more sensible to my readers.  Hope you will take the time and visit now and then over the next few months.

xx

My boys

Daddy and Charlie, originally uploaded by Heart felt.

I found this photograph which I hadn't downloaded off my camera. It was taken back in April. It captures such a tender moment between Ian and Charlie. I wonder what Charlie was saying to Ian?

My boys. xx