A homemade Christmas this year?

Of course Christmas is still months away.  But this year I'm hoping to be able to make some special gifts for the girls, rather than just buying stuff.  I'm not quite sure what I'll try and make.  Yesterday when we went to the library to get Bianca some new books to read, I went through the craft section looking for ideas and inspiration.  Maybe I'll make them each their own scrapbook album with some special photos.  Or maybe I'll try and knit them some fun toys.  Or maybe I'll try and crochet them each a colourful blanket - hmmm, lots of ideas out there.

And as I was browsing I noticed some calligraphy books.  Years ago I did calligraphy - just a basic class which I really enjoyed.  I remember it was held in this really cool paper shop.  Le Papier du Nord or something like that.  And it was the kind of shop where you look around thinking "If I won the lotto today...".  And so I find myself thinking it might be cool to try my hand at calligraphy again.  Now if only I can find where I left my spare time...

Holidays, netball, reading...

At the moment Bianca is on school holiday.  It is hard to believe that term 1 is finished and that we are going into term 2 very soon.  Somehow this year feels like it is moving way too fast.  Of course Bianca will say that it is not moving quite fast enough and if she had her way, her birthday in June would be tomorrow :-).  Some days it is just Bianca and I as Caitlyn goes to daycare a few days a week.  Bianca chose to watch Harry Potter 1 yesterday and today (which is good because it will help with our birthday preparation) and in between Bianca is motoring through a bunch of fairy chapter books and is on her 3rd one in 2 days.  I expect we'll have to visit the library really soon again...

Bianca will be playing netball now in term 2 and we have been going to school every day to practice shooting goals.  It seems a lifetime ago since I played netball at school, but I used to enjoy it a lot and it seems Bianca will too.  They were not sure if they would have enough kids for a team, but Bianca was one of the kids putting up her hand and so they managed to put together a team.  I'm pleased because she first played some netball when she was in year 2 in Auckland and then unfortunately missed out on the end of the season when we moved here.  Typically they only seem to start from Year 4 here in Wellington, so it is good that they have managed to put together a team now in Year 3. 

So I think this coming term will be busy.  That means on Mondays she has gymnastics, Tuesdays during lunchtime at school she has her guitar lesson, Fridays during lunchtime she has her netball practice, Saturday mornings will be netball matches and Saturday afternoons cheerleading.  It feels as if Bianca has really discovered the activities she would like to focus on and I would imagine wanting to continue with.  Caitlyn doesn't seem keen to do ballet again next term, but I'm thinking of maybe letting her try out junior jiggles which is sort of a jazz kind of dancing for little kids.  She does like dancing at home and would often jump up if music starts playing and she seems to have her own way of dancing.  Actually not too bad. And then on Thursdays Caitlyn's daycare class goes to gymnastics so Caitlyn will continue with that.   

Somewhere in between we will have to try and fit in swimming because neither of my kids can swim.  When Bianca was diagnosed with cancer we had to stop her swimming lessons because of the health risk associated with heated indoor swimming pools and so it has been a really long time since she had swimming lessons and of course we didn't take Caitlyn because it didn't feel fair that one could and the other couldn't.  But it's time.  If only just to learn the basics to be able to help themselves if they should fall into the water.  Living in New Zealand you are surrounded by water and you are never more than 1.5 hours away from the nearest beach.  In fact we have a beach 5 minutes' drive away and several more a bit further.

So busy times it seems.  But manageable - even if it sounds really busy. 

A call out of the blue and feeling like an idiot

I got a phone call today.  Phone rings, I answer "Hello, this is Lea" and the person on the other side says: "hello, I'm so and so from this company and you applied for a job with us".  I thought for a moment and couldn't for the life of me think about any positions I recently applied for, so I said "Uhm, when did I apply for it?" and she says "about 2 or 3 weeks ago".  So by now I feel stumped and quite confused, trying to figure out how to get more information without sounding like a complete idiot because for the life of me I just could not remember.  "I might be interested, depending on the hours and so on".  "Well it's flexible, Monday to Friday, 20 hours".  "Okay, where is the position located?" "In the city".  "Ahhh, I'm sorry, but it won't be possible for me to consider this position..."

So then as she mentioned where they were located I suddenly remembered that I actually did apply for the position, but it felt longer than 2 or 3 weeks ago.  When the call ended I went to my job search folder on my laptop and... I applied for the position on the 19th of January - so not 2 or 3 weeks ago, more like almost 3 MONTHS ago.  Hmmm, somehow I wonder if it is a case of they hired somebody, the person started, hated it and left and they are now going through everybody else who applied...

This is on my mind...

I lost complete track of this fun challenge from Rhonda from Down to Earth.  And each time I finally realise the challenge is happening, the weekend is halfway over.  But not today... Today I have an entry :-)

This is vetkoek.  It is very much traditional South African.  We used to have this a lot when we still lived in South Africa.  It is yummy with mince or cheese or even sweet fillings.  I even once had one with caramel and banana and really really liked that :-).  We haven't made this in a very very long time.  I actually stopped cooking with oil a long time ago, but this past week I thought it would be nice to make this again.  Now I'm not very good at making my own bread dough, so I went to the local New World to ask if they wouldn't mind preparing some for me that I could then buy and so I ordered 2kg of fresh bread dough.  Of course I got some funny looks from the staff at the checkout - not quite sure what I was going to do with it.  And last night we made this.  It was very yummy indeed :-)

Basically you take the dough, roll balls, flatten them and put them into the oil.It should be deep enough to let your dough float to the top, it should be hot, but should not be so hot that it turns brown too quickly. It has to cook nice and slow so the insides can be well cooked.

Trial Cake

On Monday I wrote about starting some of the prep work for Bianca's birthday party.  I know it is still a little while, but from experience I've learned that if I leave things till the last minute, they have a habit of going all wrong.  And in fact I was reminded of this when I was doing Caitlyn's birthday cake in February.  Not a good feeling when you suddenly realise at 11pm the night before the party that things are not going as you hoped. 

Bianca is hoping to have a Harry Potter birthday party and we saw this really cool cake.  A big book with a wizard's hat on top and so I just knew I was going to have to make a trial cake.

Here it is:

The book isn't too bad.  Although I forgot to cut the bottom one completely flat so it doesn't sit as nice as a book could.  And I think the book cover really needs to be thicker.  The hat is supposed to be black, but I ran out of black colouring so this one is this dark grey colour.  And the actual one won't have stars but because of the dark grey, I painted this on just to make it look a bit nicer.  I will also have to remember to shape it a bit better to better represent a wizard hat and unfortunately I ran out of icing, but the rim definitely needs to be wider.  But for a first attempt I think it is good.  And as long as it tastes good then that's all that matters.

So there it is, my first attempt at Bianca's cake.