Music Tuesday - New Radicals - You Get What You Give

Awesome song. Love the tune. Very summery and uplifting.

Go away wind!!

It has gotten very windy today.
We have a busy month coming up with the Hyundai Tour Longboard competition coming to the Port Waikato 2nd and 3rd March. It is the final event of the tour and has been held in Port Waikato for the last few years. ALWAYS a good weekend ending with a fantastic party with an awesome band. Looking forward to this years. So we are fully booked in the cabins and units, just tent sites left for that weekend.

source

Then some group bookings after that scattered over the month, busy, busy busy.
And in between all that is Robs 50th.

Managed to squeeze in making some homemade tomato sauce today. YUMMO! Easy peasy to make too.

(I only had 2.5 kilos of tomatoes so I halved this recipe)
Bright Red Tomato Sauce
5 kilos tomatoes
1.3 kg brown sugar
6 tbsp salt
3 tsp ground allspice
300ml vinegar

Wash and cut up tomatoes. Put all ingredients in a pot and boil for approx 3 hours. Stir frequently. When cooked put through colander in small amounts, rubbing through till you only have the skins left. Pour into bottles that have been washed and heated. Enjoy!

Music Tuesday - Summer Breeze - Seals & Croft

Couldn't find a decent live version, this'll do though, such a beautiful song.

Homemade Bean Salad

Bean Salad
1 tin of 4 Bean Mix (rinse)
Big handful of fresh Beans
1 Green Capsicum
Lots of fresh parsley, herbs e.g. coriander

Toss with French dressing. This time I used a new one I found at the supermarket - Eta Caramelised Onion Dressing, it was so yum!!

Preserving and sayings

"I'm much too young to be this old"
I heard Steve Tyler say this on American Idol a couple of weeks ago and it was so perfect. That is exactly how I feel sometimes. He is so funny. Love watching him on American Idol.

What beautiful weather we have been having. Summer is really here. I've been harvesting beetroot, beans and pears; and been given lots of peaches. So I've bottled beetroot and pears so far. Next are the peaches, this afternoon hopefully. YUM!! And Bean Salad for dinner.

Instax Love

Trouble is it only takes 10 photos at a time and you forget and are having so much fun snapping away and next minute the film runs out. They are a great fun camera though, just don't hold the photo in the sun to develop ok, der. And change the setting from inside to outside. Just a couple of obvious things I learnt the hard way.

New table & chairs & wedding anniversary

It is our wedding anniversary today. We are heading to the city again tonight and off to a show called 'The Motor camp' at the Maidment Theatre. Should be hilarious. Looking forward to it.

A while ago I saw my dream table and chairs in a shop called Early Settler. Well finally I got my dream table and chairs. Isn't it lovely. The table is recycled elm and the chairs are burnt oak.

I am going to make one of these for the centre.

Source: ishandchi.blogspot.com via Lianne on Pinterest

Happy Valentines Day

Music Tuesday - Billy Don't Be A Hero - Paper Lace

<3

Autumn Escape

Starting to get excited for Autumn Escape. I am helping Nic and Lucy again, so will be loads of fun as always. Counting down to April 13th.
Teachers and crew from last year

Just found this site with cool ideas using Faber Castell products, there's a good art journaling section. I really want some of the Gelatos.

A couple of photos I took of Sunset Beach last week on our day off. So beautiful. Had the loveliest swim and lay in the sun. Mmmmm love it. Water was gorgeous, love when it's flat and I can just float around in the water and no one was around. Nice!!

New art supplies

I forgot yesterdays post. I have been so tired with work being busy. Anyway, I was going to post about my latest art supply purchases.
While doing Christi Tomlinsons She Art Workshop I learnt more about different art mediums to use in your art journals and on canvases.
I've been collecting the Neocolor II Water soluble pastels, the Faber Castell Pitt Pens and the Bombay India inks. This time I thought I would buy the stamp carving set to have a try and a dip pen. FUN!! Can't wait to dip that pen in those lovely inks and write something. Haha! What, I don't know, as I do have trouble with knowing what to write, but maybe this will inspire me.

More Art Journal play

It's funny; when I scrapbook I never do double pages but somehow I just always end up doing a double page in my art journal. Weird!

Music Tuesday - Ironic - Alanis Morissette

Yep, love it.

Another Yummy Salad

Brown Rice and Chickpea Salad

2 cups brown rice cooked
2 cans chickpeas drained and rinsed
2 carrots grated
2 courgettes grated
2 tomatoes diced
1 red onion diced
1/2 cup parsley chopped

Dressing
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli flakes or powder
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar

Mix dressing ingredients together. Combine salad ingredients. Add dressing to salad and gently combine.

YUM!!

Emma's 20

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl. 20 today. WOW.

Bracelet tutorial

Here are some bracelets I made a couple of weeks ago using this tutorial here. The Beaded Wrap Bracelet. Though I did tweek it a bit to make it easier after the first one.

1929 Ford

We had a visitor to the Holiday Park last weekend in this 1929 Ford. His name was Bruce Miles. He has travelled up from Christchurch in this car. What an awesome guy. He took people for rides all around Port Waikato and stopped and chatted to anyone who wanted to stop and chat. So friendly and interesting. And it was so comfortable to ride in. I was amazed at how well it still goes. Perfectly well in fact. What a great way to meet people.

Thats me, a bit windblown.

Emma

Bruce, James, Rob and James' friend Anaru.

Work, work, work

Work today. Preparing for another busy weekend in Campland being Waitangi Weekend. Last weekend (Auckland Anniversary Weekend) was the busiest since we've been managing the Park at the beginning of September. We were chocca full. Was great but busy. Managed to get to the beach for a couple of hours yesterday on our day off, got a little sunburnt which is unusual for me at this time of year, that usually happens at the start of summer, but hey we haven't really had a summer.
Made this yummy salad the other day. Thought it was worth sharing.

The Best Lentil Salad, Ever

Here is the recipe I found on Pinterest
It is really good. I think the dressing makes it. Has a middle eastern taste. Yum. This is how mine turned out. My ingredients other than the dressing were:
Black Lentils (from Moshims)
Red onion
Dried Cranberries
Capers
Pinenuts
Feta Cheese
Parsley and other fresh herbs from my garden

I think that was it but you can add what you like.

Online Journal

So its the 1st of Feb already. I think summer may finally be here. Who knows. All I know is its the worst I can remember.
I am really gutted I don't get to post much on my blog. Every day I think of something to put on here but just never find the time. It can be done though, because I did it for my birthday month.
So lets try another month. This month. A daily post. And if I can do it I will continue to TRY and do it. I want to use it as an online journal, which is the whole idea anyway isn't it. Most days I take photos so there should always be a photo or 2 to post and I am playing around with arty stuff too most days so shouldn't be too hard to find something to post. Its just the loading and resizing of the photos that takes time.
So todays post.
I love that Rob, James and Emma all went out for a surf together this day. Felt so good to see them participating in such a cool thing as a family. LOVED it!! I sat on the beach and watched. Surf wasn't great that day but just a bit of fun and getting into the water.