Man, it’s been a real Susie-Homemaker weekend! Today after going into the office all morning I spent the afternoon baking and ‘gardening’!

Made the first batch of Christmas mince pies for this year. I didn’t make fruit mince earlier in October as I have 2 jars left from last year – I got Mother to sniff it when they were here in October to make sure it was still OK and her verdict was good … mind you the amount of brandy I ‘whoops’ when measuring (Christmas baking or tiramisu!) is probably enough to ferment anything!

Then out into the increasing wind on the balcony to plant this year’s basil. Good stiff breeze to blow away any nasties in the potting mix though.

However since planting it about 3 hours ago I’ve watched out the window in horror as Wellington delivered stronger and stronger wind (gusting up to 74km/hr according to wunderground.com) battering around the poor tiny plants! Oh well, they’ve got to get used to it!!

So while I was busy sewing yesterday the Mister took care of Saturday night’s Orange Kitchen experiment. His first almost all by himself pie (I rolled and fitted the pastry). Kumara (sweet potato (kind of) for my American readers) pie with a delicious onion, garlic and currant base.

It’s an adaption of the Pumpkin & Kumara pie in November’s Cuisine magazine (2 kinds of kumara instead of pumpkin and pinenuts instead of walnuts).

Yep – the tall building research in Wellington continues even at the weekend – yesterday it was the Plimmer Towers. Although we’ve had the contract through for our 29th floor apartment in New York so it’s a bit late to back out now!

I didn’t think I’d be able to get into Plimmer Towers and certainly not at the weekend – however the glass doors opened when I approached them so there was no stopping me. The Mister followed with trepidation muttering that he’d never been in there before and how would we know where to go?  I just hissed that we should act as though we knew what we were doing for the benefit of the security cameras so I followed the sound of the ‘ding’ the lift made when the person who we’d tail-gated into the building called it and (thankfully the doors closed on her before we got there) punched the call button. Lift arrived, got in, noted the number of floors, got out and left the building as swiftly as we’d come.

31 floors.

This has got to be a classic New Zealand shot – Christmas trees leaning up out the front of the petrol station. It’s truly Christmas time. These in Miramar yesterday.

What a big Saturday! We knew it would be and planned for it to be. It was our Christmas shopping day – chilled the champagne for wrapping later, wrote out the list in order of where in town we had to go and set off early. I also had a very lofty goal of making shorty PJ’s as requested by my niece for Christmas. Hmm, all that in one day? And me sew a whole outfit, not just shorten some jeans or run up a pair of PJ pants for myself? We’ll see.

It was pretty cool walking down Cuba Street – loads of people out and about and enjoying coffee in the sun.

List ticked off, home to make the PJ’s. I’d cut out the material on Friday night after work – thankful for yoga at this point – I could be Gollum!

The Mister was a bit snap-happy with the camera – I don’t think he could quite believe that I could sew what I’d shown him in the picture, so I’m posting the whole afternoon/evening’s-worth of photos I’m afraid!

Ironing the teeny tiny fiddly neck hem.

Sewing like I drive apparently – heavy on the pedal! What!?

Time for the champagne and present-wrapping tradition with a Christmas movie (’Home Alone’ if you must know Jif!), except I hand-gathered the ruffles while The Mister wrapped.

And at the end of the night we were both completely amazed that after all these years, I can still sew, that I’d done it all in a day and they looked really great! God I hope she likes them. And that they fit!!