birds at the bach

Fantail



Eastern Rosella

We spent a very relaxing long Queens birthday weekend at our bach. There are always plenty of birds around. Our usual hungry visitors are the gulls, sparrows and mynahs. For the first time we had a fantail flitting about nearby looking for insects with a very cheerful chirrup and in the pine trees on our fence line a very brightly coloured eastern rosella. Most amazing of all was a native hawk soaring high in the sky above the bach.

mothers day

What comes from the heart, goes to the heart!

nood

 Nood (New Objects Of Desire) in Sylvia Park is my new favourite place to shop for the quirky and the interesting. They have a great range of retro inspired furniture and homewares. They're also having a massive sale at the moment. The wall clock was $10 (it was the last one) - I bought it for my sewing room. As for the robot, I bought that at a previous sale and it lives on my dresser. I've been a bit slow posting a photo. It's a wind up walking robot that clunks along and even has sparks in it's chest. Very cool!

new arrivals...

In mid March I ordered my Betty dress pattern and Simplicity 1801 from overseas pattern supplier. After a long wait, the patterns arrived in this mornings mail. It will probably be a week or two before I can get to sewing up the dresses. The change of season has brought coughs and colds to our household. I was the first to get sick and now Miss 5 has been off school for a couple of days with a runny nose and cough. Usually the rest of the family get sick soon after.



Also in this mornings post were 4 "Good" magazines that I had bought on Trademe for $6. I'm saving these for reading at the bach when we next go down. In the meantime, I'll be busy combatting our family coughs and colds! Keep warm and cosy dear readers...

seagulls

as we were heading home after grocery shopping, I caught a glimpse of a huge number of seagulls perched on a nearby factory roof. So I pulled over quickly, climbed up on a concrete stand and took these photos. There must have been at least 150 gulls. Many of them were on the roof with at least 20 seagulls wheeling and whirling in the sky. It was an amazing sight!

ps: click on the photos if you want to see the seagulls better.

easter

hope you all have a safe and happy Easter!

swans

in the days before Valentines, my true love gave to me... 300 swans. 

Yes you read it right, 300 swans from a collection where the owner had passed on 4 years ago and her husband was sadly moving into a retirement home and couldn't take them with him. So dear hubby bought the entire collection as a Valentines/Wedding Anniversary gift. As we unwrapped the swans, I thought of the the regal beauty of the swan and the dedication and passion of the collector. I'm sure she'll be glad to know that her collection has found a loving home. 

christmas

take care and happy holidays to you all!

retro kiwi bach

the traditional kiwi bach is a wonderful thing to behold. It's very existence is precious to so many New Zealanders who look forward to escaping the rat race and being able to relax during the holidays with family. Time & structured daily routines have no place. Mismatching seems to be the orders of the day with a hodge podge of architecture, furniture, crockery and bed linen that evokes a deliberate anti style feeling. Sadly, although the well worn family baches still exist, they are gradually being removed and replaced by holiday homes that boast style and comfort just like home. Recognising the importance of the iconic kiwi bach, the local regional council have taken steps to preserve some baches for the enjoyment of all. The Graham bach based at the Scandrett Bay Regional Park is one of them. Step inside and the retro decor has you immediately transported back to the 70s. A very groovy way to get into a holidaying frame of mind.

ornaments on the way

inspired by a vintage community cookbook, I made these retro styled mini aprons for my kiwi ornament swap. They were a lot of fun to make!

catching up

this week I celebrated a birthday, my true love gardenias are starting to flower in abundance, struggled with a awful head cold, starting work on the bach and

finished my kiwi ornament swap items. Here's a hint for those who can't wait (although I've refined the finished product since the one pictured was made). All my ornaments were made from 100% recycled & repurposed materials. I'll be posting my ornaments on Monday and then sharing photos of what I made on Wednesday next week.  

building 101

this is the type of house that we're wanting to build in Samoa. It's styled along the lines of the traditional Kiwi bach. It would be constructed as much as possible from demolition and salvaged materials which would be shipped from New Zealand. I'm a beginner when it comes to the construction and building of houses. So I ask a lot of questions. In some ways the process is a lot like the construction of a garment. Only on a much bigger scale. All interesting stuff!

more roses

this morning I took the time to smell the roses as well as photograph them. This year we hired a rose specialist to prune and tend to our garden roses. They were a little neglected and in need of TLC. We've stuck to the schedule of feeding etc and now they're looking spectacular!

divine dresses

I've just discovered Eley Kishimoto dresses (featured in NZ Herald Viva 10/11/2010). They're stocked here in New Zealand at the Children of Vision boutique in Karangahape Road, Auckland. I love the idea of dresses in bold prints and this London based label is well known for it's lavish use of pattern and colour. My favourite is this geometric chevron print dress (pictured) in a bold red and white silk with black yoke and sleeves. A very bold contrast statement indeed! At $665, this dress is set to challenge my dress allowance so I'm going to have to consider making an inspired version of my own. The best thing about this style dress is that it still looks good with a cardi when it gets cooler and can be worn as a tunic too.

christmas shoe boxes

this is our 3rd year of putting together christmas shoe boxes for  Operation Christmas Child. This year, I wasn't nearly as organised as usual, so there was a lot of last minute shopping for bits and pieces to fill the boxes.

Each shoe box is filled with: something to love, something for school, something to wear, something for play, something for personal hygiene, something special. 

bespectacled

sometimes it's easy to put things off until it's a necessity to get to them. Today was the day! an optometrist visit for a long overdue eye check as well as sorting out some new specs. My favourite ones in the photo above, were getting very loose and kept sliding down to perch on the end of my nose, giving me a quirky 'peering over the glasses' granny/librarian look.

I opted to visit Specsavers (their celebrity spokesperson is Gok Wan) and paid $10 for the eye exam. The tests were thorough and efficient and I'm happy to report that my prescription actually needs to be weaker than what it was previously, yippee! no wonder my eyes kept feeling strained and tired.

then it was on to the awfully hard job of choosing new frames. Despite the sales assistant's best efforts to channel some fashionista vibes (pink? orange? green? gold? stripes??), I resisted hard and chose a pair of black specs (similar to my old specs) and a pair of tortoiseshell specs again, in a similar shape. See, I'm keeping my wardrobe in mind. Anyway it'll be 2 weeks before they get here, can't wait! 

the bach

we've booked a Martins Bay bach for a week long stay next month. It's been a hectic and busy winter for our family so it will be nice to get away. No tv and very limited mobile phone reception - just perfect for a bit of rest and relaxation.

Dear hubby expects to get some reading and creative writing done while our children are planning to spend a lot of time at the beach. In case you're wondering, yes I am planning to take the sewing machine on holiday with me too... can't wait!

weight loss and sewing

no pics today. I've been steadily losing weight for the last almost 8 weeks. I've said goodbye to 10kgs (about 22 lbs.) The result has been a fitting challenge/nightmare as far as my sewing is concerned. Remember my first jacket in the mini wardrobe? it's now too big! the pants are baggy and loose! my satin printed top billows so much, I look like an expectant mother! (not quite the look I want to have.)

It looks like I'll be busy adjusting my clothes to fit as well as sewing some new clothes as quickly as I can. Yippee!!!!

right shade of brown

success at last! I've found a pair of shoes to wear with my new wardrobe pieces, in the right shade of brown. And for only $25 too. I didn't realise until I started looking for new shoes, how many shades of brown there are!

chocolate astrakan jacket

joining my wardrobe coat family is this lovely vintage chocolate brown astrakan jacket. The colour fits in with my new wardrobe too. It probably won't get an outing now as the netball season has ended for the year and spring is almost here. So for now, it'll have to hang in the wardrobe, looking desperately unhappy until next winter.