Don't you hate it when....

... your very most favorite needle starts to get so bent from use that you have to toss it out?
Does anyone else use their needles until they look like this? (or is it just me?)

Oh well, all in the pursuit of happiness! lol

Carole x

Merry Christmas everyone!

The pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) New Zealand's official Christmas tree

Merry Christmas to my lovely friends and visitors! Although it's not actually Christmas day here in New Zealand, it's the day after, abut in many places around the world it is Christmas! I hope your day is as lovely and relaxing as mine.

Neve and Nana

We had a lovely day celebrated with family, extended family, great food and our six month old grandchild. We consider we are truly spoilt. Yesterday was 29 degrees Celsius with a high humidity factor thrown in caused by the remnants of the cyclone which damaged Samoa and Fiji. I was thankful that we had cold meats and cold salads, followed by cold desserts, and a lovely slushy punch!

Neve and Grandad

 Now that Christmas is over, we are off on a house hunting expedition! Yes, the fabulous news is, that we sold our property! It was on the market for one whole week, it sold almost too quickly, I wasn't quite adjusted to the idea of moving yet.

So we will be moving in February, but as yet we can't find anywhere to buy that we like. I think we've been spoilt in that department too. We've searched all over the North Island and perhaps we have way too many boxes that need ticking? The search continues - I'll keep you posted!

I am going to miss my strawberry garden

With the holiday season here, please don't take risks if you're driving on the road, and I hope you get to enjoy time with your family and friends.

Thank you so much for all your comments and emails over the last year, I love hearing from you, you give me encouragement and motivation in my creative journey.

See you back here soon!

Carole x

Moving on...

We have decided to sell our lovely lifestyle property and move. Although we haven't decided where to as yet. Hopefully we'll be able to find somewhere with a paddock for my little twins but I'm going to miss my daffodils!
However, as you'd expect there's been a little madness -especially when the agent rings and says she would like to bring a client through the house! Eeeek! Just look at the state of my kitchen!

Of course I was right in the middle of making lemon honey and apricot jam, I'd made a beef and vege pie and a lemon meringue pie for pudding and I hadn't done the dishes!
I'm going to have to lift my game! lol

Carole x

Al fresco in the vegetable garden

Lettuce, peas and radish are ready right now in my vege garden. 

 And it's time to start picking strawberries again!

With a little help from a friend :)

Thanks Wednesday!
Do you have a helper in the garden?

Carole x

Anyone?

Carole x

nesting problems solved

Oh oh, problems in the hen house!
I've run out of bedding for the nest boxes. The lady who owns them, (I'm baby-sitting) says they don't like straw, she had the nest boxes filled with wood shavings!

They are very fussy hens, I've grown loads of silverbeet in my vege garden especially for Dianna Ross and The Supremes to eat, but oh no, they don't like silverbeet. I hunted through the strawberry patch and removed all the fat juicy snails for them to eat, not on your nelly!!

So I decided that I'd scrunch up some newspaper and put that in their nest boxes and see what happened. They were very curious at first, but they slowly got used to it. But then I found an old birds nest and I put that in too.

Wouldn't you know it! They love it!

Now I've just to find 3 more birds nests!

Have a great week,
Carole

thought you might like an update

Here she is! Five months old, sitting on her mum's knee. Is she cute or what?!

Carole

Two bloggers meet

Last Monday I took a day off work and caught the train to Wellington. The reason being was that my friend Doreen, (from Australia) was arriving in town. You may know Doreen from her blog. She and her husband were on the cruise liner Sea Princess which was in port for one day.

We had Wellington to ourselves 2 days before the world premiere of The Hobbit and the City was buzzing with Hobbit fever.

Poor Doreen, we walked all round Wellington, visiting Minerva and bead shops and craft stores. And then we visited the Hobbit Artisan Market where we enjoyed a lovely raspberry gelato!

It was a fun day and I don't think I've talked so much! It also felt like I was meeting an old friend, and not someone I've never met before.
She'll be home again soon, so pop over and visit, she'll probably have some photos to post too!

Thanks for a lovely day Doreen!

Back soon,
Carole

disestablishment and doilies

Recently our unit at work was told it would be disestablished. Don't you just love that word?

Although I won't lose my job, our unit will be split up and our GM will become redundant. There are some pretty upset people in our team right now. Some of the guys in my unit decided we should go out to the local riffle range and shoot some rounds.

I've never fired a gun before, thought I might have to check this out.

I had a few emails asking about my skirt I embellished recently. It seems a few of you want to see it.
Well as it happens I was wearing it on the afternoon that we went to the shooting range.

I thought the contrast between feminine and masculine was interesting. I bet I was the first person to wear doilies to a shooting range!
I loved shooting the pistol, but after a few shots my arms got tired and the gun became rather heavy to hold steady. My very favorite was the 12 guage shotgun!

Wow!
This outing was an excellent way to work off some stress, I definitely recommend it!

Back soon,
Carole