Christmas part 1

It  was a lovely day in rural Orinoco, filled with the sounds of a whole lot of Ukes (the craze has spread through the whole family, even my mother-in-law has one (yellow!)), children, good food and plenty of sun.  A lovely present from the talented brother, a customised babushka doll.

joy on the face of a babe receiving his baby. ( as his mama  I love to see his nurturing looks, cuddles and snuggles- we must be doing something right!)

Reminder....Have to be in it to win it (family and friends welcome....) leave a comment (delurk) to enter giveaway. Entries close on the 3rd of january.

Giveaway

Its my birthday....

My blogs birthday that is. On the second of january. i will giveaway  a felt stitched tiki cheque book holder, needle case or glasses case and a brooch. The winner will be able to choose which of the above they would prefer, and I will make it to order! I am away over the christmas new year period, so will draw the winner on the 4th of january 2010. I will ship all over the world! So to enter, leave a comment, and an email contact!  I will figure out how to get get the computer to randomly pick a winner (it will take me that long to figure out I am sure!). Here are some examples of  my work.

buttons

Buttons, I love buttons! I am running out of stash, if anyone finds some collections anywhere I'll pay you for them!  A bracelet for a belated birthday present....


p.s with this blogs first birthday coming up on jan2, I feel a birthday giveaway coming on, more details to come...

Finally, and a great find at market!

Today we got a great heads up from my good friend Gillybean  at the local market: an estate clearance sale! I was there late (all the stall holders got in first, I heard!), but still got some great finds! Some beautiful hand embroidered linens and tablecloths and some lovely old books about baking form 50s new Zealand. I am totally into my baking at the moment after receiving this great book from Struan: Ladies a plate. Full of beautiful baking photographed on vintage linens, so look at what we had for morning tea!

 So, My wild garden has been tamed slightly with some weeding and planting out but still grows in joyful (unruly) abandon!

The christmas elves have been busy too (i have told the children that Santa's elves have outsourced some of the manufacturing for christmas as they are just soo busy this year!...)

here are some pics of babes in varying states of completion and crowns and wallets for other family members.

(Please excuse me while I get my head around blogger: obviously a lot changes while I take some months off!)

soon...

Soon... we will get a camera (thanks Oma Rietje), soon... I will post photos of the christmas presents I am making slowly, soon... it will be school holidays and struan will be home, soon ... i will have time for my own interests at least some of the time (the garden is a wild jumble of weeds, flowers and straggly tomato plants!) I have toyed with shutting down my blog but I really think having a camera will help inspire me to share, and writing will (hopefully) challenge my mind! If you read this blog check in again this weekend!

Away from my blog....

It has been too hard juggling a clean- inspection ready house, an extra child some days, kindy dramas etc and my blog (especially without a proper camera). This images were take in that time with the idea of posting more regularly (which obviously didn't happen), on our digital video camera, but it is a palaver to upload them. We have spent a few days in Totaranui, Golden Bay at a DOC camp, which is hugely popular in summer, but we only had to share with a handful of campers/ trampers and tourists. We even got the children tramping: only over to the next beach but it was a stretch for them...! We were lucky enough to see and watch some native birds : a weka, kea, paradise ducks, kereru. On the way home yesterday we stopped at a GREAT children's store called Grasshopper where we found a cD with songs about new Zealand's indigenous creatures for children Its very good, and funny! Its called "little blue and the living treasure band" by wildbeet productions.
We are at an anxious stage with our farmhouse purchase as it seems another offer will come in (cash unconditional) so we have a week to sell with no one interested at present. Everyone project/ pray for us please!

knitting

As you may know, our house is on the market and therefore I have packed up my sewing stuff, boo hoo! And of course I actually have inspiration at the moment! Spring does that to me! So I am throwing myself into knitting as a tidy and instant antidote to cleaning!!!! unfortunately I am also inspired in the knitting department with many projects in my mind, and I am labouring over a vest for Struan's birthday ( I know its passed already!). I don't want to start anything new until its finished otherwise he may not receive it until next year! So I surf the knitting and yarn sites and knit. The vest is from the book son of stitchnbitch. A very cool book for patterns for males. I have been enjoying the knitting patterns in the Living Crafts magazine, and yesterday found The Backwards loop, a very cool site with beautiful yarn and patterns. Anoushka is knitting a gnome for her friend, and we are watching the garden start to awaken from its winter rest. Today is a grey and drizzling day, perfect for knitting! What are you knitting?