Did I really do all that knitting

Jess over at Button Beauty is having a little giveaway for her one year blogaversery. She was reminiscing about fashion from the 80's and 90's. I had a wonder through my photo albums but could not find too many pics of my fashion faux pas, I was obviously not a very adventurous dresser. What I did find were lots of pics of me wearing stuff I had made myself. I obviously used to do a lot of knitting and I had forgotten how much. Above is a pic of my and my brother (sorry Bryan hope you don't mind to much). I am wearing one of the icelandic jumpers I used to knit. I think I knitted hundreds of them and could knock them out in a couple of days, all on circular needles.

The cardi in the pic above of me and my stepdaughter Lisa, is one I loved to knit and I loved to wear. It is a two colour fair isle. I used to love knitting fari isle in two colours, holding one colour in each hand, great fun. I am also wearing a skirt and shirt I made myself. I think I made nearly all my clothes, how did I have so much time.

Above are a couple of fashion faux pas. Leggings, why did I think they would make me look thinner when I was 8 months pregnant. I was so glad when they disapeared and a bit shocked when they started to come back into fashion. Then there are the lovely huge glasses that just about covered my face. I could not wear my contacts when I was pregnant, as I had so much calcium whizzing around my body, I would build up calcium deposits on my lenses with in hours. Glad those glasses are gone for good.

Another fairisle jumper I knitted with a skirt and shirt I made as well. My final fashion faux pas a curly perm. I have attempted to have my hair permed loads of times and it never ever works and I end up looking like a poodle who needs clipped.

I did start to wonder why I stopped doing all this sewing and knitting. Firstly I had children and secondly I used to run a craft stall making clothes for children. I would make thousands of dresses, dungarees, hats and scarfs every year. There was no time to do any knitting, and by the time I decided to stop the craft business I really did not want to see another sewing machine ever again. Sewing as a way of earning money took a lot of the fun out of it for me. Thankfully as the kids are growing up and flying the nest I am getting back into thinking about sewing more again. Don't know if I will ever want to knit again, did try to last winter but I could not find any patterns that interested me and the rather short sighted Man in the knitting shop told me nobody knits any more so they don't bother getting any interesting patterns in!

Summer Hols

We have been on a short holiday to Mt Mauganui in the Bay of Plenty. Above are some snaps of things that caught my eye as we were wondering around the town.
We spent a lot of time splashing around in the pool and the sea.

Walking on the beach at sun rise. Amazingly beautiful.

There were a lot of sea gulls.

Some beautiful shells on the beach.

And a cool walk around the the mount. We were too lazy to walk up the mount, but the views walking around the base were so beautiful, I don't feel so guilty. Especially the little shell beaches that we would never have seen otherwise.

And a lot of sitting in cafes enjoying the view, and yes I do mean the baldy guy sitting opposite me.

the small things #3 and today's daisy #78

The taste of strawberries, one of those little things that make life so sweet. Driving through the Hawkes Bay sunshine eating the strawberries (before I get home).

BTW, the fabric was in a parcel that my brilliant Mum had sent me. Thanks mum.

Sunrise

I had trouble sleeping last night and found myself wide awake and ironing at 4am in the morning! At least that was one job out of the way. After taking a few pics of the sunrise I staggered back to bed and managed to get a few hours sleep, before heading off to the market.

Late again the last day of a colourful week

I started late and I am finishing late on the week of colour run by Curious Bird. The last day, yesterday, was stripes and plaids. Here are some stripes and plaids from my fabric stash. They are going to one day be a red and white log cabin table cloth. One day live will give me a little space to work on some of the projects I want to do. Of course, I would have more time if I was not so hooked on playing on line scrabble at Lexulous.

Waves

Some wild waves. Difficult to get a point of reference, but those waves were twice my height and the rip looked so powerful. I stood well back.

Think Pink

In a week of colour pink has got to be my most challenging colour. I am not a pink girl and I have three sons, so no pink there. Our house has can very definatly be called a pink free zone. Only one teatowel that happened to be draped over the drying dishes (our dish washer is still not working). Maybe it is time for me to unleash some pink around the house, or may be not.

Colourful Week - Day Three Yellow and Today's Daisy #78

Today is Yellow in Curious Bird's week of colour. When it comes to yellow it has got to be a daisy, obvious really.

My secateurs are also yellow, so that I can find them when I lose them in the garden, which is quite often.

And of course some of my honey pots are also yellow.

Another colourful week - day two Purple

Today's colour in a colourful week, run by Curious Bird, is Purple. I know there is a lot of purple in the garden, but all I could think of in the house was my rocking chair. When I was 14, I think, all I wanted for my birthday was a rocking chair! No idea why. So my wonderful Mum found the chair below. I think it must have needed some TLC. She stripped it down, re varnished it and recovered the seat. She made a great job of it because 30+ years later it still looks good.

Even the cushion on the chair has a story. My Mum made it and gave it to a raffle as a prize. Guess who won the coushion back again, yes my Mum. So she gave it to me and I think it looks perfect on my chair.

Thinking there was not a lot of purple in my house I then noticed the beautiful scarf that Peter's Mum gave me for my christmas.

Turning around again I then noticed the little quilt, made by guess who, my Mum. It is pinned on my notice board and it looks great. Then as I was about to download my pics I spotted myself in the mirror, yes there I am wearing a purple tshirt for purple Tuesday without ever noticing it.

If you want to see some more purple why not visit Curious Bird.

The small things #2

This week's small thing is some music. I was listening to Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2, while working this morning and he played this track. I love this song. I stopped working and just listened.




And if you go here you can find Noel Gallager's version.

Now shhh, don't tell anyone but I love most Bert Bacharach songs. In fact I am quite a fan of his. Probably should start with what the world needs now. Then there have got to be some raindrops on the way to San Jose. And many, many, many more.

Another colourful week - day one

Curious bird is hosting a week of Colour. Monday's theme was blue and I am one day too late already. I forgot.

Blue is an easy colour to find in my house. The jug above seemed to suit my mood this morning. A bit old and tatty, but still useful and looks good in my eyes.

I am off to take some pictures of purple things, lot more difficult to find than the blue ones.

Today's Daisy #77

Today's Daisy is my brother's new dog. Very cute isn't she.

Luxury Breakfast

I found Peter this morning sitting outside eating puff pastry stuffed with jam and cream for breakfast.

And he had not told me about them. So I had to join him just to check that they were ok, and they were yummy.

Gardening

Here in Hawkes Bay gardening can only be done on the rare cloudy days when it is a bit cooler. After a couple of very, very hot sticky days the weather cooled down. The clouds appeared and I was able to get out and do some well needed gardening. I cleared out the iris border at one side of the house and added a couple of new dark blue irises to go with the white ones.

I also cleared the mint border at the other side of the house. Though as I added a couple of geraniums, maybe mint border is not the right name anymore.

I also cleared the little border where Peter parks his car (the garage is too full of junk). I managed to find an extra metre of space under all the overgrown oxalis.

Next the murtlye border behind the veggie patches. I used a cocoa mulch to try to keep down the weeds and give the murtyle a bit of soil conditioning. The cocoa mulch comes in a square block, a bit like a giant weetabix.

The block goes in the wheelbarrow and gets soaked in water for about 30mins.

It then turns into a barrowful of orange porridge, which can be spread on the garden. Really handy no carting large bags of mulch from the garden centre. Yes, I know it looks a very scary orange colour, but this does change to earth colour after a couple of weeks. And after a couple of great days in the garden my muscles are a little on the stiff side.

A summer night at the movies

The movie we went to see yesterday was "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". The latest Woody Allen movie. I wanted to see the movie because it was set in Barcelona, where Peter and I went for our honeymoon. Barcelona was as beautiful as I expected, and the movie was good too.

After the movie Peter treated me to supper at Pippi's. The pizza bread to start disapeared very fast. The blur in the corner of the screen is Peter's hand grabbing the bread. We had Pollo pizza, gnochi in tomatoe ragu and one tiramisu with two spoons. We also finally figured out what the tables are made from.

Have you guessed yet. Yes, the tables are all old doors chopped up and stuck on legs.

The sun had set when we left the restaurant, the sky had turned a beautiful shade

and everything was calm.

Shock in the garden

Do you remember that I bought a silk tree with my christmas money. Hmm, my green fingers must have turned bright red. The silk tree had yesterday only one leaf left.

Today this leaf fell off. The garden centre thought that the tree had gone into shock and that I should just keep watering and it might come back again! I hope it does.

The rest of the garden is looking ok. The lace cap hydranga that I moved a couple of years ago is flowering well.

The vege beds are growing well and producing lots. Well, the vege beds that have been completed are. Peter did not manage to finish them off before the hot weather set in and it is now far to hot to do any digging.

I think another pumpkin watch might be on the way.

Bathroom renovation #12 - Before and After

Now that the bathroom is finished, apart from a couple of little touch ups, I thought you might like to compare the before and after pics. First the bathroom which is where it all started. Before a really ugly bath with a barely usable shower.

Now transformed into a beautiful sleek shower room. A pleasure to use. And don't worry we have not got rid of the bath altogether, we will eventually put one in the other shower room.

Next the kitchen. Where the big, ugly, awkward to reach into larder cupboard has been removed.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the kitchen, but it is great to have a bit of space.

The old front door that opened straight into the kitchen has gone. Much to the confusion of the cats.

And now I have a brilliant larder. Everything is in reach and I can see at a glance what I have and what I need to get.

Then there is the old toilet, which did not have a sink, you had to go next door to the bathroom to wash your hands!

The toilet has been relocated into the shower room, which is far more sensible. The front door is now where the old toilet used to be and we have a lovely calm entrance hall.

From the outside the door and one of the windows have been swapped over. All the ugly pipes and the strange built out bit that contained nothing but air have been removed.

We still have to repaint the exterior of the house. But I am pleased with the effect so far. And I am really pleased with my red front door. Lots more work to be done, but that will have to wait until Autumn I think, when the weather has cooled down a bit.