Today's visitor

 I think that Peter can be forgiven for thinking that there was a bit of stick stuck on the back of his chair.

The Moon and The Stars

The Carter Observatory in Wellington mentioned that at them moment you can see Venus, the Moon and Jupiter in alignment. Peter and I thought we would see if we could spot them.

Finding the Moon and Venus was not to difficult.

Then very faintly in the top right hand corner of this photo I think this might be Jupiter. Just might be, because frankly it could be any other star. We really have no idea, but it would be nice to think they all lined up for us.

Best Christmas Pressie ever - well so far anyway

For my Christmas pressie this year I wanted a new camera, my old one has developed a few quirks. I thought I was going to have to wait for a few months before I could save up enough. But my lovely, wonderful hubbie got one for me today. Thank you Peter. But can you see something wrong with the pictures. Spotted it yet. Yes, you are right I am taking pictures with my old camera while the boys play with my new one, typical.

Walking

The last few evenings to attempt to counteract the excess of food we have been stuffing down, Peter and I have been going out walking. I don't know if the walking has been working but the views are great.

Sunset at Ahuriri

Peter had to pick me up from work a couple of nights ago. We decided it would be nice for a change to go for fish and chips at Ahuriri.
As I don't like fish very much, we went to the Hot Chick, for chicken and chips. It was surprisingly very pleasant sitting eating chips and chicken and watching the sun set. Or it would have been if there had not been a child talking nonstop in the background. Just joking of course, it was lovely the three of us watching the sunset.

This weeks lunchtime walk

Today's lunch time walk wasn't a walk it was a lovely lunch with my lovely hubbie at the Wholefood Kitchen in Napier. I wonder why he has such a smug look on his face. Was he perhaps pondering whether or not I would give him my lump of bread.
We both had carrot and coriander soup, which was lovely but it there was just way too much off it. I only managed half a plate.

This weeks spotty bargains

I needed a new cover for my ironing board. The choice of cover was not very impressive and at $25, did I really want to pay for something I did not even like. Then I spotted a whole ironing board for $19 complete with a nice spotty cover and I love spots. A good price for a cute item. And the big bonus is that this ironing board fits in the space in the study that Peter made for it, the old one didn't, its almost as if he knew this one was out there waiting for me to find it.

And just to confirm I love spots, I also found the bargain below. A whole dinner set for $14. You have got to love the Warehouse sometimes.

Celebrating half a century of Peter

This weekend Peter was a whole half a century old. Something worth celebrating I think.
What he decided he wanted to do for his birthday was to go to Waimarama and eat fish and chips on the beech.
A very good choice I thought. Unfortunatly, it seems that fate was perhaps working against us.
First of all the weather - seemingly a storm the size of Australia was about to throw all its force at New Zealand, with sea swells of 18m and hurricane force winds, and weather warnings telling us to stay away from the beeches this weekend. As you can see from the snaps - it was a little wild but not to bad.
Then getting the fish and chips was the next chore. The local shop that provides the fish and chips takeaways in Waimarama was closed for this weekend, the only weekend in the year that it is closed. Luckly the local cafe Jarks was able to provide us with a couple of scoops of chips to take down to the beech. Where we ate chips, walked along the beech and roasted marshmallows over a fire.

In the evening our good friends Keriann and Ian came over for a light supper. Bringing with them some lovely armenian street bread and an absoulutly delicious chocolate and hazelnut tart, as a birthday cake. Yum, yum, yum. I have to admit it was me that pinched the roasted hazelnuts that you can see are missing from the tart. In case you are wondering it tasted as good as it looks. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Study Makeover - Still progressing

Peter has made himself a new desk out of an old pine bookcase and the left over bit from the kitchen island unit. He has had a busy week. I think it looks amazing. Unfortunatly it has made my recently improved sewing table look very shabby. So back to the garage for the sewing table for some more tarting up before it is allowed back in the study with Peter's posh desk.

Today's Daisy

Peter made this desk top background for me. There is a bit of a story behind this poster, which you can read about here. Thank you Peter, I love it. What do you think, would make a great teatowel?

This weekend's progress in the Kitchen

This is how the kitchen looked at the start of the weekend. We have a sink at last, not plumbed in yet.

Various random bits of old worktop.

And Peter's tea making corner all installed.

By the end of the weekend we have running water and drainage.

Dishwasher fitted and some of the doors installed.

The island unit has been painted and installed. What do you think of the colour? We took a lot of time to choose it, I think it works, but would value your comments. The rest of the units will be painted off-white. I think the old black bench tops look good. I hope the unit will look as good with the rimu bench tops. Unfortunately it is going to take quite a while before we can afford them.
Peter could not wait to get in there and do some cooking. I could not wait to taste the resulting casserole. It was really worth the wait.

What better after a very hot friday - a wine slushy

Today in Napier the temperature hit 35 centigrade. Very, very hot. As it is Friday I was looking forward to a nice cool glass of savy (Sauvigon Blanc to the rest of the world) in the evening. When I got the shopping home I put the wine straight in the freezer. Wine connoisseurs should stop reading now. By 8pm we had wine slushys. You do have to be very careful how many of them you drink or you could end up like this!

Well actually the above photo was taken before the wine. He just likes to get his head into all the pictures.

The Mission concert 2010 is ...........

Rather appropriate as this is my 50th year too. Artists appearing tomorrow include The Temptations, The Drifters, A Supreme, the Miracles and Martha and the Vandellas. It will be a good party night. Peter has already been watching the Temptations dancing and is perfecting his moves.

Bargain Kitchen

No this is not my house. This is the kitchen we just bought from Trade Me. I know this is taking my door collection to another level. But you got to admit we got a bargain. Some of it is a bit tired, but with a bit of care and attention and a few pots of paint it should look great. And before you ask, yes I did measure.
With the kitchen came - the sink unit, a glass wall unit, a microwave cabinet, 4 larder doors, cladding for the sides of the larder, cooker hood housing, dishwasher, bench (work) tops, oven, hob, drawer units, hob splash back etc. etc. and all in beautiful rimu.

There was really only one part of the kitchen I wanted. The oven and the hob which have had a full life and will just need to go to the dump, along with most of the bench top. The remaining bench top is going to be used in the laundry. Now on a slight sidetrack - we were looking at bench tops in the local DIY mega store yesterday. Do you have any wooden bench tops I asked. Oh yes here is one right behind you they said. Oh no I said I wanted real wooden bench top. But that is a real wooden bench top they said. Really said I sceptically. Yes they said, feel underneath you can feel the real wood. How much is that I said. $5000 for that piece they said. As we wandered off bemused we wondered how on earth they had managed to turn a lovely big lump of wood into a horrible plastic like very expensive lump of wood. If anyone out there knows where we can buy wooden bench tops that have not been messed about with please leave me a comment. Sorry for the sidetrack, now back to the bargain kitchen. The microwave unit, the cooker hood housing and the splash back are going straight back on to Trade Me to be sold on as we don't need them.

The double drawer dishwasher has already been sold on Trade Me. The buyer is going to pick it up tomorrow morning. We have a newer model one already in our existing kitchen.

But what about the part of the kitchen that you really wanted I here you say. Here it is a wonderful 2010mm long glass doored wall cabinet. I have been looking for one for my kitchen for soooooo long. Its cool to find one at last. Don't you just love to stand around watching a man work.

I could not wait to get him out of the way so I could move all my china over.

Last time Peter installed a kitchen for me, he started before Callum was born and finished it when Callum was 4. Just in time for us to sell the house and move out. I really hope that this time things move a little faster.

The Perfect Spot and the Perfect Hubby

Because of the changes in the kitchen my lovely pine shelves had to find a new home. Poor Peter had to cart them all over the place while I made up my mind. After trying every wall in the house Peter suggested the end of the hall. The perfect spot. I think they look great there, but they needed something below them. Again Peter had the perfect idea to put our old pine chest of drawers, which was hidden out of the way, underneath it. What a perfect hubby. I am so pleased with the result.

Just when you would rather not .....

Just when you would rather not have your photo taken ...... out runs a man with a camera. Now take a good look at the picture above of a women gardening, in the rain and mud, with a broken big toe, moving stuff she asked the man to move three weeks ago. Then take a look at the picture below of a man gardening, sitting in the sun with his cup of tea.
Actually this is not really true. He has just spent a hard morning sanding the rest of the front of the house ready for painting and deserved his seat in the sun with his cup of tea. I am just being cruel to him, because he took pictures of me in the rain.

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.