Life's bowl of cherries

Just sometimes life in Hawkes Bay is a bit of a bowl of cherries. This morning was one of those occassions. I managed to get Peter to kick me out of bed early, so I could go to the farmers market. Needless to say he could not quite manage to get out of bed himself. So off I trundled to Hawkes Bay farmers market.

The sun was shining, the guitar man was playing, people were picnicing and it was a perfect, if a little busy, market day. I strolled around enjoying the atmosphere, bought far too much stuff and had to stagger back to the car, with a little detour as I could not remember exactly where I had parked my car. Below is the stuff I bought lovely bread from Harolds Bakery, some beetroot plants from the organic stall, some lovely cuts of beef which I got half price, tasty cheese from Hohepa, lots of fruit, some veg for us, some cheap veg for the guinea pigs, mushrooms from Te Mata mushrooms and a giant garlic. Yes, it truly is a giant garlic.

The small things #1

I know that the above pic is not really that inspiring as a picture, I did try. It's the dappled shade on the wall of the hall, when the evening light shines through the trees and in through my bedroom window. One of those small beautiful things that make you feel good, or should say that make me feel good.

One of my new year's resolutions is to try to post a pic each week of one of these small things. One of the small things that make me feel warm all over. I will try not to be to twee.

Sunset

While typing my last blog post the light in the room changed from dull to eerie yellow, and I turned round to see the storm clouds had gone, the temperature dropped to a bearable 18 and the sky had turned yellow. Then it changed to orange fire.

Then started to calmed down,

to a very pretty pink and blue.

Today's Daisies #77 - The Christmas Pressie Saga continues

This morning I went to get the earrings that I liked with the money for my christmas pressie. I was in a rush as usual, cause we were all meeting up for breakfast at a cafe in Hastings. On the way to meet Peter and my youngest at the cafe I had to take this snap of the stormy sky. It has been so hot here for the last few days. Yesterday it was so hot, 32 during the day and not dipping below 22 overnight. So I was glad to see a storm on the way to cool the air. Much later on in the day Peter asked to see the earrings, after searching my handbag, the house and my car I had to admit that I had lost them. Typical, if my head was not attached I would leave it behind. I was so cross with myself. Peter insisted that we retraced my steps. So we went back to the shop that I first took my purse out of my handbag in Hastings, no sign of the earrings. While there Peter decided to try on some shorts, so I decided to check the place where I had parked. On walking around the corner I spotted the little bag straight away lying in the middle of the parking space. I could not believe my luck. The little bag below had been lying on the road for about 4hrs and had not been squashed, picked up by anyone else or blown away. I think they must have fallen out of my bag when I removed my camera to take the snap of the stormy sky.

So here they are my new earrings, I will take very good care of them from now on. Fingers crossed.

Cat in a basket again

Ranna has found a basket that she fits into.

Bread anyone

Would anyone like some bread, Ranna is keeping it lovely and warm.

Why is it cats like to squash into small round baskets and bowls, or is it just my cats.

Promise I will make sure the bread basket is well cleaned after Ranna has finished with it.

Weekend Skirt part 2

I found my new weekend skirt today, it was hidden at the back of my wardrobe, and I had forgotten it was there. I love the pattern, I love the colours, it is cool to wear, very very comfortable and of course has daisies on it. I tried it out today just to make sure. It worked for going to the movies, doing some sewing (there is a pic below) and for gardening. Perfect.

While trying out my new skirt, I made a cover for my sunlounger (or should I say shadelounger). It has taken me a whole year to get round to doing this, so obviously the skirt works really well.

This Year's Daisy

As this is my first post of 2009 I thought a beautiful white daisy would be the perfect way to welcome in the new year. Happy New Year to you all out their in blogland.

Today's Daisies #76 - The Christmas Pressie Saga

Peter bought me the above lovely necklace for my Christmas. As mentioned before it is almost too small, and felt like wearing sandpaper.

So after a lot of internal debate I went to the gallery where I thought he said he bought it, and asked if they would exchange it. Only to find out to my great embarrassment that, he had only bought my earrings there and not the necklace.
Needless to say Peter thought this was hilarious, told me where he had bought the necklace, at the Wine Country Gallery in Havelock and even gave me the receipt so I could change it.
Being the impatient person I was down at the gallery to change it at 10pm on Tuesday morning. Only to find out the gallery is open every day but Tuesdays.
So this morning back I went to see if they would exchange the necklace. I spotted one I liked straight away. No worries they said, they exchanged my necklace for the one I liked and gave me some cash back as well. There are also some earrings which I think I will use the spare cash to buy.

Creativity at last

Now that christmas is out of the way. House renovation painting is out of the way for a couple of weeks. I promise to give you an update on the renovations soon. The house was cleaned and tidied. All the little bits of gardening have been finished, well never finished in the garden, but fine for just now. Peter was back at work, my youngest was playing happily. Time for me to do some sewing. Now, the longest part of my sewing is browseing through my stash of stuff trying to figure out what goes with what. Everything gets pulled out and there are piles of fabric everywhere.

I started off with some new cushions. Though not happy with the result, I think I should have put an edge on them in some way, will think about that and prehaps change them again some time.

Another project that has been waiting for a while, is a new tea cosy for Peter. His old one I did about 6 years ago and is looking very rough. In fact so rough I just through it in the bucket.

So here it is the new tea cosy. I have had the blue fabric for a long time waiting to be used. And because I always have to make things reversible, below is the other side.
Now, that has given me an idea, I wonder if I could make a reversible weekend skirt. Hmm, guess I need a visit to Spotlight to find some interesting fabrics.

Weekend Skirt

After three years of use my weekend skirt has finally had to be relegated to the rag basket, and I miss it. I am now going to have to find a new weekend skirt. Just in case you are wondering what a weekend skirt is, it is the skirt I put on at the weekend when there is nowhere to go and nothing much to do. When I wear it I know I can potter around and chill out. The properties that a skirt requires to be a weekend skirt are, it should be a fabric I love, have some daisies on it somewhere, be comfortable, be suitable to garden in and suitable to go to the market in.

This is option number one, it fits a couple of the criteria, but I am not sure I would want to be see wearing it anywhere but at home. It is just tooo turquoise.

Option number 2, I love this skirt. Unfortunatly it falls down in one area. It is not quite as comfie as is required. It is just an itsy bitsy too small. Maybe it is worth loosing a couple of pounds for.

Option number three, used to be a dress which for some reason I converted into a skirt. I can't remember why now. There is one problem with this skirt, it is a little to big and has a habit of slipping down when I am carrying things. This could easily be sorted. But perhaps what I should do is make a new one. I could deconstruct my old skirt and create a new one to the same pattern. Hmmm, which now raises the problem of finding the fabric. Until then I think perhaps option 2 is going to be the temporary weekend skirt, I will just have to breathe in.

Breakfast and my Christmas pressies

Breakfast this morning was fruit from the local farmers market. Strawberries, raspberries, nectarines, apricots and cherries, with yogurt. Yum, yum, yum. While I was eating I was reading the book that my youngest gave me for christmas. Nation by Terry Pratchett. I am a big Disc World fan and was unsure about this new one. It is set on a Pacific island after a big wave has crushed it. Sounds a bit dire. It wasn't, it was brilliant, I would recommend it to anyone. Thank you Terry Pratchett for another excellent read. And since I was on the subect of christmas pressies, here is another couple.

Cute earrings from Peter. He also gave me a nice necklace, which I am afraid is a bit to short, it fits ok, but is really really uncomfortable. Not sure what to do about that.

With my christmas money I bought this Silk Tree in a sale. It is not giving much shade yet but it will in a few years.

Christmas Dinner - Christmas Part Three

Christmas dinner this year was a bit of a mix up of everyone's favourites. We had a giant ham, which should last us till June. Turkey, stuffing (both sage and onion and apricot) and bread sauce. Green salad and a tomato and feta salad. Roast new potatoes, yes I really did roast new potatoes in their skins and they were delicious, and roast parsnip. Plus green beans and corn on the cob.

For dessert we had chocolate mud cake, my youngests favourite. And a very brilliant pavlova made by my eldest. I still have a christmas pud to eat some time once I have some appetite back again.

And here they all are, my merry men, enjoying their Christmas Dinner in the garden.

Today's Daisies #75 and My own little elf - Christmas part 2

My youngest has spent a number of days in the garage hammering and glueing and sawing and being very busy, singing christmas songs. He then used nearly all of my wrapping paper and appeared with a number of large pressies for under the tree.
He had made a pressie for each of us. A model toothbrush for his dad the dentist, a back scratcher for his eldest brother (no idea why), a machine gun for his other brother (slightly worrrying) and best of all he made the daisy picture above for me. He must have spent ages hammering in nails and then pulling them out again. I love it. I am going to treat it with oil and hang it on the wall to be treasured. Who could ask for more, a happy generous creative 8 year old son and a brilliant pressie.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain - Christmas Part 1

Christmas eve dawned wet and windy and dull. A big change, as we seem to have lovely sunshine for weeks and weeks. So the rain was very, very welcome. Also it made it seem a bit more christmasey.

This fennel grows outside my bedroom window, in an effort to stop the mosquitos.

Merry Christmas

I thought you might like to see a small slice of christmas in Hawkes Bay. I hope you all have a very merry christmas and that Santa Claus fetches you everything you wished for.
In case you are wondering who is under the Santa hat, it is Ranna the cat.

Fire Lilies

I bought these fire lilies at the Black Barn market on Saturday morning. I can't say I have ever noticed them before, but they are really cool. They start out as a green pod like bud then open up to beautiful red yellow and orange flowers. I would like some in my garden.

That Christmasey Feeling

Christmas time is here at last. I have been feeling very very un christmasey. I have had a stinkey cold, a major lack of energy and can't get motivated when the sun is shining and the garden is blooming (still can't get used to a southern hemisphere christmas, but I am working on it). I had bought no pressies and written no cards. My youngest put up the tree and decorations, singing all the time (very cute to sit back and watch). He is 8 and I think this is perhaps his last year of not being worldy wise, if you get my drift. Then yesterday morning my energy came back, even though christmas shopping with Peter drained it again. When we got home our annual hamper from my brother had arrived. Wonderful, an event I really look forward too. Nothing is wasted, the kids love to rummage around and see what delights are in the basket. I love the basket itself really useful for storing my ever increasing fabric stash. The ribbon from the wrapping goes in the ribbon box to be recycled later in the year. And lastly the packaging paper is used in the guinea pig hutches. Thank you Bryan for another lovely pressie.

Keriann and Ian came around for dinner yesterday evening and brought me another pressie. I love bonne maman jam. So Keriann had got me these tiny little ones. So cute. I will even treasure the little jars when the jam is finished, I am sure they are the right size for storing craft supplies.

Bathroom Renovation #11 still continuing

The bathroom renovations have taken a bit of a backwards step. I was a bit shocked that instead of removing the leakey tiles from the wall, they cut out the wall with the tiles on it. Have they taken the bit of wall and installed it in somebody elses bathroom?
Ranna seems happy with the result, a cosy cool bed for her to sleep in.

Today's Daisies #74 and some roses

The end of the newly decorated hall, just needs flowers. Thanks to Keriann for the buckets of roses she has been giving me. Unfortunatly they have finished now and I have had to revert to daisies. Which don't tell anyone I said this look almost as good as the Roses.