A block a day

We joined the library on Saturday and I was as eager as the girls to look to see what books they had. I managed to find 8 to check out in record time, the girls obviously didn't want to be in the adult section when there was much more fun to be had in the children's! The best book is 200 Crochet blocks by Jan Eaton. As it says it's a book detailing 200 different blocks to crochet. I think it is beautiful! The pictures are really clear and the instructions very simple to follow. As my dressmaking last week didn't go so well I just wanted to make something quickly and easily so I've decided to make a block a day this week. I think I'll then make it into a block for a friend's new baby boy, although the addition of the pink does make it a touch girly!

So here's Saturday and Sunday's contribution:

Bobble diamond

Spinner

They've obviously not been blocked yet, hence the curly edges, but they have turned out the same which is always a bonus!

It's all a matter of perception

A little something I saw on a wall!

Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella

Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mum I can't go to school looking like this!)

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" but decides she's going out anyway

Age 30: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" but decides she doesn't have time to fix it so she's going out anyway

Age 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" but says "At least I am 'clean' and goes out anyway

Age 50: She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to go

Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore and she goes out and conquers the world

Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability and goes out and enjoys life

Age 80: Doesn't bother to look, just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier!

The Ups and Downs of Shopping

Let's start with the ups, with the biggest being that it's only a 3 minute walk to the local Salvation Army Family Store, and yes I have timed it!!! What I've found great about these stores, and different from the charity shops in England, is that aswell as clothing, linen and homeware they also have furniture. There's another op shop (kiwi speak for opportunity shop=charity shop!) in the town and a second hand shop so I have a fair amount of choice. And as for the nearby city well let's just say that I have lots of trawling to do! I have actually bought something every day this week and will post tomorrow about it.

Right onto the downs. I headed into the city yesterday morning, without children, to have a bit of time shopping. Now I'm not one of those girls who really enjoys clothes shopping but I really do need to do some. We arrived with a suitcase of clothes and I haven't purchased any since arriving so I set off with high hopes of getting some summer clothes. I never seem to have the right clothes for the right season (or the right body size for that matter!). But I was too be disappointed on two fronts: first, that the summer sales are over and that autumn clothes pack the shops (never mind that it's been so hot here the last week); and second, I wasn't actually the size I thought I was! I could explain this away with the fact that NZ sizes their clothes differently to the UK but that wouldn't explain why those few clothes I bought in the suitcase no longer fit very well!

Enter the material store. I haven't made any clothes for myself since I was in my teens so I thought I would give it a shot. I bought a Fast & Easy Butterick pattern (B4136), whether it will be or not I'll wait and see.

I would have liked to have used some recycled material but seeing as I want to make it now I bought some new. Arthur Toye have a great sale with a huge range of cotton fabrics for $4/metre.

I even bought the zip because I wanted to know I had everything instead of getting halfway through it and relegating it to a WIP pile! My only concern is when I read the sizing on the pattern my measurements say that I am 2 sizes above what I thought. Needless to say, I wasn't prepared to make it in that size so have opted for the one below! If it doesn't fit when it's made I'll just have to wait to wear it.

PS I went to Weightwatchers last night!

Cat and Mouse

Before we left the UK we had a few items shipped over and one was my sewing machine. It was new to me but not new to this world being a 1960s Bernina 730 Record! I found it in a local sewing machine shop by chance. I had actually gone in to look at another model but realised it wasn't for me when the owner let it drop that she had another Bernina but that I probably wouldn't want it. When I asked her the model I was more than keen! It is the same machine that my Mum had when I was a child and I learnt to sew on and which my Mum still uses now, even though she's upgraded it's the one that always finds favour and is set up in her sewing room!

Therefore I was somewhat upset when I unpacked the shipping and found that the only thing damaged was my machine - from the looks of it I suspected it had been dropped on it's poor little head! However, a brilliant man in the nearby town was able to revive it for me and so I was able to potter away whilst at the beach. Nothing serious happened because the only place for it to go was on the dining table and so had to be hefted on and off for each meal time!

I made these cats out of a book I purchased here. For the life of me I can't remember the title and it's still in one of the myriad boxes scattered around the house!

The one with pink trimmings was made first and when I made the second there were some alterations to the process. I just never seem to be able to do as I am told!

The happy couple!

Needless to say these were Christmas presents for my little ones!

What I like most about these is that all the materials are completely recycled! The green cord material was from a large men's shirt that cost me 30c (it was one of the items in a $2/bag stall from a jumble sale); the pink material was from a pillow case I bought for 50c and made a dress and bandana for Maia from (will have to see if I have a photo of it); the pink ribbon came on a gift and has been stored with all my other ribbon/trimming paraphenalia; the buttons for the eyes and the embroidery thread came from Freecycle and the bell on the collar was, if I recall rightly, from a box of chocolates! So I was actually really impressed what you could do with what someone else would call rubbish! But then again that seems to be the story of my life!

These little fellas came from a 1970s craft book for children, which again is buried in the depths of a box! (Note to self I really must start to unpack these boxes and leave this computer alone!) The green one is made from shirt fabric from a shirt going FREE at the local recycling shop and the floral material is an old bedsheet that I had cut into to make a reversible sunhat. The pink one is made fromn vintage Laura Ashley material that was once curtains and was kindly given to me by a Freecycler in Stratford. The filling in one is split peas, but when this really started to smell after I had finished it I used rice for the second!

A whole lot of change ...

Well of course there's the big one that we moved from UK to NZ! But we've had a few more since ...

I should do a quick update of our life in New Zealand so far. We arrived at the end of October during a very, very cold spell of weather and I had only bought summer clothes - you'd think I would have learnt that New Zealand really is the land of 'four seasons in one day'! The relaxing and chilling out did happen but just not for very long. I was keen that we would know where we wanted to be by the start of the new school year and to that end went exploring. From Waitarere Beach I travelled the length of the Kapiti and Horowhenua Coast and realised it wasn't for us because it is so busy (that coming from someone who lived in the Midlands - but it certainly is busy by New Zealand standards and you have SH1 to contend with!).

So I went farther afield and tiki toured the Wairarapa. Now this is a beautiful part of thw world and I felt it would give us the best of everything - a rural life but with access to amazing coastline and the capital, Wellingon, within easy reach. I had my first day ever away from the girls and went exploring and liked it enough to then take Craig with me. I was getting quite excited and also thought that it would be great if we did move there because then maybe we'd be able to meet up with Janelle from Heart Felt and Amy at Seven Stitches.

Alas it was not to be! We got to the stage where we were seriously thinking of putting in an offer (and to the UK readers the house buying process here is completely different to that in the UK and the first offer you make is formalised in a contract that is a legal document - the advantage is that if everyone agrees you have a binding contract and you can, and we have, buy a house in 2 weeks, the disadvantage is that you really need to mean the offer because it's hard to break!). It was at that stage that we really started talking about what we were going to do for a living. We've nearly always worked for ourselves and have had ideas in the past for starting up a business.

However, to cut a long story short we decided that now was not the right time, with regard to family life and the economy, and that ever since I met Craig he had talked vaguely about going back to college at some stage. So we've taken the plunge and he's enrolled at college and starts next Monday!!!!! I think he was more nervous than I was about it but, like I said to him, if he doesn't do it now he may never do it. We're used to living off not very much and it would be harder to head back to study in a few years time if we had already set up a business/venture.

I've also got a few ideas in my head of things I can do whilst the girls are still at home (and I can't believe Maia will be starting school this September - how quickly does the time go?!). Hopefully I'll now have time to implement some things without any moving around! So we've ended up in a small town in the Manawatu. Certainly not what or where I was envisaging, which was rural, land, veges and animals and I really thought it would be the South Island, but then I didn't know Craig was going to go back to college. On the up side it means I can walk everywhere so I can cut my car usage which has been on my list for a long time, we still have a 1/4 acre section so we can certainly grow veges, we've got lots of neighbours .... well I can't think of any positive spin to put on that because I was dearly wanting a private, secluded section!

Maia is starting at her new kindy tomorrow - her 5th! Sometimes I do have guilt attacks and wonder what all the moving around is doing to them but on the whole I think they're very well rounded girls who seem to be developing really well and are extremely loving and generous. In fact I received a beautiful complimtent the other day from my sister-in-law. They came up from Wellington to stay for the night and she couldn't believe how good the girls were and the fact that she didn't hear them cry or whinge once the whole time. I played it down but she's around alot of children and she really did think ours were great! It's not often that you get praise or compliments for your efforts as a parent so it was definitely nice to hear.

Phew! I thinks that's the longest post to date - will lighten the load tomorrow with photos!

Ask and you shall receive ...

Just this morning, whilst talking to Craig, I said that we had a serious lack of storage in our new house. Having just moved I have not yet frequented the local Sallies or op shops so haven't seen what furniture is on offer. The local paper only listed 2 garage sales much to my disappointment and I was tempted not to even bother. But 2 is better than none surely? Well it certainly was when I walked down the drive to the first one and came across an old kitchen unit in excellent condition. I wasn't quite sure exactly where it would fit but knew it would go somewhere and for only $6 I wasn't going to pass it by. And as if by magic it seems to have been made for this exact space in the laundry (yes I am now the proud owner of a separate room in which to do the washing and ironing!):

If you look closely you can see that it's sitting on a piece of hardboard that is covering a rather large hole in the floor - so perfect positioning when there's two little ones around the place! The photo's not great because we've no light in the room, as evidenced by the wires hanging out of the hole in the wall. But it will be lovely - the walls are all the orginal panelling so once I rip off the nasty, nasty hardboard covering I will have a room where I actually like to be (once I've treated the borer/woodworm in the wood that is, but that's a another story for another time!).

New Beginnings ...

Finally we have broadband back in our lives and I can delve further into blogland and be extremely inspired by all you lovely people out there!

What a journey we've had so far - lots to say and lots to show but for now a quick hello.

Wednesday was Moving Day - yes yet again I have had to pack up a house and move! On Wednesday night we all had a home cooked tea and had a bed to sleep in so I thought things had gone quite well!

Thursday was the Day after Moving Day - I had lots of plans and ideas but in reality we all chilled out and just relaxed in our new home. A couple of beers in the sun surrounded by boxes and life seemed alright!

Today is Waitangi Day, which is a public holiday in New Zealand to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In the spirit of new beginnings we decided that it was too nice a day to just stay home unpacking so we headed for a festival being held in our nearest city and took in the festivities - great acts on stage of drumming, dancing and singing, I tried my first hangi, which was absolutely delicious, along with rewena bread, a traditional Maori bread made from potatoes.

So that's it for now - we're all alive and well and looking forward to catching up with the blogs again and of course finding new ones. I couldn't post without at least one photo so here's one of the beach where we've been hiding out the past three months!!!