On the drive home.

Our Place.

 

This is our home, shipped over and built by my mum's uncle in the 1950's. Unfortunately all of the owners between the time they lived there and we moved in didn't quite have the love for the place that we do.  Below is my parents house (next-door, where I grew-up) that was also stitched together by my mum's uncle. One day our place will look that loved.

Look What I Found...

Saturday had a lovely foggy morning. I peered out the window and saw these. I quickly grabbed my camera and in just a robe and a pair of tramping boots captured them.

My new skirt and other things.

So I have finally finished Studio for the first half of the year, that was why I have been horrendously ignoring the blog, I apologise. I was working on a book to encourage office workers to bring plants into their workspace. My tutors acknowledged I was taking a risk by expressing my idea in book format but apparently I did not pull it off. I have learned from it and am ready to move on.

But at least the presentation looked good. Those colourful piles are copies of the book which I printed and bound.

I finally got around to using some of the fabric I picked up at a Karen Walker (I think it was Karen Walker, please correct me if I'm wrong) charity school yard sale a few years back. I made a skirt, the easiest skirt ever. I think the whole thing maybe took me an hour.

Before you start you will need enough thick elastic to go around your waist + 3cm seam allowance. This will be your waist band. For the fabric, choose something that can be doubled over to create the length of the skirt.

Step 1, measure your waist and add 3cm to allow for a 1.5ch seam.

Step 2, cut thick elastic to the waist+3cm length.

Step 3, measure length of elastic when fully stretched (not including the 3cm of seam allowance).

Step 4, measure and cut a length of fabric to the same length as the stretched elastic and add 3cm for seam allowance.

Step 5, sew the raw edges of the elastic together, good sides facing each other, (remember 1.5cm seam allowance). This will form the waist band.

Step 6, sew raw edges of the fabric together, good sides facing each other, (remember 1.5ch seam allowance) and press (iron) the seam flat.

Step 7, fold fabric in half horizontally to make a double layered doughnut shape keeping the seam on the inside.

Step 8, line up the seam of the elastic and the seam of your fabric and pin together.

Step 9, it is now time to sew the fabric into the waist band, stretching the elastic as you go. This will need some strong fingers depending how tough your elastic is.

There we go, Done! I sometimes like to roll the waistband over a couple of times, this gives it a ruched look, as well as shortening it a bit.

Just needed to share my love of Air Plants.

The little fluffy Owl below is one of my new projects. His body is needle felted and now I'm figuring out how to attach his wings and what to do with the eyes and nose. I'll let you know how he turns out.

I'm going to leave you with this image taken of the reflection in my light-box.

National Alpaca Day 2010

I did not know we had a National New Zealand Alpaca Day, so what did we do? We visited an Alpaca Farm and got an education in Alpacas.

We visited Silverdale Alpacas, one of many Alpaca farms around Auckland that had opened their doors to the public for the day. It was so much fun, we got to chat to the breeder and pat the animals. I hadn't realised how think and soft their fleece is. Would defiantly visit another farm next year and I would highly recommend it to all of you.

The resident Beagle.

Look what Joel found for me.

First this cute little berry ( can't remember its name). Its little shroud is so delicate.

Then this little critter that was hiding in the weeds.

And a cute little foot but don't forget they are pests that eat the eggs of our native birds.

Pretty Things.

Fresh Dahlias from my garden and this great stamped paper bag that was full of lollies for 50c from the Bethells coffee cart. I couldn't resist.

Hello Tokyo.

Three days in Tokyo. Rode the trains and ate good food.

Fifteen strawberries for 2625yen, roughly $40nzd.
Other that that prices are much the same as Auckland.

One of many drink stops. This one at L'Occitane in Shibuya.

A Love Hotel.

Turn off the main roads and you quickly find yourself in suburbia.

A Blurry Good Morning.

After a great night of x-box bonding and all the boys had gone back to whence they came I wandered outside.

Taken between 5.15am and 5.30am on Tuesday the 24th of November, 2009.

Hedgehog in the garden.

Look who we found in our garden. So adorable but a pest in New Zealand. They eat our native bugs and worst of all they devour our ground nesting birds. We really should have killed him but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

Adventured on a Rainy Day.

So its cold wet and miserable, what do you do?... Adventure time! So Joel and I headed out to Muriwai with our cameras, some snacks and our wet weather gears.

This is what we found.

These are the public toilets with cute little turf roofs. You can see a few flax bushes growing up there too.

That little upright speck is some guy fishing.

The best part was leaning into the wind then topping it all off with a
BLAT from the local takeaway.