Not long ago I got home to find these little chaps wandering about:
Yes, I know they are cute – I thought so too.
I rang the neighbour and asked, “Do you have three little pigs?”.
“Oh dear”, she said, “are we playing musical stock again?” (The cows on our land, leased to a local farmer, had recently been across to the ‘greener grass’ on the neighbour’s side of the fence). She promised to remove the piggies post-haste.
Just as well – the following day we had a walk around to check the porcine visitors had gone, and found this (and similar sights) all over the olive plot and grape rows closest to the house:
There was time to replace most of the turf and give everything a going-over with the roller before olive harvest begins, but we have really gone off piggies! Cute they may be – but they’re staying penned and on their own side of the fence from now on!
We recently attended Ed’s graduation ceremony – it was a great occasion for his proud family. As he usually wears casual clothing Ed’s neat trousers and white shirts were still at our place, so we brought them over the hill with us. We had arranged to meet him in the car parking building opposite the Michael Fowler Centre, a half-hour before he needed to present himself for the ceremony.
Except the car parking building was full – and we had to park a 10-minute walk further away. So we met Ed near the venue and as I handed Ed his dark trousers and white shirt I expected him to dash off to the venue to change in their bathrooms. But no. “I’ll just change in these bushes”, he said – and proceeded to do just that!
Ready at last, our graduand hurried off to join his fellows.
So very happy to see him graduate – and to have a funny story to tell.
A few weeks ago I left this weather in Wellington,and travelled to Nelson, to this school
to attend this event.
There were more than 300 other quilters from all over New Zealand attending over the four days of classes, and we also viewed an exhibition, attended a lovely dinner, and made firm friends with many fellow-attendees.
I was lucky enough to work in this classroom
for three days with this group of women (second from the left is our tutor, Ronnie Martin). Somehow Maria escaped being in the photo – but she was definitely in class too!
We learned all sorts of fun techniques with fabric paints, heat guns, transfer media, embossing powder, foils, beads, threads and stamps – to mention only a few. We used these in fabric books, that were as varied as the women who created them.
Here are the middle pages of mine after Day 2:
I have since nearly finished the book, which is based on the theme “Autumn on the Grove”. All the machine sewing has been done, but I could go on hand-embellishing for ages, adding a touch here and there on the four sets of pages. One day I’ll decide it’s finished.
After the Mini-Symposium was over, my friend and I went to this museum:
The costumes from WOW (World of Wearable Art) were amazing – and for a pair of quilters, just the thing to finish off a long-weekend away. We spent over two hours examining the collection, and didn’t even get near the classic cars that form the other half of the museum.
All too soon it was time to catch the plane back to Wellington, and the train home to the Wairarapa. What a great vacation!
I remember having fun as a child, being taken to various orchards to gather fruit that my mum later preserved or turned into jam. I had such good experiences of fruit picking that in my teens I even went on a summer holiday camp titled Levin Pick In – we stayed at the Tatum Scout Camp, picked berry fruit every day at Brown Acres, and made good friends in the process.
I’ve a feeling things have come full circle, as we have opened the grove each weekend since Easter, for people to come and PYO grapes. Thanks to wonderful weather, it’s been a huge success.
We have had family groups of all sizes, people of all ages, and it’s been fun to host them all.
There are the exhibitionists:
Those who take it very seriously:Those who will pose for the camera:And nearly everybody eats at least a few (and that’s OK)!
The grapes are still going strong, so as long as the weather stays fine, we’ll keep on opening! If you’re really observant, you may see one other inhabitant of the grape vines:Note – all those photographed gave their permission and knew they’d be featured on my blog (with the possible exception of Ninja, who would probably not answer if asked, simply because she’s a cat and that’s what they do).
I knew that time was running out. I knew it was selfish to have all that space for craft. I know I started it by giving him lessons for Christmas last year. Since last Tuesday the craft-guest room upstairs in the garage has also been home to this….
I’m getting used to the muted bang, thump, clash when Richard goes to practice (not game to be in the room at the time though!). He is so very pleased to have a drum kit at last I can’t really be sad that “my” space is now “ours”.
It’s been a while since I made any scrapbook layouts, but two sources from the web have inspired me to get out the photos, paper and glue once again. The first is from And Now for Something Completely Different, a series being offered by Shimelle Lane at UkScrappers.co.uk. I had been aware of her Glitter Girl series (as she generously duplicates this on her own website), but only found the ANFSCD series by accident. Here is my take on her March instructions (which you can find here):
This is quite different from my usual style and it’s not something I would have tackled without the step-by-step instructions. I like it though!
The second source of inspiration for my recent scrapbooking productivity has been a class at TwoPeasinaBucket.com – Scrapbook Stamper’s Workshop with Jen Gallacher. There are five sets of 10 lessons, each set comes with a video showing the techniques, and a detailed pdf that you can print out for reference at the scrapdesk. At US$25 the class is good value. While there’s no expectation that every lesson will spark a LO, I have used the first two today, and made these:
The first one uses photos from 2009, when I took my great-niece to a store to choose beads and make a necklace for herself. Her joy in creating something that she could immediately put on and wear was infectious, as you can probably tell from my grin. The class lesson I have applied here is the use of embossed stamps on vintage book paper. I used Jen’s lesson LO as a sketch too. My friend and fellow-Scrapmate Mandy gave me some washi tape to try, and and I have used one of the samples on the layout.
The second layout uses stamps to create the fun tag in the centre of the banner. Other than transposing the journalling and title, I have pretty much followed Jen’s example. The photos are from a combined birthday celebration back in 2005 – so good to have them scrapped at last (and to re-live the fun memories of that day while I trimmed the photos and put the tag together).
One thing the class has already shown me is that I have only a limited range of stamps. I have a few journalling blanks, an alphabet or two, some flowers and butterflies, several sentiment stamps (for card-making) and a set of flourishes. Lesson 3 suggests using stamps to create embellishments – but unless I’m making a layout about the garden, my collection falls a bit short. Do you agree that I need to go shopping?!
This blue-eyed cutie is Edward on his first birthday, way back in March 1992.
Roll on 20 years, and suddenly (so it seems) here he is on his 21st birthday:
Time sure speeds along, so much faster than I ever thought possible. I have forgotten so much about Ed’s early years and I can never go back and recapture the memories. I am thankful for photographs and the recall of others, but how I wish I had written down more of the stories of his toddlerhood and primary school years to go with the photographs I have – and for all the daily events for which there are no pictures at all.
I am so glad I have diaries from 2002, and that I have made scrapbook pages documenting our lives from then onwards. The stories are as important as the photographs – so if you are hesitant about writing things down, please don’t be! Do it – either in a physical diary or using an on-line service such as OhLifeI or DailyDiary. Make notes on your calendar, scribble in a notebook – but please help your memory out, because in 20 years you won’t remember the things you wish you did.
Last week it was finally time for our hay to be cut. This usually happens in mid January, so it’s very late this year (blame our ‘summer – what summer?’ weather).
As Ninja (the kitten) has been growing up a feature of most days has been a walk down the property (10 ha so lots of it to explore). I call “Ninja! Walkies!” and her small black frame appears from wherever she’s been sleeping, as she is eager for these adventures.
Once the hay was cut I wanted a photo for my Project 365. The hay paddock is beyond all our tree plantings, so it would be further away from the house than Ninja had been before, but I knew she would enjoy the trip, and I was interested to see whether she would play with the cut grass.
Past the olive trees (stopping to climb one or two of them), and into the first hazelnut plot. The nuts are ripening and falling thick and fast – the ground under these trees was clear a few days before the photo!
Through the long grass…
Time for a short rest and a look around…
Past the burn-up pile…
Running around and over the dirt-pile, trying a bit of digging too. Does your cat love loose soil and like to dig, roll and play in it?
Finally next to the hay paddock. These wide open spaces feel a bit scary though…
Definitely too scary for a small black kitten! Time for a hasty retreat!
Maybe next time we go down (to count the number of bales, now it’s all been parcelled up) she will be a bit braver and stay long enough for a photo.
We’ve all been taken up in the fun and fervour of our friends’ wedding. We have supported this couple (especially the groom) through a long-distance romance and engagement, and were so happy to help make their day really special.
Richard was Best Man, so had to craft a speech. Much thought went into this and there were several drafts:
I made boxes that contained the wedding favours – using my Silhouette machine, this template, and Stampin’ Up Pool Party cardstock.
We travelled up the island to south Taranaki and saw the damage done by last week’s storm in the region. We timed our arrival for the day before, so we could help set up the reception venue. When we had all finished it looked so pretty!
The boxes acted as place-cards and contained a mixture of sweets. The groom couldn’t decide what was the most quintessentially New Zealand sweet, so there was a mixture: Minties, Jaffas, Milk Bottles, Pineapple Lumps, and Sprats (tiny Chocolate Fish). The bride provided Macadamia Nut Kisses – only available in Hawaii.
After the previous stormy Saturday we were all thankful the wedding day was beautifully fine. We paraded for a group photo outside the motel:
(Richard, Ed, Ed’s girlfriend Christina, me)
After a beautifully-worded ceremony, the words were said to make this pair ‘man and wife’:
Doesn’t the groom look totally in love with his bride? So that you can see how lovely she is, here’s a photo just of her from the reception:
She is listening to her new husband’s speech and preparing to make her own. She had to cut her own short as she was so near tears (of joy!).
Richard did a great job of his speech, and of actually making it. He wanted to be sure there were some laughs, and he certainly hit the spot:
We all had such a great time – it was hard to come back to work-a-day life this week.
I’ve never been to ‘High Tea’ before, but I knew it was posh, so I made sure I flossied myself up:
I met my friends (the Scrapmates who had been at our place last month) at the James Cook Hotel’s Whitby Restaurant. Very classy – I’m glad I dressed up! Once we had all arrived and settled at our window tables we ordered tea from a selection of ten choices – I had Green Tea with Jasmine – and coffee for those who just couldn’t do without. Then the plates arrived. I shared a gluten-free platter with Kris:’
As the food was so exquisite, I took close-up photos of every layer. It tasted as good as it looks!
We were there for over two and a half hours and discussed all manner of things, as we tend to do. The world set to rights for at least five minutes, we left for our regular lives, encouraged and enlivened by our get together.
