TGF, it's cold but the sun is trying to shine

It's been a while crocodile!!  This week disappeared on me in a flash, I  worked, I  op shopped, I caved in to illness, and I had a small play date with the other Sue!!  I am happy to say that I am over what ever bug was trying to bug me and back on deck and in good form!

Today I layered up as there has been a cool wind hanging about, and it has been decidedly grey and rather glum this week. But the sun gave it her very best shot at shining so it was time to get outside and show off my instant buxus hedge to you all!!  Remember I scored three big buxus plants at the dump for $10, well they have been in the earth for a couple of weeks now so last weekend they got clipped!! I kept waiting for Sheba to treat the new instant mini hedge as a hurdle and jump over it , but she behaved and still goes around. If I was her I would have given it a crack and jumped!

I thought I should also show you the Magnolia tree I scored for $5 off trade me a wee while ago, the lady had originally paid $70, fool!!!  I have been watching a lot of gardening programs, and a new series with the delightful Hugh Fernly do it all.  I have also been taking a peek at Pinterest, slightly addictive.  So with all this new stuff fighting for a spot in my head I was inspired to make cloches out of drink bottles for my winter lettuces.

I found the old gate at the dump shop the other day and I have plans for that out the back in the garden but you will have to wait for that one.  My wheelbarrow is doing grand, all the daffs are standing tall, just waiting for them to bud up and flower. Go you good things GO!  With the sorting of my spare room being a work in progress I am in need of storage containers, so I was pretty tickled when I found this gorgeous big cake tin.  It has one of those three dimensional sort of lids and the kids on it are all very cute.

The bag is one of those cross over your body types which gives you the both hands free option when out shopping, and the colour is even better than the photo, a real chartreuse green with leather trim.  How  could I leave behind a book on Mothers wit, as a mother I can always do with some more wit!! It is what mothers get by on! As for the gnome pots, well there is a bit of a story.  But the short version is I found the one on the left and thought it would be great for wet teaspoons on the bench, then I spotted the other one.  So now they may end up  with a small succulent planted in each of them.  Not sure, but I like!!

Mmmmmm, look what I found today!!!  The bag is a Miele and lined in orange with white spots, a deal breaker for me along with the fact that it was only $5. I have seen these go for ridiculous amounts on trade me and love the bright colours.  The brand new crocheted cushion cover was only $3, super duper.

In the post today was two parcels for me, things I had got off trade me.  Gorgeous red shoes in one, (confession time, I have them in black already) and the purple necklace in the other.  But the picture to the left is the curtains I found on sale at Spot light today that will be hanging out over the windows in my spare room, thermal backed, nice and colourful, and they have two of my favourite things happening, STRIPES and SPOTS!!!  I was going to continue with the major sort in that room today but when the sun popped out I was drawn outside and towards my car.  What can I say?!   Maybe over the weekend.  Have a good one!!

Trying to make the spare room spare again

Well technically it has never been spare, because I planned for it to me my girls only room.  My little haven of girlyness, with my sewing/creative stuff etc.  But it ended up becoming more of a dumping ground for everyone, and it got to a point that getting into it was a challenge.  So on Friday I began the major sort.

But true to form as soon as  I got started with sorting I got side tracked.  The old chest of draws that I had found at Habitat a while back were begging for a light sanding, and my birthday hand sander still hadn't been used.  Of course there was only one thing to do.  With a light  sand and a wipe down these babies were moved into my sewing/creating/reading/girls only/spare room.  So far I have sorted stuff into three of the four draws and feel pretty good.  I have some wax stuff I am going to rub onto the draws but it will have to wait. I don't want to paint them as the wood is so lovely and I like the old beaten look of well loved draws.  I spent most of the day sorting through things and deciding on what was to be kept and what was going to be put aside to be taken out to Habitat.  Needless to say there is a pile of goodies in the back of my car to be delivered on Monday.  I was going to continue with my sorting today but with TOF home and the day being a nice one we both ended up outside in the garden.  But I did manage to sort some stuff yesterday into some cane baskets that I had stashed that I knew would come in handy one day, and Friday was that day!!

You may recall the gorgeous little wooden breakfast tray I found in one of my days out.  Well it is perfect on top of the draws with my CD/radio sitting on it and my small basket of trimmings fits underneath.  The bigger basket is going to be the new home for my patterns.  I put loads aside to get rid of, things I will never make again and in ridiculous pre baby sizes which I shall never get to again.  On top of the draws I have folded a huge fringed scarf.  I still have a big task ahead of me to finish this sort out but now planning on doing it through the week on a day when everyone is out of the house.  I need to do this when I am home alone and don't get interrupted.  I have enough trouble keeping myself on track and focused without having anyone else here to side track me.

Today in the garden we had the company of fantails and sparrows flitting about in the trees that have nearly lost all their leaves.  TOF racked and racked up the leaves that had fallen and spread them out in the chickens enclosure.  The girls were mighty pleased with something new to scratch about in and plenty of tasty bugs were there for the picking.  I pruned some plants and then mowed the lawn, and in the day light this time!!  It was a glorious winter day with a blue sky and sunshine but a nippy breeze that reminded me it truly is Winter.  TOF and I are now tucked up inside with the heater on, a Chinese takeaway on order and plans to watch the rugby.  Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Go the All Blacks!!

Solar lights and rain, plenty of rain...

Last night I was trying to get a picture of how cool the solar lights in the Koru garden look, but my flash kept flashing so you don't get to see what I saw!!  Trust me, it looks really magical, soft shards of light emitting across the plants like mini lighthouses!!  I wouldn't mind living in a lighthouse.  There is one for sale at Tasman, top of the south island, wonder if TOF would move??  He is away with work this week so it is just me and my youngest at home.  He took me out for dinner last night, Pita Pit!!  Sweet working boy.  We woke up today to RAIN!!!!  Rain, rain, and more glorious rain!!!

This afternoon in amongst all the rain we even had HAIL!!  With a good solid dose of THUNDER and LIGHTENING!!  I love a good storm I do, and I was intrigued with the pattern the rain was making on the puddles ever growing on the ground out the front.

I enjoyed getting the son to check the letter box in the rain when he arrived home!!! Bless!!  We had my oldest son and his girlfriend around for dinner tonight, I made a bacon and egg pie with lashings of mushrooms, silver beet, tomatoes and cheese in it!!  Yummmmmmm!!!!  Followed with a good old Sarah Lee Apple Crumble with French Vanilla Ice Cream, double Yummmmmmmmm!!!

All the furry children are now camped out in various spots in front of the heater, finally able to relax because all have gone out except me, the quiet one!!  I am sometimes.

Today for work I threw on a gorgeous green poncho over a purple and grey tunic with black leggings and top, with my fabulous purple shoes!  I added some colourful jewellery made my myself.  Rather like the purple and green colour combination!

So now I am chilling in the lounge on the laptop with my wee buddy perched between my feet.  Just been watching a program on Penguins, so funny when they all started to hop rather than waddle!!  I want one!!

**Toodles**

Frolocking good Friday!!

My plan for today was to visit my potter friend Dawn and make a slight detour to the dump shop on my way.  I did both of these and had a jolly good time thanks very much.  At the dump I found an old rusty wheelbarrow which I mass planted up when I finally got home this afternoon.

I had a bag of soil in my shed so emptied the entire contents into the wheelbarrow and then took plants from around my garden and a handful of daffodil bulbs to put in it.  There is a miniature toe toe plant (pronounced toy toy) in the middle, some ivy, nasturtiums, violas, and any seedling I could find.  Should look fabulous when it has grown up!!

As always there was an assortment of newly fired things that had just come out of the kiln at Dawns.  This is a selection of my favourites.  I had a play with some clay making pinch pots with an eye inside on the bottom.  So relaxing and so much fun!!

My pets all gave me a laugh today.  Tex decided he would sleep in the old kids car seat in the garage for the day, cannot have been that comfy as he was just a little to wide for it!!  Oscar got all caught up in a back pack due to him being far to nosy for his own good!!  And Sheba was just stoked to have a new old ball to play with!!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Sometimes you just have to wear your big girls pearls

Faced with the daunting task of doing the grocery shopping this morning, I decided to enlist the support of my big girls pearls!! I have never been a fan of the supermarket but now I seem to be able to do it without having a chronic panic attack. I have found that if I go early it isn't busy and today I must have set myself a PB as I was all done with in 40 minutes. Stoked!!!  I then went to the shopping centre across the road to buy some baby Cyclamen plants.  At the Warehouse they were selling four plants for $10.  I only wanted one but they were all so nice it was hard to not take another three home.  Yesterday I came home with the huge pink spotted cup that I thought would look pretty fab with a baby cyclamen in it.  If you put the thought out into the universe of what you want, and ask kindly, you  can usually be pleasantly surprised to be rewarded with what you want.  For me it was the plants!!

With colours like this you can see why I got four plants!!

So what did I wear with my big girls pearls???

Purple Jacket over my multi coloured dress, with aqua tights, black boots and two dogs!!!

We were off the wall

SuesDay happened today, and Tex thought he should join in and be another brick in the wall with us!!  We took in about 13 op shops today and had a dam fine lunch at the Yardhouse Pub!!

We actually hammed it up after we had been shopping as we had an itinerary to follow today that I had written out.  We left at 9:45am and were done and dusted by 3:30pm.

Today's picking are these!!  Love my new basket!!  And my love of spots continues, the huge pink cup I am going to put a baby Cyclamen, and the jug will house flowers.  Set of seven wooden coasters,  two powder blue Duraware cups and saucers and a dog shape cookie cutter for Oscars biscuits.  The DB Draught Chilly bag stool is for one of my oldest sons mates, and the rolling pin is for my potter friend.

It was a perfect day for being out and about, we even had SUNSHINE!! May it stay.

I had flowers on my legs

I was given these fabulous floral tights by a friend last year but didn't get around to wearing them, so out they came this morning teamed with black and white stripes and a dash of Purple!!

I even slapped on a bit of slop!!  I don't  really do the whole make up thing on a regular basis.  If I had a daughter she would have been mortified at my lack of putting on a face each morning!!!

And my Hyacinths are getting on with the biz of flowering!!!

Had a very busy weekend with too many late nights in a row for me, so I am extremely tired and feeling my age!! Not really but feeling my age just enjoying being under my fur blanket chilling out in the lounge while TOF is putting dinner together, bless his little cotton socks!!

Should have got my act together and caught up on the necessary Zzzzzs  in a few days and back out hunting around the local oppies!!

Toodles all!!

An afternoon with the dead

I arrived an hour early to a rugby game today due to a misunderstanding, the team were to get there at 12 and supports an hour later.  With no rugby boots and armed only with a camera I totally fell into the supporter side of things!!   Next to the ground is an old cemetery, so what was I to do with the hour I had up my sleeve? Visit the dead of course!!

...gone but not forgotten, I think not

...I love how things were big and statement like

...box hedges and park benches all groomed, but sadly not the graves

...old rusted wrought iron with new fences and rambling roses

...some one still visits and cares

...and what do you wear when visiting the dead, purple boots of course.

I suspect this huge old lovely tree has been watching over the adjacent cemetery for a very long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's black and white and red all over?

ok, well not all over, and the red part was only my boots!!

I dragged out an old favourite for today, black and white spots and stripes!!

After kicking about in the leaves on the ground I turned around to see this.....

...the promise of a beautiful day tomorrow!!

I certainly hope so.

My little slice of paradise

TOF headed off to Whangamata early this morning to go fishing, or Hunting for the family as he likes to call it. (he has returned with dinner for a few nights)  Finding myself home alone and quite content to be so I decided to head out doors and do a spot of gardening. With only jandals on my feet and short sleeves I moved buxus and planted Camellias, and got totally side tracked with my camera. Quite a mild day for Winter and a fabulous way to while away the day!!

Garden Art with a lone Bird of Paradise.

Some of Garden friends that hang out with me.

A string of shells from Whangamata, and a group of Hyacinth getting ready to perform.

The girls having a fine old time in TOFs vege plot.

Pots, bird baths, chairs, chiminea, trees and my scarecrow.

My dad made this tiny bird house years ago, he called it the ladybird house.

Hyper-tuffa, pumice and foliage.

Pig full of Hyacinths.

Promise of colour and fruit to come.

Flaxes, jandal solar lights in the shells, scarecrows with toadstools.

Shapes and sculpture blending with nature.

My garden and how it changes with the seasons and time provides me with hours of pleasure.  I enjoy the peace and tranquility that I find when armed with my gardening gloves and a trowel, and of course my trusty camera.