A Few Finishes & This Week

I finished up another pair of socks last week, just in time for my lovely MIL's birthday.

Details: Winwick Mum's Basic Sock
Yarn: Opal Fresh & Juicy 9362
Needle Size: 2.5mm
Size: Medium

I have been using these great free printable labels for my gifted socks.

Last Sunday we celebrated Heather's birthday with a family afternoon tea and birthday cake. A really fun time for Hannah to hang out with her cousins. Heather just loved her socks and my sister in law Jude was very impressed with them too - little does she know that I have some yarn set aside to make a pair for her birthday coming up in July.





                        

This little finish was from a few weeks ago, the first in the latest Blackbird Designs series.

I'm not sure how I'll finish this but probably into a small frame?

My annual ornament stitching is off to a very slow start this year. I have several designs picked out to stitch though so will be working on one or two over the next few weeks.  This gorgeous design by Brenda Gervais has been such a lovely stitch.

Well it had to happen some time - Hannah decided she'd like to learn how to knit! We found some needles and some wool from my stash and spent a few hours last Saturday evening getting underway.
Watch this space as to how it goes!

 I picked up several books from the library I had on reserve earlier in the week including this one:

See you soon xx

All Sorts of Things #2

The last kit for the current round of the Silver Needle's Stitching Circle arrived recently and this time it's by The Drawn Thread. I just love this design and can't wait to get it started - its been quite some time since I've stitched anything by the Drawn Thread. 

Also included was the cutest little ort jar, and a Quilt Dots needle minder with a print of the stitched design, how lovely. 

The next chart in the latest Blackbird Designs Loose Feather club has arrived too, loving this series so far.

My stitching mojo disappeared there for a bit but I now have several new little projects on the go. This the lovely kit that Clare gave me for my birthday.

I haven't done any redwork stitchery this year yet so this cute design is in my hoop at the moment. It's a Natalie Bird design and is from a Simply Vintage magazines a few years ago.

I have also made a start on this one over the long weekend.

Three skeins of Circus Tonic Handmade hand dyed yarn goodness arrived in the mail earlier this week from Sydney and they are gorgeous.

If you'd like to check out what I've been reading over the past few months follow the link to my Goodreads page on the right hand side bar. This pile came home with me from the local annual charity book sale recently, should keep me going over the winter months.

Read any good books lately?

See you soon xx

Weekend in Auckland

Hello again - it's almost a month since my last post and what a month it's been! A fantastic trip to Auckland, helping my parents move house, Hannah being unwell for a week, a work seminar to go to, being struck down with the flu and laryngitis myself for a week and still not feeling 100 %, and now it looks like round two for Hannah as we're home from school and work again today. And it's only just the beginning of Winter!

The recent Queen's birthday weekend was a very low key one for us, we didn't venture out very far. I did spend a few hours out in the gardens, to get some fresh air and sunshine after being cooped up inside for the week, and everything now is ready for winter. We have a few vegetable seedlings in the garden - celery, spinach, silverbeet, leeks, cauliflowers, broccoli, but they are growing very slowly after the last few cool weeks. 

Back in late May Glenn and I flew up to Auckland for the weekend with our friends Rose and Brendon.  We stayed at the Metro Suites Appartments, which were only a short stroll away from everything we had planned for the weekend.

After a miserable rainy Friday, we woke up to a sunny day on Saturday and a great view from our room.

Rose and I found the T2 shop and happily spent an hour or so in there tasting a few samples and having a very interesting chat with the sales assistant.

Saturday lunch time, we had arranged to meet up with some Auckland friends for lunch so had a lovely walk along the water front in the sunshine.

The Sky Tower

Lunch was at Miss Clawdy's and was absolutely delicious.

After a leisurely afternoon of walking about it was time to find some dinner and get ready for the concert we were going to.

Wahoo, Greenday!  We've been big fans for a long time and it was absolutely awesome to finally see them live in concert.

What a great night we had - just loved it and would happily go again if they come back to New Zealand.

After breakfast Sunday morning it was time to catch our shuttle out to the airport for our flight back to Napier. What a perfect day for flying home, back to Hawkes Bay.


Lake Taupo

Napier, Hawkes Bay.

What a fun weekend get away.

See you soon x

Hannah turns 9

On Sunday 7th May, Hannah turned 9 - how did she grow so fast, I'm sure it was just yesterday she was a sweet tiny baby!

We celebrated with presents at silly o'clock in the morning, then followed by a morning out at Flip Out up in Hastings with her friend Abigail.

Of course, sushi was the girls' choice for lunch

Later in the day we invited Hannah's grandparents and cousins for afternoon tea. This year Hannah wanted to make her own cake, she chose an orange lightning cake, and decorated it herself too.

Haven't these girls all grown so much. My youngest niece also celebrated her birthday this week on Monday.

See you soon x

All Sorts of Things

Some new sock yarn arrived from the Wool Warehouse in the UK recently, mostly Opal but I also purchased two balls of the Stylecraft sock yarn to try out sometime.

Just as well I've been having a major sort through my craft cupboards lately to make way for all this lovely yarn. I've donated quite a few bags of all sorts of crafty goodies to our local op shop - magazines, bits and pieces that I'll never use or not use because my tastes, and interests have changed. Sure feels good!

Yay, one sock down, one to go. I've put these aside for now to start on a pair of socks for my lovely mother in law. They definitely won't be finished in time for Mother's Day, which is this coming Sunday in New Zealand, but maybe in time for her June birthday.

This is Part 2 of the Moorland Blanket, which I finished last week. Part 3 is almost done now. I think I've mentioned this is going to be a gift for my cousin Donna's 40th birthday in a few weeks time. It might not be finished in time but it won't be far off, so I thought I'd print one of these off to give to her :)

A new variety of chocolate arrived at our local supermarket last week, Toffee Milk Bar. Whittakers chocolate, any sort, lol, is a particular favourite in our house so we tried it out - a big thumbs up from all of us.

In other news, two busy weekends coming up for us - Glenn and I are flying to Auckland this Friday with friends for a couple of days. Then next weekend we'll be helping my parents move house, and the cool thing, they are actually moving in to our street!

See you soon x

School Holidays

Hannah is now back at school for Term 2 after the two week school holidays. This year both Easter and ANZAC public holidays fell during the two weeks so Glenn and I didn't take any time off work, we're saving our annual leave for later in the year. Hannah spent a few days with Zoe, her cousins and a few days coming to work with me. 

But we did head away for a small Girls break with my good friend Tracey and her daughter Abigail, who is one of Hannah's best friends, to Palmerston North. We were only away one night but we sure packed a lot in!

Starting with a visit to Flip City, an indoor trampoline park - heaps of fun!

Followed by lunch at the Plaza and shopping - Hannah had been saving all her pocket money for weeks :)

New shoes for all of us, and Hannah picked out her birthday present, the latest Sketchers light ups, co cool :)

Sunday night we went out for dinner to Gengy's, which is a Mongolian BBQ restaurant.

Tracey and Abigail stayed at a motel and we stayed with Donna and Jess. We didn't see a lot of them over the two days but we enjoyed the brief visit catching up and a delicious breakfast at one of Palmerston's cafes called Joe's Garage.

The rest of Monday morning was spent at the Ice Skating rink. This had been set up for a few weeks in the Square and the girls had so much fun.  It was getting quite warm by the end of their session so there were quite a few puddles around the rink.

They also checked out the snow globe:

After lunch we headed to the Esplanade Gardens and park for a train ride and play.

Before long it was time to pack up the car and head home. The girls had a wonderful time hanging out with each other, lots of giggling and laughs.  Another fun trip to Palmy.

Until next time xx