Long time between posts

It's been quite a few weeks since my last post and the weeks are rolling by so quickly, can't get my head around the fact that it is December this Sunday, the first official day of summer here, and now only three weeks until my summer holidays start.  As of this evening, after prizegiving, Hannah will be finished high school for the year. She recently sat her Level 1 exams, and this coming Saturday morning has her annual end of the year dance show, which I always love going to. 

The last few weeks have been filled with a few trips away, celebrations and as always, lots of stitching.

I'm looking forward the 2024 Jingle Ball getting underway from the 7th December and this year I purchased three of the classes, yay, PDF charts, as kits are not available to overseas stitchers. I don't think I'll have the stitched pieces ready for the finishing classes over the weekend but each class does come with instructions, which I'll use when I'm ready to finish the stitching.

One of the classes is Hashtag Joy by Cathy from Hands on Designs, which I got underway recently.

One of my friends made me a new project bag recently from this cute fabric I'd bought from my local sewing shop.

Another friend had made these lovely strawberry fobs so I was able to get one for my little scissors.

My sewing machine has been getting bit of work out lately as I'm getting all my gift stitching made up. Primrose Cottage Stitches featured a tutorial for these easy thread catchers a few months ago so I decided to make up a few to add to friends pressies. You can find the video here.

In other stitching news, I had a small parcel arrive with two of the new Brenda Gervais charts, these will be my December projects, and a fat quarter of Picture this Plus Legacy Linen. I'm excited too because a recent order from 123 Stitch should be delivered any day with some fabrics, accessories and a chart I've been wishing for ages, I'll share this next time.

Glenn and I had another trip to Auckland recently, this time for the Pearl Jam concert, which was awesome!

The start of Christmas shopping

We took the ferry across Auckland Harbour one morning and had a stroll around Devonport, before enjoying coffee and cake at one of the cafes there.

Unexpectedly, due a cancelled flight, we had an additional night in Auckland, so we were able to catch up with some friends for dinner, one of whom we hadn't seen in few years.

Going back to where I left off in my last post, we were heading out to the beach for the first trip of the season in our campervan. We had to change locations due to the many other campervans all ready parked up but found a great spot at another of our local beaches, Porangahau.  

We had a wonderful few days, the weather was hot and sunny, and really enjoyed the break. Fishing, lots of beach walks, good food and company with our friends. 

I had to share this photo of myself and a dear family friend, Alison. Many years ago, when I was in my last year of university, I boarded with Alison, her husband Cliff and their two young children.  

I love my time staying with them, no stress, just a warm home, family meals and always, a ride to an from uni when I needed one, or missed the bus! Alison's Mum is a good friend of my Mum's so a short time ago, we met for lunch with some other friends. It was a wonderful catch up as it had been several years since we'd last seen each other. 

Each year I like to see which of our roses flowers first, and for the third year in a row, it was the divine smelling Friesia rose. 

This is Courage, gifted to us by friends when Glenn's Mum passed away. 

My number one favourite, Blackberry Nip.

Earlier this week, I headed along to see Wicked at our local movie theatre, and absolutely loved it. I think I'll go again during the holidays!

Finally for today, a very special occasion at my work a few weeks back, we celebrated our 30th anniversary of our disability service. It was a lovely afternoon attended by our mayor, deputy mayor and other invited guests.  This beautiful cake tasted delicious and was enjoyed by everyone.

See you soon xx

New stitching starts and poor Diesel!

Hello friends, each year I look forward to joining the Tiny Modernist's mystery Christmas stitch along, which gets underway on the 1st September. Parts are released each month leading up to Christmas. 

This year's design is a Christmas Cuckoo Clock - looks like I'm in for a lot of stitching on this one!

My fabric choice is 32 count Vintage Grey Belfast linen, which I was able to buy at my local sewing shop, Curtis Fabrics.

My stitching so far

I also decided to start this sweet design on the weekend, the threads in this design are so pretty.

Spring time here in Central Hawkes Bay means it's the annual Spring Fling time, with various events being held throughout September and October. This Saturday's event was a market held at one of our local parks with lots of stalls, food trucks, and entertainment. Hannah and I went along with my friend Sherryn, and we had a lovely time strolling around in the sunshine. So many people out and about.

 

Hannah had her annual dancing exams over the weekend too, jazz and ballet, and she was very happy how they went.  

We went along to our local movie theatre Saturday night to see the new Beetlejuice movie, which was bit of a laugh, quite cheesy. I was a teenager when the first movie came out, I don't know how many times I would have watched it. I also used to love watching any movie with Winona Ryder in it.

Glenn has made a great job on getting the small deck done off our laundry.  The boxing part to the left of this photo will eventually be a small garden.

Poor Diesel, he was so unwell late last week, which was very worrying We'd noticed a few days earlier he seemed really lethargic and snorting a lot, and then on Friday morning, he was making some loud "coughing" noises. I was able to drop him into our vets on my way to work Friday morning and after a thorough check up, Glenn was able to collect him after lunch, three lots of medication and lots of $$ later, it turns out he has an ear infection again, skin irritations and congestion. After lots of care and attention, and the medicines kicking in, this week he is a lot better and will go back to the vets on the weekend for another check up. 

See you soon x

A Merry Pair and Bathroom Update

This was such a fun stitch - such bright, happy colours, and sparkly beads and sequins.  This kit by Satsuma Street was from the Silver Needle's Stitching Circle Club and after quite a delay, finally arrived in the letter box a few weeks ago.  

I think I'll have to buy a few of the other ornaments designs, they all look so cute!

Next time I get a chance to sit at my sewing machine I'll make it into a small pillow using the supplies included in the kit by Lois from Lady Dot Creates - so pretty.

 

As I mentioned last time, we have quite a few renovation projects happening in our house.  We received news last week that our permit has been granted for the new fire place to be installed, not sure when this will be happening.

The other big job on the go is the redo of our shower/toilet and this is major - new ceiling, new shower, new toilet, new hand basin and vanity, and new wall paneling all to go in.  Glenn is carrying out most of this work himself, with help from his Dad, and work to be done by our plumber and electrician.

So here's Week 1's progress:

Several years ago we had two major water leaks happen, one in the ceiling and one in the wall behind the toilet.

Here's Week 2's: some of the paneling in (what a job lifting it in!)

Our new shower was installed Saturday so it's either been showers in the camper van or across the road at my parents. Glenn gets to try it out tonight!

Hannah, my Mum and I went along to see the new Top Gun Maverick movie and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Have a good week, see you soon x

This & That

 The end of another week is here and as I don't have a lot of stitching, or any other crafting to share this week I thought I'd post about a few new arrivals and various happenings at our place.

At the end of last week I received a gorgeous, squishy parcel of yarn, from up the road, ha ha, in Napier from Skeinz. They have recently relocated and I couldn't resist checking out their relocation sale. I can't wait to go and visit their new shop, it looks wonderful, and to see all of the gorgeous NZ yarn they stock.

Most of this yarn is intended for gift knitting, including several How Quiet Hat and mitts sets. This lovely pattern is by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade and is from the 2018 Knitvent series.

Cadbury released this limited edition chocolate last week and we gave it a try - pineapple lumps are a kiwi favourite. We gave it a thumbs up!

Miss H has been an extremely busy girl of late. She auditioned for her school's production show and was given a part in her class's version of Cinderella - Boogierella.  Hannah's whole school performed in the show, 335 children, and they did 3 shows for the community last week. A great time commitment for the teachers, helpers and children, it was a wonderful show, great music and lots of laughs, they all did so well.

Hannah also recently competed in her school's annual cross country race and because of her placing, she was then selected for the inter school cross country race, featuring students from other schools in our community.

It's nearing the time of the year for her dancing exams, they are at the end of the month, so Hannah had a full on weekend of mock exams for jazz, tap and ballet.

 

She absolutely loves her dancing classes this year.

This week, she was away on her school camp for three days, and all the kids had a blast - mud run, raft building, bush walks, toasting marshmellows. It sounds like they had an awesome time.

We've enjoyed some sunny spring weather this week and I have two vases of beautiful spring flowers on my desk at work - daffodils and freesias, so pretty and such a lovely scent.

 Last night my Mum and I, with one of our dear friends Linda, went along to see the Downton Abbey movie.

Being Downton Abbey fans from way back, the movie was so good. The costumes and jewellery were amazing, and we all enjoyed it. Are you a Downton Abbey fan?

See you soon xx