Dressing Up

We love an excuse to dress up. We check out our favourite second hand clothes shops, we buy cheap accessories from the $2.00 shop and we hunt down the perfect pair of shoes or shoelaces or wig. We have shirts printed with logos! Because there are four of us we are very brave about walking down the street or entering a venue looking ridiculous - why should we care? We've had our fun, putting the outfit together!

Last Saturday night was the Rotary Club's changeover night and the theme was Better, Bolder Brighter Blue. SuperRotary Man, the Bold Blue Bustier, Blue Freak Hair and I would have taken prizes for the best costumes if such had been on offer! You might have noticed that I am not as brave or as bold as the others, but man those blue shoes had the highest heels I've ever worn! Terry is standing on tip toes in the photo of us together!

Roll on Thursday - another Rotary Changeover; theme this time - midwinter Christmas!

A Global Quilt Project

I received a letter from Amy Allen, The CEO of Global Change Inc, the other day asking for a couple of quilt blocks to be made for a fund raising quilt. These are the two I have made, 9.5" sq and 12" sq. They both have New Zealand birds in the centre and are surrounded by fabric from a New Zealand fabric jelly roll my son gave me for Christmas. The darker one is the larger, both blocks have 2.75" centres.

The quilt is being made to be auctioned in conjunction with World Toilet Day on November 19th and squares are to be received by August 31st. If anyone is interested in being part of this project, email me and I will pass on Amy's letter. My email is not clickable unfortunately, as it would be harvested by spam bots, but you can read it and type it in :-)

A trip on a jetboat

For Christmas last year we gave Sarah, Aimee, Jessica and my father, vouchers for a jet boat ride on the Whanganui River. We booked the Havoc trip to the Flying Fox with Brent Firmin of the Spirit of the River Jet Boat Tours. This is a one hour trip up the beautiful Whanganui River, one hour at the Flying Fox for coffee and muffins and a little tour around and then another hour back on the river. Unfortunately it rained on the day we went this time. That only meant we didn't get many photos, we still enjoyed it and it did let up a bit while we were at the Flying Fox.

The two girls and Sarah were given a ride on the flying fox - half way out over the river. There is no road access to the house, all people and supplies are brought by boat or by road to the other side of the river and then winched over on the flying fox.

And why am I just showing you these photos now? 4 months after the event? because the camera we used to take these photos was, um, mislaid, until very recently. Until I had to get the backpacks out for our trip to Sydney actually. Last time they were used was, oh, in January for a trip on the river I think!

Shoot for the Stars

I have been giving all the little ones in my family a bed quilt on their fifth birthday. Andrew happened to get one much earlier in his life plus he has the quilts his brothers were given when they turned five. So I decided he could have a wall hanging instead. I asked what his passions were and heard about rockets and spaceships. I am still experimenting with woven quilt backgrounds and spots look like stars so this has lots of woven spots and a spaceship - and the globe shows Australia as that is where he lives. Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew's mother Nadeeka has blogged about his reaction to the quilt.

Two Excellent Trades

Terry and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary in February this year.

 We decided to treat ourselves to a red table setting - red for a ruby wedding and red for a large family gathering at Christmas. We found a lovely red tablecloth and  red and cream runner but although we searched for a long time we could not find the table mats that we wanted. I decided I would have to make some but I haven't had much time for sewing over the last year or so and I wasn't hopeful I would get them made any time soon.

Then a lovely lady from Canada wrote asking if we would consider a trade. She wanted some delphinium seed and wondered if we would like to take something from her Etsy shop in exchange. We don't normally do this but she asked at the right time, offering the right thing. Elizabeth of Lilybeth Goodies has made me 12 table mats and 12 napkins. I chose the fabric for the mats from an online source and Elizabeth took it from there. (Oh, and before you tell me that I've set the table wrongly, the small knife and fork are on the inside because they are for dessert - pancakes with feijoas and almonds and greek yoghurt).

They are beautifully made - Jennifer and I spent ages last night trying to work out how the mitred corners on the napkins were done. Just imagine it - 48 tiny little mitred corners on those 12 napkins! Amazing! I'm totally happy with the trade. Thanks Elizabeth! I hope you get as much pleasure from your delphinium seed as we will from the work you've done for us.

 

 And this is our dining room with the table set for Sunday night dinner. Can you see the other new addition? Yes, the doors have arrived from France - but they haven't been installed on the cabinet yet, that's for another day :-) Aren't the colours perfect? It was very exciting when they arrived all beautifully packed in a wooden box.I will show you more and better photos of the doors when they are installed on the cabinet.

Here is a picture of the quilt in its new home - Christine writes that its perfect with the colours of her room. So that was a happy trade too!