but not so far

Yesterday was Auckland Anniversary Day and a public holiday where I live. So, in my quest for more holidays this year, we spent the day with friends on beautiful Waiheke Island. We walked the sculpture trail, tasted a little local wine, bought local produce - olive oil, honey, lemons and plums - and swam in the sea. Hoorah to that!

The minty drink is nimbu pani made from lemons I bought up North last week and some sugar and salt. It's an Indian summer drink similar to lemonade. Some of my work colleagues just love it so I had to try it for myself. I made this recipe from Sailu's Kitchen. It did taste a little bit electrolyte-sports-drink but I think the lemonade lemons I used are sweeter than regular lemons. Apparently they can be eaten straight off the tree like an orange so probably not a good choice for nimbu pani. We drank it all, but next time I might try limes or, perhaps, Waiheke lemons.

already a holiday

These photos were taken while staying 'up North' for a few days - the first of many holidays to come, I hope. The weather was wonderful and we swam in the ocean which I love to do.

Reading A moveable feast by Ernest Hemingway + Watching Girls, season 2

backwards and forwards

Hello again and Happy New Year. It's nice to be back.
This is most of the stuff I made last year. Sock monkeys and baby gifts feature heavily but I'm pretty pleased with what I got done. This year I'd like to do more sewing, do more yoga, take more holidays and learn to use my camera. How about you - any resolutions?

Reading The great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald + Eating lots of fresh summer vegies from the garden + Listening to Laibach

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year.
I really appreciate it.

 I wish you all holiday happiness and bright days ahead.

I'm going to take a wee blog break and I'll see you again in mid-January.

bears and blankies

These cotton baby blankies were inspired by these flannel receiving blankets at Purl Bee and motivated by two pre-Xmas baby showers - first one tomorrow. I modified the pattern to just 1sc, 1 ch all round and I used a #10 cotton with a 1.5mm hook. I'm quite pleased with the simple look but SewChic has several patterns available for some nice fancier edgings. The bears are made from gloves like this one.

Time now to focus on Christmas. How are your preparations going?

Reading Are you my mother? by Alison Bechdel + Eating strawberries fresh from the garden

new things

Here are some new pieces for my Crown Lynn collection. I bought the cups and saucers from Aunty Mavis. I think they are 1980s and probably from the 'Avondale' range but I'm not certain. The egg cups - I've been collecting for a while, buying the odd one here and there.

The dog is not Crown Lynn and even though it looks a lot like a Staffordshire poodle I'm sure it's a fake. It does have "made in England" stamped on the base but, more interestingly, it also has a red and gold sticker that says "Selected at Eunice Chick Gift Shoppe, 31 Wellesley St., Akld." All I've been able to find out is that the shop was demolished along with other buildings in 1963 to make way for the new library. The dog itself is pretty weird with a strange almost human face and a sad (or is it aloof?) expression. But I think it's wonderful. I should give him/her a name. What do you think?

Also purchased at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair on Saturday - did you go? - were two sets of "Summer flower papercut" cards by Melissa from tiny happy and the latest copy of extra curricular. Extra curricular has some of Melissa's water colours in it and a tutorial by Joanna Davies on how to make a terrarium. Terrariums would make great Chrissie presents, I reckon.

rhubarb and strawberries

 

The rhubarb and strawberries "appeared" on my kitchen bench yesterday - harvested by my husband from his garden. I'd wanted to try rhubarb and strawberries together so this was obviously the time to do it. And, weirdly, I'd been reading about rhubarb and ginger crumble over at tiny happy. So I made a crumble with them using this recipe from the BBC Good Food website. It was delicious! I substituted lemon zest for orange and left out the pine nuts because we didn't have any. And we ate ours with Greek yoghurt. So good.

The flowers are peonies. Sadly, it's not cold enough to grow them here in Auckland so these are not from my garden. They must be one of my favourite flowers. They remind me of those over-the-top still life paintings of vases crammed with flowers and set against dark backgrounds like these ones.

Reading All made up by Janice Galloway + Listening to Claimed by the sea by French for rabbits + Watching Homeland season 2