Small town New Zealand beauty

Katikati - a small country town with the most beautiful historic murals. A 5 minute jump out of the car to take these. And then back into the car to carry on knitting.

Productivity

I may not have much motivation to jump in the car and take the boys somewhere much these hols, but I have had a ton of motivation to do some crafting.

5 pairs of winter pj pants in a few days. One last pair cut out and ready to sew. This should keep the boys going for another year or two I think! And it probably is time for me to get my machine serviced too.

Love the fabric - I have enough winter pj pants for me for ever!

Cast on a pair of socks too after finishing another pair yesterday. For the youngest , who when he saw me sewing today (pj pants for him) , told me to stop sewing and get knitting! Hee hee.

And the youngest sweet kid made me bacon and eggs for lunch. He just gets in the kitchen and cooks when he is hungry!

Rainbow

A rainbow of colours to choose my new lounge curtains and dining room roman blinds to be made from. Going bright orange - husband said straight away the colour I loved too! Yay.

Might even get the boys to choose their favourite colours and eventually get around to decent roman blinds in their rooms too.  (must say The Warehouse curtains in one room have been great at only $40 a pair!)

And tea. Love tea , although was getting very worried there for a while - all I have been able to taste after tea, is the creamy taste - for hours on end. Switched to trim "milk" - the green lidded stuff which I barley call milk as so watery! Found a gorgeous tea shop in Wellington.

And oh - Wellington! Days after I left the poor capital city has been hit by a swarm of earthquakes - the biggest one around 6.2. Luckily not too much damage - it was centred in Seddon, Marlborough at the top of the South Isalnd - I think the poor South Islanders are a bit sick of the fact that all the country is hearing is about Wellington! Remember one of my photos re a building being yellow stickered? I have fond memories of Cuba Mall from library school in 1990-92.

Favourite auntie

Impulsive sewing here - 2 pairs of pyjama pants for me yesterday and today a pillowcase for my nephew Harry. He LOVeS tractors and can tell you make and model. Spends hours watching real tractors in action on you tube etc. I gave him a Siku tractor for his birthday and he took it down to the Field Days and sat on the real tractor with it and told the tractor people all about it too. 

I think I may be the favourite aunt with this pillow case this afternoon!

An award for me!

At the recent New Zealand School Library Conference held n Wellington, I was thrilled to be awarded a  Merit Award for the Promotion of Literacy and Enjoyment of Reading.

I knew I had been nominated by several colleagues and students but it was still a surprise to hear my name called out ! (hence no photos as it all happened ver fast!)

I am absolutely stoked and very happy! I put a lot into my job and love my school and students. I think I arguably have one of the best school libraries! I have an amazing up to date stock and let the students buy books right there and then ( e- mailing the order to Time Out Book store in Mt Eden or through the Book Depository). It is a library with books the students will read.

School libraries can be very under funded - or NOT funded at all. There is no government mandate that says a school in NZ has to even have a library or that the person running it has to qualified. Many schools have a mum or teacher aide who quite often or not has no idea at all how to run a library (that is not to say that some don't do a great job, but I have seen many libraries where my students would riot and really would have nothing to read in it.)

I am one of the few qualified and professionally registered librarians working in a primary school round New Zealand! 

My library has been had a huge improvement since I arrived at this school four years ago and there are always things to do / improve on.

Please ask your school board re funding / status of your librarian ; if your school does not have a library, demand one and ask the board to put aside funding for a staff member next year!

There are many grants out there ; community boards; Lions; Rotart; school mufti days; sausage sizzles (the Mad Butcher/ Huttons will donate sausages to schools usually) to get funds for books. Schools can never have enough more resources.

School librarians also appreciate any help from anyone! 

We really are very under paid and also seen at the bottom of the pile in the library profession, but I love my job and at this stage could not go back to a council job (where I was once a branch library manager ).

A little Saturday sewing

A new cushion cover sewn from the old NZ vintage wool blanket I picked up for $5 from a Mangere op shop a week ago.

A little bit of stitching on it too - my first free hand stitching for years.

A lot more of this blanket to use - possibly more covers for friend's birthdays and hot water bottle covers too!

I love it!

Free time

It always takes me a wee while to get into the swing of the school holidays. One week is nearly over for state schools but I am only on day two. I feel very sorry for the two oldest who have now been on holiday for 2 weeks and done not a thing... 

I think today we might go and do a bit of geo caching in another suburb and find a good cafe. 

Wellington - I jut adore that city! 20 years ago I was a student at teachers college in Karori doing my library qualification. I met up with a good friend from library school days at the conference and we hung out a bit together reminiscing about the old days!

An amazing conference - a highlight for me being a guy called Andrew Fiu who is Samoan and got rheumatic fever at 14 and spent weeks in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. He has in fact had 6 open heart surgeries. The arrival of the NZ Herald every day in the hospital was a biggie - basically he had very low reading skills and listening to older men talking bout current events led him to become a reader. He was a huge inspiration . My school has public health nurses and it was reported only two days ago the shockingly high rates of strep throat that have been picked up in South Auckland schools from the throat swabs that these nurses undertake. At last something is being done about it.

Lots of other amazing sessions on working with Maori and Pasifika in libraries, chital literacy, outcomes of a child's life being a reader vs a non reader, inquiry learning etc.

I did sneak away from one session and do a quick run around the cbd, but there was still so much missed. Dinner at Te Papa was incredible - check out the dessert plate! I hope to get back to Wellington in a week or two just to be free to roam and explore more!

Man alive I swear the cases are so much cheaper down there - cooked breakfast for $13, scramble eggs for $10! LOVeD the cafe Make at the National Library , just up from Parliament (the Beehive building.) Wellington has such a different feel to Auckland and I like it!

Wool love

I trekked all along Lambton Quay in Wellington to the Knit World wool shop down in Cuba Mall in a little lane. Bit disappointed at the selection there (Henderson shop a lot more variety) , however I did find some gorgeous new wool under the Zealana brand only available in Wellington or Christchurch shops.

Bought a gorgeous fingering weight I've wool and 2 balls of worsted weight in different colours - noida what I will make with either yet.

Socks outside getting dry (or not a bit dull in Auckland today!) - ooh the delicious colours - all mostly knitted by me! (all my boys adore knitted socks!)

A pile of my hand knitted hats, cowls, socks, fingerless gloves in my bedroom to put away.

And I managed to knit my way through the conference (mainly the keynote speakers) taking notes as well. A sock for a friend's upcoming birthday!

Must get back to my neglected cardigan!