Taking Stock

Making : A sock, a blck cardigan, cross stitching
Cooking : not a lot - little food in the house!
Drinking : endless cups of tea (Brisbane breakfast - very mango-ish)
Reading: university notes (depserate to read "The Rosie Effect")
Wanting: to be stress free
Looking: at the Orla Kiely website
Playing: with DMC threads
Deciding: which mock esay to write next
Wishing: Novmeber 6 was here (day after exam and kid's birthday)
Enjoying: the hols
Waiting: for all 3 boys to wake up
Liking: the school hols
Wondering: what Term 4 will bring
Loving: school hols
Pondering: how to make myslef more motivated
Considering: what Orla Kiely items to buy
Watching: the trees
Hoping: i get motivated to study
Marvelling: how easy kids ar entertained in front of a screen....(not good)
Needing: more time
Smelling: soap form Castlemaine, VIC
Wearing: home made pjs
Following: new blogs
Noticing: spring arriving
Knowing: not much university wise
Thinking: how to get everything done
Admiring: hte husband cooking night after night...
Sorting: boys bedrooms
Buying: littlest VISA bill in months :) - not buying much at all
Getting: slowly through a holiday list
Bookmarking: new blogs
Disliking: little movitvation
Opening: groovy and fun mail
Giggling: at children
Feeling: exahausted
Snacking: ripper chutney made by a friend with cheese and crackers
Coveting: Orla Kiely
Wishing: November 6 was here
Helping: no-one much at all
Hearing: drums from a bedroom

Mollie Makes Givewaway

It is a bit of a sort out of the house these school holidays. I have huge amounts of magazines and have decided to give my Mollie Makes collection away. Quite a few still have the little kits on the overs too. I have so little time for craft and with another 3 university papers planned over the next year around virtually fulltime work, my family, and school board requirements, little will be done.

This is a giveaway for residents of New Zealand only. If you do have an issue missing, tell me the number and i'll see what I can do. I'll split them all up between a few of you - it will be a surprise. The magazines are all in excellent condition. (I had better photocopy the few knitting patterns I'd like to keep).

Just leave a comment below - I'd like to get them posted during the hols sometime - let's make the cut off date of Tuesday October 7 for comments.

From your home to mine - Swap

Awhile ago I joined in with the "From your home to mine" swap on Betty's blog.
I was paired with the lovely Elizabeth http://frenchvillagelife.blogspot.co.nz/who lives in Cornwall, England.

I love this sort of swap and finding what someone likes and what I can find to suit them from my country.

I sent Elizabeth a shower cap which i sewed with pohutukawa flower fabric (the NZ Christmas tree)' Twinings New Zealand Earl Grey tea (this seems very popular with overseas friends), I swapped the chocolate out for some more NZ lollies as Elizabeth is not fond of chocolate, a kiwi card drawn by my youngest, postcards, my favourite NZ soap - Ecostore and a kiwi keyring.

About 3 weeks back i received an amazing package back. We have been to Cornwall many, many years ago and I loved pouring over the maps and brochures and guide magazine that was sent (still pouring over them - i remember Polperro), some Cornish tea (how neat is that?! The only tea grown in England), some DMC cross stitch cottons (just started cross stitching again tonight for the first time in months), a great box of neat writing cards, the most adorable heart with Cornish lavendar  in it - it smells divine and is now hanging up in our wardrobe, some soap, a tea towel with Cornish scenes. It was quite the package (opened in the school office with lots of admirers!)

I have misplaced the memory stick with the goodies on that Elizabeth sent me - hopefully I will find it during the big sort out in the school hols!

Thank you so much Elizabeth for a great swap and to Betty for hosting it.

Anyone know of any swaps taking sign ups at the moment? I have not done one for a couple of months now.

a limit/ election

Yesterday i took a day off work. Just to be. Work is awesome. It is my university work and everything else that has been driving me crazy. My essay draught is back and I need to fix up the "slash and burn" from the writing assessment and want it in by Sunday night - not quite a week late, but late. I have vowed and declared that I will never ever put another assignment in late again. I think it causes even more stress. I have another summer paper to do and another two in my head to sign up for in 2015. Just waiting for 2015 enrolment to open on October 1st. School will pay for one too - yay!

So my day off was good for me. Sitting by the fire, catching up on uni work, baking a banana loaf, a bit of knitting. Only me at home - i love that! This past week has seen a flurry of knitting - finally have my orange socks finished - I know i started these a year ago - yikes! One discloth started and finished and another 3/4 done and another new sock started. This is the heather colour pair - a Cascades 220 wool - my first ever pair in 8 ply. I have woven in the orange merino which has some nylon in it, to give a bit of structure/ stretch around the heel. Loving them. Most definintely a boot sock. Love the garter stitch up the front of the sock. Might have to modify the pattern for some 4 ply wool too.

New books- Kristin Hersh's biography -we saw her a week ago - WOWEE. (and are seeing Neil Finn tomorrow night too. Yay. And TOTALLY gutted that I found out too late about Hunters and Collectors playing in November - wah. No more tickets. Really gutted. They are incredible live.)
and Kinfolk magazine - gorgeous and more a book really.

It is election day tomorrow - I have very strong views on politics - we were talking today at school about how we feel most kiwi parents are totally in the dark over the dire way education is heading in New Zealand. All I want is people to vote for our children's future - I'm not happy at people voting for themselves, but that is me.... I know my children will leave NZ after university. Things are getting so much harder for a lot of kiwis and thing won't improve if we get a repeat government. I like this A LOT -

http://bryanbruce.co.nz/blog/election-2014/how-create-child-friendly-parliament-voting-strategically

Anyhow.. please vote at least. Have a good weekend - one more week till school hols - whoop!

Stuff

I cannot believe how crazy these last two weeks have been.

I single handely organised 4 authors to visit school in one day - a huge exhausting job but a brilliant day.

Essay writing - I have an extension. Great but will get me a bit more behind with general study.

I'm not sure much is being achieved - study every night but not enough. And feeling too guilty to do much else!

Little knitting all winter. (but a tiny bit of sock knitting on plane and a bit this week to try and stop me biting my fingernails. That did not work...)

A tip of a house. A TIP. Horrific. Floors need to be washed. Two weeks of laundry to sort. Laundry outside in the rain as drier can not cope with backlog.

An oven with a door which no longer closes properly.

Kid to hospital appointments - boy howdy do i like our health system. It has delievered much more than i expected for our aspergers (mild on spectrum) kid. The help is there.

Soccer prizegiving.

School interviews.

Birthdays.

Music events after school.

No food in the house - baking after school yesterday to have something to eat.

New Jamie Oliver goodies from supermarket stickers. (any other suckers for this or the New World promotion?)

Two new gorgeous books - NZ Sampler book and a NZ cookbook (Thank you The Warehouse for cheaper prices!).

Now it is the countdown to school holidays in 2 weeks time. Last thing to do is really get that essay out...

Feilding op shops

I flew into Palmerston North early in the afternoon, so I could run around Feilding with my mother and look at the op shops. There are a few and they are all good. I left behind Crown Lynn as decided I did not really need it... but these are the items I did bring home for the sum of $8.80. A pair of pillow cases for $1.00. A Sheridan single sheet for $3. A Duchess bone china trinket dish in mint condition for $4 and 4 souvneir teaspoons at 20 cents each. Love them all. (had 18 degrees today and I have washed and dried about 7 loads of washing outside - yippee). Pillow cases on bed already. Husband not a fan of retro linen but I am. I rarely go to op shops these days as uni work takes precedint on a weekend... School hols are the only time I get to op shops usually. The Feilding ones were real treasure troves. Have you had any op shop finds lately?

Brain overload

I've spent 3 days down at Massey University for a "contact" course for my stage 3 NZ history paper.
It was full on. Lots of talk about colonisation, Treaty of Waitangi, Resource management Act, 19th century acts, Maori figures, Treaty settlements, agency, hegemony etc etc. Still taking it all in. it was incredible really. i thought I knew quite a bit, but have come home going no way.

Time away from my family. Time spent with my parents. That was interesting. (see them 3-4 times a year now). Time spent driving a rental car (an automatic - I'm a manual- stick shift- kinda girl...) and navigating my way round rural roads, a city I am not that familiar with. Lots of good things.

It is great to be home. Just doing home stuff. Haircuts. Too much laundry with rain. The oldest has gone to his first ever concert (Queen) with a mate tonight. An essay to still write (all day in lectures left me not doing a thing at night). The husband is away in the Solomon Islands though.

The best building on campus - oh I could have tested their wool for them. And in the epicentre of all things. (actually on the edge of campus.) Have you ever tried to find your car in an enormous car park?? I was getting a bit worried. then i get to the airport car park at 11.30pm to drive home, and again have no recollection of where I had parked my car - solution? Stand on suitcase (being short) and push your key to unlock car and you can see your car lights flash in the car park - ar found. Yay.)

My parents are collectors - there are collections of things all over the house, glass, wood, textiles, crafts, blankets, quilts, trinkets, thimbles,books, piles of books, magazines, piles of records etc - I adore their stuff. Great op-shops too in their town I'll show you the few items i bought another day.