new sweet things

Of course I did a wee bit of shopping in Australia. Shoes - my (first) pair of (spotty) Toms - so comfortable and two bargain pairs from Target at $10/15 each! LOVE.
Books for school - OH SO CHEAP! Chapter books from $5-13. Billy B Brown are very popular and I can never have enough copies of the Wimpy Kid books (they grow legs and walk....). And such divine picture books for $14-16. Ruby Red Shoes is such a delight - the words and illustrations.
Tea - of course - in large amounts!
Top Shop (coming to Auckland later in the year and it is gonna be chaos in there) and sweet sweet floral underwear. I thought I really was too old and too un-hip though overall to be in there! But I really did like that they had a petite section - so hard to find for us shorties!
And very, very delighted to have found some Johnson of Australia crockery in Lifeline at Coolum Beach - love, love, love!! (oh the groans from the others when op-shops were spotted, but I was driving, so I had power! Hee hee.) I have just made Elaina's lemon slice - hers looks better and the photography is definitely better!

Any great finds in shops these hols?

"Home"

We are home. And sitting at home until school goes back. (I might run in on Friday - lots of new books to deal with.)
I adore travelling and especially with my boys. They are big city boys, and no, Auckland is not a big city to them. I want them to see the world when young and to leave New Zealand and go and live somewhere else too. They loved Brisbane. I guess there are good things and bad things about both NZ and Australia, but lately, after 4 trips to Australia in 15 months, Australia is doing more for me than NZ...
We have lived there before and still have a family business in Melbourne. I am not sure if I could actually make the real move back there - at least not until the oldest had finished high school in 3 years. The other two I could haul out now. But the thing that holds me back is my school. (Not my family as most live overseas too). Crazy for a school huh?
Australia - we like public transport. We like fairly reasonable house prices. We like $2 for 2 L of milk and $2 boxes of nutrigrain. We like cosmopolitan cities. We like much cheaper books. We like all the walking and biking and family friendly cities. The endless places to go for little trips. The sensible driving. The wildlife. The cheaper power and petrol.
I guess life is what you make of it. All I see in NZ is the ordinary people struggling with high prices for everything and low wages. No-one going anywhere. A lot of stressed people. People living way beyond their means and trying to keep up with the Joneses. A broken education system which is failing every child under National Standards. And not enough money to give children below or above anything much.Schools that are killing themselves over images and children arriving at other schools well below where they should be starting. And the government not really giving a toss about the average kiwi.
But I will keep on trucking on in a country which I think is struggling. Keep on doing my best for my family and school and my education.And fully realising that we lucky with what we can do as a family and appreciating what we do have.

Sunshine and pelicans

We are in Noosa and Brisbane in Queeensland, Australia for a week - just what I needed. Sunny, warm weather. The weather is rubbish at home and is forecast for a lot more days to be the same too.
This is our first overseas holiday all together a family in 5 years - one of the best things we have done for a long time! Pelicans - a neat surprise!

Swaps with Elaina

I have been joining in with a few blogger's swaps here and there lately. Loving them and the generosity and fun which comes with them!

I took part in a stationery swap hosted by Lisa. I was paired up with the lovely Elaina. A wee giggle here as this is about the 2nd or 3rd swap we have been paired together with.

Elaina sent me a very very cherry bright package - cheery because of winter and all the rain we have had (and the cold - I donot normally feel the cold, but am very glad of my merino tops and tights this winter!) and cheery because of all my study I have been doing (honestly it takes over my ENTIRE life every day for months on end and we start the cycle again next week....).

 love gingham and retro wallpaper (all my school exerise books were always overed in wallpaper like this!).

 gorgeous notebooks (one is now my knitting notebook) and notepad (where I keep my wool paper  bands in while knitting, in case I run out of the wool and need lot number etc)

 funky washi tape

 a sweet wooden stamp

 deer cards

and a cute pen! Love it all and it cheered me up!

The next swap was Miriam's. What a neat idea. I again (cue more laughter except this one was a secret swap and Elaina had no idea I was her partner until my package arrived at her house - as she says, NZ Post need to give us special postage rates to each other's houses!) was paired with Elaina.
One of her favourite colours is yellow, so i sent her a yellow box of goodies -

washi tape - I have discovered Paper Vine and mailed ordered these - quick service! (I find it SO hard to find washi tape in shops!).

A knitted dishcloth (I adore making this pattern), a Kikki K mug (no Kikki K where Elaina lives - I would get withdrawal symptoms!), Body Shop soap (I had not been into a Body Shop for many, many years), and drinking chocolate. A neat swap idea. I am patiently waiting for my wee package to arrive from someone, somewhere.

Sunday

A day of pottering with the husband - the kitchen bench before...

 the dresser before...

 another blog swap ready to go... (Christmas theme)

 forgot to show you the gorgeous box with chocolates Lisa made - still have not eaten them :)

 A new sock started with a Pryenees Bakery apple pastry - yum

 Pumpkin soup made and freezing for school lunches (boys lucky that they have a cafeteria and microwaves for them to use.)

 kitchen bench after - we have never before put down the appliance shed door (first time in 9 years!)

 dresser after - cookbooks look great here

 I have a thing for Jamie....

lemon and almond loaf - yum.

Plus a lot of getting organised for our first overseas trip together as an entire family in 5 years - Sunshine Coast/Brisbane. Hoping to avoid the theme parks (yes with 3 boys) - I LOATHE them. If they want to go they can without me. I'll go to IKEA or something. Anything is better than theme parks. :)  Happy hols !

Oh Happy Day...

I am ridiculously happy -
*school holidays have begun. (so de-moralised at the state of the NZ education system after this term.)
*it was a gorgeous sunny day
*new windscreen after a major rock incident earlier in the week which left me shaking
*washing dry outside and 3 more loads already pegged out for tomorrow's sun
*and I passed my Language and Literacy university paper with a good pass - yippee (next one - "Maori Responses to Colonisation" starts in a week!!)

Now to try and decipher the Bendigo Woollen Mills pattern that has had a bunch of us knitters scratching our heads at what we all think is a very poorly written pattern!Knitting 2 different pairs of socks, gloves and 2 different cardigans!

More dishcloth love

My dishcloth swap was a big hit from other bloggers post which I have read. I swapped with Lisa and Nicole (no blog) as well. Both boxes with goodies arrived last week. Always good to get mail especially in a crazy week at school. (this week I could very nearly take mental health leave - thank goodness school hols are just a few days away.... they always save me!)

Lisa sent the most amazing deorated package box I have ever received. (oops cannot find photo - will take another!) Inside - goodies! Excited about the Twining Australian Afternoon Tea (husband and I have drunk 100 teabags of that and 100 of Madura English breakfast in 6 weeks.... thankfully back in Australia next week, so can buy more 100 tea bag boxes :) ).

 Fab dishcloths in my favourite colours (husband is now saying "stop! stop! We donot need anymore" - I think we do :) ).

And the most fab tea towel as well from a NZ company or over here. A great design. Great to know another compnay to buy cool items from to send overseas.
Lisa also made a next box and filled it with chocolates. I'm saving them for the hols.

From Nicole in USA - 

 Lots more goodies. I had teenagers running away with things - gum, straw moustaches especially.
I have heard of Goldfish crackers , so it is neat to get a cartoon of them (saving for hols too).

 two gorgeous dishcloths and soap which smells gorgeous (oh to have farm gate soap here).

 a tea towel and seeds (eeeek - these made it through NZ customs - a big no no and I should tell swapers this)

 And my first ever Cascades wool too - sock yarn. That is exciting!

Here's my divine dishcloths all stacked up - love them all!
Thanks Lisa and Nicole for being such great swap partners and putting together neat packages for me.