Send us your Country Swap 2016 edition

Happy New Year everyone. Without further ado, I announce, earlier than usual, the 2106 "Send us Your Country Swap".

New Zealand celebrates our national day every February 6 - Waitangi Day. Waitangi Day is based on our founding document/ Treaty signed on that date in 1840.

It means a lot of different things to different people - can be contentious and I don't think we are that patriotic after spending several Australia Days in Australia. (that blew me away both times!)

 

Let's have a swap based on the country we live in. The aim is to send 5 things that symbolise the country you live in / were born in.

Some ideas include-

Something to eat 

something hand made by you that represents your country

a tourist nick nack like a fridge magnet, keyring

a stationery item ie notecards,postcards, a pen, pencils

a souvenir tea towel

an item made in your country (ie a book written by a local author, wool, kitchen items - craft fairs are good for this. Is there a designer that has little things? ie Cath Kidston etc...)

Sign up is by February 7 (a long lead time). I will post the swap partners on the weekend of February 13-14. It is up to you to contact your partner and exchange addresses and likes or dislikes (ie you may not want another tea towel, or you dislike chocolate etc).

 

Please make sure you can be contacted via your blog.

 

Swaps are to be sent by March 19. That should give everyone enough time to get organised!

Open worldwide.

 

Please leave me a comment if interested and state if you are happy to post internationally or only in your home country. ( I will do my absolute best with this).

Have fun!


This gives you an idea of what I sent to my partner last year...


http://www.creativechaosnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/send-us-your-country-swap-part-two.html


And the fab items that were sent to me...
http://creativechaosnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/send-us-your-country-blog-swap.html

Sort of a routine

It is sleep in till 8-9am (mastered actually only 4 days after school finished!)
Have a cup of tea and either honey toast (clover only) or muesli with yogurt (Greek only) and blueberries.
Stay in bed till whenever either reading, on the screen or knitting.
Then jump up for shower and always a load or two of laundry.
Days are all sunny, although much needed rain in on its way.
Husband makes bread rolls for lunch every day and these are eaten with good ham and brie (for me).
We can wait hours for the teenagers to emerge... and I mean hours.
So my current days are spent writing letters, cross stitching, mastering knitting two socks at once, reading and yesterday I started sorting out months of photos and trying to get 2015 scrapbooked! Doing very very basic pages, but that suits me fine.
The situation looks like this:

I possibly do need to get a bit more motivated to get out and about, but I do like being at home and accomplishing things for me and things that I have waited months to because of university study! It is lovely.

Christmas shots

Very low key Christmas here. Tree decorated on December 24... I was still doing some shopping on December 24 in the city which was fab as it was half empty (well Unity Books was packed with good people buying piles of good books like me ;) ).

Actually I kinda think I like how things panned out - I didn't spend weeks dealing with Christmas stuff at all; I thought carefully about what I bought (basically the boys got something to eat/wear/read/need/want - so a tee, sneakers, headphones, a book and food for one; a running shirt, sneakers, a book and food for the other and the other wanted record vouchers, food and a book - and that really was it. They are happy. None of them are into piles of stuff). None of the adults in both of our families buy anything for any other adult either. My 4 NZ nieces and nephews got a pile of books from me. Simple. Done. Easy!

All we had to do for Christmas Day was take roast veges - done lickedty split :).

Most laid back Christmas ever. I do love all my hand made decorations on the tree. I received some fab things - will do a little show another day. And was whisked off into the city for a night at a gorgeous art deco hotel.

Now it is just fighting the heat, reading books, writing letters, getting frustrated with knitting, doing laundry, copious cups of tea, seeing if the teens are still alive in their caves - relaxing in days of limbo really!I adore the new huge teacup from my parents for my birthday (which I just got).

Happy days between Christmas and New Year.

free time

I am honestly struggling with all the free time I have! This is the first total break from everything in two entire years (ie I have no university study after  back to back semesters with basically a couple of weeks break between them). I'm on a nearly 4 month break. It is taking time to get used to and it always takes me a week or two to wind down from the entire school year too.

I sent the husband Christmas shopping for everyone else. That's new. I know it it just over 24 hours till Christmas Day and I'm not in the spirit of it a lot. I've vegged at home, which is a good thing and a bad thing. There is little motivation. There have been a few tears even.

I guess I will get into the swing of summer shortly (and Christmas very fast!).

I do like our new New Zealand made wooden deck chairs which arrived today - a gift to each other. I got sick of cheap chairs lasting months, if that! These should last for decades!

The knitting two at once sock thing is a roaring success!! It is easy!

around the home

Spending time at home today, I noticed how many things are dotted around the house that have been made either by me or made for me by others. We are having one side of the families Christmas do tomorrow - I always rather hope my mother has made something for me! My hands are always busy.
(I was told to put my knitting needles down in the staff room the other to "relax" - told the guy that this WAS me relaxing! (it was either knitting or drink the bottle of red wine in front of me! ;) )

let's have a tour...

a cross stitch cushion I made a few years back

 the fab tea cosie my cousin Jackie made me

 a cushion cover I sewed

 cute kiwis from Pauanesia, pumpkin from Maria and chicken from Melanie

 a pile of dishcloths needing ends sewn in (I given away 7 this week as small gifts with soap/candles/hand lotion)

 very cute bunting from Gloria and Aussie bunting from an old blog swap

 one of 3 shower caps I rotate - I love making these!

 green/stripes/blue/green and orange skirts I've sewn

 a few of the many pairs of socks I've knitted

 several baskets of knitted goodies

 a doorstop from a school gala

 The santa I made in 2002 while living in Melbourne, Australia (adore!)

 more bunting from another swap and middle child's fab art

 and yet more bunting from another swap and my new Christmas bunting

 Christmas cushion to match bunting and kiwi cushion

 Two Maggie rabbits I made - love these! (Michael Morpurgo book collection)

 handmade Christmas decorations (couple bought a few weeks ago)

 oven mitt made by my mother on the left and the new one bought at a craft stall 2 weeks ago

 aaprons I made years ago

 bag I made many years ago and doorstop from a school gala

And a very cool retro Australian bag made by a dear Aussie penfriend Tracy.

It is okay to not be busy and re-direct your life!

This year I have re-examined my life a lot. I did a lot of stuff in the past from every PTA/committee going. This year a lot of stuff went out the window and I re-wrote my priorities.

Extracurricular activities were ditched on the whole and now one child plays football and does scouts, one child only does scouts and the last child does zero things apart from school (but has a part time job). I no longer run around after my children for anything. They are old enough to get themselves places/organise their own social events.

I don't help them a lot with school work and basically have little contact or involvement with any of their schools with the exception of a parent teacher interview. I paid school fees and for stationery and ignored most other requests for stuff/money. I did not attend one school prize giving (my school alone takes most of what I have to give). Their schools do zero Christmas related events/concerts etc either.

I resigned from the school board.

I started saying no to lots of stuff.

I started putting the immediate family of 5 first. 

Now it is nearly Christmas. I've told family we are not buying many gifts for many people at all. I'm spending money/time/making stuff for just a few select people this year. I'm not in the Christmas mood as yet and have few gifts. I've told the boys not to expect much - they are fine with it. I told them it will be something they need, want, can read and wear. I even told my mother today that it would not bother me if Christmas was cancelled!  The family event is supposed to be on Saturday and we still have not heard from my brother if he is coming. I'm sick of wasting money on stuff just because it is Christmas and stuff no-one in our families needs anyhow. We no longer buy presents for adults apart from our own parents.

The other thing is that I have banned myself from a major Westfield shopping centre metres up the road. This is not to stop me buying stuff (although I have not been buying much at all lately). This is because this shopping centre has bought up many houses in this neighbourhood (in a residential area) and got council permission to change the zoning. Westfield are going to destroy these houses and expand the size of the shopping centre by 70%. I've banned myself as I think they are evil for doing this to a residential area and they say that this construction will have a minor effect on the neighbourhood. Ha. We call them the Evil Empire. You can barely get near here on the weekends especially already due to traffic. Staff clog up my road and other roads parking all day long, so friends and family can not park at all. I'll shop at little independent shops if /when I need stuff. It is a pain to have to get into my car to go and shop. I won't even go to the supermarket anymore there. That is a real pain!! This has changed how I do things a lot too - I'm a month in on my boycott and don't miss much at all - it is stuff really.

I'm not busy. Neither of any of the schools ask for shared lunch a the end of terms. We buy no teacher gifts. We have had only one end of year event (scouts) and that is it. I'm at home with not a lot to do. No tree is up. A few other decorations are. I guess my Christmas spirit will come. Few family things are happening as virtually an equal amount of family live overseas as there are left in NZ.

I'm good - it is great to ditch stuff (and people!) from your life, to not to be busy, to do what you want. I won't drive across town to do stuff if I don't want to and have been a lot more vocal with what I say/what I want to do as a family. I guess we just have changed priorities and looked after me too as a mum and wife. I've been very creative with craft and written a ton of letters around more university work and it has been a pretty good year. We deserve a decent holiday (I work very hard at school especially), so have booked a trip to Hong Kong too.

It is a good thing to live your life for yourself and your family!