Sydney!

Last week I won tickets to see "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid" author
Jeff Kinney in Sydney, Australia. Talk about a total impulse trip. Managed to talk husband into me taking 2 of he boys with me - a lot of talking due to house renovation costs! - but hey, when would we ever get the chance to see THE biggest author for children again?
I love Sydney - so much to see and do! Kieran was in heaven - 2nd visit here in a year and it was Ryan's first ever
visit. The city did wow them -
From he transport, to tall buildings, to the volume of people, to the Opera
House , to the Powerhouse Museum ( great museum!). You can burn through so much money there. Just a quick
shop at Gap ( not in NZ ) and Myer and
then hours walking.

Total thrill at listening to Jeff - big inspiration who really is just a regular guy who struck it lucky! The books were intended for adults !
The line to meet him and get books signed was HUGE and I mean huge!!!
I was very cheeky and bowled up and
said boys had by then been up for 20 hours and we queue jumped! Yes we did! They were walking zombies and there is now way they could queue for another hour.
Nice guy - boys thrilled! Worth the travel!
I love travel - really want to spend a
good week or more in Sydney - it is such a beautiful city - easy to get around. And it was warm at 21
degrees. Back to sideways rain here and a lot cooler.

Kieran came down with high temps mid afternoon and I struggled to keep him awake till the airport. Day off school -
Not what I was planning!

Hooray!

I have been having trouble downloading pics onto the stupid i-pas ( I am sure
I am one of the few in the world who thinks they are totally over - rated) but tonight it worked!

A quiet Mother's Day - we don't really celebrate it - I did get some cards and chocolate , breakfast in bed plus gorgeous stationery from a fab friend Corkie though.
Day was spent starting another knitting project for me - a vest. Another lace pattern which is challenging me but it us okay. Only un - done once!
Some study too and a bit of stationery shopping for me too.
And i made my first ever sponge cake which turned out fab! The MIL popped over for afternoon tea, so I got out some of my bone china and had tea and sponge cake on the deck.
Look how well the vege garden is going too!
And a BIG look at my finished cardigan - I am thrilled! Has taken me 5 weeks from start to finish !
How was everyone's day?

Life gets in the way

Many times I have sat down to blog but then reading other blogs and STUFF gets in the way!
Like my good camera dying after 5 plus years; only having one i - charger for 6 i devices in this house ( where have the others gone???!!!); study - doing my Mauri Ora course through Te Wanaga O Aotearoa and living it but going through bouts of no motivation to study; knitting, knitting and more knitting! ( cardigan for me nearly finished in a month!!!); lots of cooking and baking for me! (husband usually does a lot of it!);
soccer and Futsal and trumpet and drum practices and games ( very time consuming and and lots of exhaustion from battling a child to carry on with activities!!) , cutting out more clothes to sew but not quite getting to the machine and just stuff!
Oh and the hideous job of deciding on a school for the middle child for next year!! Hideous stuff !! Gut wrenching stuff! Makes me think living in a small town would be delightful if only from a school point of view!

Good week though ; work going well and am feeling organized and pretty on top of things there!

And the curtains and blinds arrived today - looking gorgeous ! Whoop whoop!!!

That is life here - how about you??

Autumn days

Well it certainly has turned into autumn with cooler mornings and nights. But i am still in short sleeve tees and skirts with bare legs - the weather has been amazing for this time of the year!

I think I have sat in my lovely new bedroom for a couple of weeks enjoying it - well it has taken 2
weeks to sort really! We are still waiting for the curtains/ blinds to arrive and have the proper wardrobe system to purchase yet too.

We had an afternoon walk around Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough a week back. This is home to the Pah Homestead which houses the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre. It was opened to the public in August 2010 after being used by the Catholic Church as emergency housing, boarding school, novitiate housing and an orphanage. In recent years it had fallen into major disrepair and the
Council bought it. A lot of controversy with the church selling the land to the council to make a bigger park. The poor little Catholic School that is on the site will eventually have to move apparently to make way for more grass...
The homestead was built in 1877 as a gentleman's residence and is beautiful .
It has a lovely cafe and we all enjoyed the modern art.
Would be nice to be able to walk around the park without fighting children one day though!
A great park - now i just need to get out more in this town and stop enjoying my house too much! :)

Cover husband ( well I can be clever too!)

The husband started building a garden box for me yesterday afternoon using some of our old deck. He finished this afternoon and it looks fantastic!!! I am so impressed! I cannot wait to be able to plant my winter veges next week in it. We will need quite a lot of soil to go in it. It looks fantastic sitting under my new bedroom bi- fold windows.

I am so proud of myself too - hee hee - last year I attempted to knit this cardie pattern starting with the sleeves. I can remember un- doing the sleeves 3 times and giving up in disgust and putting the wool and the pattern up in the attic in disgust!
Last week I decided to try again wanting a new knitting project. ( I have another 3 things I am currently knitting - husband says i am a true "not completer finisher" and will bounce from project to project!
Is anyone else like this? What are you currently making?
Anyway i persevered last night and got the pattern! I did end up un- doing most of it after spotting a mistake - it can drive me nuts not having perfect knitting. No-one else may be able to see the mistake, but I can!

I am making huge progress on the sleeve today - usually I knit too together for the kids but not for this - I rarely knit tops for me and I really love it so far! It was a lovely day with summer weather again!

Knitting madness and a blog swap

I seem to have spent a large chunk of these school holidays knitting! I started another project - a gorgeous cardigan for me. In a week I have already knitted the back and left side! (traveling for hours makes it easy!!). I did start this cardie last year but started on the sleeves - I un did the sleeves 3 times and gave up! This time I will do the bulk of the cardie and then try the sleeves again!

It has been a very relaxing holiday this time , which is really what I needed for me! Crikey I have even been doing some study! Kids have not missed out either - yesterday the youngest one and i made up an ant farm - it is very cool watching eats travel through dirt but we need to collect more ants for it too!

This is terrible - way back in January I signed up for a Love Blog swap thru Gem and her blog - www.dreamsofalifeinthecountry.blogspot.co.nz - I was partnered with Rachel in Australia of www.gratefulforcrochet.blogspot.co.nz -
Her box arrived at school and several staff thought it was very cool! His was my first swap.
This is what Rachel sent -

Gorgeous wool - still have to figure out what to make with it; a very groovy pot mat crocheted for me ( well that is what I am using if for!) and - gasp !! - a Cath Kidston Bluebell Gift Box with sweet soaps, hand balm, shower gel and body cream! It is all in my new bathroom looking fab and being used daily! I had no idea Target in Australia sold CK so was absolutely thrilled at this!
Such a generous gift and I am Sonoran to do another swap - just have to find one! Well i could always do one my self I guess!

I am very conscious of the fact that I have to do a crafty "play it forward" from Mad About Bags and Tracy in England - am just waiting to get a few more blog followers. :)

Off to make home made hamburgers tonight -
Nice and easy! Struggling with dinners at the moment as some people in this house have decided that they don't like dinner fullstop!!! Grrrrrhhhhhh

A wee road trip

We have spent the past few days having a wee road trip to Tauranga, Whakatane, Ohope Beach and Te Aroha. Whakatane and Ohope Beach were first visits for me -Ohope is stunning and it just goes for ever! I sat on the beach and knitted while the boys jumped in out of the sand dunes.
Whakatane was a sweet town with a very cool retro cafe with funky old lounge chairs and vintage cups and saucers.
Loved Te Aroha - hadnot been here for years and years and years! Beautiful old town with gorgeous old villas at pocket money prices! A sweet town centre with 3 wool/ craft shops - I looked but didn't buy as I have such a massive stack at home and projects to work on. ( currently knitting 4 different things!!! Crikey !)
I love seeing small town NZ - standing in the middle of the road taking photos, the architecture, little traffic, buying a few things here and there etc.
It was a lovely welcome break but i could really do without the fights in he back seat that quite frankly could have ruined my little jaunt!
Now we are back to sort out hideous winter school uniforms, do drum
And trumpet practice which is seriously overdue ; a bit more knitting, writing of postcards and sorting out more healthy food!