Washi Tape

Two quick cards from some new washi tape - I've been trying 'really' hard not to make any new craft purchases unless its to finish off current projects, but these tapes just fell into my basket and magically had to be paid for.  I'm sure its happened to you too!

Note: the stickers are from my wonderful Brazilian advent swap partner and are card mounted stickers.  Lovely!  There's a whole story about the swap and I'll share it with you when its finally resolved (think postal mishaps).

Edinburgh Castle

A finished cross stitch kit of Edinburgh castle.  The cross stitch is finished but I have plans for the piece and hope to get to it later this year.  Just more thinking needed first :)

Tote bag

I'm madly working on finishing a lot of my W.I.P. and got this tote bag off my list. Its an Ikea fabric and is made from the leftover fabric from this cushion. Although if I keep this up, I may be able to 'disappear' if I ever sit down with it on my couch!

A wedding invitation

I wanted to post this simple but elegant invitation BM and I received last year for a wedding earlier this year.  The wedding was held in an art Gallery in Dunedin and then a fantastic local restaurant.  I even managed to sneak in some time to meet one of my friends who lives nearby :)

High Tea and Flowers

As you can probably gather, I don't like posting photographs of people on my blog - but I really do use it to store all the wonderful memories made with those people.  One of the things I really wanted to do when my parents came to visit was to introduce them to my friends and vice versa.  I know its a lot easier talking to someone when they can picture the places and people you talk about.  So I organised a high tea at Martha's Pantry for my parents and my friend, S.  They gave us the cutest Christmas pudding chocolates.

S gave me a vibrant bouquet of flowers and I moved them around the house for ages afterwards as some of the flowers wilted.  Such a wonderful surprize :)

Christmas Cobar

Its a rainy, rainy, blustery Saturday morning in Middle Earth.  Autumn has set in and its getting colder in the evenings and harder to get out of bed. The cats were very glad to stay in the house today!  

But there are some bright spots!  I'm sitting under a quilt watching a recorded version of Graham Norton and smelling freshly baking bread from our 'new' (to us) bread making machine.  BM put on a batch to bake last night and we can delay the start to have the bread baked for breakfast!  I'm also rather excited about a sewing meet up tomorrow.  I've already put aside all the projects I want to work on tomorrow. Far too many - but God loves a trier!

I thought this morning I've start sorting out my Christmas pictures (in March! eek!).  Just before Christmas, my parents and brother arrived to visit.  My other brother and his wonderful girlfriend sent over vouchers for Cobar, a great restaurant in Eastbourne.  The day was stunning.  I can't believe its the same country :)

Eastbourne is a quaint seaside suburb of Wellington (although technically in Lower Hutt) and many of the residents commute by ferry to Wellington CBD.

I think my brother took this photo (they're all mixed up so I haven't a clue if I can claim the copyright or not!). But I loved the cuddling couple in the front.

And yes, the food was wonderful.  As we had a large enough party, most of the time all of the choices I would have made (yes, the menu is that good!) were on the table for me to sample...

While the mains and starters were tinglingly good, my dining companions weren't as good about waiting for me to photograph the desserts!

We had a really lovely evening and it was great to think my other brother was there in spirit!  I'm hoping he can come in person at some stage and we can mirror the experience and send my parents the photos! :)

Paekakariki Hill Road

And Kapiti Island in the background.