Crafty Mermaid

Stickers from Imaginiarium in Girona and some paper from Clonmel :)  The basics for a large number of cards I have yet to upload!  I'm back from a rather interesting holiday in Egypt and am touring the relations in Ireland with BM in tow.  Just the perfect holiday after a holiday!

I bought one of these pottery houses from stall on the stone bridge in Girona.  I love the fact that you can open it up and light a incense cone.  The smoke then comes out the chimney!

Just some photos from my trip to Girona.  I'm in Egypt at the moment so I've set this up to schedule a post in my absence.  These photos are random images of interesting patterns I had to photograph on my travels.

The New Dowse was hosting another craft 2.0 and I invited a few friends around for tea afterwards. Lemon sour cream cake, chocolate chip and strawberry buns and apple slices as well as soup (you can't just load crafty girls up with sugar, can you?). I was making great use of my cake stand and doily collection. I've decided to only use white doilies in my doily table runner and to just find them in thrift shops if I come across them - so for now, they get placed on the table strategically!

I had the pleasure of visiting Girona in July for a two week workshop.  And I've finally got my pictures sorted.  So allow me to guide you around the various delights of Girona.  Starting with the pastel colours of the building overlooking the main waterway which threads its way through the old quarters of the city.  Girona is a pretty location and really close to one of Ryanair's 'Barcelona' airports (though its a far distance from Barcelona).  The airport also accesses the Spanish coast and most tourists don't really stop off in Girona.  Though its well worth a day or two.  Magnificent buildings, ice cream shops on almost every corner and sun! I would recommend walking the city walls - the views were great and its always interesting to note how different it is from Ireland.  In many ways New Zealand is a lot more similar to Ireland than the much quicker trip to Spain.  I especially loved the aloe vera plants growing wild and while I w...

My brother sent me some packets of dried miracle fruit (go on look it up - definitely worth a read) for my birthday last year. Just before I left NZ we hosted a miracle fruit tasting party and I sent invites to friends. I had a lot of fun making the invites but by the end of the 20 or so remembered why I didn't try to make sets all at once. Miracle fruit turns sour things sweet and I happily chowed down on limes and lemons as if they were oranges. Though I got a nasty surprize when I tasted hummous. I thought the taste had worn off and just got something out of the fridge for our guests. Ick. Sugary, sweet hummous. The photo above is the table set with all manner of sour goodness (note the sour worm sweets - not particularly worth repeating!).

I started this scarf back in NZ and just love, love, love (in a jumping up and down in a very excited way) the colours and the yarn. I got the first ball as a present from my brother (ahem) for Christmas . I finally finished the scarf in the airport and got BM to model it! He took it back home with him and I'll sew in the ends on my return in Jan (scarves in the summer are such fun!). This was what also comprises of my carry on luggage. A friend is an avid hunter and I brought him back a New Zealand magazine in the airport. It seems that hunting in NZ is very different. Its seen as environmentally friendly/sustainability driven as it keeps the population of invasive species like deer and possums down and protects natives like the shy kiwi and as a result some hunters are really unexpected! Hong kong is my favourite airport. I had a leg and back massage in the airport and happily wandered around looking at the more exotic fruit displays in the cafes and spending ...

When I was finishing up my studies, I made a number of tags and cards for people - some in some rather large bulk lots. I found these recently in a long forgotten folder and thankfully I'll still be able to use them!  Blogger seems to have had other plans about my bulk uploading - and it'll be a four photo max until I can think my way around my increasingly slowing netbook.

I have a serious thing about maps... So I just had to include it in this card for BM for our anniversary. And I wrapped up the pocket squares too. We went for dinner in Logan Brown and BM surprized me at work by wearing his tux to dinner. I think the people in the restaurant thought we were nuts. Wellington is generally very dress down so it was quite a departure!

I was going through my photos this morning (I'm on holidays until the end of September!!!) so expect a catch up in posts. I have a ton of cards I've made over the last while and I'll try to get them out of the way in a few posts. I'm frantically trying to make my way through my supplies so I don't have to ship them back to New Zealand - its an environmental thing (ha ha!). Thankfully, I seem to have relations who are keen to take job lots off my hands as soon as I've made them. I think I've made about 200 since my arrival in Ireland in July and only have about 40 on hand at the moment. Scared yet? Don't worry - I'll group the posts so you can skip over them! I normally limit myself to 4 photos in a post as that's what picasa allows before you have to upload through blogger. But needs must and all that - I don't think I could handle posting only four at a time. Any none of this has to do with the photo above. BM made this in July (its winte...

Just using up some stash cotton yarn to make a dishcloth. Its far more yellow than it appears here and was based on Attic24's granny stripe pattern.  It was great fun to crochet and made itself up quite quickly!

This lovely paper weight was a purchase from trade aid in Wellington for BM. It feels so solid and smooth and I'll be terribly disappointed when he brings it into work and I can't play with it while watching television!