Crafty Mermaid

I added an orange ribbon to the edging of this but forgot to take a photo! Pants! But I finally managed to post it nonetheless and will update if I can find the photograph of the be-ribboned blnaket!

Our old living room on moving out day!  Eeeek!  Settled in the new house now; sitting in my comfy chair blogging, tea by my side and cats miaowing to be fed. Can it get better than this? :)

I joined the 'friends of craft 2.0' again this year - the haul is diffinitely worth it! I recently gifted the very cute pencil ('Get excited and make things') to a dear friend of mine.

I recently went to a rather interesting exhibition in the New Dowse about a movement in fashion which works to minimise the amount of waste. The wasted material is reduced through sensible cutting and pattern creation. I have a tonne of 'left over' material from cutting out patterns and making my own clothes. I have such a hard time throwing it out and try to find different ways of using it up!

Seriously cute stickers from monsoon.  I snapped them up in the airport in Amsterdam on the way to Egypt. Supposedly 'pure' essential oil.  I realised after I bought them in Egypt that they were heavily watered down with oil (should that be oiled down).  Rather annoying as our tour guide brought us there and then the guy in the perfume factory lied barefacedly to us. :(  Paid what I thought was a fair price too (cheaper than at home but not seriously cheap). Local wildlife on the River Suir in Clonmel. I'm back in New Zealand four months now and in that time, we've bought a house, sold a house and moved.  We're in the new house about three weeks now and settling in nicely.  Work has gotten a bit manic but thankfully I'm a lot closer!  I love, love, love the house and really enjoy spending time here.  There's still a drier in the middle of the kitchen floor (until we get a venting kit and can mount it) but the rest of the house is looking...

Finally, my Egypt photos from last September!  This was the first time I'd been to a developing country and one with strong views on women.  I'm very glad that I went but it wasn't a relaxing holiday by any stretch.  We went to visit a long time friend of BM who's working over there and his wife.  Both of who are so very welcoming and were the highlight of our trip.  Because BM's friend works in the diplomatic service, we were able to ask (and more importantly get answers!) about many aspects of Egyptian life and not just the sites we visited. The whole experience was quite surreal - we got cheapo flights via Amsterdam which got into Cairo very early (I think it was 2am) on the first morning of our stay.  On our stop in Amsterdam, we noticed the different Dutch elements in the airport (selling tulip bulbs, porn, diamonds and cheese) compared with Dublin.  On the way back - the place seemed so similar to home in comparison! Arriving that early in...

  Crafty magazines - not a normal treat but as I got a voucher for my birthday last year, I splashed out before Christmas.  It gave me a head start on my Christmas cards (but I still failed miserably in sending them out!).