Great Idea

I attended a craft fair a few weekends ago and came across a gorgeous little garden attraction.

Ok before I talk about that, I know our garden looks like a rain baren desert! It is a work in progress at present, at least it is looking flat. We are in the process of leveling so hopefully we can sew grass seed in the next week or two. Will keep you posted on that progress.

Now on with the main reason for the post!

The above picture is of a bird feeder, made from a cup and saucer/bowl.

They are screwed and glued into the top of the green pole and then you place in garden and watch the birds happily eating or even bathing in the saucer part if water is placed there!

The boys are able to fill with bird seed and the cats are unable to get the birds!

The birds are loving their new treat, hopefully when we do sew the seed they will leave it alone in favor of the tasty treats in the cups? Here's hoping?

D is for Describing Decoration and Dizzy

As our house is a work in progress then there is not much decoration on the walls yet. Mainly because we still need to paint and then work out what we want in each room.
Until that happens I am decorating with words in the areas I can add interest.

In the kitchen I have words on the fridge.

In the family area I have words with my pictures.

And 1 or 2 other little plaques with funny sayings

In the living room I will eventually have some little words to add to my ornaments but they are still wrapped away with the ornaments whilst we are sorting walls out etc. They are the words "love" and "family". I also have some more words for the living room wall as well, things like 'play' 'relax' 'friends' & 'love'

The only piece of art we have decorating the walls is a set of 3 tiles we got given as a wedding present. They represent nature in a New Zealand setting and I love them.

What decorations do you have around your house?

Dizzy.....

Last Thursday I got out of bed and had a nice meeting with the wardrobe and the bed!
Luckily they worked together and I ended up sitting on the bed and not the floor!
After it happened again on Friday morning I decided to see the doctor.
Full bloods done and sent home to wait.
After a long, long weekend, where I spent a lot of time lying down trying to stop the world from spinning, we have finally discovered that I have fluid build up in my inner ear.
I feel fit and healthy, wish I had a cold or ache to go with this illness but alas nothing, all I have is dizziness!!

Alas we have also discovered that the pills to assist with drying up the fluid are no good for me, well I didn't particularly like the nausea, restlessness, insomnia or the extra dizziness that came with them, not sure why not, just not feeling like playing the "let's take the pills cause they will help but make me feel like s*#t' game at the moment! Such a spoilsport really aren't I?
So each day is getting a little easier, although still spinning frequently, but I will definitely be happier when the world isn't so dizzy!

Art Work

At the caravan they have started to decorate the surrounding campsite area with some wonderful artwork.
From what I can gather as well it is by a local artist, which I think is a great way to showcase the talent in the area.

The owners of the campsite have just placed all the following artwork up in the hotpool area to spruce the place up.

I liked them and thought you might too.

New Look

Finally The Cutest Blog on The Block is back up and running and I have been able to get rid of the awful background I had to use.
I kinda like this one, although when I have more time I will be sorting through all the designs to see if there is anything else I like.
But there is no urgency for that because at least my site now looks human again and not valentine candy pink!

New Look

I love it, well I have to say that, it is my blog after all!
Anyway, while visiting peoples houses over the last day or two I noticed that some people had some pretty awesome backgrounds on their blogs.
And being the ever inquisitive person that I am, I investigated how they got them and hey presto I have one too.
The website that supplies them has so many I think I am going to have fun changing the background depending on the time of year.

It was way easy to do as well, even my mother will be able to decorate her blog! Don't worry mum, if you can't do it then I will show you on Christmas day when we have 5 minutes free!

So go click on the little box on the left of my blog at the top and see what wonderful things you can find to do wuith your blog.

Have fun!

Christmas Tour

For the last 2 years Boo Mama has done a Christmas House Tour.

How it works is that you take pictures of your decorations in your house, put up a post about them, maybe even share a special recipe along the way, because after all, as she says, you are inviting people over to view your house.
Then on the day, Dec 15 this year, you pop on over to BooMama, place a link to your tour and sit back and look at all the other links and see how others have decorated their home.

It doesn't have to be extravegant, plain and simple is fine. If you have a cute little scene you want to show off then take a picture. If you have a special wall hanging, then take a picture, anything you want to show.

Me, well I had better start thinking about where I actually want to put the decorations seeing as this is our first year in this house!

Wedding Expo

Yesterday I went to a local wedding expo at the Hamilton Gardens.
It was a lovely little event and I managed to gain a few ideas for those last little things that I need to do.
Unfortunately I had already chosen a venue, photographer and a dress because that is what 90% of this expo was about.
But....I did manage to get a pair of shoes at 1/2 price and they are so cute, just what I was looking for.
I also managed to find out about companies within Hamilton that hire out decorations for parties, and as I so far have nothing to decorate the venue with then this was very helpful.
I will be going to check out their showroom very soon to get an idea of things to place on the table, like candle holders and vases etc

We don't actually have a theme as such that is running through, we have a colour and other than that we are just going with stuff that has meaning to us and just keeping it elegant.
The venue for the reception has coloured walls so I really don't want to load the tables with too much colour otherwise we will have a colour overload when you walk in the door. So the tables will have white linen and a very small amount of colour brought in on the table by candles and flowers. Still trying to decide if I want to have the chairs covered or not, will see what the company can do and also how much it will be.

I also met with my bridesmaid this last weekend to see if we could find a dress in a shop, as it is ball season here. We really didn't find anything in the right colour although we did find a really elegant dress that looked great on her, but it was in a grape colour, and although this is in the right spectrum of the colour we have chosen, it wasn't quite the right colour, so I think we will be getting a paper pattern from the shop and getting her dress made, although we will keep it quite simple.

I also have all my wedding lingerie ready for when I have my first dress fitting with Jodie. It is getting quite exciting now and I wish the wedding was very soon rather than 12 weeks away. Although we almost found a dress for Kerry that was a expensive as my underwear I just brought from the bridal shop, Kerry and my mum are going to have to squeeze me into this thing on the day, but it is comfortable and will make the dress and me look wonderful, just as it should for the bride.

Christmas House Tour

Welcome to my house, please wipe your feet on the door mat but you don't have to worry about taking your shoes off.

Sorry about the heat, but it is summer after all down here in New Zealand. And before you ask, yes it does take some getting use to having Christmas in the sun.

There are no dark nights with bright lights shinning, yes we have bright lights but only after 9pm when night comes in. So very difficult to take 2 little guys out to view the lights because they are a sleep by 7.30pm and even if we kept them up they would be a sleep in the car within 5 minutes of driving down the road, so something I will save for 1 year when they are older.

There is no sitting cosy in the living room having the family all together around the open fire. The only open fire you would get here would be the campfire on the beach whilst on your summer holidays camping, although due to the dryness of the land even that would probably be banned!

We have lots of chocolates and cookies, but no warming hot chocolate and fluffy marshmallows to go with it, too hot and humid, give me a cold one from the chilly or fridge, preferably with ice.

But we do do Christmas, just the same as everyone else. The shops have been full of the stuff since August and we have already had the 'Pre Christmas Sales!'

So please forgive the meagre amount of decorations around my house this year. As you know we have just moved into this house, it is a rental and so a lot of our stuff is still in boxes as we decided we didn't need it out just yet, and also the fact we will look to purchase our own place next year then I can't be bothered to unpack stuff I don't really need just to repack it 6 months later.

Anyway, I have made some effort. Unfortunately we don't have a nice front door, a deck with ranch sliders is what we have, so no wreath hanging there, but I do have a Santa welcoming you as you come up the steps. He did have a complete tree but my 2 snapped it, also you can see the angel at his feet in the plate pot, she was on her stick (on ground behind!) but again these 2 little munchkins I have living in this house dimolished her within 1 day of her being there!

This year Grandma got all 4 grandsons a lovely advent calendar, it is a decorative thing with draws for each of the days, you then fill the draw with the little surprise/gift. As my 2 don't seem to like chocolate then theirs are filled with stickers and balloons.

I have my reindeer and santa door hangings, although again my 2 love playing with these and guaranteed everyday I am picking them up off the floor somewhere in the house and hanging them back where they are currently staying.

Next we move into the living room where the tree is. Most people in New Zealand swear by a real tree, I did that 2 years ago and am happy with my fake one thank you very much. Again I have only gone with the basics this year, but it still has the effect. No presents under there yet. Some may say this is because Santa hasn't delivered yet, others will tell you it is because if any did appear under there then I know who would open them within 10 minutes?? I think they are called Ben and Alex!

Last of all for this quick little tour, we have my 2 cute stockings hanging on the doors. No Fireplace in this house, so as close to the tree as possible is fine with me.

I thank you for coming to see our little abode at this wonderful time of year, especially as we do things slightly different here with the sun and the sea and the surf.

Although I am impressed that I had the tree up so early this year, it has been there at least 2 weeks. I have so many plans for next year, things I would like to buy over the next few years to start having some Christmas traditions of our own as a family, or more things I will do each year and the boys will remember that they always had it!

So Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you have wonderful glorious times with your families and friends and may 2008 bring you some of your hopes and wishes.

To go and find out more about the tours of other peoples house at this joyous time then slip on over to here and enjoy the sights of Christmas.

Don't forget to leave a comment so I can skip over to your house to have a wee look.