Long time between posts

It's been quite a few weeks since my last post and the weeks are rolling by so quickly, can't get my head around the fact that it is December this Sunday, the first official day of summer here, and now only three weeks until my summer holidays start.  As of this evening, after prizegiving, Hannah will be finished high school for the year. She recently sat her Level 1 exams, and this coming Saturday morning has her annual end of the year dance show, which I always love going to. 

The last few weeks have been filled with a few trips away, celebrations and as always, lots of stitching.

I'm looking forward the 2024 Jingle Ball getting underway from the 7th December and this year I purchased three of the classes, yay, PDF charts, as kits are not available to overseas stitchers. I don't think I'll have the stitched pieces ready for the finishing classes over the weekend but each class does come with instructions, which I'll use when I'm ready to finish the stitching.

One of the classes is Hashtag Joy by Cathy from Hands on Designs, which I got underway recently.

One of my friends made me a new project bag recently from this cute fabric I'd bought from my local sewing shop.

Another friend had made these lovely strawberry fobs so I was able to get one for my little scissors.

My sewing machine has been getting bit of work out lately as I'm getting all my gift stitching made up. Primrose Cottage Stitches featured a tutorial for these easy thread catchers a few months ago so I decided to make up a few to add to friends pressies. You can find the video here.

In other stitching news, I had a small parcel arrive with two of the new Brenda Gervais charts, these will be my December projects, and a fat quarter of Picture this Plus Legacy Linen. I'm excited too because a recent order from 123 Stitch should be delivered any day with some fabrics, accessories and a chart I've been wishing for ages, I'll share this next time.

Glenn and I had another trip to Auckland recently, this time for the Pearl Jam concert, which was awesome!

The start of Christmas shopping

We took the ferry across Auckland Harbour one morning and had a stroll around Devonport, before enjoying coffee and cake at one of the cafes there.

Unexpectedly, due a cancelled flight, we had an additional night in Auckland, so we were able to catch up with some friends for dinner, one of whom we hadn't seen in few years.

Going back to where I left off in my last post, we were heading out to the beach for the first trip of the season in our campervan. We had to change locations due to the many other campervans all ready parked up but found a great spot at another of our local beaches, Porangahau.  

We had a wonderful few days, the weather was hot and sunny, and really enjoyed the break. Fishing, lots of beach walks, good food and company with our friends. 

I had to share this photo of myself and a dear family friend, Alison. Many years ago, when I was in my last year of university, I boarded with Alison, her husband Cliff and their two young children.  

I love my time staying with them, no stress, just a warm home, family meals and always, a ride to an from uni when I needed one, or missed the bus! Alison's Mum is a good friend of my Mum's so a short time ago, we met for lunch with some other friends. It was a wonderful catch up as it had been several years since we'd last seen each other. 

Each year I like to see which of our roses flowers first, and for the third year in a row, it was the divine smelling Friesia rose. 

This is Courage, gifted to us by friends when Glenn's Mum passed away. 

My number one favourite, Blackberry Nip.

Earlier this week, I headed along to see Wicked at our local movie theatre, and absolutely loved it. I think I'll go again during the holidays!

Finally for today, a very special occasion at my work a few weeks back, we celebrated our 30th anniversary of our disability service. It was a lovely afternoon attended by our mayor, deputy mayor and other invited guests.  This beautiful cake tasted delicious and was enjoyed by everyone.

See you soon xx

The Rest of August Catch Up

Hi friends, it's now officially spring here in New Zealand, I can't believe we are through winter, and in a few short weeks not only will it be the school holidays again but our Daylight savings hours will start. 

Just sharing a few things from the rest of August - a nice surprise left on my desk at work by one of my staff members who visited the local daffodil farm.

This past Sunday was a lovely warm spring day, so Glenn and I ticked off a few jobs on our outside to do list, including getting our greenhouse ready all tidied and swept out. I can't wait to get some vegetable seeds going in the greenhouse - lettuce, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, beans, etc hopefully ready to be planted out in late October. 

 

Our winter garden has been going well, there's been lots of celery, silver beet and plenty of broccoli to share with my parents too.

So pretty seeing the neighbour's fruit trees in blossom.

Books I've enjoyed lately: this one by NZ author Michael Bennett, is the second in a series, which I didn't realise but can be read as a stand alone. 

David Baldacci's latest story - it's not light reading, I think this might be my favourite book so far this year.

Glenn and I had a few nights away in Auckland last week, going to see a band that Glenn likes from the US, Greta Van Fleet. The concert was really good but oh so loud!!

The weather was perfect for walking around the CBD and waterfront, and we visited Sylvia Park for some shopping. It was good to get away for a couple of days. 

As always, Glenn has several home projects on the go and the latest is this little area having a spruce up. A new deck to come and concreting to go in what used to be a small patch of grass. We're also thinking of having a boxed garden with some sort of hedging along the edging, if that makes sense.

Miss H and her lovely friend recently competed in a high school dance competition, and received a runner up placing in their category. Their dance was beautiful to watch, the girls had spent many hours choreographing the dance, then practising, picking out their costumes, doing their own hair and make up.

Hannah's hockey season has recently finished too, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Held on Monday evenings, some weeks the weather was freezing, or pouring with rain, but the kids got out there, played their game, win or lose, they had a ball.

Stitching lately has included finishing some Stitching with the Housewives ornaments leftover from Jolly July, and also working on some older sampler projects. I'll be back soon with some stitching pics.

See you soon x

December is here & the Jingle Ball

Good morning friends, well, it's now December and this time next week I'll be about to start my annual summer break! Wahoo, it's come around very fast but I'm so looking forward to the break. Hannah finishes school for the year tomorrow and Glenn will start his summer break a bit later in the month then we can enjoy the lead up to Christmas.

This post is about some happenings here lately - I have lots to catch up on which I'll do over the next few posts.

This beautiful rose has been prolific so far this summer, blackberry nip, and the scent from it is divine.

A few weeks back my friend Sonia and I checked out Hawkes Bay's latest newly opened knitting shop, the Knit Nook, which can be found in Napier.  Behind this pink door, you'll find all sorts of lovely knitting goodies - hand dyed yarns and accessories galore.

As well as a few gifts, I couldn't leave behind these goodies - 

While in Napier, a stop at Starbucks for a Christmas coffee - peppermint mocha, yum.

The same day we visited the Knit Nook, we had a stitching group catch up at our friend Nicki's in Taradale. It was great to see Nicki as she had recently returned from her overseas trip and with treats for us -

A new Christmas candle arrived recently - it smells so lovely and will be a great scent for summer.

The lilies and other flowers in the gardens at work are just starting to flower - they make us so happy and we have vases all around the place at the moment!

A lovely catch up recently with my niece Zoe in Napier on a sunny and warm day.  We checked out the Sunday markets and then did some Christmas shopping. 

New Zealand's Christmas tree, the Pohutukawa.

Another fun thing recently, I bought a ticket to the Jingle Ball, an online event for stitchers. I didn't participate in any classes or Meet & Greets but I had a lot of fun purchasing some patterns! I think my Christmas stitching is all sorted for 2023!

Diesel is now nearly 5 months old and he's a gorgeous boy.

He's such a good boy and has a lovely fun nature.  He's become very chilled in the past few weeks 

 

Mr Handsome, Mr D, Diesel the weezel, puppy boy are some of the fun names we call him.  When he looks at you with those eyes, you'll do anything, ha ha.  

See you soon xx