Lovely Living

K is for Kitchen

2011-06-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

I love cooking, I love baking and I love my kitchen, it is not flash, no dishwasher, no microwave but everything I need, have a look in my basic kitchen.

Have a great week and don't forget to have a look at my webshop: www.lovelyliving.co.nz

J is for Just Lovely !!

2011-06-07T23:44:00.001-07:00

We spend a long weekend in this lovely cottage in the Wairarapa, New Zealand. No TV, no Internet and no cell phone, Just Lovely!!!
I came back totally inspired , full of new ideas. It is for sure that I go back for an other break ones.

I is for inspiration

2011-05-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

I am inspired by......... a lot of things. A saying like thing makes me very inspired the more you read it the better it is, I know we all try to live well, laugh often and love much but we can always do a bit more.

And I get inspired by lovely magazines.

I was so happy to see my own shop advertised in the back of the magazine, hope you are inspired to have a look at my website: http://www.lovelyliving.co.nz/

Have a great weekend!

H is for Home.

2011-05-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

H is for home. My house is very important to me is has to be a home. Enjoy the little home tour.

G is for Garden.

2011-05-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

I love gardening and I love flowers. It is autumn here so there are not much flowers in the garden at the moment. But i am sure you like a little garden tour.

Don't forget to check out my website: http://www.lovelyliving.co.nz/

F is for Feijoa jam

2011-04-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

It is Easter weekend and wet, very wet here. So a good time to spend most of the day in the kitchen. I made Feijoa jam. We have a BIG very BIG Feijoa tree. The kids are selling them but before they sell them all I made some feijoa jam. Really easy and very yummy.

Here the recipe:

1 kg feijoas, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup water

3 cups sugar

zest and rind of 1 lemon

Stir till sugar is dissolved, let onto a steady boil for 10 minutes till set!

If you like have a look at my on-line shop:

http://www.lovelyliving.co.nz/

E is for Excited

2011-04-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

The E is for exiting and I must say i am exited. Most of you know that I have a gift shop on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand and I can tell you now that my on-line shop is open as well. A lot of work was involved with making the website, I had a good team behind me an they did a great job. Without them there was no website, I am absolute not good with computers at all.

We had a photo shoot on a beautiful sunny day here on the coast and I think they photo's look great. But if you want to seen more have a look here:

http://www.lovelyliving.co.nz/

So I think you understand why I am so excited, I have a great shop and an on-line shop as well.

Happy shopping!

D is for Dreams

2011-03-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

I think we all have dreams and most of the time your dream will always be a dream. But for me a dream came true. One if my dreams is to help people in need. On one day when I am old and wise?? I like to go to a place and help.

But we are in New Zealand and I think all of you know we had some horrible earthquakes and people have lost love ones, houses, work and much more.

They need help and the only thing we can do is donate money, lots of money.

We came with the idea to organize a high tea and make money to send to Christchurch.

I can tell you it was big and beautiful and a great success. We made approx $4500 dollar. Have a look at the pictures and see what you think of it.

C is for Cake and Coffee

2011-02-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of breakfast and lunch, but I love morning tea. I don't eat cake every day, but I could! I have to bake a lot . In my shop I organize craft classes and I always serve morning tea or afternoon tea with some home made cakes.

This is the blueberry cake I made last week for the girls in the class. I am not sure if they come for craft or cake, but we always have great fun.

And for me is morning tea not complete without a nice cup of latte ( this one is made by my daughter , she did a coffee course in the school holiday, lucky me!!)

I am off now making myself a nice cup of coffee without cake :(

Wish you a lovely day!

B is for Beach.

2011-02-11T12:58:00.001-08:00

Everybody that reads my blog every now and then knows I love the beach. So it was easy to find a subject with a B for me. I love the beach in the early morning, on a stormy day and on a beautiful evening.

I try and have a beach walk every day, just love it. And I'm so lucky that I live on walking distance from the beach.

A is for Apple

2011-02-06T15:34:00.001-08:00

This year I want to do the alphabet, not sure if I can find a subject for all the letters but I try to do my best.
We start of with the A for Apple.

When we came to New Zealand almost 6 years ago we bought a apple tree and this year we can harvest our first load of apples. It is not a lot but I think we have enough to make a nice "Dutch" apple cake.

Maybe when it is time for the C for Cake I can show you the apple cake. But we have to be patient for a while they are not ready yet.

Back to normal.

2011-02-03T12:21:00.001-08:00

Everything is back to normal again. All the girls are back to school after a long long holiday and I am back in my shop. If you look at the photo's you won't believe me if i say we had a wet very wet and windy holiday. We went for a camping trip to the Coromandel a beautiful part of New Zealand but is was so wet and windy, not nice if you have to sleep in a tent.

One of my girls spotted a love heart puddle, isn't that sweet.

The beach is great there.

But believe it or not after a camping trip like this I was happy to be home and to be back in normal life.

Merry Christmas to you all !!!

2010-12-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

I like to wish you a merry Christmas !
With love Jacoline.

Christmas in Summer ??

2010-12-13T12:07:00.001-08:00

I still can't get used to the idea of Christmas in the summer, but for us it is real.
In my shop is it really busy at this time of the year, everybody is in the Christmas mood, buying presents and decorations. At home the Christmas tree is decorated and the 750 little lights are burning every evening. But still it doesn't make sense to me to celebrate Christmas in the summer.

Every day I come back from my garden with fresh flowers. I love to pick flowers every day.

My little girl is the same. On the school route there are lots of flowers to pick and 9 out of 10 she is coming home with some flowers as well. She told me : Mum when I'm a bit down I always pick flowers and feel great afterwards. Isn't that sweet.

Here are some garden flowers on my kitchen table.

For all of you who are in the Christmas mood, enjoy!

Countdown till Christmas.

2010-12-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

We always start our countdown till Christmas after Sinterklaas and this is how we do it this year. I made small houses and pinned them on a photo frame that I made myself as well. The girls are a bit older now but they still love there treat. And I love making things like this.

Sinterklaas.

2010-12-07T13:00:00.001-08:00

We had a great "Sinterklaas evening" last Sunday. In the previous year my mum all ways send us a box with dutch "Sinterklaas " treats, but now she is not with us anymore I made them myself. It is so different to celebrate a dutch tradition so far from home because you don't get inspired by others. We had some great fun and some tears when we went over the last year.

I made the filling for the almond cake myself with ground almond. It turned out really well.

Can't wait till next year and maybe the girls bring some nice boys home this year so we can introduce them to a great evening of fun.

What is your favorite flower?

2010-11-29T23:48:00.001-08:00

My favorite flower is definitely the Sweet Pea !
I love the colours.
I Love the smell.
And I love the idea, the more you pick the more you get !

This year they grow in my vegtable garden I love it to have flowers in my vegtable garden as well to give it some extra colour. This evening i picked several bunches and put the all over the place.

On my window sill in my kitchen. Don't you love the little vases. I bought them last weekend in Greytown.

In my bathroom.

The last bunch is for my bedside table.

Now I'm off to the kitchen, I'm making Taai Taai for Sinterklaas on Sunday. Never made it before so I have no idea what to expect, But I can tell you the smell is great.

More about our Sinterklaas evening in a later post.

Love Hearts for the garden.

2010-11-15T12:45:00.001-08:00

Before you all starts to think that I only bake and eat cake I want to show you some love hearts that I made for the garden.
Living on the coast is living with wind , so I made these table cloth weight to prevent my table cloth flying off the table. You can buy the plastic ones but I don't like them so I made some love hears and filth them with rice. They do a great job.

And they look pretty in my garden room when we not having a outdoor dinner.

Are you a Chocolate fan ???

2010-11-13T23:13:00.001-08:00

Are you a Chocolate fan ,than this is a great cake. I made it last week for my friend when we had a craft evening (it is always more talking than craft but we always have fun).

Here is the recipe, so easy and so good!

Add all these dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well,

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Add all the liquid ingredients and mix well,

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1heaped tsp of instant coffee in 1 cup of warm water

1 cup milk

1 cup canola oil

The mixture looks thin but that's ok, bake for 40 min on 180 degrees Celsius.

For the icing you need:

200 gram Nestle cooking chocolate

25 Gram butter

1/2 cup cream

Melt the chocolate and mix with the butter and cream.

DELICIOUS!!!

My day at the spa.

2010-11-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I booked myself a day at the Spa Horrobin and Hodge (klik, klik) in Manakau, It was GREAT.
Just have a look yourself and I don't think I have to say any more.

Garden tour.

2010-11-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

No words this time just a nice walk, enjoy!

Corners of my home.

2010-11-01T01:01:00.000-07:00

Having a peek in other houses is what i really like so here a little peek in my house.

The suit cases are my bed site table and the love heart wall is an other corner in my bedroom. The love heart on my wardrobe is made from an old sugar sac and I stamped a 5 on it, we are a family of 5, that's why.

Here a little corner in my kitchen and as you can see I like to display lots of the same items together.

The book case is part of the living room ,so are the love heart on the nice hanger. Most of the items in my house are from garage sales or second hand shops, love to buy second hand so much better than new.

I made the birds from calico and a branch from my garden, the jug is a second hand one.

And here my favorite spot of my living room, the daybed with lots of cushions. We have sun here for most of the day and the doors to the veranda are most of the time open. Next time I take you into my garden for a garden tour.

Choc-strawberry meringue gateau Recipe

2010-10-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

Here the recipe for all of you that asked for it.

125 gr. butter

4 eggs, separated

165 gr. sugar

150 gr. self -raising flour

35 gr. cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

250 ml milk

150 gr. caster sugar, extra

30 gr. coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts

160 ml. thickened cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

250 gr. strawberries

* preheat oven to160 degrees

* Beat egg yolks and sugar in bowl, stir in flour,cocoa and soda and the milk.

Divide mixture between 2 pans.

* Beat egg white in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form, ad little by little the

sugar.

* Divide meringue over cake mixture in pan.

* Sprinkle hazelnuts over one cake.

* Bake uncovered for 25 min.

* Cover pans with foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

* Beat cream and icing sugar.

* Place cake without nuts on a plate, spread with cream and strawberries, top with remaining

cake.

TIP: This recipe is best made on the day of serving, so you have to eat a lot !!

HAPPY BAKING :)

Crafty time and a road trip.

2010-10-27T01:18:00.000-07:00

I love to be organized and have my things organized so when I saw this little box in the second hand shop I had a plan for it. The box didn't look as nice as it does now so there was some work to do. Have a look yourself.

Before.

After.

Here in New Zealand we had a long weekend last weekend (labour day). For me it was a normal weekend because I always work on Saturday and have Mondays of. So on Monday we had an extra family day.

We went for a bike ride to Eastbourne (with the car from the Kapiti Coast to Eastbourne) and biked to the lighthouse, it was a great bike ride except from the wind on the way back. But we did it and it was great.

In the evening we went to the beach and made a small bonfire. The sunset was lovely and by the tine the fire was burning we were surrounded by little boys and girls. Where they came from I don't know, but they loved it that was for sure!

Just a wet Sunday!

2010-10-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

Life is not always easy, teenagers, family, lots of things to sort out and being forty something. No the sun is not always shining even like the weather last Sunday, wet and cold.
But I always try to be positive so why not organize a little party. I bought myself a new Cath Kidston bag (Why not) and love it , so to celebrate this little baby we had a little party.

First I had a good look around for a nice cake /dessert recipe and found this ! Yum Yum

Then I picked some flowers from the garden when it was dry outside, what is a party without flowers?

I wrapped up some nice chocolate with pretty pink paper and some Cath Kidston stickers.

Lit a candle in a handmade candle holder. An old mustard jar covered with a Cath Kidston paper napkin and finished of with a lovely ribbon.

Made a starter.

A nice pasta salad.

And a super dessert. It was delicious, we eat it all !!

I think the cake I made looks even better than the one from the book.

At the end we all had a great time so even when the "sun" is not shining you can have a little party!

Welcome in my garden room

2010-10-11T22:53:00.001-07:00

We are still not finished with the garden room though but I like it to show you some pictures. Most of the inside is painted and we still have to do the outside (waiting for a nice weekend) and we are looking for more red bricks for the floor. But most of the plants and seeds are in and you see them grow every day. We already had our fist rocket salad.

In the hanging basket I planted strawberries.

Even our little cat made herself at home.

Weekend away.

2010-10-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip last weekend. It was a surprise for the birthday boy, I told him to pack his bag just for 1 night away.
Staying at the Chateau was on his bucket list and I think you have to do as much as you can if it is possible.

So if you ever in the Taupo region it is worth to bring a visit to Chateau Tongario, also the High tea was pretty good.

If you have an eye for love hearts you find them everywhere.

Birthday weekend.

2010-10-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a birthday weekend. In the beginning it was very strange to celebrate it without our friends and family because they are on the other site of the world. But after 5 years we found our own way to celebrate it. For the kids we always organize a party with school friends, but when it comes to our birthdays we love to go away.
I organized a trip for André as a surprise.
But before we went we had a great family dinner and a made a nice table in blue and white.

I love cooking and baking so I made this lovely apple cake.

And this is how it looks with 40 something candles.

After dinner we still enjoyed the lovely flowers and candles.

In a later post I'll tell you all about the trip were we went and what we did. I can tell you it was great !!

baking time.

2010-10-01T00:09:00.001-07:00

Every body that knows me a bit better knows that I LOVE a nice coffee, but not only coffee I love home made baking as well. Love to bake but also love to eat it. Not good I know, but you only live ones isn't it.

This is a great Dutch recipe from speculaas.

If you feel like it here is the recipe:

300 grams self raising flour

175 gram soft brown sugar

1.5 tablespoon milk

200 gram butter

3 tablespoons "speculaas kruiden" or mixed spice

70 gram sliced almonds

1 egg

Mix the ingredients together and wrap in glad wrap for a few hours.

Roll out and brush with the egg and sprinkle with almonds.

Bake for 40 minutes on 175 degree.

Enjoy with a great coffee!!

Crochet.

2010-09-22T02:29:00.001-07:00

I'm in the crochet mood lately. It is so easy to carry with you. Most of the times I carry wool and a crochet needle with me in my bag.
I made a small baby blanket and a bigger rug for a customer and today I finished these great cushions. All in naturals and I think they look great.

Getting there.

2010-09-19T14:50:00.001-07:00

Good morning all, Monday again and a new week. Time is going so fast. But that is what we all say. We enjoy spring here in New Zealand, yesterday was a glorious day after the big storm we had. I worked in the garden for most of the time and Mr. Lovely Living was paving the floor in the garden house. We are getting there. It is a great place to be and even that it's not finished we enjoy it. Have a look yourself.

It is to wet today to finish the painting job so that has to wait till next weekend, don't worry I won't be bored today!

A lot can happen in a few seconds.

2010-09-05T14:56:00.001-07:00

Monday again and I'm sitting with my morning coffee and thinking about a new quilt what I want to make. But a lot of people in New Zealand have bigger worries than thinking about a quilt. They are still shaking about what happened last weekend, the big earthquake.

We lived and worked in Christchurch for a while and know the area really well. Nobody is hurt but the damage is huge. Just horrible.
You know it can happen but you always thinks it won't.

We are thinking of all the people who are going true a hard time at the moment!

Some work to do!

2010-08-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

After a long time we went to some garage sale on Saturday and I must say it was worth wile.
I'm always a bit in a hurry because I have to open my shop in the morning as well, but for some great garage sales you make some time.

The car was full with bits and pieces and most of the are already in use. What a bit of white paint can do. Have a look yourself.

One small table is in use at the back veranda to enjoy the midday and evening sun.

From the old brown frame I made a lovely picture frame that is for sale in my shop. Two weeks ago I made one like this and it was sold within a day.

And the little shelf rack found his place in my workspace behind the shop.

And you have never enough tables to put things on in the shop, so the small one is for the shop and is for sale as well.

It was a busy weekend but I loved it!

Shop update and trade me.

2010-08-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

After a long break here some pictures from my shop.

We are working hard on e website but it is not working jet, but for the ones who are living in New-Zealand like me you can find me on Trade-Me as well. I trade under the name lovelyliving, so have a look and happy bidding :)

Tell all you friend about this great opportunity.

And when my web site is in the air you are the first one to know.

On trade me there is just a small collection of what I sell, but I you see something on one of the pictures don't hesitate to ask.

Sorry for my long break, but I needed some time off after all what happened.

I never had the feeling before that I could sit on the couch and doing nothing even my brain wasn't thinking. But I'm back now and I worked hard in my shop to make lots and lots of stock for Christmas. Maybe you are not thinking of Christmas jet but as a shop owner you start thinking of Christmas in may!

Goodbye.

2010-06-16T00:02:00.001-07:00

Dear Mum, I don't know where you are and if you can see this, but these are for you!
Love Jacoline XXX

Back from heaven.

2010-06-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

We hade a great weekend away and I think I don't need a lot of words.
Just have a look yourself.

In this magical place the weight of the world just slips away!

I'm off.

2010-06-10T19:09:00.001-07:00

We are going away for a long weekend to the east coast. I'm looking forward.

Be back after the weekend with nice pictures to share.

Have a great weekend all of you!

Baking time.

2010-06-08T14:24:00.001-07:00

Wednesday already, last weekend our plan was to make a start with the garden room, but the weather was horrible. It was freezing cold and it was raining most of the day. For me a good opportunity to bake. I love cooking and baking but when the weather is to good I feel always guilty and want to be outside.

For my birthday I've got this great book with the most delicious recipes. But what to make first ??
I made a decision to make all the recipes out of the book, try to do one each week. (I'm not sure if i can do it but you need a goal isn't it).

This looks OK to me, but........

This looks better, Coconut, caramel, macadamia and white chocolate.

And this is the end result and I can tell you it was more than delicious!!!

I'm looking forward to the next baking project.

I have a dream..........

2010-06-01T16:47:00.001-07:00

I have a dream.............to have a nice small garden house, to grow plants, drink coffee, have lunch and maybe sleep on a nice summer night.

All these pictures make me dream..

But this weekend we celebrate Queens birthday and that is an extra day off. We are working in the garden to make our own dream place. So we don't have to dream any longer we can life our dream.

Granny squares and a vintage bag.

2010-05-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me a big cone with creme soft wool.

When I saw it I thought of a soft baby blanket. So I'm making squares and must say I love doing it. Every spare(??) minute I make another square.

And from the fabric that I bought 2 weeks ago in the second hand shop I made this vintage bag for my shop. You never have enough tote bags I think, they are so use full for all sorts of things.

Time to relax....?

2010-05-23T18:35:00.001-07:00

The laundry is finished. Not really because there is always some washing to do but the painting and decoration is done. It looks great and I'm happy with the end result.

It looks fresh and welcoming although it is not my favorite room to be.

My little girl made the curtain in front of the cat door.

I found this piece of driftwood on the beach and with some hooks we made this.

Time to relax.... No , there are heaps of feijoas and I want to make feijoa crumble for dessert and I'm still painting more and more doors.

This is how it all looked before, that's why I don't want to look back.

Little peek

2010-05-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

I think I have the best job ever. I'm my own boss ,can have a coffee break whenever I want and can work on my own projects when it is quite in the shop. I have my sewing machine here and this is a little peek of my work.

I'm already started making thing out of the fabric that I bought last week, show you the end results soon.

And Yes we are making a garden room/glass house with the old windows that bought on Trade me (second hand trading , like Ebay). I can't wait the plan is already in my head but we still have to make it. When I close my eyes I can see the tomatoes en grapes growing. I keep you updated.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, My Day.

2010-05-17T02:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, my day again. What happened with the time, hours, days , weeks.
Monday, my day off . I'm not talking about my beautiful beach walk and don't show you lovely pictures. You probably have enough off them.
But in between my paint jobs (an other door, a chair, a kids kitchen for the shop and some other bits and pieces) I've been to the beach , to the second hand shop and made some flower arrangements from the last autumn flowers out of the garden.

A few pieces of fabric that I found in the second hand shop. Sometimes when I see a fabric I know what I want to make. So the ideas are there, now some time to make it.

Do you know what our winter project is?

Before and after

2010-05-13T14:23:00.001-07:00

A quick post about my basket before and after the paint job.

After.

Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!

Monday, My Day.

2010-05-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

Monday is my day off. After everybody left to go of to school or work I went for my Beach walk. Try to do this every day. I'm in love with the beach.

Some people are lucky to life on the beach.

When I came home I enjoyed a great cup of coffee on the veranda in the sun. I think Autumn is the best season in New Zealand.

My goal is to paint every Monday a door from the hallway. There are 12 doors so this will keep me busy over the winter.

But this looks already great, don't you think so.

While I had my paint brush in my hand I gave this basket a make over. Will show you the result soon.

Time for some lunch with some blogging. We are lucky, the girls have a weekend job at a local cafe/lunchroom and sometimes they bring the leftovers home for us.

For lunch I'm having a feta/pesto/pine nut scone. Normally I have just brown bread with cheese so this was more than delicious.

Happy Mothers day !!

2010-05-06T15:50:00.001-07:00

This is how I wrap the presents. I make the bags myself by sewing 2 nice pages of a magazine together. With a sticker from the shop and a ribbon made out of a piece of material it looks great.
All the customers love it and the come back because they love the wrapping!!
Great marketing.

Here are some great mothers day ideas from my shop.

The bath and body range from Cath Kidston.

Greengate.

Wish you all a nice weekend!!

Welcome in my shop, Lovely Living

2010-05-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my shop.

A little impression.

I was planning to open my shop in September 2009, but I went back to The Netherlands because my mum was really sick. She still is very sick.

Going back to The Netherlands was the best I did and it gave me a lot of energy to do what you really want because life is to short not to enjoy it.

I opened my shop in October and from the beginning it went very well. I enjoy every minute. It is a lot of work because I work 6 days a week but it is great.

My wish came true!

I make a lot of things myself but buy a lot as well.

I organize craft classes as well, some evenings and sometimes a Saturday afternoon, we call that the crafternoons. I provide every thing they need and coffee/tea and cake and it is always a lot of fun!

Here some pictures from the cushions that I make out of old blankets,they flying out. Sometimes I make them custom made with the name they want on there.

When you are in the area, you are more than welcome to pop in.

Back from my blog-break

2010-04-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

After a long break I'm back.

It was not a real break only a blog break, I worked really hard, but I love what I'm doing at the moment.

My own shop, my dream came true !!!

Everything goes well and I'll show you soon where I am and what I'm doing the whole day. Have a great weekend all.

Ups and downs

2009-08-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable what a long time ago that I wrote a nice post on my blog.
I was planning to tell you all about my more than exiting news and then we got sad news as well. To start with the exiting news, I'm going to open my own gift shop in the small shopping mall in Waikanae. Lovely living in real life !!
3 months ago I saw the shop for lease and it was always my wish to own my little shop. I went to the real estate agent and after a lot of thinking I made my decision. Lovely Living was born on paper.
I went to Christchurch to the winter gift fair where all the retailers can buy there stock. And after a few days the orders came in. It looks like Christmas, unwrapping all the boxes.

A little note from the girls when I came back from 3 days Christchurch, so sweet!

We started to collect furniture for the shop for display and I bought a till. Lieke was more than happy to make her own little shop at home and play with the till.

Boxes of stock coming in and I want all the furniture white for the shop. André is busy painting them all and I'm busy sewing stock as much as I can.

But on the day that I signed my lease contract we've got the terrible phone call that my mum was really sick, I can tell you all my dreams fell apart and I didn't know what to do. I'm here in New-Zealand and she is in The Netherlands.

My plan was to open the shop in September,but we have to delay it till October. I'm off to my mum tomorrow. I stay with her for 5 weeks and hope we will have a good time together.

It was really hard to focus on the shop when you know there is something terrible wrong at home, so I hope I made the wright decision to delay my shop.

I'm off for a few weeks and hope to show you my new shop soon.

All the furniture is painted white and is waiting in the garage to put in the shop.

Beach walk

2009-07-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my long absence but my life is like a little roller coaster at the moment. I'm still really busy with what I'm doing and nothing is really sure so I can't tell much at the moment. But my fingers are crossed (for weeks already).

The girls have a winter break at the moment and we went for a great beach walk. We live close to the beach but is was a long time ago that I was there. In summer time I normally go every day. It's the best place at the world I think. Specially when you have the whole beach for yourself. And wintertime in New Zealand is nothing comparing to Holland. I don't have a winter jacket and most of the time we don't wear long pants. Of course you can have some cold days but when the sun comes out you can sit outside and enjoy coffee in the winter garden. Great life
style!

Hope to be back soon and show you all my activities!
For everyone who is having summer holiday enjoy it and make the most of it.
We are still waiting for our kitchen door handles, they have to come from Australie. We have a kitchen without doors and I can tell you it is messy but handy!

Long ago !

2009-06-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry girls for my long absence but it is very busy here at the moment. It started first with the flu. I was feeling bad for a couple of days and then of course it effected the rest of the family.
Our eldest girl was really sick and I was a bit worried, with all the stories about swine flu and extra news letters from school. So she was home for the whole week.
Then we had a terrible virus in the computer (named Troy, so better watch out!!!) we had to bring it to the computer shop. We missed him for almost a week and a lot of information is gone, so all the photo's. I really don't like it.

And last but not least I'm very busy with an exciting job. I can't tell you now but hope to let you know what is all going on in our house hold. It is so exciting that I can't sleep at night!! And that tells a lot!

André is still working hard on the kitchen. Sometimes it is easier to place a new one than to renovate an old kitchen. Every time you discover something new what is not OK. We found some nice doorhandles but we have to order them from Australia. It is great to live on an Island but sometimes you feel a bit lonely, if you can find where you are looking for. But we have all the time so we wait and see what they send us. Hopefully the send the right handles.

In the meantime I made a button love heart, easy and very decorative.
Hope to tell you soon about my exciting news!!!
Have a great weekend.

Crochet.

2009-06-08T17:30:00.001-07:00

First of all, do you like my new blog layout. I thought it needed a bit of an update.

I don't no what it is with me and the bath mat but I love making them at the moment. Maybe because it is winter here, we don't have a heater in the bathroom and my feet are very cold.
I made this one out of an old sheet that I teared apart and with a big crochet needle I went round and round and round. As backing a piece of the old sheet as well so it will match perfect.
It was easy to make and went quite fast.
I made some for my shop as well.

I love looking in other peoples houses. I think we all do, so here is a little look in our en suite bathroom.

And last but not least a look in our kitchen. This is how it what it is at the moment. A big mess. But it will be beautiful in a few weeks time. I'm busy painting the doors.

Piece by piece.

2009-06-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

Last summer I started to mosaic a table top. But I didn't finish it off. It is one of the jobs that you have to make some time for, you can't do it in a rush.
I made a mosaic from old cups and plates that I found on garage sale and op shops in the area and on holiday.
It is great if you sit outside and look at the table and spot to plate that you found during the holiday. Brings me back to good memories.

The table and chairs are standing on my front veranda on a nice sunny spot. And even in the winter you will catch some sunshine. On a rainy day this is the perfect spot as well.

Crazy things.

2009-05-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

This is my crazy home made cake stand. I bought a box of old cups and plates on a cat boot sale and it was standing in my cub board for weeks without using it, because there where never enough plates for a whole table setting. I don't lite it if things are standing there and you never use it so this was my idea.
I put it all together with super glue and my cake stand was born.
It looks great with home made chocolate cookies. But you can also use it with all sorts of things. With a Little vase of flowers on top and cookies and cakes on the other plate you serve a great high tea.

Last year we started to renovate the kitchen. But then it became summer and we stoped working on this project. We had visitors over for the whole summer and with the great weather we love to spend our time outside. But the winter is back again so we started in the kitchen again.

Lat Sunday we made plans for the kitchen doors, so we replace them for new ones. Lieke had a friend over and we ask them to decorate the old doors with felt. They were really surprised and started the same minute. We told the friend: Not to do this at home!!

You imagine they had great fun!

I'll keep you updated with the renovation. We ordered a new range hood and the lady form the shop already told us that there was a delay, so we have to wait a few more weeks, there is always something.

Quilt tree.

2009-05-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Today I went to my quilt class and the teacher ask me if I was interested in a quilt tree. I love the idea to get pieces of material from all over the world to make a great quilt.
You have to send the first person in the row 2 pieces (6" each) of material. It have to be PURPLE and 100% cotton. Then you make 4 copies of the letter and send them to 4 friends who quilt, along with two 6" squares of your purple fabric.
There is no money involved. It should be a lot of fun for those of us who like to quilt.

I can send it to 4 random friend but I really like to send it to people who are interested so no one breaks the chain. All together you should receive 72 squares in return. That should be enough to make a quilt. It will be fun to see where the squares come from, and what they will look like when you put them together.

If you like the idea and like to receive a letter with two 6" squares leave a comment or e-mail me. I'll send the first 4 the quilt tree info and the squares.
I already have to send my first one from the list to Ireland. So it will be very international. Great fun!

Home sweet home.

2009-05-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I told you about my new project. I've made a lot of cushion covers for the settee in the living room.
I took all the cushions from the outside daybed , washed the covers and stored them for the next summer. And with the winter coming up I like it to make my house nice and cosy. The best way to do that is with cushions and candles I think.

In the local op shop I saw a great big blanket made out of wool and knew directly that I could make cushion covers out of it. I took it home, washed it, appliqued some love hearts and letters on it and the new cushion covers are finished.

Let it snow , let it snow. I think that will never happen over here but we are ready for a long "warm" winter.

Lots of things done !!

2009-05-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

Do you know the feeling when you have done lots of things and they are all finished. It gives me a great and satisfied feeling.
There was a bag with shells in the garage for months , I had my plan but still no time and idea how to do. But I did it , I made a great framed artwork with all the little shells from our last holiday. I glued them all on a piece of canvas that I bought in a shop and painted in my favorite colour lavender.

And the chair is finished. With some fresh white paint and a new fabric cover it is e new chair for me. We bought a little desk that I put in the spear bedroom and with this chair it will give me some great working space. I already used it quite a bit this week.

And I made some more friends. The pink one found already a new home and the others are for a shop. I put some in my Etsy shop a well.

And last but not least this is the last project where I'm working on. It is still work in progress but I tell you later all about it.

Wild animal.

2009-05-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

Lieke came home from school on Friday and asked me: " Mum can you make me a tiger outfit for the animal disco, I'll need it on Tuesday.
She made the drawing and I made the costume.

Recycling.

2009-05-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

I was tiding up the table, it was full with a lot of little items that I use everyday. Like measuring tape, scissors , treats etc. I had it in my hand to put it somewhere else and on that moment I thought I need a litlle basket to put it in. I could put an old ice ream container out of the drawer but I don't like plastic so it had to be something else. I went true my pile of fabrics and found an old pillowcase. And the basket was born.

I teared the pillowcase in strips from 1 cm. Made a nice ball and started to crochet. After an hour I had my little recycling basket and the table looks nice and tidy again.

Have a great weekend!

Happy days !

2009-05-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today was one of my lucky days!
It was raining cats and dogs and it was really cold and I didn't want to go to the mailbox because it is at the beginning of our drive way. But I went and there was a big surprise waiting for me. A parcel from The Netherlands from Marian (vuurvlindertje).
She told me a while ago that she loved receiving real post from the postman so we send each other our addresses and I send her a card. But she send me a great parcel. Thanks!!!!!

I couldn't wait to open it and was really happy. She also send something for the girls. That is so kind. They love it!!

1000 times thanks , hope you like coffee. I made this especially for you. Enjoy!!!

On her blog she wrote about a project to make dolls for kids in Nicaragua. I think it is a fantastic project. So if you have some spare time please go to here and make a doll. You will make a little boy or girl very happy.

And what is better than make somebody happy.

You made me happy, Marian, Thanks!!

Bath-room make over

2009-05-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Before.

Cleaning, sanding painting, last weekend I did it all. I gave the girls bathroom a little make over. Every house in New-Zealand has two or more bathrooms. In the beginning I thought that's a bit over the top but now we are having our own en-suite and the girls have there own bathroom I think it is wonderful.
When we moved into the house two years ago we already did the walls and the ceiling but never did the rest. So now it was the time to do it.
You can tell me what you think about it. It think it looks much better!

After.

I love the new door knobs. Bought them in a great shop in Wellington called Magnolia.

Of course I made a little flower arrangement from fresh flowers out of the garden.

Flowers make the house a real home.

And I bought the girls a range of new bath products. But now we have the problem that they won't come out of the bathroom anymore.

And last but not least I want to show you the best breakfast ever. Sunday it was mothers-day and we don't really celebrate it because my birthday is a week before, but my little 10 year old made me this lovely breakfast and a great painting. The other two girls where off to there weekend job and daddy was biking, so we had a great time together. Thanks darling I love you!!!

xxx Mum.

Warm feet.

2009-05-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'm back home from work, had already one of my lovely bowls of coffee and have a great weekend feeling. No work for two days.
That doesn't mean there is nothing to do. I have a lot of things on my to do list for this weekend. First of all garage sailing tomorrow morning. I'm always a bit up sad if there isn't one. But we already looked in the news paper and we are lucky. One of the girls is in a ballet show for 2 days so that means a lot of driving in mums taxi. Up and down and up and down the theater. The weather forecast is rainy so I planed to do a lot of painting. The girls bathroom needs a lot of white paint and I bought a chair on a garage sale that needs a bit of white paint as well and a new cover. So lots to do for me.
I finished my bathmat and like to show you. When the weather is cooler now it is really nice to put your feet on a great warm bathmat.

Here a sneak peek, my garage sale chair that is waiting for a make over.

Have a great creative weekend all !!!

2009-05-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before I have to pick up one of the girls form school. This is on my table today. I'm making another bath mat from scraps. This are all left overs from a previous quilt.

I use an and old towel as backing like I did with the other bath mat. You can wash them over and over again.

Have a great day !!!

My moment.

2009-05-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

After work I always make myself a nice cup of coffee. That's my moment. I enjoy every minute.
And what is better than a great bowl of nice coffee with a good fluff on top and some chocolate.
I bought the bowl on a garage sale and use it now every day.
This is the coffee I like , Lazy Sunday, but o so nice during the week to give you a lazy Sunday feeling.

The plunger and the milk-foam maker are also garage sale founds.

I enjoyed my coffee today with home made mixed spice cake with sultanas (kruidkoek).

Here the recipe if you want to make it;

400 gram self raising flour

200 gram soft brown sugar

1/2 packet mixed spice

1 table spoon cinnamon

black pepper and salt

approx. 300 ml. water to make a soft dough.

handful sultanas, sun flour seeds, pumpkin seed, dried apricots, oats .

bake for 1 hour on 170 degrees Celsius.

ENJOY!!

Sneak peek.

2009-04-30T15:23:00.001-07:00

What should have been a great day ended in a nightmare for all the people who celebrated the queens birthday in The Netherlands. Why are people doing this? It makes me really angry!

I told you in a previous post that I like the hand sewing and quilting. It is very relaxing and you can keep going and going. I'm making a old fashioned hexagon quilt at the moment.
Here a little sneak peek.

So this will keep me busy for the winter.

Party weekend

2009-04-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had a real party weekend. On Sunday our little baby turned 10 and we celebrated it with a real girl party. And on Monday it was my birthday, I don't want to say it to loud but I turned 41.
Because we live far from our family (20.000 Km) they don't come to the parties anymore. In the beginning it was hard for the girls, but now we are used to it. So we invited a group of friends from school for a real girl party. It was great fun.
They decorated their own cupcakes with cream and lollies.We had a treasure hunt in the dunes and along the beach, had a swing on the enormous swing at the beach and have great fun blowing enormous foam bubbles that I saw here.

I made a party pinata from paper maché and tissue paper. Fun to make and the girls enjoyed it. After the party André enjoyed the left over from the pinata as well.

Lieke made the "Thank You" party bags for her friends and of course there was some nice cake.

The last big day out.

2009-04-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today my oldest daughter and I went on our big day out. The last one in the row for this year.
She wants do go shopping and than especially second hand shopping. I'm a big fan of second hand shopping so we had the day of our live!!

There is a really cool big second hand clothing shop in Petone near Wellington. We spent the whole morning in the shop. And as the pictures shows, we had fun trying things on and buying.
We came home with 5 bags full and spend less than $150.-
So we are not cold this winter. Look at my 'NEW" boots!

After a great lunch we did some birthday shopping and we went to the Dutch shop. We still like the dutch dropjes and speculaas. By the time the shops were closing our feed were ready to go home as well. We stoped for a nice ice cream at "the beach store" in Paikakariki, they have the most wonderful place to sit and enjoy your ice cream.

When we cam home we run to the shower, after a big day out second hand shopping you feel a bit sticky I can tell you. But we had a great day!

So girls start thinking what we can next year.

Easter break.

2009-04-14T01:11:00.001-07:00

Hope you all had a great Easter break. We enjoyed it, no work, no school, no sport, just nothing, it was great. The weather was perfect (like most of the time) and that makes it all so good.
The girls still like it to have an Easter egg hunt, so we had one in the garden.

I made this bread for breakfast. The dough is made in the bread maker the night before.

After 20 min. in the oven I filled it with a spread of marscapone and lemon curd. Some spread on top and fresh fruit and mint. It was a great start of the day!

Of course, we painted some eggs, don't they look colour full.

I made a Greek diner with an espresso cake with a chocolate/walnut topping for dessert.

As you can see we loved it. My birthday is coming soon and I think I want this cake as my birthday cake. I probably have to make it myself but I don't mind. It was Delicious.

Now with the Easter behind us , I've put some handmade love heart in the Easter tree as a colour full decoration.

Happy Easter !!!

2009-04-09T20:07:00.001-07:00

Wish you all a happy Easter !!!

A house full of visitors.

2009-04-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Be prepared darling ( I know you always read my blog on your work) we have a house full of visitors tonight. And they stay for a few days. They already took the couch, but I can tell you they don't chat and giggle the hole evening and I'm sure they don't snore like me :) .

I told you already in a older post that there was a lot of sewing going on. I'm busy making bears for the Easter market this Saturday. They are all made out of recycled clothing (most from the girls). I think in these days it is good to recycle, there is always a use for things.
So 100% New Zealand made and absolute safe for the little ones. They are very soft and cuddly.

My little girl is turning 10 soon and I asked here what she wants for her birthday. She was sure that she wants to have one of my bears. So the pink one white the love heart on the tummy is for her. I made it specially for her with all her old scarves and jerseys. I'm absolutely sure that she will love her "new" bear.

Our cat Minoes is happy with the new visitors.

Cooking disaster.

2009-04-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Once a week Elle (13) makes a nice meal for us. I can tell you she is doing a great job. She is vegetarian and likes cooking and baking (like mum). Our rule is the one who is cooking can choose what to make. She goes through the books during the week and on Saturday she comes out of the kitchen and surprises us every week. Last Saturday she needed a little bit of help from me. She was preparing Sushi. But the smell was terrible. We were looking through the recipe and couldn't find any mistakes. At last we found the mistake. All the ingredients where overdue for more than a year!!!
So off to get some take aways, fish and chips, was a good alternative.

But the best surprise was left till the end. For desert she made a wonderful lemon meringue pie. And is was DELICIOUS !!!!!

Well done darling. I'm looking forward to next Saturday.

Sewing time.

2009-04-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of sewing going on at the moment because I have a stall at the big Easter market on the coast. I give you a little peek of what I'm making. More later in a other post.

I made some Easter bunnies from an old wool cardigan. Found the tutorial here. And as you see my valentine tree is now an Easter tree. What you all can do with a little branch out of the garden.

Easter is around the corner.

2009-03-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable almost April, time goes to fast. before we know we are preparing for Christmas again. But firstwe have Easter. For me it is still strange to celebrate Easter in Autumn. I think spring makes more sense , birds lay their eggs and all the bulbs show first life. But we have falling leaves, so absolute no Easter feeling.
I made an Easter wreath with egg shells. It so easy to make and as you know I like wreaths. I have them in all sorts of material.

Stuffed peppers.

2009-03-28T19:27:00.001-07:00

So fresh and dont' you like the colour?

Stuffed with mince and then in the over for almost a hour.

I love cooking and baking and I realize that I never write about it on my blog. Most of the time I make my own recipes and make something with what we have in the garden or fridge.
I prefer organic and with your own veggie garden is that easy , cheap and healthy.
Last week I went with my daughter to a farmer to pick our own apples and much more. We picked peppers as well and I made that evening stuffed peppers. I made a mince filling and a tomato sauce and served it with basmati rice. It was a great dinner. Because we had a big bag of peppers I made two dishes at the same time. One for in the freezer for later on when we have a busy day!

Big day out number 2.

2009-03-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

Today is was Lieke's turn for her big day out. Most of you know that I do that every year with all of the girls. They can choose what to do and where to go.
We had a great day, the weather was fabulous a nice and sunny Autumn day (still 20 degrees)and no school for her today.
After breakfast when the rest of the family was off to work and school we went to the beach (one place up north) and had a great morning tea with juice, coffee and of course cake. Hurry up mum drink your coffee we have a lot to do today was what she said to me. So off we went to the next stop, the local farmer where you can pick your own fruit.
We picked apples, pears, capsicums,chillies and tomatoes and just the last 4 strawberries from the season, but we eat them strait away (don't tell anybody).

We have to make a lot of apple sauce and dutch apple cake this weekend. And we will eat apples for the next coming weeks, but we love them.

Then it was time for lunch. Her plan was to go to an other beach and have french stick with brie. When she was a little girl (just 2 years old)she loves brie and it is still one of her favorites. So we went to the local supermarket and bought some fresh french stick and a big block of brie. And I can tell you we had great fun!!

But we had to hurry up again , there was more on the list......

We went to a funny little museum, lots to see and lots to do for kids . We always drive past this place and now we have been there . And you can even bring your husband!!

After all she decide to buy a little present for everyone in the family. So hurry up to the op-shop where we found something for everybody. When we came home she was a bit sad in the car, now her big day out was almost over. But she had still her presents to wrap. You can imagine there was a lot to tell at the dinner table and a lot of presents to unwrap.

She is fast asleep now, we had a great big day out !!

The End.

2009-03-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

After weeks of work I'm at the end. My quilt is finished!!
I loved doing all the hand sewing ,I must say that I miss it a bit now so I started a new hand sewing project but I tell you all about that in a later post.

This quilt I made for one of my girls was great fun to make. The colours are bright and overall it is a very happy quilt with all the flowers and love hearts. Is was easy but a lot of work.
And look at her bright orange wall on her room don't you think it suits perfect. She loves it as well and made me a wonder full thank you card . How sweet is that!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Scraps.

2009-03-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of scraps because I always try to use every bit. But I had some scraps from the bunting that I made. I turned them into a bathmat for the girls bathroom. I used an old towel as backing so it is easy to wash. The quilting is done on the machine and as you can see I have to practise to make smooth rounding. It's not that easy.

But overall it is a nice bathmat.

Celebrating 4 years.

2009-03-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

I told you that we had something to celebrate. This weekend we were 4 years in New Zealand .
We emigrated 4 years ago with a lot of expectations and non of us knows what is was to live in a other country far from home. Sometimes we had hard times but we can proudly say that we did it and we are all very happy here. We don't know what it is to be homesick but when people are sick at the other site of the wold you wish you were a bit closer.
We lived in 4 houses in New Zealand before we found HOME (where we live now) and the girls are better now in English than in Dutch . We had a lot of visitors over and saw a lot of this wonderful country. But most of all we are Happy!!!

To celebrate this all we went this weekend to Martha's pantry for a high tea. Is was a great afternoon in Wellington.
We had scones, sandwiches, cupcakes, chocolate slice and much more. We taught is this all for us, but I can tell you there was nothing left. It was great, so if you ever in Wellington, it is worth a visit!

Shell wreath

2009-03-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

On our holiday I was collecting shells from the beach, that's what I always do. Even when we live on the beach I can't come home without a nice shell. But the one I took from our holiday are really special so I made a shell wreath from it, as a souvenir from a lovely holiday. It's hanging outside in the garden on the outside shower door.

Wish you all a good weekend , we have to celebrate something but I'll tell you all after the weekend.

Collection

2009-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

Do you have a collection? I think we all have. I'm collecting bird houses (most are from garage sales) and put them all in the garden as a garden decoration, not that I have a lot but you have to start somewhere isn't it.
The best one is the bird caravan that I found in a great shop in Eastborne close to Wellington. If I was a bird I definitely should choose that one to live in.

And do you like to join me on a walk true my garden, here we go...

Party time

2009-02-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

With some birthday parties coming up I thought better make some new buntings. In The Netherlands we call them "slingers" and the are always a real party topper. When we came to New Zealand I brought some "slingers" with me but they are not the best ones anymore.
So it is time for a new one.
I looked through my pile of fabric and found some nice fabrics that match the colours in the house as well, spend a afternoon behind the sewing machine and we are ready for the parties.
I was cutting triangles and more triangles, more than enough for two long buntings, 7 meters each and there are still a lot of triangles left, so I like to make one to stock up my Etsy shop.

In between I did some painting. We've got a old wooden travel box from our neighbour. It was a dark brown smelly box but in a good condition and very use full. So there was my white paint

again and look what I made of it.

Material Obsession

2009-02-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Months ago I wrote a blog about the pile of fabric that I bought for my daughters quilt.The one that I found in the great book Material Obsession. Now I can show you that I've been quite busy over the summer, the quilt is almost finished. There was a lot of work involved because all the parts are done by hand. Now I'm piecing it all together by machine and again I like to do the top quilting by hand. The evenings are getting shorter and colder over here so it is nice to snuggle under it while you do the hand quilting.

I made daisies, daffodils, sunflowers, hearts, gerberas, tulips, four-patches and pinwheels so unfortunately it wasn't a boring job at all. Everything in bright colours with a lot of white, what makes it a quite nice quilt.

Here just a little peek of what I been doing and I'll show you soon the end result. First I have to hand quilt!

Happy Valentine !!

2009-02-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

The tree before painting and decorating.

I made a Little valentine tree with red love hearts. Took a branch out of my garden , let it dry for a couple of weeks and painted it white with some normal undercoat.
Some felt love heart make it a real valentine tree. Not that we celebrate valentine but I thought it is a good reason to make a nice decoration. And with Easter I can put my little Easter eggs in.

Wish you all a great Valentine !!

New old chairs

2009-02-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

Before the big bang!

With new fabric.

I bought 4 chairs on a garage sale.

One green, one red, one dark brown and one creme.

And now they are all the same.

I covered some great old chairs with some new floral fabric.
It was an absolutely must because we went right true it, the chairs are on our veranda but the sun made the fabric fade away.
I bought the chairs a long time ago in a second hand shop an the other set of 4 on a garage sale just for $2.50 each. Don't you think they look great.

Four

2009-02-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Flora to show the 4 Th picture in my 4 Th folder.
It's a picture that I made on the lavender farm here on the coast. I love to visit this place so I go there every year when the lavender is flowering. And every year I make new (the same)pictures .

I'll tag:

13 Mimosa
Mirre
Heidi
Vuurvlindertje

Back to normal.

2009-02-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Private beach

sailing trip

Cafe Nina out of my Crafty book, a great palce to stop and have a coffee.

Beach with millions of shells

We are back from a great holiday and everything is back in his normal routine. Back to work and the girls back to school. Back to new classes , new friends and a new school for Elle, who started High school yesterday.

We spend the last week of the school holiday camping in a great area in New Zealand the weather was warm, sometimes to warm but we don't complain. We brought our own kano so we had hours of fun on the beach in the afternoons. Everyday we made a day trip and at the end of the day we spent some time at the beach. Sometimes we had the whole beach for our self. The water was aqua blue and the sand bright white. Normally you see that in a brochure but this was real, amazing!!

There was one beach that didn't had sand but millions of little shells, we spend a whole afternoon there just looking at all the great shells. And ofcourse we took some home to put in a glass bowl for decoration.
My Crafty girls on a road trip book was our guide for nice shops and great places for a coffee stop.
And last but not least we made a sailing trip on a big sailing boat ,it was great!!

Little break.

2009-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

We are going away for a little break to Coromandel tomorrow. Everybody is busy packing there bags and the car for a great week of camping. Unbelievable what you all have to bring for one week. I did the last shopping for the pick nick-lunch, one of the girls went to the hairdresser, I made some nice muffins from the last leftover apples , so we have a nice treat on the way. And last but not least the never ending washing.
So we are looking forward to a great week.

In the beginning of the week I made a little flower arrangement, I think a house without flowers is not a home. So we have always fresh flowers from the garden true the whole house.

I wish you all a good week and like to show you some pictures when we are back.

Big day out.

2009-01-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

Every year I go on a big day out with the girls one on one . Last weekend it was Elle's turn. They can choose what we do and where we eat. It is always great fun and during the year they are planning ahead what is coming up for there big day out.
This year we went to the Organic River Festival. It's a celebration of music, good food, creativity and the good Kiwi life. We had a great day. The weather was perfect We had vegetarian pizza for lunch and had some herb tea from the coffee Guru. It was a real big day out.
And of course we came home with little presents for everybody who was left home.

Flower wreath

2009-01-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

On a rainy Saturday I went with the girls to the river close by and game back with a basket full of wild flowers.
We made a flower wreath. It is hanging on my veranda and it smells divine.
It was great to be creative with all the flowers and we will definitely make more to give away.

Good start of the new year.

2009-01-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

We went away for a long weekend and I think that was a great start for 2009.
Anouk our eldest daughter had a sleepover for 3 night at a friends place so this was the first holiday-weekend without her. It was a bit strange and we missed her all, but we new she had a great time as well so that makes a big different.

A few weeks ago we bought a new big family tent so we have to try it out and we went camping in the Wairarapa in a Little town called Martinborough well known for the great Vin yards.
It's a good shopping place as well with lovely shops. On morning André was out for a long bike ride and the girls and I decide to go shopping and try to buy something in each shop. Of course we didn't do that but we came back with some great buys, new and second hand.

In Greytown we spotted a great sock wool boutique, JOY, where I bought some nice wool for a new pair of socks. I forgot to bring my knitting needles but in a second hand shop I found a pair so I could start strait away back on the camping. I bought some wool designed by Kaffe Fassett in my favorite lavender colour, and some autumn coloured one to make a pair of socks for André.

We went for a walk true the wine fields, visited a lavender farm, visited some places out of my book; crafty girls on a road trip were we had some lovely coffee and brownies, found great shops, the weather was super,so we had a great time. In my imagination it was much longer than a long weekend and it was just a warming up because over two weeks we go away for the real summer break, camping again.

Happy New Year !!

2008-12-29T21:54:00.000-08:00

I bought a great calender to start the New Year with. The Cupcake calender !!
Hundreds of recipes to keep you in cupcakes and muffins all year long. I'm not sure if I 'll try them all, but the best ones I 'll definitely share with you.

Thanks for visiting my blog last year and I wish you all a great and creative 2009!

Merry Christmas.

2008-12-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

We all wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New year !!!

Almost Christmas.

2008-12-23T00:34:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas.

My Angel quilt.

Presents, presents and more presents.

Our tree with handmade love hearts from old tea towels.

decoration out of the girls tree.

Almost Christmas , unbelievable. We had a great but busy year and now we are almost at the end. I'm still not really in the Christmas mood but that is because of the weather. The sun is out every day and we are wearing skirts and shorts most of he time so not really a Christmas outfit. But we have a tree( two by the way) and some decorations and I love to share them with you.

Love is in the air.

2008-12-19T19:39:00.002-08:00

On the Arts trail last November I met a group of great girls who invited me over to join their art club. Every time they are making something else and it's great to be part of their group. Over the last two weeks we made mosaic love hearts. It was great to smash all the old plates. And the result is great as well. I made two love hearts, my favorite one is the purple one, I'll hang it in my bedroom where is will match my lavender coloured wall.

On my table.

2008-12-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

I love flowers, I think the best ones are from your own garden. We always have heaps of little vases around the house with fresh flowers from the garden. We have them on the toilet, in the bathroom, in the girls rooms and next to my bed. And we have always some flowers on the table.
This is what comes from our garden this week.

Lady... What's in the bag ?!?!

2008-12-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

Lisette asked me what's in your bag? Here is the answer. I can tell you there was a lot of rubbish in the bag , so for me it was a good opportunity to give it a big clean out.
Do you really want to see it.......

An umbrella, because you never know. I'm not using it a lot because if it is raining in New-Zealand it a very windy as well, so it's better to run if you don't want to be wet.
My Phone, little Oililly mirror and a real dutch Jip en Janneke wallet. A small first aid kit in a nice little tin. Hay fever tables because it is that time of the year again , a very important coffee card (what are we without coffee),A measuring tape because you can always find me in a second hand shop and it is so easy to know if the basket will fit where I planed it.
And my own flyer's from my little " Party in a box " business. So I can always promote myself. If you want a theme party for your kids , you can hire a party box and I guarantee hours of fun.
There is much more so have a look yourself.

I'm curious what Margie carries in her bag. So please show us !!

Home made bread.

2008-12-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

I love baking bread, specially different ones. I make the dough in the bread maker, because it is easy and saves a lot of time and hard work (so I have time to do other things in between) then I bake the bread in the oven.
Last Saturday I found 2 great bread tins on a garage sale. I never saw them before so I bought them and make some nice muesli bread.
I used the normal recipe for bread and added a big bowl of muesli and a hand full of sultanas. It turned out very nice and tasty.

Tonight we are having vegetarian soup for diner and I serve it with a home made cumin-bread. Just add some cumin seeds at the dough and bake in the oven. Great taste!