A fantastic walk

We were lucky enough to be able to accompany Aaron on a work trip in the first week of the holidays. Destination Nelson.

One of the main reasons for going was to see my parents in Motueka. My mother has been very unwell over the last six months and it was great to see her getting better.

Eli had a cold so we did not want him going near my mother. The answer to that was to spend the day outside. So we walked around the estuary at Port Motueka. A gorgeous walk and really interesting. Just a slight deviation from the circuit is the lovely Toad Hall - a favourite eating spot for us. Fantastic for kids with all the outdoor play area.

We had a great day and nearly five hours outdoors walking, eating and exploring.

The first one up a tree.

The first find. A bird nest up the tree

Grandparents and grandchildren

My father makes amazing walking sticks

Another find on the path - a caterpillar (magpie butterfly) 

The very pregnant pigs just lay in the sun

Spoonbills

A pose from the boys.

Lucky Me

Last month I joined in a link up with Tartankiwi in a winter link up for Matariki.
The awesome thing is that just for linking up I won a gift. It arrived in the post yesterday.
The prize was donated by Nin who made the gorgeous handwarmers (which Jakob promptly claimed) and pin cushion (Eli said he needs it now he is sewing) and I got to keep the magazine. I will enjoy that on our holiday travels.
Nin is a very busy lady doing Sailor Spy and Make life beautiful
Thanks so much for the gift.

A purse that turns into a bag

Need to use it - just unzip it

Ready to pop into a bag when shopping

Now this is an idea that I have been wanting to try for ages. Somehow from start to finish this took me three weeks. Pure procrastination (and the first time I put the zip in it was the wrong way around!!).

I found the idea and amazing tutorial here. Sew Mama Sew is a blog I follow. Though in the tutorial the bag was lined, I would love to line it but I fail to see how it would fit when zipped up. So I used the top stripe to make a neat inside finish and cover the seams.

This is made from two women's shirts - a 100% cotton stripe shirt and a 100% linen shirt (picked up in a "fill a bag for $5). The zips are also recycled from articles I have picked up.

I now have a list of how I would change it in the future.
1) put a tab and D ring on so that I could attach my keys and use it by itself.
2) make the bottom of the bag a bit more square which may give it a better look when zipped up
3) the second had zip is hard to zip up. Aaron suggested using a chunkier zip and maybe not sewing so close to the zip. I think he is right.

Open it up and it is ready to use.

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Winter

 Winter is well and truly upon us. For Mothers Day I was given a long arm pruner. Eli was the one who worked out how to use it. It was so much easier as a two man job and a million times better than trying to struggle with a ladder as we have previously.

Eli was super helpful as he was a bit bored outside and has been really enjoying using my various gadgets. He is thrilled with the sewing machine and spent 2 hours with me doing the pruning. I am loving working with him.

Even though it is winter we have still been getting some walks in. My Mother in law came with us on a Sunday afternoon walk. We went around the reopened (post earthquake fixed) Godley Heads Track. The bad winter weather had wrecked havoc with the $0.5million upgrade but it was still a good 8km walk. ( I only did about 6km of it as it was not such a good day for me).

There were some seriously big mud slides that were quite dangerous as it was just cliff on the other side. Eli lost his shoe in the mud. 

Walking in Hanmer Springs - we had a great day and walked around Dog Stream - 5km for the day 

We made the most of the cooler weather to do a 5km walk around the headland at Kaikoura. I was not sure how I would go, but once at the top I felt ok, so kept going and managed to make it around. Aaron needed more exercise so he ran back and collected the car and came and picked us up on the other side.

I love the family time, even with the grumbles sometimes. We have been telling the boys not to grumble that they have to look at it as keeping mum healthy and well. I can't walk well in the summer with my heart now but winter walking has been a bonus so we have been doing as much as we can.

Hope you are all finding the good in these cold winter days.

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14th Anniversary

Fred the Clydesdale

Aaron and I have just come back from a weekend celebrating our 14th Wedding Anniversary. We had a whole weekend away at the Heritage at Hanmer Springs. I was given a pamper voucher for some work I had done, so we used that and added another day.

The Heritage Hanmer Springs

The weather was  fantastic, the massage sublime, the mulled wine at the restaurant in the hotel was so awesome that we had it both nights. Sigh - we did not get snowed in!

A cute buggy styled on the Amish.

We are older and wiser (well I was already old and wise when I married Aaron!! - Aaron has finally aged a bit!!) and I still love him to bits. (thought I also loved Fred the clydesdale that we went in a buggy ride with).

My hunky spunky husband

Us

Having a winter wedding was amazing - we got married on the wettest day in Christchurch in 25 years. But it has meant some gorgeous winter anniversaries.

Thanks to all the relatives who looked after the dog and the kids. Now back to reality.

Our family - 14 years post marraige

The awesome tramping we do as a family

Easy Orange Cake - egg and dairy free

Well this is a first for me. I am on blogging someone else post. Well done Anne for this recipe. Click on the link to take you to her recipe and blog. This is egg and dairy free , which all my nieces are and I am always trying to find food they can eat that is different. I also think that with lowering the oven a tiny bit and changing the oil that it might be OK for Kerryn (minus the buttercream icing)  Domesblissity: Easy Orange Cake:  

I am only linking back to the lovely Anne and her blog post

Yes I paint

From this

To this

A close up of the weird texture of the wall

For those of you that know me well - It is a very well known fact that whenever Aaron travels for work I paint!! Now I am not talking about lovely pictures for relaxing and craft. I am talking about remodeling. Whenever I was pregnant and Aaron was working overseas he would give me strict instructions NOT TO PAINT. I struggled. All my lovely extended family once came to my rescue as they knew I wanted the soon to be baby room, repainted and they were worried I would do it - so they all came and did it for me!! How fantastic a family I married into.

Anyway. This time the painting was a lot smaller than I had planned. I had the paint etc ready to go for Aaron's next trip. So on Thursday at 2pm when he found out he was on a plane at 4pm I started planning!! I had forgotten some vital things for the repainting of the windowsills and door surrounds so had to flag that, but I did get the feature wall behind the fireplace done.

The rusty colour was very worn and ragged and very tired. But it was a stucco finish so when I repainted it a paler colour the blemishes do show. As we got new carpet and painted the walls in December last year this and the window surround are the last thing to do before getting new curtains. Wow may actually get it finished!!!

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