New Year and raring to go!!

Really?

I have loads of ideas swimming around, the Vampyress Loo Roll Doll and the Flapper Loo roll doll might make it to the crochet hook today, as might the fern inspired wrap/scarf that came to mind whilst driving through the bush clad hills of the Taranaki yesterday 

 

Forgotten World Highway - Stratford to Tauramanui

The most remote pub in New Zealand

And the shawl made of flowers? Well, some of the flowers are made :-)

Then there's the mosaic on the outside table that is half done and I'm sure I could finish today if I put my mind to it. 

 

It does seem like I'm raring to go, it is after all Saturday morning at 8.30 and I'm up, showered and having coffee whilst blogging so who knows what the day will bring?

Holidaying in the South

We had a week in the South Island last week. Amazing!

NZ Fur Seal on Farewell Spit

We went to the southern most point of the New Zealand and the northern most point of the South Island. 
We saw the cleanest water spring in the whole world bubbling from the deepest spring in Australasia, the deepest lake and the longest suspension bridge in New Zealand, a 140 billion year old petrified forest and a beach of gem stones.  
We drove on one of the largest sand-spits in the world, where we saw fur seals, whales and birds from Siberia.

Purakaunui Falls in The Catlins

The most photographed Waterfalls in NZ

Seeing such amazing things is a great reminder that New Zealand is a beautiful country of amazing contrasts

Growing Stuff

Spent some time this week in Tauranga and Taupo.  That boat makes me so angry I can't talk about it.  And I lost my $10 bet on the RWC so i can't talk about that either (serves me right for trying to be loyal to my roots :-D) 

And so lets concentrate on the positive stuff:

What a gorgeous spring day!  I went for a wander round the garden and I spied tomatoes growing, and the sweetpeas are going well too.

Growing on the crochet hook is an experiment in beads and cotton.  I'm aiming for a spectacles case....

And exciting holiday news, we're having a week away in November, and we're off to Nelson, Invercargill, and the Catlins using some of the airpoints I won last year.   And since Andrew is quite anal (oops) a detailed gentleman we're even writing an itinerary!

Some lessons from my summer holidays...

I should have persevered with the Cotton for a market bag.

The prettier one I made with a regular yarn stretched all the way to the floor when I put my togs and beach towel into it! (I'll let you imagine what that one looked like)

I am not destined to make a cardigan or bolero

My first go at motifs together looks quite nice, and can either be a wrap or a table runner depending on how much more yarn there is :-)

It's easy to spend money at the races especially if you drink too much fizzy wine in the sun.

After spending a couple of days at the Stamford Plaza I now know I should be richer so that I can live like that more often

On my walk this morning I saw heaps of dragonflies - they are so pretty :-)

Brrrrrrrr & A Dream Vacation

As I was driving to work this morning the ice was falling off my car and I was trying to compose my etsybloggers blog carnival entry for this month.

The current topics to choose from are:
1) It's summertime, a time to get away from it all. Do you have a dream vacation?

2) Are there any special (or not-so-special) traditions that you and your family do while away on trips?

Andrew and I have known each other for 2 ½ years so have yet to get content for number 2, and so even though we are in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere Ihave chosen number 1

My fingers are tingling from the cold as I type, so my immediate thought is that my dream vacation includes lots of warm sun.
Then there is always my dream destination - Egypt, which I’ve

blogged about before

Then I put my positive hat on (it’s a nice warm crocheted one)
And I came up with this…
(Warning: The following paragraph may induce nausea in those slightly jaded by life or if you are hung over)

My dream holiday is one where Andrew and I have a ball
We enjoy spending time together,
We go for lovely walks in the countryside or on the beach
We eat delicious food
We relax by reading or being creative
We discover amazing new treasures
We go places we haven’t been before together

And you know what….. we can do that any day of the year, we just have to decide too

Poppies at the beach

The 25th April is a half day holiday in New Zealand.
Anzac Day is about honouring the memory of WWI veterans who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey.
ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
here's more info – thank you Wikipedia :-)

Tzipi and I had all the best intentions to get up early to go to the dawn parade, unfortunately our hard day of house hunting yesterday caught up with us, and the best we did was to hear the air force plane do its fly by at the end.



We did pop down to the Cenotaph later on in the morning to see the poppies.

And then Andrew took us out to Yum Cha for lunch.



Which was a nice relaxing end to a frantic weekend!
Tomorrow we're out for lunch with friends, maybe a spot of shopping or to the beach if the day is as lovely as today :-)

Lessons learnt from a cycling holiday

The Otago Rail Trail has fabulous scenery and is almost impossible to catch on camera, even more so if you don’t get off your bike first

When crocheting flower chokers for all of the ladies (9) on the tour whilst on the bus, try not to get too detailed, it takes forever, the shoulders and neck suffer and you will feel queasy going around corners

After the first 70 km’s it’s easy to believe that the seat has no padding, don’t believe this and leave the bike out in the rain over night, that seat is really a sponge

The heel of the hand is the place that takes most of the pressure so when making your own cycling gloves put reinforcement on that bit

When you are the youngest on the tour it can be a little embarrassing to be the last to arrive, do lots of practice

It is a fantastic achievement, totally breathtaking and I highly recommend it!

2010 - it's going to be a good one!

Best wishes for the upcoming new year

I'm taking a break, see you in a week or so all bright, breezy and refreshed.

I have really good feelings for this next year

2009 was pretty amazing

2010 is going to be a happening one!