One night in Boomrock

Back to this beautiful place yesterday. I first wrote about it here and it is now my fourth time at this venue but it never gets old. I was very excited to be returning to see some friends get married and to soak up the lovely food and atmosphere. I won't share images of the happy couple or put up any identifiable images of any guests out of respect for them. I didn't even pull out my phone to take photos of the ceremony; I just wanted to enjoy the service and imprint it on my memory. When all eyes seem to be on the bride, I look at the groom's face.  I love the moment when the groom sees his bride for the first time. It's magical.

Even though the wedding was held here in Wellington, most of the guests had travelled from Australia so it was quite nice to sit and chat with some of them and hear how much they have enjoyed being here for the past few days. They could probably relate to some dry, brown grass. Admittedly the weather over the past week has been incredible, and a city always looks nicer when bathed in fine, calm weather. 

The Cook Strait with the South Island visible in the distance

Having only ever played around with my brother's (empty) slug gun when I was younger, I was quite keen to try claybird shooting. Plenty of guests made it look very easy, and then I stepped up and missed all but my second-to-last shot. I wasn't expecting how forceful the kick back would be on my shoulder. I am sporting a bit of a bruise, but I am pleased I got a chance to do it since I missed out on the experience at my own wedding at this same venue 10 years ago.

See that black dot? Yeah, me neither. I shot one clay bird out of five.

As the light began to fade, my husband and I went for a walk around the hills to take some more images. I don't know when or if we will be back here, so it was nice to have a chance to do this. It's simply a stunning location, I really cannot overstate it.

I've often thought of my own wedding as being un-toppable but this day went very close. We did not know any of the other guests at all and yet being with strangers at such a happy event, it's impossible not to have a good time. I have never laughed or cried so much at a wedding reception, the speeches were off-the-chart good. I could even see the very discreet lodge staff laughing during the hilarious moments (and there were many).  It was such a lovely, relaxed occasion otherwise I would never have been comfortable enough to kick off my high heels and swap them with jandals. I am glad I brought them with me, it was so much easier to navigate the terrain.

The evening was perfectly still, and gave us a good opportunity to try out light trailing. Backstory: Imagine me dressed in my wedding finery, crawling on my hands and knees on the dewy lawn in front of the guests at the lodge hastily scrawling words and hearts with a sparkler while my husband tried to capture this shot. We only had four sparklers so not much opportunity to perfect the imagery. Not a bad attempt, but clearly, we have a long way to go.

Perfect venue, perfect day. Thank you L and K for inviting us to share this day with you. It brought alive so many happy memories for us. The best man mentioned a little known condition in his speech so I thought I'd add that if anyone suffers from the affliction that is termed Inner-Happy-Outer-Grumpyitis, Boomrock would almost certainly be the cure.

DIY - Small wire basket

Amazing what you can do with some chicken wire, a pair of manky old pliers and ye olde fingertips.

Thanks to the rabbit hutch project which has turned out to be longest wait for a birthday present in recorded history, a small amount of chicken wire was left over and I snaffled it to make a storage basket for my kitchen.

Let's not pretend I came up with this idea myself; having looked online after I made this and seeing how many tutorials there are already out there I decided that the world doesn't really need one more wire basket tutorial. Instead I give you a brief rundown on how I made my small version.

Our roll of chicken wire from the hardware store had 2cm squares. I cut out a shape that resembled a plus sign using pliers, bent the sides and wrapped the tines around the adjoining side to hold it all in place. My completed basket is 7 squares wide, 7 squares deep and 6 squares high (5 squares when the top row is turned down to prevent being scratched or clothing getting caught on the sharp tines).

Now I have something to house my garlic instead of just having them sit dejectedly on the bench.

Misshapen, mine.

Postcard from {Taranaki} - Tongaporutu

This place. Oh lordy. Tongaporutu is a gorgeous laid-back holiday spot at the mouth of the Tongaporutu River in northern Taranaki. There are amazing views south towards Mount Egmont/Taranaki on fine days. This first photo was taken with my iPhone which isn't very clear but the mountain is there in the distance, wearing a cloud scarf and peeking between the two rocks above.

The Three Sisters were once three vertical columns of rock standing like sentinels out into the Tasman Sea. Now there are only two of them as one collapsed several years ago and only the stump remains. The beach to them is only accessible at low tide. On our journey home from Auckland last week, I mentioned to my husband that if the children were awake/the weather was good/the tide was out, we should aim to stop here. With a solid five hour car ride behind us just to reach this spot, you can imagine what I was up against with tired children, but they were all awake at least, and I wasn't holding my breath for the planets to align with the tide.

We arrived at around 5.30pm and had a high-5 moment when we discovered that we had timed our journey well and that there were still several groups of people out navigating the shoreline, combing rock pools and walking along the beach. I've only ever had a handful of opportunities to travel this way so it was really a dream come true for me to see the sisters up close. What surprised me was seeing the number of shallow caves and a large archway worn through the high sandstone cliffs.

We spent all of our time walking along the black ironsand beach and exploring some caves on the south side of the river. There are also petroglyphs on the cave walls and on the northern side there are plenty of spots that can be explored too.

Three sisters. Profound.

There is also a lookout further north along State Highway 3 which is a great vantage point to take photos back towards the south of the cute colourful old baches nestled along the river. I mention this because I forgot to take a photo of the view so it may spare someone from making the same mistake. It makes me happy to know that there are still places like this that are largely untouched by developers, but as the baches are on council-owned leasehold land, their days may be numbered. I regret not taking a photo of them from across the river.

I am so in awe of this place. I don't bandy about this phrase but there is something much deeper to this place, something quite spiritual, and it left such an impression on me. I would have loved to have stayed much longer. As a child, we would drive this route on infrequent trips to Auckland, and I remember even as a young girl craning my neck to look out across the river mouth and the feeling that this place gave me as we drove past. I know that in Māori, Tonga means south, but I can't decipher the rest of the words. If anyone reading this can speak Māori, I'd love to know the meaning of this place name.

If you have never been to Taranaki, you really are missing out on some truly spectacular natural scenery. It is quite a detour to take if travelling from Auckland to Wellington, but I think it's worth it.

Tongaporutu. Heaven on earth.

Postcard from {Taranaki} - Okato

Hello 2015, you good thing. Coming back to Taranaki for a holiday does something for me like no other place can - and my soul needed it. This place fills me up and I knew that my tank had been running empty towards the end of last year. It's familiar, quiet, relaxed, everything operates at a much more sedate pace here and those are all good things. I grew up on a dairy farm on the southern side of the mountain and feel such a connection to this land. The majority of my parents' families still live in the region as do two of my siblings so we come back for gatherings every now and again, although the last time I was home was almost a year ago.

Having spent a great few days with family up north in Auckland over the New Year, we headed south to Taranaki to join our extended family for our annual family cricket match, which is played on alternate years in Okato. This is done as a way to honour the memories of my father and his late friend and their love for the game. Now into its 31st year, the match is always played in good spirit (with a few beers never too far away) and provides an opportunity for our children to see some of their extended family and play with their cousins.

My nephew opening for his side with my brother. Cricket, beer, sun - it doesn't get more Kiwi Summer than that.

Okato is a fairly typical small country town with just a handful of mainly convenience stores dotted along the main street. The cricket match was played on the grounds of the local combined primary/high school which is off the beaten path. I think it is a lovely spot and warrants a stop rather than just simply being a place to pass through on the way to New Plymouth, especially for people who possess more of a photographer's eye than I do. Like many small towns, there are hidden gems, like this cute wooden church, with sheep dozing in the paddock.

It was such a beautiful day, after my husband had his turn at the crease, we took the girls down to the local pool for a swim. It is tucked away down a side road which is accessible by car from State Highway 45, but we reached it by parking at the end of Old S Road on the other side of the Stony River and walked across the wooden swing bridge instead. There is quite a scenic walkway along the river although we did not venture too far off the swing bridge this time.

It was late afternoon, the girls played in the pool with their dad and cousins for an hour and it was the perfect way to finish off the day. I think this pool is another hidden gem, sitting there nestled amongst the native bush, although there were plenty of people there at that time of day to make me think the secret is out.

If you ask my children what their favourite part of the holidays were, they would say going to Rainbow's End in Auckland. If you ask me what my favourite part has been so far, easily, it was this day.

I hope you all have had a very restful festive season.  Only four more weeks until our new school year begins so I will be blogging sporadically until we fall back into some form of a routine. I have never been one for making New Year's resolutions, but having seen that I am no further along on my fitness path than I was a year ago, maybe I should start making some!

Practising kindness

This time of year can be hard for many people for so many different reasons. There is the stress of added financial pressures, of keeping up appearances, adjusting to the end of another school year (at least in our part of the world) and the uncertainty of the year ahead. Perhaps we are spending Christmas apart from our nearest and dearest or we have lost someone close to us and it is felt more keenly at a time when traditionally, family comes together. If you're feeling overwhelmed, whatever your reason, be kind to yourself, and if you are able to, surround yourself with people you love and those who love you back, who value your friendship and who's company you treasure. Be grateful to have this choice. If you know someone who lives alone or is just feeling lonely, reach out. Just reach out. You may not know exactly what is going on in their lives yet a simple act of kindness is a great gift if it comes from a place of selflessness - and it costs nothing. Be kind. Always be kind. We cannot control the thoughts and actions of other people, but we can control how we choose to treat others. And I choose kindness. Every time.

I chose this photo to share with you so you can see how Christmas Day is going to look at our place. It must be strange to people reading this on the other side of the world to see that it is summer here. It has been such a gloriously hot day today that I have the doors flung wide open at the moment to let in some of the breeze.

Those photos up on the shelf are special to us, not least of all because two of the people in them are no longer with us and I think having them with us in our little dining area makes me feel like they are not forgotten.

Don't let the tranquility of this photo fool you though. My husband's extended family and some family friends are coming to spend the afternoon and evening with us on Thursday and with around 25 people here, this place will be filled with wonderful food, noise, mess and chaos (and probably a broken glass or plate if my sister keeps up her record - heehee) which is how we do Christmas. This is our first time hosting for Christmas so we've had to do a little bit of furniture rearranging to accommodate everyone, but we love the idea of having everyone all together at the one table. See all the gaps on the kitchen shelves? That's not due to tidiness - we have reached our crockery and cutlery (and seating) threshold hosting this number of guests and every plate and glass we own is on the table.

Our family went on a little outing up into the hills a few weeks ago to collect some pinecones to decorate our table. Spray-painting them was a fun little activity for my husband and the girls. The hydrangea were foraged on another little outing yesterday. I did have a little laugh to myself while gathering them as some other people must have had the same idea since it was quite obvious that the bush we chose had already been "pruned" and only the topmost, hard-to-reach heads were left.

Merry Christmas, dear readers. Thank you for reading. Thank you for your comments, support and advice throughout the year. I have loved sharing parts of my creative and family life with you this past year. You can expect more of the same from me for as long as I feel I have a voice to lend to this community of bloggers. This is my last post for 2014 as I will be devoting my time and attention to my family and friends over Christmas and the summer holidays. I will still pop in and read your blogs when I can and will no doubt share a few pictures of my view on the world over the next six weeks on Instagram. Or I may not. In any case, I won't be far away and I will see you all again in 2015.

Fleur - a vintage-style cloth doll

In a complete departure from my usual sewing projects, I got to pattern-test Big Little's newest creation, Fleur, a vintage-style cloth doll. She is simply too beautiful for words. I don't think the photos do her justice to be honest. She is so robust yet lovely to hold and at around 38cm tall, she is an amazing size. My 5 and 7 year old daughters just love her to pieces.

If you are visiting here from Big Little's blog tour this week, you may notice that my version is a little different to the lovely ones that have been showcased so far. It was not because I disliked the original pattern, but simply because she was created based on what materials I already had in my stash.

I've sewed one other doll before, but I just made it up as I went along and it was very rudimentary. This doll has quite a number of components to her, including jointed limbs, and the pattern has a very comprehensive tutorial to accompany it; to see it all in one file may actually a little overwhelming for a beginner or inexperienced sewer. The testers were dripfed the tutorial, which I think was a really good approach so it felt more manageable.

I think to do it in stages and only when you have complete focus on the task at hand is key. I had a little bit on my plate last month when I worked on this doll and so I snuck a few hours here and there and always with the nagging in my head that I really ought to have been doing something else, so I think I rushed her a bit and lost enjoyment because she didn't come together as well I had hoped she would. I really struggled with a number of areas, and my frustration only grew when I could not achieve a nice, balanced look to her face. I don't even know why - all the other pattern testers seemed to manage it without a problem. Perhaps it was because I used polyester fill where others had used natural fibres? I just could not achieve the lovely rounded look in the example pictures when I started stuffing her and it caused so much frustration! She had no other features at that point, she was just a bald-headed, faceless creature with no arms or legs and I just wasn't feeling it.

I also found stitching and turning out the ears and making clothes that are this small an issue - I must have man-sized hands or something but finesse is required to work with these little details and plenty of patience is needed because you cannot rush through the stages unless you want it to show in your craftsmanship.

I had a ball of sea foam green wool in my stash and this is what guided me in the colour choices for the doll clothes. I followed Lisa's tutorial to braid the hair, which was surprisingly easy, and then I decided  my doll needed a more relaxed hairstyle, so I rolled the hair at the side, swept it around to the other side and then braided it.

Having struggled to stuff the doll, I made the decision to tackle the clothes instead. I figured it would be a good idea to have a break from the doll and play with some pretty fabrics instead to rekindle the enjoyment. For me, there is no point sewing if I'm not having fun doing it. I made a kimono dress and regretted my fabric choices so I opted for separates instead. I love how it all turned out, with her little leggings made from a pair of one of my daughter's old holey leggings. They are simply longer French knickers without the elastic in the legs and sewn with a tapered leg so they fit more snugly. The denim jacket is adapted from the bodice pattern and made using a pair of old jeans and I snuck in some of Sarah Jane's florals for the lining. The teeshirt is made from a stretch knit and I handstamped it with one of the girls' stamps for a street wear look.

So fash-un.

The shoes are made from a small piece of suede and were really quite fun to make. I cut out the soles from the supplied shoe pattern and to make the boots, I drafted a slightly wider pattern using the contour of the doll's leg as a guide.

I was especially hesitant to embroider her eyes; having come so far through the doll-making process and lacking confidence in my embroidery skills, I feared I would completely ruin the doll and not be able to disguise any mistakes. Lisa came to the rescue with a simplified eye design, which is just perfect on this doll.

There were so many emotions at play constructing her. I oscillated between excitement, to frustration to ambivalence and finally to falling completely in love with my creation. It was a total incarnation of the creative process diagram I wrote about last month. I could never give this girl up, so I am so glad that my children play with her and adore her too. As soon as her face was stitched on, it was my eureka moment and I just fell in love with her.

If you are ever given a doll that someone has carefully laboured over for hours, feel special because these dolls are definitely not a five minute project and if someone has carefully crafted something as detailed and beautiful as a Big Little Fleur doll for you, know that you are loved.

Lisa was incredibly patient with me as I worked through the various stages asking a barrage of questions along the way. She has also generously offered 15% off the pattern until this Saturday 20 December only which is now listed here in her Etsy store. Just enter the code FLEUR15 at checkout.

Unless you put all the dolls being showcased this week side by side, you mightn't realize that they were created from the same pattern, which is the beauty of it - it is such a versatile pattern and you are only limited by your imagination. I am having all manner of difficulty adding links and uploading photos to my blog at the moment, so if you would like to see more versions of this doll and to visit the remaining blogs in the hop, please do click through to Lisa's blog for a list of all the participants.

Aimee from Small Steps Big Noises has made a doll to give away to one lucky little person. Knowing how much work goes into creating these dolls, this is such a generous thing to do and captures nicely the spirit of this time of year. Please do go and enter for your chance to own your very own Fleur doll.

Dr Seuss novelty prints winner

You do realize that the odds of winning something in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day are pretty slim, don't you? Just think, of the 245 prizes up for grabs for international participants, there were hundreds more people in the group that missed out. But still, you gave it a shot and I admire that. If it's any consolation, you're in some fine company. Natalie Portman didn't win anything either.

Better luck next time, Nat.

My last giveaway winner was from the United States. This time, the fabrics will be winging their way across to western Australia. Congratulations, Janeta!  Thank you so much to you all for taking the time to enter my giveaway. A big hello to my new readers and likers on Facebook and Instagram, it is a good feeling to know people think I am worth a follow. I've also found one or two new (to me) blogs which is a nice bonus (that's just something us losers like to say).

Only six months until the next Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, maybe some of us will be lucky next time round.