a curious collector….

my next series of prints are in dedication of collecting. i am an avid collector of many, many things; in part this obession arises from my genetic trait of hoarding! i swear the women in my family have cupboards full of interesting and wonderful things just waiting to see the light of day again.

i was looking around my desk/ creative/ studio space the other evening and decided that my collection of draw shelves would be a wonderful way to start! the shelves are made from the draws of an old desk; re stained and the back covered with some vintage wall paper i have collected. they are then packed full of werid, wonderful and sentimental curioso’s aquired by me over the last few decades or so.

enjoy my first collection

on a more positive note….

after re-reading my post from the other day I think I have been altogether too hard on our blossoming spring! looking around my garden, and even around the home; heaps of the plants are in flower! it makes all the freezing cold winter mornings spent toiling the soil worth it for blooms like these…

the african violet (left) was a gift from my mamma. she grew it from a cutting and had kept it for years without it flowering. i brought it home with me after a visit in the depths of winter; and low, it flowers for me in the spring!
the geranium (right) is not actually a geranium, but i cant remember its real name; and they are related anyways. this was a cutting i took from the neighbours garden last spring. i went for an early morning walk and was so startled and pleased by the amazing deep color of the flowers that my green fingers just couldnt resist growing my own!

enough of this pottering about however I have work to do; the sun is shining and the sky is blue, the more I get done the sooner I can be home with you x

spring has sprung.

it has been the most trying of springs. as in trying my patience!

we are just past the middle of spring, and i swear in the last few months it has been colder than the middle of winter! I can prove it too…
i was celebrating another year of life in the middle of winter and it was a lovely sunny day. I wore shorts (albeit with tights, i mean c’mon!) and we were drinking bubbly in the sun at four o’clock.
last weekend, on my way to work (grumpy as it was a saturday morn’) it was only three degrees; there was a gale traveling straight up from the arctic, freezing torrents of water were pouring down and it just got colder as the day went on! truely!

it is another grey day today, but it has definatly warmed up; so cant really complain! Especially as the sunsets on days like these are beautiful. I was in a parking lot the last grey spring day we had there was the most beatiful rainbow! A double rainbow in fact!

but then a quickly as it appeared, it was gone; and the sky was replaced with gold! beautiful x

and she was a sickly child.

My poor kid’s have taken a beating of late!

I thought I had broken my back gardening; but infact I had a kidney infection! O my it was sooo painful. So I have been resting in bed and eating grapes (apparently they help) but I still cannot manage to keep a thought in my head.

I will be a much better blogger from now on…promise! x

I dont think they like animals ’round here!.

So Ive been a- traveling sales lady for the past week! Yep thats right; a rental car, a suitcase full of summer dresses and myself for company! It was super fun; amazing scenery, beautiful weather and friendly people. It got a lil lonely (too many nights of room service, and plastic wraped glasses of wine) but I had some good thinking time; and every room I stayed in had central heating and a spa bath! Luxury!

I must confide; one of my irrational fears, aside from outer space, is taxidermy. I was in a whirlpool of feelings when I saw a store dedicated to the art in my travels! However I also must confide, not being too much of a reality tv fan, Fear Factor was something Ive always thought I would consider being on! So this was the perfect opportunity to test my metal!

I had a lovely chat with the store owner, there were four of them in the company and they get comissions from all over the country and further afield. He said it was a family business and they work out the back…he seemed to sense my squirmishness and didnt offer me a tour- that would have been too much! I was some what relived to see the sign “NO TOUCHING” and decided to respect their rules!

It smelt funny, and I couldnt help but feel sad that these beautiful animals had their lives cut short, some murdered in their prime, to become someones trophy! I cant understand hunting- so I guess it makes sense that I cant understand why anyone would wanna display the evidence on their wall! Each to their own I guess! It was a pretty crazy, movie like experience in the middle of no where!

So exotic- such a waste!

o so terribly behind.

I have been up and down this fair land for the past month; it has been so very hectic but enjoyable!

Still though, am not getting any work done that I have had planned for ages! I am tryin…
When I move out of a suitcase and back into my place I will be back on form!

Till then adieu x

Life in the trees, please.

O sometimes living with multipul’s is so hard! I would love to live in a tree hut by myself, up high, all alone but not lonely. I remember when my friends and I would make tree huts, playing outside until dark, frosted breath, chilled fingers, stocks of mud pies piled high for the next fight! bliss!

Here are some that would do me nicely, thank you x

Flags…continued.

So a few posts ago I mentioned that I was inspired to make some flags for my own festival of life; and I have!

They were so fun to make; I had a lil factory set up and went crazy! Maths was never one of my fortes, so to speak; and due to some mis-calculation, I made many, many, many flags! Flag-tastic! There are about 12 meters of flags shown hanging here, and I have a pile big enough to make about double that again- oops!

It was very relaxing; coming up with different fabric matches and making some really pretty ones. My favorites are the ones made with black lace and pink satin, or the doily printed linen, and the brown posy fabric, o and most of them really!

I think I will give strands of flags to my lil buddies when they have their birthdays! Currently they are hanging over my bed and every morning I wake, look up, and get a lil flicker of happiness! yay; what a nice thing to give to someone, what do you think?

Waitin’ for frankie….

So my super rad sister gave me a subscription to frankie magazine for my last birthday. How frikin’ awesome you may say, I sure did!

No more fighting the elements; clinging to lamp posts and street signs, battling the bitter winter wind to my local stockist. No more clutching frankie to my chest, protecting it from rain threatening to damage her wonder-ous pages! No more disappointment at missing out, walking dejectedly around other magazine stands, searching in vein for another to satisfy me, tide me over till next month!

But no! Even the best laid plans, or however that cliche goes…
For some reason Mercury Subs doesn’t think that the New Zealand readership is as eager to receive, or maybe they are just not as eager to give! Either way my sub always arrives a month or so late. Even the website is updated and active, and other bloggers are commenting, before I have even had the slightest whiff of pixels on paper!

I know I shouldn’t really complain, there are worse things. But as the weather has been progressively getting worse, and the evenings darker; I am finding my self somewhat obsessively checking the mail, ours and others! Large envelopes from banks and insurance companies, from a distance, look suspiciously like her! And each time my heart skips a beat, my pace quickens, a smile tugs at the corners of my mouth; but lo! Its not her! And I am a lil more crushed each time!

On the positive side however, I have found a couple of enviable letter boxes in my neighbourhood. Perhaps the weight would not be so painful if I could sand next to one of these beauties…

Cute hey!
And as for me, well I will have to make do with back issues for a lil while longer!

sigh x

Missing you dearly….

Nuchums Beach, Coromandel, summer 2009

This is the most beautiful beach! You have to rock hop around the coast for a ways, climb over a hump of native bush following a windy, well worn path, to come across an oasis. Clean, clear ocean. Pure, white sand. With a back drop of ancient pohutikawa trees for shade! Some swum and sung, with cool beers and picnic lunches. At night people strung hammocks between the branches and slept beneath the stars.

from everyone who misses the sunshine!