Thank You Roses.

These roses are to say a big thank you for all of your comments. It has been so nice reading them during this particularly sneezey time - as good as vitamin C - emotional orange juice.

A Good Book and Cup of Tea.

So this is what I am armed with to carry me through the day. I have woken this morning to sunlight with its warm rays working through me and feel a bit more cheerful (read that as slightly less dramatic). Just a heavy cold rather than a hell mouth to death's door. A good book has just been opened, Kate Atkinson's 'When Will There Be Good News' and a cup of tea brewing. Although, sadly in a different mug as I dropped my dear yellow one after the photo was taken. These things will be survivened (I just made that up, maybe I should submit it to those test words you have to copy when putting a comment on someones blog). Better go and fill up the hot water bottle and snuggle down on the big blue couch with my book... Have a lovely Sunday.

I'm Not Keen on Colds...

I am sick with a nasty cold. Right now I just want my mum and a big jug of roses. I am going to settle for, however, a cup of tea.

My Creative Space.

This is me on holiday, I take my head with me most times... no, in fact I take it with me every time. It gets very heavy, sometimes so weighted down all my best thoughts are pinioned to the bottom. On holidays I like to carry my head to the beach and somehow, the fresh sea air and crashing of waves seems to move through my ears, eyes and nose, cleansing all within. My head becomes lighter, neck longer and suddenly, thoughts begin to bubble to the surface. My head once again, becomes my creative space.

A wonderland of creative spaces are over here at Kirsty's.

A Finished Painting

Finally, a painting finished. For too long it languished awkwardly against the wall like a teenage boy outside the girls' school. Not no more (by the way, I know it should be 'not anymore' but it just sounds better).

Some Winter Crocheted Flowers

Happiness is the scent of a jonquil, a clean thread knitting its way through the air.

Beach Holiday

Goodness me, we have just returned from a beach holiday half an hour ago and already I am glued to a computer screen catching up on the latest blogging news. Thank you so much to everyone for your lovely comments while I have been away. It was so wonderful to come home to and thank you so much to Kirsty for your kind words.

We had the best time away, beach walks, book reading, eating, looking at stuff, thinking about stuff, making stuff (me: knitting and crocheting) and have come back feeling so refreshed and full of perspective. Just what we need to navigate our way through what is becoming a tricky dairy farming year.

Archie and Hugo went to their grandparents' for the last couple of nights so I am looking forward to cuddles at the end of the school day. In the mean time, I couldn't help uploading the photo of where they left their ukuleles before we left.

My Vintage Creative Space

I am certainly not the first in my family to squirrel away lace and ribbons and fabric and buttons,
And I certainly will not be the last.
I am not the first to feel an idea form in my fingertips,
And I will certainly not be the last.

I am not the first to love the the millimeters and centimetres and metres of this lace and I certainly will not be the last. It will swim and wind its way through the minutes, the hours, the days and the years, unravelling with the generations of our family.

More creative spaces over here.

Great Grandad's Hat

Archie Jonathan Francis Bruning wearing his great grandfather, Francis Morris Bruning's hat.

New Brooches

I am starting to get motivated enough to start packaging all of the brooches that have been floating around the house for goodness knows how long. This is only a beginning but I am working on the whole 'if you package it, you will sell it', even if I don't know how, when or where.

Crochet Wrapping Paper

My new green suede shoes - would you believe they are Clarkes. Back in my day Clarkes only made school shoes, big, black and chunky (extremely comfortable though). These were from a dream shoe shop down in Whakatane. I have forgotten the name though... I'll have to go back down there again and do a bit of detective work. That would probably mean another weekend away - hmmmm.

Last night we had one of favourite people in the world come to stay - Timbobombalina. Unfortunately his bride, Annaballarina also another of our favourite people in the world, couldn't make it (they do live in Australia and Tim was over for work) so I sent her an early birthday present. Panic ensued when I realised we were out of wrapping paper. And then I saw I had printed out an attic24 tutorial twice. Best wrapping paper in the world. Pretty, recyclable and informative.

Favourite Monday-ey Things.

Here are some things that made it a good day to get out of bed:

Hugo learning to write his name,
A stack of presents waiting to be posted,

And freshly planted pots by the front door, dispelling the whole junkyard effect we had going for so many years.

A Quiet Weekend.

Robot crochet and the chance to make a head-dress. Is there anything else left to say!

Autumn Bulb Planting

As usual I am very late with planting my bulbs. My secret weapon though is that I dig a shallow hole for them and this really seems to help them catch up. I think it works the other way too, the earlier they are planted the deeper the hole. I love it when the boys help plant the bulbs. It is always such a surprise to them when those strange, papery onion things send up their startling flowers, that what they are actually planting are hidden pieces of hope.

And the little bit of craftiness that I have included is on Hugo's shirt. It is from my stage of appliqueing boats for nephews and sons.

My Creative Space

Once again, my creative space (s) are scattered through the house like confetti:

Crochet hexagons colonising the couch - Jonno suggested turning it into a cover for the couch... I think I have infected him...
The tragic remains of Miss Haversham caught in a bowl and awaiting resurrection...

Baskets of wool peeking out from tables and lasciviously beckoning me away from things like cooking and helping children with homework....

And jars of buttons glowing, filling my mind with holey moonlight ideas.

More creative spaces are to be found over here (and they are all delicious)

Granny Square Shawl

Archie very kindly agreed to be my model this morning and let me snap away - how much longer will that last for? He did a very good job too although I think maybe the shawl is slightly to big for him. I have been working on this for a little while as a solution to cold shoulders during winter when knees are being kept warm by a blanket. Wrapping oneself can be so tricksy. I crocheted it in 12ply wool so it is particularly soft and snuggley. Jonno even had to pat it occasionally during its very long gestation and I had to shoo our cats away whenever their gaze was followed by a flexing of claws.

The Road Trip (or being stranded by a freak hailstorm)

Christel and I set off on our Monday road trip with billowy freedom puffing our mother hen wings. With only one quick stop in Papamoa for books (great library) and fuel we didn't think it would take long..... However, the sky darkened and thunder became a continuous rumble, steadier and more taunting than a cannibal's drum.

Under the cover of rain, we made it from the library to the car and then suddenly, hail the size of bloated jaffas began sheeting down. We managed to slowly manoeuvre the car to the service station and waited it out under their big cover.

The hail eventually settled until it was 10 centimetres deep and we were plunged into a winter wonderland - considering the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand is sub-tropical, it really was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. When it stopped we crept my little car out onto the street, tiptoed out of town and swept back into the drift of the open road.

A Little Holiday

I hope everybody had a lovely mother's day or just a great weekend. I am off to the beach with a friend for a couple of nights taking with me baskets and baskets of craft supplies.... it is going to be very wild.... actually, on second thoughts, probably not. Lots of love xxooxxooxx.

The Baby Kimono Jumper

It's finished. My first knitting foray since I cut my finger (as in severed nerves in the knitting spot on my right index finger) and I feel like time-travelling to my past self to say "It really will be okay and by the way, do not eat that box of chocolate, it is not going to love you back, it is going to stick and at the end of the day, you are not going to be happier for it". My sister Lucy recently blogged on knitting stripes and she commented that stripy knitting makes it so much easier to count. It is so true and certainly helped this jumper to kind of wizz by.

Another rose shot with flowers from Auntymum. Anything that catches the morning light, intensifies it and passes it on to us with beauty radiant deserves a spot on my blog.

I'm also feeling really inspired by the scent of water and have even had a bit of bloggingy chat (as in comment to comment) with Megan over the internet. Her site, let alone her blog's name, is divine so check it out.

I hope the spelling is accurate, the spell check is rebelling... or having the weekend off. I bet it wasn't woken at 4:15am by small children convinced it was morning and ready to play "But we are being so nice to each other Mummy" "Hurrrummph".

Old School Roses

These roses are old school. Not as in being an old fashioned variety, but rather, those fantastic roses bred during the 1960's -70's just for their bloom alone. Big, beautiful, fat heads bursting with fragrance and covered with gigantic thorns on their long, strong stems. No politically correct David Austens' (though I do like them) trying to introduce an attractive bushiness into the deal, just an honesty where it is all about the rose. I love them. This bunch was a present from Auntymum and her mama where I went for a lush morning tea yesterday. Belinda did such a great job I didn't even eat lunch, keep in mind there was the best gluten-free carrot cake I have ever gorged upon (picture me lying on the kitchen floor swallowing it whole like a snake) and there was even an extra bowl of cream cheese icing which to me spells l-o-v-e.