One Gorgeous Week!

It's been a good week.  Firstly, the weather, apart from one day of rain - which the garden really needed by the way - has been drop-dead-gorgeous.  I mean perfect day after perfect day!  It was so clear the other day that we could see Mount Ruapehu from our living room.  Now this may not seem remarkable to you, but Mount Ruapehu is hundreds of kilometres away in the middle of the North Island!  We couldn't believe our eyes!

Dawn at Pohara - Mount Ruapehu is the little cone in the distance

We had friends in for an evening meal three times this week so I was able to potter away in the kitchen to my heart's delight making meals that we wouldn't usually bother with.  It's been great to catch up with old friends, though I think the waistband of my jeans is a little more snug that it was.

My gardening friend brought me a gift this week - do you remember the gorgeous flower I showed you late last year?

She brought me some "pups" - apparently that's what they call succulent cuttings - already potted up and ready to sprout.

Epiphyllum "Flamingo"

I love having precious little treats in the garden - I love having  treats whatever the context, really! AND I have the body to prove it!

Speaking of bodies, I had a Cranio-Sacral treatment with local naturopath Carolyn Simon this week and it was absolutely AMAZING!  Don't ask me how it works, but I'm here to tell you that it does.

The movements are so subtle that as my body moved and relaxed into the treatment I kept asking Carolyn "How did you do that?"  and "How did that happen?"  She finished off with a flower essence treatment which was also really fascinating - I had essences of New Zealand native plants which relate back to the chakras, which are a particular passion of mine.

My head has been buzzing with ideas for beads this week - well, with ideas for jewellery to be more precise. 

This is something a bit different for me and as I was making it I kept showing it to visitors to the workroom, asking for their opinions.  They were all really positive, but I still feel a little unsure about it.  Does it lack texture?  I love the colour wash of purples and teals and I like the weighting of the beads, and it's quite dainty... Is this a new direction for the work?

I also made a set of plain ivory beads a couple of weeks ago - they're heavily graduated and round.  The ivory glass worked differently across the piece so it has a little subtle variation.  I'd like to make something similar, but I'm not sure what colour to use.  Perhaps lime green?  I made these for Julie, who is a redhead and they look fabulous on her.  She calls them her glass pearls.

Some friends of ours have been doing loads of fishing lately and have been keeping us in beautiful blue cod - our favourite fish - piquant and fine textured - perfect fried in the pan with a little butter!

Look what they found in the gut of a fish they caught - they are so beautiful that it's hard to do them justice in a photo!

Exquisite!

A Weekend in Wellington and a Wedding

As I think I may have mentioned once or twice, friends of ours got married in Wellington last weekend, and we were among the very fortunate guests to share this fantastic day.

My little sister The Stitchbird and her family live in Wellington, too, so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with them as well. 

She has a stall at the Frank Kitts Market in the central city so we went along on Saturday morning before the wedding, because we are market connoisseurs, naturally!

She is the Toy Boy's Wellington outlet, too!

*****

Our friends wedding was held at Zealandia in Karori, which is a beautiful predator fenced bird sanctuary.  The groom calls himself a twitcher (with a wicked little smile on his face ;)) - which means that he loves to see and catalogue birds, and the colour scheme for the whole day was based on our beautiful native bird, the Tui - he has richly coloured blue/black/green feathers on his wings, and a white bobble at his throat.

They are among the cheekiest of all the cheeky birds in the New Zealand bush, and have the most amazing song - they actually have two voice boxes which they alternate and use as their own symphony!

The wedding was an exquisite affair, complete with a sting quartet in the garden before the ceremony

The couple are so delighted with one another that their joy becomes quite infectious!  The vows brought tears to the eyes of most of the group - it was a real privilege to be there to see them made.

 Once again, apologies for the awful photo - I only took my phone, and not my camera!  However, happy faces are always a pleasure to look at, right?

You can't see the bride's jewellery in this shot, but they're lovely Erinite and Indicolite Swarovski Crystals very simply done.  They reflect the colours in her accessories and in the groom's outfit.

Arohanui, Janet and Ken!

*****

Sunday was spent helping my sister at the Craftea Market at the Mirimar School Hall.  This is a really cool little market which is held quarterly - well worth a visit if you're in Wellington when it's on.  

I found some really gorgeous little fabric brooches for gifts.

*****

We had a break in the middle of the day and went into the central city to the Farmers Market - the weather was glorious for the whole weekend and as their slogan says "You can't beat Wellington on a good day!"

 

 

Green and Red Broccoflower

My brother-in-law took us with him to buy their weeks produce - the choices were fresh, varied and colourful!  The market is held on the waterfront and there was even a small fishing boat pulled up selling fish directly from the boat - trimmed and filleted right there and then to your instructions.  

 

There's something very jewel-like about fresh vegetables in the sunshine!

Food stalls from all corners of the world were really tempting, too, and we had delicious indian roti rolls.

There was only one flower seller that I saw, but don't you love the colour of these?

I've come home quite inspired and renewed and ready to create!

A Little Something for Moi!

...said Miss Piggy!

We have been invited to a friends wedding this weekend and I've been enjoying planning my outfit.  You may be surprised (or maybe not!) to hear that very little thought goes into my wardrobe mostly - I just choose random colours and shapes that appeal to me at the time and hope like hell that it all goes together when and if I ever need to dress up.  So to plan an outfit from scratch was quite a challenge!

First, I chose a short tealy green dress that I can add layers to as the wedding is outside in Wellington, not known for it's balmy weather...to use an understatement.  Then I got a black leather blazer - lovely and soft and warm, some black tights and tall black slouch boots.

THEN...I planned the beads (the fun bit).

They are really chunky and a bit outrageous, but well, you know...FUN!

So here it all is...I have to confess to being a bit disappointed with the colour of the dress - I LOVE colour and would have loved something much more...colourful!  But this is what I got...

I'll take another pair of black shoes for dancing in later, too.

Relishing Sunday

I told you that I bought a big bucket of ripe tomatoes last week - well I made them into relish today.  It was a perfect Sunday, just pottering around with the lovely smell of cooking relish permeating the house.

I'm a bit of a sucker for kitchen equipment - I have lots of old and new gear and love a new toy, but one of the most useful things I have in my kitchen is the grottiest.  An old friend showed me  how to funnel jam and relish into the jars - just cut the top off an old plastic vinegar bottle.  I made this gorgeous item years ago and it's lived in the cupboard coming out on special preserving days.  It doesn't win any prizes for glamour, but it sure as hell wins the practicality prizes!

I made 4 times the quantity of the recipe in the old Edmonds Cookbook - an old Kiwi standard!

It made 24 jars - that's enough for a jar every three weeks or so for a year and a good few to give away.

 

TOMATO RELISH

1.5 kg tomatoes, blanched, skinned and quartered (I skip the blanching, skinning and anything fussy)

4 onions, quartered (I actually like mine chopped a bit finer than this

2 tablespoons salt

2 cups brown sugar (there's no way around this - you need to use real sugar - it acts as a preservative.  You can, however, use raw sugar, but there's little difference)

2 1/4 cups malt vinegar

3 chillies

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon curry powder

3 or more tablespoons maize cornflour (so it's OK for wheat free friends)

Another 1/2 cup malt vinegar

Put tomatoes and onions into a non-metallic bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and leave for 12 hours.  Drain off all liquid formed.  Put vegetables, sugar, first measure of vinegar and chillies into preserving pan.  Boil gently for one and a half hours, stirring frequently.  Mix mustard, curry and cornflour with second measure of vinegar and mix to a smooth paste.  Stir into relish.  Boil for a good 5 minutes.  Pack into sterilized jars.  Makes about 4 x 350ml jars.

illy & Mojo had a sleep-in and didn't get out of bed till almost 1 o'clock.  So of course the bed remained unmade until they'd finished with it.  They refused even to open their eyes for this photo.

We went into town late in the afternoon and hung the last sign.  Apologies for the awful photo, quite apart from the fact that you can see my finger, you can't see the gorgeous copper roses that the Toy Boy made to adorn the top.

Counting my Blessings

How was your week?  

Did you have blissful moments?

Have you stopped and thought about the things you are grateful for lately? 

It's so enriching to do this all the time - just noting the wonderful events and abundance that surround us as we go through our days can give a whole new perspective on the world.

Wishing you all a BLISS-FULL week!