A Very Clever Glass

A year down the track & Gaffers Chalcedony still has me firmly in her grasp.

Exactly where she wants me I suspect, calling me back every time I attempt to ignore her & play with something else.

I try to play with all of the lovely colours in my glass stash, honest I do. While I'm playing with the other glasses I am sure that I hear her (& Chalcedony is indeed a she) muttering words of mutiny in the corner.

I reluctantly pull out a rod just to convince myself that she isn't about to do anything different from the last time I teased her with the flame - & she does. The siren sings her song & weaves her magic again.

Kieran is Home

My baby boy returned from his first deployment last Friday evening. Yep, I dont give a rats patootie if he turned 25 while he was away - he is my baby boy.

Five minutes, 5 years or 5 decades he will ALWAYS be my baby boy.

I can't believe how fast the last 6 months have gone, a Christmas & his birthday without him just weren't the same. But as you can imagine I was pretty darn exited about him finally coming home. So excited that I teared up more than once in the time before we went to the airport to meet him....or perhaps that was relief.

I didn't cry when he left. I didn't want him to leave with the image of a tearful Mum imprinted on his mind. He is living the life that he was destined to live, doing what he wants to do & serving his country by doing so. I have faith in that & I wanted him to leave with the knowledge that I am proud of him, not the message of fear & worry that tears would have portrayed.

Watching those boys arrive home, & some of them do seem so very young, I couldn't help but feel for those that had no one there to greet them, & those with babies that didn't recognize their Daddys any more because of the long separation.

Yet between those boys there is a camaraderie, a connection that is special - you can see it, you can feel it. It's not defined by age, race or rank. It is defined by what they have seen & experienced together. I don't expect that there is anything else quite like it in other 'work' environments, but it is a wonderful thing to see.

Fortunately Kieran has the most supportive wonderful fiancée, who seems to be of the same mind as myself. She is also patient & generous, not minding his Mum & family hanging around when I am sure they would rather have been alone. We had a wonderful dinner out at Kerry's parents place & spent a warm relaxed evening catching up.

There were a couple of moments when I felt a bit of a lump in my throat, when I thought back to all that had happened while he had been away. Knowing how the deaths resulting from the Iroquois Helicopter accident here on ANZAC Day & a motorcycle accident that took the life of a solider the next day had impacted on him. Lives lost on home soil - it seems so senseless somehow.

So the baby boy who was born on ANZAC Day (NZ's equivalent to the USA's Memorial Day) has returned safely home. I know I'm as grateful as all get out!

Kitty Convert #2

'nuff said!
(well, apart from the fact that the wine box in the background in no way reflects my tastes in wine! Lindauer has to be the worlds worst excuse for sparkly stuff - blagh!)

All Over the Show

But I don't mind too much. One day I will find my style.

In the mean time my efforts appear to be happily finding new places to go.

Some Beads Along The Way

When time permitted I got to the torch & managed to put together a few sets of beads.

Thinking myself a clever little person for having created stock enough to last me a while, I was somewhat surprised...no, make that stunned, when my first lot of listings sold within hours of listing them. My remaining stock didn't get the chance to be listed as a visiting designer saw it & purchased the lot.

The best laid plans of mice and men......

IN...& Loving it #9

So that is us. The move is complete, we are all settled in & loving it.

Some things have come at a cost as there are a few things that aren't quite as convenient as they were before. It's further to the Post Office, takes a lot longer to get to work...& there isn't a decent cafe anywhere near!!

I'll never like blue carpet, off white walls, down lights (who invented those things anyway....obviously someone that had no interest in art or crafts of any sort!!) or vertical blinds, but for now I can live with them. I don't expect that I will ever enjoy the rules that come with renting either, that inability to put your own stamp on a house or garden & make it feel truly a 'home'. But once again I can live with it.

It's warm, it's tidy & it's PEACEFUL!

It's conducive to living... & creating :)

This batch of Haiti Hearts was taken around to Ris'tretto recently... they'd sold all the rest just after I moved.

IN...& Loving it #8

The neighbourhood.
Call me a snob, but it is so nice to live in a neighbourhood where people actually care about their homes enough to keep them looking tidy again.

It is an absolute delight to walk around here. We are only 5 minutes walk from being out of a built up area & into a green space. Even though this area was developed at the same time the houses aren't all the same, so one isn't faced with a street full of replicas, almost clones of each other, each only having a couple of features that might make it different to the next. I often wonder about that & why people would be happy to appear not to have any individuality, or anything that distinguishes them from their neighbours.


There is a small park with a pond just up the road & over the back is a Home Centre with a huge builders & home handyman store. It also has rather a substantial garden department. Oh dear.


The funniest thing is that I have almost come a full circle. My very first home when my eldest son was a baby was not so very far from here. It bordered on open grazing land & the only building you could see from it was a small plant nursery. That small plant nursery has since become a rather large plant nursery, possibly the largest in this city.

IN...& Loving it #7

Rules aside, sometimes one just cant help themselves. There is such a thing as too much grassy leafy flaxy stuff.....especially when it is so congested & overgrown that it is sending runners under the driveway.

We are required to maintain the garden & lawns, but it's not specific as to whether that is just keeping it weed free or not. Darn that 'grey area' ;)

I felt a bit of judicious thinning was in order...

Before

After

Then there was the small matter of the garden edging that ran directly into the end of the patio. It somehow just looked 'wrong'.

Before - with evidence of more 'judicious thinning'...

After - with some of the evidence (very little) replanted....

IN...& Loving it #6

The wonderful weather has also allowed for some late in the season garden purchases.

Initially I was somewhat disappointed as it was quickly discovered that due to the way the garden is laid out & the rather stringent rules surrounding what tenants can & can't do, seemed somewhat prohibitive.
The 'garden' is primarily grasses, which I could normally work around. However these uninspiring specimens have been firmly embedded in weed mat & then covered by a rather thick layer of bark.

I love colour. I love variety & texture in both leaves & flowers.
Something had to be done....

Pots it was. Just as well I had loads of terracotta pots! Even better that it was sale time at a lot of the local plant nurseries.

Just a little bit scary that over the last 8 weeks I have filled in excess of 20 terracotta pots with plants, & have even snuck in a couple of purchases of more pots....

Woke up to a slight 'oopsy' one morning. I hadn't properly checked the rope holding my hanging pots & didn't realise that one in particular had perished almost all the way through whilst unused over the last few years.

It had speared itself nicely into the lawn...no harm done to either pot or plant.

This strip of fence would be the perfect place for a garden....it doesn't get much sun apart from in the mornings, & I can imagine a few tree ferns underplanted with hostas, solomons seal & astrantias & bleeding hearts. Yep, I see a blank space & my wee mind goes right into planning mode. But for now the pots will have to do.

IN...& Loving it #5

We've been blessed with days so bright & clear, full of the gentle warmth usually associated with early autumn rather than late, that it has been difficult to stay inside. Most days start with a coffee on the patio & me just absorbing the expanse of blue sky & the feel of fresh air & sunshine on my face. Bliss.

Discovering that this house is pretty much on an inbound flight path in certain weather/wind conditions has been a bonus. I love watching planes & on the days that this flight path is used they fly so low that I can tell which airline each plane belongs to.

Air New Zealand

Pacific Blue (why are the planes red?)

IN...& Loving it #4

I haven't met the neighbours yet, but I've made heaps of new friends...

Praying mantis are busy laying their eggs everywhere, the females at least!

There are loads of spiders around, I have never seen such a variety of decent sized spiders. When one is spotted the reaction varies... the girls run squealing & calling for me to remove them from wherever they have been spotted. I run for the camera.

The markings on this beauty are wonderful!

This is Siris, my eldest son Jeremy's new baby. He's such a honey, & has visited a couple of times since we have been here. Funny, we don't see the cats around when he visits ;)

Not quite as pretty as the spider above, but still interesting.

I haven't seen any lizards or geckos, but my lovely copper gecko has finally found a place that he can hang outside.

IN...& Loving it #3

New house, new garden, new obsessions.....

I spent some time watching the artichoke progress from immature flower 'bud' into full bloom. Fascination & my love of watching plants I have never grown before develop through to maturity easily outruled any desire to cut the flower heads that were still immature enough to harvest & eat when we moved in.

Then there is 'that' Palm tree. What an absolute joy to look out at it every time I pass through the lounge or go out the front door.

In...& Loving it #2

A few of the house & outdoor living.

Pretty ordinary from the street, but that's ok because I dont have to look at it ;)

This was what appealed to me - a decent size patio & NO fence right in my face!!

I'm sure that some people gasp when I say that the house is right on a small 'round-about', but I have to say that this is a view that I never get tired of!

An unexpected bonus was discovered in the vege garden.

IN...& Loving it

I've been remiss! We moved in & so much has happened since that it would be impossible to even try & catch up here.

Life can sure get eventful, especially when you have things you need to get done it seems. How about I catch up in pictures....

Everyone is happier!

Happy kids, who it seems can never be too old for a cardboard carton & a small slope....

The Loner cat

The Stoner cat...

1 More Sleep or....

18 Hours 5 Minutes
until we can start moving into the new place.
I can't wait!

Pure Self Indulgence

Then there are the days when the best laid plans go awry.

Time to pack up the real shoes, anything that I can live without for the next 10 days. It appears that there are quite a few I can live without.
There are many that haven't been on my feet since I stopped working at Heart of Art almost two years ago.

Then there are a few more besides. You know the type; the beautiful leather in colours that you just can't resist, pointy toes, sleek heels & what's more they are exactly what is needed to complete that outfit that you are going to wear to *insert special occasion here*.

The type that will most likely never see your feet again.

Unless you are moving & take a few minutes out for some pure unadulterated self indulgence.

Oh yeah!



Pretty amazing considering this comes from the person that will blatantly state that she thinks there should only be two types of shoes....flip flops & boots.

Same person isn't even going to get into how many pairs she has packed of those!

Plans, Schemes and Lightbulbs

Packing to move. Bah humbug!!

Determined not to become overwhelmed I had a plan....& "sub plans"

I have more or less followed to them too. I can't believe how calm & organized I have been.
I started with the miniature shoe collection - all 250+ of them. Each has it's own wee shoe box, but as the last move taught me the easy part is packing them down. The hard part is unpacking them & remembering where in the display they looked the best, when I get to the other end.

I was thinking about this as I packed the first few away, having started with my favourites; the western/cowboy boots.

Then I had a brain wave.
Well actually it was a rather obvious solution that I had simply never thought of before.
Photograph them, in situ.

The first few we hurriedly put back into the display cabinet, & I photographed each shelf.
Ahhh the joys of modern technology!





A day later & I had this ....& 6 others like it!

A Beautiful Idea

A while ago I was invited by Evie Shaffer, an artist & fellow Etsy seller to take a look at her beautiful idea.

Evie's idea is a way for artists to get involved in making a difference in the world by connecting artists to charity.

This caught my eye & was certainly food for thought. Of course, given that the current charity is World Vision's Haiti Earthquake Relief, I just couldn't resist.

It's simple:
Sign Up & design one item for A Beautiful Idea
Sell your item
Donate 100% to A Beautiful Idea's donation centre.

This can be a one time, once a month or one item continually participation. The choice is yours.

If you are not an artist you can always help by having a look through the shop on the A Beautiful Idea website.

Living in a Fish Bowl

It's a given that once you are moving something aside from the disruption of packing to move to the new place is going to happen to the house you are currently living in.
In our case this place will be rented out to someone else. Which of course means that people will want to look through it.

That is no big deal in itself . Our landlord put the thing on the market 6 weeks after we moved in, having signed a 1 year minimum tenancy agreement, so I am quite used to feeling as if I live in a fish bowl.
From that moment on this place was never going to feel like 'home' for me. Of course it helped that they put an over inflated price on it & I knew that it wouldn't sell.

Still, I didn't much like having all my 'stuff' plastered across the web on real estate websites.....even if the fact that not a single one of them had the 'specs' right on this place gave me more than one slightly incredulous laugh.

If I choose to show my belongings on my blog & selected forums that is one thing, but to have every room in the house full of my stuff shown, along with the address, & without having been asked just seemed a bit invasive somehow. Oh yeah, double standards for sure ;)

So back to the beginning, & the house that is now available for rent. The landlord has chosen to use some existing images, & updated the terms it appears.

Location: St. Albans, Christchurch City
Available: 21 March 2010
Furnishings: Gas oven, spa bath, heat pump, underfloor­ heating
In the area: Close to all amenities,­ right opposite St Albans park.
Parking: Double garage
Ideal tenants: Family or profession­als

5 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms.

Sunny 2 storey family home great location, opposite St Albans park. 2 bathrooms.

Suitable for up to 6 tenants.
No pets or smokers.

So what is that in the middle of the bed then.......

And no - I shan't split hairs & mention that it is not actually available until 22nd March...or that it doesn't have a heat pump & the only underfloor heating is in the kitchen.

Then again I would have most likely put 'hearing impaired' in the 'ideal tenant' field ;)