The day after Xmas

We had a lovely Xmas day, with first a very flash lunch with some friends ( included an entree of crayfish, a main of ham and raw fish in coconut sauce and 5 different desserts!), then the rest of the afternoon at the beach with other friends, it was nice and relaxed, perfect!
While Europe is struggling with the bad cold weather, we are getting to the peak of summer with some pretty hot days. Best thing to do is to spend some time cooling off at the beach! Our local one has some nice little swimming holes at low tide, perfect for little toddlers!

This is my favorite time of the year, I am not a winter person, especially not when living in a house that gets as cold as outside.

The bump is coming along!

I've managed to spend a bit of time in my workshop, haven't got round to Xmas presents yet, but I did make myself a couple of night shorts since I had none and my winter pants were definitely too warm.

I made the shirt a while ago (but had no camera to take any pics), from two different shirts I found at the op shop.

Leaf earrings giveaway: the winner

Okay, so this is the second time I write this post (computer crashed yesterday as I was trying to download photos... sigh SIGH SIIIIGHHHH). I have been very quiet, mainly because our internet still hates blogs and crashes every time I try to visit one, also because Josh was away for work and took the computer with him. Now that he's back, he lost the camera, so my weekly mini art journal is on pause until I find a way around this (anyone got a trick to grow money on trees?).
I still would like to announce the winner of the leaf earrings giveaway : congratulations to Catherine Lowe! Please contact me to claim your prize: pioupiounz@gmail.com

I thought I'd try to add some colors to this post, here are some photos taken a few weeks ago while we enjoyed a nice sunny day with a walk up Makorori hill. Breathtaking views of the sea and surrounding hills... Lucky!

Mini art journal challenge: week 9

This week's prompt: "inspiration found". Hum... Tough one. I couldn't point to one thing in particular that inspires me or helps me get my little grey cells going. It's what makes art so fascination I guess. What inspires one person will seem so ordinary and irrelevant to the other. And what we make of inspiration is another thing all together!
One thing I have noticed, is that the more I think about creating and create, the more I feel inspired. It could be anything: music I hear, a walk at the beach or in the bush, a memory, someone I meet, a book I read,... Hence what can be read on my card: "everything and nothing"!

I used cut out letters from a magazine for the words "everything" and "and", and wrote the word "nothing" with a silver outliner for glass colour. The leaves were cut out of some green and white fused plastic and sewn on the card, and then three plastic buttons were sewn on top. The background is painted white and has strips of magazine glued in random horizontal lines.


On another note, we went to Morere hot pools this morning, about 50mn from Gizzy. It was raining intermittently and we saw lots of rainbows on the way, very cool! For the first time ever I could even see the bottom of one end.

The hot pools are one of our favorite spots in winter, the water is super warm (there are 2 pools, one hot and the other even hotter) and one side of the pools is open with a view of the bush. Best of all, it is hardly ever crowded.

Why we live where we live

Tahi and Jade playing with foam at "Whales", Wainui beach, Gisborne, New Zealand.

Camping week end

We went camping for the first time this summer. Never too late I guess, good prep for next year!
There is a thing called freedom camping here on the east coast of New Zealand, I'm not sure whether it exists in many other places. Over a set period during the warm summer months, some beaches fill up with "long term" campers. They basically set camp for a week or two (or more) during the holiday after getting a permit from council. The permit is pretty cheap, but you have to have your own chemical toilet. Other than that, no obligation but to leave the place as you found it. There are no other facilities either, so you have to take everything you will need with you: shower, water, food. It 's great way to have a holiday away from it all and live a pretty basic lifestyle for a short while (although I have spotted a few TV aerial sticking out of some of the more modern camper-vans this summer).
You'd be surprised at how packed those freedom camping spots can get over the holidays!
We chose to go to one of those spots, a beautiful beach called Loisel's, just half an hour from Gisborne. At this time of the year most holidayers have left, so we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves. As soon as we parked, Tahi jumped out of the car into the sand and only jumped back in when it was time to leave.
We met up with a bunch of our friends which made the week end even nicer. Our camp was pretty eclectic and a good sample of camping styles: from the simple yet efficient tent, to the caravan ( including one redesigned by our talented friend Katy Wallace ), the home made camping trailer/DJ space (made from reclaimed material by my evenly talented partner Josh) and even a big camper-van (no TV aerial).

The surf was good, it felt nice to be in the water and away for the city, no mater how small it is. Being surrounded by friends and little else was all we asked for.