Shop update and baby expo

Things are a little crazy around here. No the vege patch is still on slow mode. Meanwhile I'm sewing like crazy this week getting ready for Gisborne's baby expo. I'm hoping to have a bit more than I had for sale two years ago, and of course really hoping there will be some buying!

Meanwhile I still have some custom orders waiting to be finished and am slowly updating my etsy shop... My to do list hasn't shrunk a bit, the workshop is still full of fabrics. My aim this year was to get rid of all the fabric in the workshop before buying any more, luckily I didn't give myself a deadline.

Reconnecting with summer

Aaaahhh, summer, you are on our doorstep, please come in. The equinox winds have picked up again but the sun is definitely a tad warmer. We had our first (windy) day at the beach today, the kids were stoked and ran around, splashed in the water. Nice.
We bought a big tent from some friends and tried it out (on a windy week end, eeeek!), it's nice and roomy, with an opening in the middle (I can stand!) and two little alcoves on each side. I can picture us freedom camping this summer  up the coast, by the beach. Super nice.

A few weeks ago we spent the night on a farm where Josh has been doing some building work. Spring here means lots of baby animals everywhere. This farm was no exception and they had three cute orphan lambs hanging out in the back yard. Tahi and Miro had great fun playing with them and Tahi fed them their daily ration of milk very lovingly. Baby lambs are super cute and we were very tempted to take one home... maybe one day...

Milkface I

Milkface II

Miro and the egg

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If you thought there was only one way to eat a soft boiled egg, Miro will prove you wrong. There's the nice tidy clean way, and then there's... well this.

PS. Do your kids go completely nuts when it's very windy outside? Mine seem to turn their energy levels to max and go completely hysterical. Is this normal???

inspired by: paper

I spent quite a few holidays in Hong Kong and China. Paper cuts are one of the many exotic things you can buy as a souvenir. I've always like the beautiful simplicity and intricacy of them. I doubt they are still handout as they probably were once. This book introduced me to other creative ways of paper cutting. I can only imagine how many hours these artists spend on each piece. Crazy.

It's warm!

And I've been making stuff! Sewing of course (photos later), but also doing some DIY around the house: painting the chairs lime green (Josh hates it!) and some garden seats for the boys. They're not the prettiest but hey, they're flat and the boys fit into them!
I used whatever wood bits were lying around, roughly sawed them and nailed them together. 10mn each, done.

It was Earthquake day last Wednesday, so we made jelly to take to our playcentre. Did you ever notice how when you shake jelly it looks like an earthquake? We figured it would be a good way to show the kids what happens when the earth shakes. Tahi was delighted, most kids thought it was funny but just wanted to eat it really.

Josh took the boys to the beach the other day, it was sunny and warm and the boys had a ball. They even went into the water and met a cute little baby seal.

Patience

We're now well into spring, , there are flowers everywhere, the days are warmer and we haven't had a fire in a while... It's been really nice to be able to hang out in the garden, get the vege beds ready for spring planting and sow some seeds. Watching seeds sprout then grow into seedlings and later plants has been my favorite part of gardening. Whenever I think about it, I still find it amazing that a living entity can emerge from such a tiny thing. It definitely puts life into perspective.

When it comes to gardening, spring feels a bit like a waiting game. At the moment, half of the vege beds are composted, mulched and just waiting for some seedlings. The said seedlings are growing in seeds trays until they are strong enough to be put in the ground. And so I have come to the stage where I just have to be patient and wait. Wait until the time is right. Sometimes I find this wait excruciating. I just want the garden to be full of veges growing everywhere, and sometimes I just can't wait anymore and put some seedlings in too soon. Most of the time I loose half of them (to birds, snails, dog-crossing-the-vege-bed-although-he-knows-not-to, aliens?). I could try and stop whatever ruins my seedling from ruining them (I do use bird netting now and again, but I don't really like to kill too many things, and no nasty Round up type chemicals of course). Or I could just wait.
So spring for me is just a game of patience. And if I manage to refrain myself and just go at nature's pace, I seem to end up on the path of least resistance.