Christmas Love & Home

The other evening, while cooking dinner, I looked up to see a most beautiful scene unfolding itself outside. Above the vegie boxs and the old tyres planted with tomatoes the sky was not only pretty shades of blue and pink but it kept changing so fast that by the time I had rushed to get my camera the best bits had been and gone. I still had to blog about it and just let you know what a beautiful part of the world I live in. My husband, Mr Picture This says the Hawke's Bay sky is the best.

Christmas is less than 7 weeks away and I love every moment of it. So, I started with a wee bit of festive shopping last week. A gentle build up to the great day. We are having some family to visit this Christmas so it will be extra special.

Haumoana Market Day

Thankyou to all the lovely people who stopped by my stall at Haumoana Market Day to chat and shop. I nearly sold out on a few items so will be busy between now and the next fair at Assisi Gardens near Masterton.

At the end of the day, with tired feet waiting to escape from shoes, the journey down the driveway to our home is always uplifting. Birds and rabbits scatter and we are always careful not to run anything over.

Christmas Decos

Christmas doves and hearts, handmade and filled with lavender on their way to the Redcurrent store in Wellington.
Sweet Mary will be at the Haumoana Market Day tomorrow and the weather forecast is good - sunny and warm.

Hawke's Bay A&P Show

A selection of great photos that my husband took at the A&P (Agriculture and Produce) Show last week. It is held every year over 3 days in late October and has an interesting mixture of tacky sideshows, livestock competitions, food stalls, some hand crafts, a smelly but fascinating poultry show, lots and lots of tractors and farmers with deeply tanned faces. I couldn't find the wood choppers this year - I can sit for a long time and watch them chopping.
The best bits for me are the animals...

Lavender Hearts by the Boxful

Twenty new lavender hearts on their way to Redcurrent in Wellington - bye bye hearts x

I Do Love a Bit of Red

Last week I spent a few days in Auckland. My brother kindly drove me around most of the first day so that I could achieve maximum shop visits around this busy city. These fabulously painted entrance gates to the wharves caught my eye.
Lots of other stuff caught my eye too but I forgot to takes photos !

I do love a bit of red.

I also love to fossick so naturally I came home with fabric, ribbons and buttons.

These vintage buttons were a treasured gift from the gorgeous Kate.

Once back in the Bay, I enjoyed walking around the garden enjoying the peace and picking spring flowers to put in the house.

This week I have been working on ideas for Sweet Mary Christmas decorations.

Stepping out the back door yesterday evening to look at the silvery sky and check out the lilac tree peeping over the top of the sleepout.

This is my favourite tree in the garden - a copper beech. On a regular basis I like to gaze at it to see what colour it is at that moment as it changes depending on the surrounding light.

As I drew the curtains this morning I commented to my husband how beautiful the tree looked this morning. He just smiled and said I always say that. When I returned from my shower he had taken this lovely photo for me. Thankyou honey x

Bird Boxes

I bought this truly vintage style bird box from Perry Davies at the Porangahau Fair last Sunday.
Perry makes these very individual boxes from "found" pieces of wood, coat hooks, letter box numbers, bits of old tin... anything really. Of course its for me to admire and for the birds to go elsewhere - whats wrong with a nice tall tree!

Perry lives in Onga Onga (Hawkes Bay) and you can contact him by email:

perrydavies@xtra.co.nz