Sweet Mary

Today is the last day of Matinee Idle on Radio NZ National after 4 weeks (I think) of fantastic afternoon entertainment of songs weird and wonderful. I find myslf laughing out loud, dancing around the house and looking for things to do that keeps me near the radio. So, today, the last day, I decided to avoid needy jobs and embellish stuff instead. First up was the pretty rose covered tablecloth found in a second-hand shop on our road trip to Taranaki. The minute I bought it I knew I wanted a red pom-pom trim for the edges. Next up, the black and white stripe trim for a plain tee-shirt was sewn around in a trice. I bought this cheap food cover because of the red spotty fabric but didn't like the nylon lace edging it. Rustling through my basket of lace trims produced a couple of metres of white cotton broderie anglaise - on it went. This photo is for Mutti to see the red Ric-Rac trim that I have sewn on to the beautiful silver grey linen tablecloth that she gave us last year. It ...

Since Christmas, we have generally lounged about and relaxed so last week we decided to have a few days away. The Taranaki region on 'the other side" of the island from Hawkes Bay was the target of our wee road trip. Its a beautiful region steeped in history and dominated by Mount Taranaki. Please click on highlighted words and explore for more details and photos. Photo above and below taken on our drive home along the enchantingly named Forgotten World Highway. I think I read somewhere that the Whangamomona Hotel is the most remote country hotel in New Zealand. We stopped here for a hearty lunch of pie,peas and mash covered in gravy. We stopped short of licking our plates clean - just! Just out of Taumarunui we nearly shot past this beautiful lavender farm . The sign posting was hard to see but catching sight of the lavender fields was enough to make my husband hit the brakes hard - checking rear vision mirror of course! He knows me well and didn't even have to ask. It...