Sweet Mary

Just a few pics around our house on Christmas Eve in New Zealand... We have had this nativity scene since the children were little and still like to put it out each year and remind ourselves what our Christmas celebrations are truly about. We have family staying so lots of fun and extra presents under the tree. Candles to light when it gets dark. Stockings up, ready for you know who to fill. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends - and to my blogging friends also! xxx

The night before I left for a few days in Auckland I ran another Sweet Mary stall at Black Barn. It was a twilight market running from 5.30pm to 8.30pm. Most of the stalls were food stalls but it was good to be there and chat to customers and visitors and I sold more than enough to cover costs. Looking out from my stall in to the centre of the market - its a permanent stucture of about 20 stalls in a circle surrounded by trees and the lovely landscape around Black Barn. We returned from our very busy but fun trip up to Auckland to find the sweet peas in the garden desparately needed picking - they smell so good. I did a spot of fabric shopping for my Sweet Mary business while up there and also came home with a nice little stash of presents from the family.

I am away for a few days - leaving in an hour but thought I would just put these couple of photos up on my blog for family overseas to look at. Hi everyone! The lounge has the real tree and the living/dining has the fake tree. These photos were taken early in the morning even the house one - it looks great in the early light I think. Hope you are all getting in the Christmas spirit!

Now, if you had so many roses blooming in your garden that you were picking a huge bucket full each morning you would be thinking what to do with them all. After filling the house with vases of roses, giving rose bunches away to friends there is only one thing left to do and that is make rose potpourri. So, for weeks now I have had baskets of rose petals balanced on the shelves in the airing cupboard slowing drying out enough to go into the "master mix" with dried lavender and a few other pretty things from the garden. Here is a large bowl full below - being bagged up for sale on my next stall and through my FELT site ( left of this post, click on Felt - online).

I made these beautiful lavender filled doves especially for Redcurrent in Havelock North. They looked so pretty I really did want to keep them for myself to decorate my small tree - as opposed to my big tree which always has everything but the kitchen sink on it. It really should be called a memory tree as most of the decorations have a story attached to them.

Home from an early visit to our local Farmer's Market in Hastings with our bounty. All of this is locally grown - no food miles ( km's ) here! We are growing our own courgettes and broad beans but the rest is grown within a few kilometres of our home and we can chat to each and every one of these growers. Can't get better than that.

These three little cuties are for sale on my Felt site - just click on Felt to the left of this post - then double click on individual pictures for more information. There are 5 of each for sale.

Early evening with dinner cooking in the oven I went out to water the pots. We have a cute courtyard that has been created within the confines of the L shaped house and two outside rooms called "sleepouts" here in New Zealand. Its warm and sheltered and everything grows very well so I find I have to cut back on a regular basis to keep it looking nice. Watering done, I thought the pretty lavender against the wall could do with a trim so that I get another show in about 6 weeks time. I did mean to do this a couple of weeks ago so they would be flowering for Christmas but oh well... So pretty - it does seem a shame. Piled up on the table ready to be bunched up for drying in the airing cupboard alongside the rosemary and rose petals already there. I use the rosemary in my Sweet Mary "men only" sachets. My lavender goes into my Sweet Mary lavender hearts topped up with lavender that I buy in from a beautiful New Zealand lavender farm as I don't produce enough. Th

I have been selling my Sweet Mary lavender hearts through some New Zealand shops ( see left) for a year now and with a little encouragement thought it was high time I faced my public! So I expanded my range and set up, ready for business on the first day of the three day Holly Trail in Havelock North and what fun I had. Can't wait to do it again. The cushions I made out of antique linen and faded paisley fabric were snapped up and though I was happy that happened I would have also have been very pleased to have taken them home again as they looked rather nice in my bedroom. Last minute, as you do, I made what are called my "Sleep Hearts" which turned out to be big sellers, in fact I had sold out of them by the second day. They are larger but flatter than the other hearts and tuck nicely betwwen pillow and pillowslip to help you sleep. I also thought it would be good to make something for the men so I made my "Men Only" sachets filled with lavender, rosemary

The roses in the garden are blooming! Lots and lots of the most beautiful blooms. These are the notice boards I have been working on to sell at the Holly Trail next week - just a few more to do and maybe a few kiddie ones as well. As the next week is going to be very busy for me with lots of last minute things to get ready for my stall I will take a wee break but get back soon after next Nov. 9th with photos from the event.

Looking through the lavender to the rose garden and beyond. The heavy downpour of rain last Friday left a casualty - a big section of the lilac tree came away from the trunk right down to the ground. For the meantime it is staying where it fell as I can't bear to dispose of all those beautiful flowers just yet. Though I did pick a lovely bunch for inside the house.

The broad beans are growing well in our newly filled vegetable boxes but not ready for eating yet as the beans are only just forming and very small. They were planted out for about 6 weeks in the other house before we moved so have had a bit of an interruption in their growing life. I thought they may not survive the move but they seem happy enough. The lettuces are growing at such a rapid rate that we can hardly keep up. Freshly picked lettuce is a world away in taste from the days old lettuce from the supermarket. If we don't have a salad for lunch we have it for dinner most days. Any leftovers go to the grateful worms in our worm composter. We have had the worm farm set up for about 2 months now - no smell, great compost to come and the bonus of worm juice from the tap at the bottom. All very easy. Maybe the secret to our healthy plants is the worm juice! I would have popped outside to get a photo of my worm babies - you have to have special red worms and they are tiny, to put

Last April my friend Nic gave me a gorgeous piece of fabric as a birthday present which I thought was a great idea. What could be more perfect than a piece of fabric for someone who loves it so. The weekend just passed, I used that piece of fabric to cover this pinboard in my play room and I am very pleased with the result. I will be selling my pinboards (different fabric!) along with my lavender hearts from my stall at the Holly Trail which is coming up soon. There was a small piece of the fabric left so that got made up into a few lavender hearts to add to my stash that I am building up for my stall. One went to Nic of course. The first rose to flower in our rose garden. I counted over 50 bushes in the three rose borders. It is going to be a wonderful sight when they are all in bloom. Below is the rose garden two days ago with the single rose on the far left side. Just imagine...

Friends dropped by in the weekend - Nic made this very pretty patchwork bag which now hangs on my side of the bed. It was full of goodies to eat which we have duly done and a packet of Green Gate paper napkins which really are too nice to use. I guess they will be put away with "the" collection. Though in my new mood of wanting to clear out stuff I may have to use them (eek!). Annie, our baby has been very exhausted by the move. So many new places to explore that a full afternoon snoozing on the sofa is the only way to cope. Our older cat has taken to the spare room only making quick forays out to eat, pee and scratch up the sofa to show her displeasure on the way. Over the weekend I also managed to restock the yellow dresser which doesn't seem to have made much differance to the mountain of boxes growing in the living room. I am quite perplexed as to where all this stuff has come from - surely the moving company have dumped someone elses junk on me. On a more positi