WHAT DID WE BUY??? WAIT UNTIL MIDDAY FOR THE CLUE...

 

RIGHT.

The clue to what we bought will be posted at NZ 12 noon, giving more people a chance to read it and respond with their guess.

So until then... I will be sewing in Crabby Quarters.

The current runner might be finished by the end of the day, in which case I will start another one, as those Green/blue wave runners are quite popular.  We have picked up another market to do this Sunday, so we will have done 7 markets over 7 weekends, once we have done the Tamahere Market on the 20th of December.

Good going eh?

ABOVE: Sent to me by Bex, showing how Lily did her OWN HAIR yesterday.

The hair adornment only lasted about 5 minutes, but hey, it's a start!  She sure looks proud of herself.

12 noon.... and what you have all been waiting for... the CLUE.

First one from Stew:

For a clue.  Remember the past.  Items we've had.  Didn't keep.  Got to get it back.  Even made space for it.

My Clue:

ABOVE:  I'm an idiot, and you know it.  Think of something recent.

***  I am going to wait for a few more guesses to come in, then read them all.  IF there is a winner, I will announce it later on today. ***

WOW!!!  So many actually guessed correctly after the clues.

The first person who guessed correctly and wins either a runner or bowl cosys is:

VICKIE.

Well done chick.

Please get in touch with me via email (stewandchris@hotmail.com) to let me know what you want and your full name and address.

Well done to everyone else who did guess correctly, sadly I can't give away that many runners/bowl cosys.

That was rather fun, and I think I will do another give away in a few months time.

With summer upon us, we very quickly realised that our ONE fridge was not big enough for all the extra summer type food, and drinks.

AND the chemist gave me three months supply of Trulicity in one go, which took up a big chunk of room in the fridge as well.

Hence the need to have a second fridge after all!

I felt like a right twat, having only recently sold our smaller fridge/freezer.

We bought a single fridge, not a fridge/freezer, as we don't need the extra freezer space.

ABOVE:  Today's runner is finished.  It's not an option Vickie!  

I have already started another one the same.

TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH TRULICITY

 

As most of you are aware, I've been doing bi-weekly injections of Trulicity.  It's a diabetes/appetite suppressant drug.

This is the second 'round' of it I've been on, having stopped taking it after three months (the injections got to me), having a break then going back on it.

First thing I've now noticed... it 'works' for about two months, then the appetite suppressant component wears off.

I'm at that point again now.  It is frustrating, as I really NEED that suppressant component.  It suppresses your portion capacity as well, which is bloody fantastic.

I know I should be able to lose weight without any drugs, I've done it before.  But, I'm broken from being on and off a diet for literally my ENTIRE ADULT LIFE!  I need that help.

So, because Trulicity has stopped working again, I'm going to do what worked (inadvertently) last time... and stop taking it for a month.  Let my body take a break from it, then go back on it.

That way, I'm hoping the full effects kick in again, and it stops me feeling hungry all the time.

I will take Metformin in the meantime for my diabetes, having talked with my Dr about it.  He's fine with me doing this btw.  Whatever works for me is fine with him.

I'm not exactly looking forward to the Metformin, but needs must.

I am going to work very hard on my WILL POWER helping over the next month.  I'm sooooo close to another 'big' goal... and hope to attain it in a couple of weeks time.

Right, boring weight/diet twaddle over, back to today.

We bought 'something' yesterday, If YOU can guess what, I'll gift you a runner, or two bowl cosys.  I will keep posting this, until someone gets it right.

ABOVE:  I forgot to take the butt ugly Elf to market on Saturday, so Lacy adopted it.  She's welcome to it.

I'm going to Craft Group again this afternoon, so will be getting all my bits 'n' bobs ready to take.

I will be making another Wave Runner in greens and blues, as 'M' from Australia bought the one I finished recently.

11.36 am:  and I've spent the morning getting washing done and out on the line, and making these:

ABOVE:  Fabric bags for holding market products and stuff.  I have been meaning to make them for bloody ages.  It will make packing all the market stuff in the car much easier than boxes.  We will now only have one big box for the bowl cosy's, which do need to be in a box to help hold their shape.

Now I am about to have an early lunch, before packing stuff up and going down to Craft Group.

Catch ya later.

Right, it's now 3.25 pm, and I've just arrived home from Craft Group.  I got a good start on another Wave Runner.  It is another super hot day, with virtually NO wind, making it feel even hotter than it is.

As I was walking home, pulling my trolley, I passed a neighbour watering her gardens.  So I stopped and asked her to 'water' me... she happily sprayed my legs till I cooled down!  Nice lady.

Now I've got me feet up, fan on, just relaxing.

I've been busy all day and need a break.

Tomorrow I will give you all a clue to what we bought.  Cos clearly no one is going to guess it. 😂

9.22pm:  signing off for the day, happy it's over.  Toooo hot again.  At least now it has cooled down.

Catch ya tomorrow.

SURPRISE MEETING WITH A BLOG READER!

 

Yesterday was a really neat day.

Apart from having a really good market, we got to meet a blog reader who was visiting from Australia.

M and her husband T came to our market, and it was so bloody nice to meet them.

M was apparently thrilled to meet us, she was so cute.  She's been reading my blog for about 15 years!  Wow, dedicated.

Who else has been reading my blog for that long???

ABOVE:  The gorgeous M and I.  I was really chuffed that they came down from Auckland to meet me. (and Stew of course 😂).

ABOVE:  The two of them did some shopping in my stall... lucky my stuff is easy to pack in a suitcase.  

I have promised to visit them next time we are in Australia.  Seems we have somewhere to stay in Canberra.  😊 

ABOVE:  Look at the gorgeous Heart they gave to us.  It's on our Christmas Tree for now, and will go on our heart wall after Christmas.

Thank You so much M and T, it was a real treat meeting you.  And your hugs were rather special M.  💜💙💜

Today we have no particular plans, except having the kids over for lunch.

I'm going to do a variety of things for lunch, mostly finger food.  I'm hoping the weather is nice, so we can sit outside.  It will be a first for here.  We've not used our patio much at all since we moved here.

I'm really looking forward to doing that.

Stew and I woke up this morning, and I mentioned something to him, and he was like... I'VE BEEN THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING!!!

Strange how we do that so often.

We be 'in tune'.

So, we went out and bought 'something'.

If YOU can guess what, I'll gift you a runner, or two bowl cosys.  I will post this again tomorrow and so on, until someone gets it right.

Getting shit sorted for lunch now... 

ABOVE:  The snacks.

DD sugar free sweets for the diabetics.

ABOVE: Finger food, and a little bit of salad too.

ABOVE: Perfect weather for lunch outside.  Though next time I think we will put up the gazebo to give us more shade.  It was bloody hot out there!

ABOVE:  A gorgeous picture of Lily and Bex.

ABOVE:  Lily in our bedroom, getting behind our mirror to 'hide' from us.  She's just so damn cute.  Love that little babe to BITS.

ABOVE:  I finally got her to play in the water!  She wouldn't for ages, bloody minded little tart!  But I threw her crocks in there, and that got her going.

I am going to buy some rubber ducks...  she loves ducks.

ABOVE: Dante and Steve having a discussion on height.  That young man has a way to go yet.  Him and Archer seem to be growing taller by the day.

Our visitors have left now, so it's back to just us.  Coco was upset when she couldn't go with the kids, Steve grabbed her as she raced out the door and he reckons she growled at him!   I can't imagine it, but well ya never know.  She was pissed off.  lol
OMG it has been a stinking HOT day!  Our temps got up to around 29 degrees Celsius (84 F), which is certainly warm.  It is only just starting to cool down a bit.

It's going to be a long, hot summer I think.

I had a little nap mid afternoon, I simply could not keep my eyes open!  Food/heat.... yeah.

No one came close to what we bought today.

Keep trying.

I might add clues in a day or two. lol

I'm signing off now... catch ya tomorrow.

TAMAHERE CHRISTMAS TWILIGHT MARKET 4-8 PM

 

Today's Tamahere Twilight Market is the only market where we get to sleep in, instead of getting up at 5.30 am.  Gotta love that.

ABOVE:  This market is on from 4 pm - 8 pm.  It will be interesting to see how popular this time slot is, I can't remember how it went last year.  There's just so many markets on at this time of year, it's a wonder anyone comes.

The weather is supposed to be fine, maybe sunny, maybe cloudy, but not raining.  I can deal with that.

We will be going out there at around 1.30 pm, to set up, and be there early enough to catch people who are coming to visit the Church's Christmas 'shop'.

Stew has a couple of things to do this morning.  One:  do the weekend shop.

Two: Take one of his clients out to the cemetery to visit her family.  She's a 'special' case who he looks after personally.  I admire him for doing that for her.  

Once he's home, we will grab some lunch, pack the car and head off.

Now, what did I make yesterday afternoon for market?  Let's see...

ABOVE: Ta daaa... a Wonky House Tote Bag.

ABOVE: The other side has a pocket, or two.

ABOVE: It is fully lined.  I really enjoyed making it.  Might wait and see if there's any interest before making more though.

Not sure on pricing... any ideas?  

OK, famous last words and all that.

I made another one, finished it off by 7.45 am this morning.

ABOVE:  Two is always going to look better on the stall than one right? 

Bex suggested a price of $40 per bag.  Who thinks that's OK?

Hurry up, I have to price them by 4 pm lol.

ABOVE:  Whoops I did it again.  I'm getting faster at making them obviously.  That last one took about three hours to make.

And NOW I have to stop and get ready for market.

Shower, get dressed, do the face, pack the car.

In that order OK?  lol

P.S.: These bags have batting in between the outer and inner layers of fabric, so quite robust.

9.11 pm, and we are home and finally sitting down relaxing.

The market was GREAT!  So many people, and lots and lots that we had never seen there before.  We made GOOD sales today, but didn't sell any of the new bags!  Lots of admiration for them, but no takers... YET.

We were delighted to see/meet M and T, who are Australians, over here on holiday.

M has been reading my blog for about 15 years, and wanted to meet me.  So they drove down from Auckland to do just that.

Thank you for taking the time M and T, it was WONDERFUL to meet you.

And thank you for purchasing several items to take home with you.

AND also, thank you for the gorgeous Heart for out Heart Wall !!!

Photos of 'all of us' and the Heart will be on tomorrow's blog, as there's heaps on this one already.  😉😊

I'm going to sign off now, cos seriously, I'm just soooo tired.

Catch ya tomorrow.

CHRISTMAS TREE DONE, AND BOOBS GET SQUISHED

Today I'm thrilled to say  I'm getting me boobs squished.  😂😉

Breast Screening... IMPORTANT.  I hope every woman has them regularly.

Last night I got the main tree decorated.  I'm leaving the smaller one with just it's lights.

It looks fine.

ABOVE: The dining area.  YES, I know it's cluttered.  But we simply do not have a big house to spread them over now.  AND, they are only out for three weeks every year, and our family are the ones who are enjoying them over that time.  There's a few on the couch in the front room, by the front door (inside) and outside the front door too.  

IF I ever buy another one, it will have to be extraordinarily gorgeous to justify getting it!

And NO, I will not cull anymore than I already have.  We love our Christmas stuff.

ABOVE:  We bought two spinner things while in Australia.  Finally putting them up, and attaching two Elves to them.  They spin around and around.  Really cute idea.

ABOVE: The main tree, view from outside.

Putting it on the trolley was a damn good idea.

ABOVE:  I bought some new, pink themed decorations for this year's tree.  And I also used most of our older deco's.  I love this tree.

I can't wait to see what Lily thinks of all our decorations and trees/elves etc.

Right, that's me for now... the house needs a vacuum, washing needs to be done, and then after the boob squish, I have to get stuff ready for our TWILIGHT MARKET at TAMAHERE tomorrow afternoon.

HA!   I forgot these ones:

ABOVE: I've had these for a couple of years, and never knew the little tree had lights.  Very cute.

Waiting for the washing to be done, so I can hang it out.  Then on to the next job... killing time really.

I want to go into town and visit the shop where I got those Waikato Shirts.  I paid for four of them, but only got three that day, as they didn't have one of the sizes I needed.  

They said it would be in at the end of November.

I've rung and left a message, I've sent two emails asking where it is...  NO REPLY.  Very poor customer service.  So, I'm going there in person at lunchtime to see what the hell is going on.

They were not cheap shirts, I am not going to be brushed off like that.

After that I'll be off for the breast screening.

Clouds forming, damned if I'm gunna hang the washing out and have it rained on.  I threw it in the dryer.  I don't even feel bad about it.

12.46 pm, and it seems my last phone message got through. The Crate guy was not very nice to deal with, he was obviously on the defense. The shirt has been sitting in their shop for over a week! I just picked it up, and confirmed they DID have my phone number and email address. I told the lady in the shop their customer service needed addressing  before I left the shop.

ABOVE:  while in town I visited the Christmas shop and yeah... got more for the tree. It's going to look even better with a few more gaps filled up.

Might stop now 🤣😅😇.

I've got just over an hour until my boob appointment,  so I'm staying in town, hanging out at Stews office.

5.50 pm.  I've had a busy afternoon.  Instead of sitting for an hour in Stew's office, I decided to  head off to the hospital for me boob squish early. I fully expected to have to wait until my appointment time, but NO.  They took me in straight away, so that was excellent.

The squish itself wasn't too bad, though I will get bruises in my armpits, cos they got hurt.

All good, it's for a good cause.

I visited an Op Shop this afternoon and bought several pairs of jeans.  And then Spotlight for some denim.

Then I came home and sewed 'something' for roughly four hours.  I'm really happy with my something, and it will be on my stall tomorrow. It's a little different from me runners.

It it garners some interest, I will make more.

You will get to see what it is, tomorrow.

Cos I like keeping you in suspense. 😂😏

Stew is at his work Christmas Dinner, staff only, the buggers.

I'm going out later to get something for myself. I'm not going to miss out!

8.11 pm:  Stew just got home.  And I didn't go out and get food, I carried on sewing! Derrr.

Probably won't get anything now, as I did have something to eat at around 2.30.  It killed me appetite.

Time to sign off for the day.  Catch ya tomorrow.

STEW HOME LATER ON TODAY, AND MOSAICS AGAIN

 

Stew is due home from Taupo mid afternoon.

Did I miss his snoring.... NO.

Did I miss him moaning and groaning about his knee .... NO.

But Darling, I did miss YOU.

Safe trip home, love you.

I'm off to Cambridge to continue working on my Bird Panel.  I think I will be doing branches and leaves today.  After that, I might have a wander around the Cambridge shops, it's been a long time since I did that.

ABOVE: Coco's new favourite spot to lie in.  If the door is open (with screen door closed), she lies slap bang in front of the door.  She must enjoy the breeze.  And seeing who's coming and going.

ABOVE: How beautiful are my neighbour's hydrangeas!   I hope mine flower at some point so I can see what colour they are.

ABOVE:  Last night, before I went to bed, I put 90% of our Christmas Friends on and around the dining table.  Plus the little self lit tree.

I'll put decorations on the tree later on today.

Plus the slightly bigger tree in the lounge will get done too.

So much for just looking at it all and leaving it for another day!  ha ha ha.

2.30 pm:  It's been a busy day so far.

I went over to Cambridge and got this done:

ABOVE: Branches and leaves under the fantail.  It took longer than you think to cut and shape those branches!  Next week I'll move on to the next bird.

Stew's meeting wrapped up earlier than expected, so he was home by the time I got back from Cambridge.  I didn't get time to wander the Cambridge shops.  Another day.

ABOVE:  All the managers gave a 'Secret Santa' gift to someone in the group.  Stew got the Santa Suit.  Perfect for Christmas Day.

ABOVE:  I got a few more areas decorated ... front door etc. 

ABOVE: We went out for lunch at Foundation.  We hadn't been there in ages, so it was nice for a change.

We ordered a Lamb Sandwich (more like a burger), and a Beef 'n' Bacon Burger.

ABOVE:  Then we cut both in half, so we could both try each one.  The Beef 'n' Bacon Burger was nice, very yummy relish on it.  The Lamb Sandwich was AMAZING!  It had a most delicious  MINT flavoured relish on it.  I will definitely get that again, and I WON'T share it with Stew.  😂😅😆

Now we are home, and I'm not inclined to continue with decorating trees right now.  Maybe later.
8.47 pm: I didn't visit the kids this evening, they had other commitments.  So I joined Stew and the crew at the pub early.

And we had a really lovely time.

  

I earned some money... G 'bet' me he could make my tits giggle without touching them, and put $2 on the table.

Then that cheeky bugger grabbed me tits and jiggled them!  And gave me the $2 cos he 'lost' the bet!!!

Lucky I've known G for 40 years and love him to death!  Anyone else who grabbed me tits would get a whack over the head. lol

When we got home I did the tree.  Photos tomorrow.

Now, it's time to sit and relax till bedtime.

Catch ya tomorrow.