OFF TO THE BEACH

 

Well... it's looking to be a really lovely day.

We plan on going to Raglan for the day.

I'm going to pack something to swim in, towels, a change of clothes, sunblock, sunglasses, everything ya need for a day at the beach. 

Not that the west coast is my favourite side of the island, but hey... it's closest to home.

I had thought we would do this yesterday, but we got carried away doing other things.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY LILY!

AND 48th Birthday to my nephew Deon.

We will be off to the kids house tonight for birthday cake.  

ABOVE:  Look at our tomato plants. 😊😋  Rather proud of them... we even have a few tomatoes growing.  

Right, I'm off to get ready... catch ya later.

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ABOVE: 10.50 am, first stop in Raglan. Groovy Rags, where we've bought many things before.  Today we got t-shirts for me, and a singlet for Stew. Lovely lady, very chatty.

ABOVE: We certainly chose the right day to come out here. It's glorious.  Tide is fully out, so not ideal for swimming.  

We are now at ORCA for lunch. 

ABOVE: The Seafood Platter at ORCA, it was everything we expected... very nice.  Stew got to eat 2/3rds of it, as my appetite isn't what it used to be.  

ABOVE:  Dogstars, a SINGLET here is a sleeveless t-shirt, usually worn under a shirt (most often white), unless it's like this one (bright and colourful), and worn just on it's own on a hot day.  Stew wears quite a few singlets on hot days, instead of a t-shirt.  

The two T-Shirts I bought are in exactly the same colour, so we can play matchy-matchy.  😂😅

We had a wander around the shops, but nothing jumped out screaming "BUY ME", so we left a bit earlier than anticipated.

Home now and we are going to chill out until heading over to the kid's for birthday cake.

STEW'S LAST WEEK AT HOME

 

Stew goes back to work next Monday.  I will actually miss him ... strange eh?  lol

But he'll only be back at work 6 weeks before his knee operation, then he'll be home for a few more weeks.

Until his operation, I'll get him to do a few more jobs around here while he can.

ABOVE: One of those jobs got done... hanging that buoy up.  It's one that came from my parents beach house in Whitianga.  I treasure it.  It looks so lovely there too.  It makes me happy looking at it. 

I  have a real hankering to visit Whitianga again, it's been a long time since we went up there.

Maybe in the next few weeks we can.

10.20 am, and I've been up and got all the housework done, and a few odd jobs too.

I DO 'work' and do jobs around here, it's certainly not all left up to Stew.

Though, he will be going up the ladder today and putting a couple of things up in the attic, I simply cannot do that.  I get vertigo and nearly fall off ladders.

In fact, I've had a few nasty falls from ladders in the past, so I simply don't do it now.

ABOVE: Who remembers THAT ONE, from when I fell off a ladder in our Auckland home?  That is why I don't do ladders!

Moving on, Stew has done his exercise routine, here and in the gym, and is now in the shower.

I'm thinking of persuading him to take us out to a beach again later on.  
  

ABOVE:  It didn't take long to figure out where to put the wonky house... we are rapidly running out of places for anything else!

Shame that, but then, there really is a lot in our gardens already.

ABOVE: It is a much more bearable day today, overcast with rain threatening.  Maybe it will rain later on, that would be lovely.

ABOVE: And there it is, up and waiting for a bird to make it home.  Might happen, might not either.  I've never had a bird actually roost in one of my birdhouses.

I put my first hydrangea cutting in a pot just now, it had grown a good lot of shoots while in a glass of water.  I must go around soon and get more cuttings from plants in our village, there's some really spectacular ones worth cultivating.

About an hour and a half ago I went for a walk, to take some hydrangea cuttings.... and one neighbour invited me inside for a chat.  And yep, that took an hour.  Lovely lady, she had a gorgeous hydrangea too, so she gave me a cutting, and one of the flowers off it.  I would LOVE it if I can get it to grow and produce flowers like hers!

ABOVE:  One of the flowers off 'Ds' plant, it is so gorgeous.  I really love the old fashioned hydrangeas.

ABOVE: All the cuttings I now have.  All of them are either blue, or purple, except ONE, which is white.  I got it only because of it's old fashioned shape.  I'm not a huge fan of the more modern 'flat top' hydrangeas.

Stew is watching some 'shoot 'em up, bang bang' movie.  Once that is over we will probably think about dinner.  Probably be just snack type things, as we had a decent lunch.

I was wrong, we had pizza!  It was bangin' too.  We went to Pizza Club Max, best pizza in forever!

Never, ever going to Pizza Hut or Dominoes again. 

And on that note, I'm outta here.

I'm tired as.

Probably not as tired as other people, sorry other people!  lol

CAMBRIDGE TRASH 'N' TREASURE

Today we are off to Cambridge, to do the Trash & Treasure Market.

It's a monthly market, and we have done it a couple of times before.

I thought it would be a good idea to add it into the ones we do on a regular basis, as over winter we only do ONE.

If we do OK today, we can do this one over winter as well.

So, we are up bright an early this morning, and off to Cambridge.

ABOVE: Coco got groomed recently, and OMG, within a couple of days she was super smelly again!  We have no idea why she's so smelly?

Does anyone else have a dog (s) that smell quickly?

ABOVE:  Stew bought this stuff for her.  The pet shop said it might help, one is a topical spray for itching, and the other one you put on her food.  I don't know if either will help, but I suppose time will tell.

She never used to smell this bad btw, I wondered if it's due to age?  

Alrighty, time to go... hoping it goes well.  Or at least there's lots of people to yak to if nothing else.

**********

ABOVE: Nice sunrise today. The sun will burn off those clouds soon enough. We're just waiting for the gates to open at 6.30... then we will be in and setting up.

9 am, all set up. Meeting friends here. No sales yet. Stew saw a stall that interested him, said I should check it out. Gave me his wallet.

Clever man! I spent ALL HIS CASH. 

I will show you on what when we get home. 

We just sold a colourful cot quilt... and its off to Scotland.  I love it when my stuff finds a home overseas. 😊

2.13 pm, and finally home and sitting down.

It is STINKING HOT outside today... possibly one of our hottest days so far.  There was a good breeze at market though, it blew over one of our racks at one point, so we had to peg it down.

IN all, it was a better market sales wise than we expected.

Knowing a lot of people are still away on summer holidays, and it's after Christmas now, meant less people around to shop.

But we did just fine.  Not huge sales, but worth it at the end of the day.

And being out there, being seen is always a good idea.  We get a lot of return customers, once they know we are there.

ABOVE: This market is predominantly second hand stuff, rip off clothes, bags etc.  Some good quality craft stalls, but not many.  Food stalls, hot dog 'n' chips,  might have had that for brunch. 😂😊  Sorry Mike.

ABOVE: Something I really like about this market is we can keep our car behind our stall (handy for unloading and re-loading), and you always get extra room out the front.

ABOVE: This is when our portable fan pays for itself!  Even though there was a good breeze, it didn't reach into the back of the gazebo where we were. I hogged it... sorry Darling.

Now, what did we buy, bearing in mind it was STEW'S idea...

ABOVE:  Wonky Houses!  How could we NOT get one for our garden???

There were three that were similar in shape, colour etc that caught my eye...

ABOVE: And this is the one that came home with us.  Now Stew has to put it on the fence ... a job for tomorrow, cos it's too damn hot to do it now.  And we are tired. 

5.30 am starts are a bit of a killer.

OK, it's now 11.30 pm, and I'm off to bed.  

It's been a long day, and I'm tired.  Probably not as tired as other people, sorry about that other people.  

And it's still pretty hot, probably not as hot as other places, sorry about that other places. 

*Sarcasm abounds*   Explanation is kinda in the last couple of comments.

I'M SEWING AGAIN, AND AM SO HAPPY

 

I am just so damn happy!

Having my sewing machine back has made my day.

ABOVE:  I used it last night to stitch the backgrounds together of two Fat Bottomed Ladies Runners.  Then I got busy for a couple of hours fusing down the ladies, towels, seat etc.

That's two runners ready for stitching today.  Even if I only get one finished in time for tomorrow's market, I'll be happy.

ABOVE:  When getting the rocks out of the car yesterday, I was like "What the hell is that?" when Stew put that piece of TAR SEAL in the trolley! 

STEVE thought it would be a good addition to the garden ... NOT!  It did make me laugh, so thanks for that Steve.

.

ABOVE:  How cute it that?

And that's me for now.... catch ya later.

**********

Joy has turned to extreme disappointment.

While my machine SEEMED to be working so much better last night, I was only sewing straight stitch.

This morning I tried doing satin stitch, which is how I sew all the applique pieces on... NOPE.

I tried a few other stitches... NOPE.

It will not do any of them, just does a stupid irregular zig zag, wobbly lines and so on.

I'm fuming!

It wasn't doing that before I sent it away.

It had a jammed bobbin/needle situation, nothing more.

Now I can't sew AGAIN.

11.40 am, and my machine has gone back to the repair shop.  The bloke in the shop tried it out, and while it behaved better for him, it still was not doing what it should.

I'm soooooo goddam frustrated.

We stopped in at Mitre 10 on our way home and got some really CHEAP plastic pots to grow my hydrangea cuttings in.  They won't be ready to go in the ground for months yet, certainly not now.  They would die in the heat.

I'm now making ham toasted sandwiches for our lunch.

That should be yum.

9.19 pm:  And it's been an incredibly quiet afternoon and evening.  We packed the car in readiness for tomorrow's market, then just blobbed out in front of the telly... waiting for bedtime.

Watching a movie now... so might be off to bed a bit later than anticipated.

Catch ya tomorrow.

MUST RING THE AA AGAIN TODAY

 

First up for today, I must ring the AA again, and get them to come over and put a new battery in my car.  Even though we took it for a good run the other day, it did not recharge the battery.  So yeah, have to get a new one.

Yesterday we got lots of rocks from the beaches...

ABOVE:  They are all still in the car, so this morning we will take them out, and scatter them around the gardens.  They will add some colour to the predominantly grey rocks already there.

ABOVE:  A few of the stragglers at the pub last night.  It was a really lovely night.

ABOVE:  A particularly nice photo of me, and two of the blokes I've now known for 40 years, old time mates of Stew's (and mine now of course).

**********

 11.17 am, and the AA man has been and given me a new battery.  I shall now remember to take my car for a little drive every other day, if I'm not needing to use it while Stew is home.

Though the guy did say it shouldn't have gone dead flat in just three weeks.

Anyway, that's sorted.

I'm now making our lunch, then we shall distribute the new rocks in the gardens, before sorting out runners.

I need to weed out all the Christmas themed ones, and just do a bit of a tidy up.

We are doing the Cambridge Trash & Treasure market on Sunday.  It might be an utter flop, being 'holiday time' still, but I want to add one more market to our winter line up.  Over winter we usually only do Tamahere Market, so adding in the Cambridge monthly Trash & Treasure market might be worth it.

I just got a message from Sewing Machine World... McDreamy is ready to be picked up... YAAAAaaaaa!

We will go over and get him straight after lunch.

2.15 pm:  And McDreamy is back in the house... thank goodness.  I can sew again, and will probably start on a Fat Bottomed Girls runner tonight or tomorrow.

After picking up McDreamy, we took a drive to Cambridge.  I wanted to talk to the people at Interiors Barn, and cancel an order that's been outstanding for 8 months.

In the end I cancelled the order, it was beyond my patience level to wait for what I'd ordered any longer.

ABOVE:  There was a lovely clothes shop next door selling mostly linen clothes, so we popped in there.

And wouldn't you know it, there was a linen top in there the exact same colour as that gorgeous blue dress I was wearing yesterday.  AND it was in my size, if a bit snug over the bitches, sorry meant boobs... so I got it.  

More incentive to lost those next 10 kilos eh?

Pure linen, made in Italy clothes are not cheap, but if you LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM, they are worth it.

That dress I was wearing yesterday makes me feel a million bucks.  WORTH IT.

We are now taking a little break, before getting all the rocks out of the car and putting them in the garden.

8.06 pm:  Well we got all the rocks out of the car and scattered them around the front garden mostly.  We will get a few more next time we go to the beach.

I spent some time in Crabby Quarters this evening, and was very happy with what I got done.  More on that tomorrow.

For now, I'm finished for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING, AND OFF TO THAMES

 

ABOVE:  First up... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEW!  He is now officially a Gold Card holder.  We will be off to the local pub for a few drinks with our friends this evening.

Before that though, we are going for a little day trip over to Thames.  Steve, Bex and their kids are going over as well.

I have no doubt we will end up somewhere along the Thames coast, dipping our toes in the water.

I might just be looking for a rock or two as well. 😉😊

Right, best get a move on, pack a day bag and so on.

**********

3 pm, and we are just heading home from Thames. We've had the best day here! I've got heaps of happy photos to share... but that won't be until much later on today.

When we get home it will be a quick shower,  change,  then off to the pub.

5.33 pm, and we are home.  Stew's up at the pub, I stayed back to have a shower etc.  And do this update.

We visited two 'beaches' today.  First was just outside Thames, where we collected rocks, and just had a nice time.

Then we had lunch at the mall.

Then we went to Thornton Bay, and after a play and wander, ended up having a swim.  The water was not cold at all.

Photos:

ABOVE:  I have NO IDEA what Stew was doing.

ABOVE: Archer was so proud of finding this spectacular rock for me.

ABOVE: Yeah Nah, not that one.

ABOVE: Dante liked this triangular one.  

I got LOTS of rocks!

ABOVE: Why are they flying away from me?  Like, not on.

ABOVE:  Yes, Bex tried to sneak away to shop for yarn in Lincraft.  She came out empty handed, disappointed.

ABOVE:  Lily on the other hand found a sunhat she wanted, and wouldn't leave without it.  So it was bought.

ABOVE: And then the little madam didn't wear it!

ABOVE:  More rock gathering at Thornton Bay.

ABOVE: We have never spent any time at Thornton Bay, but loved it and will definitely be going back there more often.  It is only 75 minutes away from home.

ABOVE: Mt Te Aroha, looking lovely today.

Right ... that's me for now.  I'm off to the pub.

Spending time with our friends at the pub this evening was really neat.  Lots of laughs.  A few beers, and I had a couple of wines.

Now we are home, and happily tired.  Probably stay up for a couple more hours in front of the telly, before heading off to bed.

Catch ya tomorrow.