FILL THE GAPS

Going through all the runners yesterday was a damn good idea.

It has shown me where the 'gaps' are.

We have 24 days until our next market.  I am going to try and make 8 runners and 10 bowl cosy's in that time.

The runners will be 3 Wonky House runners and 5 very simple Paua Shell Runners.

I have an order for a Paua Shell Runner, so that will be the first one I make today.

Then I will work on the bowl cosy's, as they sell quite fast.

Later on today I will be packing a bag, because Stew and I are going to Taupo and Rotorua on Friday and Saturday.  More about that tomorrow.

VIKIE:  I tried adding a YouTube link for you here, but it didn't work.  Gimme a minute:

That is the pattern I use.  Always use Cotton Batting and thread.  I don't know how Cotton Canvas would work.  Try it and see.

I have not felt well all day.  Upset tummy.

Thank you for enquiring Christy, nice to know you care.

I got into the sewing room late this afternoon and managed to make these:

ABOVE:  they are both approx. 90 cm X 30 cm.

One is pre-sold, she just has to choose which one she wants.  The other will go to market.  I am going to make a few more like this, with the Kiwi on them.  

Very simple, but hey!  Some people like simple.

Well the one without the Kiwi was chosen, so I get to take the other one to market in November.

I'm already working on the next two, but have stopped for now.

Dinner for Stew was crackers, cheese and gherkins.

I still don't feel like much ... maybe later.

We need to pack our bags before bedtime too.  Just waiting until I feel like moving again.  Right now I just want to sit and blob out.

Catch ya tomorrow.

I'M TIRED

 I'm tired.

Still in bed.

Got nothing much to say today.

Come back later.

Or not.  Up to you.

No guarantees there will be anything else though!

10.59 am:  I've been up for about an hour.

I knew I had to sort through all the market stock.

When we pack up, there is no order to how we layer the runners in the 'bag'.... so that's what I am now doing.

ABOVE:  Quite a few!

I'm constantly trying to work out the 'best' way to have them on the racks.

Usually they are grouped into same prices.

Now I might group them into types, Cats, Kiwiana, Wonky Houses etc.  

So that's what I will do next, see how they actually fit on the racks like that.

ABOVE:  I think this set up works better.  Hung runners in 'groups', with one rack having a few odds 'n' ends on one end.   And arranging the tables differently for the Tamahere Market works too... even though our site is a 3 m X 3 m, we can pop out the front a good .5 m, which is damn handy.

I exhausted myself just doing all that!  Time to take a break and have some lunch.  It's almost 1.30 pm.

Stew arrived home and looked over the 'new' market layout, and said it looked good.  So tomorrow I can pack it all up again.

For dinner tonight I gave Stew Beef and Bacon Sausages and a stir fry vegetable mix, with Brown Onion Gravy.  He loved it.

Now we are both just relaxing in front of the TV.  

Bed in a couple more hours.  Hopefully I get a decent sleep and wake up with more energy than today.

ZOO TODAY

 Well... after wanting to visit the Auckland Zoo a little while ago, we are actually going today.

It should be nice and quiet, all the pesky kids will be at school!

I'm really looking forward to it too.  Last time we went it was the most miserable place to be.

So... all going well we will be leaving around 9 am, and be home again by 4-5 pm.

I've got cards this evening and I don't want to miss it.  I have to drop a Reindeer Runner off to one of the cards girls.    

...

SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME. 

Bitterly disappointed. 

MORE... when we get home in a few hours.

We are at Sylvia Park for lunch.

According to the website there's 1,000 'animals' at the zoo.

I'm guessing 950 of them are birds and fucking fish.

3 pm.  Home.

Three FAILS today!

1. The Zoo.

When we first arrived, we headed to the Africa Safari Track.  But there were NO ANIMALS in the enclosure at all.  The zoo keepers were in there scooping up poop.  

So we headed in the opposite direction.

We expected to see Red Panda and Ring Tailed Lemur.  NOPE.  None to be seen.  NOTHING in the enclosures that we could see.

Then on to the Otters.  They had been moved.  So we wandered around till we found them.

ABOVE: We saw 6 otter, for about 30 seconds, and then they took off and couldn't be seen anymore.

ABOVE:  After more wandering around looking at NO ANIMALS, we went into the new 'Swamp Forrest'... an enclosed area which was very hot and humid.  It had hundreds of bloody fish and ONE crocodile.  Who didn't move one iota.  Could have been made of concrete for all I could tell.

ABOVE: This fine specimen, well worth watching.

At least I could SEE him.

ABOVE:  Nothing in here.  

ABOVE:  The sign said 'Hippopotamus'... but there's none at the Auckland Zoo anymore.

So lucky we didn't look too hard.

ABOVE:  Baboon.  Yep.  That's what we saw.  A baboon's back.  That is all.

ABOVE: There were three lions in this enclosure.

ABOVE: This one actually MOVED!  But not much.

ABOVE:  My absolute favourite 'wild' animal, the Rhinos.  The baby was adorable and kept running around chasing birds.

So cute.  The highlight of the day really.

ABOVE:  Friggin BIRDS.  Like really? Birds?

ABOVE: An interesting enclosure, but NO ANIMALS within.

ABOVE: This tree caught my eye.  It's rounder than me.  

ABOVE: We finally got back to the African enclosure...

ABOVE: Three adult giraffes and one baby.  They didn't move much.  But at least we could SEE them.

ABOVE:  There was much hype on TV about the Zoo's new TIGERS, and Tiger Enclosure.  ABOVE....That is what we EXPECTED to see.  (it has been photo shopped obviously)

ABOVE:  This is what we saw.  NOTHING.  The 'tiger bridge' wasn't even open, so if a tiger felt inclined to go over it... it couldn't.

ABOVE: There is ONE tiger at the zoo.  And according to the signs, it spends 22 hours A DAY sleeping.

There it is ... sleeping.  You have to look damn hard to see it. 

We went up there to see the TIGERS.  Plural.

Awake.  Moving around.  On the bridge.

WHAT. A. JOKE.

ABOVE: The new Orangutan enclosure... see any?

ABOVE: Eventually we DID find a couple of Orangutan, and one had just had a baby, so that was sweet to see.    But they didn't move, and had their backs to us 99% of the time we bothered to stand there.

So we really were disappointed and felt ripped off.  We are NEVER going there again.

There were three bus loads of school kids who arrived at the same time as us.  I felt bloody sorry for them.

After the Zoo, we went to Sylvia Park for lunch.

We ended up at The Garrison, and had a Beef Burger for our lunch.

Fail #2.  It was the most basic, tasteless burger I've ever had.

The only part that was enjoyable was the gherkins, and I don't even LIKE gherkins!  But I ate them cos they actually had some taste to them!

ABOVE:  We bought the first addition (this year) to our 'Christmas Family' at Sylvia Park.  Her name will be... Sylvia!  lol

After lunch we left Auckland, and on our way home we stopped in at Pokeno for some sausages at the amazing butchery there.

ABOVE:  The ice cream shop in Pokeno is HUGELY popular... as you can see, there's a queue out the door!

So we decided to get an ice cream from the Movenpick shop just down the road.

WORST IDEA EVER.

The guy working there looked bored as shit... there was NO ONE in the shop.

We should have got the vibes.

But no, we went in.  

He only had ONE WAFFLE CONE left.  So I got it.

I like my chocolate sauce.  He put a miniscule amount on my ice cream.  And presented it to me.

ABOVE:  Like THAT !!!  WHAT.  THE.  FUCK???   He had wrapped it in SEVEN paper towels because there was sauce all over the cone, and virtually none on the ice cream.

AND the cone had a chunk out of it too.

It was absolutely the most disgusting presentation ever!  I should have thrown it back at him, really.

FAIL #3.

And I will be leaving a really scathing review on their facebook page for that bloody disgusting ice cream.

When we arrived back in Hamilton,  we went to the Kayak and Canoe Shop on Te Rapa Straight. We bought some brackets to hold our kayaks on the roof rack of Stew's car.

We fully intend to use them over summer on the lakes.

And... that is my update for today.  I will be heading off to cards in a couple of hours, Bex is joining me again.

11 pm:  Cards was fun.  I didn't win or lose.  Came home and watched Coronation street, looked at a few things on Instagram and now it's bedtime.

Hoping for a decent nights sleep, which has been sadly lacking of late.

CAMBRIDGE MARKET DAY

 Here we go again. The second market for this month.

An ungodly early start to the day... and it's quite nippy out there.  But, it's supposed to get up to 20 degrees C later on, so all good.

ABOVE:  Our 'spot' .... it's a really good spot, as we have a bit more room out the side where we can put an extra rack of runners and the wooden screen.

This is the first market here since way, way back in January of 2020, before friggin Covid put a halt to all markets for a long time.

It has always been a relatively good market, so here's hoping it still is.

I will post again once we are all set up and it's not too busy, though I want it to be BUSY!

...8.30 and we are all set up. Got here at 6.30 thank goodness. We actually got a park!

ABOVE: We are ready....

2.20 pm. Packing up. We had a relatively good day. The weather was perfect... apart from a very blustery wind which was a right shit.

I'll be happy to get home out of it.

So we are both buggered after that.  It's exhausting putting the stall up  and then packing it all up again.

We also didn't sleep well last night, which is rather typical for a night before market scenario. 

I tried to have a late afternoon nap, didn't happen.

So instead I cooked our dinner, which was pork chops, mashed potatoes, veges and gravy.

I now feel like I could go to bed proper, but it's only 7.26 pm!  

Because we are going up to Auckland tomorrow, we will head off to bed fairly early tonight though.

Catch ya tomorrow. 

CAN I DO IT?

 I really, really want to do NOTHING today!

The sewing room door is going to stay closed.

I will make sure everything is ready for market tomorrow... but I already think it is.  But best to double check.

And that's about it.

We have a busy day tomorrow (Market), and Tuesday as well.  Stew and I are going to the Auckland Zoo.  So today we really do need to just chill out.

Stew did a wonderful job in the garden yesterday, our gardens are looking fantastic!

ABOVE:  I'm so glad I'm a shutter bug!  I can do lots of comparison collages of our home, from when we first moved in till now.

We have done so much to declutter the yard, and bring some order to it.  It was just a jungle when we moved in.  A small jungle to be fair, but still just a mess.

Now, with all our hard work, it's looking so gorgeous.  And I do mean all our hard work, because many hands have made it as it is now.

Thank goodness for family.  I won't name those who have helped us, you know who you are.

ABOVE:  Taken in December 2019, a man admitting defeat.  The rock won.

ABOVE: And for a while, the boys loved climbing on it.  It's a beautiful rock, I'm glad it got to stay.

I do believe we will go out somewhere nice for our lunch today.  Just not sure where yet.

OH and lastly for now:

ABOVE:  I got these two 'Hanging Cat' runners made yesterday.  Not bad for a day's work.

I stayed in bed until 9 am, then I just had to get up.  I got the market stuff sorted, tidied up the sewing room again (Yes, I went in there!), watered all the pots outside and inside, put the syphon hoses into the pool to drain the water off the cover, and I think that's all.

We are going to Taco Bell for lunch.  Then who knows what we will do next?

If yesterday was any indication, it will be quiet on here, so have a lovely day!

Never leave booking a motel until the last minute!  Whoops, exactly what I did.  Stew and I are going to Taupo on Friday and yeah, I just managed to secure a room for Friday night in Taupo.  Lucky.  

4.10 pm:  And for once I actually put my phone on MUTE before having a nap!  And it worked.  I got a nice little nap with no interruptions.  Oh ... when you are old and have a big lunch, all you wanna do afterwards is take a nap!  😅😆

Then ya wake up feeling like utter shit.

So why do it?  Cos you never learn.

I shall now wait until the current programme Stew is watching is over, then we will go and load up the car, ready for tomorrow's market.

5.30 pm:  And that's done, all ready for tomorrow.  We are taking a bit more tomorrow as we have a bigger site, so it took quite a bit of juggling to get everything in the car, but Stew did it.  

Now... it's cracker time I reckon.  Or chocolate.

ABOVE:  How about chips 'n' dip?  Before that we  had some toast with jam and cream.

OMG such a weird 'dinner' tonight.

9 pm:  time to head off to bed, we have an early start tomorrow.

YEAH.... SLEEP IN

 I am totally sleeping in today.  I am NOT going to get up and go straight into the sewing room... I.  AM.  NOT.

Instead, I'm gunna lie here and just relax until much later.

THEN I might get up and do a bit of housework, and watch Stew do some gardening.

He's gunna do some tree pruning today.  A couple of our trees on the back boundary throw a lot of shade on our back neighbour's yard.  Time to prune them so they get more sunshine.

Much later on I will go and do a big clean up in the sewing room, so it's nice and tidy before I start something new.  I think I will be making a couple of 'Hanging Cat' Runners next.

ABOVE:  Coco all snuggly on my lap (last night).

I wasn't grumpy, that's me 'resting bitch face'...  😂😃😅,  and I was really tired.

ABOVE:  The girls enjoying lap time.

10 am, jobs done.

I'm now starting a couple of 'Hanging Cat' Runners.

Just gob smacked at some people's fucking GALL.  PSYCHO BITCH ... stalker.  KARMA mate, it's gunna fucking get you one day.  That is all.

It's so hard to not let HATRED eat me up.  I just want to move on from all the shit.

ABOVE:  One almost done, and the 2nd already started.

Sewing and music.... just what I needed.

And a chip with dip.

Well I've now stopped for the day.  I'm kinda tired.  It's 5 pm and Stew is going to cook our dinner this evening.

We are having Sizzler Sausages, Chicken Schnitzel, mashed potatoes and baked beans.

Sounds bloody yum.

Dinner was very nice.  Stew did well.  He hardly ever cooks now, so it is nice when he does.

We are both just watching TV now, he's in the lounge watching sport and I'm watching Doc Martin soon.  I love that show, such a bloody shame this is the last Series.  Martin Clunes is over it apparently.

So, I'm signing off for the day.  It's been busy and productive.  Just how I like it.