IT'S A GO!

 WHOOP!

The market tomorrow is ON.  The weather forecast is looking fairly favourable, so the market committee decided last night it is a GO.

I will get a third Fabric Plant finished today, just as soon as I can get down to Spotlight for a new Glue Gun and glue.

I tried using my old glue gun last night and it actually gave up the ghost, so I definitely need a new one now.

IF I have enough leaves left over, I might even squeeze out a 4th Plant.  Let's wait and see shall we?

It's going to be a few very busy days for us. 

Today I will be preparing for tomorrow's market.

Saturday we have the market, which is always fun, even though it's tiring.

Then Sunday we are going down to Palmerston North/Wanganui for a couple of days.

So it's all GO GO GO.  

We are just so damn lucky we can get away for a few days fairly regularly now.... without having to worry about the dogs or house.

Steve and Bex look after everything here for us.  It is so handy having them just a few minutes away.  And they are only too happy to help us out.  

And of course, Amanda and Brylee are also just down the road, and we can call on them to help out if necessary too.

Right, I don't need to get outta bed just yet... so I think I'll roll over and catch a few more Zzzz's.

Catch ya later.

10.52 am:   Gosh the morning is totally gone and I've only just arrived home from the shops.

ABOVE:  The new Glue Gun.  Fingers crossed it doesn't give me any grief.

Better get on with it.

ABOVE:  Number three is done.  Now I might try to get a Number four done before the end of the day.  It might mean making a few more leaves.  Oh yaaaa.  😒😏

ABOVE:  I did need to make 8 more large leaves for a 4th plant.  It's done now and I'm so happy with them.

I didn't burn myself today, such a relief.  Boiling hot glue really hurts.  It's now almost 2 pm.  Time for some lunch.

ABOVE:  Thank you Anon, I do like the different way of spelling my plant.  I shall use it!

9.12 pm:  It's been a busy day, and we are off to bed as we have an early start in the morning.

Catch ya tomorrow.

LEAVES

 Lots of fun ahead today.

Sewing freakin' leaves.   ALL.  DAY.  LONG.

There will be a break at midday, as I have a Doctor's appointment.

It's a follow up after my latest blood tests.

I want to ask him to consider putting me on a new Diabetes medication called Trulicity, (Dulaglutide).  It is a once a week injection.  Something I would not usually ever consider (an injection), but it has had some very good reviews and it might mean not having to take copious pills every day.

So, it could be an interesting Doctors visit.

I heard from the Rototuna Market organiser yesterday.  The Market committee are meeting tonight to discuss if the market will go ahead, considering the utterly shitty weather we are having.

It is never ending I tell ya!  Just one thunderstorm after another.  Last night's weather forecast looked tentatively promising for Saturday.  But it's the weather, which can change at any time, as we all know.

I hope this market goes ahead and the weather plays nice, it has the potential to be a very good market.

Right.  Time to get up and make a start on those damn leaves.

1.50 pm.

I got 2/3rds of the leaves sewn up this morning, before I left for the Doctors.

Brylee was there as well, so a quick catch up with her.

Then to my utter disgust, my appointment had not been logged into the computer, so I actually DID NOT have an appointment!

So, I booked another one for TWO WEEKS FROM NOW, because again, that's the soonest I can see my Doctor with an appointment.

Talk about pissed off!

I then got a Subway sandwich for lunch and came home to enjoy it.  Which I did.

And now I am going back into the sewing room to finish off all those leaves.

With any luck I will have two plants finished by the end of the day.

ABOVE:  This plant is the very first one I made... I just added a few bigger leaves to make it larger.

ABOVE: This is the first one I made from scratch today.  It's  a lot bigger.   

Do we like them???

I do.  They are a lot of work though, and I'm not sure if they will become regulars in my market stock.  It will depend on if they sell well or not.

Tomorrow I will get a 3rd one finished.  I ran outta glue again.  😖😕

AND I think I will invest in a better glue gun.   The one I have is a right shit to use... it's a really cheap and nasty one.  I think it cost me less than $10 years ago.  So time for a new one.

I am stopping now cos ... NO GLUE!  

And I need to prepare Stew's dinner.

He's having Tandoor Chicken Kebabs over rice and salad.

I FINALLY found the right rice to use... and I cooked it perfectly too!  BASMATI Rice, rinsed three times then cooked in a rice cooker.  It came out perfect.  Only took 64 friggin years.

Watched a movie on Netflix today, really enjoyed it, which was weird as it was a 'shoot em up, bang bang'... I told Stew about it and we both ended up watching it tonight.

It is called NOBODY.  Well worth a watch.

Right, I'm outta here, Coronation Street is on shortly, and I'm gunna watch that then go to bed.

THUNDER!  LIGHTENING!  PISSING DOWN. Love it, but NOT on Saturday OK?  lol

I HAVE ENOUGH

 I counted up how many Bowl Cosy's I have... SIXTY!

Something tells me I don't need to make any more right now.

So, today I am going to make another plant, or two.

They were a lot of fun, if you don't count the hot glue burns.

Yeah... I will need to go and buy more hot glue rods this morning.  I only have half a rod left.

I will wait until the crazy traffic has died down though, so will start on cutting out leaves after I get the housework done.

Steve has an ultrasound on his liver at the hospital this morning.  I wonder how long it will take for results?  It's a real worry.  I'm sure I talked about this yesterday?  Derrr.  But as a parent you never stop worrying about your kids and their health.

Well... for most of my kids I worry.  I'm a cold hearted bitch when it comes to one I have to admit.  That one can rot in hell.

OK, enough of that.  Time to get a move on... 

9.42 am:  Stew reminded me this morning before he left for work, that I needed to take my car back to the VTNZ for it's recheck, after putting new tyres on the front.

So, that's what I did.  I had gone back one day last week, but the queue was HUGE, so I came home again.

ABOVE:  I got there before they even opened.  And so lucky, there were only 4 cars ahead of me.

AND... the mechanic took my car in first!  I was in and out of there in 15 minutes.

So lucky.   I've heard of people sitting in the queue for over 2 hours.

After that I went down to Spotlight for the hot glue.  I had to sit and wait half an hour for them to open too.

Next was a quick stop at Mitre 10 for Pool Chlorine Tabs.  We are going away for a couple of days next week and want to keep the pool ticking over.  The tabs do that.

Now I'm home and I feel like I've got a good deal accomplished already for the day.  Good start anyway.

ABOVE:   It's 12.30 am, and I've not stitched a single leaf yet.  Still cutting them out, and after that I've got to cut out batting as well.

I can't see me doing any actual sewing until either bloody late today, or tomorrow.

I hope I get at least one done for market on Saturdy.

It's super blustery outside, with the occasional downpour.  Not nice at all.  And cool... which I do appreciate.  

Time to take a little break and sort out some lunch I think.

3.30 pm:  I'm seeing double!

ABOVE: 5 hours cutting out that lot, and I'm done.

There will be no stitching done today.  I need a nana nap!

8.45 pm:  Slow evening.... just watching TV.  

Felicity:  Cards was fun, I came 2nd.  Next card night is HERE.... let's see who turns up!

PETA:  Nope you are wrong.  I loathe one with a passion, it killed all love I once had for it.

And there ends the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

HIT REPEAT

I'm sewing again today.

That is all.

It was very quiet on here yesterday, so I'm sure today will be the same.

ABOVE: This is today's line up of bowl cosy's waiting to be made.

Let's see how many I can get done shall we?

It's card night this evening... I better make sure I've got something out for Stew's dinner before I leave.  Bex isn't coming with me tonight, she's busy making more toys for the market on Saturday.  She's doing the same market as me, but doesn't have as much stock as she'd like.

ABOVE:  Her beautiful crocheted toys sell like hot cakes!

I can still remember when Steve and her taught themselves to crochet, way back when they lived with us in Auckland.  She's certainly perfected it now.  Steve doesn't do it any more, lol.

Talking of Steve, his health is pretty awful right now.  His bowel condition is in a 'flare up' right now, and nothing seems to be helping.  He's got an ultra sound this week to check out his liver.  It's been adversely affected by the medications he's been taking.  It's a constant worry I must say.  And for him, it's a never ending pain in the gut, literally.

There is always something going on that's a worry around here.  

12 noon:   And I've been sewing for three hours.  And ...

ABOVE:  I've got 7 cosy's done.

I am now stopping for a break.  Trying to avoid the horrible back ache I got yesterday.

3 pm:  I didn't actually stop.  I grabbed some crackers and carried on sewing.  I've now done 13 cosy's.... one more than yesterday:

ABOVE:  Tomorrow I think I might aim for just 6.

I think I'm gunna have plenty for the markets over the next couple of months now.

I'm now going to go inside and do some housework, prepare Stew's dinner, put on some face and so on.

ABOVE:   A better view of today's cosy's.

Stew got home from work and has gone for a walk.

I've got Pork Belly, roast potato and onion in the oven for him, and veges about to go in the microwave as well.  And gravy.  He's a happy man.

I will be leaving for Cards in Cambridge in about 20 minutes, so I might not come back on here till tomorrow.

Catch ya then.

LOTS TO DO TODAY

 Our next market is on Saturday, it's supposed to be a very big one.  It's here in Hamilton, not far from our home in fact.

Today, and every day this week I will be sewing Bowl Cosy's... and maybe another couple of those fabric plants.

But for now, I have 'Before and After' photos from yesterday:

ABOVE:  I hope the little Plum tree survives being uprooted and moved.

It hadn't been there too long, so we might be lucky.

There are two pittosporums behind the chairs now.

The Pittosporums are fairly quick growing, so fingers crossed in a couple of years they will fill that damn gap.  It's that gap that is the main problem. 

In winter, the maple will lose all it's leaves, so it will be a glaring BIG gap.

The expert at the garden center said our Maple might die now that the trees protecting it from the wind are gone.  I'll be really pissed off if that happens.  I noticed our neighbour pruned our maple back to the fence line too.  Again, his right, but he better not have killed my tree.

Interestingly, there is a maple overhanging his property over to the right (large red one), and he's not touched it.

Am I sounding bitchy?  Yeah, I know.  😖😞

ABOVE:  Our little plum tree, and the new fruit tree are now down the grass strip.  The new tree is a 'Peach/Apricot' hybrid.  Amazing how they can alter the genetics of a tree to make new fruits.

A year ago that area was just an overgrown, unsightly grape vine/pergola and rubbish dump!

I smile every time I look at it now.

It was a lot of hard work to transform it, but so worth it.

Right, that's enough from me for now.  I am off to get the washing on, tidy up the bedroom etc.

Catch ya later.

10.20 am:  And my back is killing me!

I had to cut out masses of cotton wadding for the bowl cosy's before I could start sewing.

ABOVE: That job took well over an hour.

ABOVE:  I have just finished the first cosy of the day.  And it's gorgeous.

Now... on to the next one.

FIVE.  HOURS.  LATER:

ABOVE:  Look at that.  Not a bad run.  All blues/Kiwi type fabrics.  That's what sold predominantly at the last couple of markets, so I needed to fill those blue gaps.

Now I am going to take a little break for a very late lunch.

It is another dreary, wet day here too.  Expecting yet again, to have this weather all week.

ABOVE:  6.30 pm.

When Stew arrived home from work he suggested we go for a short walk before dinner.

We had talked about doing that over the weekend.

I wasn't that keen to be honest, as I was rather tired after sewing all day.

But I said yes... and off we went.

In the rain.  Hence the crappy photo.

We walked for almost 25 minutes, at a nice brisk pace.

Now... feel quite good.

Cooking dinner now.  Beef rissoles, smashed potato and salad.

Whoops!  Fell asleep on the couch.  Might just be time for bed.

Catch ya tomorrow.

UP IN THE AIR

 Our plans today will totally depend on the weather.

I feel like so much has been dependant on the bloody weather lately.  And it's not gunna ease up for a bit longer yet.

If we get some fine breaks, we will dig up and move our little plum tree.

Then maybe go and buy a pittosporum or two to replace it.  Then we just have to wait a year or two for them to grow and give us some privacy across the back boundary again.

I will need to get into the sewing room pretty quick, and make more Kiwiana Bowl Cosy's too.

I can't believe how quickly I sold all but one of them yesterday.

Maybe later on today I will get on to that.  But not right now.  Right now we are sleeping in.  Or at least lying in.  

Catch ya later.

8.20 am. Amazing ... its a glorious day right now. The Thunderstorms seem to have passed over.

So we will be gardening this morning. 

Just as soon as Stews finished watching the rugby 🏉. 

I'm still in bed. But about to get up. I've got stuff to do.

We are being busy beavers. We just bought 4 trees for the back boundary.  Now off for lunch before coming home to plant them.

My plans have changed in relation to the Bowl Cosy's.  I am not going to make 'Kiwiana' ones again.  Joining all the fabrics together takes so long, then I sell them for the same price as regular, one fabric bowl cosy's.  So, what's the point in spending so much time on one cosy, when I can make 3-4 in the same amount of time?

I will stil use Kiwiana fabrics of course, just not in the strips.

We just had a huge downpour come through, hail and all.

The weather is crazy right now, one minute beautiful and hot, next torrential rain!

Bex had a market to attend today, it got cancelled late last night.  Good call.

This weather is just too unpredictable.

Stew is going to plant our new trees when the rain lets up.   I'm in the sewing room, cutting out cosy's for sewing tomorrow... and probably all next week.

Though, a little plant might slip in somewhere along the line too.  

ABOVE:  We got three boundary line trees.... then ended up going back for another fruit tree.

Sad that due to our neighbour we ended up having to spend over $200 on trees to fill in the huge gaps he created.

THOUGH, as Stew kept reminding me, the neighbour had every right to chop down his trees.

Pity he didn't think of the effect it would have on us.

ABOVE:  My darling working in the pouring rain, and NO, I wasn't standing over him with a whip.

I can't find me whip.  😂😓

We never used to be able to see the neighbour's backyard, or the neighbours all around him.  Give it two years and we should be good again.

I took some 'Before and After' photos.  But they can wait till tomorrow.  I'm done for now.

ABOVE:  My big brother Peter and I, taken when we were about 14 and 16 years old.  I virtually never mention this, but today would have been Peter's birthday.  He would have been 66 today, the same age my Dad died.

Peter died aged 27.  I love and miss him, and think of him often.  Probably no one else does.

Well it has been a fairly busy weekend for us.

We are both tired, so off to bed at a reasonable time this evening.

Catch ya tomorrow.

PRAY FOR CLOUDS ONLY

 

ABOVE:  Yeah.

Today's forecast is for Thunderstorms, and rain.

I'm praying for just clouds.

A light shower or two would be ok too.

But not torrential rain!!!

It's bright and early, nearly 6 am.  We will be leaving for market in the next 10 minutes or so.

This could be the worst market for us ever, but let's wait and see shall we?  

...Guess what? 

NOT RAINING right now.

ABOVE: Sunrise in Tamahere. Got to set up bright and early before the craziness started. So many stallholders don't get here till 7 am,  and there's cars EVERYWHERE! We avoid that by getting here at 6.15.

8.51 am. And we have light rain. Praying it doesn't get too heavy or come down sideways. 

There's lots of stall holders who are gunna get horribly wet if it becomes too heavy. 

At least our gazebo has sides!

ABOVE: Looks like I will be making more.

The market is going well! We had one heavy downpour, but luckily it came from behind us, so we stayed dry. 

Sales are steady.

2.15 pm:  Home.  Very tired.  But happy.

After the DIRE weather forecast, we only ended up having two heavy downpours, the rest of the time it was fine.  The sun came out and turned our environment into a SAUNA.

I wasn't dressed for a sauna, lesson learnt.  Take a change of clothes for any weather eventuality.

We did OK sales wise.  I now need to make more bowl cosy's, AGAIN.

I've enough of everything else so far.

ABOVE: we were very pleasantly surprised by a visit from Lynda and Stu, who reside in Auckland.  Lynda is a private blogger.

They were on their way home from a trip further south.  It was super nice to catch up with Lynda, I've not seen her in person for a few years.

ABOVE:  After using the same tray for 40+ years, I convinced Stew to get himself a new one.  So he did.  It's very nice.  I almost wish I'd got one myself now.  Maybe next time.

Talking of Stew, he's gone to do his usual 'Saturday morning' shopping.  

Once he's home we can both put our feet up and relax.

We don't even have to worry about dinner as Steve 'n' Bex are coming around and getting us all fish 'n' chips.

NICE.

ABOVE:  The pool is brimming.... 6 pm:  And finally... thunder, lightening, hail, and torrential rain has arrived!

So thankful it didn't happen this morning.

9.05 pm:  Well it's been a very long day.  We are both freakin' tired.  Not long till bedtime I reckon.

Catch ya tomorrow.

IT ARRIVED

 It finally arrived.  We have shitty, wet weather.

Grrrrr.

Looking highly likely we will have a wet market tomorrow.

Tonight we will get our market stuff ready, but only take half the 'normal' amount.  We will have to squeeze what we do take into the back of the gazebo so it doesn't get wet.  It will be our first market in the rain.

NOT looking forward to it at all.

As for today, I have no plans.

I'm not making anything.  I'm not doing anything at all.

I wonder how long I can keep it up?  Being utterly lazy might be an interesting concept.

Maybe I'll lie on the floor and play with the girls.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY GRIFFIN!

Dad and I love you very much, and hope you have a fantastic day.  

Right, I'm off to do NOTHING.

Stupid, stupid weather! Its cleared up! For now anyway.

I'm still in bed. Thinking.... meh might stay here a bit longer.  

9.10 am:  So far 'nothing' is going well.

I'm cleaning up my sewing room.  Putting all the fabrics I was using for the plants away.  Vacuuming the floor... it's the only one I will do, even though it takes me three go's at it!  

ABOVE:  Grey day.  Lightly raining again.  Fickle.

I got bored.  So I went shopping.

ABOVE: Chemist Warehouse for more face.  I like to have some in me handbag, just in case I forget to put the bare minimum on before I leave the house.  Then decide I look like an old hag and NEED some face on!  

It happens.

ABOVE:  I had a $10 Birthday voucher, and a $40 off voucher from Spotlight.  So decided to actually use them.

I always need green fabrics, and plastic sheeting.

I go through a lot of that shit!

Got some new snips and unpicker too.  

So that was a good saving.

I feel better now.  Shopping is such a great way to lift the spirits.

I'm now going to have some crackers, cheese and relish for lunch, while watching something on Netflix.

SETTING THE SCENE:   Marley LOVES tennis balls.  She loves to shove one under furniture and then 'dig' it out.  The harder it is to get out, the more she loves doing it.

She can amuse herself like that for hours.

So when I went out this morning, I gave her a tennis ball to play with in the garage.  I also left the sewing room open, so Coco could look outside, which SHE loves doing.

Dogs happy, me happy right?

I decide to put the new fabric, scissors etc away in the sewing room...

ABOVE:  I see what looks like bits of wadding on the sewing room floor.  Like, where is that from?  I just vacuumed that floor!

ABOVE:  I get into the room and like... FUCK!

I know exactly what's gone on here.

Marley has buried her goddam tennis ball under my roll of wadding, and then dug it out again.

She's ruined a sizeable chunk of my roll.

SHE IS NEVER GETTING A DAMN TENNIS BALL AGAIN.

When she heard me swear and yell, she knew.  She's not stupid.  She ran outside, hoping I'd not follow her. 

BUT I did.  And I took that ball right out of her mouth and threw it in the bin.  

ABOVE:  We went to dinner at the Workingmen's Club.  Quite disappointing tonight.  My Crispy chicken burger was just that.

VERY CRISPY and DRY.  And the plate just looked horrible.  Stew had steak, which was nice.

When we got home we packed the car in readiness for tomorrow's market.

In the pouring rain.

Torrential rain.

*sigh*

Going to bed early tonight as we need to get up before 6 in the morning.