This & That

 The end of another week is here and as I don't have a lot of stitching, or any other crafting to share this week I thought I'd post about a few new arrivals and various happenings at our place.

At the end of last week I received a gorgeous, squishy parcel of yarn, from up the road, ha ha, in Napier from Skeinz. They have recently relocated and I couldn't resist checking out their relocation sale. I can't wait to go and visit their new shop, it looks wonderful, and to see all of the gorgeous NZ yarn they stock.

Most of this yarn is intended for gift knitting, including several How Quiet Hat and mitts sets. This lovely pattern is by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade and is from the 2018 Knitvent series.

Cadbury released this limited edition chocolate last week and we gave it a try - pineapple lumps are a kiwi favourite. We gave it a thumbs up!

Miss H has been an extremely busy girl of late. She auditioned for her school's production show and was given a part in her class's version of Cinderella - Boogierella.  Hannah's whole school performed in the show, 335 children, and they did 3 shows for the community last week. A great time commitment for the teachers, helpers and children, it was a wonderful show, great music and lots of laughs, they all did so well.

Hannah also recently competed in her school's annual cross country race and because of her placing, she was then selected for the inter school cross country race, featuring students from other schools in our community.

It's nearing the time of the year for her dancing exams, they are at the end of the month, so Hannah had a full on weekend of mock exams for jazz, tap and ballet.

 

She absolutely loves her dancing classes this year.

This week, she was away on her school camp for three days, and all the kids had a blast - mud run, raft building, bush walks, toasting marshmellows. It sounds like they had an awesome time.

We've enjoyed some sunny spring weather this week and I have two vases of beautiful spring flowers on my desk at work - daffodils and freesias, so pretty and such a lovely scent.

 Last night my Mum and I, with one of our dear friends Linda, went along to see the Downton Abbey movie.

Being Downton Abbey fans from way back, the movie was so good. The costumes and jewellery were amazing, and we all enjoyed it. Are you a Downton Abbey fan?

See you soon xx

This & That

Nearly half way through August means that Spring is now just around the corner. Although we've had some cold days, our winter here in my part of the world actually hasn't been too wet and miserable like previous years. We've had lots of winter sunshine, which is why I think a lot of the spring bulbs in the garden have been out for a few weeks already. I look forward to the freesias and irises popping up, some of my favourite flowers.

Last week, whilst in Hastings for a work job, my coworkers and I found time to stop by our favourite fabric shop, Dellbrook Quilt Company. It's been quite some time since my last visit so I did a good stock up of some lovely fabrics. I just love visiting this shop, I easily spend hours browsing all the gorgeous fabrics and sewing accessories.

There was a stop by Spotlight too - for a few more bits and bobs!

We are lucky to have an abundance of lemons and oranges at the moment, our orange tree is absolutely loaded this year.  I've been wanting to try a microwave lemon butter recipe for ages and found this one very easy to make. Yum!

I also used this recipe to make one of our favourite cakes, Orange Lightening cake. You put a whole orange in the food processor and blitz it, it smells divine!

I started a new shawl project during knitting group earlier in the week, the Pebble Beach Shawl by Curious Handmade.  This gorgeous yarn is Smashed Gemstones by Catrien of Yarnfloozy.

I also finally finished this little handmade Ouch Pouch too, I'd started it ages ago.  This will go into the gift box for a friend.

See you soon xx