Meeting up with A fellow Blogger from half a world away

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

It's been awhile  . . . . .  I did not mean to be gone for so long.

    Our computer finally died & the new one sat in boxes on my lounge floor for 3 weeks.  Eldest son came & set it all up for me a week ago & we've had the initial "teething problems" including a certain overweight large black furry family member jumping on the keyboard & locking everything (!!!) 😖 Fingers crossed I can get this post to Publish.

On the 15th of last month I once again pulled on my big girls panties - & drove across the island to Mount Maunganui.  

Janet from the blog Rogue Quilter is coming up to (I think) her 14th year of blogging & I am sure I would have been following along for at least 10 of those years.  We have corresponded over the years & also did a swap exchange together once.  

Last year Janet mentioned she & her husband were doing a Cruise of Australia & New Zealand in March of this year, so I inquired whether they would be stopping in at the Port of Tauranga on their cruise.  When she replied Yes, I decided to try & meet up with her.

The Port of Tauranga where the Cruise Ships come into, is situated in stunning Pilot Bay, in Mount Maunganui.  I left home in the dark for my 2 hour journey & arrived to a gorgeous blue sky day.  

I have to say from the moment Janet & I first hugged, it felt like we had been friends for years - we just seemed to have an instant connection.  We were lucky enough to be joined by Raewyn - a fellow blogger from Northland, who happened to be in the area for a family birthday. It was wonderful to see Raewyn again as it is well over 10 years since we last met up when she came to my craft cottage. 

The cruise ship that Janet was travelling on.

First on the agenda was a walk around the Mount base track - this is a distance of 3.4 kilometres & takes about 45 minutes.  We stopped many times along the way to take photos, admire the views & just chat.  

Janet, Raewyn & myself

Here is a view of the Mount in the background after we'd completed the walk.

Very proud of ourselves for managing it (!!)

Next up was coffee at a little outdoor cafe on the beach front.  Just wonderful to sit & the chatting came so easily 💗

Janet very generously presented both Raewyn & I with a gift each.  Our packages included some of her wonderful handmade soaps, choccy truffles, a charm pack of fabrics & a mug rug.  Janet does the most exquisite detailed patchwork & I am always in awe of the tiny pieces she puts together so perfectly.  

Both Raewyn & I had gifts for Janet but I have forgotten to photograph these.  Because of the tiny detailed work she does I had decided to make her one of the miniature Japanese House Pincushions that I made in this post. I also included a linen NZ tea-towel & my friend's handmade calendula soap.

After coffee we walked down to the main street for a little retail therapy - Janet was looking for some souvenir items & Raewyn & I were happy to help her search.  We then found a wonderful little cafe in a side street that served gluten free food & enjoyed the most delicious lunch together.  

Janet's final request was to put her feet in that ocean ... of which we were happy to oblige.  The water was refreshing, but not cold & we had a good paddle.

Look at those fluffy white clouds  ⛅💙

This photo is borrowed from Janet's blog post

We even managed to find 3 sand dollars & Raewyn found a starfish.

You can read Janet's post about the cruise * here * & also Lou, another fellow blogger who managed to meet up with Janet, has written a great post * here *. 

All too soon it was time for us to say our Goodbyes & for Janet to reboard the ship.  As I began the journey home my heart felt full for this wonderful day that I would treasure for a long time to come & it reinforced to me how special this little blog of mine is.

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

I have lots to catch up on with posting - please bear with me as I navigate my way around this new computer & get back to visiting you all at your blogs,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Moments of March . . . . . . .

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Welcome to March & the touch of Autumn you have bought with you - I am more than happy to wave Goodbye to the heat of summer.

 

Using up the last of the Christmas money I was gifted, I treated myself to this gorgeous candle.  It is a new-to-me fragrance ... Rose Jasmine & Oud & the description reads  "A charmingly complex & elegant woody floral blend".    It is filling the house with the softest rose tinted fragrance & is just so soothing & lovely 💗

The poor garden has well & truly flopped (rather like the Gardener to be honest) but I still managed to pick a bunch of roses & some veggies this morning.  I have pulled out a lot of my veggies that are bolting to seed but the hothouse tomatoes are still producing steadily.  

From left to right ...... Sue, myself & Jenny

Last Thursday I got up early, pulled on My Big Girls Panties, & drove all the way up to Auckland for a special meet-up with my friend Sue from the blog Kiwikids.  Sue was over (from Australia) looking after her friend Jenny who has had a hip replacement Op & when her message came through asking if I'd like to drive up, I could feel my heart palpitations.  

However thanks to Google maps it's not hard to get to destinations nowadays.  We met at The Hidden Cafe in Paerata & had a lovely few hours before I made the journey home again.  I took along some homegown veggies & made a gluten free Brownie as I remembered Sue was gluten intolerant.  It was such a lovely day that just filled my heart with Joy & so wonderful to finally meet Jenny too. 

Thank you all so much for your very kind comments about my sewing room revamp in my last post.  I haven't been able to spend much time in there but I did manage to complete a couple of orders last week for two dear friends.

Sandy sent me this gorgeous Toy Story fabric & requested I make a pillowcase for her Grandson who is turning 5.  I use this tutorial *here* which I really like.  It requires a metre of fabric but you are always left with a decent strip down one side from cutting out the narrower piece for the pillowcase.

I suggested to Sandy I make up a simple drawstring bag from the remnant as I've done this for my Grandsons in the past.  I've posted the order back to Sandy & she was delighted with both items.

I completed 4 lace coathangers for my dear friend Shirley this week - these are going to Australia so cannot have the dried lavender in them as I usually do.  I offered to fill the lace circle with wadding & scent it with lavender oil which will get through customs no trouble at all.  Shirley was thrilled with this idea. 

When I cleaned out the large double wardrobe in my sewing room a couple of items got put into a separate pile as I wanted to revamp them.  This noticeboard was one of them, a thrifted find from years ago quite some time ago. You can write on the whiteboard part & attach notes to the lower string part.   I removed the string, masked & painted the entire piece apart from the wire mesh insert.  

Then I added a simple Easter style transfer to it, a new string & some pegs.  When I unpack my Easter decor I am certain I have some vintage Easter postcards that I can attach to my noticeboard.  

Likewise I found this sweet box, a gift from my dear friend Leeanne ... to do with as I pleased.  The box is lined with black felt & the inside was in perfect condition.  

I chose only to paint the top as I liked the white distressed sides - I masked it out & then painted it Pale duck egg & added some more Easter transfers.  I am not sure what to use this for as yet but it may make a good hiding place for my choccy eggs (!!!) 😋

The large box of playdough in my sewing wardrobe had gone hard so it all went in the bin.   I gave Sid my big jar of cutters & his mum sent me this pic on the weekend - he'd had lots of fun making gingerbread men & dinosaur cookies using the cutters I'd given him.  How precious 🤎

Monday was our first craft group meeting for the year & I made a No-bake Apricot Slice with cream cheese icing.  We met at Gails & worked out our programme for the year ahead.

I met up with a friend & we went to the new Bridget Jone's movie in town.  We both laughed & cried & very much enjoyed the movie.

 

March's arrival has bought chilly nights & mornings & the furry two have taken up residence on my bed - Yes I do recall ranting saying No cats are allowed on the bed when I made my new cushions (!!)  It seems they didn't get the memo .............

Thank you all so much dear friends, for taking the time to visit here today,

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,

A Sewing Room Finish . . . . . . (Sort of)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I see I have a couple of new followers - the warmest   Welcome to you all  💗

 

Despite the dry here, the roses have decided to have a second flush ...  I picked some buds yesterday & even managed a small vase of Seafoam roses as well.

My sewing room is finished dear friends & I thought I would share it with you.  I only have a few things left to hang up but the rest is all done & the large mess in the lounge room is all sorted now - lots went to the Op-shop & I still have another load to go.  

As with most projects I undertake, I seriously underestimated what was involved.  But that's okay - I can tick it off my list & hopefully enjoy it now it's all clean & tidy & less cluttered.

I emptied every single thing out of the room apart from this heavy chest of drawers which I went through & purged.  The Mr painted the ceiling for me but I did all the rest.  It is not a large sized room, it used to be my eldest sons room ... but sometimes we just have to be thankful for what we have & indeed remind myself that I used to sew in a VeRy tiny corner of our bedroom.

I started putting things back in a week ago, sorting through every single item that went back in & cleaning along the way.  

Because this room is just off the dining area - which is where our fire is, I find it gets incredibly dusty.

I don't have any before pics unfortunately.  Standing in the doorway, here is the new layout of the room - it doesn't look a lot different to the before but it is more spacious & I have changed my sewing machine table to the other side as I was concerned about it getting too much sun on the left hand side. (the room gets lots of late afternoon sun)

My main intention with the room was to remove the cat sleeping shelf 😉  fabric shelf that I had on one wall - an old shelf that I upcycled in * this post * way back in 2013.  

I don't use so much fabric now that I sew less so I went through ruthlessly & managed to get the 3 shelves (7 baskets) down to just 2 large draws full instead.  The cat sleeping shelf teddy bear shelf is going to the op-shop when they bring their truck out to collect it.

Thrifted mini quilts covering my sewing machine & overlocker

I have my sewing desk in the room, along with a large trestle table that I upcycled in * this post*. This had become cluttered up with baskets & boxes & there was no space for cutting out etc so I was ending up doing this on the dining room table.  I now have a nice clear space for my cutting mat etc that I Promise Myself Not to clutter up again (!!)

I still have pictures & my clock to hang up yet.  I made sure I hung the gorgeous vintage Holly Hobbie Prints, a gift from my dear friend Sally & one of my favorite things 💗

As the room is not large I am lucky to have wardrobe organisers along 3/4's of one wall.  These are wonderful for holding boxes & baskets of things.

  I long ago chose to have my patterns in boxes as I find they get too dusty sitting in baskets, even though baskets are aesthetically more pleasing to the eye. I bought new boxes from Paper Plus & made some bright cheery Cath Kidston labels for them.  I also condensed 14 boxes down to 10. 

The room does have a large double wardrobe with shelves & a hanging rail.  I painted the doors & also the door into the room & hung my project bags from this hook which I already had in my stash.

I've had my scissors & paint brushes in these tin containers for years now but I repainted them as they were black & white with large bees on them.  I've stuck with a soft duck egg colour in the room as I already had this paint in my stash (leftover decor transfers applied)

The wooden trug was upcycled in * this post *,  the cream drawers in * this post *.    These little containers hold 

all sorts of things so that when I write "I already had this in my stash" ....... you know I am not lying!!

This decoupaged drawer was revamped in * this post *, & Emily, my sewing doll came to life in * this post * back in 2020.

I created this beaded lightshade for my sewing room way back in 2018 in * this post * & I don't think it had been cleaned since (!!) 😑

I took it down & gently washed all those teeny tiny beads & it sparkled again. 

In the last school holidays Sid & I popped into the Salvation Army Op-shop (Sid adores op shopping just like his Granny does).  While he came out with a $1 soft toy, I spotted this mini ironing board.  I had been meaning to make an ironing station for my sewing room & this came home & promptly got tossed in the sleepout. As you can see it was $5 & in very good condition.

Two days ago I removed the cover & drew around it to make a pattern,  I had this lovely piece of vintage curtain fabric in my stash so I used it for this as it was the perfect size. I also padded the underneath with 2 extra layers as I like my ironing board to be well padded. It fits on top of these drawers just perfectly & the hot point is just below for my iron.  

My sewing room has only one big window but good light comes in & looks out on to the garden which is pleasant.  I sent my Roman Blind away to be professionally cleaned & it arrived back just yesterday.  The Mr & I hung it at lunchtime today & I am thrilled with it.  Now all I need to do dear friends, is find some time to actually sew in there!

Thank you all so very much if you've stayed through this lengthy post.  We are having many computer issues again & have a new one on the way.  My son who is organising it for us tells me "2 weeks".  He has been saying this since New Year 😉so we wait patiently.  Today, oddly enough, it decided to work, so I grabbed the chance to do a blog post.  I am not sure when I will get to post again.

Wishing you a Happy Tuesday & a wonderful rest-of-the-week dear friends,

With much love & friendship to you all,