A Happy Bright Shiny New Year

Greetings dear friends & readers

And heres wishing you all a very Happy Bright Shiny New Year

I do hope your festive season was wonderful & that the coming year brings good things to us all

Mum has returned home after 2 weeks with us ... there was very little creative activity during that time ... but I did manage a couple of completions just prior to her arrival

Although my golly sales have been quiet this past year, it only took the purchase of 3 of them in early December to make my golly ladder look rather empty

I found this naked body in my sewing cupboard so I made her some clothes from parisian-essence dyed calico

She is a sweet little pattern from " Golly J " called Molly. I gave her some little shoes & embellished her bodice with a small crochet flower (which also got dunked in the parisian essence mixture along with all the lace)

The 2nd completion I managed was this stitchery (started about 6 months ago & a gift from my friend Bev) . . . the actual stitchery itself was completed awhile ago but I just never quite got around to making it up into the wallhanging

The pattern is called "Making Spirits Bright" designed by Natalie Bird from The Birdhouse.  I stitched it using Cottage Garden thread Kangaroo Paw.  The fabrics I used for the wallhanging are from the Lynette Anderson range

While Mum was staying we took ourselves off to Hamilton Gardens for a picnic lunch.  It was my daughter in law Sarahs, birthday so my sons & their wives came along too ... it was a wonderful outing which I enjoyed SO very much.  We ate our picnic on a huge marble table overlooking the Italian Renaissance Garden

we all enjoyed a lovely shared picnic lunch, homemade club sandwiches, muffins & fresh fruit

I think of all the different sections in the Italian Garden, this particular area was my absolute favourite ... I just loved the combination of blue delphiniums & the lacey red yarrow . . .

. . . & must admit that I have now become quite fixated on planting some red yarrow :-)

If you walk through the large Italian Building behind the fountain you come out onto a balcony that overlooks the Waikato River

we posed for a couple of quick family snaps   :-)

Three Generations

My beautiful daughters-in-law Nicole & Sarah, my Mum, & yours truely

We briefly walked around a couple of the other gardens ... the Chinese garden & the formal English garden but Mum was too weary to do a great deal of walking ... there are many more award winning gardens to see here, it is well worth a visit & completely free to enter

Apologies for all the garden photos but my camera honestly does not do it justice, it is simply beautiful.


Before I close I wanted to share a couple of pics ... one is a handmade christmas gift, a surprise in the post from a dear friend who lives far away  . . .

His name is Cedric & I just adore him   :-)  
   And even though the christmas dec's are packed away, this fellow will be staying out to be enjoyed for a bit longer  

New (replica) vintage scales, a christmas gift from The Mr ...
 all chipped & dinged in the appropriate places to look "antique"


Finally this pic taken on christmas eve, just prior to heading off to bed

dear little Jinxy, sound asleep under the twinkling lights. I said to The Mr that I hoped she was dreaming of how lucky she is to live with us here & what a wonderful life she has . . .  but he reassured me she was far more likely dreaming of Santa, what he would bring her, & hopefully he would take Blackie with him  !!!!!

Have a wonderful week dear friends, thanks SO much for your welcome visits

with much love & friendship to you all
Julie x0x0x