where I live

I really love looking on my world map to see where fellow bloggers, my lovely followers and people that leave comments are from ( I am getting much better at US geography!) so I thought I would post some pics from the little corner of the world I am from.

I live in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty region, on the East Coast of NZ and about a 10 minute drive to the Mount, one of NZ's best white- sand surf beaches.

 

At the end of the Mount main beach is 'Mauao (Mount Maunganui), which has a base track to walk around and really is one of the most lovely short walks (around 45mins) in New Zealand. About 900,000 people walk around Mauao every year! I walked around yesterday with my baby and had to take some pics of this stunning walk, especially for those of you in the grips of a cold winter at the moment.

Could this beach be any more beautiful?!

View from the track

Pohutakawa trees lining the track about half way around

Looking out to the Pacific

Looking back at the track

A swim in the early evening too- what a day!

And just because I like posting about crafty things too here is a pic of a project I have on the go- a baby blanket made out of knitted squares (about the limit of my knitting skills at the mo!) My mum and sister made one for my toddler so I thought I would make one for my baby. Seems funny to be showing some knitting with these summer pics but if I don't start now it'll never be ready by winter!

My knitting so far- the squares are all looking a slightly different size whoops!

My toddlers blanket- my mum got a lady at Purple Patch to stitch all the squares together and then she got a label embroidered and sewn on the blanket.   A neat project for a beginner knitter don't you think?

Have a great weekend,

Megan

my creative space

I have just joined in on the 'creative space' sharing over at kootoyoo.com, a gorgeous site from a clever crafty lady, Kirsty, in Melbourne.  My creative space is a little nook/cupboard close to our front door. It's great in that I don't need to use up a bedroom for an office/crafty space but it is quite little so my creative space often spills over onto the kitchen bench or the lounge floor! I love finding containers for all my crafty stuff and one of my best ever pressies was a label maker..yes, 'monica from friends' tendencies!

My creative project today is to make a start on some felt toys from the cute crafty book  

Felties by Nellie Pailloux.

There are so many adorable little creatures in the book- I am going to start with the lion first and then the babushka doll on the book cover. Will post some pics when finished!

Megan

PS: If you want to take a peek at one of the most gorgeous creative spaces I've seen on the web click here- aliciapaulson.com/studio. 

a little bag for a little girl

On Sunday I made another little satchel bag from the tutorial at 'Ruby in the Dust' for my toddler's friend Lily. I bought the flower fabric from Bernina for the lining and I used a design from the book "Embroidery for Little Miss Crafty" by Helen Dardik for the flower but just changed it slightly so there was a bit of applique to match the lining. I really like this little bag :)

Megan

25/02/10

A fab website 'Lil Magoolie' posted about my bag with links to Helen Dardik's blog and website- both are absolutely gorgeous!

A crafty organising project

I saw this cool clipboard project on the website The Creative Mama. My sister is getting married in August and her hubby-to-be is teasing her that she needs a clipboard to get everything organised so I knew this project would be perfect for her! I have also got a problem with bits of paper ripped out of magazines and piled on the bench so I made one for our kitchen too.

I had to buy some Mod Podge craft glue from Warehouse Stationery ( it's like PVA but matt and maybe a bit easier to spread than PVA) and I got the clipboards and the stickers on the metal clip part from Warehouse Stationery too. It was a bit tricky cutting the paper to fit because the only clipboards I found were large ones and my scrapbooking paper wasn't big enough to completely cover the clipboards so I had to do a bit of cutting and trimming, hence the yellow ribbon on my one. I actually think it would look better without the ribbon but it covered up the paper joins and when I was rubbing out the air bubbles I accidentally ripped the paper so the ribbon is a bit of a double cover up!!

Here is a link to the project on the creative mama website
http://thecreativemama.com/organizing-piles-of-paper-diy/
and a link to the lovely blog that the original idea came from
http://martawrites.blogspot.com/2009/05/mini-clipboards-for-may.html
Megan

Viva: the good things in life

How great is the Viva lift out from the Herald each Wednesday?! (if you are lucky enough to be able to get your hands on a copy!)  It is always jam packed full of gorgeous homewares, divine fashion, quirky finds and interesting people.  My favourite pages include 'Upfront', 'Retail Therapy', 'Design Notebook' and the "10 Favourite Things" interview..... actually I pretty much adore the entire magazine!

The '10 favourite things' interview this week is with Cara Cheung who has opened a vintage boutique called Tiny Space in Auckland- a store selling handmade and vintage clothing, homewares and art.  Sounds fab doesn't it!

I have just read about the store on the Lilysmakebelieve blog too- they have written a really great 'Auckland World Tour article showcasing some really cool Auckland designers, markets, cafe's, parks and stores.

www.nzherald.co.nz/viva-magazine/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=533

Love it!

http://www.20x200.com/art/2009/04/get-excited-and-make-things.html

I've got the 'Keep Calm and Carry on' poster but this one is much more me-  I'm far more excitable than calm!
This is where it was originally posted
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35034345541@N01/3365682994/
and here are some more funny variations
http://www.flickr.com/groups/keepcalm/

Some of my Etsy favourites

love hearts

a little beaded bracelet for Amelie

a red rose

a homemade card

         Untitled, Keith Haring

      www.haringkids.com

♥ happy valentines day ♥

mellow yellow

I am just in love with the colour yellow at the moment so today I decided to make some gift tags with a yellow theme.  I went to 'The Red Studio' at the Mount and got some manilla luggage tags very kindly for free as the owner had only just decided to stop stocking them and had put the whole lot out the back for recycling lucky me!  Then I bought a couple of stamps and ink pads from the scrapbooking shop 'Bookem' in Tauranga.  (I must have been a bit frazzled after looking after two sick kids all week though as I left my buggy on the street after putting the baby in the car - luckily a kind person spotted it and the shop owner had kept it out the back for me!!!)
I used my circle craft punch to make some smaller tags after seeing the idea in an article from Heleen (from Rubyinthedustdolls blog) in World Sweet World magazine. I used embroidery thread for the string and had a lovely time cutting, pasting and stamping my tags. My toddler loved doing some stamping too so that was a bonus.

Something else I felt like doing today was playing around with beads after seeing a post yesterday on the Prudent Baby website about making beaded necklaces www.prudentbaby.com/2010/02/jaime-and-jacindas-homeschooling-fun.html.  I really liked the idea of making necklaces and bracelets with my toddler so we could do some crafting together. I found the most amazing treasure trove shop "Uncle Black Beetle's" Tea and Craft shop on Otumoetai Road in Tauranga absolutely stuffed full of beads and all the other stuff you need to make your own jewellery. They offer classes too so I would love to rope a few pals into coming along one Sat morn for a few hours of creative fun.  I bought some big wide hole wooden beads for Amelie and she had fun threading them onto some string.  I found this lovely skirt at the Red Cross store when I was at the Mount today so I made this little yellow bracelet to go with it- it was really enjoyable making it and so satisfying!

Funnily enough I saw on tinyhappy tonight that Melissa also had a bead day making some beautiful necklaces. And Clare at Greenvalley crafts wrote a post the other day showing a lovely beaded heart artwork.
And finally for my yellow day I bought a beautiful "sunshine" flower as my toddler called it :)

By the way I didn't realise that my blog settings were set so that only people using blogger could comment on my blog- I've changed it now so anyone can write a comment :) Thanks, I really enjoy reading them!

boats on the water

Last night we went down and watched two cruise ships leaving Mount Maunganui, one after the other. There were dozens of yachts bidding farewell, along with hundreds of people watching from spots all around the Mount.  There is something so lovely about strangers waving goodbye and wishing the cruise-goers a happy voyage.

Patchwork 'gonks'

I have just finished my second patchwork gonk this morning from the lovely book "Stitched Toys" by Kate Haxell. I made the pink one for my baby who took one look at it and threw it on the floor so luckily my toddler has taken a shine to it instead. She cuddled it last night in bed which looked very cute.  I made the red/blue/yellow one for a friend who is having a baby in August.
Don't you just love their little smiley faces :)

black and white photo display

I saw this cool framing idea from a magazine (can't remember the name of it!) years ago when living in London- I ripped out this page...

I thought it would be a neat way to display some of our travel pics but it would be great for a family photo wall too.  I chose the photos I wanted, got most of them changed to black and white (some of the photos were soft muted colours which blends nicely with the black and white ones so I left them as is) then I got some enlarged, picked a whole lot of different frames and matts, then hubby had to spend about 2 hours getting them all straight on the wall! We have moved house three times since the first time we hung them so he is getting pretty quick at it now!

a very long weekend

Well, both of my girls, Amelie aged nearly 3 and Stella 10 months have had terrible tummy bugs all weekend. Amelie started early Friday early evening and Stella midnight Friday night and 48 hours later I think they might only just be getting better now. Stella smiled for the first time this evening but Amelie was still looking very lethargic and not herself at all before bed. We have had the washing machine going all weekend along with numerous carpet cleans so lets hope tomorrow is a better day! We have had tummy bugs before but nothing like this and only one child not both!!!
Anyway, before this all happened I did make one fun thing on Friday- a little taggie toy for a friends new baby. I used black and white fabric as babies do seem to love looking at black and white in the early weeks don't they. It was really quick and easy to do so will have to do some more.
And here is a photo of some delicious tomatoes a neighbour very kindly gave us. Our big tomatoes are still looking quite green and the storm last weekend knocked most of the plants off their stakes!

One more pic... I found this gorgeous sheet from an op-shop in Havelock North when we went down to a wedding there. I have lots of crafty plans for that sheet! I love the flowers and the tiny dots on it.

Megan