A Sunny Winter's Day

On Tuesday before going off to Salem's costume fitting for Cinderella, we had a lovely afternoon at one of Salem's favourite parks which is at the top of Hobson Street in Wellington city.

There are lots of good climbing trees and Salem just goes from one tree to the next.

He had to make sure he didn't disturb the pigeons in this tree.  They were having an afternoon nap.

The park has two gardens, the first at the north entrance is the Lady MacKenzie Garden for the Blind which is a lovely scented garden.

It has a lovely little waterfall and pond area which makes a lovely sound.  Kids love climbing over the rocks and of course paddle about in it in the summer.

It's a lovely setting to come and have a picnic lunch or a takeaway coffee.

Along with the music of the waterfall is the gorgeous aromas of all the flowers.  There is the lovely sweet smell of some White Daphne.  There are patches of Lemon Balm, Rosemary and other fragrant herbs as well to enjoy.

Lots of bushes of the usual common pink coloured Daphne.  Yum.  Just love that smell.  I had to pick a little bit to take home with me.  Naughty, naughty!!

No fragrant garden is complete without lavender.  Can you spot the bee in the photo?

Spring flowers are already up and blooming and it is still the middle of winter.

It's hard to believe that this lovely park is right next to a motorway.

Right next to these gardens is the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Park.  Katherine Mansfield is a famous New Zealand writer.  Salem's favourite story written by her is "The Dolls House".

There are always plenty of pigeons here.  They are very well behaved too ;^)

More great trees for climbing.
We had a lovely relaxing time in the sun before going off to watch the politicians argue while sitting in the gallery while Parliment was in session.  We both love politics!!!

And of course we managed to fit in a cup of tea and filled our tums at Arthur's in Cuba Street.

And a quick read.

Hill Street Matariki Winter Craft Market

On Saturday the 23rd of June we had a stall at the Hill Street Market.  They had a special Craft Market along with the usual farmer's market for Matariki (Maori New Year's) and the Winter Solstice.
The weather was absolutely awful so our stalls were inside.

Salem went around the market selling bits and pieces from our stall to the brave people who dared the weather.  He also sold many raffle tickets  for the hat, scarf and fingerless gloves pictured above.

I had spent the previous three weeks frantically crocheting to get more stock together.

I used every opportunity to crochet, on the bus, the train, while waiting for Salem at his dance classes and while watching telly at night.

We did have stock left over from our last craft market stall, but we did need more.

Salem had made the toys.  I think he was a bit tired this time to make too many things.  He is very busy with his dancing.

I must say that I am now having a bit of a break now from knitting and crocheting.  I think my next project is to continue with some of my cross-stitch, especially my Colonial Cottage one.

We made a good profit considering the awful weather.
We haven't been to the normal Hill Street Market for a while due to Salem's dancing commitments but it is now the school holidays so no dance classes for a couple of weeks and then we will be going into Wellington for rehearsals for the Royal New Zealand  Ballet's "Cinderella" as Salem has a small part in that.
He's looking forward to that.

That's all for now

Nellie B

Paraparaumu Antique Fair

We went to the Antique Fair at the Paraparaumu Memorial Hall today.  It is also on tomorrow as well.
We went looking for some bargains but while there was a lot of lovely stuff, 99.9% of it was out of our price range.  It was quite good to see items that we have at home and how much they were selling for.

There wasn't much at all in the way of vintage clothing at all, just a couple of fur stoles and some hats which were fun to try on.  A lot of war medals were on sale.

There was a good selection of books to hunt through, we bought two books about Wellington city which included a lot of old photos including ones taken in the late 1800's.  Salem also bought 5 old comics.

I treated myself to a pair of mismatched cameo ear-rings.  I love cameos.  They had a huge selection of jewellery at many of the tables....... I can dream!!!!!  Salem bought to children's royal visit medals.

It was a nice way to spend the afternoon on a wintery day.  It is definitely getting colder.  I have a hot water bottle every night.  While I am writing this two of my cats are curled up on the couch, they will be there all night.

Sugar and Baal Z

I will probably have my other cat Misty sleeping with me later.

                       Nite Nite.

Cross-Stitch, Chickens, Carrots and Ballet

Colonial Cottage, Wellington

 My latest cross-stitch project is of one of my favorite places to visit.  The Colonial Cottage in Nairn St in Wellington City. We go there even when the house itself is not open for tours as we just like to spend time sitting in the garden, chatting to the three chickens and Salem loves climbing the big old tree out the back.  It's just like stepping back in time.

My cross stitch version of  Colonial Cottage so far

Tree climbing at the Colonial Cottage

Saying hello to the Chickens

All three chickens came to see us

The latest offering from our garden is this unusal shaped carrot, it looks like some sort of creature as it has two 'eyes'.  Our garden isn't very productive at the moment but we are still getting the occassional strawberry and there are plenty of mandarins, apples, lemons and rhubarb.
Winter is just about here and it is really getting cold and we had frosts two days in a row this week.  Our whole property was white.

Our weird and wonderful carrot

We have had some wonderful news this week..... I applied for a scholarship for Salem for his dancing in March and received a letter on Wednesday saying that Salem has been awarded a Gold Heart Scholarship from Variety - The Children's Charity.  We were over the moon with this news.  The lovely people at Variety will be helping with Salem's dancing expenses.  Thank you Variety and a big thank you to everyone who wrote lovely letters of support for our scholarship application.

Ballet practice

I'm Back.....Really....

Hello everyone, I am back.
I haven't been very well for a while but I've got everything under control for now (knock on wood!!!)  This blog has been put aside while I have had to contend with my health and everyday life of being a mum and everything that entails plus making supplies for craft markets, my sons dancing etc....
I've made lots of neat bits and bobs and will post some of them up on future blogs.

Salem, my youngest has just turned 12 years old, wow....where has the time gone?????
I made him a High Tea for his birthday, both my boys love that, even my grumpy teenager.

Birthday High Tea

Yum Yum

Salem did another Children's Craft Market Stall at the Hill Street Market in Wellington earlier this year and it was a big success and were able to pay his first term of dance fees.
It was a lovely day and plenty of people at the market.

The egg cosies were very popular.

The milk jug covers dissappeared quickly too.

We are still getting orders for pot holders and dish clothes.

Salem the Stall Holder.

Catnip Balls and fresh herbs, rhubarb, seeds and the ever popular homemade sherbet.

We are slowly getting together stock for the next Craft Market next month.  We will keep you up-dated with our progress.

Last week on Friday the 11th May, a new Tea House opened up here in Kapiti down at Paraparaumu Beach.  We had to try it out as we love our tea shops!!!!!!!

It is "Over the Teacups" at 44 Seaview Road, Paraparaumu Beach.  Ph. 04 9044504.
www.overtheteacups.co.nz 
The website isn't up yet.

It is a lovely bright and inviting tea shop with table cloths on the tables, lovely food, great tea and friendly staff who made us feel very welcome.

The Proprietors Dee Ryan and Martin Halliday

Lovely decor.

We ate our yummy cakes and sandwiches before i remembered to take a photo.

We had a nice lunch of club sandwiches which were made on the spot for us, Salem had a piece of Pecan Pie and I had the Pineapple & Brazil Nut Cake and both were to die for!!!!!!!  YUM!!!!!!
They didn't have ceramic/pottery teapots for the tea but they did look the part dressed up in tea cosies.
And Salem thought it was so neat that the tea was served up with a small bowl of sugar cubes.  He said that it was a pity that he doesn't take sugar in his tea any more.  So he just had to eat one anyway!!!!

Lollies, lollies, lollies...and our wonderful friendly waitress.

 What was really cool was that they sell lots of old fashioned and english lollies.  Salem just had to get some.
He's been very good so he deserves them.  He got his rations worth.  We are still doing the wartime rationing and visiting a teashop fits in with it too as people did eat out.

So may to choose from......

Lots of yummy treats to choose from.

Lots of choice for something to read while having your tea.

I did like that they had a choice of reading material, not your usual tatty magazines.  Some nice books, some on New Zealand history, kids books and Salem got to read a book on the "Goodies" the old english comedy series which we have on DVD and is watched very often.  So that was a nice surprise.

What a great way to offer water.

We will be definitely going back, it's very handy as it is around the corner from the dance studio.

Well, this is a start to getting things going again and I will update nelliebswartimerationing.blogspot.com tonight.  I'm going to make it my mission to blog at least twice a week, more if possible, promise.