Ups and downs

Unbelievable what a long time ago that I wrote a nice post on my blog.
I was planning to tell you all about my more than exiting news and then we got sad news as well. To start with the exiting news, I'm going to open my own gift shop in the small shopping mall in Waikanae. Lovely living in real life !!
3 months ago I saw the shop for lease and it was always my wish to own my little shop. I went to the real estate agent and after a lot of thinking I made my decision. Lovely Living was born on paper.
I went to Christchurch to the winter gift fair where all the retailers can buy there stock. And after a few days the orders came in. It looks like Christmas, unwrapping all the boxes.

A little note from the girls when I came back from 3 days Christchurch, so sweet!

We started to collect furniture for the shop for display and I bought a till. Lieke was more than happy to make her own little shop at home and play with the till.

Boxes of stock coming in and I want all the furniture white for the shop. André is busy painting them all and I'm busy sewing stock as much as I can.

But on the day that I signed my lease contract we've got the terrible phone call that my mum was really sick, I can tell you all my dreams fell apart and I didn't know what to do. I'm here in New-Zealand and she is in The Netherlands.

My plan was to open the shop in September,but we have to delay it till October. I'm off to my mum tomorrow. I stay with her for 5 weeks and hope we will have a good time together.

It was really hard to focus on the shop when you know there is something terrible wrong at home, so I hope I made the wright decision to delay my shop.

I'm off for a few weeks and hope to show you my new shop soon.

All the furniture is painted white and is waiting in the garage to put in the shop.

Beach walk

Sorry for my long absence but my life is like a little roller coaster at the moment. I'm still really busy with what I'm doing and nothing is really sure so I can't tell much at the moment. But my fingers are crossed (for weeks already).

The girls have a winter break at the moment and we went for a great beach walk. We live close to the beach but is was a long time ago that I was there. In summer time I normally go every day. It's the best place at the world I think. Specially when you have the whole beach for yourself. And wintertime in New Zealand is nothing comparing to Holland. I don't have a winter jacket and most of the time we don't wear long pants. Of course you can have some cold days but when the sun comes out you can sit outside and enjoy coffee in the winter garden. Great life
style!


Hope to be back soon and show you all my activities!
For everyone who is having summer holiday enjoy it and make the most of it.
We are still waiting for our kitchen door handles, they have to come from Australie. We have a kitchen without doors and I can tell you it is messy but handy!

Long ago !

Sorry girls for my long absence but it is very busy here at the moment. It started first with the flu. I was feeling bad for a couple of days and then of course it effected the rest of the family.
Our eldest girl was really sick and I was a bit worried, with all the stories about swine flu and extra news letters from school. So she was home for the whole week.
Then we had a terrible virus in the computer (named Troy, so better watch out!!!) we had to bring it to the computer shop. We missed him for almost a week and a lot of information is gone, so all the photo's. I really don't like it.

And last but not least I'm very busy with an exciting job. I can't tell you now but hope to let you know what is all going on in our house hold. It is so exciting that I can't sleep at night!! And that tells a lot!

André is still working hard on the kitchen. Sometimes it is easier to place a new one than to renovate an old kitchen. Every time you discover something new what is not OK. We found some nice doorhandles but we have to order them from Australia. It is great to live on an Island but sometimes you feel a bit lonely, if you can find where you are looking for. But we have all the time so we wait and see what they send us. Hopefully the send the right handles.

In the meantime I made a button love heart, easy and very decorative.
Hope to tell you soon about my exciting news!!!
Have a great weekend.

Crochet.

First of all, do you like my new blog layout. I thought it needed a bit of an update.

I don't no what it is with me and the bath mat but I love making them at the moment. Maybe because it is winter here, we don't have a heater in the bathroom and my feet are very cold.
I made this one out of an old sheet that I teared apart and with a big crochet needle I went round and round and round. As backing a piece of the old sheet as well so it will match perfect.
It was easy to make and went quite fast.
I made some for my shop as well.

I love looking in other peoples houses. I think we all do, so here is a little look in our en suite bathroom.

And last but not least a look in our kitchen. This is how it what it is at the moment. A big mess. But it will be beautiful in a few weeks time. I'm busy painting the doors.

Piece by piece.

Last summer I started to mosaic a table top. But I didn't finish it off. It is one of the jobs that you have to make some time for, you can't do it in a rush.
I made a mosaic from old cups and plates that I found on garage sale and op shops in the area and on holiday.
It is great if you sit outside and look at the table and spot to plate that you found during the holiday. Brings me back to good memories.


The table and chairs are standing on my front veranda on a nice sunny spot. And even in the winter you will catch some sunshine. On a rainy day this is the perfect spot as well.

Crazy things.

This is my crazy home made cake stand. I bought a box of old cups and plates on a cat boot sale and it was standing in my cub board for weeks without using it, because there where never enough plates for a whole table setting. I don't lite it if things are standing there and you never use it so this was my idea.
I put it all together with super glue and my cake stand was born.
It looks great with home made chocolate cookies. But you can also use it with all sorts of things. With a Little vase of flowers on top and cookies and cakes on the other plate you serve a great high tea.

Last year we started to renovate the kitchen. But then it became summer and we stoped working on this project. We had visitors over for the whole summer and with the great weather we love to spend our time outside. But the winter is back again so we started in the kitchen again.

Lat Sunday we made plans for the kitchen doors, so we replace them for new ones. Lieke had a friend over and we ask them to decorate the old doors with felt. They were really surprised and started the same minute. We told the friend: Not to do this at home!!

You imagine they had great fun!

I'll keep you updated with the renovation. We ordered a new range hood and the lady form the shop already told us that there was a delay, so we have to wait a few more weeks, there is always something.

Quilt tree.

Today I went to my quilt class and the teacher ask me if I was interested in a quilt tree. I love the idea to get pieces of material from all over the world to make a great quilt.
You have to send the first person in the row 2 pieces (6" each) of material. It have to be PURPLE and 100% cotton. Then you make 4 copies of the letter and send them to 4 friends who quilt, along with two 6" squares of your purple fabric.
There is no money involved. It should be a lot of fun for those of us who like to quilt.

I can send it to 4 random friend but I really like to send it to people who are interested so no one breaks the chain. All together you should receive 72 squares in return. That should be enough to make a quilt. It will be fun to see where the squares come from, and what they will look like when you put them together.

If you like the idea and like to receive a letter with two 6" squares leave a comment or e-mail me. I'll send the first 4 the quilt tree info and the squares.
I already have to send my first one from the list to Ireland. So it will be very international. Great fun!

Home sweet home.

In a previous post I told you about my new project. I've made a lot of cushion covers for the settee in the living room.
I took all the cushions from the outside daybed , washed the covers and stored them for the next summer. And with the winter coming up I like it to make my house nice and cosy. The best way to do that is with cushions and candles I think.


In the local op shop I saw a great big blanket made out of wool and knew directly that I could make cushion covers out of it. I took it home, washed it, appliqued some love hearts and letters on it and the new cushion covers are finished.

Let it snow , let it snow. I think that will never happen over here but we are ready for a long "warm" winter.

Lots of things done !!

Do you know the feeling when you have done lots of things and they are all finished. It gives me a great and satisfied feeling.
There was a bag with shells in the garage for months , I had my plan but still no time and idea how to do. But I did it , I made a great framed artwork with all the little shells from our last holiday. I glued them all on a piece of canvas that I bought in a shop and painted in my favorite colour lavender.

And the chair is finished. With some fresh white paint and a new fabric cover it is e new chair for me. We bought a little desk that I put in the spear bedroom and with this chair it will give me some great working space. I already used it quite a bit this week.

And I made some more friends. The pink one found already a new home and the others are for a shop. I put some in my Etsy shop a well.

And last but not least this is the last project where I'm working on. It is still work in progress but I tell you later all about it.

Wild animal.

Lieke came home from school on Friday and asked me: " Mum can you make me a tiger outfit for the animal disco, I'll need it on Tuesday.
She made the drawing and I made the costume.