2 Prizes and an award

Well Blogtober is officially over but the festive "cheer" is still hanging over this house!

I was lucky enough to win TWO giveaways during the Blogtober festivitys.

The first, some lovely handmade beads from Karin over at "The Sparkly Things Blog"
The second some "upcycled" coasters from Stephanie over at "Moobear Designs"

I was also lucky enough to be given the "Gorgeous Blogger Award" from one of my new blogtober friends Renee over at "Of Lemons and Honey"



I am so honoured that she would think of me! So now i have to blog about 6 things you dont know about me, and then nominate 6 more Bloggers to receive the award :)

So here goes:

#1 I only just tured 23. ALL of my mummy friends are older than me, some by more than 10 years but i dont notice in the slightest! Because of this most people assume i am older than i am and i cant really blame then as i dont know many other 23 year olds who are married with two kids hehe.

#2 I couldnt survive without the internet and all my cyber friends. ( Geek yes i know hehe)

#3 My childhood and teenage dream was to be a broadway actress :) I LOVE the theatre, being on and off the stage, and everything "musical". I still get goosebumbs everytime i see a show.
Maybe one day.............

#4 I had a Nomad childhood. Growing up my family never spent more than 2 years in any one place. We have lived all over the north island of New Zealand, on Pitcairn Island and in Lima Peru :) This has instilled in me a lust for travel and hope to take my family all over the world in the years to come.

#5 I LOVE giving. I think it may be a little bit of an addiction for me. Thinking up ways to spoil my friends, making and giving gifts, organising others in BIG Kohas etc. Christmas is my FAV time of year as i get to make and give lots and lots!

#6 I am the worst housewife EVER. Tidyness has never been my forte, couple that with a hubby who is also not very houswork inclined and you get our place.............

Hahaha ok no its not that bad, but i would much rather spend my time playing with my boys and knitting or creating :)

Right so now its my turn to nominate 6 blogs that i think deserve the Gorgeous Blogger Title, its a hard task really as i have so many friends in real life who are bloggers, plus a bunch of new bloggy friends, but here goes:

1. Kelly over at "Knit So quaint" (SUPER inspirational and is always bringing to light fabulous causes etc)

2. Tricia over at "Little eco footprints" ( discovered during blogtoberfest and a wonderful blog about raising an eco concious family)

3. Nikki over at "The redheaded devil child" (educational and entertaining hehe)

4. Cathie over at "m.e" (super sweet blog with amazing photography"

5. The Heart family over at "Heart Felt" ( another crafty family blog)

6. My knitting Guru Sheryl over at "Shortly Stitches" (AMAZING knitting based blog)

ENJOY your awards ladies!

xxx

Blogtober #31 We have Winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been overwhelemed with the response o have gotten over this giveaway :)
It is so lovley to know that people actually read and like my blog! haha

well i have gone through every post and every comment and drawn out of a hat and here are the winners..............

First up the skein of Vintage Purls sock yarn goes to.............. Gen!, NZ (also known as paws hehe) congrats babe!

Second up is the World Sweet World magazine which will be winging its way across the ditch to Vic at punky and me !!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy it :)



And last but certainly not least, the winner of the grand prize goes to.............................. ikkinlala!!!!!!!!!! from Canada!



Congrats everyone, you will be getting emails from me later today to sort out postage etc :)

Thank you to everyone who entered, i hope to see you all at my 200th post giveaway! hehe

Blogtober #30 A day in Pictures :)

Yes i know its a few (well more than a few but it was my sleepin morning!) hours late, totally forgot to blog last night! but here it is...


Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...... (note the happy humpty sitting on the wall then the sad humpty falling off)



The whole family dressed up for the Kindy Disco last night (Two pirates, one spiderman and one Bob the Builder)




Will be back this arvo to draw the prize winners! so you have a few hours ot get another entry in! xxx

Blogtober #29 MY 100TH POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ive done it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100 posts baby! And only 1 day later than i had planned so pretty good going i think :)

I am going to leave my giveaway drawing untill saturday so two more days to get in the draw!

As promised i have some new goodies up for grabs ;)

First up, in ths spirit of all things kiwiana i have some more kiwi chocolate to droll over: a BIG bag of Pinapple lumps, a Buzz bar, a Moro bar, a Perky Nana bar and a chocolate fish!


Next up, one of my tea-cup pincusions :) complete with kiwiana collectors teaspoon


Another softie! This time Libby the Hippy is all yours. Libby is one funky chick, she comes with embriodered "peace" and marajuana leaf motifs and a retro flower print on the back.


I have also just started a fern patterned knitted dishcloth to chuck in too.

Now and extra little giveaway to be drawn SOLEY from my followers is the GORGEOUS "Edric" vintage purls sock yarn i received last week

If you want to be in to win this beautiful sock yarn make sure to become a follower of my blog :)

A reminder that the "World Sweet World" magazine will only be drawn from comments made on THIS post too. There are only 5 entrys so far so you have got a great chance to win!

Blogtober #28 KIWIANA

Right, as promised here are the fruits of our Kiwiana yarn swap! are you ready to drool?

Kiwiana (taken from wikipedia)
Items of kiwiana are generally those which are either unique to or particularly common to New Zealand, particularly from the early and mid twentieth century. Although the term is sometimes used to describe any and all New Zealand icons, it is more commonly used to describe pop culture items such as toys or branded foods. A few more serious national icons have become kiwiana through heavy use in advertising and the souvenir industry. These include the kiwi and the hei-tiki. Kiwiana is generally seen as a form of kitsch.

We all interpreted this theme diferently and even though we had 1 double up in theme, the packages were so different! Amongst the hand dyed yarn and gifts we all included patterns to go with the yarn and paper work of some discription ( recipes, books cards etc).

First of all here is the package i put together for the lovely Kristy. I chose the theme "Mince pie and sauce" and included some pie and sauce flavoured chips, the iconic "tomato" kiwi sauce bottle, a felt softie "pie" and two little tomato hairclips.

I dyed up 100grams of vintage purls sock yarn in the colours of mince and tomato sauce with hints of pastry:


I recieved an amazing "Surf" themed package from Clare including a hand woven basket made from recycled surf magazines! how cool is THAT?! I also got a "swift" for wool winding which was awsome:

The majority of the yarn is still to be untangled after a whoopsie but i got a teaser to "tide" me over (hehe)


Angela recieved from Kate some beautiful hand spun "Wave Waltz" yarn, with a paua cloth nappy kit, felted hairclip and brouch and some hand painted breastpads :)



Kate recieved from Kristy an amazing "Pukeko" package with rich purple, blue and green sock yarn, free trade chocolate (for the red component), notebook and a Pukeko childrens book :)


What Kiwiana swap would be complete without the Buzzy Bee? Trudy recieved a seriosuly funky
swap from Angela including a buzzy bee ball and soem scrummy red and yellow yarn:


Sam chose "Paua" as her theme for Sheryl and pulled it of beautifully! included with her fabulous sock yarn was a brag book and a Paua rockyroad kit! YUM!


Sam then recieved her Rocky Road swap! Trudy had dyed some delicious looking yarn and included some sweet little stich markers which Sam then put straight to work hehe:


Lizzie recieved the second Pukeko swap of the night, but Sheryl had taken a differnt approach and used the stylized portrayal f the pukeko as her inspiration for her stunning yarn. There was also a super cute WIP bag made from kiwiana fabric and some pukeko lollies and magnet along with a card :)


Last up was the iconic "Jandle" swap for Clare. Lizzie had found some pohutakawa jandles (and even patterns for jandle socks!) to match her kiwiana sock yarn!


The pile of yarn at the end of all the unwraping was a beautiful sight!


The actual giving in person was the best "swap" experience i have had :) Seeing your swappees face as they open your gift, being able to fondle all the yarn in person etc is priceless! There are no packages "lost" in the mail or 8 months late, no wondering "did they like it?" I cant wait to do it again! ( and we are doing it again next month hehe)

Thank you ladies for making it such an awsome swap! xxx

Blogtober #27 The $7 outfit

I thought i would show you the FAB outfit i was wearing today that cost me a total of $7 during our holiday :)

I went op-shopping on friday and found this gorgoues little dress for $5 in one shop, the belt for $2 in another and then picked up the jandles for free at the warehouse ( buy 2 get one free) SCORE! The dress is a "Max" one so prety darn cool to get it for $5 as it looks brand new.



I also found a black vintage style cocktail dress which i will show you tomorrow :)

I just got home fromt he big reveal of my local knitting groups Kiwiana yarn swap so will blag about it in the morning!

xxx

Blogtober #26 Creating for charity :)

Every now and then it is wonderful to sit down and make something for someone else. In fact about 90% of the stuff i make is for other people for gifts, swaps, just "because" and every so often to donate to a good cause :)

I first read about "Softies for Mirabel" last year through a few blogs i follow but didnt get involved. This year after getting a nudge from a post on Kellys blog i decided to give it a go.

Here is a little bit about the organisation taken from the "meet me at mikes" website:

What is The Mirabel Foundation?
Mirabel is a wonderful organisation that supports the children of families affected by substance abuse. They do amazing, important work, and we try to support them in our own small crafty ways! Mike's is located in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and we see all sorts of addiction issues on our street every day. We think that you should always try and do something about issues that are in your very own neighbourhood. Having said that, this is a global issue – affecting children from all walks of life.

Pop on over to Kellys blog as she is having a bit of a giveaway for getting involved :) ( kelly the answer to your question is "Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy" by Lynley Dodd)

Pegleg has been sitting around rather lonely after Marina was whisked away to her new home so i thought he would enjoy the trip across the ditch and into the arms of a new little boy or girl :) I will miss him dearly but hope he has a wonderful adventure.

So come on guys! take a little time to sew, knit, craft a lovable softie to brighten a childs day :)

Blogtober #25 Abundance

Whenever we come back from visiting the Relly's in Tauranga we always come back with bags of produce. Usually a few avos from the roadside honesty boxes and some lemons from the market etc but nothing like what we came back with this time.............................



We spent the day out at Robs brothers farm on saturday and raided their tangelo, mandarin and avacodo trees. Throw in a few jumbo lemons from the farmers market and you get this! Around 20kgs of fruit and avos! YUM! For size reference look how the avo towers over the raisin box!



We have to wait for them to ripen but i cant wait!

Our laundry has an abunance of a different kind. I washed every second day while away but this is still how much dirty washing we came home with, lucky for me washing is Robs job hahaha :



So who has some recipies to use up all this fruit? im Thinking Tangelo sorbet for knitting tomorrow night, some marmalade, but what else?

Blogtober #24 Home Sweet Home!

Home Sweet Home at last!!

I dont knwo how it manages to slip my mind everytime but holidays with preschoolers are nto relaxing in the slightest! in fact me and hubby were joking that we need a holiday to recover from THIS holiday hahaha.

Two boys sharing a room, up in the middle of the night, wake-ups at 5am ( or EARLIER shudder) complete loss of manners and reason, car spews, seat kicking, late nights, sugar highs, heat exhaustion ( yes in OCTOBER!) shopping headaches bla bla bla bla bla im sure you get the point hahaha.

Completly forgot about blog prizes so i will be on a mission to make up for that this week!

Phew i need a lie down

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Blogtober #23 Holiday!!!!!!!!!!!

Well i just realised that goign on holiday tongiht means i wont be able to blog for 4 days! I havent missed a day since i started Blogtober so its a bit of a blow but i promise to make it up to you when i get back as i still want to hit 100 posts by the end of the month :)

This post makes 2 for today so i will have 3 to make up in the last week :)

i promise to come back with super coll goodies for my giveaway too as i havent had a chance today to create or find something to put up PLUS the four days we are gone so i owe you a total of 5 gifts :)

I cant wait to go searching!

Muah! and see you when we get back ;)

Blogtober #22 Wooly mail!!!

Wooly mail is my favourtie type of mail and look what was waiting on my doorstep for me this morning:
2 new skiens of Vintage Purls sock yarn that i ordered on monday.

On the left Denim Love and on the right Edric. I love them both!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of sock yarn, i am making great progress with my socks! i only have 1 or 2 pattern repeats before finishing off the toe of this baby:

Blogtober #21 Recycle Recycle Recycle

It amazes me how some people in this area/country/planet still dont recycle.

We put out two boxes of recycling a week and only one supermarket bag size of rubbish a week, sometimes not even that!

Our neighbours put out 1 supermarket bag of recycling and an over flowing green wheelie bin of rubbish!

On Oprah last week they were interviewing a family of 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats. This family was creating 10 yes 10! huge rubbish bags a week! i dont even know how this is possible! Even if we didnt compost or recycle, we would struggle to fill even 2 big black rubbish bags. If we were using disposible nappies instead of cloth on top of that then maybe we could fill 5 but 10? no way!

Anyway back to this family on Oprah, after a week of "hard core" recycling they had cut their waste cut down to 4 big black rubbish bags and everyone seemed to think this was amazing................. i didnt ?!?!

Recycling isnt hard. At least not here in New Zealand. Where my family and I are living currently its even free. We just put out our 2 boxes with our rubbish and thats it! easy peesey :)

How easy is recycling where you are? Do you compost? What do you do to reduce your waste?

Leave me your tips and i will choose 1 to win todays "recycled" giveaway prize:

The Spring 08 edition of "World Sweet World"



I LOVE this little magazine. It is packed full of beautiful things, stuff to make your self, how to "up cycle" things to make even cooler thinfs etc.

This issue has completly sold out of print so quite a "collectors" item :)
Inside it has how to make a solar oven, how to make dough, how to make a hoodie out of some old t-shirts, screan printing and how to make a bag out of old records. It also has articles on eco coffins, kiwi bloggland and a write up on what Raglan has to offer.

It has been read and re-read by me so in loved but still great condition :)

Blogtober #20 the March Sisters

Ive had a hugely full on day today and only just walked in the door now at 5.30 so ill love ya and leave ya with today's giveaway addition.



"The March Sisters" is a set of Pinafore patterns designed by a friend of mine for little women of all descriptions :) based on the characters in the novel "little Women" each pinafore is alike, like sisters are, yet they all have their own quirks and differences.

For today's giveaway addition i am including the complete set of four pinafore patterns plus the adorable "Pinny for a Dolly" pattern.

To have a look visit Kelly's felt store Look under her other listings for detailed pics of the different patterns.

Alternatively here is the Ravelry Link

edited to add that they are KNITTED patterns :)

Blogtober #19 PINK

October is breast cancer awareness month here in New Zealand ( maybe overseas too but im not sure) and PINK seems to have taken over!

There are pink cosmetics, pink biscuits, even pink matresses! being advertised everywhere to raise awareness and fundraise for the breast cancer foundation.

I thought i would have a look around the house and try and find some pink things to photograph. They were few and far between im afraid, being that i live with three boys! hehe but here is what i found....

A beautiful scattering of tiny pink flowers in the garden


My smallest sons drawer of his "things" today is was full of pink post-its :)


Our piggy wiggy hand puppet


My beautiful rose quartz given to me years ago by my cousin Loren for aiding fertility


And what do we have here? A sweet little felt butterfly hair tie, and todays giveaway addition :)

Blogtober #18 A little bit of pie

Another quick blog post from me today im afraid.

This morning i thought i would play around with some odd bits of yarn i had in my stash and i got out my food colouring and did a bit if dyeing :)

The yarn was patons dreamtime 3ply and i had about 30-40 grams of it and this is what i created!



I call it "Bluberry Pie" and i adore the rish colours!

There is enough to make some toddler socks or a dolls dress maybe?

So thats what is going to be todays Giveaway entry :)

Thank you to all of you who have entered the giveaway allready! make sure to come bakc each day and leave a new comment for another chance in the draw :) I think i will have a little draw as part of the giveaway that will be drawn only from my "followers" so follow my blog for a chance to win something extra :)

Blogtober #17 And then there was chocolate!

Just a quick post from me today as i dont have much time to blog.

Added to the prize pool today is three bars of Whittakers chocolate. For those of you who are not kiwis, Whittakers is a long standing NZ chocolate making company that makes delicious chocolate mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm



I have included their milk choclate bar, dark choclate bar and extra dark ghana 72% bar. You know you want some!

Blogtober #16 B.I.G Giveaway! woop woop

I am 13 posts away from 100 blog posts wohoo! i should hit 100 on the 29th of October :)
It has taken me over a year but i have done it!

So, to celebrate i am going to have a B.I.G Giveaway. I am going to add something to the prize pool everyday from now untill the 29th, when i will draw it. It may be one giant prize pack, or i may split it up into smaller lots, who knows? There will be felty bits, knitty bits, christmas bits, chocolate bits etc, so make sure you come back everyday to see what goodies i have added :)

Right. To start this awsome giveaway off here is todays addition:

"Dan the Muscle Man" is a felt softy with embroidered six-pack, tatoo, short shorts and bulging biceps hehehe

If you would like to be in to win then leave me a comment on any post from now untill the 29th :) every comment gets you an entry but please only one comment per day :)
Overseas bloggers welcome! I would love to post to somewhere exotic so let me know where you are from :)

Blogtober #15 Socks, socks, and more socks!

Well........................................................ i finally got up the courage to try my first socks! i Didnt however have the patience to wait for hard copy of the pattern i wanted to try , i couldnt just do any old boring pattern now could i? ;)

I zipped through the first leg and still couldnt wait so i placed it on holders and cast on the second sock.................

THEN i got the pattern.

Had i cast on the right amount of stitches?

NO OF COURSE NOT

I had 6 too few stitches on each sock...........................so two whole ribs

So i cast on the RIGHT number in another yarn while trying to think what to do and consulting my "GURU" . Turns out they are selvagable but i think i am going to continue my second pair and then go back to them once i know what im doing.



Wish me luck and no more mistakes! hahaha

Blogtober #14 The Tuesday Night Knitting Club

As i have mentioned a few times before, Tueaday night is knitting night for me and a bunch of my super lovely friends (including Sam, Sheryl and Kate who are also bloggers)

We are a varied bunch, all mums to baby's and preschoolers with a love of cloth nappies to boot :)

i took some photos last night to show off all oru differnt projects. We have numerous pairs of socks, dresses, toys, shawls, a womans tank top, baby singlets etc in allsorts of yummy yarns:


Some closeups:



KNitting is allways best accompanied by yummy dessert and cups of tea, on the menu last night was pear tart, icecream and chocolate bickies mmmmmmmmmmmm

Blogtober #13 RIP little Aisling

I would like to dedicate todays Blogpost to the memory of sweet Aisling Symes, whose body was found last night after a week of searching.




Rest in peace sweet angel

My thoughts are with your family Aisling, may they find peace and comfort again...

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