A fuzzy photo, but I don't care!

Happiness!!

(sorry for the serial posting...for once I have two children asleep at the same time! And instead of doing the myriad of useful things on my list, I'm serial blogging..he he)

Yantra!

Meet Jarvis' new friend, Yantra. 

Yantra is an enormous artwork by Marté Szirmay, which stands at the entrance to Daddy's Winery. 

Jarvis likes to think of Yantra as his own personal cave. 

It echoes fabulously, and the gravel crunches under your feet. What's not to love? 

Wardrobe Wednesday - dark hair, bright clothes, and a cat on my skirt!

Feeling colourful today, aided by my pretty new scarf, care of my wonderful friend, Megan :) (thank you, thank you, thank you!!) As for the cat skirt - it reappeared this morning, after me starting to think I'd lost it in the shift! So fabulous! 

I finally tired of pulling out the white hair that keeps popping up in my fringe, and coloured it for the first time in years...I'm rather liking the darker brown, but it's a little scary to think that now I'm not going to be able to stop colouring it for the rest of forever! I held off as long as I could, but I'm sure pulling out greys every day or two probably isn't the way to go ;) 

Happy Wednesday! 

Livin' on a Prayer?

Olive, at the grand old age of One Week. 

Big Brother on the Move

A perfect deck for bike riding in the sun...and such a magical view! 

Lovely...

I did think Olive looked a lot like Jarvis did when he was wee...I think these pics confirm it! 

So lovely...

Phone blogging!

Why didn't I think of checking if there was a blogger android app before!!!
I think I'm posting a sideways photo of Jarvis and his favourite cat surveying the area, will need to work out the finer details of this mobile blogging carry on later!

Jarvis chooses a wine for lunch...

Yeah right, buddy! 

With two breastfeeding, but wine loving, wine wives? No freaking way!! (I'm not losing out on another bottle of Grange when I can't drink it. A pretty choice 1982 was consumed by two rather intoxicated gentlemen while I was pregnant with Jarvis. It brought tears to my eyes). 

You have to love his good taste though, right? 

(If you can't see the fuzzy label, it's a 1975 Penfolds Grange)...

What I Wore...

Do excuse the rubbish photo, definitely doesn't do this wicked frock justice. This arrived in a bundle of very random castoffs which came from my Mother-in law's next door neighbour. Some absolute gems (see above!), some absolute disasters, some really horrid jerseys that work waaaay better as skirts, and some mysterious items which my friend who owns a costume hire store was overjoyed to take off my hands. 


This dress started off somewhat dubiously, in fact I threw it in the bin about six times (and kept taking it out again every time I thought of something I could do to it that might just work). In the end a rough as guts attack with a pair of scissors left a pretty awesome dress. It needs a few repairs now as my hack job was kind of rough, but it's definitely wearable. And I really, really love the tiny pleats!!

Strawberries

Apparently strawberries are complimented rather well by sand. Lots of sand. 

Then there's this lady, who at four weeks old is too little to eat strawberries and prefers to wear them on her t shirt instead :) 

One day I shall have time to actually write a whole post. Until then I'll keep running around in circles & striving to finish one cup of tea a day before it goes cold (current score 0/5). 

Brand New Olive...

Our internet is a disaster...I promise there will be more, but my sleeping children will wake up very shortly - it seriously took about an hour to get the new post box to load, let alone put anything in it. 

In the meantime, enjoy our beautiful little girl.

Olive Maggie, born 3.45am on her due date, 8lb11oz. 

:) 

A belated farewell...

Thank you for six lovely years filled with lovely things - adventures, our wedding, camping trips in the sun, picnics at the beach, warm afternoons on the porch, sunny days under the walnut tree, many very special friends, one small boy added to our family, and our beautiful wedding (it was super fab so deserves a second mention!) :) 

Now to see what adventures lie in our new home...

A Trip to the Museum :)

There isn't a huge list of adventures we need to have before leaving our Small City next Monday...most of the adventures involve spending some time with the gorgeously wonderful friends we've made over our six years here. However, taking Jarvis to the museum was something we've wanted to do for ages, and finally got to yesterday!


Our museum has part of a huge ship stuck onto the side...after a shipwreck in 1912, a local jeweller decided he rather fancied it, and took the Wheel House home! He used it as an addition to his house, then it was left to the public in 1983, when it eventually became part of the museum. 

Jarvis told us he was driving the boat to our new home across the sea :)

Today our busy weekend continues...a few more special friends to spend some time with. I've worked out that the thing I'll miss the most about being here is the fantastic people we've met & befriended...and fortunately I know from experience that wonderful friends are still wonderful friends, despite where you live. And now we've just given them an awesome excuse to head to the mainland for a holiday!

Sorry for being AWOL...

It's rather crazy around here right now. We're shifting to a faraway land (at the top of the South Island!) in under three weeks!


Currently I'm surrounded by boxes, have a small boy who wants to scale them at every opportunity, and am hobbling around like a ninety year old (cheers, pregnancy ailments)! 


Hopefully a proper post will emerge sometime soon, 'til then please send good packing and cleaning vibes my way :)

Wintery Adventures

Whilst I pottered around the house yesterday (very slowly, kind of like a hippo with a broken leg...), Shane and Jarvis went on an adventure down the driveway to see what was going on in the vineyard and the land beyond...

Jack Frost!

Jack Frost;

James K Baxter (The Tree House)

Look out, look out,

Jack Frost's about!

He'll nip your ears

And bite your snout!

He'll chap your knees

And make you sneeze;

Your fingers and

Your toes he'll freeze.

His magic makes

The mountains grow;

He learnt it from

His mother, Snow.

Yet he makes tiny

Glittering fronts

On window panes,

And ice on ponds.

When out of school

We dance and skip

He's waiting there

To pinch and nip.

Beware! Beware!

Leave nothing bare

When Jack Frost whistles

Through the air. 

A wee collage...

So I rather like the little collage I just put together of my increasing puku... I thought I might share it with you lovelies!

29 Weeks...

A bit of a dark self portrait - will get my lovely husband to take a better photo of me this weekend, but I thought I'd better post something of an update as I haven't in a while!

My body isn't quite holding up the way it did with Jarvis's pregnancy - I feel like a giant sausage today, with tubey grip holding my tummy muscles in place, and a smiley belt taking some of the weight of my bump! The physio has forbidden me to do such everyday activities as leaping out of bed to tuck Jarvis in if he wakes up at 3am (thank you, lovely husband..you're a star!), picking up said small boy from the ground, and carting about big bags of groceries (the wheelbarrow is a seriously awesome accessory...). 

Fortunately aside from those little issues, I feel pretty good - and I only have ten weeks to go!!!

Picture - 29+4 :)

Ahhhh, tractors!

So much happiness! 

That's all for now ;) 

The Lumberjack

Such a useful young man, helping split the firewood! 

Wardrobe Wednesday!

A pic from a week or so ago, when we were on our fabulous night away in Wellington :) 

Dress - Egg

Jacket & Boots - repeat ;)  (hey, they're my favourites!)

Brooch - Objects of My Affection, Napier

Scenery - Breaker Bay, Wellington. 

Puku - 24 Weeks, 3 days. 

Pop over to Green Valley for more! 

Daddy's Work

So much fun for a small boy, the possibilities are endless...

Returning from feeding the cat...

Inspecting the four wheel motorbike...

Checking the tractor attachments are all performing appropriately...

Magic. 

...then it all went horribly wrong!

Another happy day at the skate park - the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the small boy was hooning around merrily! 

There isn't much in the world to make Jarvis smile as much as a trip to the skate park. He absolutely adores the expanse of concrete on which to ride his bike. Much as living in the countryside makes for some great adventures, riding bikes isn't really one of them. A gravel driveway & a vineyard aren't the ideal riding surfaces for a bike such as his. 

I nipped down the road to pick up some fish and chips for lunch, leaving Jarvis & his Daddy enjoying the morning...little did I know that when I got back...

OUCH!! Disaster!! Roly poly activities on a bike are not recommended! Chin scraped, nose scraped, bit of a bump on the forehead. Fortunately very short lived pain and suffering, by the time I got back with lunch he was zooming around again with a crazed grin on his face. After getting over the initial shock, I just can't stop laughing at that photo! He somehow chose the perfect facial expression to frame his wounds for full dramatic effect! 

Today he looks even more fab, with the scrapes starting to scab over. I think this means he's officially a proper boy ;) 

Wardrobe Wednesday :)

Oh dear, it seems I've repeated a cardi and it's only been a few weeks! 

Trench coat - best ever op shop discovery, it cost me about ten bucks & is a gorgeous NZ made, silk liked coat from days gone by. Fabulous!

Skirt - nice stretchy preggo job ;) 

Cardi - ezibuy

Boots - trade me :)

Bag - my creation from last week! Slightly wonky lining, but all round I'm pretty happy with it!

Sunglasses - Karen Walker. 

Pop over to Green Valley to see more!

Skate Park...

What a way to spend a morning! 


Visiting the local skate park at 8am is a fabulous idea; the 'serious' skating types haven't managed to drag themselves out of bed yet, so a small boy & his bike have free run of the whole place without having to worry about being run over, or getting in the road of someone going a million miles an hour on a skateboard.

He zoomed around for an hour or so, giggling maniacally as he took corners and negotiated ramps. When we finally had to go (when the big boys started to arrive...), we had one very unimpressed little pirate bike rider on our hands. We have a very strange two year old on our hands in that he never has tantrums, so it was quite a disturbing performance! 

When he got up this morning, his adventures at the skate park were first on his list of stories to tell us. It seriously made his day (perhaps his week!). Fantastic!

I Love Autumn...

Wardrobe Wednesday!

Today's Wardrobe Wednesday comes to you from a walk in the sunshine and a play in the leaves!

Jacket - my favourite snuggly jacket, Ladakh, bought in 1998!

Dress - total bargain of the century, from the Cotton On outlet store in Brisbane, two for ten dollars! I live in this & its buddy when I'm pregnant!

Cardi - warm but light merino cardi from goodness knows where.

Gumbots - the perfect accessory for wandering around the countryside ;) 

Puku - 22 weeks, 3 days. 

To find more fabulous WW ladies, go and visit Claire!