new beginings

well, we are off to Twizel tomorrow night after the days work, YAHOO

Rowing man starts his new job on Tuesday, after such a harrowing week and weekend,

Friday, one of the locums organised for working Tuesdays, sent Rowing man an e-mail - yes did not even have the decency to phone!, and said that he was too burned out and was unable to do the locum that had been arranged - how do you manage to find a locum at such short notice, when there is such a shortage anyway!!!!

anyway, to cut a very long harassed and extremely stressful story very short, Rowing man, after many many phone calls, managed to find another locum to work Tuesdays for him for the next 4 weeks at least....

so tomorrow after work (likely to be about 7pm), we will head off for Twizel for the next week, wel,l back in town next Sunday afternoon (lateish).

soooooo, maybe not able to check up on any postings, or bloggings or e-mail maybe, depends on what access I can manage, Rowing Man takes his PC and we have remote wireless access, but he is usually busy himself, and by the time I get a looksee it is ususally close to home time so I don't bother... we will see, so maybe I will hook on and maybe not...

anyway, if I don't, I am sure that I will catch up with you all anyway,

have fun, Shiree

T'was the night before Christmas

and all through the house…..

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse….

her sugarplums have been folding and packing and finally they are ready to show you this…

pop on over to Helen's blog... this is her newly released BOM.

Isn't this just the most wonderful Christmas Quilt ever!

oooohhh the wish list just keeps on growing, look at all that wonderful stitching, my fingers are trult itching!

have fun, Shiree

F.R.I.E.N.D.S...

my F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap parcel arrived from Joan this morning, I was upstairs in bed feeling very sorry for myself, tucked up with a horrible head cold (not often at all that I do take to my bed, but my body was quite achy!) - having a duvet day...

caught out by the Fedex delivery man - who gave me one look, stood well back, and with a very long arm, handed over the little thing for me to sign, then turned and ran as fast as - maybe he was thinking swine flu - who knows..

anyway - look at all the lovely goodies that Joan has packed in here, I am really blown away - THANK YOU Joan!

F - Furry feline friends

R = Redwork Supplies (Joan has been peeking at my blog!)

I = Inviting body lotion and bath soap - shall have fun with that - spells relaxing to me!


E = Everything I might enjoy - y0u betcha!


N = Nurses lunch bag - how cute is that?

D = Dyed by Joan - some lovely fabrics which I will certainly have F.U.N with


S = Sewing case - which will certainly be well used..


... and look at all these cute tags -



So a really BIG thank you to Khris as well for organising this swap - what a wonderful idea.

Need to get my swap parcel for Joan finished - everyone just seems so organised. I still have some time left, and will get it in the post very soon....

check out this giveaway

pop on over here to Sheree's blog and check out her great giveaway -

She has some absolutely simply awesome SCRAPS!

..and just check out her blog anyway!

surely a recipe for some great fun!!!

and another postie parcel..

isn't the postie just so wonderful! It is so much fun and ever so exciting to pull up into the driveway, and see that something, just one little thing, some days maybe 2, or 3...

I am in 3 paper bag swaps, yes how is that for being really greedy! It just seemed like such a great idea, and it still is..

all nicely wrapped in a brown paper bag, and tied up with.. string - uhh no I mean fabric! ( I could just burst into song here, but you would not hear me anyway),

what have we got here... all blue - one of my favourite colours..

and the package unfolds, WOW - look at that butterfly will you,

and these buttons - how so cute!

well, yesterday's snow has all disappeared, every last little single flake, not a crystal left to be seen, although maybe still a little left about the town elsewhere,

otherwise, all gone.... until the next snow fall

Have fun, Shiree

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

this morning we woke up to this...

can you see below the tree to the smattering of snow on the ground?

a fine dusting of snow powder over the whole garden...

not quite what these little chaps are used to

and I will not be sitting here at all today

and now it is snowing again,


what wonderful big flakes

It is much worse in town apparently, and certainly if we have this amount of snow settling out here where I live, then it will be bad in town. Work has been closed down for the day, and everyone that did manage to get in has been sent home. This type of snow throws us all into chaos as believe it or not, we are really not used to this weather, and are not really geared for snow, Dunedin being all hill suburbs 'n' all, getting of those hills is a big deal

hmmmmm, now what shall I do with the day?....

It's a wrap!

What a wonderful long weekend, started last Thursday in the wee small hours of the morning, when we (Rowing man and I) boarded our early flight to Rotorua...(off on our journey to the 4 day conference for General Practitioners and Practice Nurses), we got as far as Wellington, and the ongoing flight to Rotorua was put on hold due to fog at Rotorua. We ended up flying into Tauranga, and busing the hour road trip to Rotorua, which in actual fact was really rather pleasant..

This is the Rotorua Art Gallery and Museum, and is very typical of the Tudour type architecture that settled colonial Rotorua, they are set in really lovely grounds, the surrounding grassy areas being croquet and bowls lawns, hence the fine manicure.. that you don't quite see in these late afternoon photos.

and of course, Rotorua is well known for the hot thermal springs, that are just every where, and is one of the main reasons that Rotorua was settled as early as it was. It was very much an area that was very popular for therapeutic treatment for aches, pains, and of course arthritis treatments.. so a number of therapy spas and treatment sanitariums were set up,

an Rotorua is also a popular touist attraction for the Maori Cuture and the Maori Village, and of course there are many Maori legends and folklore, detailing the history of this area.

Today, (Sunday), the last day of the 4 day (GP) conference, the weekend was finished off very nicely, when I left rowing man at the conference listening to a talk on "the use of statins in cardiovascular disease"... tough choice, yeh I know~

...for a wonderful wonderful mud wrap, and facial head neck and shoulder massage at the Polynesian Spa, if you have ever had one of these you will certainly agree with me that they are just to die for!!!,

They take the mud from these hot mud pools, heated by the grounds natural thermal springs, then dehydrate it to remove the sulphur content(which is what makes it so pongy), it goes to the spas in powder form, where they add fresh spring water and reconstitute it to spread it over the body, how wonderful!

The mud stays on whilst you have a steam bath, and then you wash it off in the shower afterwards, it is amazing to watch all that mud running donw the shower drains, ...... followed by a GREAT rub down with manuka honey and some really lovely oils... I was so so tired on the flight home this afternoon.... I was supposed to have this treatment yesterday, but when I turned up for my appointment, they had made an error, and I rescheduled for today. How lucky it turned out really, as if I had had this yesterday, I am sure that I would not have been able to stay wake long enough to enjoy the dinner dance, let alone the replay of the rugby game (NZ All Blacks vs France) 'til the very wee small hours... and then get up for the early breakfast lecture which started at 6.45am... hmmmm not such a great game huh...

So I did also spend some flight time doing these.. haven't crocheted for absolutely ages and ages, but I do have a project in mind...

can I just leave you then with these great photos of Rotorua lake front...





I do rather like this one..

off to bed now, nite all! .....

my season pass has arrived!

yes! I got mail today,.... how exciting huh when this arrived...


this is my season pass for the Ohau ski field, very close to Twizel, in fact only 45 mins drive by car away,

so no guesses as to how I might pass my days when I eventually join Rowing Man in Twizel! I simply cannot wait! We have had our ski and snow boarding gear up there since the end of last winter, but for some really bizarre reason we have not skied here - we tend to head to Queenstown or Wanaka, but now that we are about to be local residents, how can we resist - obviously not now that we have season passes ...

...the last time we were skiing was at Whistler and Revelstoke in Canada at New Years - oh what fun!

I have never seen so much snow!

and look at this view, this run is called Seventh Heaven, (@ Whistler/Blackcomb Ski field) - no explanation needed huh..

and this is where daughter #4 (Lexigirl) was living while she was in Revelstoke, Canada with her boyfriend Mikey.. they are now in Europe, they headed to Chamonix for the rest of the ski season, and now are lapping up the sunshine in the South of France, ... (oh to be young and free spirited again...)

We are off to Rotorua for the weekend, beginning tomorrow (YAY for very long weekends albeit working ones). Rowing Man is attending the GP (family doctor), conference, and I get to tag along... as part of my work. Well is is relevant... and I get a cheaper deal if I tag along, which makes my employer very happy indeed!

I have not been to Rotorua for many, many years, maybe about twenty or so... hmmmmmmm looooonnnnnnnnnng time!

It is apparently, this is the best place to get a mud wrap... so I am sure that I will find some "spare" time over the next four days for one of these, this is a conference workshop that I just DO NOT want to miss!!

more next week!

Have fun, Shiree

p.s. packing the stitching too!!!!!

Idle hands, busy minds

well, I have been doing a little stitching in between huge clean ups, clean outs - whichever way you look at it lots of cleaning and tidying. Packing up a whole house is just so jolly exhausting. Rowing man and I have been really sleeping well at nights. But in between times, I have managed to do this... Gail Pan's Christmas Wish BOM, I have only done the stitching, I haven't decided what fabric I want to use yet.. still several more blocks to go yet, but plenty of time to think about this...

I visited a lovely little boutique vintage gift shop recently - Elizabeth Russell House which is a very lovely quaint shop in an old turn of the century working man's cottage, owned and run by two charming sisters. It sells delightful gifts, furniture, linens and decorative accessories - vintage, contemporary, oriental, and I found a whole heap of old embroidered doilies that I just could not leave behind, some of them I used in this...

and the other side.... it is a really neat sized bag to put those little stitching things in, grab and go!

and a little time for this - cannot yet tell you what this is for just yet ...


and this is also a Christmas WISP -The Wish Quilt - that was in the Homespun MagazineVol 9 issues 7,8, & 9. I did most of this stitching while we were traveling over New Years in Paris and Canada. Great thing about stitching - you can pretty much take it anywhere, anytime. I feel quite lost if I don't have anything to take with me.., anywhere, all the time.. , and quite desperately lost if I have nothing for my idle hands to do!!

and this last little cutie, Kris, I am sure that you will recognise this, I won this delightful pattern as a giveaway on Kris's Blog - Tagalongteddies - isn't she just the greatest! Thank you Kris!!!
I just need to decide if I will make a teeny tiny stocking, or maybe use it on a bigger stocking.


Hmmmm....