Flitting in to say hullo

Hello dear people!

Sorry for the little unexpected time out. Our computer is broken again (sheesh), and we have moved. We've moved islands in fact! We're now in a beautiful North Island town with about 1300 other people... Yes, it's truly a Small Town.

So far, so good. We've met some fabulous people and we're surrounded by vineyards. The weather is amazing, and we have a Very Big Town close by. I feel so relaxed here... even with a determined little two year old always chomping at my ankles.

My birds are in a local shop and, goodness me, they're retailing for $22.50. I guess my wild stab at $8-10 was quite off the mark then... Having said that, I'm open to offers, deals, and swapsies if anyone is interested. Just drop me a line (my email address is in my profile).

I have a tonne of stories and photos to share. The minute our computer is back in good health you can be sure that I'll bombard you with them.

Hullo daaaaaarling

 

I've made a few alterations to the bird decoration. Let's call it evolution.

I was distractedly cutting material for the new birds and then I found more scraps to use so I cut those out. And then there were the scraps in the cupboard I hadn't opened for ages, so I cut out some more...

I now have 50 of these birds.

50 one-of-a-kind, handmade birds.

If they don't sell, I'm going to make a short film about one woman's decent into bird decoration induced insanity. It will be called "A film starring me".

A day in the life

+ 'Flu, 'flu, 'flu. (That's one for each of us because we all have it).

+ Fish and chips in Hampden.

+ Eek! We're out of broadband! Back to the stone age and dial-up.

Bye bye birdie

 

I'm making Christmas decorations, lots and lots of Christmas decorations at the moment. This bird is one of several hundred million* one-of-a kind, entirely individual, handmade decorations that I have made over the past few days. I plan on selling them at the Victorian Heritage weekend this year.

Jules is my man-on-the-ground when it comes to pricing, and he tells me they'll sell for only $5.00. FIVE BUCKS! I was hoping for ten...

Just look at these eyes... don't they speak to you? Specifically, don't they say "$5 is not enough. You want me. You WANT me. Hand that nice lady $10"?

 

 

*Artistic license.

Remoir - the self portraits

I started uploading some photos tonight and look what I found - Remy must have got hold of my camera and staged his first self-portraits. What an artist.

 

 

 

 

A day in the life

+ driving from Temuka to Oamaru

+ sewing up a storm

+ stalling at bedtime

A day in the life of Megan Rose

My darling friend Phil has a regular post about the themes in his day. And I'm a cheeky little minx so I'm going to copy his idea.

I think we'll call this 'not re-inventing the wheel' and 'wow, what a compliment to another blogger' so that I don't feel quite so bad ripping off his genius.

Ok?

So, themes for today:

+ Remy goes back to bed at 9.25am

+ Coffee not strong enough to compel me to do all I need to do

+ Finding new, exciting blogs to read

Photo essay: Feeding the calves

 

 

 

 

My vote could go either way.

Help Boganette decide - awesome or not so awesome?

You guys are going to thank me for this one.

(and I in turn say thank you to MamaPop)

Love(ing getting) letters and Christmas cheer

Wow, this real mail thing is great.

I started writing the letters without the expectation of letters in return, so it's been a real pleasure to receive letters and cards back. And some of those letters have been written so well I've almost cried. You guys rock.

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I know it's only August, so talk of Christmas may upset some of you, but I don't care! And that's because it's at this time of year that Jules and I start to talk about what delicious treats will make up our meals on Christmas day. It's such an incredible pleasure to talk about eggs cooked with cream for breakfast, and champagne on tap throughout the day. Mmmmmmmm.

Spooky stuff

How does YouTube know I am on a bender of all my favourite songs circa 1994? It's like there are little fairies in my computer telling the internet all about me...

I don't know who Amy Walker is but I sure do like her.

Meet the neighbours

seventy seven
year old at house above us
peers down at washing

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perfect false teeth smile
asks my name to forget it
the next time we talk

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childless spinster
neither of his parents there
met our son on road

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young parents surprised
more like them living on street
don't collect pension

Commissions rock

 

I've had a run on commissions this month and they are all for lovely people and lovely babies. Yay!

The material above is for a dress for a brand new precious little tot. Her mum is a friend of mine from high school and I'm just so pleased to be making this dress for her daughter.

The denim is stuff from my stash, and the yellow cotton with the unusual tree print is Japanese and total gorgeousness. The pattern I'm sort of, kind of, a little bit using is from the 1920s. I suspect I'm making it hard for myself, but if it turns out how I imagine it in my head, it'll rock.

Keep your fingers crossed for me....

No thanks, I prefer scooters.

 

 

 

 

My baby turned 2. Blimey.

 

Moving House: The end. I'm hoping.

We've moved! And it's marvellous. Not the moving part, the new house part. It's oh so good to have that monkey off our back.

And did I tell you about the underfloor heating?

You must have missed what I said because I didn't hear you screaming with envy. WE HAVE UNDERFLOOR HEATING! And it's so good that I want to lie down on our hallway floor and sleep forever in its warm, warm arms.

I think that's all my news. Let's see... underfloor heating, check. Yep, that's all.

Moving house: The Opera

Best thing about moving house so far? Finding that cute pink lipstick I'd totally forgotten about.

Worst thing? I'm tempted to tell you about the worst things but the internet called and said it doesn't have the space to store it all.

Advanced Style

I love it when people have distinct fashion styles; but I really love it when I see older people show us how it's done. And then I found this.

Awesome.

Sumner beach with the most beautiful people in the world

Honest Lying

I was driving home from Christchurch tonight when I started to wonder what my world would be like if I started speaking my mind.

And I mean actually telling people what I really think all the time. Not just with Jules, but with everyone.

I want to find out what would happen. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm starting first thing tomorrow, and I'm going to do it for a month. To make sure that I actually stick to it, I'm going to write about it in a blog - not this one because it would be too easy for me to blather on about everything else and forget about my experiment - but over here at Honest Lying.

Come and have a look. If you like, you could even stay to see what happens...

The hard sell

Check out this baby! Baby hoodie that is. And it's for sale!

Size 2ish (could fit a 1 year old with sleeves rolled up, could fit a little 3 year old), made with gen-u-ine 80s fabric on the inside, new cotton on the outside. The buttons are probably from the 70s - doesn't matter when they were made though because they are HOT.

Email me for the price. You know you want it.

Trying to beat cabin fever

Birthday season

Everyone we know is turning 2 - ok, not everyone - and that means lots of gifts.

This year I am trying to make or thrift all of my clothes (except knickers because EEEEEEWWWWWWW), and I figure why not gifts as well. (I could take this opportunity to bleat on about how I am saving the planet by doing this but actually we're as poor as church mice and we enjoy spending the money we have on frivilous things like food).


On Sunday, Remy's darling friend Poppy had a party so I whipped up a little skirt for her. It's just two long rectangles of material bashed together with some elastic at the top but man if it didn't look cute. The denim is an op shop find and the apples are from my stash.



I also whipped up this skirt using the same method but it's about twice the size I thought it would be. Luckily I know a cute wee thing who will fit it.

Thank you! Thank you! OK, stop it now.

Woah! Do you people love your real mail or what! I've had an overwhelming response to my offer of real mail but, unfortunately, I am going to have to close the lines as there is only so much letter writing I can do before someone calls child protective services because Remy is being neglected.

For those of you lovelies who signed up for letters, a little something is on its way...

10 status updates I didn't post on Facebook this week

Megan Rose:
1. has decided not to be a mother this week. She's taking the week off because it's too hard.
2. boiled every component of the dinner tonight. Mmmmm, delicious.
3. has finally found a reality TV programme that she just. cannot. watch.
4. wants to add that, in fact, she finds Stylista so bad that it makes her want to scratch out her own eyes.
5. cannot stop putting her tongue into the place her filling once was.
6. was a little surprised when Remy started called her Megan. Now she's proud of him for figuring out that 'Mummy' was just an alias.
7. is having landlord woes.
8. is checking out a new house in the morning. Fingers crossed.
9. would love the manicure fairy to come and visit.
10. has cold feet. Not that sort of cold feet. Actual cold feet. Like, literally.

Dear John...

What a fabulous response I got to my desperate plea for letter buddies. And I'm so pleased that there are people who love and adore snail mail as much as I do. Unless it's bills, and then I'm not such a big fan.

Did I mention that our power bill was $300 this month. Ouch. And that's with us barely being here.

Speaking of letter writing, and not being able to help myself when it comes to thrifting, I thought I'd show y'all a little beauty I picked up a couple of months ago:

Da da! It's a ... um ... I don't know what the word is for it so I am going to call it my writing folder.

It has all sorts of pockets and compartments for me to store my letter writing paraphernalia:

It's circa 1984 as you can see by the helpful calendar:

I also have a thrifted letter holder:

I love this and I suspect it was handmade because inscribed on the back with a wood iron is "Dearest Mummy, love David and Margaret 1954".

Lovely.