Summer Break

It's been quiet around here as I took some holidays with my family. 

We enjoyed some time up in the north of the North Island with our families over the Christmas period and then a busy day packing back home before heading off for two weeks' camping with some friends in Abel Tasman National Park which is is in the north of the South Island

Awaroa Inlet
The campsite is located in the bay in the distance in the extreme top right of this photo

This chunk of holiday time was spent in blissful disconnection (from mobile coverage and thus all internet, email etc.)

Camping here always includes a relaxing blend of walking, running, kayaking, swimming and biking for some, interspersed with lots of lounging, chatting, games, reading and plenty of delicious food and drink. 

There are lots of places to paddle; in both senses of the word.

Delightful on both grey and sunny days

The 60km of walking track in the park provides plenty of options for exploring. All in all one of my favourite kinds of holidays- back to basics!

Do I sound like a tourist brochure?! Leave me a comment saying what kind of holidays you enjoy?

Getting back to normal daily life here again now and currently I'm excited to be a part of Four in Art this year and I'm busy working on my project for this quarter. This year the theme is Colour and this quarter our inspiration is Microscopic Colour. The big reveal will be here and here on Feb 1st or thereabouts depending where in the world you live.

Late to 2015

A Belated Happy New Year to You Dear Reader

While some of you winter away, we are just back from two glorious weeks camping here in NZ

It was our first camping trip where we stayed put for more than 3 nights.

Blissful kayaking, walking, running, reading, sunning, swimming, playing, chatting, eating and no electricity or even phone coverage. Wondrous...even though that puts me quite behind back in "normal" life!

The area near here is called Golden Bay for obvious reasons.

Hard to believe this bay hides 850 people in 23 camping bays

 and now I'm rushing to join the Finish Along for the first time, in the hope that it will increase my accountability to some unfinished projects...??

I'll list a few but that said I'm not being too ambitious this quarter since we have a few lovely celebrations in the pipeline: my parents are  celebrating their Golden Wedding and we are hosting our eldest's 21st for which we've (perhaps over keenly) decided to build a wood-fired oven and having a few visitors before and after that on top of normal working life.

For Do Good Stitches Cherish bee I  have to finish :

The September Reflections Quilt

The January String Quilt (this is optimistic since I may not even have all the blocks in time)

Then there's The Shirt Quilt
Which (already?!) has another section since this photo.



And finally (except there are a few other WiPs not on this quarter's list) our son's 21st quilt. Which is at the stage of a fabric pull and an idea and trial snippets stuck on a piece of paper. I'd show you except this computer's on a super go slow and so I'll save it til next time.

That'll do to start with...Truly if I finish all those it will be completely miraculous!

Blog Tag

Thanks to Carla for tagging me!

A great to chance to get to know some new bloggers. It's been great to find lots of new people via the Bloggers Quilt Festival recently.

Here are the rules:

• every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves

• the person who tagged you asked 11 questions, answer them

• ask 11 questions for the 11 blogs you're going to tag (the people you tag should have less than 200 followers)  

• mention the blog that tagged you, but don't tag them back.

11 Things about me:

1. I'm not too good at these things about me! I don't know if others struggle a bit with how to be really be themselves in a public forum?

2. I'm sometimes indecisive- I think?...

3. I'm exactly between E and I on Myers Briggs

4. I lived in England until I was 10

5. I consider myself a NZer

6. This is my second stint living in Australia

7. I love my work as a counsellor- helping people to make sense of their lives and find better ways to live and grow.

8. I used to be a high school English teacher, now I prefer to save my teenage energy for my own 3 teenagers

9. I love the great outdoors-Beautiful wild and desolate places refresh me

 10. I once had to urgently kick a goat out of a toilet on an Indian train in order to make use of the facilities-such as they were! (No time for photos!)

11. I do better with deadlines

I've been asked:

1. My favourite city to visit- Well there are so many the world over that I'd like to explore and so many I've loved, but an easy place for me to get to, and one I do enjoy for a break and to spend time with friends there is Melbourne.

2. My music taste is pretty eclectic! My kids always roll their eyes when I answer these type of questions with "it depends on my mood" -but that could mean Ella Fitzgerald or Chet Baker on a Friday night chill out time through Reggae/Dub like UB40 or Fat Freddy's Drop, Alternative Rock that my son's introducing us to, or the whole spectrum of Classical. When no-one's home I'll often put on Liszt or Chopin

3 My favourite place to link up is hard to say since I'm fairly new to all this, but I do often link to My Creative Space which I enjoy.

4. I think time and money aren't really the issue with stopping my crafting-not that they're limitless in any way-! But in fact being creative isn't ever easy and even if those things were limitless I'm sure I'd somehow find another procrastinatory excuse. I need to make time and choose to spend it (and $) in ways that are significant, because otherwise it's frittered or squandered.

5. Tools/toys/machines- I have no idea what I'd buy-well actually lately since making a triangle quilt, I've thought that a die cutter like Go Cutter or Sissix might be handy!

6. I don't really watch TV- the occasional doco on SBS

7. My best bargain find is the one I'm going to trip over next week!

8. In NZ my favourite season in my hometown down South is winter which is quite cold but generally clear and crisp.

This is from a particularly snowy year

Here in Australia my favourite season's probably early Autumn which is lovely and warm and sunny.

9. I can't say I've ever succeeded with gardening- I never seem to get past the weeding stage and plant my veges too late, but I'm tending tomatoes and courgettes lovingly this year and hoping for the best..! So I don't really like to garden, but I'd like to like to...!

10. I was inspired to start blogging to be a bit accountable (mainly to myself) to being more creatively active. I'd been reading so many inspiring sewing blogs and was starting to feel that I was living vicariously on other people's creativity. I wrote a bit more about why I started blogging here.

Reading back over these answers I see that I haven't really been definitive about any of them, so you see that's something else about me!

My questions for you are:

1. What is one of the best places you've been to?
2. Where would you like to travel to, even if not possible at the moment?
3. What's the best thing you've made?
4. What do your family/friends think about your blogging?
5. What else do you like to do in your spare time other than make stuff?
6. What's the last good book you read?
7. What's on your "to read" list?
8. What's your real job?
9. Would you choose it again? Why or why not?
10. How many places (different towns) have you lived in since you were born?
11. If you weren't living where you are, where would you live?

I'm tagging:

Knotted Cotton
Bespoke Bites
Cynthia
Garden Glut
Fabric Engineer
Blackbird has Spoken
Jegs Pieces
Quilting at Square One
Anne
Julie
Sunshine and Paradise