Since my last post.........

Which was forever ago!!!  Life here with my family has just been overwhelming and a bit crazy.

 I managed to get enough stock sewn for the fete in Southland at the end of November.  It was supposed to be in Nokomai but had to be changed to Acton Downs just north of Mossburn.  I left on the Friday morning with my husband and friend Trudy.  Such a long journey down to Queenstown and such a hot day as well.

We stopped for ages at some road works and I got a bit carried away with taking photos of the lupins on the side of the road.  They are everywhere in the Mckenzie Country and Central Otago.  It is amazing and beautiful.



The sun shone hot and bright until we reached Cromwell where it became cloudy and decidedly cool.  I of course became a bit anxious!!!  Rain is not good on market days.  But as there was not much you can do about that I decided to just try and enjoy myself.  Starting with the view out the window form the apartment.  The Remakables and Lake Wakatipu.  Stunning......

Then it was time for me to do a little bit of work........

sitting on the floor in the corner with the glue gun



An early morning start in Queenstown on a beautiful already warm morning.  I am my usual bundle of nerves and sit quietly in the back seat.  the nerves get worse as the weather gets worse.  Colder, cloudy, bit of drizzle and some fog!!!!  I have had all weather on market days now, except snow.  (oh I probably should not have said that).  But on with the show...........



Turned out ok in the end even though the rain did come.  It wasn't really cold and thankfully the people still came.  So home to Christchurch the next day.  Another hot day for travelling and an amazing view of Mt Cook across Lake Pukaki.  WOW.........



So home to a bit of an enforced break from sewing.  Not because I wanted to but because I had too.  You see we had great excitement in November in that we bought a house.  Yipee!!!  Here is our little gem............

if you look closely that is the new kitchen bench on the porch!



Such a cool wee house with an awesome feel.  So it was onto the henious process of moving.  Going from a larger 4 bedroom house with 2 living rooms to a smaller 3 bedroom house with 1 living space was always going to pose a few problems.  So a massive clean out was in order.  We did as much as we could until we just ran out of time and had to get everything moved.  I literally despise moving.

In the midst of moving my Dad became very ill in hospital with pneumonia fighting for his life.  My Dad has been a fighter for the last 5 years battling cancer.  He has been absolutely amazing and our family is constantly thankful that we still have him. This time was very scary but once again he has battled through and came home 2 days before Christmas.  Go Dad!

The move was also made a little crazier by the fact that we decided to re do the bathroom before we moved in and then the kitchen was done the week after we moved in.  Most of the old kitchen was ripped out (was a bit gross with mouldy cabinets).  So that meant no kitchen for a little over a week.  The kids did get sick of filled rolls for tea!!  But it was worth it.  Here are some before and after shots. .........







The bathroom is still waiting to be finished but it is functional.  We are having a bit of a time deciding on flooring and a wall colour.  Oh the decisions.  Do you realise how many different shades of white there are?????

The kitchen was finished on Christmas Eve just in time to have my husband's family for Christmas day.  Which was a great day but I have no photos!!!

So Christmas has passed for another year.  The decorations are packed away and the sewing life has begun in earnest again.  Because our house has no extra space for 2 businesses (my husband has his own building business)  we have leased a warehouse with a front office.  I am now sewing there and will make 3/4 of the office a showroom.  I must say it is nice to have all the business stuff out of the house and actually have somewhere to go for my work.  It has taken a little bit of adjusting though especially with the kids home on school holidays.  But the workshop is still a novelty for them and they haven't minded too much spending a bit of time there.

We are away on our annual summer holiday to Golden Bay on the 15th.  We cannot wait.  It is going to be bliss!

So there is my life in a nutshell for the past few months.  It is a little less crazy, thank goodness.

I hope you all have had a great festive season and the new year has started well for you.  Good luck with everything you do this year.

Take care

Kate