West Coast Weekend

So this time Google created me a video of our trip!! I love you, Google.

https://goo.gl/photos/NjbVtMAuXRuTUjkc8

It's a long, slow, messy road

...building, that is.

A couple of months ago we started out here.  This is the front of our house, once the teeny pathetic little verandah had been removed.  I thought it was messy then.  Ha!  So naive!

Soon things got serious.

But now we are here - a great big deck, a lovely great triple sliding door, and the pergola to end all pergolae.

And round the other side, we have ourselves some fancy new stairs and a new sitting space.  The kitchen/dining is massively improved!  Though there's still a loooong way to go.  Soon all the gib comes off inside - just in time for our overseas visitors.  Gah.  Sorry guys.

Roadie!

My boys went on a roadie, over to the West Coast - Carter's Beach, to be precise.  Here they are at the seal colony, I think at Cape Foulwind??  Anyway apparently there were SQUILLIONS of seals.

And check out how massivo the candy floss is on the coast!!!

I missed my darling little bear.  Here he is on the beach, where the boys hung around and watched a huge lightning storm.  Yum!

Meanwhile... I had a lovely shopping day with Mutti.  We went shoe crazy.

And had a yumptious lunch:

And I madly enjoyed the solitude.

When the boys came back we celebrated with homemade camembert:

Which looked all impressive.  But when I cut into it it oozed,  though not in a good way.  In a weird, liquid, intensely stenchful way.  My cheese was freaky.  And beyond stinky.  But oddly mild, for those brave enough to ingest it.  Ah well next time I will do better!

Befores and afters

Two things changed this week...

My hair was sorta kinda almost bitsy blue and now it's hmm maybe vaguely purple.

And our house used to have a veranda and now it doesn't.  Wowser building is messy stuff!

And lastly, I recovered the swing seat.  Nice.

Bye bye Miss M, see you later alligator

How gorgey my darlings are!  And how seldom they cuddle each other ;)

How gorgey this chocolate feijoa cake was, too, for a few seconds till I dropped it in the sink.  Wahhh!

Now let's get this winter over and done with so I can get my girl back.

Homemaking... at both ends of the country

On our holiday we went a bit mental and supported the local economy by buying this lovely painting at an art show.  The artist was super-happy about making a sale.  He even ran round, found someone's pallet, and fixed up a couple of scratches that I was pedantic about. It was pretty fun.  This is a scene from a place starting with R or maybe P whose name I've forgotten, just north of Hokitika.  It's now gracing the wall above the sofa.

And on the opposite wall - the one that my lovely husband surprise-painted for me - we've done an arrangement of multiple paintings in shades of white and gold. This is a truly terrible picture but trust me, it looks good.  Makes me feel all Home and Garden!

Meanwhile, oop North, Molly is finally flatting.  Doesn't she look happy?  So proud of my girl.  So grateful to all the aunties and uncles that made it possible!

Southern Soujourn

So if you are VERY LUCKY INDEED you get a summer holiday with your beloved while your darling parents look after your darling boy.  And you pack loads into every day and have an awesome time.  And then you get home and think ugh, I better work through all that and put some pics up on the blog.  And then you turn on your phone and find out that google has done it all for you.

Cheers, google!  You are a benign and generous overlord.

Check this out!

February's Lone Post

Have been slack.  Summer is hot and busy and blech, and now it is hot and busy and blech-er because my girl has migrated north again.  Sigh.  Miss you bunny.  Miss your huggles and beautiful face.  Miss playing with your hair.

Luckily I have a spare bunny rabbit at home and he is a very handsome one.  He chose to wear a tie out to dinner last week, which was tremendously adorable.

When he is not being adorable he is crazy.  Here he is with Zion.  They call themselves "The Chubby Brothers".  I think it's like the Blues Brothers only with less music and nuns and more tummy.

Today the Chubby Brothers were at Zion's house, so Mutti and I made ALL THE HALLOUMI.  Guess what's for dinner??!

Happy Birthday, Mutti!

We were lucky enough to celebrate the first Official Nelson Birthday with Mutti.  We figured out there had been a previous one, actually, but this was the real deal.  We had a gorgeous dinner out at a new place in Appleby (La Capilla, google if curious, it was seriously delicious!) and Mutti was newly Pinked and very scrumptious.

That wine in the foreground was a special bottle from Fuf and Matt and ooooooh it was so good!  It made me see the point of Chardonnay!

We love you, Mutti!!

This has nothing to do with Mutti's birthday, but here are our girls having their first free range afternoon.  They were very happy.  I was very nervous.  But they all went home in the end.

In other chicken news, they're all laying now!  It's four eggs a day.  Riches!

Goldfish and a birthday

I gave this one away - Liam's boss Warren is a goldfish professional of some description - and it wasn't an original, it was a copy, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Speaking of my lovely husband... here he is on his birthday last week.  We had a lovely day, down at Mapua in the morning, then our first ever four person family movie outing (Star Wars yay!) followed by dinner out.

Looking good, big guy.  I love you!