Wellington Christmas Tree 2012

The day before Christmas Eve Rich and I decided to head down to Waitangi Park to check out the city Christmas tree.

The weather was exceptionally weird on this day for Wellington - we live in a very windy city so in general fog and cloud doesn't sit around for long.

But on the day before Christmas eve there seemed to be a whole lot of very low cloud around - in fact it closed down the airport for some time and people who were traveling for Christmas couldn't come into or leave from Wellington.

I decided to take some pictures on our walk as the city rarely looks like this - in fact I thought the tree looked rather like something out of Bladerunner in these photos.

Christmas times with Ria

A few days for Christmas Ria invited me over to her house for lunch - I know how much Ria love Christmas but I didn't realise she would make me such an amazing lunch.

First course was baked chicken, cranberry jelly, beans and asparagus.

Second course was pavalova, berries and cream.

Here's a photo of the Christmas tree at Ria's house - its super fancy.

We spent the afternoon hanging out, eating delicious food and watching Adventure Time.

We also exchanged presents - fun times. This is the very cute handmade card I received from Ria.

She also gave me a very lady like cup and saucer set in a lovely shade of green.

She also gave me a film camera - the photos print out with vintage frames on them. I can't wait to finish up this film and get them developed. 

What did I give Ria for Christmas? Well a few weeks back I started working on an Adventure Time cross-stitch project for Ria. I do really love cross-stitch, but its the kind of craft I won't touch for months and months then I will suddenly get inspired to complete a project. Here's the finished project - I bought the pattern for the project from Esty.

Once you make a cross-stitch the next decision is how to you actually present it - whilst I would have loved to have made this into a cushion, I just didn't have time. I decided to frame it instead, I picked up a fun glass frame from an import shop and added some sparkly stickers and the project was complete.

Ria said she's going to put the cross-stitch on her work bench at costuming school - hurrah!

Here's a photo of use by the tree at Ria's house, fun Christmas times.

I hope you've all been having a fun Christmas time so far xoxox

12 days of Christmas Swop - Days 9 to 12

So its already Christmas Eve evening and Rich and I are mostly ready for Christmas so I decided to take some time out for blogging and let you know all the other goodies I received in the 12 days of Christmas Swop.

DAY NINE

For day nine I received some peppermint bark and some peppermint hot chocolate - unfortunately I don't have a picture as my camera is acting pretty crazy lately. I took a photo but when I checked back later there was no image in the camera. I'm hoping I only need a new memory card and not a new camera.

DAY TEN

My Day ten package was some lovely hair accessories - I'm not sure my hair is quite long enough to use the spin pins yet. However, I am in the process of growing it out so hopefully soon I will be able to use them.

DAY ELEVEN

Here's the package from day eleven - the note card attached says "There is a learning curve to stripes. Practice with the little ones first".

Inside was a pack of salon effects strips and a pad of Christmas post-it notes. I've used the post-it notes as labels on some Christmas presents.

DAY TWELVE

The final day of the swop included a fabulous little clutch purse - I love the colour.

That's all from the 12 days of Christmas 2012 - a big thanks to Chloe and Juanita for organising this swap and also to my lovely swap partner Allison for all my Christmas goodies. Doing this swop kind of helped to keep my Grinch tendencies at bay - it Chloe and Juanita run it again in 2013 I will take part for sure!

Well I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tomorrow - Merry Christmas

Last Day of work for 2012!

Today was my last day of work for the year and it was also my last day with my current team. So today was a little bit sad for me, I am glad to have some new challenges and opportunities in 2013, but at the same time I'm sad to be leaving my current team.

I had a farewell morning tea today and we basically had the biggest cake EVER (I was able to take about half the cake home with me) and I also received the most lovely bunch of flowers from my team.

Today I wore my latest sewing creation, to be honest, I feel a little like I've lost my sewing mojo. I've made a couple of dresses lately that I've just hated - something has either gone wrong whilst I've been making the dress or when I've finished it and put it on it just didn't suit me so I haven't bothered finishing it.

I did finish this dress last night and I wasn't sure about it either - but when I wore it to work both my manager and another lady in my team both thought it was great. One of my work friends, Fiona, also said that if I didn't want it she would gladly take it off my hands so it can't be all bad right?

 Finally another outdoor photo picture - taken in front of the Korean supermarket around the corner from our house. We like to stop off here for food supplies when we miss Korea - my favourite is the this banana milk which I drank pretty much every day after I finished teaching.

Here's a close up of the fabric of the dress - I got the fabric on special and it only cost $13 for three meters.

I think if I make another wrap dress I will use fabric with a bit more stretch for a better fit - the fabric I made the dress from is cotton and I think it would fit a bit better if it had more stretch. When I thought about it after I completed the dress I realised that both the other wrap dresses I have owned have been made from stretch fabric. I guess you learn a bit more with each sewing project right?

I think in the New Year I will do a few sewing courses to get a bit more confidence and learn some new skills with my sewing. One of our local craft stores, Made on Marion, has a lot of interesting sewing courses and I think I should try a few in the New Year - perhaps starting off with the vintage 1930s capelet class.

What about you guys - any thing you're planning to do in the New Year?

Well its time to say bye for now - Rich and I are off to watch a few episodes of American Horror Story.

BLING!

I really feel like I have minimal time at the moment - in fact I'm getting stressed out about how little time I have left until the end of the year. I've not had much time for blogging myself or reading other peoples blogs, but I did try and do the Aussie Curves Challenge this week which is "Bling".

I'm not really much of a bling girl - but recently I picked up a big sparkly necklace from Glassons, so I figured that could be a touch of bling.

I also decided to wear a dress that is a little fancier than what I normally wear to work.

I really love the print of the dress - its skull cupcakes and I also love the touch of tulle. 

Argh - another indoor photo!! I know its not nearly as nice as an outdoor one, but it turned out Rich did have football this week after all and didn't get home in time for an outdoor photo.

I think in 2013 I really need to work on my outfit posts - but I really don't know how to do that. I'm sure there will be some advice out there on the interwebs.

OUTFIT DEETS:

Shoes - Retro Room, Wellington

Tights & necklace - Glassons

Dress - Sourpuss Clothing  

Bracelet - Bought in Kuala Lumpur

 

I will leave it short and sweet for tonight. I've had a rough day - two hours at the dentist (a filling, a cap and a clean). At least tomorrow is my last day at work for 2012. 

12 Days of Christmas Swop - Days seven and eight

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my previous post - perhaps I should start to get sponsored for promoting Wellington as it seemed everyone who commented wanted to come and visit. 

Time for day seven and eight of my 12 days of Christmas swap - only four days to go! I'll be a little sad when I don't have a package to open each day. Here's the beautifully wrapped package for day seven.

 What's inside?

Some sushi erasers (I might add some magnets to the back of these as they are far too nice to actually use) and a super useful notepad calendar - this is perfect for the office.

Day eight and more pretty wrapping.

What's inside this time?

A cute cupcake cap and some green tea (I've never tried this brand before, so I'm interested to find out what it's like).

I hope you've all had a super rad Monday - LAST WORK WEEK OF 2012 - YUS!

Tee Shirts, Trolls, Gingerbread and Sunshine

Yesterday was another beautiful, sunny Wellington day and Rich and I had such a fun day - so many cool things are happening in the city at the moment.

First up we headed up to Wellington High School to check out the Shirtstock - which was a wee market with a whole bunch of tee shirts on display from local tee shirt makers.

Here's a few designs at the exhibition - Rich and I didn't end up buying anything ourselves - but there was a lot of temptation there.

This was one of my favourite tee shirts - if you don't know what a tuatara is check it out here.

After we visited the fair I wanted to check out the full size gingerbread house that was at Te Papa - but when we arrived at Te Papa this was one of the first things we saw.

TROLLS! They are made by Weta workshop and a friend told me they were at the premier of the Hobbit. You can see just how big these things are, it was pretty cool to have the chance to see them up close. 

Then I finally got to see the gingerbread house - isn't it amazing - it smelt devine too. I am planning to make a gingerbread next week, so this was a pretty big inspiration.

Finally we walked home along the waterfront - what a stunning, blue day. There were a lot of sailboats in the harbour.

Finally we finished off our day with a picnic in the botanical gardens fro my friend Emily's birthday - I didn't take any photos of the actual picnic. But I did take a photo of the view from where the cable car stops at the top of a gardens. I must have taken this photo like a million times - but it was just such a stunning day don't you think?

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far xoxo

12 Days of Christmas Swop - Days Five and Six

Hello all -I'm a bit behind on my posts as there are so many Christmas things happening at the moment and I've just been so busy.

But here's day four of my swap package - I just can't get enough of pic monkey - you would have thought that the novelty of it would have worn off by now.

Here's what was inside -some very cute Hello Kitty lip balm. I really like the little charms on the lip balm. I think I will have to use them for some kind of craft project when the lip balm is all used up.

Here's my day five package - unfortunately some of the labels on the packages stuck together and got a little bit ripped. It still looks really pretty though.

Here's what was inside - some mascara and some mineral eyeshadow - I needed some new eye shadow too.

Well - I've had a very busy day out and about in town (photos later) and now Rich and I are off to the gardens for a friends birthday celebrations. Hurrah for summer!