Showing posts with label Island Bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Island Bay. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Weekend Sewing Blogger Adventures - Fabric Fair in Island Bay

Last weekend I got up early (well early for me on a Saturday) to head out to Island Bay to check out a fabric fair at one of the local churches.

Island Bay is one of my favourite suburbs of Wellington (hello sea creatures!) and it turned out I was the only non-Island Bay person to go to the fair. I didn't realise so many WSBN people lived in Island Bay.
The church was located near the shops, which meant it was easy to find and by some kind of miracle I was actually the first person to arrive! That NEVER HAPPENS.....
The fair was very much a jumble sale, some things had prices and some did not so you had to find someone to price certain things for you. One of the church ladies told me she was happy to haggle the price over things with me - but if you know me at all, you will know I hate haggling! I just want to know the price already.
The market was kind of divided into two halves - one half being a stall for the church and the other half being the local arts and crafts society. However, there was no sign to tell us this! So things did get a little confusing.
Despite the general confusion, it was a great little fabric fair. It obviously wasn't as well organised or as coherent as something like fabric-a-brac, but it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of treasures to look through.

So what was the best part of the day (apart from hanging out with my WSBN friends of course) - it was the part of the day where I found this incredible 90s computer themed fabric for $5.


Seriously, how good is this fabric? The lady I bought it from said she had originally used it to make her son's bedspread with (she told me he's 26 now). I'm both excited and torn by this fabric - there's enough for a dress - but would that be too FULL ON even for me? Would a skirt be better? First world problems.

It's hard to believe, but I  also picked up some other pretty fantastic fabrics at the fair - I got around 2 metres each of these fabrics.

I also got around a metre of this really cute cat fabric, I think I will make a top from it. To be honest it cost more than I would normally pay for fabric at a fair/second hand. But it was just too cute to leave behind.
Even the selvedge is pretty adorable - tiny cats!
This little fair was a good place to pick up notions and all the other bits and pieces you always end up needing when your are sewing/crafting. Here's what I bought - embroidery floss, vintage look buttons, pins, some red thread and I actually think that little dude may be a coaster! I'm going to use him as a patch.
Finally a close up of that packet of pins - because its kind of incredible. I wonder how long they were sitting around unused in someones cupboard.


Saturday, May 10, 2014

Sea Creatures Make Me Happy

I do love the zoo, but when it comes to creatures I love sea creatures best of all. Unfortunately, we don't have an aquarium in Wellington. If we did I would have a yearly pass and there would be a lot of sea creature related blog posts.

Even though we don't have an aquarium, we do have a marine centre in Island Bay which gives you a chance to get up close with some fishy friends. So when I was feeling  a bit down and out a couple of weeks back we decided to check out the marine centre.
The marine centre has creatures from our local coastline - which means no brightly coloured tropical fish, but there are plenty of rad sea creatures to check out.

It's always so hard to take a good photo of seahorses - but they are one of my favourites (even if they are kind of weird).

 I'm pretty sure there aren't any turtles living along our coastline - but they are pretty awesome (especially with their turtle jenga).
After visiting the marine centre, we decided to go for a walk along the coastline for a bit in Island Bay, I really love this part of Wellington. 





What do you guys like to do when you're feeling a bit down and out?

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Weekend Walking: Island Bay to Lyall Bay

The weekend before Christmas Rich and I decided to visit the Island Bay Marine Centre - however, when we arrived it had already closed for 2013 and I was so sad. I really wanted to see all the sea creatures!
I may be smiling - but I'm dying on the inside, as I just really wanted to see an Octopus. 





Seen as there were not octopus to be seen, we decided to walk from Island Bay to Lyall Bay seen as we had already taken the bus out there it seemed like a shame to head back home.


We spotted some jellyfish - not swimming in the water, they had washed up on shore.
We saw this carefully balanced stick on the beach - its amazing it stayed up there, even with the wind.
We also saw this on the beach - some kind of witchcraft? I have most likely watched too many horror movies I think.
The ocean was pretty rough this day - although we did see a few brave souls out swimming and snorkeling.

Before long we were in Lyall Bay hanging out with this guy...


....and we also took the chance to check out some of the kite surfers on the beach.
Hope you guys all had a great Christmas, we are back in Wellington at the moment, but in a few days will head off again to Martinborough for New Years. See you soon xoxo