Pirates Cove Mini Golf

Last Sunday Rich and I decided that we wanted to play mini putt so we decided to head out to Porirua and play mini putt at "Pirates Cove". Rich won of course, but I was only 4 putt's behind him so I didn't do too bad.

After mini golf we went to Pataka for some lunch and went to check out the exhibitions.

Here's some photos from playing golf at Pirates Cove!

Some Random Craftiness

So here's some random craftiness...
Firstly - my awesome Christmas present from Fiona - a hand painted all year round Christmas decoration with "Skull Flowers".
Secondly a puffer fish necklace - I bought this cute little puffer fish from Iko Iko when I went shopping with Celia and Jess last Saturday. The I turned him into a necklace. He even glows in the dark!

Cupcakes & Craft

When I looked on Esty today it seemed like they were having a cupcake themed homepage for the day.

Here's some images of my favourite cupcake craftiness!

Skate Camp Update - Yah!

Blood & Thunder camp seems to coming up very quickly, on Friday night when I checked my e-mail I found I had a message which included the camp schedule for New Zealand.

There will be plenty of free skating time and discussions, as well as a lot of new skills to be learnt. Some of the topics for us "Freshmeat" include -T-Stops & Snowplows, Skating Backwards, Basic Falls & Recovery. We also have a session called "Hit First, Hit Fast, Hit Hard" which is freaking me out slightly as I haven't done any contact derby stuff yet - eek! But I guess that's what padding is for.

All this talk of derby also brings to mind my second new years resolution - and that is - to skate every day that the sun is shining and it's actually possible to skate. I have been doing pretty well with this one. I have even been skating BEFORE work at the Kelburn school (I figure that if people go running before work I can go skating before work right).

Also on the Roller Derby front, I bought a cute "make your own wristlette" kit from Esty. I can hardly wait for it to turn up. Even though I already have so much other crafty stuff to do!

Chocolate Swap

Last week I signed up for another swap on Craftster. It's been a while since I've done a Craftster swap.

I've not had a lot of time for swaps outside Crafty Foxes and when I have felt like getting involved in another swap, I couldn't find one I actually wanted to join.

So I am really excited to be taking part in a chocolate swap on Craftster. Today I received the details of my Chocolate Swap Partner and I can hardly wait to get started on my crafting.

Martini Glass Candles

Here's a few more candles I made for Christmas - this time for my friend Carolyn in Martini Glasses. This time I also added some food colouring and glitter (because you can NEVER have too much glitter).

On the final photo I note you can see my craft table - craft equals mess - luckily for me - Rich is very understanding (I think it comes from also being artistic!).

Zombie Cupcakes

This evening I thought I would google two of my favourite things and see what I could find.

I found this incredible cupcake - which I am unlikely to ever be able to make - but it is awesome.

My New Years Resolutions - An Eight Part Series

So I figure most people made their new years resolutions ages ago and have already started working on them.

So I am a bit behind - but I have good intentions!

I figured instead of rambling off the new years resolutions in one long list I would do each individual resolution as a separate post.

So here is my FIRST new years resolution - Learn to crochet - I have wanted to do this forever!

I don't want to learn to make anything useful, like say a hat or gloves. Instead I want to learn to make cutie softies like this "Gothic" raccoon I found on Craftster.

It's Zombie time!

Over the weekend - I was more than a little excited to hear from my friend Fiona that there is going to be a Zombie club starting up in Wellington. I am not sure what a zombie club does but Fi did mention zombie parties so I am sold! Maybe a zombie tea party with cupcakes? That would be just super.
Also on the zombie front, when Rich and I were walking home from the movies on Friday night we came across this poster - which I thought was just awesome - it made me smile.

Finally on the Zombie front, I have been a little obsessed by a movie called "The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue" for some time now. The movie was made in about 1974 and I wasn't able to find a copy of it anywhere in New Zealand (not even Aro Video!) so I decided that I had to simply buy my own copy from Amazon. com and think of it as a late Christmas present to myself.

Blood & Thunder Training Camp

Well it seems my first challenge for 2009 is now firmly on the horizon, over the weekend I signed up for Blood & Thunder Training Camp which is being held back home in New Plymouth over Waitangi Weekend.

You may be asking yourself - what is blood and thunder training camp? Well it's roller derby camp for both Kiwi's and Aussies (there is even going to be a Kiwi vs Aussie bout!) but the people training us are coming over from the US to train us.

It is all very exciting - but also no doubt - it's going to be incredibly tiring! So lots more skating training for me in between now and then.

Also in other derby related news, I think I may have found my derby name "Zombie de Luxe" I am just waiting for it now to be officially registered - but no one else seems to have a name which is similar so it should be all good to go.

It's time for the Overlander!

To make our way home from up north after Christmas, we decided to take the Overlander (which is, for those of you who don't know, a train that travels all the way from Auckland to Wellington).

We had done this trip once before when we lived in Hamilton so thought this was a good chance to take it again and check out some of the scenery in the summer months (last time we took the train it was during winter and the last 3 or 4 hours were super boring as it got dark SO early).

There were some amazing sites to see - especially on the outdoor viewing platform - which was much smaller than the Tranz Alpine train we took around Rich's birthday.

Here's some photo's from our amazing trip, which took about 8 hours, but it didn't feel that long. It was really only the last two hours that were boring. Plus they now have Wishbone food on the train which means you can get a decent vegetarian meal - hurrah for vegetarian lasagna!

Catching up with friends in Hamilton

Just before heading home to Wellington, via the Overlander, Rich and I had a chance to catch up with a few of our friends in Hamilton at the Cook.

Our visit wasn't as long as we hoped for, and we couldn't visit all of our Hamilton friends as a lot of them were still away on their Christmas break. But it was good to catch up with those people who were around and thanks to Rick and Nicky for letting us stay with them:)