Girls only Valentines Card Swap

So don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate Valentines' or anything, I think it's a really nice idea have a day to think about your relationship and appreciate what you've got and appreciate the person your with...but there's something about the corporatisation of Valentines' day that makes me want to puke slightly.

Cheesy hearts and small animals just make me want to barf. I guess that's why Rich and I do the whole "handmade" Valentines thing now to avoid the whole corporate icky-ness of it all!

But I've also come to realise in the past few years that Valentines seems to have become not so much a day for couples to be happy to be together as it is for single people to feel worse. I'm sure if I was single and happy with my life and I wandered through Whitcoulls, The Warehouse, Farmers or wherever only to be greeted by a barrage of (largely tacky) merchandise I would start to feel stink and like I was missing out.

So in the spirit of combating all that is tacky and generally unpleasant about Valentines' Day Kat has organised a girls only handmade card swap!

I love the idea (Mostly because I love making stuff and getting "real" mail opposed to bills) - basically Kat is going to chuck a number of girls names into a hat and pull out a "Valentine" for each person to send a card too.

I can hardly wait - I already have a million ideas for designing cards floating around in my head...

So on our last day in Hamilton it was Jonnie and Chaykham's wedding - and what a day it was! There were two ceremonies - a western ceremony starting at about 10:30 then a morning tea at Hamilton Gardens.

We then had a break for a few hours (during this time we mostly hung out at Sue's flat and watched Black Books).

Then we returned to the gardens for the Lao's style ceremony and the dinner and dancing.

The photo's on this blog are actually in reverse - so we start off with the dinner and end up at the morning ceremony....I uploaded them the wrong way - but I'm not uploading them again as it takes too long!

Conor and Rich after dinner

Chaykham and Jonnie - after the final ceremony

Some pics from the Laos Ceremony

Sue and I just before the second ceremony

Jonnie in the gardens just before the second ceremony

Rick and I just after the second ceremony - doing the old "taking a photo of ourselves" thing

Sue and Conor in the gardens after the first ceremony

Rich and I in the garden's after the first ceremony

Nicky and Rick in the garden's after the first ceremony

Conor, Rick and Nicky - Nicky thinks that in this photo it looks as if it's Conor and Rick getting married - I think she may be right!

Conor and I at the first reception

Conor and Sue's speech at the first reception - I got a special mention - woohoo!

More of the speech....

Some photo's of the first ceremony

Time for a break from all the holiday photos....

...and time for a few photo's of my most recent crafty type projects.

Firstly my "dead" Tofu pin cushion - I came across a pattern for a tofu pin cushion online and thought it was a very cute pattern and I did REALLY need a pin cushion. However the cute, smiling face of the pincushion wasn't really me. So I changed it into a "deceased" pincushion.

The second project I've completed recently is Celia's birthday present - I'm posting it because even though it's not officially her birthday till tomorrow - I've already given her the present:)

So here's Celia's barbie bling charm bracelet!

Waipa Delta

I have always always wanted to go to the Waipa Delta - what is the Waipa Delta you ask? It's a paddleboat that does cruises up and down the Waikato River and in the 8 years I lived in Hamilton I never went on the Waipa Delta. In the last 2 or so years I've been living in Wellington but I've visited Hamilton regularly but I've never been on the Waipa Delta - but this time Rich and I FINALLY made it on the Waipa Delta for an afternoon cruise - complete with commentary and we actually learnt a whole bunch of stuff about Hamilton as well.

Walking along the Waikato River

In my last few years living in Hamilton, Rich and I spent countless hours walking along the Waikato river - but I didn't seem to have any photo's of it:(

This time when we were up north in Hamilton we did two river walks - so I thought I'd get snap happy and take some pictures of the river.