Insprired by Nature

Nga mihi o te tau hau! Happy new year! So I have been on a tiki tour around Northland with my lovely whanau, catching up with aunties and cousins and soaking up our great outdoors. I have been collecting inspiration from Papatuanuku (Mother Earth) for my Oversew Fashion Awards project.
Unfortunately I have managed to put my back out again so I am hoping I can still get an outfit done. Ongoing issues with it which is very frustrating!

So here is some of my inspiration. Green features very strongly so once I am back, I think I will do some opshopping and see what greenery I can come up with 🌿

Have some sketches done too which I will share soon. Isn't Aotearoa Tino ataahua!

O for awesome in Oamaru

Having started feeling reasonably ambivilant to going down to Oamaru Heritage Week for the long weekend, I finished our getaway with fresh inspiration and a head somewhat distracted by design possibilities. Work/home/life in general has had more than its fair share of stress lately, so going away seemed like just another thing to get through. However leaving Christchurch gave me the opportunity to leave my worries behind as well. And just enjoy myself - have some much needed family time and fun. Andy was in the demonstration team for Bike Polo (which came about in the late Victorian era by the way) - who would have thought?!?!? Except back then they played on rather unforgiving bikes on grass. Its a bit more technical these days. Anyhow, I have taken some pics of my experience of some of the Victorian themed Heritage week. Interspursed are some rather exciting Steampunk costumes - Oamaru being the Steampunk Capital of NZ - that celebration happens in June each year, so that will definetly be on the cards for a visit!

excuse me mister....

i have a bit of a thing for ties...I had over 200 up until 2yrs ago, when i had to make some room for fashion school study to happen in my sewing room...But i did manage to make quite a few bags...Here are some of them

my blue toned 'all tied up' bag

upcycled tie headband

some of my tie bags ready to sell

this one was entered in the Trade Aid upcycled competition

And now, after a bit of a break, I have started looking at ties again - not that i will ever get back to the 200 mark!!!! Only 5 at present! This gorgeously cheesy one I collected for a christmas decoration, for the frock stars christmas challenge...

ooohhh, how christmasy!!!!

And I ended up making a hanging ornament of a christmas tree - with a paisley purple and green tie...Just made 7 so yo-yo's and stitched them together in order from smallest to largest and there you have it - a cute wee tree! I added some ribbon and beads from my stash, and stitched a vintage clip on earring to the top for the star...So many possibilities with this project...

my sideways pic of my christmas tree decoration...

Hamner holiday

It was about time we had a bit of a break from New Brighton - as much as we love it here, the roadworks are edging ever closer to our house....so off we went.  Andy's lovely work gave him a holiday bonus, so we were even able to take the kids skiing.....Lots of fun!

the view from our road as we were leaving New Brighton

the view of the cute wee batch when we arrived in Hamner

family fun round the brazier toasting marshmallows

sparkler fun!

time to celebrate birthdays with a cake the kids decorated

my wee man is growing up!

gracie wanted to take the bunnies home!

isn't he adorable!

some of Paul's handiwork with a gas cutter on the brazier

Jack's Pass looking beautiful

T and G found a snow cave to play in...

It was just what we needed - so blessed to have such generous and loving whanau to holiday with!