Art for Heart's Sake

Aaaggghhh I just wrote another lovely long newsy post and when I hit publish it disappeared into the ether again!! Bottoms.... more tomorrow as have a busy afternoon. Love to all.. grrrrr to blog master!

A Bit of Cloud!

Hi on a slightly cloudy Friday morning.  It's still really humid and hot but at least the sun isn't out just at this very second!  I can see blue sky peeking through the cloud cover though, oh brother.  Yesterday was beyond hot, just horrible to be honest.

This morning I went for a 25 minute drive to go and get some ribbon for my tags.  I didn't find the perfect one, but close enough, phew!  On the way I stopped off at a local orchard and bought 7 of the most GORGEOUS Wiggin peaches ever!  Oh wow the flavour is gobsmacking.  This variety is very old and is really hard to find so what a treat!

From the ribbon I headed to our farm vegie shop and form there to Bay Landscapes to drop off some plants and tidy up my stand.  Nothing much is selling right now but that's just a risk I have to take.  If the plants aren't there no-one will buy them (obviously, duh, giggle) so I just have to do a few of this and that until the cooler weather in autumn kicks in, then I can go mad with varieties!

This pm I will be in my studio again working on my tags.  Photos this weekend I promise.  Smiles..

Screaming Hot!

Hi and yes I'm on about the weather again!  If you are somewhere cold I'm so sorry for moaning about the heat all the time, giggle.  I have to tell you this must be the hottest it's been since we've lived here.  Day after day of wall to wall blue skies, sunshine and high temps.  Yesterday it got to 34.3 degrees C around 2.45pm... oh boy I was such a ''melted pool of Philippa''.  Cooking dinner in the evening is a very hot experience too because it doesn't really cool down until well after 10pm and even then not much!  It's going to be a scorcher (as we say here in NZ) again today, even more hot than yesterday.  I worry a bit about fire at this time of year!

There is a bit of excitement happening in our paddock today - a lovely elderly man is bringing ''fill'' (clay etc) to our paddock to make a flat pad for my tunnelhouse.  Yes I'm in the process of getting one.  We have more or less decided it will be the 8m long by almost 3m wide one and I am so excited!  I thought the cost was going to be EXORBITANT for that size but it is really reasonable, as is the freight to get it here from Invercargill (bottom of the South Island).  I have to say there is something special about buying something major from my hometown!

I've made pretty good headway on my gift tags and have a busy day today re getting plants ready to go to Bay Landscapes tomorrow.  John is going to write the labels for me this pm, bless him, which is a big help!  It's time consuming!  I can't truly finish my gift tags until I've been to a little shop tomorrow to buy ribbon and a few more embellishments.  I was going to go yesterday but a friend was coming for some art time.  I almost cancelled because of my gift tag order but didn't have the heart to.  In the end she got a better offer and I found out at 10am when I checked my phone that she wasn't coming.  A bit frustrating but then I just went head down and concentrated on my gift tags so it was a good thing in the end.

I must fly and hang the washing out!  Smiles..

I'm having trouble posting today and have lost two long messages, darn it! I hope this posts. I'll try again tomorrow. All good here just very busy making my gift tags. Smiles..

Head Down and Dinner Guests!

Hi on another scorching hot Tuesday.. boy this is getting monotonous!!  Giggle..  This morning I gardened next door for an hour and then I ate my breakfast in a rush and shot out the door to get my hair trimmed.  I called into the fabric shop again for some more fabric with a Valentine's theme then popped in to see Janet for a cup of tea. 

We've just had lunch and I'm about to spend the pm in my studio again.  I am making good headway on the tags but haven't started embellishing any yet. 

We have friends coming for dinner tonight so I'm keeping it simple - a bit smoked chicken salad and new potatoes followed by apricot fool with scrushed amaretti biscuits on the top. 

I'd love to write more but I really am under the wire with these tags.   Tags-on-my-brain smiles..

Busy, busy!

Morning on another stunning summer morning.  Oh brother I am so hot and it's only 11.15am!!  Crikey.  Yesterday we got to 31 degrees C in the afternoon and it was flaming unbearable!  This weather is set to continue until the end of the week but we are forecast to get some cloud on Wednesday and Thursday thank heavens.  At the moment it looks like rain on Saturday so fingers crossed this doesn't change!!

I will only be doing short posts this week, at least until I get my large order of gift tags finished but I DO promise to post photographs of them when they are done.  I really enjoy making these treasures but doing them in bulk can be a bit of a challenge especially when it comes to embellishing a few.  Oh hang on, did I tell you about the extension of the order?  I'm now doing Valentine's gift tags first and I need to get them finished by the end of this week ast the very latest.  I'll start working on another lot of my usual ones next week.  I'm SO SO SO excited and thrilled to get such lovely orders.

Back to my studio I must go to envelop myself in beautiful fabric (for the gift tags).  Such a joy working with beautiful things.  Smiles.. p.s. did I tell you we were given a white silky bantam rooster who we've called Sebastian?  We don't know how old he is but he is rather gorgeous.  We are in the process of introducing him to the girls slowly and will move his pen into the chook run this pm and leave him in it for a few days so they can get aquainted through the wires.  His pen is outside the run at the moment.  Photos soon!

Yikes, I'm so Thrilled!

Hi there, just a very quick post today.  It's been a very busy weekend with one thing and another.  My main news is that I've been asked to make a large order of Valentine's themed gift tags for the Christchurch florist and then a large order of my usual ones.  I am BEYOND thrilled and feel so privileged that Pete loves them so much!  Oh my goodness.  Needless to say I'll be head down this week getting the Valentine's ones made.

We were out yesterday to pick up some supplies for me and a few other things and this morning we've been out to a local market to get our favourite lavender handcream and a few other things.  We also had a beautiful lunch out too which was such a treat!  More tomorrow.. Smiles..

Time Flies!

Hi there, it's Friday early pm and we are about to eat lunch.  I'm been out this morning buying vegetables and doing some errands.  I didn't take any plants to Bay Landscapes thank goodness because only about 1 of my lettuce punnets has sold.  People just aren't buying at the moment because it's too hot I think.  They wanted me to grow some lettuces so I am, I just hope some of them do sell otherwise it's a loss for me.

On a brighter note I have an order for more gift tags from the florist in Christchurch so I will be busy making about 60 of them over the next few weeks.  I must get started this pm and will have to be strict with myself - when it's too hot to garden I will be in my studio - not hunting out gardening in the shade!  I can't wait to make them, I love doing it so much!

Yesterday pm I got a lot more of the woodland garden cleared.  I'm just taking out plants that have finished doing their thing and cutting back my gorgeous perennials too.  There is now quite a lot of bare soil that I will need to keep well-watered, oh brother what was I thinking!!   Giggle!  Crikey, I must dump a load of compost on it after I've watered to help hold the moisture in.  Sheep manure pellets are wonderful for that too.

This morning I was in the kitchen garden from 7.30am and was amazed to find the time was 8.50am! when I went back inside for some breakfast and a shower.  Time flies when I'm out there!  It was beautifully cool this morning - 10.8 degrees C, ah bliss!  Unfortunately it's hot again now so yes, you guessed it, into my studio I will go this pm to start working on the backgrounds of my gift tags.  Smiles..

Beautiful Tiny Bit of Rain!

Morning on a rather lovely Thursday morning.  I've just opened my nursery and put my art creations on display on the verandah, as I do every Monday and Thursday.  It's a very quiet time of year plant-wise at the moment because it is just too dry to even contemplate planting anything except maybe lettuces that can be kept well-watered.

Imagine my absolute total and utter delight when it started to rain around lunchtime - it was only a shower that lasted around 20mins or so but it was GORGEOUS.  Needless to say I stood out in it, took my glasses off and tilted my head up to the sky so I could feel the gorgeous drops of cool rain hitting my skin.  It was just scrumptious!  I imagine if you are somewhere that gets loads of rain you will probably think I'm mad!  Giggle. 

The sun came back out again in the afternoon and it got to 26.8 degrees C which is about 6 degrees warmer than it was forecast, humphh!  I did manage to get some gardening done though and I can now sit on the dear old garden seat that is on the edge of our woodland garden.  I love this seat - it is made from very old fence posts and I bought it when I was working in a small garden centre way back in 1994!!!  I have a small table that goes with it and I'm about to put it back beside the chair as a garden feature.  At the moment the table is under a tree in the paddock looking horribly neglected!!  I didn't intend to weed this particular area it just sort of happened.  I've never been very good at starting at one end of the garden and finishing at the other!

John went to the movies with a friend last evening so I caught up on some TV programmes while I ate my dinner.  I'd just started eating when I heard a strange sound.. pitter patter.. yes MORE RAINDROPS!  It rained gently for about 1.5 hours which is so wonderful.  Not enough rain to do ANYTHING for the soil but at least my darling treasures got a bit of a rest from the heat and gave my soul a treat!

Today there is a bit of cloud here and there but it is going to gradually warm up again and be hot and sunny over the weekend - oh BOTHER IT!  John has loads of wood he needs to chainsaw up but it is a bit dangerous to do it in the heat of the day so he can only attack it very early in the morning.  It's hard when he goes to work at 7.30 or 8.30am every morning during the week - the only chance he has to do it is at the weekend.

Time for a much needed cup of tea under the tree behind the studio.  Smiles..

Yay, Some Weeding Done Here!

Hi, oooooooh it's going to be a bit cooler today and tonight - still sunny but at least the temp is meant to stay in the low 20's for a change.  Yesterday I managed to get more weeding done in our garden - not much but it is a good start.  My lovely friend Janet came here for lunch and stayed for almost three hours which was just lovely.  John was at the cricket volunteering and he came home around mid-pm too after deciding he'd watched enough.

This morning I gardened next door for an hour and now I'm eating my breakfast while I type this.  I'm going to head out into the garden as soon as I can to continue weeding in the shade and while it's slightly cool.

We have two birdwatchers coming this weekend - one from the Waikato (up near Auckland!!!) and one from Wellington to see the wood ducks.  I said yes last night but this morning I'm wondering if I ought to have said no.  I didn't see the ducks at all yesterday and they're not here this morning either so it's possibly they have temporarily moved on somewhere else.  This has happened regularly over the last month or more since we first spotted them so it's not unusual.  I mentioned that they may not see them but it doesn't seem to bother them at all - yes they are KEEN!  I'm a bit worried if I cancel them coming they will pass our address onto other birdwatchers without our permission so I guess I need to let them come.  Grrrrrr I'm a bit grumpy at myself for not delaying them, especially when they seemed to assume it was a done deal (he'd already booked the ferry across Cook Strait before talking to me).  Ah well, nothing I can do about it now.  They will be here Saturday evening and again on Sunday morning before heading back up to the North Island.

It's time for me to head outside.  Smiles..