Tea Party for Granny

A Granny's birthday is an excellent excuse for a tea party don't you think?

Especially in the middle of a La Nina summer when there are three generations of girls around to enjoy it.

My sister and nieces are here escaping the floods in Bunderburg (Queensland).

First you have to ice your cup cakes.

Sophie and Georgia.


And choose the prettiest cups and saucers.

And cut some of Granny's favourite flowers for the table arrangement.

And assemble the sandwiches.

And the granddaughters.

And pour the "special tea".

And open the presents.

And eat all the dainty morsels.

Then sit back and enjoy the sunshine.

The cup cake production team.

Look who came to the party!

The Magpie Cat appeared for scones with jam and cream.

You can just see her ample bottom in the corner of this shot.

Watch out for the next installment in which the girls go on a road trip to Napier, stopping at every antique shop, second hand mart and cafe on the way!

See ya then.

New Year's Inspiration.

I've been making bags.

This is my original Nana doily bag below.

I went to see Barb at "The Bank" in Eltham to see how my little pink dresses were selling.

And she said she'd sold more than half of them. So I was pretty excited about that.

The little Trelise Cooper inspired swing top has apparently been bought by the producer of

"The Predicament" which was filmed in Eltham and Hawera last year.

I just happened to be sporting one of my Nana doily bags at the time, and Barb loved it and asked me to make some for "the Bank". So I am.

She's going to save all the unsellable doilies for me to cut up and incorporate into bags etc.
She gave me this bluebird one while I was there. I've worked it into this bag.

And in this one I used a beautiful cross stitch I made once and didn't know what to do with.

It was great to walk away feeling so inspired about what I do again.

Sometimes you forget about the joy of it all when you're exhausted from vaccinating babies and just want to pick up your knitting and go onto automatic pilot.

A little bit of re-inspiration goes a long way. I left smiling.

A Bee in my Bonnet.

This afternoon a huge cloud of bees took up residence in our back garden, alighting on the post behind the climbing rose in Piggling Bland's garden.

I took the photos with the zoom, I wasn't keen to get up that close!
But they are very quiet and settled now that they've decided to stay.
I will have to set about finding a bee man to come and take them home to his hive.
I have absolutely no idea where to start looking for one.

Beyond Piggling Bland's Garden Gate.

Today I was thinking about my brother Matt, as I was weeding the garden. It's New year's day here, and also the birthday of "she who is proficient at separating eggs".

Three years ago on a very hot New Years Day Matt had lunch in my garden.It was to be the very last time.

It was so hot we had to put the umbrella up over the clothes line to use it for shade.

SO I decided to make a new shady garden for eating in, beyond the gate to Piggling Bland's Garden.

Three years on, on the anniversary of that birthday lunch, i found myself weeding in the shady garden.



And thinking about that day.

In memory of Matt. 1970-2009.

Happy Birthday Sarah.

Confessions of a Christmas Shopper.

Hello Blog Chics. Nice to see you back.

I trust you all had a fantastic Christmas and Santa left you something nice under the tree. Or your nearest and dearest did.

This gorgeous mannequin was given to me by "she who is proficient at separating eggs", and her significant other. I love it. I had to rush down to the bedroom with it as soon as the Queen's message was over - even before I did the vacuuming (yes it is ok to be a little OCD about the carpet on Christmas night - all that glitter - and wrapping bits everywhere!)

I knew exactly where to put it, and how to adorn it.

I was so pleased with myself i spent about 20 minutes working out how to take a picture with my cellphone and send it to "she" who was in New Plymouth by then.

Hubby gave me Annabell Langbein's fantastic new cook book, which i had been coveting for ages.

I found a Christmas wish list thingy in a magazine, so I availed myself of it and added Annabel's book to the top, and stuck it to the fridge. It could not be missed!

I was also in receipt of the most magnificent weather vein to adorn my garden.

It has been a source of great consternation to me over the last 28 years that one of Hubby's most interesting idiosyncrasies is the need to know from which direction the bleeding wind is blowing.

In fact his whole family are mildly obsessed with it - and the wind doesn't even blow in Nana's garden!(According to Nana anyhow).

And there's no excuse. It's not as if they are farmers or anything.

The roads are well sign posted, it seems hardly relevant.

So I found it very sweet when he informed me later that he had chosen it because he thought I'd love it, and not because he needed me to be more accurate about the direction of the prevailing wind.

And I do love it. And I still have no idea which way the wind is blowing because I haven't the foggiest if it's the way the cat is coming from or going to... and he's never going to get that mouse!

So now I'm getting to the confessing part. There was another book I really wanted. Cath Kidston's Stitch. But writing two books on the list would have looked a tad greedy don't you think?

Si I bought the book myself. Boxing day is close enough i figure, for it to be legitimate. A prese from me to me.

You see Blog chics, it's the Cowboy. I love the CK cowboy with a passion. He just epitomises what i love about 1950s stuff. He's so masculine. It kind of amuses me, him stuck there with his lasso amongst the cabbage roses. So now I'm going to have him in a tapestry cushion for my very own.

This is inside Annabel's book. It's such a lovely book. The photography is wonderful.


Here's the CK Cowboy cushion photograph from the book.

But wait, there's more... I have a further prese confession. If I'd seen this fab shabby painting before Christmas I'd have definitely wanted that for Christmas too.

By chance I only happened upon it today, in my favourite shabby chic/retro shop in

New Plymouth - Faded Fancy.

The colours just jump out at you. It's in perfect condition. No fading, even the frame isn't chipped. Not that i mind a bit of chipping.

So now i just have to assist Hubby to hang it, facing in the direction of the prevailing wind!

See ya!