Pixies at the bottom of my garden.

Now I'll show you some reasons why my blog had to wait a bit. First of all a large group of Bushbabies were created for several orders. Here they all are just before some off them flew off to a new home. Eleven went to a birthday boy of 3 years , to live in his birdcage"dollhouse" and have wild adventures , no doubt at the bottom of his garden...! Will possum's baby run away? Will fantail rescue blossom from the treeclimb gone wrong? Will tui's and dragonfly's flying competition have a good ending?   I will never know...
And then spring cleaning hit me. My whole studio has been tidied and cleaned and sorted , I even managed to get tough on myself and throw some things away! Now I can walk from one end to the other again. And all that empty table space ; I  can't wait to get started on new projects and finish some u.f.o.'s. Everything has it's place again. I used photocopy-paper boxes , which I got through work , to store fabrics and doilies etc in . I glued old wallpaper onto their fronts to disguise the bright yellow labels which I didn't like. Each box is labelled with its contents . I have a kitchen step so I can easily reach them .

 Maybe I should do something about the ironing pile next. Not as much fun I'm afraid....
I have a lovely view of the back garden and I can see the street side at the same time, while I'm sitting there sewing and doing other things. I always listen to the radio , or play c.d.'s. 
A close-up of the dragonfly child . I love the colour of his/her eyes.
And little short tail bat stretching it's wings. Probably thinking about Halloween. Although looking scary isn't working...

A little more trip and homecoming.

So after about 3 hours on the ferry , we still needed to drive 4 more hours to get to Christchurch. Our 2 teenagers were sleepy from seasickness pills, which they took just in case , and are listening to music in the backseat. We made a stop at Kaikoura , famous for whale watching, and the weather was still sparkling.  Check out the scenery we got to look at for a long time... We could actually see the wind blowing up the snow at the ridges so now and then. If you click on the photo you can see on the right of the left mountain top a small white stripe ; it is the jetstream of a plane coming from Antarctica , on a cargo flight. It's the only jetplane we ever get to see here in New Zealand. 

We spent a great week with our family in Christchurch , had many homemeals together , and lots of family photos taken. We popped into the city on the bus , they have a very good public transport system there , sniffed around in some cool little shops. I often avoid the main shopping streets because they are full of mainstream chainstores , and frankly we have those at home with the same things. I am far more interested in the little boutiques and quirky shops that you can find in big cities , with their own designers and individual tastes. There are a number of shops where they sell things made from recycled fabric and other materials , one shop (Cherry Blossom) sells vintage kimonos and things made from the silk. I bought a lovely 1950's dress from Tete-a-tete , which is a tiny upstairs shop that sells only vintage clothing, and then only very nice examples. My daughters , whom like to dress a little different than other girls their age , also fell in love with some items and bought gloves , 1960's 2 tone shoes and a 1960's dress with a little white twiggy collar.
And back on that ferry , luckily another easy cross over . I sat and stitched , and sold a fantail Bushbaby to the lady sitting at our table. (ka-ching!)  But now we all just wanted to have the trip over and done with. See our cats and sleep in our own beds. Still a few days before hubby had to be back at work.
And look what happened to the apricot blossoms from a month or so ago. I think I better keep all my jam jars from now on , because it is going to be a beautiful crop!
And now the garden is blooming . I used to love the autumn the best as seasons go , but spring here on the East-coast is warm and fresh and colourful. Yes , chilly in the mornings , but by 10 in the morning you can , more often than not, open the doors already and eat lunch outside. Most people are kind of waiting for real summer , but often it gets so hot , or rainy , the flowers have faded , and much dust. Spring is under rated. We have already had a b.b.q. at Labour weekend last week. 
So I made a new display in the livingroom with deep blues and much pink and purple.

That's my new wee-willy-winkie candlestick I picked up for $2 at a school fair last week. It is a multi coloured enameled piece. Well , I liked it..