A taste of home

illustration by julia rothman

I was chuffed to discover this fabulous post about my home town on Design*Sponge.

Sarah Hopkins has made mention of some fantastic Wellington institutions, some of them my old favourites and some of them are new to me and I cannot wait to check out when I visit home again in January 2011.

Thanks Sarah, and yay for mentioning the lovely Small Acorns, Amanda's store is truly gorgeous and a visit to Wellington isn't complete without picking up a little item of loveliness from there!

Floriditas is a second *must visit* spot, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Mmmm.

If you are planning a trip to New Zealand, read Sarahs' post and whatever you do, don't skip a visit to this absolute gem of a city.

Birthday Presents

Well I certainly had a wonderful Birthday, and it lasted all weekend long. I will update you on the wonderful culinary delights tomorrow, but lets get the most important stuff out the way first...

PRESENTS! I love presents, who doesn't really. Except of course when you get something really crappy that you don't want, that makes you think, "has this person not met me? Have they confused me with some tasteless dodgy distant relative of theirs? Are they MAD?!"

And before you all start accusing me of being a spoilt, ungracious and ungrateful little so and so... COME ON! We have all thought it at some point. You just don't say it, its the saying 'Thank you' despite the fact it's a crap gift that makes you gracious.

Anyway, I thankfully had a 'crap present' free Birthday this year, in fact, quite the opposite.

{I must apologize for the decline in photo quality at the moment, Mr. Canon EOS has come over all squiffy and is not playing the game any more so I have had to bring out young Master. Cybershot, who quite frankly, has had a bit of a rough life travelling from country to country, pub to bar to pub and so on and so forth so he now has trouble focusing on the world, much like his owner}


First up, the miniature Boy Persons (11 & 9) gave me this wonderful book that you may recognise from my wish list. I have not had a chance to read all the wordy bits yet but the photos are wonderful, and indeed Inspiring!

A gorgeous parcel from home contained some lush goodies from my lovely Mum and VIN. Dawn French's book I have been wanting to read (that's her peeking out in the first photo) and some lovely treats from the wonderful Wellington store Small Acorns. Funky fabric stickers are now adorning my MacBook, which is ideal as the Boy person and I have been known to pick up each others by accident on occasion!

And the Bloom Sea Salt scrub (far right above) is absolutely divine.

On Saturday, we went for a fabulous breakfast (more on that tomorrow) then we went to a shop that I have been meaning to visit for ages. Oh. My. God. Where have you been all my life? Distracted is a wonderful little place that includes shop, cafe, hair salon and Brazilian waxing salon!

I fell in love immediately and declared that "this is where I want my Birthday present to be purchased!" So, given that I had actually already been given my (rather generous) birthday presents including lovely meal out, and tickets to a couple of festivals, I was told I was allowed to pick ONE item of extra birthday goodness, so I (pouted and frowned) my way around the store for about 30 minutes trying to pick which ONE item I wanted most (I mean really, ONE?).

I decided (to great surprise even to me as it was not the most expensive item in the store) on this lovely little vase...

So, happy with my little treasure, I popped it on the counter to pay.

But then, I spied behind the counter, a Glass Dome, I have been needing (yes that's right, needing) one of these for a while. Panic overcame me, what do I do? Shall I just stick with the lovely little vase and simply sneak back at a later date for the Dome (lets face it, Boy Person would probably never notice if it suddenly appeared a week later) Or should I bat my eyelids and beg to add just one more little tiny extra treat?

Then... His phone rang. It was his mate calling about our evenings plans. He went outside to chat. And then I remembered something someone very wise told me a few years ago...

'It is easier to ask forgiveness, than to ask permission'. GENIUS!

So I said to the girl at the counter quickly, "actually could you just pop one of those lovely glass domes in the bag too please... no don't bother wrapping it....it will be fine really.... Just get IT IN THE BAG NOW!...."

Shoot. He was back. Still on the phone, but standing at the counter next to me with eyebrows raised and a look of... well not surprise that's for sure. Oops. So I started batting my eyelashes furiously while he relayed to his mate that his phone call had probably just cost him hundreds of dollars. I grinned with smugness and advised that it was actually much less than that and took that to be the vindication I required. Yay!

And so, birthday treat number two from Distracted is now sitting proudly where he was much needed....

A busy day followed, watching 'Miniature Boy Person of the Smallest Variety' get a Personal Best at his Athletics event, then a bit of pampering in the city before arriving home many hours later to find that not one, but TWO big bunches of roses and Lillies (one from Dad and family and one from Big Brother) had been delivered and left sitting on the front porch in the stinking 40°C heat.

Whilst they were looking a bit desperate, most of them actually survived very well. I quickly rescued them from their nearly dry blocks of florist foam, trimmed, watered and separated before dotting them about the house. Wasn't it lucky I bought that lovely wee vase?!

A very blessed '30 and some months' year old I am indeed. ♥

My directorial debut

I had such a giggle whilst watching Amanda's Monster Mash film over at Small Acorns, that I simply had to do one of my own...

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What a hoot!

Happy Halloween to all my friends, and a big thank you to the films' stars, they were all wonderfully well behaved during filming, although Jodeys insistence on having his hair touched up on every single take was a bit much, especially given the amount he has!
It was a challenge to both direct and star in the production, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience nonetheless. I have to say i did initially have some 'Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia' fears when casting Jason in the main singing role, but darling, you did me proud, a truly outstanding performance.
Keri, you were an angel, that radiant smile of yours never faded, even when the bats shat all over you in rehearsal. And finally to our Monster, Andy you were anything but a monster to direct, and those moves of yours? Boy, have you got rhythm!

Thanks for sharing this Amanda, so much fun!