Hello Spring!!!

Loving spring, it hasn't rained in 3 whole days, nothing short of a miracle. I have had ALL my windows open every day and have pegged laundry on the clothes line every day. Sweet!!!

The air smells so fresh, its given me spring fever, been cleaning up a storm, gardening and cooking yummy dinners to have with salad every night.

Did I tell you I love spring!!!

I have started buying a few little goodies for my house makeover. Its bye bye to Shabby Chic and clutter, still love it but the reality is we live in a modern apartment type thingy. So hello to a more sophisticated, less cluttered and more calming look!

I bought this iron cross for one of the walls, its heavy and I love the weathered look of it.


Also this plate rack which I am going to paint so that it looks more aged like the cross (and me!).

And a sweet treat, two delicious American mags, I won't tell you the crazy prices I paid for them but so worth every gorgeous glossy page!


I have been so lucky to be given a new lot of awards.

Pat at Just Between Us Girls gave me this one.


I'm passing this one on to

Barb at 123 lavender lollipop lane

Sherry at Espirt * d'Art
Brittany at Adelines Shabby Cottage
Amy at Bunny Rose Cottage
Natasha at Artistic Creations by Natasha Burns

The rules are:

• If you pass this award on please link back to the person who gave you the award which is me!
• Four of the people must be dedicated followers of your blog.
• One person must a blogger from another country.

Thanks Pat!

Barb at 123 lavender lollipop lane gave me this award. How cute is this!


I would like to pass it on to:

June at Bye Bye, Pie
Felicity at Fluffy Flowers
Kal at [i] LoveLife
Katrina at Katrina Chambers
Karla at Sugar Bear Designs

Thanks Barb!

And then Kerryanne at Shabby Art Boutique awarded me with this one!

The Smile Award - here are the rules:

1. The recipient must link back to the Awards Creator.

2. You must post the rules if you receive an award.

3. You must choose 5 people to receive the award after you receive it yourself.

4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award (see below).

5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.

6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.

7. You must thank your giver.

Characteristics for the Smile Award

1. Must display a cheerful attitude (not necessarily at all times - we are all human).

2. Must love one another.

3. Must make mistakes.

4. Must learn from others.

5. Must be a positive contributor to Blog world.

6. Must love life.

7. Must love kids.

I pass this award on to:

Barb at 123 lavender lollipop lane
Alison at Creative Arts and Crafts
Amy at Not So long Ago
Catie at Catiean & Co
Cheryl at Confections

Today is Babes birthday, Happy Birthday gorgeous Man!!! Babes is my toy boy, I am so excited, next year he will be in my decade!!!!

Happy Spring!

Rachaelxo

Awards, Absences and such . . .

My friend, the immensely multi talented Barb at 123 lavender lollipop lane gave me this award. Its actually quite appropriate for me as it is called the Wlyde Woman Award!!! I feel a bit wild on most days!!!


WYLDE WOMAN AWARD

The rules of this award are:
1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite (http://www.tammyvitale.com//) so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

These women continually bring joy to my life through their encouragement, humour, inspiration and talent. It is with great pleasure that I award the "Wylde Women Award" to:

Brittany - Adeline's Shabby Cottage
Natasha - Artistic Creations by Natasha Burns
Karin - Creative Chaos
Sherry - Esprit*d'Art
Beth - Gathering Dust
Heather - Jewelled Elegance
Karla - Karla's Cottage
Connie - Living Beautifully
Bethany - Love from my Studio
Gail - Originals by Gail and Tony McCormack
Heather - Pretty Petals
Jessi - Scrappy Jessi
Kerryanne - Shabby Art Boutique
Karla - Sugar Bear Designs


My next Oscar, I mean award came from my friend Brittany at Adeline's Shabby Cottage. Brittany and I share the same sense of humour . . .

This award is given for brilliant photos and text.


Such a dilemma on who to award it to because I currently have 219 subscriptions in my Google Reader and obviously you all have brilliant text and photos or I would not be reading your blogs!!!

So off the top of my head ...
Louise - Beachys Cape Cod Cupboard
Cheryl - Confections
Dolly - Dollybelle's Peepshow
Sherry - Espirt*d'Art
Amy- I Love Retro Things
Katrina - Katrina Chambers
Muriel - Muriels diaries
Jen - My 3 boys and I
Jerusalem - my little life
Linda - Somewhere in Time
Diane - The Desperate Diva
Cielo - The House in the Roses
Melissa - The Inspired Room


My erratic blogging and visiting blogs is due to being so busy selling all my excess shop stock on Trade Me and getting my website up and running. Its full time and some at the moment and will be for a couple more weeks and then I promise that I will post and visit on a more regular basis!


In between this The Princess and I are going to have a little time away, we are going to Cairns, Australia from 12 to 19 August. My brother Phillip is getting married so it is very exciting. Unfortunately Babes can't come with us, he is away at a work conference during that time.

So until then, take care, bye bye

Rachaelxo

HELLO . . .

hello, hello . . . I am still here, things are a happening!!! The garage is a changing!!! I am busy working on this and busy selling on this . . .

Its the last day of school today, two weeks holiday, yaheeeeee. Wacky hair day at school today, The Princess has many plaits embellished with the feathers from Mummy's feather duster, unused and now feather-less, feather duster!


Happy, happy Independence Day my American friends.


Got to go, am on a mission . . .

Rachaelxo

A little update....

The very talented Sara at Sadie Olive held a "I see red" show and tell last week, it was so successful she has decided to follow it through with "Shades of Inspiration". This weeks colour is green, to participate all you do is post pictures of green things in your life on the flikr she has set up for "Shades of Inspiration" and if you want to on your blog as well. This gorgeous button is enough to make you want to join up!

My poor Princess is sick this week, she has a bad ear and throat infection and is off school and staying home with Mummy.


To soothe her soul and her throat I made her this green jelly which is my green contribution to "Shades of Inspiration"!


Now for a little catch up, you may recall that back here I made the grand announcement I was taking a blogging break because I needed to de-clutter, reorganise, catch up etc.

Well in between my on going chest infection (since late February), working at Babes work and the usual house tending, wifey, mummy stuff, I have been de-cluttering and reorganising and catching up.

I caught up with my swaps and posted them, caught up with the yukky tax stuff and reorganised the paper work, will show you all that in another post. I did the ironing, actually Mum might have done that, thanks Mum and tidied The Princess's wardrobe.

I also cleaned and reorganised my pantry.


And miraculously it still looks like this!


I am also in big selling mode. I sold all The Princess's clothing that was too small and am now working my way through excess shop stock.

I am selling it on Trade Me and like to play around creating 'scenes' with the stock for sale such as this one. Aside from the bed and drawers everything else is listed for sale on the Internet. I normally get really good prices if I do a 'scene' I must be good at making scenes!!!


In this photo only the chenille bedspread is for sale. I really wanted to keep it as it looks divine on my bed and picks up the colours in my precious print. However, Babes has been known to sleep in this bed with me (if he is not away on business like he is now) and while I can push the pink and shabby chic a bit I think he would draw the line with this, he has a rare and strange aversion to vintage chenille!


So that's a bit of what I have been up to recently.

See you around!

Rachaelxo

p.s. sadly the garage still looks like this...

Lovely Mail & a Bigger Family!!!

The mail has been very kind to me recently!

I collect greeting card boxes, they are very collectable in New Zealand and sell for crazy money on Trade Me. This is the last one I bought, I paid $20 NZD for it!!! I missed out on another one, the bidding went to $35 so I backed out, couldn't justify it . . .

My dear friend Barb, who is one of the most talentest, kindest and thoughtful bloggers I know sent a lovely parcel from America recently. She sent this cute kitten house card box,

and this amazing chair card box. I love them both so much, very welcome additions to my growing collection.

Barb and the very cute Princess Maddy sent my Princess this fabulous cookbook. It is so very appropriate for The Princess. She has even taken it to her Pre-School for morning news!

Here's a look at the inside, each page is so pretty and great inspiring recipes!

My February Romantic Homes issue finally arrived. It comes directly to me from America so I get my copy weeks after everyone else in Bloglandia does! Its such a treat and worth waiting for.

Our family has grown overnight from just the three of us to being a family of five! We have Patricia our Korean daughter who lived with us for a while two years ago, back to stay with us for 5 weeks. She is 14 years old, loves The Princess and loves to argue with Babes and I!!! She is very much part of our family!

On Saturday Tom moved in. He is also from Korea, 18 years old and will be with us for a year. Its nice for Babes to have another male in the house!

Both kids go to local schools, I am now in a routine of making school lunches, making sure uniforms are clean, homework done, sports gear in school bags, notes signed and sent back to the schools etc etc. Its really busy but they are both great kids so fun to have them with us.

We took the girls to the beach last Sunday, it was overcast and windy, typical, so we only stayed long enough to eat icecream and have a walk along the beach.

I took this photo of the 'big sister' and 'little sister' walking down to the water. I think it is such a beautiful photo, its currently set as my desktop background.

I am so slack with being behind in sending stuff and my give aways at the moment. This week I will announce the winner of my January giveaway, how bad is that and show you what the February give away is!!!

Oh and I have been given some more awards and have been tagged so will do that next time as well!!!

Have a good day!

A Thrifting Opportunity

Yesterday Mum and I braved the heat to do a good deed and take a whole pile of 'crap' cleaned out of Babe's grandparents house to the Hospice Op Shop, 'Op' is what we call 'Thrift' shops here, 'Op' being for 'Opportunity' if you hadn't already guessed! I like to use the term, 'Thrift' it makes me feel virtuous, like I might be saving money . . .

As you might imagine I don't need a lot of encouragement to get within sniffing distance of a good 'thrifting' 'opportunity'!!!

It was good, I am getting picky, could it be something to do with the overwhelming amount of 'treasures' pouring out of every nook and cranny in our house?

This little selection here are keepers, two cherubs for my collection and a fabulous red Burslem transfer ware plate. Actually we don't really use the term 'transfer ware' here either, we call anything remotely like that 'willow pattern'.



I do love Carlotta Edwards prints, this one, the pomander and wash basin and jug are already listed on Trade Me. Trade Me is New Zealand's very successful version of EBay.


Today I had to go and pick up something (remote controlled speedboat) for Babes in a part of Auckland that just so happens to have four 'thrift' shops. I got this gorgeous hand stitched dressing table set, a little pram for my baby ornament collection and another pomander.

I have to dash, I am off to the supermarket to buy CHAMPAGNE because my MUM HAS GOT A JOB!!!!!!

I am so proud of you Mum xo

Sunday at the Beach, Craftiness, Ribbons & Lace and Carpet

Yesterday (Sunday), Babes and I decided to take The Princess to the beach. She was sooooooo excited, spent ages packing bags (four) with bucket and spade, bathers, towel, change of costume, her doll Melanie, Blankie and Pillow and off we went.

We went to Maraetai (Maori translation is meeting place by the sea) which is only a 15 minute drive from our home. The Princess fell asleep on the way. By the time we got there it had started raining and for the entire two hours we were out the rain got heavier and heavier!

But not to worry, you can still eat ice cream cones in the rain. The Princess had a scoop and half of Strawberry on the bottom (because its pink!) and Gold Rush on the top. Daddy and I had Gold Rush, yummy, yummy, yellow creamy flavoured ice cream with huge chocolate, crunch filled balls spread through it. Just what a girl in my detox, health kick, condition needed!!!!

Creativity is running high in our home at the moment. The Princess and Nana made felt yesterday.

And the day before, Nana had given The Princess some craft goodies to play with and to our astonishment she made this butterfly all by herself and didn't let on until she had finished it! I was so proud, I mean she is only four years old.

Mum and I have finished the paper doll dresses for our mini swap with Karen and Catiean and also the Paper Doll Dress Swap I kindly signed us up for! We are also working on our Artful Christmas swap goodies.

I have been doing a little light shopping on Trade Me. Look what came the other day. Lovely vintage music magazine and all these fabulous vintage ribbons and laces.

Among some of my addictions/fetishes is vintage carpet. It is my personal belief a girl can never have too much vintage carpet. I like to buy it in house lots. Babes and I then cut it up resell what I don't keep for my personal collection. Trouble is I hate reselling it! Would much rather keep it, but we do make good money from it.

I have just lost out on this, I was prepared to pay up to $120 for it. I had to place my bid and then walk away from the computer otherwise I would have kept on bidding. It has just sold for $138. But that's OK because it was only two rooms and I normally buy better than that!

All is not lost because I have this in my sights!!! So much prettier anyway!

Off now to do a little more foofing for Karla's Romantic Country Party tomorrow. Trouble is I am a vintage shop owner and when I originally opened the first shop last November, I used mostly pretties from my home as start up stock! But I do have some pretty corners left for my favourite, never part with, treasures.

See you tomorrow at Karla's!