Friday flowers

Check out this fantastic bonsai azalea by Phillippe Massard.

The beautiful pink and white blooms and their sheer profusion makes me sigh with wonder. There's another pretty rhododendron and lots of incredible bonsai trees at this great site bonsai4me.com if you're interested.

I've been dabbling in a small way with bonsai for years (with very mixed results) but I'd love to get in to it properly. There's something about miniature things that just rocks my boat - perhaps it reminds me of running my doll house with military precision as a girl or maybe it's the empowerment that comes with feeling like a giant.

Whatever it is, bonsai fascinates me.

Marvellous mosiac

Spotted this letter box when I was out and about. 

I love it so just had to stop and snap a couple of pics to share. 

Nature not good enough?

I was at a florist first thing this morning getting a bouquet put together to drop in to a friend who needed cheering up.

I chose coloured Callas lilies as they are in season here and there was the most beautiful selection available of plums and vibrant pinks. Anyway the florist did her thing and THE most gorgeous bunch of flowers was the result. It looked like sculpture if that makes any sense, with the perfectly smooth elegant funnels in their pastel shades of pale pink through to the deepest purple. They were enough to lift anyone's day.

And then she did something that blew my mind; she started shaking gold glitter all over the bouquet. She stopped quickly when she heard my gasp and asked did I not want glitter “….to make them look extra pretty?”

An interesting discussion ensued with particular reference to the phrase ‘gilding the lily’ which I felt was particularly fitting seeing as we were actually discussing a bunch of lilies. The end result of the conversation was that she started again.

I didn’t have my camera with me unfortunately to record the proceedings but suffice it to say that the elegant lilies I delivered to my friend were delightfully au natural and most certainly beautiful enough sans glitter.

Two for Tuesday

I) Photo of the day

Oops. They thought that releasing doves  was such a romantic idea when they thought of it.

 

 

 

 

 

Photographer and subjects unknown. Sorry but I have no idea who or to which site to credit this photo to.

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II) Cottage envy

From lovetoescape.com:

Craig Highland Farm, self-catering cottages in Ross-shire, the Highlands near Skye and Lochalsh. Excellent loch side Highland holiday cottages sleeping 2, 4 and 6 people on a working farm. Pets welcome by arrangement. Short breaks available.

I can only dream.

Friday flowers

I was in Christchurch in early September last year and I remembered the fantastic display of daffodils in Hagley Park, so I asked a friend who lives down there to take a snap for me to show you all.

Let’s all give a big bloggy thanks to my good friend G. He got really wet lying down in the long grass this morning on his way to work to get this shot for us. I appreciate your committment G, very artistic.

I’ll ask him for another pic again in a few weeks as I think there’ll be even more by then. Fabulous. I wish he could also send us the smell as last year I sat for ages drinking in the heavenly scent.

Circus of the sun

We had a fantastic night last night at Cirque du Soleil. Our seats were great. The 2 and a half hour show flew by  so fast I couldn’t believe it was after 10.30pm when the house lights came up.

My shoulders, arms and hands were sore from clapping so much. 

 

 

 

Photos from the Cirque du Soleil website

We decided to make a night of it and ended up at a salsa club in the city dancing until nearly 3am. I was the sober driver so I was on water for the night and I am now very grateful – the friends I was with are all feeling jaded today while I’m feeling bright as a button.

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Just got back from the beach with Bonnie for an Sunday morning walk seeing the rain had stopped temporarily.  I headed to Piha on the west coast rather than the east coast beaches as there’s some kind of puffer fish toxin washing up in the Hauraki Gulf and a couple of dogs have died after eating washed up dead sea slugs. I’m lucky living on an isthmus with both coasts within easy reach. 

Piha was wild and windy but as usual there were a few very hardy surfers trying their luck out past the break. So you can get some perspective, if you swam 2000 km (1300 miles) due west from here you’d hit Australia. Around Sydney somewhere probably.

My lovely new car has now been christened with wet sandy dog. The west coast beaches have black sand (iron ore I think?) so it’s extra messy all over the car *sigh*.

I have a house load of teenage boys (well there are only 3 of them actually but they do seem to fill up our little place) all baying for food so I better wrap this up and go make the double batch of scones I promised.

Have a great weekend everyone. Enjoy the last of your summer you northern hemispheroids as I feel a distinct hint of spring in the air downunder – it won’t be long now. Spotted this tree on my way home from the beach an hour ago.

Hermetically sealed worlds

Though not usually a fan of snow globes, I must say these are spectacularly artistic examples. I remember Domestic Daze saying she collected them.

Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz are an American/Spanish artistic collaboration known more for their installations. Their latest series of work is a collection of snow globes entitled Travellers. They have interesting, somewhat macabre themes.  Click on the pictures to enlarge and to link to the website and more information about each globe. The detail is fantastic. 

 

 

Check out their website (Martin-Munoz.com). Fantastic stuff. All sorts of installations. Surreal.

I’d like to thank…

The delightfully humourous  jadedj from Banquet of Consequences has seen fit to bestow his favourable glance on my inconsequential web log of daily ramblings. Though you’ve made recent noises about dropping out of the blog race JJ, I for one hope you’ll settle on a wee break and a recharge for a short while rather than a full blown desertion into the Nebraskan sunset.

Thanks for the award jadedj, I appreciate it heaps.

In line with instructions on JJ’s blog, I should now share this ‘Bella’ award with some other lovely blogs out there that I’ve ‘recently’ come across.  I haven’t been doing a lot of browsing new blogs lately but the 7 below are seriously lovely blogs that I’ve recently started following.

Thanks to you all for making my days a little brighter. I’ll try and pop over to your sites tonight and leave a comment to let you know this award is here for your collection at a time convenient to you.

1. The Big World of Xanadu
2. I am me
3. Finding Miss Amy
4. It’s My Life
5. Selfindulgent
6. Family Trees may contain nuts
7. Chlorine in the gene pool

…a few of my favourite things

Crème Brulee by Chris Caldes. Photograph by Carrie Russell

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Got this idea a couple of days ago from Dade Freeman’s great site It’s My Life. Thanks Dade.

My favourite things…

- Author: Margaret Attwood
- Beverage: Ice cold Jim Beam and coke
- Cologne / Perfume: Elizabeth Arden Red Door
- Dessert: Crème brulee mmmmmm
- Electronic Device: my Nokia E71
- Food: Thai (specifically yum nua and giang panang)
- Game: Pixel Junk Monsters
- Hobby: Mosaic
- Ingredients as a pizza topping: Chicken and capsicum
- Job (you've had): my current role (Operations Mngr)
- Kind of breakfast: Eggs Benedict with salmon
- Living or dead person: my fabulous dad
- Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
- Novel: I know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
- Organic Produce: Big fat juicy tomatoes
- Programme on TV: Outrageous Fortune
- Quote: “Do or do not, there is no try” (Yoda)
- Relaxation Method: sorry don’t know you all well enough to share this – let’s stick with ‘see favourite beverage as above’
- Song: Run to the Water, Live
- Time to wake up: around 6:00am
- Unusual Talent: None (only fairly normal ones)
- Vacation Spot: various NZ lakes and rivers
- Website: http://www.youtube.com/
- Xperience: travelling (especially south-east Asia) 
- Yoghurt: no thanks – yuck
- Zodiac Sign (your own): Leo

You are my sunshine

This has got to be one of the most gorgeous chairs I have ever seen. I absolutely love it. I crave it. It would look so wonderful in my bedroom. I can just imagine myself sitting, reading in this chair under the window trying to maximise exposure to the watery winter sunshine that’s on its way.

I was absent mindedly googling using the key words “beautiful things” because I am feeling so deprived  lately and I happened across a woman of spectacular taste. She’s a Brisbanite (did I just make that up or is that what those of you from Brisbane call yourselves?) and an interior designer. Her name is Anna Spiro. She’s also a blogger and her site is called ‘Absolutely Beautiful Things’ and it certainly is full to the brim with gorgeous photos of fantastic things.  The chair in the picture is from Anna’s blog.

Interestingly Anna has apparently just been in Auckland for Easter and has posted some lovely photos of my town that those of you in the northern hemisphere may find worth browsing. She’s very kind to Auckland.

This is a site I’ll be visiting regularly to satisfy my need to see pretty things. One day hopefully I’ll be in a position to have a fabulous home myself *sigh* and I’ll fill it with beautiful things like this chair.

Awesome

Enjoy!

Beautiful

Here’s a few pics of some fabulous fashion for anyone who’s interested. None of these are, or ever will be, owned by me. I do not buy designer shoes, bags or clothes but that doesn’t stop me appreciating their beauty.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intelliwench suggested in a comment earlier today, that I may have replaced my smoking habit with another habit and I suspect she may be right.

After some thought I am now officially putting the shopping and fashion lust focus to rest, if for no other reason that I am dirt poor and frankly my recent rampant materialism is becoming distasteful even to me.

It would be great if others out there in cyber land could help me make it through the bleak NZ winter by sharing their own shopping stories while I curb my spending over the next few months.

Flying, shopping, flying

Hope everyone’s weekend was great.

I am back in NZ after a flying visit to Victoria to catch up with my girlfriend who’s still freaked about the fire getting so close to her place. She still refuses to unpack her car despite the reasonable amount of rain they’ve had there and the subsequent reduction in the fire risk.

To help her relax, we decided that a spot of shopping was the order of the day so we headed down to Melbourne for some serious retail therapy.

We started with pedicures as it’s just not fair to inflict ugly feet on shoe salespersons and then after a coffee break we headed to Myer for a look and a dream over the Blahniks.

I needed a new pair of black courts with winter on the way and there was one pair I particularly loved (see picture) but at AUS$895 there was no way in hell.  Man they looked gorgeous on my feet though.

Not one to be daunted so easily, I went looking for something similar but at about the necessary 15-20% of the cost…and I found them.

Please excuse my less that professional shoe photography.

These were much more in my price range and I absolutely love them.  The Italian leather is so supple and soft, its a minor miracle and they’re a perfect height heel for me to wear to work – 3 inches which means I can wear them all day without too much foot angst.

My next purchase was a beautiful leather overnight bag as my current one is looking rather scruffy and needed replacing. This photo makes it look quite navy but it’s actually a midnight blue – so dark it almost looks black except when the light hits it. It’s the perfect size for overnight necessities and I feel like Audrey Hepburn when I carry it :-)

That was my shopping budget totally blown but then I saw a handbag that I just couldn’t resist.

The whole ‘alligator skin’ leather is starting to sound somewhat like a fetish (and if I am honest it probably is lately) but I have been looking for a red bag to match some gorgeous red boots I bought a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway here it is!

Photographed along side my overnight bag so you get a feel for the size of them both.

Ahhh life is good!

After dinner and 2 bottles of wine in Lygon Street and a great days shopping, I really felt that BFF was finally relaxing and feeling more in control of her life again.

She’s now rethinking where she’s chosen to live and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a move out of the bush on the horizon for her. I know I’d feel much happier if she wasn’t living there by next summer though I’ll miss the place.

It’s good to be home – am much poorer after shopping, eating and drinking and flights but I’m glad I went for her sake. Back to work tomorrow to pay for it all.

A rose by any other name…

…would smell as sweet. William Shakespeare 

 

 

 

 

Following on from Kate’s post, I searched my name in Urban Dictionary. I started with Lou but most entries were truly revolting so went to Louise. There were pretty meagre offerings there too unfortunately but the least lame (or plain offensive) is below.

Louise

Louise is a popular feminine form of the name Louis; it is used in all English-speaking and French-speaking countries, and is commonly found across Europe.

Rhymes with most of the English dictionary: cheese, peas, keys, please, knees, wheeze, jeez, bees, ease, tease, sneeze, these, fees and so on..................

Also in a famous saying: "Jeez Louise!" __________________________________________________________

Well that was enlightening, not! Why didn’t I get a cool one like Kate?

My elbows are healing nicely, starting to get a bit itchy (hehe that looks like bitchy) but I am determined not to scratch and interfere with the healing. Got my new glasses today and it’s fabulous being able to read again.