This and that~

My crochet afghan is growing deliciously. Each evening I decide I should put it aside and catch up with some other handwork but I think I have become addicted to it!! Maybe it's just an easy pick up put down project which suits well just now! 

Here it was a few days ago when I thought I was going to write a blogpost - 

First thing this morning while it was still dark and chilly I settled myself down by the fire and made it to another colour change-

I was able to get a good amount of crocheting done on our road trip up into the Far North last week. It only takes a few hours to get up there but I managed to crochet for most of our travelling. We spent our winter holiday on the Karikari Peninsular. That's the jutting out bit of land east of the North Island heading up to the tip of the country.

We enjoyed the three days off the farm, resting, eating and a bit of tripping about. We visited some beaches but, being winter, we didn't dip our toes in the ocean!

This the view from our room-

Ahipara on the West Coast-

Maitai Bay on the East Coast-

We ate well, in lovely surroundings-

And enjoyed the expanses of sky - 

Odie enjoyed feeding/shifting the cows while we were away-

Naturally our holiday was over far too quickly!

It was a lovely morning on Saturday  - perfect for watching the kids play their sport.

The three littlies and Rippa Rugby down one end of Kensington Park — 

And at the other end of the park, a 5 minute walk away, the bigger girls playing soccer. No good action shots to brag with I'm afraid but they all enjoyed their games. 

Once I got home, I devoted time to some clothes sewing for myself. I came across this fabric during some recent rummaging in my big cupboard and felt the urge to sew it up (it's more burgundy than pink) —

Buttons, buttonholes and hemming are still needed but am pleased to have got this far! The pattern is Geneva by Liesl + Co. It's pretty cool how the 3/4 length sleeves are made. I may share a decent photo when it's properly done!

I was contacted recently by Anuj of Feedspot telling me that my blog is on their list of Top Kiwi quilting blogs, and asked me to spread the word, which I said I would do.  Feedspot seems to be a big database of all sorts of blogs - however it does appear to operate as a paid subscription site, so I wasn't able to search for new blogs very successfully!

'til next time,

happy stitches,