Month: November 2016

TIME’S A TICKING TO CHRISTMAS – SHOPPING AT KMART…

Time’s a ticking to Christmas – shopping at Kmart.

It was such a windy day here in Havelock North yesterday it looked like snow was falling. But really it was beautiful flower petals.

It looks like snow, but it is petals

I did a quick trip to our local Kmart in Hastings, only 10 minutes away and was excited to see such an amazing remodelling of their store.

The store was buzzing and usually I don’t want to think about Christmas this early, but I found 3 things I had to buy. And of course when I got home I had to try them out as you do.

The first thing was 3 Metal planters for only $17. One of these I was definitely using for my Rosemary topiary I am growing. See my post – growing rosemary topiaries in time for Christmas…

3 Metal Planters

3 Metal Planters

Rosemary topiary in metal planter

My rosemary topiary I am growing in the metal planter

Next I purchased this adorable Ombre Rocking Reindeer for $7. I love this and it fits in perfectly with the colour scheme in my living room.

Rocky Reindeer

Rocky Reindeer

The last thing I got was a cute Reindeer bath mat for $12. I can see a Reindeer and duck egg blue theme in my home this Christmas.

Reindeer bath mat

Reindeer bath mat

Ok, so I didn’t buy much, but I was selective and I have got to say I was so impressed with wonderful array of items and very reasonable prices at Kmart.

Vintage silver trophy

One of the things I love using is the lovely silver trophy we got when I was a child. Our Siamese cat won this cup! I filled it with my lovely white bramble roses.

White bramble roses in vintage silver trophy cup

White bramble roses in vintage silver trophy cup

Old Mason jars

Another thing I love to use is old Mason Jars of my mums, here I painted the old ring with some Duck Egg Blue to add my theme colour.

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint

Then I filled it with bay leaves from my garden and Bay blueberries grown locally in Hawke’s Bay. Filled it with water and a little tea-lite candle.

It makes the decorations special to use things from the house and garden. It also saves on the budget at Christmas!

Thanks for reading my post. More Christmas posts to come…

Andi

Reclaimed french oak wine barrel furniture and homeware New Zealand…

Reclaimed wine barrel furniture and homeware in Havelock North, New Zealand….

For a month my son, Thaddeus and his friend has been busy working on reclaimed french oak wine barrel furniture and homeware products. This was a part of their business course at the High School to create a business, make and sell a product.

Fortunately, his friend’s dad had a massive wood workshop. My son was in seventh heaven, spending hours in there.

They brought beautiful old French oak wine barrels and created amazing crafted tables, platters, candle holders, fruit bowls, and lazy susans.

In the workshop

In the workshop

Trade Fair

Last week the boys had a Trade Fair at school to display and sell what they had made. It was amazing to see the end product of all their hard work. Beautifully crafted, we were so impressed at the standard of their work.

Beautifully red wine stained fruit bowl and candle holders

Wine barrel platters

Wine barrel platters

I loved how some of the wood had writing on them and also the red wine stain still remaining.

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Metal from the wine barrel placed around the side of table

The beautiful reclaimed wood products were stained carefully with natural oils as preservative. The items to be used for food were stained with pure olive oil the others in linseed oil.

Single candle holders

Single candle holders

The boys are now hoping to continue their business, selling their products through markets and online.

Candle holder

Candle holder

Thanks for reading my post!

   Andi

 

 

 

 

NATIVE TUI IN THE GARDEN THIS SPRING SUNDAY – HAVELOCK NORTH, NEW ZEALAND…

We have a so many native Tui in the garden this spring Sunday in Havelock North, New Zealand.

They love the nectar on our flax at this time of the year. Tui are very noisy birds, with loud flapping wings, but we hear them singing really lovely melodies in the trees around our place all day and unto the night on days like this.

Tui in Hawke's Bay

Tui in Havelock North

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Tui feeding on nectar

Native bird feeding on nectar

Flowers in the garden

I love spring Sundays in Havelock North they are so beautiful. Our garden is an old established garden with a combination of native trees and bushes. But it also has many old rose bushes and plants that just flower beautifully in spring. Really enjoy our rather overgrown garden.

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Thanks for reading my post. Have a blessed Sunday!

Andi

Simple steps to repaint wrought iron furniture…

Spring is here and it is time to repaint the deck furniture. I was excited to purchase this old table and chairs set for only $25 on Trademe earlier this year. Now that the weather is sunny outside it was time to work on getting rid of the rust and repaint it. These simple steps to repaint the wrought iron furniture is something that can be done in a couple of hours.

Repaint wrought iron furniture

My son Elisha and Rodeo enjoying the sunshine

My son Elisha and Rodeo enjoying the sunshine

First it is necessary to wash it all down with water and dish detergent to get rid of dust and dirt.  Then I used steel wool and a wire brush scraping and rubbing off the rust. This is quite a messy job, but it does come off easily. Next I washed it clean again. Time to paint!

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I just brought green gloss enamel spray paint from Mitre 10, (under $20 a can), but I did need 4 cans. It was already painted green, so to make it easier, I kept to the same colour. I made sure it contained zinc for rust protection. This paint dries quickly within 15-20 minutes, but needs 24 hours to cure. It is important to always follow the instructions on the can to get the best results and safety.

Spray Paint

Spray Paint

Our wrought iron table and chairs looks great now – ready for sunny spring days!

New World Little Garden Seedling Kit Collectables

I just want to tell you about the New World Supermarket Little Garden promotion recently – we so loved them. They were little seedling kits given out with every $40 spent in their stores. They were just so cute and such a great idea!

New World Little Garden

New World Little Garden

My daughter Serah just loved collecting these vegetables and herbs. They were exciting to open, plant the seeds, then watch them germinate and grow.

Seedling Kits

Seedling Kits

The kits contained a little pot made of wood pulp and peat, bio-degradable, made in Denmark. The seeds came from a Dutch company and the soil tablets are made of coconut husks from Sri Lanka, but produced in the Netherlands. All organic!

Seedling Kit

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It was wonderful to see Serah so excited about growing vegetables.

Little Garden plants in the vegetable garden

Little Garden plants in the vegetable garden

Thanks for reading my post!

  Andi

 

 

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