My new favourite kitchen appliance...

and it's not even electric! ;)

my new pasta machine  

photo by Briahna

I've just posted a recipe for gluten free pasta over on my almost forgotten foodie blog...  So delicious!

Favourite things Friday...

my new favourite thing...

my brooch as a corsage

and my new favourite thing to make...

more loyalty card wallets...

D.

Favourite things Friday...

This is my new favourite chocolate bar...  It's DELISH!

And that's all I can say about it as I'm about to take another bite! ;)

D.

Favourite things Friday...

At the moment, I could write a book about all the un-favourite things in my life, but instead, I think I'll just show you something that's become a new favourite.

As you know, if you keep up with my blog, my mum passed away two weeks ago.  My eldest sister had to travel all the way from the UK.  A not so easy feat, especially with a 14 hour layover in Dubai - YUCK!  She couldn't get here until 6 days after mum died, she'd already booked her ticket and it was going to be mucho deniro to change the ticket.  While she was preparing for the journey, my wonderful sister, Paula, bought each of us (her sisters) a beautiful silver locket with pictures of both Mum and Dad in them.  So very thoughtful, and it has been a great source of comfort during this terrible time of grief.  Thanks Paula!

Hope your Friday is treating you well...

D.

Favourite things Friday...

Queen Anne teacup and antique brass tea strainer that I got on retreat last weekend. :) The teacups cost $1 for 3 cup and saucer sets and the tea strainer cost $5!!!

Fun, and now I'm off to use them because my good friend Jenny-Lee has turned up with mallowpuffs and tea!!!! SCORE! ;)

Postscript; Just discovered that the tea strainer was probably made between 1880 and 1920. How awesome is that, the lady that sold it to me said it was old - I just didn't figure it to be that old!

Also, just polished it up a little and it looks like it's silver plated. What a find... I'm going to be using it regularly, mainly because I really needed a tea-strainer now. Tea tastes just that much better from a pot.

Favourite things Friday...

About a month ago, one of my favourite bloggy friends sent me these sweet charms made by resinator.!

 

 

Thanks Marion!  I love them very much...

Favourite things Friday...

is back!

Today, my favourite thing is yummy Dilmah Earl Grey Tea and hot toasted cinnamon raisin bagel's for breakfast!

I love, love, love this cute wee teacup, saucer, plate set that my good friend Cathy gave me for my birthday last year!  Most of the time it stays put in the china cabinet, but today it came out to play! :D

I think we need to relish and use more of our favourite things, no point having them cooped up, unused in the china cabinet, eh!

My new favourite dress...

I bought it yesterday at Mr Bo. Jumbles, my favourite clothing provider. I feel like it is a bit short (I'm not 20 anymore) and so I decided to wear it over my favourite summery white skirt.

What do you think?

And my new favourite album! I know it's been around a while, but Jonathan bought it for our wedding anniversary, he remembered I loved David Gray... The fact that he remembered speaks more to me than the gift! My heart melts...

Sail away with me, what will be will be...

Favourite things Friday...

Ruby Gloom has to be one of my most favourite television animations of all time. I love the illustrations and the fun story lines!



Just thought it would be a good idea to go back to posting a few of my favourite things, especially after the day we've had...



We found the car we want to buy, but on the way to going for a second test drive we were involved in a nose to tail accident with 3 other cars. We were in the front and not at fault, and no one got hurt. Except that we lost $400 on our trade-in. :( Oh well, we did find a new car and we will sign the paperwork tomorrow and pick it up on Monday! I'll post more about it once it's all finalised.

Have a good weekend...

D.

AND THE WINNER IS...

I finally did the draw for my OWOH giveaway and its...

drumroll please!


KRAFTY PANDA!!!!

Manda can you please email me with your details and I'll post you out what you've won!!!

mandapanda said...

Wow, what a beautiful giveaway, and a great blog to match! Please enter my name into the hat!
Manda. http://kraftypanda.blogspot.com
P.S I'm from Aus and I just love your button bracelets!

She was commenter number 364, and I figured out the winner using the random number generator found here.


Other news...
I managed to get around to converting the red velvet cupcake recipe into a gluten-free, dairy-free recipe and I'll put that recipe up on my recipe blog soon...

They're so delicious, and this time they're RED!!! hehehe!

They've gotta be my thing for favourite thing friday... I know I missed last Friday's, but I have to tell you that these little red morsels of deliciousness could easily be good enough for two Friday's worth of favourite things!!!!

I have some more Valentines Day goodness to share, but since Mr Sew-Funky has got today off work, I want to go share some time with my true valentine... :)

Favourite things Friday...

I just love what Mr Sew-Funky did to the girls bedroom dresser drawers. They haven't had handles on them for a while, and so in a moment of genius, rope was cut and threaded into the holes in the drawers!

Tah Dah! We now have drawers that the girls can open and shut themselves. :)


I grew up using these drawers when I was a kid, they've had a fantastic life!

I'm not sure if Mr Sew-Funky is my favourite thing or if the drawers are... Hmmmm! Let me think about that!?!

Favourite things Friday...

Almost forgot to post about this...
and so with 2 more hours left of Friday, I'll get this in as quick as I can!

One of my most favourite things at the moment is fresh eggs from my three gorgeous chooks!


No, they don't lay that many eggs, only one each a day! But I will say one thing, their eggs are delicious and worth the time spent caring for the chooks...

NOTE; It seems that the word chook is a kiwi one - it just means chicken... ;)

Favourite things Friday...

I'm really getting into the swing of writing about my favourite things, but I wonder what will happen when I come to the end... Is there an end to my favourite things?

Today's favourite thing is brought to you by the letter H...

Christmas Hamper... :)

I just love the basket and the food and the Lindauer (not in photo, in fridge getting ready to be drunk!) The basket is huge! I think I'll use it to collect vegetables from the garden Mr Sew-Funky is about to plant out the front... :)

Favourite things Friday...

No photo today | sad I know!

But today's favourite is one of my most favourite places in Auckland, Mr Bo Jumbles second hand clothing shop in Wiri. I love it because I never ever come away dissapointed. I'm always able to find great "as new" labeled clothing, like Esprit, Country Road, Max etc. and because you only pay per kg it's cheap! :D

I popped by today and for $13 got a couple of Laura Ashley tablecloths, jeans for all three girls, about 10 nice t-shirts, some vintage teatowels, a Roxy wallet and more. :)

We then went and visited one of my most favourite people (Jodz) and I got to see her grandson for the first time, what a cutie, and got heaps of cuddles from her sweet son! :D I think I'm gonna have to visit her more often this year, especially if I get to have so many snuggly cuddles!!! She tells me that she's posted about her favourite thing friday today too - so go check out her blog now!

Favourite things Friday...

One of my favourite band's of all time would have to be, embarrassingly, ABBA! Don't laugh, they're great for zoning out to. I remember singing along to them when I was small, and now my children are having fun singing their songs on singstar - weird...

Last year, one of the best experiences I had was going to see Mama Mia at Sylvia Park with my good friend Lianne and our two daughters. I am sure I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. :) If you haven't seen it yet, get it out on DVD!!

So, in honour of, this, my embarrassing band love, and because I've been having lots of fun singing to ABBA singstar on the PS2, I give you:

Favourite things Friday...

This has to be my most favourite time of the year. I just LOVE Christmas and the promise of having a better new year next year! :) Everything feels so fresh and the ability to reinvent yourself (& your life) in the coming year almost takes my breath away. Nothing feels so terrible, the sun is SHINING boy have we had the best weather the last couple of days! and I just feel good. My family is around me, my stomach is full and I've even been able to spoil myself in the Boxing Day sales by buying 2 new pairs of shoes!!! my life is complete - hehehe!

Although 2008 has been fairly awful for me won't go into all the gory details I am happy to say my life feels complete. I have a wonderful husband go Mr Sew-Funky! and three very gorgeous young daughters who are growing into three beautiful young women. :) What could be better than that? Well, I guess there are other good things... Some newly fledged friendships - Lianne, Cathy, Carol-Ann and some really good old ones too! :) So whilst this year has been difficult it has also been a really good one too! I discovered a real love for craft this year, bought a new sewing machine, knitted A LOT of dishcloths and made a lot of friendships through blogging Paisley Jade & CurlyPops have to be my number one fav's! My girls all got fantastic end of year reports from school and I'm so pleased that they are beginning to love learning and are really beginning to enjoy their education!

It's why I really feel satisfied right now - long may it last... hmmmmm!

To cut this post into just one favourite thing is hard, but what I've chosen did encompass a couple of my favourite things into one... baking, friendship, Christmas traditions to name a few...

My first ever gingerbread house...

I hope making these will become a new tradition in my house. It was so much fun putting it all together, thanks for suggesting it (and helping me with it) Lianne! :)

Now we just need to eat it!!!! YUM YUM!

D.

Favourite things Friday...

flowers

Flowers have to be on my list of favourite things, and I received these ones from my wonderful in-laws for my birthday last week! It's always a nice surprise to receive flowers, especially lillies which are my most favourite flower!!! :)

Have a neat Friday!

Jodz has joined me on this friday adventure through our favourite things and you are most welcome to join in too!

You can join in on the fun of show-and-tell by emailing me at sewfunky@orcon.net.nz and I'll add your name to my sidebar!

I noticed, over the weekend, that Paisley Jade's joined in on favourite thing friday... go take a look!

Favourite things Friday...

This week I want to show you guys my new favourite item...

A three tiered cake stand that I got for my birthday from Jodz! :D

Only a good friend would know exactly what I want for my birthday without asking!!!

You can join in on the fun of show-and-tell by emailing me at sewfunky@orcon.net.nz and I'll add your name to my sidebar!

Jodz has joined me on this friday adventure through our favourite things, you can join in too!

Favourite things Friday...

crunchie bars...

They have to be my current favourite chocolate bar! Eating them is like a ceremony. I like to slowly eat the chocolate off the hokey pokey, and then devour the yummy dissolving in the mouth insides (hokey pokey). All I can say is yum, and I can't wait to have another one! :)

My mouth is watering, just thinking about them...

What's your favourite chocolate bar?

Favourite things Friday...

I love books... And one of my favourite places to go is to my local library to pick out craft books and recipe books ( I am absolutely LOVING Apples for Jam - may have to buy that one!)

These are just a few of my current reading pile.

I've just realised that I've been a little absent from the blog (think last post was this time last week...), I've been real busy making things for Christmas, things I can't really post, because I know my three sweet children look at my blog from time to time. I may be able to post a couple of teaser pic's in the next day or so.

Also, I have received 3 of the ornaments for the ornament swap I signed up for, which really means I need to get a wiggle on and send mine off! I will post pics of them soon too... Just busy spending time with family today, and thinking about advent ideas. I may do something that I did back in 2006 - an activity for every day of advent. :) That was hugely successful with the girls, and great for memory making which I'm a huge fan of.

I hope all the American's that read my blog had a fantastic thanksgiving yesterday. I experienced a bit of my own - we got together with an American friend (Hi Becca!) and had a Kiwi-American thanksgiving. We ate sweet potatoes, turkey, maori potatoes (think PURPLE potatoes here... they were delicious but strange), pavlova, pumpkin pie - it was a true mix-up of kiwi and american traditional foods. YUM!

Anyway, I hope you are all well, know that I am well too, just exceptionally busy! Miss you all!!!