THE SEQUEL: pregnancy announcement

HELLO WORLD!

Introducing our wee bundle of joy Mr Van (Evan) Alonzo Veysey! Feeling extremely blessed to have this little addition to our family. The poor boy is destined for a life of photoshoots... But I just can't help myself! So much love for him xx

YEAR FOUR: CHATTAN FARM

Well this is it! Our last anniversary with just the two of us – and what a lovely four years it has been. But this chapter is almost at a close as we are about to add to our wee family with a son! I am 26 weeks pregnant with 13 left to go... The countdown is on (already). But in the mean time we decided to try a little glamping to celebrate our marriage and set out to Chattan Farm, one of the unique Canopy Camping sites. This is the first time we have been to one of the Canopy Camping Escapes and we loved it! It was so nice to get away and literally unplug... No power sockets here buddy! The tent (if you can call it that) is nestled away on a beautiful farm in the Bay of Plenty and set up with a kitchen and bathroom. I hope we can make it back here sometime soon, and after this experience I would be keen to try some of the other Escapes around the country. Thanks for these wonderful four years of marriage babe, here's to a new adventure! xxx

EXPECTING

We have some exciting news! Brendon and I are expecting a little one at the beginning of August. Fair warning... there will probably be an influx of baby related posts from now on!

Día de Muertos

My brother and I celebrated our first ever Halloween this year. It is not something that is big in New Zealand but a friend of mine has a party every year and it's a fun excuse to get all dressed up. My brother and I went as Sugar Skulls in the Day of the Dead theme. Do you think we could pass as Mexicans?! The make up was fun to do, although more time consuming than I anticipated. And I love any reason to wear a big ol' flower crown :)

YEAR THREE

Its amazing how quickly three years can fly by! In that time I have changed jobs, Brendon has changed career, we've moved to a new town and bought a house. I wonder what the next three years will bring?!
This year we decided to celebrate a little closer to home, so went to Solscape and stayed a couple nights in a teepee. It was fun to do something a little different! We spent most of the weekend taking naps in the sun and exploring the beach. Just what we needed before winter starts to set in.

1095 DAYS SO FAR

TO CALL EACH THING BY ITS RIGHT NAME: part two...

In my previous post I shared some photos of the glass vials I used to put in our herbs and spices. I wanted my tea, coffee and condiments to match as they would be on the same shelf, but instead of clear stickers I used vinyl that had been cut on a plotting machine. In the above pics I've shown how you apply this with masking/application tape. Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and I just love the white Dane Canisters from Freedom.

TO CALL EACH THING BY ITS RIGHT NAME: part one...

My lovely husband has built me some rimu shelves in our kitchen (photos to come) and I didnt want to ruin them by putting our mishmashed herbs, coffee, tea and oils on it. So I decided I would customise our condiments so they would look like a set. I started first with our herbs and spices. I wrote out all the herbs and scanned them into my computer which I then got the printers to print on a clear sticker. I purchased some glass vials with cork lids from etsy and applied my labels. This method looked better on the spices as they were lighter colours. Unfortunately the herbs were a bit dark for the black writing to be seen clearly, but I can still read them so it will have to do!

“Lara walked along the tracks following a path worn by pilgrims and then turned into the fields. Here she stopped and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath of the flower-scented air of the broad expanse around her. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of her life. She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name, or, if this were not within her power, to give birth out of love for life to successors who would do it in her place.”

– Boris Pasternak

HOMEOWNERS

On May 25 Brendon and I moved into our every first home! Eeee! The place is definitely a "doer-upper" but that is partly why I love it. (And partly why I married a builder! Ha, just kidding). So, you can expect that quite a few posts from now on will be house orientated.
We've been in our little house for just over two months now and we've already done a few little projects. (We wont be doing anything drastic for a year or so though). I think my favourite part of the house at the moment are the little numbers that are stamped into our floor boards – a silly thing to like, I know. Plus we have this funny little brick bridge in our garden that I like to call our Narnia garden as it has a lamp post next to it. It's pretty random but I kinda like it. Maybe we should have a Narnia themed house warming party?! Anyway, I can't wait for summer to roll around as I think our little deck will be great for BBQs and entertaining.
PS. do you like the candle holders that I made?

AHOY!

In my last post I shared some photos from my sailor themed birthday... (You would think I was turning 5!) And this is the invitation I sent out beforehand. I used an old photo of myself on the back of the main invite from when I was 6 or 7. I drew a map of the area we would be staying which I roll folded up and wrote my friends names on the back. I threaded through some navy and white bakers twine to finish it off. Ta da!

YEAR TWO.

It has been two years today that I married my best friend Brendon! My how time flies! We celebrated up north in Kerikeri on the Takou River in a little cabin called the Magic Cottage... And it really lived up to it's name. It was such a romantic spot and the perfect place to celebrate our anniversary. If you're ever in the Bay of Islands I would highly recommend staying here.

We explored all around the area and had a kayaking adventure down the river all the way to the beach. We even went on a little night walk to see the gloworms. It was an unrivaled weekend... bring on Year Three!

SAINT VAL.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope you like the little gif I made with the girls at work :)
Wishing you a LOVELY day xx

IT'S A NEW YEAR

So, I've been MIA from the blogging world for a wee while... A true holiday for me means no computer. At all. It's pretty difficult, but also amazingly freeing at the same time. It's a little scary how dependent we become on these screens in front of us. But when you're on a computer all day everyday for work you really do need to say goodbye to the pixels. It just doesn't feel like a holiday otherwise. BUT my lovely husband got me an iPhone for Christmas so I guess from now on I won't be completely detached! This also means that I now have Instagram :)
I'm pretty excited about 2013. There are quite a few things that I'd like to get done this year, but for now I'm pretty content to just soak up the sun! So far, my highlights have included... Wrapping Mums Christmas present in a not-so-subtle way, my husband becoming my hero (literally) when our kayaking trip turned into a little more "adventure" than we bargained for, thickshakes on the beach, reading a couple great books, swims in the ocean, hanging with friends and getting an amazing typewriter from my Grandma... Any one know a place in Hamilton that restores/repairs typewriters?
All the best for 2013 everyone! xx

SINGER

My wonderful Mother kindly bought me an early Christmas present! I think these old sewing machines are so beautiful and I've always wanted one. I think it makes a nice edition to our lounge :) Thanks Mum!

THE GARDEN

In the weekend the hubby and I spent a good chunk of our time in the garden. I've got to tell you... It was a mess – mostly due to neglect :( Winter was pretty wet and everything grew out of control! I'm afraid I don't have much of a green thumb – though my grandparents are amazing, so there may be hope for me yet. I love how there is always still some beauty among the chaos. I think I might have to start with a terrarium and progress from there :)

PS. I love these guys VERY much xx

RUAPEHU

Our trip up the mountain was a success... sort of. There was A LOT of falling over on my part and a lot of patience from Brendon bless his soul. He actually ended up being a very good teacher. I only got a few small bruises, so its up to snow planet this weekend for some more practice. I attempted to take some video of Brendon boarding but I think I need to master getting down the mountain without falling over before I try and get the camera involved! Below are some pics of our trip. We went to a cute cafe in Ohakune for brunch the following day. I like it there very much...