Ouch

Its really been 4 months since my last post?

Wow - thats a loooooong time.

Heaps to update on, will do over the next few nights. Obviously I have found a new busy career that keeps me off the puter in my kids-at-home time.

More to follow in subsequent days........

Before and after - first haircut!

Crawford is about 6m old now, and has just had her first haircut. So cute - I could almost eat her up!

Before - and this is after brushing!

Scruffy thing, but loads of personality.

After - soooooo cute!! She actually looks like a proper westie now!

This took 2 hours. Nails filed, ears plucked then cut, face cleaned up, back clipped, bum and tail clipped. A girl has got to have all the treatments daahling!

Amazing! She looks fabulous, and apparently went very well, so the only thing we have to practise before the next trip is plucking her ears as she didn't enjoy that so much.

Calling all customs!

I had a query about customs - whether I am up for them at the moment.

Yes I am!

In a week I will be on school holidays, so that's 2 weeks of being at home - bliss!

I am interested in doing a dye up or two, so if you want to contact me for a custom - fjwolff at ihug dot co dot nz

At the moment I have the following in stock:
4 ply machine wash 100%
4 ply machine wash sock wool (70/30)
8 ply machine wash 100%
and 200g each of 2 and 3 ply lace wool.

I am interested in jumper lots - so if you were thinking of a larger dye job, let me know.

Roll on last week of term ;)

Earth hour

So of course we did this tonight.

A little pointless given all we ever have on at this time of night is 2 60W bulbs, but ya know - we did what we should have.

While all these things are great - ultimately its what you do in your day to day life that makes a big difference.

I am a massive one for the old "reuse, reduce, recycle". It ties in with the classic engineers phrase eliminate, isolate, minimise - but dont tell the greenies that.....

My Precious....

Its a sad state of affairs when you have a thing for wool. I have a thing for wool. Therefore I am sad. Or pathetic. Or whatever.

Anyway - Wollmeise. Hard as anything to get your hands on, and after almost a year, this is my stash. I sold one to Sam who made a beautiful shawl, and knitted up some of my Saami, and this is what is left!



I love the stuff, and it smells great, and since I dye wool (often to sell....) I feel qualified to say her colours are intense, tasteful and insanely beautiful!

From left to right
Fratello (Yarnissima Kits)
Rhabarber
Buxkranzl (Sock Club)
Okzident (Sock Club)
Spina de Pesce (Yarnissima)
Hollerstaud'n (Sock Club)
Petit Poison No 5
Digitessa (Yarnissima)
Jultomte (Sock Club)
Rosenrot
Orient (Sock Club)
Campari Orange
Red Hot Chilli
and 2 naturals along the back.

There are 2 more sock clubs to come, and then I think I am done with buying Wollmeise. Its horribly stressful, there is lots of hoarders of the stuff, and the price is horribly inflated on places like Ebay USA. For example the latest installment of the sock club sold on Ebay for $300 USD. Now I love the stuff, but at $50NZD per skein, thats about my limit!! I cannot justify keeping more than this, nor can I justify the constant trading and selling that goes on. I wish people would just buy what THEY want, and leave the rest for other people who want to buy. I never buy more than 3 skeins at a time becuase postage goes stupid after that, and really, dropping $150 NZD on wool in an evening every few months is obscene as it is.

Recently I purchased all four kits from Yarnissima - she sells Wollmeise with a pattern in a stunning kit. They arrived today from Netherlands, and wow!! The wrapping, and the extra goodies all just show what an amazing buying experience this all is.

So watch for future projects. I think I am going to do a shawl with Rhabarber and Jultomte, and I can see a few other projects of mixing the natural and Saami. I also want to do a petit poison and Hollerstaud'd project I think as mine go beautifully.

I think the wool is worth it - its 150g skeins which in itself makes it worth minimum $30NZD (as most nice sock wools are around $20/100g, and with the colours, the quality and the gorgeous smell (Perwoll wool wash) its an enjoyable thing to collect.

Fossils.....

I have a new lust.




Fossil hunting.


We stayed here during the weekend, and it was lovely. These are some shots from their farm.


The white parts in the rock are oyster beds, and they are only 20mil years old...





What!!!!!! When is 20mil only young???? This is me who freaks out when I walk through castles that are 1000y old!!!!!

WE went fossil hunting at Kiritehere Beach in West Waikato. At first I couldn't find any (despite the fact people said to me " fossils are lying everywhere under the bridge there..." and I still couldn't find them).


So luckily Shane is infinitely more patient than me, and had the first find. After I saw what they looked like, I jumped all over them, throwing rocks to crack them open, and then asking him to put a large rock in the boot. To be honest - they didn't look that cool. Really - they were just clam shells baked in rock.



Well when I get home I find out that my special rocks (that anyone has access to) are actually dated from the TRIASSIC period, which is really ffffffing old!! 210million years. My little buggers are Monotis, and they are very common for the area, which was covered in sediment 210 million years ago, and then NZ did the freaky land moving thing, and up went these sea beds!



So now I love my fossils, and they are pretty and stunning and clever and gorgeous! We have donated a couple of lovely specimens to Jenna's kindergarten, and I have some cool ones to take to school and donate to the rock collection there.

Some I guess I will keep myself, but I admit that I only understand this better since I started "teaching" geology 2 weeks ago - which I know nothing about!!!!!

Mini break

So we did the whole mini break this weekend. Reality was kicking in, and I wanted an easy night away. Not easy with a dog...

But we found this gorgeous place, that looked nice, and was free the morning we wanted to leave, and was OK with dogs. Actually - thats not quite true. Shane went off on Sat morning to run some errands, and I serached the web, called around, packed up the truck, and when he got home I told him to have a shower, and we were off. He knew nothing about it!


Te tiro cottages was a dream. Gorgeous setting, nice price ($130 a night for all of us), 40 mins drive, and just plain relaxing. It was a wonderful chance choice.



Yes - this is view from the kitchen window!!!!

We spent the afternoon wandering around the farm with Crawford and their foxy Puck, and then had a wonderful evening just chilling and drinking a nice red.



After night fell, we walked about 2mins to their very own glowworm grotto - OMFG. This was the coolest!!!!!! So cool we ran back to the cottage, woke Jenna up to come down and see the sparkle fairies in the fairy forest (as it had been dubbed)



The hosts were amazing - Angus and Rachel rocked, and the kids were lovely too. They were very accommodating and friendly, and I think have a wonderful place to raise their kids.

Book Tetiro the next time you want a break away with the kids! 2 Cottages, sleep about 4-5 each and a wonderful private setting. 2 families with young kids I think is perfect!


(This is where the kids slept - and didn't they love that!!!! Our bed was right underneath them.)