diy sparkly necklace

My mum came to stay, she bought my nine year old a book on beading, and they went to the local bead shop and bought beads, fixings and some polymer clay.  THis was two weeks ago and small child is still making jewelry.  She has good style I think, photo of her first design on her sweet little nine year old neck.

gorgeous kitchens

Our kitchen needs re-doing, probably moving to another room in the house, cause the flow ain't right.  We can't afford that but I have done some kitchen day-dreaming anyway, mainly at this fab blog Pretty Kitchens .  Loads of inspiration and different styles to choose from.  And I don't have links for these next four photos, any one know?

 loving rustic

Loving the lime green splash-back. mark bolton photography

 all photos below from pretty kitchens

 If my house could fit a kitchen in this big I wouldn't really care what it looked like, futuristic, light and simple pimple.

 this is so sweet, my husband would not understand/hate it.  Those tiles look a bit hard though, smash the dropped things to smithereens.

 The plywood house/kitchen thing has been around for a while, this mixed with colour cup-boards and the light-shades ( I want some) is rather cool I do think.

 turqouise work top!

 beautiful old falling-down mansion style kitchen, admiring the floorboards and that spiral staircase.  Where's my ball gown?

 wasn't sure if this was a dressing room or a kitchen, it is sooo yellow but I like it.

 Great eclectic style and splashes of bright colour

 I liked the banquette on the right side and all that lovely natural light and the fact that it is enormous.

I love the wallpaper in this one and the check flooring and the table and chairs, I love it all!

event day

We (husband and I and 350 other people) have now accomplished the run we have been training for (well I have been training, he has been too busy, but done a little bit).  Loop the Lake.  Beautiful sunny day, lots of tree roots, lots of rocky river beds dry and wet, many undulations, mountains, a big lake and some beautiful native plants.  I ran it in 2hrs 38minutes and 20 seconds and came 126th.  I ran quicker than last year and me and husband got our second night away from the kids in 12 years(my mum looked after them for the night).  So It was all very nice.  Funny photo of me running through a river here, ha ha.

 This is probably the only flat section of the whole run, but it is the only bit I have a photo of.

vintage wallpaper

Just been nosying around some houses on the market in our town.  one house we went to was full of potential, needed lots of work but could have been really cool.  But the best thing about it was the wallpaper in one of the bedrooms.  I was smitten by it.  Must have been put up with the house (1930's).  We went along because the photos of the house made it look like a serial killer house.  The garage was satisfyingly reminiscent of the film "Misery" and  "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". but we liked it.

 and the carpet was sweet too.

little denim bag

 I made this bag for a 13 year old friends birthday out of some old fallen apart jeans.  To make the front of the bag I drew black outline, coloured it in on the computer, printed it onto transfer paper and ironed it onto some denim.  My daughter decided  it needed a butterfly to brighten it up.  The pattern for this one came from a japanese book from the library.  It is meant to be bigger and have a little drawstring purse in its body, which is really sweet, but it would have swamped this bag and its wings would have been too flopsy.

 I used some grey lace from my stash and coloured in some black stripes onto the side panels.  The strap is made out of a faded thick silk scarf. 

The lining of the bag has a little pocket to put an ipod or phone into.

D&G Autumn winter/12

I am reposting this D&G fashion collection from a pair & a spare because it was so gorgeous.

to see the rest of the collection click on the link.

I want a dress like this!  The socks are cute, and I am sure I have an old brown velvet curtain in a cupboard somewhere. I could mock up one of these.  

more running

It may seem that I have done nothing but run recently and it is beginning to feel like that a bit.  Every morning I get up and put on my running gear, instead of my usual glamourous attire (ho ho).  But have a race to train for in a few weeks and this is the last chance saloon to get in shape for it.  (Race makes it sound like I will be hoping to win, which is not the case.  I am hoping to complete the course , not coming last, not injuring myself and being able to run the whole way. This morning was no different, I went to bed last night looking forward to getting up and running for >2hrs, I didn't feel quite the same enthusiasm in the cold light of early morning, but I dutifully got up, got into smelly running gear, put on my little bag with water bladder and a high energy snack and off I went, without dog or friend.   

 I did ponder, after an hour of uphill running, shuffling and some walking, that maybe all this uphill stuff was a bit over the top, the training plan said "2hrs 15mins undulating", it depends on your ideas about undulating, but there seemed to be a lot of up and no down.

 nice views though

All photos taken on my, previously mentioned, cell-phone which is really bad quality.  

Running down however was a piece of cake and I felt like one of the vampires in "Twilight" sprinting through the forest.  What I looked like is another matter.  It was much prettier on the way down too, lots of native bush, pretty trees, rocky uneven terrain, and some flat bits. 

I am now a bit tired.