courtyard garden ideas

We'd be hard-pressed to call it a courtyard garden at the moment, but that is the picture I have in my mind.  This was a nice vege garden for a year and then it all went a bit lairy.  It's not quite sunny enough for a lot of veges so we will move them somewhere else, and we want to build a pizza oven and have some nice seating etc.  We will try to use what we have in the way of building materials,  there are bits and pieces around the place that would work,  but try to avoid the crazy paving thing

Yes, it is shameful.

So I got some books out the library to give us some inspiration.

 the gardens of provence are rather grand and large and beautiful

 This size is a bit more like it, some lovely ideas

home-made eco christmas tree tutorial.

I have finally managed to finish the tree.  It has taken a while as its construction time has been broken up with taking the girls to the pool, christmas shopping, and possibly other stuff that I can't remember. It is bamboo and has taken on many aspects of images searched over the internet in previous post.  I possibly would have made it like this anyway, but it is hard to say.

 (above) working it out as I go along, and attractive shots of the garage floor, which is actually visible now it has had a tidy up.  I will attempt to write down the process in a coherent manner, if you don't understand it let me know and I will try to remedy this.

Construction:

1. cut bamboo pole for central trunk.  (I got my husband to cut them using a circular saw as bamboo will split if I use my sectres or loppers)

2.   cut lateral branches, work out width of bottom of tree and top of tree and graduate lengths of branches inbetween.  I used 30 laterals (see picture below)

3.  I measured out evenly 30 holes on the trunk of tree, working from between where the top branch and the bottom branch begin.  I placed each hole slightly around the trunk from the previous one so that the branches are well dispersed. Drill through from one side to the other.

4.  drill 2 holes side by side on the centre of each lateral branch.(the distance between the holes is relative to how thick the central trunk is 

(above) bit more like it.  My 9 year old was decidedly unimpressed at this point, and who could blame her?  My 12 year old said "You could just be normal" (she is nearly a teenager)

5.  Using wire, push length about 20cms/4.5inches through trunk holes and then each end through each hole in lateral branch and wrap around branch.  Start at bottom and work way up to top branch.  

 Hooray!  I ran out of wire last night, which was a good thing as the wire we had was a bit thick and hard to bend around.  New wire was quick and easy, my husband drilled a large hole in a macrocarpa sleeper to stand the tree in.  

 It's mimimalist appearance actually worked quite well with our colourful over the top decorations.  The paper chinese lanterns were an experiment by Nine Year Old and at first looked a bit dodge, but I think they work well now it's all finished.

 Its like an explosian went through the pink sparkley decoration department.  I like it.

Need something a bit bigger and shinier for the top of the tree, but that can soon be remedied.

Eco alternatives to the christmas tree

In England I was the proud owner of a fake white six foot christmas tree. I rather loved it, but we couldn't fit it in the container when we moved over.  Last year we had some magnolia branches which were twisty and pretty but cumbersome. So this year we decided that we would make a christmas tree out of some driftwood that had been in the garage for quite some time.  We then realised that I had finally thrown it out when we had the last skip.  Ho hum.  So we then decided that we could use some bamboo that had been hanging around in the garage for, also, quite some time.  A lot of bamboo can be harvested from two small patches of bamboo and it just hangs around waiting to be useful.  We have used it for curtain poles, and I tried to make a lattice fence, but it was time consuming  and pretty bad.
So I have been looking for ideas for bamboo christmas trees.  On my quest I also came across many eco trees which are quite groovey, so I thought they deserved an airing on my blog too.

This tree is a bit large for our needs, but it is a cool idea and bamboo.  We will need tinsel and sparkley things on our tree though

another bamboo tree at 100 christmas trees. It's a rather nice traditional shape.

there are some really great eco-trees at inspiration green.  It is rather bonfire-nighty, but I do like it.

this is glass water bottles found on ecofriend in montreal.  It is really so pretty, especially with the lighting on it.

nice and minimal at silvercocoon.

more from inspiration green

the name of this one is rather sweet possibilitrees.

and I think this is just marvelous, shopping trolleys made into a tree. And I have just noticed the monstrous baubles hanging off it.  I want some of those, I feel a ballon papier mache bauble project coming on.

Well, there is some food for thought, my husband thinks he will be making it, but he is a "Bah Humbug"  about christmas and decorating so I am not sure he is to be let loose on such a project.  He is however in control of the big noisy saws so he may be needed.

fairy tales

Gift Book of fairy tales, illustration Janet and Anne Graham Johnstone,Dean &Son Ltd printed 1967.

I found this at an op-shop about three years ago, and I pore over it a lot. I love the illustration style so much, and the colours are splendid.  I think we must have had this as kids, at least borrowed it from the library, as it has a bit of a nostalgic pull about it.  This one has the name of the first owner written inside the front cover, from Auntie some-one.

(above)babes in the wood, puss in boots, hansel and gretel, beauty and the beast, and inside the cover of the book.

 (above) Gretel kicks ass, and I love her skirt, if I was quite a bit younger I would make one for myself.  The witches wood-burner is to die for, and she has a nice paisley skirt on.

 I imagine, in my more wistful moments, being whisked away by such handsome robbers. (Babes in the wood)

and I rather love what this young boy is wearing, his tights and socks are rather fancy, and his boots.  Not sure I would wear the sleeves.  Cute hair! (Puss in boots)

I picked out some folksy motifs that I liked and drew them in my sketch book for later reference.

hearts and raspberries

 We have picked the first raspberries today, just a hand-ful

 I have bought some heart-shaped cookie-cutters, so today for lunch I made heart-shaped eggy-bread, and tin tomatoes, with Kaitia Fire chilli sauce.  Yum!  I made more than shown in the above photo, but I thought that minimal looked prettier. 

pink.

Ulyana Sergeenko

i have just come across these gorg fashion photos of designer Ulyana Sergeenko found through livefastmag.  The clothes, the model and her hair, the wall paper are quite divine.  The shoes aren't bad either.

Christmas cards designs.

Cards now selling at Earth Bloom louise douglas jewelry boutique on corner of Rutherford and Waimea roads, Nelson and Red Gallery in Bridge Street Nelson.  Both shops selling gorgeous things.

I have had a very spoily few days designing and making pictures for Christmas cards.  Spoily, to spend the whole day just doing this is something I have not done in years and  I loved it a lot.  I was influenced a lot style-wise by some art I have been looking at recently some of it, here and here and here.  Influences also from European folk art, Chinese and Japanese designs.

 The idea is they are cute looking little girls in christmas outfits with some things on their minds.

I always love cutting out snowflakes, this one was influenced by some chinese pottery.

brown paper, and beginnings of collage before the painting began.

I have tried to make them christmasy in some way or other, adding a christmasy emblem or two to each one.  As we live in New Zealand and it will be summer I have tried to keep away from the snow.  They are multi-media, with magazine collage (one of my favourite things to collage with) and paint.  I am really please with the way they have come out.  I just need to get them printed now.  I would be interested to know which ones you like best, or not.
These worst-christmas-cards are hilarious, great family christmas greeting inspiration!

running race day

On Saturday we had a 10km running event,  run Mahana, at a beautiful vinyard in a beautiful scenic spot.  the sun was shining, it was a bit windy, but generally very lovely.

me and the gal pals before the start

looking less composed at the end

I have had this dress since June when I went to England to visit my sister, and haven't worn it  yet, there  are not many opportunities in our town to get dressed up.  And the shoes, these are for Kim and Helen who sent me a funny text about my new shoe post.

 We invited some friends and children around in the afternoon to congratulate ourselves on running.  And to show off the table my husband had just finished making out of some used decking joists. Pretty sweet!

 There was shoe trying on

 There was entertainment

and some water fighting, hose-pipe spraying.