I had in mind to give myself a year of practicing wheel throwing before I took the leap and got anything fired. Apparently I was a bit deluded, coz I just read it takes 2-4 years to become a proficient potter. I hope I have the stamina !

Like my Avocado tree for instance. I must have planted it 5 years ago? I kinda lost track but I've been waiting for the magic 7 years to see if it will fruit. I just read that Avocado trees grown from stone can take 15 years to fruit, if at all.

I'm ignoring that.

 I still have my heart set on magic 7.

Anyway, the weather's cooled down... back into the garden I go!

PS. If you think my pottery looked alright... I was trying to make mugs!

I think I blogged that one of the biggest compliments I recieved was that I was a hard worker... I so wish it were true!!!

This is me after 40 mins gardening today!

And this is the sum total of what I achieved...

after I decided it was all too much and went and had a cup of tea.

Well, maybe gardening in the middle of the day during mid summer is not the greatest idea. Might do a bit more when the sun goes down a bit... which should be around 8pm!!!

My goodness our garden is a mess... it's been literally 4 months since I've touched it. And insead of gardening I sat down briefly and took these photos.

Also ironically, it's summer in New Zealand and I put these snowflakes on the windows for Christmas!

Catherine was Mary this year in the Sunday School play too.

And I'm still taking photos of my pottery, in all its lumpyness!

So now that it's official on facebook I can say my best friend, Teresa... is having a baby! That's a billion times more exciting than I can express.

It was also her birthday yesterday, and I made her these! Little onsies!

I love this pattern and I love the fact that I can make custome coloured onsies instead of the usual blue, pink or yellow kind in stores.

Pattern can be found here.

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Here's my sign I've been working on...

Getting there!

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And finally getting back into the garden again! So I can turn this

into this!

Friendship

The wood's finally done! My neighbour just popped his head over the fence again, I offered him the wood I couldn't split, he came over and we both chucked it over to his side.

One of the best things about that though, is for the last, say 13 years I've been scared to death of my neighbours. After having my mental illmess I pretty much holed myself up and avoided everyone in the "real world". I guess it's quite sad, coz he's a big friendly Maori man who's knew my parents before I came along in 1978 and I used to play with their kids back in the eighties. Back then when dog regulations weren't so strict and we didn't have fences, our properties were all kinda open and we used to all play at each others houses.

It's been like that for a while though, even last year when I moved into my new flat across the road, I'd kinda run from the door into my car, or walk hurridly past the neighbouring flats windows.

2013 has been a bit different.

Im less scared this year. Earlier this year I went to the neighbours church for a while and that helped alot.

I've also developed a couple of new friendships which has been out of this world. I'm still abit on edge sometimes, like I'm totally gonna hurt someone by being insensitive or being too scared or jaded to be there at a time they really need me. Or am I just over thinking this? There's no real formula to it I spose, and overthinking it is just gonna kill it. Sometimes I just have to turn off my brain in certain situations coz it does more harm than good. 

Wood

Well, I don't know how long I've been chopping this wood for, a couple of months maybe? But I've finally put a dent in the pile,

see?....

which is why our whole property is overgrown, and our vege garden looks like this..

I guess I can't really complain about the self-seeding daisies. They are pretty.

And I just noticed this. Wandering Dew... the bane of my life. Theyre like the un-dead of the plant world. You can't kill them...

but they have pretty flowers don't they? 

Odd.

Bohemia!

Like my new skinnies? They were $5 jeans I got from the Op shop which were bootlegs I sewed down the side. Instant skinny jeans. And you see my pointed foot? I always do that to show I did Irish dancing for 10 years, like, yeah-boi, I still got it... but really, I got cramp just taking that photo.

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And spring is here in NZ, and our garden is bushy and beautiful. Some would say "overgrown"... I'm choosing to see the glass half full today and admire the daisies growing up in the middle of our vege patch.

And I just saw the weirdest thing before I came here. You can't really see it but there's a guy on the footpath jogging along... with a beer in his hand! I guess he's not jogging for health reasons then?

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And after crooning over the Moon to Moon blog I went to the Op shop and got myself some beautiful 70s pottery. It's my favourite type of decor and reminds me of smokey folk gatherings from my childhood. 

Maybe I should have put some kind of photoshop effect on these to make them more Moon to Moonish..

and what about this one?

Does it look like that photo I showed you? I went to Mums and picked up an old sheet I bought from Trade Aid years ago and pinned to my wall above my headrest.

Well, maybe if I had made my bed first!

Well, Spring is here in New Zealand, and my cuttings have taken root over winter! This is four twigs from a pretty miniture rose that are now budding.

I see other blogs, mainly the US really, talking about Summer ending. I started following a blog by a girl who LOVES winter and relished the first day of snow. Shes actually a kind of clairvoyant - mystic type person. As a christian I would class her as "New Age"... but she wouldn't label herself that. It all goes in conjunction with a friend I met up with recently who has left the Christian faith. In her words, now she is happier, less judgemental, feels less guilty and more free. Say what?  And as I read that blog I mentioned, she also experiences the beauty in life... snow on the skin, wind in the hair, the different flavours of food.

Well, why shouldn't I be experiencing all that too? I want to experience beauty, and peace, and enjoy simple things like lying in bed and listening to the breeze outside while the morning light flickers on the wall. Shouldn't the christian have all the joys and simple pleasures in life too? I'm going to make a serious effort to take a leaf out of the New Age book and enjoy the things I love.

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Here's a spider plant I took from a 'baby'. It's grown a wee bit over winter. I plan to put it here eventually..

...a long term project.

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And guess what? In complaining I didn't even loose a kg in The Biggest Looser, I ended up coming 3rd place! Yippee! (Money!) I want to buy some beeswax and stuff for making homemade lip balm, so maybe I ll put it towards that

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And after spending all winter collecting our toilet rolls it's time to put them to use and start planting seeds for the coming season. These are all filled with seeds I saved from plants... marigolds, capsicum and parsley. So I don't know how these will go.

May go to the Plant Barn today and get some more potting mix and seeds.

I think deep down we know what we really want. For me my dreams reveal to me my deepest desires. The other night I dreamt I bought a big pot, put it by my door and planted a lavender plant in it.

So I acted on my dream, trying to put a bit of paridise into my reality.

I think our blogs also reveal how we wish our lives were.

For instance we present our photos by cropping and colour inhancing like this.,..

... when the reality is more like this...

Im not sad, I'm not suicidal, but for me I know my deepest desires will never be met this side of heaven. My dreams tell me that every time I wake up each morning and they quickly fade back into my subconscious.

But there's work here for me, and I have no choice. So here I am... looking forward to a time when my deepest desires are met... Heaven... bring it on!

Thrift

How come when I decide to make bags, which should be fun enough, all of a sudden I can't wait to get into the garage and start making tatting shuttles??

Maybe I should just embrace it, instead of wondering whats wrong with me!

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No money for new slippers? No problem! Make some!!

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Now I have enough potatoes to last me 3 weeks.... last nights dinner was... Potato fritters!

Recipe:

4 potatoes mashed

2 pieces of bacon diced and fried

2  Tblsp of chopped tomatoes

herbs from garden

flour to bind

salt/pepper

mix and dip in bread crumbs

(which I made by toasting some bread and hitting in a plastic bag with a rolling pin)

Fry them!

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Too much time on Pinterest made me think I was impoverished because I needed a whole new set of PJs.... when all I really needed to do was mend the old ones! You can barely see the mend anyway!

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And Im back into gardening after the drought we had in New Zealand. It's time for cuttings so I've got rose cuttings, lavender, daisy,  and geranium cuttings. Also cabbage seedling which came up in only 3 days! I planted them in toilet rolls which go straight into the garden.

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As you can see I'm trying to make the most of my internet time too, because I basically can't afford internet either, but I'm on a contract so I'll get charged if I leave/change providers. Plus any minute now Ill change my mind and start to advertise hard out for signwriting work and Ill need my email. But at the moment I've discovered I can survive on very little and i'm lovin it!

I went to the bach and dug up these...

 and cleared this, BUT...

how the heck do I get rid of THIS?

A massive Toitoi bush all on my own?

Little by little I'm guessing. (The picture doesn't do it justice. It's massive)

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Also, thanks to my friends Dana Walker, Gloria Zeigler and Julia Harkness I have a whole lot of goodies to stick in my Toiletry bags for the womens refuge. Especially Dana who added a whole lot of goodies I wouldnt have thought of... like emery boards, tissues, lip gloss and even combs! I'm sure they will be really appreciated :)