Giving Thanks......

Have you ever been to one of those shops where you know before you even enter it that you are going to love it, you spend hours there selecting items you can't live without and walk out and say to your friend that is the most interesting shop i have been to in a long time........do we ever actually tell the shop owner how we feel about their shop, imagine how thrilled they would be to know that all their hard work and their vision for something amazing has paid off........this shop brought alive all of my senses so much so that i was compelled to write to the owner and tell her how much visiting this shop moved me........this is what i had to write......

From the moment i stepped from the car picking up a fallen oak leaf and catching a glimpse across the road of your shop i knew i was in for something special.
I loosened the cords of my dreams and let them surround me as i stepped through your shop door and i was transported to another time and place.
I was so thankful that my friend had found this shop and that it was with her that i got to experience it all because i knew that this was a shop that one needed to take their time and explore and savour the delights surrounding me as i walked around......



I was captivated from the first step inside, drawn to a tin cheese pot i had much admired in magazines and wondered where i could get one, immediately i visualized a jar inside with spring flowers gently draped over the edges the old and the new coming together to create a feast for the eyes and the heart.
Strong manilla tags with numbers caught my eye, my latest obsession with anything numbered or initialed and i couldn't believe my eyes to have these in my hand.
I realized that this was a shop where every nook and cranny deserved to be explored and touched and admired, the wonderful displayed items in old bags, the rusty and the layered and the soft and the flowing caught my eyes as i floated around as if in a dream.


The childrens corner quickly brought to mind my two new grandchildren, one to be born soon and one later in the year, i took note of all there was to offer with a promise to return to purchase that special gift for someone so small and precious, i marvelled at the wonderful range of items that would delight any child.

I admired the velvet edged curtains that i imaged wafting in the breeze of the open French doors, admired the beauty of both the scent and packaging of the Tokyo Milk range, books that i myself owned and loved I saw here and some that i knew about but hadn't actually seen i was able to flick through to get a sense of the essence of them as music danced around my head.

By this time I knew the owner had such good taste and a creativity for purchasing items that reached out and pulled you in. I let the sights, sounds and smells wash over me, admired the wire bird cages as i am sure many have before me had and was told it was a prop as were other bits that i was drawn to.
I was introduced to the delightful shop assistant with the beautiful name with the unusual pronouncation .... Melisa....she told me that people called her Melissa instead, and her smile and how helpful and friendly she was to us...

I loved how everything was not in neat little rows but creatively displayed so it was journey of discovery where you had to get on your hands and knees and sift through all the treasures you uncovered one after the other, adding them to the ever growing bundle to take home to keep the memories alive.
I lost myself amongst everything that i had not seen before, that was new to me, that i had to have and knew that at long last i had arrived at the place of my dreams and seen it for the first time, i came away experiencing something magical.


I wanted to take the time to write to Andrea to thank her because far too often we think these things as we leave but we never actually tell the person responsible how we feel, the shop evokes such emotion inside that goes way beyond just going into a nice shop, it is an experience of the mind and soul and the best shop i have been in for years, it is like a breath of fresh air that swirls around inside you and leaves you with pure joy in your heart, a spring in your step and a feeling that life is good after all.......as Emily Bronte would say.....it went through me and through me like wine through water and changed the colour of my mind.............


If you are ever in Auckland go to Devonport to Cosi Fan Tutte at 2 Calliope Road and experience for yourself what i did.......you won't be disappointed.......oh and remember to tell Andrea and Melisa how much you enjoyed the experience ...........
If you are into french nordic interior design and love that clean white look or just like a great magazine...... be sure to pick up a copy of the swedish magazine called Jeanne d'arc which they now stock.......the most amazing magazine with no ads.........


I would like to thank Shane of
roselaceandbrocante.blogspot.com
for allowing me to use her photos, please visit her lovely blog......

I would also like to thank Andrea of Cosi Fan Tutte for allowing me to use her photos as well.........

Twas the month after Christmas

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!

Will its not quite a month after christmas yet, and i have a feeling there will be a number of people who are hoping that 2012 goes a bit more slowly than the year before.
I came across this little verse and thought i would share it with you as i am sure like me there are others who can relate.......


Twas the month after Christmas
and all through the house
nothing would fit me
not even a blouse
The cookies I'd nibbled
The chocolate I'd taste
and the holiday parties
had gone to my waist

When i got on the scales
There arose such a number!
When i walked to the store
less a walk than a lumber
I'd remember the marvellous
meals I'd prepared
The gravies and sauces
and beef nicely rared
The wine and the rum balls,
the bread and the cheese
and the way I'd never said
"no thank you, please"

As i dressed myself
in my husbands old shirt
and prepared once again
to do battle with dirt
i said to myself, as I only can
"you can't spend a summer
disguised as a man!"
So away with the last
of the sour cream dip
Get rid of the fruit cake
the cracker and chip
Every last bit
of food that i like
must be banished till
all the additional ounces
have vanished.

I won't have a cookie
not even a lick
I'll want only to chew on
a long celery stick
I won't have hot biscuits
or corn bread or pie
I'll munch on a carrot
and quietly cry
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome
and life is a bore
But isn't that what
January is for?
Unable to giggle
No longer a riot
Happy New Year to all
and to all a good diet

Spoilt for a time

It was a sad day indeed when news reached us that the ship called the Rena.... shown above had run aground on a reef out from our beautiful beach at the mount.........great big globs of oil where spilling onto our beach, killing our wildlife and our sealife........hard to believe that it could happen here......we have watched with sadness each day seeing it spread further without anyone rushing to do anything or so it seemed to all of us who watched anxiously and who though willing to go the beaches ourselves to help were told we were not allowed.......but come they did from near and far wanting to help because that is what we nzers do.......this beautiful beach line could not be tainted by this oil, too many of us have so many wonderful memories of times spent here....and with our summer around the corner we wanted to be able to again enjoy this very beach.....the clean up has started, the oil starting to be pumped from the helpless ship which has large cracks in the side......yes some containers have slipped into the water and ended up on the beach again spilling its mess......we are all holding our breath hoping that this will soon end..

flowers for now and other random things

Do you ever get cravings for things? i am not talking food here but things that were around that you actually miss now and wish you still had........as for me i often get cravings for flowers, the house just doesn't look or feel the same unless there are some fresh flowers somewhere......



What i have been missing lately is the hand written letter.......you know the slow kind that ends up in your letterbox......it may have taken several days or even a week or more to get here but when you pick it up out of that box and recognize the handwriting there is a kinda thrill that goes through you!! now don't get me wrong i love the internet and how you can write something to someone you care about and instantly there is a reply i really like that but sometimes i still do crave that hand written letter..... i wonder how many of you even still possess one today that was handwritten......when i see the beautiful script of very old letters i can't help but feel something special inside......i wish i had some of those......and i love writing and even i must admit i hardly ever hand write a letter today ..... in fact years ago when i was in primary school i won the handwriting cup.....i was sad that, that particular year they decided as well as getting the big cup with your name engraved on it they had decided to stop giving the little cup that was yours alone to keep.....i still think of that to this day and wish i had that little cup to cherish.....
I think i must have some of my grandfather in me as my mum tells me he used to be a script writer and had beautiful handwriting and was called upon many a time to write a letter for someone who could not read or write.....it would be amazing to have a piece of his writing now but sadly i don't think anyone in the family has.....probably because it wasn't important to do that in those days.....





I didn't end up buying some flowers as with all this warm weather we are having my iceberg roses decided to start flowering again just so i could get a huge bunch to have to admire.......and on mothers day my two daughters brought me some beautiful flowers from my favourite florist.....in another life i would have loved to be a florist imagine being surrounded by beauty every day......

Now if you spied those two little clocks in the back ground you might be surprised to know that the one in the back is actually an old x-ray timer.......thats what it is ....i have had it for years tucked away and decided to bring it out to keep my Little Ben clock company.......now don't ask me how that x-ray timer was actually used it sure does make you wonder thought doesn't it......if anyone knows anything about them please be sure to let me know.....

Lastly i want to give credit to all you bloggers out there that post each and every day with beautifully written words and pictures i don't know how you do it and live your life as well......for me time just seems to be speeding up more each day and i wonder how i actually get anything done!!!

I meant to do my work today but a brown bird sang in the apple tree and a butterfly flitted across the field and all the leaves were calling me and the wind went sighing over the land tossing the grasses to and fro and a rainbow held out its shinning hand so what could i do but laugh and go......
Richard Le Gallienne

Reflections

Looking at these photos you would think they are some mistake that two pictures have overlapped but in actual fact these where taken as reflections into glass in my lounge room.....i loved how you got alot of images within the one frame if you looked closely enough and life is a bit like that don't you think ....so much of our everyday life is about repetition that we forget to take the time to look beyond it, to us we only take in what is around us but there is beauty out there for us all, not hidden just waiting for us to lift our eyes and see......


The value of life does not depend on the place we occupy, it depends upon the way we occupy the place.

Sometimes we expect beauty and wonder to be larger than life and easy to find, we look out and we look up but the real mysteries of nature and beauty that leave us in awe are the tiny treasures when we look down..


Above all watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it......


Many people speak of dreams as fanciful things like fairies and charmed rings and lands of enchantment, others only believe in faraway dreams such as stars or sea castles with elf like inhabitants.
There are day dreamers and night dreamers who dream up make believe places. They use much imagination and in that are dream gifted.
But the serious dreamers are those who catch dreams and bring them to life, to show that when they were dreaming they meant it.......

A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

and what do i want for you in the New Year
peace of mind
the joy of living and seeing
the medicine of laughter
the key to lock out fear
and to walk through the days of life
never alone.....

Life is a pretty precious and wonderful thing, you can't sit down and let it lap around you. You have to plunge into it, you have to dive through it and you can't save it, you can't store it up, you can't horde it in a vault. You have to taste it, you have to use it. The more you use the more you have, that is the miracle of it.
(Kylie Samuel Crichton)

christmas table

We had spent christmas the week before with our daughters because this year they were going to be spending their christmas with their partners families so we had a very small gathering at our table on christmas day.........just four of us and it felt strange not having the rest of the family there......



I want to thank each and every one of you who take the time to keep a blog because i know what goes into it and all those bloggers who have inspired me to look at life differently and to see the beauty in everything......i have always been a detail person and I have loved how you have all created such wonderful visions for all of us who visit to admire and we learn and grow from those beautiful images and words......


When my girls were very little i always decorated the whole of my house having been inspired by the stories i had read of Tasha Tudor who used to float birthday cakes down the stream to the banks where her children were celebrating their birthdays and how she had such a thing as a small post box where her children could post fairy notes and she used to be the person in secret who answered it....she created small catalogues of clothes that the children could order from for their favourite toy and at night when they were asleep she would make the clothes and post them in their boxes.....i thought what wonderful childhood memories her children would have and wanted to created some kind of magic for my children......so at christmas i always decorated the whole house and each daughter had a special tree in their room along with ornaments that were theirs......tables were always set with detail and interesting arrangements........one year we set the tables up outside under our huge oak tree complete with hanging ornaments, fairy lights and even a real christmas tree with presents underneath and of course christmas music........memories are made and last a lifetime and this is what christmas to me is all about creating a bit of magic!!!

s