a hug of baby jumpers. Op-Shop Show-Off Feb 26th 2013

truth be known i haven't op-shopped in ages. actually make that hadn't. too busy moving out and moving in, fixing and fretting. but a recent nesting stock-take of baby gear identified a need for newborn baby jumpers,  and newborn baby jumpers i got. a hug of baby jumpers. a snuggle of baby jumpers. a now-i-dont-need-to-feel-bad-for-flinging-my-knitting-needles-aside-in-frustration of baby jumpers. the kimono style is my favourite. and i adore green on boys. the one at the back is the softest ever and must be some kind of cashmere mix.

ps i wrote this pre-baby. so here is now-baby on modelling duty. strike a pose handsome!




but enough cute-baby-oogling, for now!

i want to know how about you? did you get what you want, or just what you need this week down Te Ope?

if you'd like to share, be an Op-Shop Show-Off and link up here...

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for op-shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off day, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life.

tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.


How to link up?
1.   post your blog post. 

2.   link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over
      and peruse or post in the linky too

3.   scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the    
      linky tool, then follow the 3 easy steps


4.   don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up

5..  grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the
     code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in 
     blogger and save)

penny's pretty pencils: a product review in pictures, and a giveaway

 

Giveaway now closed-thanks for entering everyone. the winner was Jess. i shall email you shortly :-)

the apple of my eye. and a pretty magnetic box that encourages the tidy squirrelling away of pencils; painty pencil crayons that bleed beautifully into the paper and don't leave scratchy marks on the table underneath. pretty perfect for this new-to-kindy big girl, who they tell us is is "...into art above all else". you couldn't go wrong with these pencil crayons, or the art smocks and other bits and pieces from the Penny Scallan Design New Zealand Website if your trying to amass some to encourage-her-at-home art and craft gear as we are (or setting your kid up for school in general).

AND HEY! Penny Scallan Design have a box of pretty pencil crayons, and an art smock to give away to a New Zealand or Australian blackbirdhasspoken reader.



To enter:-

1. follow blackbirdhasspoken on GFC

2. have a look at the Penny Scallan New Zealand website and then leave a comment here to let me know which design pencil box/art smock you would like. do make sure i can contact you via your comment, or leave me your email address so we can get your prize to you


the winner will be chosen at random in a weeks time, and Penny Scallan Design will send out your prize to you directly.

A little arrival

Findlay Thomas Bennett arrived today at 1.30pm after an emergency caesarean, weighing 7.1lbs and measuring 50cms.
He is beyond cute and very well and breastfeeding beautifully. and us three? We're sky high on love!

Ta-Dah!

a sweet stock take. Op-Shop Show-Off Feb 19th 2013

mmm. couldn't you just eat all that lolly coloured crockery?! i've been spotting and stashing the odd cup here, the occasional saucer there for a couple of years now. whilst i regularly pull some out at the whiff of cake, and always for tea parties and posy-holding,  it was only unpacking on moving back in after earthquake repairs on the house that allowed me pause to appraise my crown lynn colour glaze collection properly.

summary
severely lacking in the pink and orange department. overstocked in the brown or army green department. must seek more teal tea cups asap as these are my favourite. cake plates, dinner plates and bowls remain hard to come by in any colour. unclear as to what the 'official' colour glaze jugs shape(s) are. there are colour glaze espresso cups and saucers! unclear as to how one safely stores/stacks this many tea cups in a small cupboard space.
verdict.
overall excellent progress given refusal to pay more than a dollar per item (have you seen the prices people pay for this stuff on trademe?)

i like the slow-burn of collecting. a saucer one month. a cup the next. nothing for ages, then all of a sudden a rash of it. in time a bright and beautiful, practical and cheap, matching set.

ps do you like the new wall colour (replacing the mustard). it's resene waterloo. a darkish grey with a lavender base. its done wonders de-oranging all the wooden features and furniture in the dining room and i'm loving the dark, cosy-fying effect.



are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities?

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life. tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.

 How to link up?
1. post your second hand shopping related blog post.

2. link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over and peruse or post in the linky too

 3. scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the linky tool, then follow the three easy steps

 4. don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in blogger and save)

nesting and naming

my labour with claud was literally laborious, with two hours in the pushing stage due to a reluctant to release her cervix and serious shoulder dystocia. and so, still hopeful of avoiding induction, a caesarean or a calamity we shall be labouring in hospital this around. thus nesting  has included packing a 'labour bag' to live in the boot of the car for a quick getaway.

in my labour bag, in no particular order are:-
1. shapewear knickers ala Bridget Jones. as recommended by my physio friend for post-birth pulling it in and knitting it back together in the tummy muscles/pelvis dept.
2. the womanly art of breastfeeding. lots of passages highlighted in manner of swot.
3. ural sachets-drink and your wees won't sting post birth. available over the counter.
4. copious snacks and drinks for pre and post birth starvingness. husband has separate supply after scoffing all mine last time (have already eaten and replaced the star bursts twice, but not again since my filling fell out...)
5. cheap camera, phone.
6. labelled clothes for him, labelled clothes for me
7. maternity pads, big dark knickers, ice packs, wipes, breast pads.
8. colourful sarongs and scarves so we can avoid a repeat of the 'wardrobe malfunction' first baby photo that husband forwarded to everyone in the world our address books last time....
9. maternity notes old and new
10. toiletries (all unscented so as not olfactorily freak the wee boy out or put him of his milk scenting)
11. things to say to me list for terry (all variations on the themes of "yes" and "it's only going to be a minute longer").
12. gifts from boy baby to claud (a kids sakura bloom play sling for carrying her dolly around in and the india knight book about having a smelly baby come into your life).
13. washing power, note pad and pen.
14. flip flops for the shower
15. sakura bloom silk sling (good for post-Caesarean baby wearing too as can be worn really high above the wound)

have i missed anything?

i am quite keen to take some music for the labour, but can't for the life of me work out what i'm likely to get into in the moment...instrumental i think...

and hey, what do you think of the name?
we've found boy names so hard, we only have three and this is the only one we agree on, but any last minute suggestions welcomed!

the nest we think is a wax-eye's. it's so tiny and fragile and has softest down feathers lining it. it fell from a tree in our garden, thankfully with no sign of eggs or other occupants, after some recent high winds. thankfully too my nest is back to usual functioning, just in the nick of time, post earthquake repairs. ooh the luxury of a kitchen and a washing machine, i can't tell you how good it feels. and i can't tell you how good it feels to be free to do random nesting. how is it that cleaning the fridge with a toothbrush is as satisfying as knowing the new car seat is in situ and now nothing can stop us having a baby...?!

7/52 portraits of my children

claudine. i just love that freckle.

joining in jodi's a portrait of my children each week project, with a whole load of other proud, snap-happy mama's.

the look of love challenge

happy valentines lovely people. in a house of disarray with my hips about to give way under preggy weight i can't say creativity is top of my agenda. none the less i do prefer to give a handmade something at these times of year. i thought about making turkish delight (his fave edible ever) but when i couldn't think of anywhere nearby i could buy rosewater i headed instead to the $2 shop to get him a ring that opens beer bottles (there is a story there-at a party shortly after we were married he ruined his wedding ring by attempting to open a beer bottle with it *rolls eyes*). but then i really liked the sound of this look of love hoop art challenge. since terry is not really a 'cute expressions of love' kinda guy i thought I'd dedicate my rather elementary hoop art project instead to Christchurch. it's own home in disarray, having given way under earthquakes, lovely still, loved, quietly healing. Christchurch where people and places like challenger Kirsty's and her wonderful Make Cafe (think coffee, cake, and sewing machines) are a reminder of the good things happening in a great, but challenged place. the hoops will decorate a wall in the cafe. here's mine. hoop, map, stickers. rocket science eh?!

linking up at the new zealand blog communities creative show and tell with leonie and co

prob. my only ever wardrobe post. at 37 weeks. when i have no clothes that fit. hmm.

i've been planning ever since nin started wardrobe wednesday to join in at least once. and i was sure i definitely would when miriam took over. and as the WW baton is handed over to it's third proprietor-ess i thought i'd really just better do it.
and i need a "...here is when i was pregnant with you" photo, claud is so full of questions and wonder at seeing her 'in my mamas tummy photo' it would be remiss of me to neglect this.

dress-op-shopped last week in an "omg i've outgrown all my preggy clothes" emergency. also breastfeeding friendly so likely to be worn into the ground.

cardi-op-shopped eons ago

of sorrow and salvage. Op-Shop Show-Off Feb 12th 2013

       


   











                 i love mantelpieces.  a so much more alluring holdall of important-junk-that-should-not-be-lost than the fridge, it's a picture frame for the centre of gravity in the living room if you still prefer a fire and a book over tv; and it's always the best spot in the house for displaying your treasures. you may recall the lovely but short lived linky mantelpiece monday. as a mantelpiece afficianado i blogged all three of my mantels; my favourite the grand red brick mantelpiece which the earth quake commission had just advised us was loose from the wall after the christchurch earthquakes.
RIP redbrick mantelpiece. the earth quake commission giveth and the earthquake commission taketh away. despite having originally identified the damage (we were oblivious), numerous subsequent assessments over 2 years, and telling the contractors they were working on a repair strategy, 3 days into the repair work on our home they 'declined' our claim that it was earthquake damaged. we realised why when we brought in a builder to independently assess it. a repair would cost $2000+. oh, and the bull nosed bricks are no longer made in new zealand, cue expensive import from europe. oh why oh why did i comment to the assessor that we wouldn't accept a replacement as it was a key feature of the house. s.t.u.p.i.d! why oh why did we complain (fruitlessly) about the bad attitude of the assessor on her previous visit? i.d.i.o.t! oh why oh why didn't we just opt out? l.a.z.y!
to add insult to injury the builder told us it was dangerous despite our having screwed it to the wall, and that the repair contractors shouldn't be working around it (nor one would have though should a toddler have been playing around it for two years, but though EQC eventually worked out that the damage was not theirs to fix, they totally missed its dangerousness. priorities huh!)
in the absence of a spare $2000, or the desire to halt work on the half-gutted house mid-repair a few weeks short of  having a baby, to take EQC to court, Terry pulled it down. i cried. mainly due to the feeling of utter powerlessness with EQC. perhaps partially due to preggy hormones. but i did love it, and i do miss it. the red brick made me feel connected with my history; all my pre-new zealand homes and hearths, schools and university.
terry found this photo behind it the mantel, of the (local) Springbank Hunt, in 1930. what on earth the thing is in the foreground they caught i don't know! less romantically he also found a load of drug related needle paraphernalia behind there too (it was a dodgy rental before we bought and renovated it).
he dried my tears not with a hanky, but with a beautiful and totally in keeping with the period features of our house, arts and crafts rimu fire surround he found at a salvage yard in Addington. it had been removed from a demolished-due-to the-earthquake house, the original address pencilled on the rear.  we added our own story of how it came to be in our home (minus the anti-EQC vitriol, ahem) and slipped in a photograph of the original before affixing it to the wall.
it was surprisingly inexpensive, and miraculously got cheaper between Terry telling the salvage store staff his tale of EQC woe(s) and picking it up to take home the next day. surprising how the small kindnesses of strangers can totally wipe out some big bad feelings. i must remember that. though the bill hammond litho can no longer hang above it, the len castle pottery is too wide to sit atop it, and it will be a very long time until we can afford a wood burner to sit in it,  i can't wait to unpack, and play around arranging our treasures about it.

postscript- i shall endeavour to do a small kindness or two myself on The Sisterhoods Kindness Day, this Saturday, 16th February. want to too?

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second-hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off day, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life.

tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.


How to link up?
1.   post your blog post. 

2.   link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over
      and peruse or post in the linky too

3.   scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the    
      linky tool, then follow the 3 easy steps


4.   don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up

5..  grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the
     code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in 
     blogger and save)

6/52 portraits of my children

claudine: double crown and lovely long locks of all shades from dark brown to white blonde is going to grow her hair "...for ever and ever and that's the end of it!"

the weekly-for-a-year portrait project @ che and fidel

are you a new zealand blogger?

If yes, you may want to know about this, if you don't already. 

Around the Table - Bloggers Connecting' is a NZ blogging conference happening meet-up type thing, on April 12-14 2013 here in Christchurch. There are Q&A, workshops, craft classes, time to chat, screaming newborns cute newborns to cuddle (mine), goodie bags, even a Sunday craft market. Come along! it'd be so cool to meet you in person. there are 14 places still available, so get in quick!

"tinny" Op-Shop Show-Off Feb 5th 2013

"tinny"=kiwi for good luck/a lucky person. 

we did a wee bit of day-tripping over the christmas holidays as opposed to a holiday, as pregnancy does not like a strange bed. one of our outings took us in the vicinity of  probably the best second hand shop in New Zealand. though in Mayfield-in-the-middle-of-nowhere, none the less it is always bustling when ever we arrive, the owner invariably re-stocking from the latest auctions in the district, multiple unsorted boxes to rifle. foraging is the funnest way to find, and as op-shopping goes, rural plus high turn-over is always a good recipe for a fresh find, i find.

to date i have always found one of these tins in this specific design, of varied size and colours for my collection there, this visit was no exception. one of them proved my previous theory, that the tins were produced for the New Zealand choysa tea company wrong... perhaps instead a tin-specific NZ company making them for all and sundry?

now we're finally back in our home, post earthquake repairs (actually they're still working on it, around us,. don't ask,it might set off another bout of thwarted nesting/anti-EQC rage) i'm going to get stuck into displaying them. between unpacking the room of boxes to the ceiling behind which the collection lays, and giving birth (I'm 36 weeks now) hopefully!

so, what are the hallmarks of a truly great secondhand shop for you (and spill, where is it?)

and, are you an op-shop show-off?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for op-shopping/second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off day, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life.

tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.


How to link up?
1.   post your blog post. 

2.   link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over
      and peruse or post in the linky too

3.   scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the    
      linky tool, then follow the 3 easy steps


4.   don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up

5..  grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the
     code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in 
     blogger and save)

5/52 portraits of my children

for claudine summer 2013 has been ALL about the waikuku whale pool

joining in with the 'portrait a week for a year' project at Che and Fidel