What day is it?

Life has been a blur since Saturday.... On Saturday while I was helping my cousin/little sister I never had, but kinda always did in her, move into her new house. She was 26 weeks and 6 days pregnant and she was practically on house arrest bed rest. I'd just finished tidying the living room when she went into labour.....yep. Long story short... We drove to the hospital where Olivia's man was waiting. She was an amazing trooper through a very quick and painful labour before having an emergency c-section and giving birth to a beautiful 2lb 9.5oz baby boy. Who they've named.....

 

He is doing incredibly well. He takes after his strong mama and wolverine like farda! He is the most amazing wee boy.....crazy how much you can love a little soul that's not even yours! I guess that's what being an aunty feels like....I never wanted to let that little hand go.

 

 

These past two days, Liv has given me free reign to kit out their new pad and make it nice and homely for when she comes home and after several weeks and lots of growing....baby Hudson will come home too! Here are a couple of snaps of how it's looking.

 

 

 

P.S those great cushion are from the warehouse.... $9 for grey and $18 for the yellow. The side cushions look really dark in this photo....they're more of a charcoal grey. It's a cosy wee spot!

 

 

 

 

Pics from a sunny morning

 

 

 

 

Before you wonder what we were doing walking along the beach and surfing this morning.... Guy is currently in his office {it's 11:30pm} and I didn't finish until 7:30ish. Totally worth it for mornings like this. I had to stop to make a little something with all the copius amounts of cockle shells on hand. Pretty symbolic of a place I've fallen in love with!

 

Future dreaming

 

I love when there is a slight plan to life...nothing suffocatingly structured, just a loose plan. Perhaps it's better to say, when little life dreams start to look as if they can/will be achieved. This is something that has been hard to be on track with since the earthquakes... They pulled the plan rug out from beneath our shaky legs and forced us to make changes we perhaps weren't planning on making and had us putting those little dreams on hold. Well, this week has been like a giant exhale....things are happening. They're not 100% just yet, but the fact the cogs are turning is good enough for me. This is a little taste of what may be..... Fingers crossed

 

 

 

 

You may recognise this little gem, and no,we are not buying the wonderful brick mill building in waikuku. I'm sure the lovely owners would ever sell!! I had a yummy scone at the cafe on Tuesday and a 1 hour wander through the emporium and art gallery. I found some great stuff. Could have stayed there for another hour....

 

Waikuku, pretty great place.......

 

Are those fingers still crossed?!

Fort love

 

I love building forts...a few months back Guy and I turned our living room into a giant fort and watched movies and chilled out for a whole day and night. Not exactly normal behavior for 29 year olds, but fun, so we didn't care about the normal thing well i didnt care and i put it on facebook and guy lost pretty much all of his man cred Well on Sunday I got to build a fort without worrying about the weirdness... Our friends Winnie & Gordie along with their two beautiful sproglets came to stay. Their oldest, Henry, was the first baby within our group of friends and he sure did set the bar pretty high. Guy and I are lucky enough to be his godparents and with the family all living in Blenheim we don't get to see them as often as we'd like,especially this last year with all the earthquake dramz! 

Our little house has limited bedrooms so we had to get creative for Henry. We have this little nook in the dining room where an old fire used to be, I have a cute wee daybed that fits in their perfectly and is pretty much the perfect size for a 2 1/2 year old... So we got to it. First creating a big sign for his fort, with all of his favorite things.... Boats, fish, trucks, buglies (aka crayfish) and wheels. Then I got two old sheets and hung them from the top of the nook to the floor. Best place for a fort, can't believe I hadn't thought of it before! When we were in there we watched some wiggles and a few other kids shows on YouTube.... I must say, the ease in which a two year old can operate an iPad is almost terrifying.

 

 

 

 

 

I just could not get over Henry's talking.... It's amazing seeing their little personalities shine through and just how chatty he is. At one point I was in the shower and there was a wee knock at the door, when I yelled out hello, Henry's little voice yelled back "Aunty Kat, are you almost done in theeeerrreeee!" ahhhh I just love him!!! Nia, their new baby girl is a cute little ball of smiles and cuddles, she barely makes a peep. I tell ya, these two have crazy good children. I keep telling Guy, don't think it will be like that, I'm pretty sure that is not the norm. Nia has slept through the night since she was 2 weeks old, seriously, you wouldn't read about it!!! Except you just did. Oh and I gotta say, Jed was sooooo awesome with the kids..Proud moment.

 

 

 

Webspiration

 

Drinking my morning smoothie outta old Agee jam jars because I fell in love with this -VIDEO- if I liked ice coffee well, if i could drink any coffee without feeling like a kid with adhd on 10 redbulls and minus the heart palpitations I would have gone all out and copied it straight up

 

 

This -NO KNEAD BREAD RECIPE- is awesome... Needs to become a weekend staple in our home!

 

S'mores and Elvis

 

The fact I even get to use that title excites me.... S'mores and Elvis...... so. much. fun.

Now, s'mores aren't exactly a kiwi tradition but they are a tradition with my sisters and I....we went through a stage of making these far too often over the fire at home or in the microwave if we were desperate enough. Well, the time had come in my adult life where I could reintroduce the chocolatey-marshmallowy biscuit treats, and i grasped it....with all my might.

On Friday night our lovely friends Alice the camel and Churchy had us all out for a party in the Shelter at Washpen falls (Alice's family farm). I've told you all about this place before, about it's magical qualities, Friday was no different. Obviously the people had a huge amount to do with it, but seriously that place is just so darn magnificent. How can you not be in good spirits when there are homemade venison burgers, a five litre bottle of red aka Big Bertha, bottomless 60's&70's rock and roll, including ELVIS (My main man), along with my home made s'more-gasboard (as named by Alice).

Recipe for awesomeness.

The drinks and s'mores flowed and then my Elvis legs came out, I think the Elvis lip quiver could have made an appearance as well. Oh dear. We did the washpen falls track the next day..... I have to admit the effects of big Bertha slowed me down this time but the view and chillax at the the top made it well worth it

 

 

 

In my s'more-gasboard I had, an agee jar full of marshmallows, a load of chocolate thins and chocolate digestives and a couple of pine cones for fire starting or just for decoration, meh...why not. And last but not least, the sticks (from my twiggy tree outside) with a little twine handle on each. I was so excited by my little wooden box.... And thought for a millisecond, I've probably taken the "I'll bring some marshmallows" comment a little too far. Campfire bliss.