Surprise!

The interest for biking has been in my NZ family for a good while and since I quite like to bike myself, my husband and I started looking for a new bike for me. We have been testing mountain bikes, shock absorbers, seats, sizes of this and that and tyres 26 or 29??? It is good fun but hard to pick the right one.

The other day when I came back home from work to an empty house (husband was out biking...surprise...surprise) and saw all the arrows glued to the floor, I knew he was up to something.
He is very good with the surprises and you do not have a clue before it hits you. So here it is. My new bike. I love it.

One arrow pointing toward the stairs to the garage

Hmmmm....here we go.....

Skull earrings

Any skull lovers out there? I got these skull beads months and months ago when we were on a trip to Coromandel. I thought it was about time to do something about it. Skulls are in here now so why not have some fun with it?

 

 

Inhale....exhale....

I have not been good at getting out of the office on time lately. Always staying a bit extra to do something I just have to do and then some more....you probably know how it is...
On Saturday I went with a friend to Takapuna Beach. We sat down, had an ice cream and just enjoyed the lovely scenery. Could not be any better than this, could it?

Memories from San Francisco

It's been two months! Holy Moly...where did the time go?
Well, since last time I wrote on this blog, there has mainly been work, work and more work as I have moved to another department and have been in training and working late hours the last couple of months.
However, there have been some fun as well....

On Friday the 13th!!! (September) I went to San Francisco to watch the last races of the America's Cup. The trip has been planned for a year and I was really looking forward to it. As some of you know, my darling hubby is working forOracle Team USA and have done so for a few years so to go and watch the races was a BIG thing for us.

When I left NZ our team was losing big time. Emirates Team NZ had one more race to win and they would have won the Auld Mug (see bottom picture) to take back to NZ. So you can imagine living in NZ and supporting an American Team can be quite a difficult thing to do when you are working among hard core Team Emirates NZ supporters....

Devonport

I had a lovely trip to Devonport yesterday. It seems to be the place to retreat to when you feel for a bit of quiet time but also a little bit of retail therapy.
The weather was good, a sunny winterday, so it was great to catch the train to the city and the ferry to Devonport. Bought a coffee and banana & walnut loaf to get me through the trip.

Here are some photos from yesterday's trip. Also, tested the camera on my new Smart phone.
I really like the panorama format!

Matching Flower Power necklace

Flower Power necklace has also been made. This one is matching previously posted bracelet and is made very simple with one flower and double tiger tail wire in black.

I have used green swarovski and seed beads in blue, purple, bronze and rose gold colours.

For more info, check here.

I won I won....

This week I had my biggest surprise in a long time. I don't know about you, but I am not really used to win anything. If I win the Friday wine bottle at work, my day is perfect if you know what I mean.

Well, back to the surprise. My hairdresser called me at work asking me to come and visit them at the shop as they had a something to show me. I was a big question mark before it daunted on me that it may have something to do with a competition I participated in a few months ago.
So off I went and when I got there, I was met by my hairdresser and Manager for Wella Illumina hair colour who told me I had won the big prize of a free trip! OMG. This is way too good.
So here I am next to my dear hairdresser Sarah who also won the same price (plus a flash suitcase for all her hair products). I think we both were in shock after winning such a great prize.
We were the only two winners in New Zealand and then there were two in Australia as well. Lucky? Yes, I think so.

The questions is now: Where do we go? We can chose between Grand Canyon, USA, Italy, Germany, Greece, Hawaii and Taj Mahal, India. Any suggestions?

Another Flower Power bracelet....

I had to give it another go. There are so many colour combinations I want to test with this technique.
Here is the next one. It is made of green swarovski beads, rose gold, bronze, blue and purple seed beads with a gold colored toggle lock.
What do you think? Is it a good combination or just too busy?

New bracelets are in!

Hi all,

Four bracelets in new techniques are ready for new homes.
This time I have embroidered flowers and color blend bracelets.
All are very colorful and easy to mix with other jewellery.

Check here for more info!

New earrings...

Made some few more earrings today.

 

Second beading course

Last Thursday I went for my second beading course. This is good fun!
Again we met at the beading shop's second floor. Just two of us + the teacher this time but just as cozy as last time.

This time we were going to make a heart pendant of 4 mm Swarovski beads and Fireline wire.
There will be more hearts from me for sure, but I have some few more ideas to rough it up a bit.
I am thinking Swarovski, metal beads and leather straps...Time will tell.

Red Swarovski heart pendant

I am in seriously need of a camera with a bigger lens cause it is getting harder and harder to get good close-up pictures, but hope it is good enough for now.

First jewellery course

I have decided to join a few jewellery courses the next couple of months.

The first one was a week ago, just up the road from where I live and after work so really just perfect.

This time we learned to make a Colour Blended bracelet.
Neadle, black Fireline tread and six different seed beads colors were needed. We were six ladies around the table and a superb teacher - and off we went.

First we made a ladder which later turned out to be the support and back of the bracelet and later more beads were added to the front of the bracelet.

This is the result :

Half finished

The "ladder" on the back of the bracelet

Smile!

Red, hot chilli pepper necklace

A new Pearl Twist necklace is born!
This one is off to Norway shortly and will join up with here bracelet sister.

It is made of assorted red beads, black silk band and silver colored toggle lock.

Queenstown

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were celebrating 10 years wedding anniversary!
Time is running fast and it is unbelievable that it is 10 years since our perfect wedding day + the perfect and very cosy weeks with family and friends visiting us.

The day before the big day, my husband called from work telling me to pack my bag for a trip next day. I knew he had planned something but had no clue where and what to pack. A bit of everything was put in the bag and next day we were off.

I had been promised Bella (our cat) would be taken care off so could totally relax.
The trip went towards the airport and when we checked in, I finally figured out where we would go.
Queenstown on the South Island! None of us have ever been to the south island before so this was very exciting. Queenstown is known for Alpine and snow, bungy jump and jet-boats so this could be more excitement that I had hoped for....

View from TSS Earnslaw

Ipanema necklace

This necklace reminds me of beach life.
I am sure the girl from Inpanema would have wore this one :)

For more info, please have a look here.

More jewellery is ready

Hi all,

More jewellery is now added here.

If you like it, leave a comment.

Thanks.

Life so far....

Hi and Happy New Year to you all!

We are well into January already and the blog has been very quiet. The reason is the extremely good weather we have had down under. Totally true. The computer has not been a tempting place to stay by.

Both Christmas and New Year is over. We had the family over for Christmas Day and friends visited us on New Years Eve. It has been a bit of cooking and the BBQ never really cooled down....
It has been very good though. The backyard has been used a lot, especially after we got a sun umbrella installed. Awesome to be able to sit in the shade.

The beading has had a long break. The creativity and ideas I usually had, dried up. Life got to busy with work, overtime, weekend work etc. It was in my thoughts the whole time though. Some projects were running around in my head, but it stopped there. I was  even thinking of joining a jewellery technique study, but after some research it wasn't really me. I still want to do some courses though.