Heart Felt

Long lunch

We had a family gathering at Gladstone Vineyard in the weekend.  

Sadie wanted to to dress up as a fairy (of course)

Charlie amused himself with his cousin collecting cicada shells found on tree trunks.  Their collection was rather impressive.

Everyone cried out a big 'Awwwww' when Sadie and Oscar got up to dance to the live music.  

The ducks and chickens were happy to be fed bread from the cafe kitchen.

It was lovely to spend a long lunch with family.

Singer songwriter

This week Sadie has been writing songs, usually about her surroundings, nature and her family.  I had to share them with you because I thought they were very beautiful.

 

'Song 1'

I plant a seed 

and watched it grow

from my window and outside.

But when I come back home from kindy and creche

it grew to a beautiful blue flower

and I'm so happy.

'Song 2'

I'm in the rain with my brothers.

We have got three children

called Sadie and Charlie and Oscar

and my mother called Jannelle (I like that name)

My dad is called Ian

and my dog is called Badger and my cat is called Louie.

 

 'Song 3'

I'm outside with my mum and dad,

We're picking the weeds out

on a rainy day.

And when I looked up on my fence

I saw a tui bird and my cat scared it.

And my mum said 'Look!'

And I said 'Look mum' and she said 'Oooh! a bird'.

And I saw it say 'Tweet tweet'.

And I make a nest for it and mum and put it in a tree.

And then I saw an egg and then I saw it last day

there were little chicks in it.

 

Sadie is talented in may ways, but I have to admit singing isn't one of those talents and maybe guitar lessons are something we could think about in the future.

 

'Song 4'

I see a cat in my garden

sitting in the flowers out in the sun

and I saw it when I was going to have a break.

And my mum said 'Go, go, go and enjoy outside.'

How we wind down before bed time.....

Well not usually, but it is Friday after all!

Have a great weekend. xx

"I want a new Duck" ~ Weird Al Yankovic

45 RPM

You may remember this post a few months back.   Charlie gets his turntable out every now and then and listens to his funny 45s he's picked up from the thrift shops.  All this time I have been looking out for some children's vinyl and last week to my delight I stumbled upon these!

 

There's a lovely variety of nursery rhymes, fairy tales and classic children's stories and songs.  The covers are a bit worn, but inside the vinyl is perfect.  It's been fun listening to them while eating breakfast in the morning.  Oscar loves watching the turntable turn round and round.  

The sound is so retro and the singing makes me smile.  Some of the artwork is adorable too.  Here are some of my favorites, but you can see more here. 

 

 

 

  

I wonder if my pre-schoolers at the library would be interested in listening to some of them at our next storytime?    It might be fun. xx
     

Vinyl

Ian has been collecting vinyl records for about 10 years. He loves a variety of genres including jazz, classical, rock and pop.  We don't actually own a CD player, all our music is played through the turntable.  
To Ian's delight Charlie has taken a sudden interest too.  This week Charlie bought his very first vinyl record at the thrift store.  Ian had been keeping a little turntable in storage in hope of this day, so all week we have been listening to obscure 45s.   It has been great fun.

Thrift finds for March

It's slightly frightening how fast the year has gone already, the nights are cooler and the leaves are slowly, but surely changing. 

My best thrift finds for the month of March......

1960s turntable, perfect for playing Ian's vast range of records he has collected over the past years.  It has an old scratchy sound to it, sounds great when we play the old classics like Sinatra, Billie Holiday etc....  and it looks so cool! $60

Full set of "Golden Hands" first published in 1970, wonderful books containing information on knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft, complete with patterns.  Only catch........most of the patterns are rather out of date, but for $2 for the set it's worth just looking at the photographs!

     

 

Sadie's enjoying putting her baby into this handmade wooden dolls highchair. $4

Quirky little hand painted wooden doll -20c

Sadie sunning herself on this retro wooden/canvas deck chair - $1

Love this retro fabric! $4

There are some new "Heart Felt" knits now listed on Trade Me.  My favorites this week is this rust colored hooded jacket with oak leaf

And these adorable knitted pants. 

Hope your week has been treating you well. xx

The Hype in Town

The big hype in town this week has been the announcement of the 'Flight of the Conchords' to play a charity concert here in my own home town of Masterton.  Jemaine Clement is a fellow Mastertonian and the charity concert is in aid of his his old high school, which last year was in threat of closure. Tickets went on sale on Thursday and sadly yours truly missed out, the tickets sold out within 91 minutes.  Feeling slightly 'gutted' I'm praying to the big Conchord in the sky that a ticket may yet come my way before next Tuesday.

A parcel arrived this morning that cheered me up incredibly.  I might be unlucky in Conchord love, but I am lucky in Little Grub crafty love.  This lovely crocheted Easter egg bunting is just delightful, thanks so much!  Sadie had an impulse to run up and down the hall with it before I got to hang it up.

 

We are also praying to the God of hot air balloons for fine weather this weekend so we can see more of these.

This was the view down our street this afternoon.  Every year we celebrate Balloons over the Wairarapa.It's an exciting event for people of all ages.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend. xx

Best buys of September

I'm in love with these red leather Diesel boots.....for FREE! Yes, free!  I have been involved with the Flickr group, Online Clothes Swap Shop - Aotearoa.  It's an amazing concept where you list unwanted items from your wardrobe and you swap them with other members.  If you haven't already checked it out all you need to be is a Flickr member and a New Zealand resident.  It has been a lot of fun!

Charlie loves his new CD, The Flight of the Conchords....Well, actually we purchased it for ourselves, but Charlie has high jacked it for himself.  It is played as a daily ritual, after dinner while having a bath.  His favorite tracks...well evidently all of them!

I am totally into polka dots at the moment, so I was thrilled to pick up this dotty number at the thrift store along with this very cool retro shirt for the summer.

Found myself in Wanda Harland the other day...very dangerous...I can never walk out empty handed.  I purchased this lovely reversible jacket for Sadie made by Silver Circus.  I love the color and the sweet wee bird lining with a hint of gold.

My best thrifty purchase was this sweet cane dolls pram for Sadie.  The next day I picked up this retro plastic doll with open and shut eyes.  I love her 50's hair-do.  I will have to sew some dolls clothes for her now.

Radio Heaven

Ian loves music.  His pride and joy is his stereo system set up.  More recently he has taken a shine to more of the retro 1970s style amps and turntables, which look quite cool.  When any of his equipment needs maintenance he takes it into a small repair shop in town.  The owner not only repairs, he also collects old radios which take pride of place in his shop.  When radios die, this is where they go, 'Radio Heaven'.  Most of them have been lovingly restored to working order, sadly they aren't for sale.....

The walls were lined with these beauties!

I love bakelite

 

I couldn't pick a favorite!

Rainy day music session

We have been enjoying glorious weather all week, but now we have been reminded that it's winter with rain and cold.  Sometimes it can be a mission to think of indoor activities that will entertain a 2 year old and a 10 month old.  Today I pulled together all the musical instruments in the house and laid them out in Charlie's bedroom and let them both 'go for it!'  Charlie always gravitates to the drum and gives it a good old thrashing.

Not sure if Keith Moon performed with his lunch smeared all over his face!

Sadie took the more considered approach and put everything in her mouth, but she did enjoy the xylophone (also with her lunch all over her face)

More Heart Felt knits ready to list on Trade Me this week, featuring a new design, a gorgeous wee Fantail bird.