less than 5 weeks to go

and then we are off to Germany for 3 month. These 5 weeks will be filled with lots of work. I want to make lots of flowers for the shop in Queenstown, which sells my flowers. Would be good to have enough supply for the 3 month we will be away.
Alex is preparing the garden with lots of mulch to make it almost maintenance free and today he is cleaning the aviaries. We have 6 rainbow lorikeets, which are nectar eaters and very messy birds, but also 12 budgies in a second part, which throw all the seeds around. And of course a bunch of free range chooks beside of dog and cat.

I hope we'll find a good house sitter who is looking after the animals and keeps the house warm and dry. wouldn't it be great to have every year the same person coming, somebody who wants to spend the winter in the north where it is not freezing cold.
And I've got an invitation to exhibit at the Waitakere Mixed Media Art Display and Competition on the 3rd May weekend. So I'll give my wallhangings a little tidy up and will send them together with some other fibre pictures down. It is always nice to show work and maybe something even sells, that would be a nice outcome. So if anybody is in Auckland 15.-17. May, have a look, I am sure there will be many interesting things to see. Would love to go down myself, but it is short before we go away, so we cannot really afford a weekend away.
Everything artwise got a bit on hold after I stepped in a big needle while rushing to the phone. The needle broke and a big piece stayed in my foot. Of course it was weekend. The x-ray in the following Monday confirmed the situation. After the local GP couldn't manage to get it out, and he didn't want to cut deeper; we had to go to Whangarei Hospital were it finally got removed the day after.

It is quite a big cut with several stitches, so I am still struggling a bit with walking after 2 weeks now. At least my foot fits again in a normal shoe and Girlie the dog is happy to have a walk again.

Looking forward to lots of inspiration in Europe for the next Kerikeri Art Trail October 2015 of course. I want to create some new pieces to show, so let's see what the European sun tells me to do.
But of course I will always have poppies!

Happy Easter

Good Friday today - summer was over so quickly but the weather is still good.
I am experimenting a lot at the knitting machine with not much success. The waterfall vests I made last year are not very popular, so I am trying out different things.

I made some cotton/linen tops and was very surprised to sell them all when I had a stall at the market.

It looks like I forgot to take photos of those tops, I have only one detail photo of the pattern of a nice knitted linen coat, which has also sold at that market.

Then I made some experiments with Maori patterns

I like it very much, I am just a  bit reluctant to make more not to upset anybody, because I am not Maori. I wonder if it would be ok when I use them more contemporary and not in traditional colours. And I am still trying to do this pattern as double jacquard on the knitting machine, not successfull yet, but I am not giving up.
It is a bit annoying trying out things and the machine plays up. Is it not the sponge bar, then a needle is crook or something on the carriage is not working.....
The last experiment was a nice tuck stitch with fine white cotton

it looks great at the first glimpse just to find out, that the machine only read the first pattern blocks right and then carries on only knitting half of it. It could be the pattern which is hand drawn on a design sheet, which the machine is struggling to read properly. I had to redraw a whole Mylar sheet which came with the machine, because it was disintegrating. I will try out a different pattern which came also came  the machine and look if that works OK.

Of course I did a little bit of felting too the last weeks, 2 scarves and lots of flowers.

The flowers sell very well in the shop in Queenstown, which has taken on my flowers, I am very grateful for that. It is the only outlet I have at the moment. The indoor room at the local market is still not finished and I've got told, they will use it in winter mainly as a cafe when it is finished with only a handful of craft stalls. We will see if my work will be one of the chosen ones.

How it looks we might not travel to Europe this year again. We had some major repairs here at the house, which took away a lot of the travel funds. And all this plane accidents the last time are worrying too. But I miss my son dearly as I do the rest of the family which has moved to Australia. I guess it is time to concentrate on work, to improve everything.

Have a look how brilliantly Alex is painting the house, certainly a very unique house - we love it!