Another Yummy Birthday Cake

My darling youngest daughter whipped up this delicious Lamington birthday cake for my 35th birthday last month.

Ruru Says... Watch Out

Mini Vacation Ideas

In the interest of Living a Life Less Ordinary (and having recently experienced a weekend escape, coming back refreshed & relaxed) my DH & I have decided that every few months we're going to escape from the house and take a Mini Vacation together.

The list of places we'd like to visit so far:

• Morere Hot Springs
• to experience the Hot Springs
• do the  Night Walk to Nikau pools 
• walk the  Nikau Loop Track  (would love to do the longer walks at some stage too)
• visit their arts & crafts shop
• Waipoua Forest
• Orakei Korako Cave & Thermal Park (The Hidden Valley)
• Solscape - they have some pretty unconventional accommodation and retreats available, I'd love to go and spend some time there 
• Nikau Sancutary  - luxury yurt - enough said ;0)
• Waitangi Soda Springs
• The Lost Spring

Do you have any ideas for us? If so leave a comment and I'll add it to our list :0)

Updated 15/7/2012 to add The Lost Spring - Whitianga

Ruru Says... Never Drive

Rotorua Photographs

 More photos from our weekend escape :0)

Close up shot of the Maori design on the Rotorua Information Centre

The scenic lookout on the Napier-Taupo Road

 Close up shot of the ironwork on the Band Routunda

Ruru Says... Slow Down

A very timely reminder as it is winter here in NZ at the moment!

Ruru Says....

Passing through the Bay of Plenty we spotted a series of signs that we just had to stop and photograph

We found the signs below explaining who this wise owl is and what he does:

I thought it might be fun to reveal a new sign each day over the coming 10 or so days rather than post all the photographs at once.  (Please don't get me wrong, each of the signs has a very important message for drivers - I just thought they were so well executed that I just had to share them with the world!) Look out for future posts entitled "Ruru Says..."

A weekend escape

That's right, we escaped the HB this weekend just been and enjoyed a trip up north where I indulged my fondness for photography as well my passion for soaking in hot pools!

Private mineral pool at our motel

The top storey of the
Rotorua Information Centre

Band Routunda

Attitude Of Gratitude Journal Pages

Above are three pages which have evolved over the past month (I often start a page and then leave it part way through coming back to it when I have time and inclination). Each of them is in my Attitude Of Gratitude (AOG) journal.

New Journal - Yummy Goodness

This gorgeous journal came into my work amongst a bunch of books for clearance and I just couldn't help buying it (infact I managed to find three in the end so my daughters could have one each as well). 

The first page sums up what I intend to put in this journal which is now being carried around in my purse, I intend to use it as a gluebook for positive thoughts, inspiring pictures, quotes etc... 

The above page was made up from my copy of That's Life magazine, the photo caught my attention as I love photography and I thought the quote very apt as it would have taken incredible perseverance to catch something that cute.

Bottle Top Fridge Magnets

My eldest daughter was kind enough sit down and craft with me on Mothers day and share her bottle top ingredients with which I had fun making the above three fridge magnets.



She made some herself too :0)

Birthdays - Cakes & Cupcakes

 Yumm sponge cake with fresh whipped cream and raspberries galore - this beauty was assembled by my youngest daughter for her older sister.

 Cup cakes & daughters sense of humour make for a good photos!

 And youngest daughters birthday cake - chocolate!

Solar Cooking

Now that the hard work of moving, unpacking and organising is pretty much done I've found the bits and pieces that make up my solar cooker. Given that it's a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in sight here in the HB I decided to try my luck and see what sort of temperatures I could get - imagine my delight when the thermometer got a smidgen over 82 celsius, especially as we're in the middle of autumn!

Summer has been a bust this year so I'm going to pack the solar cooker away until next year when I will dust it off, refresh my memory by perusing http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_cooking_frequently-asked_questions, look up some solar cooking recipes and get stuck in! This is exciting - especiallly now that I know the cooker is capable of attaining a decent temperature. I will also keep on looking for black cooking pots and/or dutch ovens for next summer!

Music I adore

I heard a song on the radio this morning on the way to work and it had my toe tapping (good thing I drive an automatic!).  I didn't get the artists name but google and New Zealands Top 40 list helped me locate the above gem.

Finally Time To Craft

It has been a over a month since I was last able to sit down, craft and then blog, the good news though is that our move is over and done with (it went successfully I'm pleased to say) and I now have the Easter holidays to catch up with my family, housework & crafts.

The above picture is from April 6th 2012 in my dairy and is a collage on top of a colouring page from  www.self-help-healing-arts-journal.com (Color-in-Flowers: Volume 1).