Art for Heart's Sake

HEIRLOOM PERENNIAL NURSERY CATALOGUE - LINK

Please note this post will stay at the top of my blog, please scroll down to see my daily posts.

Hi and welcome to my Heirloom Perennial Nursery Catalogue.  I specialise in hardy cranesbill geraniums and have just added some other very special treasures to my catalogue.

I will send my plants throughout New Zealand.  Please email me at foeslamb@xtra.co.nz to place an order.  Receipt of orders will be confirmed by email and freight charges will be advised then.

Please click on the link below to view my Spring 2012 - Spring 2013 catalogue.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed putting it together.  I am hoping to include photographs in my catalogue in the very near future. 

Big smiles and enjoy!

Download Heirloom Perennials Plant List1 Spring 2012 - Spring 2013

Yikes, A Busy Day!

Hi there, just a fairly quick post today because I have SO much to accomplish today.  I seem to have a list about ten miles long for some reason, ick.

Yesterday I had a lovely time with my friend Lyn.  I also managed to find the most gorgeous, very cheap, warm top with a woolly lined hood and I feel as warm as toast in it!  It is so pretty.. sort of a dove grey background (french blueish) with medium sized flowers in cream and pink and pale green leaves (very English cottage fabric-like) and the woolly trim is also around the bottom and the cuffs.  It really is so pretty and almost like a poncho but with sleeves (sounds odd I know but it works).

I'm fighting off another cold which is such a pain especially as we're seeing my Mum this weekend.  I really hope I don't pass it on to her, that would make me feel terrible!!  Hopefully I will fight it off fast - almost every person that comes into the store at the moment is either sniffling or coughing.

I'm sorry this is so short, my posts for the next three days probably will be too but I'll have photos to share early next week!  I need to go and record my radio show for next Tuesday now because I won't be able to do it on Sunday as usual.  Smiles...

Hair Trim!

Hi, it's Wednesday morning and I'm about to head out to get my hair trimmed, yippeeeeeee because it needs it badly!  I get it trimmed about every 10 weeks which is almost perfect.  When my hair was short it needed trimming every 5-6 weeks so there are advantages to having it longer.    I'm meeting a dear friend for coffee afterwards which is a real treat for me - we don't get to do it often!

Yesterday afternoon was fairly slow at work but I did have some nice customers to chat to at times so that made it a bit better. 

This pm I need to work on my tax return paperwork.  I can't put it off any longer.  My return is due in on 7 July, yikes!  There is one slight hitch, I think the tax department sent my tax pack and summary of income to my husband's accountant and when I checked they said they just throw them out.  So I had to organise another lot.  I've got the return form but not my summary of income so I can't do my return yet anyway.  Bother, bother, bother.  At least I can organise my paperwork so it won't be as longwinded when it does finally arrive!  Ick ooh and ack to paperwork of any sort!

Need to fly out the door.. oh and MUST take a photo of the new chook house for you today.  Smiles..

EEEEEEEEEEK, HUMMPH

Hi there, eeeek humphhh is right.. grrrrr it's just one of those days - you know the ones - when you just feel inexplicably grouchy and can't quite work out why??!!  GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRR there that feels better.. giggle...

It's another grey day today so maybe that's the reason I'm feeling a bit GROUCHY... humphhhh eeeeeek. 

Yesterday I vacuumed the house, tidied the spare room and finally stewed our rather wrinkly (but still gorgeous) sturmer apples.  I felt really good after doing these things because the spare room was really irking me.

Today I'm working 12noon till 5.30pm and that has really thrown me out.  I definitely don't like starting work at lunchtime, it is just plain stupid in my book!  Here's hoping it's a bit more busy today or I will start spinning on the spot with boredom.  If only they didn't have surveillance cameras, at least I could take a book to read or something, eeeeeeeek humphh...  grouch out grouch out!!  I'm trying my best to perk up so hopefully by the time I've finished typing this I will feel better.

Tomorrow a very nasty winter storm starts moving it's way up the country.  It is meant to bring snow to low levels in all sorts of places (not here though) plus gale force winds etc.  We are hoping and praying it will be over by the time we have to fly to Wellington (35 min flight from here) very early on Saturday morning to drive to New Plymouth.  John is going to the All Blacks rugby test so I've taken the opportunity to go too and we are staying with Mum which will be lovely.  I really feel I need to see her - she'll be 86 in October and I need to make the most of her when I can.  I guess if the weather is too bad they won't let us fly anyway, so everything crossed.

I must go and get changed as I need to leave for work early so I can do an errand or two before work.  Until tomorrow... smiles... eeeky ones!! 

It Rained.. but...

..not too badly in our area.  An area called Golden Bay suffered badly with lots of roads closed.  It's over the the Takaka Hill and is a major holiday spot - it's very laid back and has lots of lovely beaches.  It's also the gateway to somewhere called Farewell Spit which is a sandy spit that sticks right out into the sea at the top of the South Island.   They have guided tours where you can go right out onto the spit in four wheel drive vehicles to see the very special birdlife.  A salmon farm was also wiped out by a huge landslide and up to 50-70,000 adult and teenage salmon were killed.  I feel so sorry for the fish!

Closer to home but still an hour's drive away, one person was killed when a landslide destroyed their house, which is really sad.  Crikey talk about a weather event.  We only had 65mm of rain up until midnight last night so we were very lucky.  The ground is still completely sodden though!  In contrast the long range weather forecast is for severe frosts this weekend.

My brother is over from Sydney visiting Mum for a few days.  She hasn't seen him for a few years so it's wonderful he managed to get over here.  Here is a photo of them that my sister took.  I think this is such a cute photo of my Mum.  Chris is 58 and Mum is 85.  It's taken on an iPhone so the quality isn't brilliant but I still love it.

I love my Mum's smile in this photo!  Today I'm tidying the spare room and stewing our sturmer apples.  I was storing them sort of but they are getting wrinkly so the time has come to cook them.  I've been looking at them for a couple of weeks, so today's the day!!  Wrinkly apples here I come!  Smiles..

 

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

... and there are heavy rain warnings!!  It's Sunday morning and I'm about to leave for work in 30 minutes or so.  It's been raining most of the night and is raining steadily and sometimes heavily.  I'm keeping everything crossed there is no flooding by 4pm so I can get home.  The main roads from Richmond to home have several areas that always flood and I don't fancy tackling any large, deep puddles in the little car.. Crikey...  John is driving back from Blenheim today with Chester so I hope he makes it home too. 

I'd so love to be able to stay at home, snug as a bug, playing in my studio.  I had a lovely time last evening doing art in the living room.  I covered the coffee table with my supplies and went for it.  I've finally started the art journal I bought from Donna Downey about 1.5 years ago.  Up until now I've been too ''scared'' in case I ruin it.  Donna told me in no uncertain terms just to ''do it and make it messy''.  She is so gorgeous and I must follow her advice.  I've realised that even though I'm messy in many areas of my life (you should see the spare room right now), when it comes to creating I really have to fight with myself to let things get messy.  I like to clean my brushes to within an inch of their life and up until now I've changed my paint water really regularly.  Eureka, this last lot of paint water has lasted about 1.5 weeks which is a record for me!  I also tend to put baking paper between the page I'm working on in an art journal and the next page so I don't get colour on the blank page.  Oh boy this is going to be a hard one to crack!  Yesterday I had a piece of baking paper ready to go in Donna's art journal and I JUST managed to stop myself using it.  I kept looking at it (I swear it was threatening me) but I ignored it in the end and yes I got some gold and deep red paint on the next page..  eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!  Phoop!

I need to go and phone John before I leave for work.  Have a great day/night wherever you are... Smiles.. oooh p.s. I stained the chook house but haven't taken a photo yet.  I'll also take a photo of the art journal page when it's finished.  I've used gold leaf on it too, plus image transfer and I love how it is looking! 

Rain Is On It's Way and ....

... it may not be pretty!!  Here is a link to the weather warnings for our area from Sat midday until Monday morning:

http://www.metservice.com/national/warnings/severe-weather-warnings

It sounds as though we are going to get one heck of a lot of rain again.  I hope it won't be as bad as the flash flood that happened in April and I am also hoping I will be able to get to work and back (more importantly BACK) tomorrow.  John is in Blenheim for the weekend and he will be driving home with Chester tomorrow too.  Fingers crossed all will be okay.  There are two areas on the coastal highway where it always floods in heavy rain and that is my main route to work.  I can take the Moutere highway but that can be just as bad.  I'll check the road conditions tomorrow morning if it rains heavily all  night.  The rain has just started, earlier than predicted but it's only spitting at the moment.

Yesterday was a fairly long, boring day at work.  It's a bit worrying for the owners because things are really slow at the moment.  Some days they have reasonable take but other days it's tiny!  Yesterday I probably only made about 7 sales in 8.5 hours.  Ugh!  Sundays are always quiet and if the rain is torrential chances are people will stay at home rather than going to the mall. 

Today I'm staining the new chook house John has built.  It's rather large, giggle and I will have to stand on a block with a soup ladle to collect the eggs from the nesting boxes.  This makes me shriek with laughter at the mental image of myself doing that, let alone cleaning out the whole house.  We didn't want to put extra doors in this one (just one door at the front) because extra doors mean extra areas for leaks when the wood warps slightly (as it will eventually).  I think the front door may still need to be a lot longer so I can go into the walk in run and clean the house out from the front, but we will see.  I'll persevere in the meantime and see how I get on.

Yikes I'd better go and start staining.. photos to follow!  Smiles..

 

Off to Work!

Hi there, just a very quick post today because I'm running late and have to be out the door at 8.30am this morning.  My boss is going to show me the footage taken by the four security cameras in the store this morning.  Last Friday I noticed a tester of a room spray was missing and I left a note in our red book about it saying ''stolen??''.  Turns out I was right and it was stolen while I was working at the shop early last Friday morning.  I'm hoping the footage doesn't show me not being diligent!  Ah the joys of being on camera, ack ack ack ack!!!  Crikey.  I know I talk to myself when I'm in the store alone so my boss probably thinks I'm nutty anyway!   More tomorrow  including an update on the filming event.  Hugs and smiles...

Hi Mary Honey!!

Hi, on this REALLY chilly wintery morning.  The sky started off clear but now the cloud has come over and it is only around 5.8 degrees C (not sure what that is in degrees F, but it's not warm!).  I have a load of washing in the machine and I think that may be silly because there is no way it will dry outside today!!

The first thing I must say is a big ''hi'' to my dear, dear friend Mary!  Thank you so much for your comments and I feel really awful that you are thinking I may have read and deleted your comments.  Crikey honey I would NEVER do that!  I love getting them so much.  Typepad normally emails me when I get a comment and I hadn't had one for ages.  I looked in my ''comments'' section today on here and there they were.   Big big hugs and smiles heading your way!!

Today is a pretty exciting day.  I have a camerawoman and my friend Joya (News Manager) coming to see me from Mainland TV (can be picked up across the top of the South Island only) to film a 5 minute segment of ME which we will use when we go and see potential sponsors for my (hope it happens) gardening television show.  It's not big time TV but it's a start!  Unfortunately there is REALLY loud noise coming from across the road - heavy machinery again - so I'm not sure if they will be able to film or not.  BIG DEEP SIGH!

This morning John and I had a bit of a stressful task to do.  We had to catch 2 female and 2 male ducks for one of our neighbour's friends who wanted them.  I know we have a few too many ducks but I hate having to put them under stress to catch them for someone.  This mornings job was much harder than usual because the wire I had to pull across the front of our catchment area (we'd been feeding them there for the past week or so) was really floppy and the ties I put on weren't strong enough.  It was a bit of a debacle and we honestly thought they were all going to escape.  One of our lovely khaki campbell ladies got her foot (for want of a better word) caught in the wire too and I just hope she will be okay.  Crikey.. not a good experience for this besotted animal lover.  Needless to say the ducks will be very wary of us for quite a long time now.

It's cup of tea time and I'm desperate for one so off I go.  Smiles..

Happy Wednesday!

Morning, it's 9.10am and I've just finished my breakfast after doing my morning outdoor chores plus extras because I'm looking after the cat and the chooks next door.  These chooks are brown shavers and they are SO gorgeous.  I love how vocal they are.  I never thought I'd ever want big chooks because they can do so much damage in the garden but we are putting the latest new chook house (under construction) with a big run, out in the paddock.  I could free range the chooks out there without any problem except perhaps the dog when we take him out there for a run - hmmm.  Ahem, of course we can't get more until our 3 little game hens leave this world or lizzie does and we can move the other three into her house and run!  Phew how complicated!  A girl can dream though, giggle.

This morning I am going to put together a beef casserole to be slow cooked in the oven this pm.  I want to brown the meat and soften the onions, carrots and celery plus garlic this morning and leave it to sit in beef stock, thyme, bay leaf and red wine until I put it into the oven around 2pm.  I've decided to do it this way because I need to get out into the kitchen garden this pm and it's frosty this morning so I might as well make the most of a cold morning so I have my afternoon free.  Hope that makes sense?

How are you all?  I haven't had any comments for a while so I hope I'm not boring everyone to death each day??!!!  Please do let me know if I am, crikey, giggle! 

I had a lovely time at the Outlet Store yesterday.  I spent the five hours pricing gorgeous lacy collars that do up at the back so you can put them over anything you like without having to sew them on.  I was SO tempted to get one but managed to resist for now.  They are reasonably priced and I think one in particular would look gorgeous around the collar of my fine black polar neck.

I'd better get started on this casserole.  Happy day/night wherever you are honeys.  Smiles..

Photos of Agate Stones!

Hi, I'm rushing off to work this morning so here are some photos of the gorgeous! agate stones I collected from Birdlings Flat near Christchurch a couple of weeks ago.   I wet them so their colours would be easier to see.  These stones are smooth to the touch too, polished by the sea.  What can I say, they make me SO happy!  More tomorrow.. Smiles..