Roadtrip // Exploring Bluff

 

The weather lately has been magnificent. The end of January  and most of February tends to be fairly settled here in New Zealand. The temperatures all week have been in the mid to late 20's which is highly unusual for Invercargill! I decided to FINALLY get off my butt and do some site seeing.

 

 I filled up the car and headed down the coast to  Bluff-a small coastal town at the bottom of New Zealand. I had visited it once, on my 1st day at my current job. I'd glimpsed a cool-looking 2nd hand store which I was keen to check out.

 

 

I stopped across the road from the 2nd hand store and  ventured across the road to take a look.  It's filled with vintage glass, bottles, cigarette tins and boat paintings, plus old rusted tools and books! I found a pretty silver bib necklace for $10 which l decided would look perfect with my many dresses.

 

 

 

After I'd taken in the sites of the main drag (a 5 minute walk) I walked backed to a pub I'd seen earlier, where I ordered mini spring rolls and coffee and sat at a picnic table outside. Unfortunately while I was eating my lunch the Sandflies were eating me! l had to go ask at the bar if they had any bug spray (nope!) then run down to the 4 Square to buy some.

 

 

 

I wanted to have a look in the Maritime museum, but was too itches so headed home. It  was a fun trip though and I enjoyed using my camera after a bit of a break!

  

 

What are your plans for the weekend? How's the weather where you are?

 

Kc

Life Lately // A Concert, Cupcakes & a Vege Shed

I had great fun up in Cromwell for the Winery Tour concert! It rained on us the whole way as we travelled up there, then as we arrived the sun came out and the temperature zoomed up a few degrees! I had a great night eating some AMAZING pizza being sold at the venue plus gluten free cupcakes I made & took with me, drinking a couple of glasses of Olssens Winery Pinot Gris and dancing on my picnic blanket to Gin Wigmore. Man she is amazing live!

On the way home today we stopped in Arrowtown for a pie from the Bakery (they make awesome gourmet pies!) and I dragged my friend to the Remarkables Sweet Shop so I could get some fudge (I convinced her to buy some too!!) Can you see all my trips end up revolving around food?

We also stopped at the Vege Shed in the Athol Valley. The woman running the place was so lovely! I found a super cute cupcake-related necklace which her daughter had made and I had to buy it. She then came and sat outside with me and my friends and we had a great chat about cupcakes, blueberries and her business. She was really supportive of my little cake business and gave me some great tips! It’s so nice meeting people who get all excited about my business idea and offer up tips from their own experience. After we left my brain was going a hundred miles an hour thinking of what my next step could be!

**Photos all from the Vege Shed because I was having too much fun to remember to take photos at other points of the trip...

Today is also February 22^nd here in New Zealand – a year ago today at 12:51pm there was a devastating earthquake in Christchurch, a city 5 hours away from my hometown of Dunedin. 185 people died and the city is still receiving aftershocks and dealing with the cleanup. Although my friends and I missed 12:51pm by 10 minutes – we had our own little 1 minute of silence at 1pm in the car between Arrowtown & Queenstown to remember those who were lost. Kia Kaha Christchurch – Stand strong. 

Instagram Fest // The Week That Was

I realise I have been a little absent lately! Between sorting my internet, trying to get rid of the pile of cardboard boxes that are still littered around my new house and frequent trips to Dunedin in the weekend blogging has been at the bottom of the heap over the last couple of weeks! I have plans to get back onto to it ASAP though, so no worries!!


I went up to Dunedin in the weekend and reviewed the Imperial Russian Ballet Company's 'A Festival of Russian Ballet' which is touring New Zealand at the moment.You can read my review here if you like! also caught up with a couple of friends and had a quiet drink in town which was fun!

So you all know what else I've been up to lately, here are some lovely Instagram pics to fill in the gaps. I love how my phone is always there to capture little moments and entertain me when I'm bored!

 A pretty thrifted playsuit I bought off Trademe, making hot chocolate at home on my espresso machine, a pair of thrifted silver mary janes I plan to do a DIY on, the dress pattern and material I am using at dress making class (middle right!), my old ballet shoes I found when moving and wore while doing plies using my dresser as a barre, the view from my awesome seat before watching the Russian Ballet Company perform (read my review here!), a cheeky cherio lunch yesterday, an awesome vintage tutu I just bought (I've been looking for one for ages!!) can't wait to get it!!

If you have Instagram too look me up sometime - my username is sparkleylining. I'd love to see what you take photos of!!

The rest of this week will involve looking for storage solutions for my sewing/dressing room and cake studio, baking some tasty treats to take to Dunedin this weekend  when I go up to see Sleeping Beauty (yes, more ballet!) beginning to sew my dress at dressmaking class on Thursday and waiting by the phone in case my little nephew decides to make an appearance this week!!

What are your plans for the rest of the week and the weekend?

Helping Hand // Index Pages

I've got something special to share with you guys! I spent a couple of hours creating some indexes for my blog. Now you can go straight to the index you want (recipes, outfits, cakes and reviews) by clicking on the little text icon under the blog header and you will arrive at a page that will look something like this;

Easy-peasy! Just click on the picture that interests you and you'll be magically transported to the post relating to the picture. A nice clear way for you to find your way around my blog, no?

Like this idea? Well, here is how I did it. 

**Please note I came up with this by myself and wasn't influenced by posts on any other blogs or sites. If you wish to use this idea on your blog, please reference it back to me. Thanks!!

So, first I labelled my photos. I use a program called Draw Plus which I downloaded off the internet. It functions similar to Photoshop, but I find it easier to use. I would highly recommend using the tutorials to get a feel for the program.

 All I did was insert the picture into the drawing, drew a rectangle over it, filled it with colour, set it so it was slightly transparent and added some text on top of it. I then grouped the picture, text and rectangle together and dragged the whole thing onto my Picasa tab and cropped it as required. Save it to your pictures folder. You could just add the text, or skip this step completley and just have the picture by itself on your index page. It's up to you!

After setting up a new page in Blogger, I loaded my index photos in the normal manner, and set them so they were size small. This way you can drag 2 together side by side. I then opened a new internet tab (hover over tab and press Ctrl+N) and opened my blog, where I selected the "outfits" tag from the sidebar that I have attached to all my ourfit posts. 

Now all you need to do is select a post, (click on the post title) copy the link from the bar at the top and return to your other tab where your new page is open. Select the photo which relates to that post and click "edit link". Just paste the link you copied into the box and voila! Your little photo will link to the post you want it to. 

I hope you found that interesting! I'm always keen to find new ways to edit photos or content for my blog. If you have any tips for me they would be greatly appreciated!!

Girl About Town // Trees in Wellington

Here's the next town on our little around-New-Zealand adventure - Wellington! Brought to you by the lovely Trees. She posts pictures from around Wellington, crafty things and outfit posts on her blog and I always enjoy checking it out! Take it away Trees!

 Kia Ora my name is Trees and KC has been kind enough to ask me to do a guest post for my beautiful city of Wellington. For those of you who don't know, Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and also a place for all kinds of artsy happenings. I work as a public servant and enjoy the life style the city offers. My partner and I live in an art deco apartment in the city centre and we don't have to walk too far from our front door to find something interesting whether its a cafe, art house cinema, music venue, play or the Wellington waterfront. My blog Adventures of a girl from the Naki and I blog about craft, fashion, music, movies, art, food and life in Wellington.

There's a saying in Wellington - "You can't beat Wellington on a good day" and its true! On a good day this is quite possibly one of the most beautiful cities in the world (not that I am biased or anything). If you don't believe me, here's some photographic evidence. 

On days like these you just want to eat your food outside and one of the best places to do this is Kreuzberg Summer Cafe. This cafe is fabulous, its based in an old parking lot. Your food will be cooked on a barbecue and it will be delicious. Despite being such a small cafe, they also have vegetarian and vegan meals.

Another favourite place of mine to hang out in Wellington is Expressoholic - this place is pretty iconic in Wellington and it seems that I find myself there at least once a week. It's a great place to meet your friends and chat over a tea or coffee. But they also have the most amazing cabinet food (my favourite is the tortilla stack) and a full menu. My favourite at Expressoholic is a "horchata" which is a Mexican drink. It tastes like warm vanilla melted ice cream - only better!

When it comes to shopping my favourite place in the city is Cuba Street, you can visit great stores like Iko Iko or Madam Fancy Pants. However, I an op shopper at heart so you are more likely to find me in Newtown or Kilbirnie op shopping during the weekends. One of my favourite Wellington op shops is Opportunity for Animals - they have really great prices and the Kilbirnie store has the most amazing selection of shoes!

Another one of my favourite shopping events is less frequent, Craft 2.0 which is an indie craft market which happens four times a year. Usually it takes place in the New Dowse Gallery in Upper Hutt, but the next market is due to happen in Wellington city - Yah! Craft 2.0 usually includes all kinds of crafty and baked goods, as well as a photo booth - everyone loves a photo booth.

Finally - if you're in Wellington where should you visit? Well one of my favourite things to do is to go for walks around the city. This may be a hilly city but it is idea for walking as it is so small and compact. You could get a bus to Lyall Bay and then walk from Lyall Bay to Island Bay - its pretty much all flat. Once you get to Island Bay you can check out the mini aquarium and say hi to an Octopus.

Finally, no trip to Wellington is complete without a visit to the Wellington waterfront, its my favourite place in the city, luckily I only live 10 minutes away. Anything can happen at the waterfront - on Sunday you can buy your fruit and vegetables and attend the food market or you may bump into a friendly seal or see some waka or dragon boats. Last weekend we bought hot chocolate from a double decker bus - there's always something happening in this little city.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post - I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of Wellington!

Thanks Trees!! So many great photos and places to visit. Looking forward to my next trip to Wellington now! Check out Maria's post on Dunedin and Sarah's post on Christchurch too! 

Girl About Town // Sarah in Christchurch

Today's 'Girl About Town' post is from the lovely Sarah in Christchurch. She definitely has the hardest city to talk about, but she's done a great job! Off you go Sarah!

Hey everyone My names Sarah I post some pictures and talk some crap over here   come check me out! I grew up at the bottom of New Zealand in Invercargill where Kasey happens to now live. After nearly 20 years I had to leave before I went insane and moved myself to the biggest City in the South Island – Christchurch where I have lived for the last 6 years. As you have probably heard (unless you live under a rock!) Christchurch has suffered 2 devastating earthquakes and thousand of aftershocks. Kasey has asked me to show you some of my favourite places in my city and I jumped at the chance for a challenge – the earthquake has destroyed our central city, a lot of my favourite restaurants and shopping places are now rubble so I had to make the most of what we still have here!

Its hard to pick just one or two favourite places but one place I love to go to is The Flying Burrito Brothers for dinner:

Their Quesadilla's are to die for and you must have a frozen Margarita! Check them out  here

They were in the central city but have thankfully relocated to Papanui right by Northlands Mall.

James (the bf) and I went to a lovely Thai restaurant in the CBD which unfortunately has been bowled, but the second best Thai Ive had was at the Thai Rendezvous on Barrington Street – so many yummy choices! My fav is anything with cashews in it <3

Credit One, Credit Two

Shopping in Christchurch has also changed after the earthquake, the city centre was a great shopping area with a vast variety of shops, some shops are now operating in the suburbs or even from peoples homes, but I find it easier now to just go to a mall where you have everything. I live about a block away from Riccarton  Mall so I accidentally frequent it a lot. Riccarton is quite a big suburb with everything you need from supermarkets to the mall to plenty of restaurants and bars also. I'm a bit boring with my shopping sorry, If I want to get a bargain or a vintage item I just hope on good ol trademe !

I like to get out and about when I can– especially now that the weather is beginning to warm up. A few of my favourite spots to go are:

Image Credit

Hagley Park. A massive park in the centre of Christchurch that's great for getting some fresh air. You can walk around one of the tracks, play netball at the courts, or other sports on one of the fields or wander a bit further and you will end up at the Botanical Gardens. Luckily for us we are a short walk away from the park.

Being into cars we often like to cruise out to Sumner and park up and sit on the grass and catch up with mates. Its great for a lazy Sunday. There also happens to be a beach and the sea right there which is always nice on a hot day, a massive rock to climb and a few shops and cafes.

Lastly James and I were bored one weekend so went for a drive out of town and ended up at Leithfield a short drive out of Christchurch. Again there is a lovely beach right there that we went for a walk on and we then headed to the pub for a yummy lunch. We played some pool and ate our lunch outside in the sun. Cant wait to go again soon! 

Well that's about it folks, hope you have enjoyed getting to know me and my fair city. I hope to see you around. Thanks again Kasey for the invite!

Sarah x

Thanks Sarah!! Hope you've enjoyed reading about what Christchurch has to offer. Don't forget to check out Maria's post about Dunedin too!!