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. 

Recipe Post // Greek Lamb & Feta Patties

I love taking inspiration from friends and family when I’m thinking of new meals to make. Last summer I frequently spent weekends at a friend’s house, drinking raspberry mojitos and having BBQ’s in the sunshine. I loved how her and her husband always served the meat with lemon squeezed over, with feta cheese and pita bread on the side. My friend made these amazing feta-filled patties and while I didn’t get the exact recipe off her this one is inspired by hers.

You will need;

300 – 400g Lamb Mince (or beef mince)

Juice of 1 Lemon

2 t Oregano

1 piece of bread – toasted and cut into small cubes (I like multigrain)

1 t Cumin

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 Egg

Feta Cheese – cut into cubes

1. Add all ingredients to a bowl.

2. Mix everything together with clean hands, or wear gloves.

3. Fold a small palm-full of mixture around a cube of feta until it is covered.

4a. Place on a baking tray and bake at 180°C about 15 minutes, or until just cooked.

4b. Cook on a BBQ until just cooked through. 

I serve mine in toasted pita bread, with hummus, salad and a favourite creamy dip. The lemon and feta add a nice freshness to what would otherwise be boring old BBQ patties!

What is your favourite Summer BBQ food?

 

Life Lately // Laura & Cody's Wedding Part 1

 3/4 Bridesmaids after we got out of the car at the church

I thought I would split the events and photos from the wedding into a couple of posts, so here’s the first lot! I travelled up to Christchurch last Thursday with my Mum, one of the other bridesmaids (who I’ve known forever!) and her Mum. We stopped at the Rainbow lolly factory in Oamaru on the way up, as well as the Cookie Time factory just out of Christchurch. I bought some tiny jubes from the lolly factory which I have cupcake-related plans for!

Our friend Laura (the Bride) had booked an amazing holiday house for all of us to stay at. It had a spa!! We spent the afternoon tying ribbon around programmes and tealight holders and writing a list of things to do for Friday. For dinner we went to a Moroccan restaurant down the street – I was in heaven! All the other girls ordered wraps, but I had to try a tagine – it was so worth it! I was full after eating only half of it. After a quiet glass of wine we all headed off to bed.

The incredibly cute programmes the Bride designed herself!

On Friday we went to the church in the morning for the rehearsal. We girls were all relieved to see the aisle was carpeted so our shoes wouldn’t slip! We practised walking in time to the music in our shoes. I had to go first after the flower girl! Once I remembered to hold my hands like I was holding a bouquet (about halfway down the aisle!) I felt much steadier.

A mo for every boy and lips for every girl...

 The Bride had this made. I want one for my cupcake market stall!

Straight after the rehearsal we went to the reception venue to set all of that up. Laura had made so many sweet little additions for the tables! I loved her lips and moustache straws. The place looked amazing once we had finished! After we were done there we headed to a mall to get our nails done, tick a few things off our list and have some lunch.

The tables looked amazing after we had set everything up!

The Maid of Honour cooked us all an awesome dinner that night and the Bridesmaids made a list of things to pack for the next day. Laura gave us a present each – some gorgeous earrings she had made for us to wear at the wedding, some perfume and matching clutch bags! I decided to write a quick poem to go in my card for the Bride and Groom – meaning I didn’t get to sleep until 2am! Whoops!

 Some of our Bridesmaid gifts - A black clutch, mini perfume, gel pads for our shoes & the 

earrings the Bride made for us!

 The awesome handmade earrings the Bride had made for the Bridesmaids

I’ll share what we got up to on the day of the wedding in another post. I had so much fun catching up with old friends, laughing, eating amazing food and seeing one of my closest friends marry her best friend. Amazing weekend!!

Outfit Post - Cornflower Blue, Golden Grass

I finally had a spare 5 minutes to rush off into the windy vineyard to take some outfit pics before I had to come home from my holiday in Cromwell. As I haven’t really been up that early over the summer holidays I had to wait until late afternoon when the sun was a bit lower to take some pictures. Unfortunately in Cromwell the wind ALWAYS picks up at this time so I ended up with some movement shots! I had fun spinning around and walking in front of the camera though. I just need to work on keeping me in focus...

Blue Dress - Dotti, Nude Chunky Heels - Kmart, Watch - The Warehouse,  
Rope Bracelets - Cotton On

This outfit is a great example of what I’ve been living in this summer. I’ve been keeping it easy and simple with a pretty dress and depending on the occasion wedges or strappy sandals. The ones I am wearing here are my new favourites – and they’re from Kmart of all places! I needed some nude shoes for the wedding I’m a bridesmaid for so I went shoe shopping with another of the bridesmaids. She found these awesome shoes and they are perfect – I was looking at wedges or chunky heels, these are so comfortable and sturdy and aren’t going to fly off my feet! Plus they’re surprisingly easy to walk in. Winning!!

What have you guys been up to over the holidays? Have you had a holiday? I’ve been back at work for a couple of days and Thursday I’m off to Christchurch for the wedding. It’s so exciting!! I’m just hoping the shaky ground stays quiet for the few days that I’m there. (might be wishful thinking!) Hopefully I’ll have some photos to show you guys next week!

Life Lately // Summer Dreaming

I took these photos while taking Hershey for a walk around the vineyard that backs on to the holiday house I stayed at for the last couple of weeks. I love Cromwell so much!

I spent my holiday playing fetch the stick with the dog at the lake, stuffing my face with the best cream donuts around from the local bakery and cooling down with (at least 3) Real fruit ice creams from the orchard down the road.

I went on a day trip to Queenstown for some retail therapy and scoped out the cupcake shop Cup & Cake which took a bit to find (hidden down a sneaky alley) but was worth it when I got there! I drove back to Alexandra and wandered around the shops. I found a cute little gift shop in Bannockburn with vintage glassware and gorgeous new serving plates and platters (I somehow stopped myself spending money there!) and found another in Clyde with so many cupcake and baking gifts I was in heaven!

Dinner was a BBQ every night, usually at around 9pm once the boys were home from golf. I love Summer evenings down south where it’s light until 10pm and the sunsets are so pretty and drawn out.

Now it’s back to reality! I have to make the cake topper for my friend’s wedding cake, work for 3 days and then I’m off to Dunedin on Wednesday night. On Thursday I’ll be road-tripping to Christchurch with my Mum, my friend Laura and her Mum for my friend’s wedding! Both of our Mums are going up just to see the ceremony and I suppose to see their daughters walk down the aisle as bridesmaids!

I'll try have some photos up from New Years soon. The hens night was so fun! Keep an eye on my instagram feed (my username is sparkleylining) and I’ll try and post some photos of the trip and wedding! I’ll be taking my camera too so hopefully I’ll be able to do a wedding post sometime next week. I hope you’ve all enjoyed your Summer or Christmas break!!

Outfit Post // Pink at the Races

Yes, I still do outfit posts on my blog! It has been a while though. It’s been a busy few months settling in to my new house, getting used to working by myself from home and planning, photographing and writing my ’12 Days of Christmas’  posts. Phew!

Anyway, this is the outfit I wore to The Invercargill races in the weekend for Andrews work do. It was sooo hot!! It was such a fun day, we were divided up into groups of 5, we put in $20 each and we all picked 1 horse each per race and then put down our 5 horses as a $10 trifecta bet. The group I was in had 3 wins in the first 3 races! By the end of the day we were up $60 on our original group total, so put down $30 on each of the last 2 races. Unfortunately our winning streak was over! But we left with the $20 we started with so it’s all good.

 Dress - Made by me, Pink Fascinator - Spotlight, White Clutch - Diva,  

 White Heels - No. 1 Shoe Warehouse

I whipped up this dress on my sewing machine last Thursday and Friday night. It’s the same pattern as the dress I made for my sewing class, but I free-handed the heart cut out for the back and closed the top piece with 3 little metal closures. I read an article a while ago about a woman who was making costumes for a local event. She said that when she was young in the 1960’s, she would sew a dress on the Saturday to wear to a dance being held that night. I love that idea! Making a new dress for a special occasion. So now I have great plans for dresses for future events...

I hope you all had a great weekend! The weather here has been amazing lately. Invercargill is surprising me! Thank you for all your nice comments on my ’12 Days of Christmas’ posts! I’ve loved reading all your comments, and I hope some of the 50 or so viewers that have visited each day lately have got some new, cheap DIY ideas for their Christmas this year.

Tomorrow night I’m off to Dunedin to watch the Phoenix play soccer and go to a wedding on the weekend. I’m looking forward to it! 1 1/2 weeks until Christmas – woohoo!! 

Thrifty Friday // Scarves and Belts

Brown Leopard Print - Shop on Carrol, Blue - Salavtion Army Tay St,  

Olive Green - Salvation Army Tay St, Red - Salvation Army Tay St,  

Purple Italian Buildings - Shop on Taieri

 Brown leather w. Silver - Shop on Taieri, Navy Blue Skinny - Opshop St Andrew St,  

White Belt - Savemart, Dunedin, Navy and Gold Clasp Belt - Salvation Army Mosgiel,  

Dove Grey Belt - Salvation Army Tay St, Red Skinny - Opshop St Andrew St,  

Brown Leather Girl Guides - Shop on Taieri

Here's a little sneak peak at 2 of my collections that seem to be growing a lot lately - scarves and belts!!

I actually picked up 3 of the scarves the other day from the Salvation Army Store on Tay St, I seem to be finding a lot of bargains there! l Iove how they all have so many different colours in them so they'll go with lots of different outfits!

I usually wear my scarves around my neck, but I think I might try some in my hair for a change. I'll see how it goes! 

I'm so happy its Friday, the sun is shining and its nice and warm for a change. Think I'll make the most of it on my lunch break!!

What awesome things have you bought lately??