Update Update!!!

Well you may remember that a long long time ago I mentioned that a few of us keen crafty and talented folks in Le Bons Bay were going to open up the old historic library as an arty crafty,cute little shop to show off and hopefully sell some of our creations....well just after Christmas we did just that and it is going really really well!!!

Lots of keen and enthusiastic people who are willing to part with some of their cash have been coming through the door....which makes it all so worth it!!! I even had a lady today want to know if I would consider selling her some of my creations to put in her shop in Arrowtown!!!WOW Thats a bit cool...don't want to keep you waiting so here are the photos of  our little shop
We stock all sorts really there are lots of talented people and we have a great variety to choose from.We have stone carvings,handmade glass earrings,crocheted items, gorgeous knitted baby garments made by Fran of (FRANGIPANI),cushions,purses,canvas paintings,beautiful over the shoulder bags and screen printed t shirts made by Allie( LIFE IN B TOWN), gnomes knitted out of natural dyed and handspun wool,lovely items for baby made by the clever Clare of( GREEN VALLEY CRAFTS), gift tags and cards, beautiful handmade shoes made by Moki Shoes Aotearoa, pickles and jams,walnuts,juices,local fresh produce and more and more and more...
So if you are ever over in our little neck of the woods we hope you will stop by.
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post to go with the photos

We are back from a fantastic summer holiday with family and friends...We took off all loaded up on the 30th of December to  one of New Zealands best Camping grounds (check it out www.quinneysbush.co.nz) It is such a great family camp ground and there should never be any need for kids to get bored!!! Happy kids means that there a happy parents makes for the perfect holiday really...We were visited by Parents, grandparents,cousins and aunties and uncles so a lot of good memories were made and fun was had by all...After 6 nights we moved onto Havelock Motor camp...a bit of a contrast to the peacefulness of Quinneys bush as Havelock is quite a busy place with the Marina the seafood factories and the thoroughfare to the sounds and Blenheim so quite alot of traffic noise...but all the same we had a lovely time we drove to a few different places, took the kids fishing, walking and the best feature of the camp was that we were situated right beside a little stream where the kids played for hours and hours...catching cockabullies and fresh water crayfish with their little nets...Heaven for them they had a real blast meet some new friends and will have very fond memories of their time in Havelock and of their whole 2 week holiday

Summer days are Happy Days!!!

Camp Head Quarters many meals were produced here and at the most for 20 people!!! 

Blokes doing what blokes like to do!!!

River swimming....

Lovely little girl with her Daddy

Brave Willow

Even Braver Felixe!!

Flying Fox Boy

2 Little cuties

Zoe and little miss Mittens

Perfection!!! a camp site under the trees

Christmas is finally starting to happen in our house!!

The tree arrived yesterday thanks to some good friends...will give you a look at it in all its finery....well not really we like to keep things simply in our house and the less glitz and glamor the better
We are to do some pressies tomorrow with Johns Girls as they are away in Australia over Xmas so the kids are a bit excited about that.

Here are my little super stars

Debbie(Zoe and Richie(Zac)

I'm a little hunk of tin sung by the little chaps!!1

Grease Lightning

The 4 oldest doing an amazing dance to sweet sixteen!!

Well we had a night that makes you real proud as parents last night...it was our tiny little schools(11 kids) end of year melodrama...we laughed we nearly cried and we loved what we saw our kids achieve...the teacher is very passionate about drama and she can get the kids to do amazing things....Both my kids were superb they are both reasonably shy but you wouldn't have thought so last night...both great little actors that make sure they get nothing wrong!!! Zac wanted to do it again he loved it so much...and Zoe was so pumped she didn't get to sleep till after 11pm!!!

A few photos to keep you going.....until I have time to do a real post!!!

Cooking on the camp fire

and again

Cute grin!!

Our cute little additions

Clever Mummy with 8 babies

WOW!!! cross that off the to do list!!!

Lemon and poppy seed muffins

Raisin and coconut biscuits 

and more

Banana Raspberry and cream cheese muffins

Looking down to where it all began today with a Maori welcome and blessing

My Dad giving a welcome talk to all

A little slice of paradise in many peoples eyes!

More food......

Some members of our family are lucky enough to be directly involved with the opening of a beautiful piece of land which has been purchased by a trust for the purpose of conservation and recreation...Today was the open day,the day started off a bit cloudy but we all had our fingers crossed that the weather would hold as lunch for 100 was to be out doors! Lucky for us it did hold off long enough for all to have a pleasant day I will leave you with a few shots of the food and all the fantastic people who came to see and support this fantastic conservation project which is here for all to enjoy now and in the future.My Mum and I did all the food for 100 people so a rough list would look like this...

10 dozen muffins of different flavours
3 roasting tray Bacon and egg pies
3 roasting tray vegetarian pies
120 BBQ sausages
6 loaves of buttered bread
4 loaves of asparagus rolls
3 batches of 3 types of biscuits
20 litre container of fresh lemon and elderflower drink
Tea and Coffee

It was a busy few days before getting organised and a major mission getting all the tables,cups,food,and everything else you think we would need to feed and serve 100 people up one of the steepest shingle roads in NZ!!! And then up a steep rugged farm track to the hut where we had to serve it...
It was all worth it with heaps of positive comments on the delicious food we made!!! So well done to us and all our helpers....

My Partner has been working on the hut over the last month getting it up to scratch for this day and for the future users of it...His list would look like this
Paint the very steep roof
Paint all the windows and doors
Replace the Rotten back door and part of the flooring
Replace the broken glass in the french doors
Stain the whole exterior
Install all new gutttering and flashings
Paint the out building
Keep the grass down around the hut and surrounds
And his list goes on into the future so he will well and truly keep out of mischief and can never say he has nothing to do!!!