My Threadbear Life

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Lake Taupo, A Rope Bowl, Dishcloths & A New Display

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I picked the arrangement of flowers above for my daughter-in-law Sarah, who had a birthday recently. A mixture of dahlias, alstroemeria & perennial phlox, all from my garden. I wish I knew how to arrange flowers properly ... I am more of "a plonker" when it comes to flowers in vases.

Sid was here last week & we made two banana breads, one for him to take home.

He is such a delight when baking. I am always in a hurry & toss everything in - he reminds me to find Joy in the process ... "look Granny, 3 of the egg yolks are still whole but one is broken & it's running into the others" ... how precious this is.

After he went home I made Caramel Anzac Slice as I was heading to Kinloch, Lake Taupo & this is my daughter in laws favorite slice.

In the days after Christmas I sewed Sarah a Rope Bowl as I wanted to fill it with lovely body products to gift for her recent birthday. Sarah is a minimalist girl so I struggle at times with what to give her. I used a soft palette of grey fabrics as she has these tones in her decor.

I placed body products, Gourmet choccies & packets of seeds in the basket & cellophaned it all up ready to take down with me.

The next day I drove down to Kinloch, Lake Taupo, to visit eldest Grandson Alec & his family.

We had a picnic lunch on the Lake edge - it was very busy as it is holiday season & the weather was nice. The Lake is always so crystal clear - Sarah swam but Alec & I both just paddled.

Sarah told me about a walk to a waterwheel not far from their home so we headed off there in the afternoon.

It was such a pretty spot with a stream running right through it, crystal clear - & often the trout swim down the stream but you are not allowed to fish in here.

(This is part of the Whangamata Stream Trail, Kinloch for anyone wanting to google it)

A short walk from the water wheel is a fairy grove. I just found it so delightful & could've stayed there for several hours. It is a large clearing beside the stream, where people have been allowed to put fairy houses in the trees or on the ground & create a little village.

Sarah told me that nothing gets removed but there are rules about what you are allowed to put there, no plastic etc. Also children have painted rocks & stones & used these to border the area - it was just so sweet & made my heart feel full.

And you know what I want to do now don't you dear friends . . . . make my own fairy house & put it there 😃!!

There were a few of these hut-like structures built from the fallen tree branches.

Alec & Granny & Alec & his Mum Sarah. The wee dog belongs to the neighbors.

At Christmas I was gifted a very nice bundle of new tea-towels which excited me immensely because mine were ready for the rag bag.

I decided I now needed some new dishcloths as these too, were ragbag material.

I've used up all my ends of bamboo/cotton yarn & knitted 6 new ones ... they are an eclectic mix of colours but will be wonderful to replace the tatty old ones. I can now knit * this pattern * off by heart so it's great to sit & do at nights.

After I pack the Christmas decor away the house always feels large & airy & I like to give everything a good clean, move furniture & vacuum. Often I wish I had new-to-me decor to do some different displays with, but this is not the case - we use what we already have. I saw this on Instagram & it reminded me, we surely do need to love & care for the home we already have.

Longtime readers of my blog will know I have a vintage Singer Sewing table in the corner of my dining area & like to change out the displays on this for the different seasons.

I've done a wonderful new display here for the summer season . . . would you like to see it friends ??? 😖😠😬

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😖😖😖 I think it may be called Fat Black Cat in Slumberland . . .

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Friday, January 2, 2026

Happy New Year 2026 ❤️

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Wishing you all a happy & healthy (& creative) 2026.

Today we have a jug full of Alstroemeria (Christmas Red) & white Penstemons.

Well Christmas & New Year came & went for another year. I hope it was a time of contentment for you all.

Even though I got very organised early this year - it still felt busy as it drew closer.

Sue came over one day & we visited the Lavender farm just around the road from me.

Sue gifted me a piece of her gorgeous Daisy Chain Pottery & a wonderful fragrant candle. I was most excited about the angel wrapped around the gift - Sue had made this from egg cartons & toilet roll wings 💓😇

The Sunday prior to Christmas day we had my Stepson & his family over for lunch. My step grand-daughters Juno & Sadie opened their gifts & we all enjoyed a lovely time together.

A rare photo taken in the garden - this is my stepson Jared, The Mr, myself & the two girls.

On Christmas Day itself, Sid & his family came for a roast lunch & he opened his stocking. It is always special when they send me photos of what he has made using what I gift him - I enjoy this.

A little tradition that Sid's Mum has started is to give me a handmade card with a photo of Sid each Christmas & I have kept every single one. The bottom right one is this year's.

I hang these in my sewing room & enjoy them so much - he always writes me a message in the card. It is wonderful to see how he grows each year.

We have not seen (eldest grandson) Alec's family as yet but I hope to travel down to Kinloch in the next week & catch up with them all.

I haven't taken any photos of my Christmas decor this year but if you are on Instagram go * Here * & you can watch a video of my lounge that I uploaded. It is over 2 minutes long.

My decorating was very similar to previous years but my favorite this year was this wall in my dining room.

Some of you may remember the Woodland Santa that I made back in this post in July. He needed his own special place so I hung a vintage sieve on the wall & sat him on top of this.

Some days he was on a bit of a lean so I'm not sure if he had a hip flask hidden in his jacket (!!) 😳

The Angels beside him have all been handmade by myself over previous Christmas's.

Christmas has all been packed away now for another year.

It took two weeks to set it all out to my satisfaction ... & two days to pack it all away.

I think I could probably manage to pack it away in one day if a certain ginger fairy 😺 didn't insist on going to sleep in my storage containers (!!) 😖

All that remains of the Kauri stump is the pale trunk broken off.

Four days after Christmas Day we had a nasty wind storm go through our area & lost power for 8 hours. We had trees down between us & our depot yard, though this was not the cause of our power outage.

A large old tree simply uprooted & blew over & unfortunately broke a lovely native Kauri tree in its fall.

That is the Kauri lying to the right.

This saddened The Mr & I a great deal. We have not begun the clean up down here as yet, though I have managed to clean up the damage up closer to the house.

While the storm raged for many hours the furry three took up residence inside - 2 in my sewing room & Little One on the bedside table ... The Mr put a blanket down for him.

New Years Eve was spent drinking Christmas tea, eating fruit mince tarts & reading my book. I was in bed by 10 & it was quiet all around as the weather was still nasty.

I have been harvesting vegetables most days - I picked the last of my cauli & baby cabbages yesterday ... I will blanch the cauli & freeze it for winter stews.

This above was picked this morning - my tomatoes in the hothouse are growing well & we have had good success with cucumbers this year - The Mr prefers the apple variety. I have been able to share a lot of produce with friends & family.

I wish you all the very best for the coming year dear friends.

Thank you for your ever welcome visits here today - I still really enjoy my blog after all these years & the friendships I have made,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Christmas Crafting & Sewing Part 2 . . . . "The Mouse Family" & Crafting With Sid's Class

Greetings lovely friends & readers

(Apologies in advance - another photo heavy post)

Instead of a vase of flowers, today we have my vintage wringer washing machine overflowing with fluffy ruffles petunias 💗🤍

When the tree men removed the old Silk tree here, they left my washing machine tipped on its side with one leg broken, where it sat for over a year. Recently I propped it up with some bricks under the broken leg, scrubbed it & filled with fresh compost & a punnet of petunias. Much nicer!

It's a dull overcast day here today (which I LoVe) & I'm enjoying the tree lights twinkling away & changing colours.

Longtime readers of my blog may remember that I've tried this year to work my way through the many kitsets that I had on my sewing shelf, some not ever opened. This Corinne Lapierre felt Mouse Family kit was among them. I sewed these up back in early October but I'd decided to dress mine in a festive theme. I used plastic pellets in their bases as they were tricky to get to stand up properly.

When it came time to decorate I thought they may need their own little table so I could display them properly 🐭🐀

They are all dressed in their Sunday Best & I've woven a little story around them . . . .

Here we have Mrs Mouse dressed in her pearls & festive hat - she is carrying a wreath & she wants to decorate it with the berries in her hand. She is tired of Christmas preparations & all the work being left to her . . . she'd quite like to lie down, have a big nap & wake up on the 1st January next year !

Here we have Mr Mouse in all his finery - Mrs Mouse sent him into the woods to get a tree for the children to decorate. She can't believe that he has come back with this stupid skinny branch . . . words fail her! He says it is fine & she just shakes her head & thinks he needs glasses (!!)

And here we have Junior Mr & Junior Miss Mouse - they are all dressed up ready for Christmas festivities & getting into mischief. They are wearing their best outfits & Miss Mouse even has a bow in her tail.

That's as far as I've gotten with my story - I need to think on it some more. Feel free to add to it in the comments dear friends . . . any suggestions gratefully received 😊

This little wooden house was $1.50 in the Salvation Army Op-shop - it was already painted white so I just added a festive transfer to it. I think it looks sweet with my mice family & a couple of bottlebrush trees.

And then I found this little book amongst my Christmas books. I purchased this in the Stratford Hospice Shop for 50 cents when I used to visit Mums. I remember when I came across it & thought I'd found such treasure.

I'll share a couple of pages - it is immaculate despite being old. Each page has a lift out surprise & these were all still tucked in there, none were missing. The lift-out surprises are on the left hand pages & a sweet accompanying picture on the right hand page.

It is truly just the sweetest little book & I love picking it up & thumbing through it.

🎄

At the beginning of this term in what I can only describe as a moment of madness, I asked Sid's teacher if she'd like me to do some Christmas crafts with the class. Of course, she said Yes!

I spent some time putting together some samples including air-dry clay ornaments, a peat-pot & calico tree, & a paper bag snowflake. She let the children choose & they all chose the snowflake.

I used this tutorial * here * ... but changed it as cutting through 9 paper bags was far too thick for the kids so I got them to cut each paper bag individually & we cut ours prior to gluing.

We had a day doing this in groups of 6 or 7 at a time. There are 28 children in Sid's class so it took some time & of course, they all worked at different levels.

Sid, who is still in a plaster cast, was my helper. I've blocked the kids faces out & also forgot to snap many pics as it was very full on, including supervising using hot glue guns & Yes - some did burn themselves (!!)

The teacher strung them all up in the classroom when they were finished & they looked wonderful.

This is my sample above left. It was a fun day but when I came home I did feel like I needed a rather long nap!! 😉

I decided I needed to make some Christmas coasters as I wanted to fussy-cut some of the gorgeous Tilda Merry Little Christmas fabric that I'd purchased months ago.

I used this free pattern from mollyandmama. The felt I had was too orange-y so I purchased a piece of pure wool felt which would wash better when The Mr slops his mug of tea on them!

My local sewing shop had this colourway called Holly Berry - how perfect ❤️🍒

I'm delighted with how they turned out & think a pair of these would make great gifts, tied up with ribbon.

This wooden tree was a $3 op-shop purchase last year - I painted it yesterday & then applied some leftover transfer remnants, before sanding it all over. I like the vintagey effect of it all.

Thank you so much dear friends, for staying with me through these lengthy catch-up posts,

I hope the lead-up to Christmas is going well for you all,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,