Home sweet Home

There is no feeling like coming home!  We arrived in Auckland on Wednesday and spent a couple of days up in Northland with our friends Bert and Becky and family who run an organic egg and pig farm.  The scenery couldn't have more different from Singapore!  Rolling green hills everywhere you look and fresh air!  Simply Beautiful!

It was great to see them again and we even got to feed the chickens and the pigs.  What can I say but the pigs really lived up to their name!

We slowly meandered our way down country (after buying some chicken flavoured chips yum yum) and arrived in Wellington yesterday. The view on the desert road was stunning as there was plenty of snow on the mountains. (Mt Ruapehu)

 Our nephew came to see us just after we arrived which was nice.  We are all looking forward to catching up with friends and family.

This morning we drove in to Wellington and drove around the bays from Island Bay to Brooklyn.  There was not a cloud in the sky and you could see all the way to the Kaikoura ranges on the South Island.

What can I say but Ahhhhh! its nice to be home!

Visitors from home and our dyeing frenzy

The last two weeks have been pretty busy with my parents visiting from New Zealand and the kids having started school holidays.  It was great to be able to show my parents where we live and a little bit of Singapore.  The 9 days that they were here just flew by and there are still so many things that I want to be able to show them.  I guess they will just have to come back again!

Mum and Dad in Chinatown at the Buddah Tooth Relic Temple. Afterwards we went to the Chinese Heritage Museum and then enjoyed a lovely lunch at the local hawker centre.

My parents also bought some origami papers with them and it kept my children busy (and very quiet) the whole afternoon!

We had a lovely dinner with them at the Brazilian BBQ place before they left.  It was fantastic!

The last couple of days I have been busy dyeing more fabric.  Celine has been helping me make some of the more "interesting" pieces.  We have been laying the fabric onto a piece of plastic sheeting on the deck, then adding our colours.  We added another piece of fabric on top of the first to soak up the excess dye.  Strangely enough the top piece (which ended up yellow and green)  turned out quite a different colour from the bottom one (purple and orange)  Not sure why that happened!  Any suggestions?  We still have some resist to try out and want to try our hand at marbelling fabric with shaving cream.

Will post some photos of the finished pieces soon. 

We have also been busy stocking up on winter gear for our "summer holidays"!  Ski jackets and beanies for our trip home.  We are all soo excited about spending some time at home and catching up with old friends and family. 

On Wednesday Celine and I are going to a new painting group.  She is very excited.  Will keep you posted.....