Topshop Duffle Coat

I love this Duffle Coat! I NEED this Duffle Coat! Its cold & dark and I NEED it! Theres a few problems with me actually buying one.


1. Its from Topshop UK
2. They only have summer stock in their on-line store.
3. I have no money!

Auntys Art Deco Holiday

Have you ever been to Napier in NZ? Its an Art Deco mecca. The whole town centre is decked out in 1930s buildings thanks to a devastating earthquake that flattened the town in February 1931 that tragically killed 256 people.



The town council really put a lot of thought and time into the rebuild & employed Louis Hayes and others to redesign Napier in the spirit of Lloyd Frank Wright.



My fav deco part is the beach front gardens, the still in use soundshell & fountains. And I love the way the buildings are in the 1930s classic pastels. Not bright & flashy like Miami but more muted & humble.

There is also a bell-type glockenspiel in the Civic Park that chimes out Split Enz's "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" at 11.30am and Dave Dobbyn's "Loyal" at midday. It was very odd and even irritating the lunchtime crowd!

I also caught up with my Uncle Bill who is a retired Marist Brother. He studied and worked at the old Mission Estate Winery in the 60s and lucky us got our own special guided tour! Well my family did while I played outside with 2 year old Oscar on the Estate lawns. I did get some nice wine to take home with a massive 25% discount. Thanks Uncle Bill you're tops!

Aunty at the Foxton Fair

After a totally TOP holiday in snowy Queenstown Aunty hit the road with a load of muesli to the annual Easter Sunday Foxton Fair. The weather forecast wasn't singing out summer but I'd booked my lot at the fair sometime ago and you just have to take a punt. Plus the lure of being part of a market AND Fun Fair was too much! After a 3 hour drive in stunning autumn countryside I hit Foxton and found my spot & set my stand up & squeezed in time for a few snaps.

It was an odd mix of stalls from jams & pickles to plants to candy - I was over from some bootleg T-shirts and 3D tiger pics with the famous Foxten De Molen Windmill in the background.


But some super cool crafty stalls too! I am a complete sucker for knitted babies booties. They're so cute & fluffy & teeny & fit babies feet in them. I had to physically stop myself from buying a pair reminding myself that Oscar would not wear them. Unless there were some with cars on them which there weren't!



And what makes a fun fair?? Spinning clown heads! I have no idea what this Fun Fair Game is called but the whole concept looks so easy and the colourful clown heads just lure the kids in.

I had such a great day. The muesli stand did well and the rain held off until I was an hour from home so thanks Foxton for an awesome Easter Sunday Fun Fair!

Queestown Adventure!

Aunty is just in the process of packing her bags for a much needed holiday to Queenstown in the very stunning South Island. If you haven't been there before most of the LOTR trilogy especially LOTR II&III were filmed there with the snow capped alps backdrop in many shoots. The house we have rented overlooks Lake Wakatipu which translates to "Place where the Demon Lies" in Maori. Wonder if we'll see any taniwhas while we're there? No plans for bungy jumping but might jump on the Shotover Jetboat which is a complete adrenalin rush and also up to the snow for a muck around with the kids.

We're meeting my husbands whanau there too so no doubt we'll be cooking up some venison on the BBQ and knocking back some wines on arrival. Yeah!

This will be my view this time tomorrow with giant glass of bubbly in hand. Cant wait.

RECIPE - Tomatillo Salsa Verde

I have just discovered the BEST SALSA ever and is really easy and highly addictive. I could sit down with a bowl of this green tomato salsa and polish off a 500g bag of corn chips grinning like a big fat spider. This is made with a Mexican tomato variety called Tomatillos (pronounced "to-mah-tee-oh") which are in season at the moment (and available at the Taranaki Farmers Market in abundance!). they look just like a green cherry tomato but have a "husk" on them which needs to be peeled off.

Here is a quick & easy recipe or you. If you can't get Tomatillos then use green or cherry tomatoes.

TOMATILLO SALSA VERDE
Makes 3 cups
1/2 kg tomatillos
1 small red onion peeled
1/2 cup fresh coriander or 2 T of jar coriander concentrate
1 T lime juice
4 slices Jalapeno pepper (optional)

Remove papery husks from tomatillos & rinse well. Chop n half and place cut side down on a baking sheet on oven tray. Grill for 5 minutes and colour the skins.

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor & whizz until all ingredients finely chopped. season to taste with salt. Cool in the fridge.

Serve with corn chips or as a sauce on an Mexican dishes. I used it on fish tacos made on the bbq. Yummo!

Kids Room Decor

Aunty's been having a break from baking & muesli since being flat out with the Field Days. Ive been inspired by my mate over at Happy Gas who has been having some creative room makeovers and posting some top links to other blogs for inspiration. So I've been moving some pictures & furniture round here & which is a super cheap way to redecorate.

I've now moved onto decorating the "bunk room" for my 2 year old who is still in a cot but should move into a big bed soon. Here is the room in all its white blandness. I want to have a Sea Creature theme and not sure how the Thomas the Tank Engine duvet covers fit in with this. Hmmm!



So here are the beginnings of the Sea Cave, I'm making a roman blind with some IKEA crabby fabric kindly shipped over from OZ from my sister-in-law. I've also put in an order for some more crabby fabric from my mother in law who will be over in May to make fringed cushions with inspiration from over at My Poppet and I have some fish posters & chalkboard whale stickers also. And other ideas ticking away.

Watch this space!

Central District Field Days

Aunty's just back from the Field Days held in Feilding (yeah weird spelling) where I flogged over 100bags of Aunty's Muesli to the hoards of people who went. I think there were about 25,000 people! The weather wasn't that great which wasn't good for sales but in the grand scheme of things I think my little stall did rather well. One poor stall holder only sold 8 bottles of fruit wine one day. But there is a recession on and we all had a fabulous time. Old Busmans Bourbon tent was always pumping!

Little Oscar was a big fan of all the big farm machinery. There we digger races, tractor pulls and lumberjack comps & calf shows. He was a little disappointed with the chainsaw race which actually was 2 men assembling a chainsaw. We wanted noise & woodchips flying guys!



There were lots of helicopters too and the Red Checkers aerobatics were fantastic. Lucky the sun came out for that show but it was too difficult to capture on camera especially when I was peddling my new Pear & Almond Bircher to the masses!

We rented a beach bach at Himatangi Beach which is a little beach spot that seems trapped in a 1950s timewarp which we loved. Lots of kids getting round on dune buggies and you can drive on the beach. We spotted an older gent on a trailbike with 666 on the tank wearing only a leopard print thong on one of our beach walks. Hmmmm!



Managed to get in our last of the summer beach swims. Could have stayed longer but back to the Farmers Market this Sunday!