Horseshoe Lake Reserve after the earthquake.

The reserve is about 700m from our house. The bridge is leaning to the left and the path and parking lot have loads of large cracks. This is the worst hit area in our immediate vicinity. Further down Lake Terrace Road towards New Brighton Road people's sewage systems were damaged......ooops...just felt a rather large aftershock. House is still standing. Wow, still sends me flying every time there's a big one.

Spring is in the air

With Spring finally here, I have decided to go for a very old but comfortable summer favourite of mine - dress/romper. My mum made me one when I was a student and I practically lived in it. These rompers are great as it gives the illusion of a dress with the assurance of no fly aways on those breezy days. I have been hunting for this specific type of pattern for months and months on end and stumbled upon my find in Canada about two weeks ago. I do love Google! The company is called Northbreeze - a small family owned business. They sell out of print patterns and loads of other goodies. I received my pattern within 5 days of ordering. The best thing of course is the fact that it is still uncut - so in my mind it is brand new and I quite like that thought. I've been browsing through the newest McCalls, Vogue, Simplicity and Butterick books and they don't have anything like this on the market.
Can't wait for the new spring fabrics to arrive!

Daffodils, liver patties and an earthquake

So many things have happened in the last few weeks. We celebrated mum's birthday, the first day of Spring, an earthquake and lots of sleepless nights.
We woke up on Saturday morning at 4:35am with a violent "shake, rattle and roll." It felt like an eternity before the shaking stopped. Kinda felt like a bad dream or more like a scene from a sci-fi movie. Very surreal!!! I never thought I would experience an earthquake.
Luckily we didn't suffer any real damage, apart from shot nerves and sleepless nights. A holiday away from all the drama would be a real treat, but who are we kidding? The children won't be going back to school for the rest of the week.  We've been doing lots of cooking, baking and eating to calm the nerves and it also gives us a sense of normality. Our hearts are going out to those who have lost their houses and suffered significant damage.

Our first daffodil flowered over the weekend and mum made liver patties today. Michelle's first impression was "Yuk! Do you want me to eat this?"And guess what? She finished them all.