Anchor Me

So my 10yr old daughter has a great sense of style. Always has. I remember going into a shop with her when she was only about 3.5 and her getting belts and handbags she thought would go with the clothes I was buying. She always got it right.

We picked up these awesome high tops from cotton on the other day and I thought it would be cool to customise them. After a quick convo she decided on anchors, how styley is she :) So after picking out a cool colour thread and working out the size of the anchor we were off.

Here's a simple how to customise your own.

Mim

Start with your high top :)

Draw an outline of your chosen design onto your shoe with pencil. It's always a good idea to have a practice first on a piece of paper to make sure you get it just right.

Carefully stitch in your design following the pencil outline as a guide.

There we have it!!!! The finished product, that wasn't so hard was it :)

Once we finished we decided to put in some cool pink laces we had which I think really makes them look awesome.

The finished product and the happy customer.

My Favourite Things

I have so many quirky, random things in my house. I feel like I don't really have an exact style that I adhere too. But I do love vintage, retro stuff. I love the stories behind pieces of furniture or ornaments that are passed down or that are found while rummaging through antique stores. Pretty much every thing in my house I could give you an exact run down of where it's from, who it's from and of course why I love it!

We are going to show you bits of world, piece by piece in this blog. Our favourite places, furniture, shops, food (yum!) and heaps more.

Today, these are a few of my favourite things. Enjoy!

Kate

 I love my retro fan, it is the best thing when it comes to our blazing Hawkes Bay summers! It was a gift from Jono a couple of christmas' ago.

 I recently turned 27... old I know ;p This amazing jug was a gift from Mim! I love it!!! It's purpose is actually a measuring jug, but it is potentially way too pretty for that, so may instead be a permanent feature on my kitchen bench.

 Jono's Granny and late Grandad were presented with this amazing clock when they left their church in 1950!!! (See plaque below) Grandad passed the clock onto us not long before he passed away. It takes pride and place on our mantle piece above the fire.

 These are my 3 WillowTree pieces. I'd love to have more one day! The jewellery box was a gift for my 21st, the man and pregnant woman was a gift for Mothers Day from Jono when I was pregnant with our daughter and finally the Angel of Miracles was a gift I gave my mum before she passed away from cancer, when she died she left it for me.

Owls: Typo
WillowTree ornaments: WillowTree
Wall plaque: Objx

Work Day Weekly Wears

One of the cool things about working in a professional environment is the clothes!!!! Yay!!!

So, one of the regular post we have decided on is Work Day Weekly Wears. 

Because one of my roles is part time Art teacher I decided creativity and colour would be a fashion fav.

So enjoy week one.

Dress: Cotton on

Jeans: Factorie

Converse: Shoe Connection

Belt: Glassons

Heart Ring: Pandora

Hello world... We have been asleep

After months of not having the time or energy to blog now I have started working, I decided to ask Kate to join me and reinvent stitchitupandstitchitdown. I love blogging and really wanted to keep the blog going but with work and my whanau just didn't ever manage to find time to post. 

Kate is an amazing creative person who also loves reading blogs and we have such similar tastes and passions, it seemed like the perfect fit.

So here we are! From here on our things are going to be fresh, exciting, new and inspiring... We hope ;p 

We can't wait to try new things from crafts, fashion looks, recipes, diy and of course updating you all on what goes on in our world. It's going to be fun trying out new things and hopefully inspiring you on your journey as many of you have inspired us.

Bring it on

 Kate & Mim

Art Deco Summer

So for this year Tamas birthday fell on Art Deco day. For those of you not in New Zealand i will explain a little bit about the day. In 1931 New Zealand suffered it's biggest earthquake (since christchurch that may have changed?) centered in the Hawkes Bay, Napier. 256 people were killed and nearlly all the buildings in the central city of Hastings and Napier were destroyed. A massive rebuild began and due to the style of the time, art deco, Napier boasts the mosts art deco building in the world!!!

Many people travel to Napier from all over the world to visit this historic city.

Each year Napier holds art deco weekend. Remembering the tradegy the earthquake brought, and celebrates the rebuild of this beautfiul city.

Thousands of people gather for the weekend and everyone dresses up and has the best time ever. Marching bands old style music and dancing, cars, planes, steam engines, and of course the clothes.

So a group of us headed up for lunch, dressed in style and joined the crowds.

My family, thanks my charming nearlly 16 year old :) 

It was such a great day and we will do it all again next year, woohoo!!!

Hey Baby

So I hosted a baby shower today for one of my best friends. It was really fun. I decided on a kind of bunting heavy, cool scrapbook paper, doily, typed theme ha ha. You will get the idea with the pics. 

I made a really good carrot cake with the best cream cheese icing. So it is only the second carrot cake i have ever made!!!!!!!! The first was just after tama and I got married. I didn't really have all the correct ingredients so I was kinda like oh this will do, and this, and it will be ok without this..... boy was I wrong!!!!!!!!!! it was tiny, like hardly rose at all, and the cooler it got the harder it became until it was time to cut it and the knife didn't even make it in a cm led alone the whole cake. 

I am pleased to say todays cake was great, moist (aarrghh hate that word) lots of flavour and a hit.

Instead of using the words baby shower I decided to call the day 'Hey Baby' kind of like a welcome to the little one.

Lots of fun games, great food and drink, laughs and wonderful presents.

At the bottom of our door is a board with blackboard paint so I wrote a wee welcome sign for everyone

My yummy cake :)

I grabbed the clip boards from church and attached doliys with 'Hey Baby' written on them and a pen for all the games so people could lean on them.

Guess the weight, date, sex. Cute little cards I cut out and tied together with twine. I typed them up on my daughters typewriter.

I made a wee book out of cool paper for people to write a prayer, blessing or some advice for the new baby and mum and dad.

Some of the pages. I did them all sorts of colours and shapes and sizes and sewed them altogether

done and dusted!!!!!!!!!

I have just posted my final essay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't quite believe it. After 3 years of study it is all wrapped up and only the student loan remains, but really who care about that! :)

I am just so pleased it's done. I won't know what to do with my self. But actually I do, I have so many things I have not done and put to the side because of my study. The biggest has been my fitness and my craft. I just have had no spare time for these things because nagging in the back of my mind was always  the next essay.

I have a list of things I really really want to do this term so here goes:

My fitness!!!!!!!!! it's quite hard to believe i actually used to be fit, in fact i actually used to run often an hour a day!!!!!!!!!! I have put on 5kgs this winter and while the weight does not bother me the fact that i don't fit my clothes and fell all gross does. So in the weekend I brought some new running pants (don't lie I know you all do it too, buy new gear when you begin your new exercise kick :) and I will be using them 2moro morning.

Reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have so many book I can't wait to read. I LOVE reading but really just felt guilty and didn't have the time cause of all my massive loads of txt books. I have some wonderful Alexander M'Call-Smith books just waiting for me....yay.

Quilting: I have the best quilt ever to finish. Last christmas I made me and my sisters memory quilts out of fabric from both grandmothers, mum and my stash. I finished theirs but not mine!!!!!!!! and i can't wait to get it done. My sewing machine does not have a quilting foot so it's the old school way and all done by hand. 

My room: tama made us a new bed and bedside cabinets and that inspired me do give our room a mini makeover. I have started with making a great cushion and finding some fabric to re cover a lamp but there are so many things yet to do. I need to remember to take before and after pics too!!!!!

My rose garden and vege garden: It really is so so so bad. It needs some tender loving care, it is terrible!! poor garden, not a lot of weeding or pruning NO tender loving care, so that is a must!!!

I can't wait to get started!!!!!! perhaps after a good nights sleep