The Land that Shakes

New Zealand probably isn't the first place on most honeymoon destination lists. Most people think of something relaxing and tropical, massages and cocktails, romantic walks on the beach. And although I agree that sounds lovely, we are not the sort of people that enjoy sitting around doing very little. After a day or so, we look at each other and say "so what now?". Suckers for paying for a spa suite, only to jump excitedly into the spa, and find in 5 minutes time we're over it and ready to get out. Also, New Zealand is close, only a 3 hour flight away, which means less plane time for someone who hates flying (hint: not me). No Visa requirements for Australian citizens makes things easy, and also very affordable business class flights. Perfect!

So on Monday 14th March we headed off from Melbourne, arriving in Auckland.

New Zealand is enough like Australia not to feel completely unfamiliar, but different enough to be really interesting. The traffic rules are similar, except everyone drives like maniacs. Perhaps they throw caution to the wind when so many of their cities are built on volcanoes, craters and fault lines.

They tell you that New Zealanders are passionate about sheep, but you'll soon find the dairy industry is king here and you're likely to spot endless cows rather than sheep in the paddocks. This doesn't necessarily mean the steak is overly exciting however, the Kiwi's far prefer to breed for milk than meat.

Our first few nights were spent in Auckland, not the capital city in New Zealand but probably the most exciting and arguably the prettier of the bigger populated areas, spread wide across the landscape accented with little hills and landmarks that try desperately to hide the fact you are in the middle of a volcano. On our first night we flicked on the small telly in our cozy B&B room, to a show all about volcanoes. Auckland will definitely be subject to a huge eruption one day, it said. It's not a matter of if, but when. Lovely. Welcome to New Zealand. Perhaps that's why there's no bugs here. Although it's quite a luxury being able to leave windows open in 25 degree heat without getting eaten alive, perhaps those with 6 or more legs have better sense than to live their short lives in a place that shakes and rattles and generally doesn't want to sit still. 

Lonely Plant book in hand, we visited One Tree Hill (there is no tree there), the Sky Tower and the War Museum.  The Museum is beautiful and interesting in equal parts, and well worth the visit. New Zealand was the last large land mass to be populated by humans, and it's flora and fauna are amazing and unique. I never realised New Zealand has no native mammals, although of course many have been introduced since people found this amazing land. 

Our journey is soon to take us away from New Zealand, picking up our campervan and heading directly to the South Island.

Sunset in Auckland from our accommodation

Auckland skyline - we went up that tall tower!

War Memorial Museum

Auckland by night

Inside the Museum

Brushing off the dust...

Freshly minted Mr & Mrs Johnstone

So I thought I'd brush the dust off this blog, considering we are about to embark on a big adventure. Life has been a little busier than normal the last little while, including the planning and plotting of what was the most perfect day of my life - the one where I started a Miss and ended as a Mrs! After a year and a half of planning, it's nice for it to have all come together.  Some people get so wrapped up in their wedding planning, there's a thing called post-wedding planning depression. I can safely say that I'm not going to be a sufferer, always keen to move onto the next project which for us is, our honeymoon!

So in a few days time we head off to New Zealand. 4 weeks in a deluxe camper van, winging it and discovering all the fantastic wonders the land of the long white cloud has to offer! I've stepped away from Facebook a fair bit these days, so this is a way to keep in touch, share the journey and not bombard those who aren't really interested.

Stay tuned!

Never a Thread Lost or Wasted

Thread, string, cotton, twine, yarn, ribbon, cord...

I am a bowerbird in many ways, especially when it comes to string. A piece of twine from a label, a length of string from a gift, even the funny little bits of ribbon they insist on sewing into the shoulders of clothing... in my home it has no chance of ending up in the rubbish, I horde it all in jars, remnants from Christmas and birthdays, bows tied with love, beautifully presented purchases, some wrapped around wooden pegs and pinned neatly, ready for the next adventure!

Sorry I've been absent lately. Things became super busy out of nowhere and the posts I left half done quickly became irrelevant as time slipped by. But I have plenty of things to share and talk about, stashed away like ribbons in a jar waiting patiently to be used!

Local Business: Pollen Tea Room

I mentioned the other day that this is not a food blog. What I meant to say was, this is not a blog about eat places. There are so many amazing people out there talking about food in Hobart, where to go, what's new... I don't need to fill that space. However, I am happy to talk about growing food (as that's all part of having a garden and working towards sustainability - but I'll talk about that more another day), and I am always, ALWAYS happy to talk about tea. Drinking tea, making tea, the cool things to put tea in and accessorise tea... few things are better than a cup of tea. 

Which is why I am going to talk to you about Pollen Tea Room. Tucked into a beautiful old building on Hampden Road in Battery Point, I hear that Pollen Tea Room has been around for a while. I also have no idea why I've never heard of it before, but I am so grateful that I did! 

So my weekend involved my first visit, and it won't be the last. A warm atmosphere with a lovely outdoor area, Pollen Tea Room are more than just another cafe. Their tea menu is the most extensive I have ever seen, and showcases their own blends, with a priority towards organic and ethically sourced, as well as a focus on chai - my favourite!

The food menu is really pleasant, once again focusing on organic, seasonal and local where possible, and most intolerances/allergies catered for. 

Pollen Tea Room is the perfect spot for a quiet moment, or an intimate catch up with a good friend over the best thing in the world - tea. 

This is the blend I took home!

Even better, if you love the tea you've had, they sell all their brews in take away packets, and you can order online as well. There's also a beautiful range of handmade teaware you can purchase from their website. 

As always, I only mention a business on here that I love, I'm not getting paid or anything out of this review except for sharing something awesome with you! All pics except for the first one lovingly stolen from the Pollen Tea Room website :)

Refreshed Office!

I've been meaning to show you this for a while... the photos weren't coming out amazing (it's a small room) but hey, I'm fairly pleased with how it's all come out so here it is anyway!

Unfortunately I wasn't very good at taking before photos, so just imagine boxes of junk surrounding a tall roll top timber desk with random things blu-tacked to the wall... and that's about it. 

I sold the roll top desk and for the same price bought this white desk from a friend. I love that it has lots of storage and the rustic paintjob means I don't have to worry about the surface if I'm painting or cutting!

Did you know it's really cheap to make your own shelves? I purchased the brackets on sale at a local hardware store for $5, and the timber cost about $4 - so under $10 for a shelf exactly the size I want! I painted the shelf with left over paint from my window frames (a warm white gloss). I really liked the industrial type look of the brackets.

The floor lamp means I don't have to use bench space for a lamp, and it's adjustable for projects that need a little more light. The frame is actually from our engagement party decorations and the poem is:

"The sun brings forth beginnings,
The moon holds in darkness,
As above, so below,
For there is no greater magic in all the world
Than that of people joined together in love"

Cute huh?

On the wall, the wire organiser I found on ebay, and the J is also from our engagement party decorations which I bought from Typo! In the frames I have a cute little postcard made by a local artist to Bruny Island, which I picked up when I was over there about a year ago. If you have never been to Bruny, I highly recommend it. Beautiful beaches, great places to eat and so much inspiration! We camped for a week along a river right near the sea and it was lovely, I didn't want to come home... "Linger" is handwritten by me as a reminder to take time to be in the moment, relax and just enjoy the right now. I'm not very good at this, always looking into the future, the next step, and thinking about the ways I can make things better... but sometimes the truth is that life is pretty perfect right now, there is nothing wrong with the here and now so it's my little reminder of that. The third frame is actually a piece of wrapping paper! Its embossed metallic copper which I just love, it wrapped a gift for our engagement from my mum so not only do I love the paper but its a reminder of all the things that my mum has given me, and how even though I might not see her as much as I would like she loves and cares for me always. The little compass I have had for years, I love compasses, they remind us that no direction is the wrong direction!

I realised when doing this post that I haven't done a very good job of taking a photo of the shelf but as you can see I have my lovely print block purchased from A Creative Lifestyle and my timber pencils from Trees 4 the Wood. Also the brass scales from the market are up there too!

It's not finished yet, I want to get a board to clip up inspiration things (the frame won't be staying) and some more items for the shelf... I want to stick with the grey/black/white theme my house has but I'm feeling like its missing something. What do you think? Do I need colour, or a plant, or just some more things? 

Weekend Moments: Tea, flowers and fans

Have you had an amazing weekend?! I did! It was a long weekend here in Hobart, Monday being a local public holiday because of the Hobart Cup and Regatta Day. I didn't go to either (I don't support horse racing and I'm a little old for show rides) but what I did do was a rare treat - I was home alone for the weekend! My lovely man was off to Melbourne for a bucks weekend, and so I happily did my own thing for a couple of days.

When was the last time you had some time at home on your own? Can you remember? I know that for some people the idea of being home alone, especially overnight, can be a bit daunting - and maybe for some people they wouldn't know what to do with themselves without partners, kids or other people in the house - but I highly recommend spending some alone time at least a few times a year, because its amazing! You can work with your own energy levels, do exactly as you please and appreciate the peace and quiet. Of course if you have cats like I do, company is never too far away anyway, but I just love flitting between this and that, balancing housework with hobbies, sleeping with the curtain open so I can see the stars and watch the trees in the wind...

Now I don't want to turn this into a food blog (it's on my list of what this blog is not about - food!) but I'm making an exception for Pollen Tea Room. Have you heard of it? If not I'll tell you all about it later in the week - the image in the top left of my weekend moments box is of a lovely organic earl grey I had there.

Also, I can't wait to show you some photos of the amazing flowers I purchased from the farmers market!

Plus, I was lucky enough to come across an amazing market find in the most unlikely of places. More on that later too. 

Anyway I hope you had a magical weekend! Don't worry, by the time my lovely fellow was due back I was sick of my own company and ready to share my space with someone again - no ideas of batcheloretting it up for me that's for sure (which is lucky seeing as we just booked in our wedding in February 2016! Eeeeee!!)

Allowing oneself to dream

You can buy this digital download from Etsy here.

With a birthday rolling around in the next couple of months, I will officially be on the cusp of turning 30. I find this means I'm reflecting a lot - on what I've done in my life so far, the events and people who have helped shape me, and what the older people around me were doing when they are 30, or close enough... my Mum had a 10 year old (my sister) and was about to have her second child in her 30's, had completely renovated a church into a home, traveled the world, and was renovating a second home (back in the day when renovate meant turn something into nothing, not hanging a new light shade and wallpapering a feature wall...). My sister had a couple of kids under her wing at 30, and had worked and studied in other states. I suppose 30 was once considered mid-life whereas now its quite acceptable to only begin to "settle down" at 30. It makes me wonder what 30 will mean when that birthday arrives for my (potential) grandkids. 

At this point in time, however, I feel life seems to get pretty serious at this age. Thinking about my friends and similar aged acquaintances, most of us have full time jobs (that we don't love), mortgages, partners and even husbands and wives. I have friends with fresh babies, friends planning babies, friends struggling to make babies... building homes, renovating homes, getting a dog... reality has crept up on our 20-something partying selves, waved a magic wand over our lives and turned everything into a big, mechanical process of being frank, realistic, balancing the bank account and talking about interest rates. 

I don't mind this so much - after all, it's not like anyone's been forced into a mortgage or having lawn to care for, it's all choices made based on goals and aspirations, and most of these people have managed to squeeze in the odd passion and hobby to keep things upbeat and interesting along the way. 

The thing I feel, however, is that this serious life seems to slowly rob everyone of their ability to dream. I'm not talking about the stuff of sleep ins, I'm talking about the sparkly eyed person making large hand movements when talking about how they would love to live in a tree house one day. Or the quick rambling words of inspiration about wanting to travel the world. What's happened to the fun discussion of where would we go if humans could fly? It's as if we're all too scared to talk about our dreams, or crazy ideas, for fear that maybe we'll be thought a failure if we don't build the outdoor kitchen/hot tub/ swimming pool combo we created in our minds last week. Or maybe the real (boring) stuff is taking so much of our time we just don't have the brain space to create and dwell on the idea in the first place?

I'm a huge believer that life isn't for just plodding through the every day, being part of the tide that flows to and from work day in day out to pay the bills and put food on the table and not worry about the finer details. It's the finer details that make it all worth it. It's the joy in the small, the wonder in the crazy ideas, the time when you can dream and create and make crazy hand movements when describing your perfect herb garden, or holiday, or adventure, or superpower.

When was the last time you dreamed big? Where you weren't afraid to think about things you can't afford, or don't have time to do (or so you think) or haven't learnt the skills for yet? I believe that this is the stuff that stretches our mind, keeps things ticking over, inspires us. The car that ends up in production may only be an echo of the amazing concept the designer initially created, but just think about the fountain of inspiration and passion that fueled the designer in the first place. That stuff is gold, it's a happy little creature on our shoulders that goes unheard for a lot of people.

Sometimes I forget to dream. I think it's not worth the while, and too sad to think about the stuff I might not see, might not get to do, can't afford... but would love to. But it's not the getting that's important. It's keeping our hearts and minds alive with fun ideas that's important. So today I'm reminding myself that it's okay, and pretty cool, to dream :)