Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

Ten days ago, I stepped out onto the balcony of the resort - coconut in hand - to see a pod of dolphins and several whale sprays. What a welcome to Niue it was! A few months ago, we got to talking about a vacation. A real vacation that didn't involve other events or schedules or any of that. The last three trips we've taken have been to go to weddings (many of which we played big roles in too!) so we couldn't remember the last time we actually took a holiday more than a weekend away. So it was decided. We were booking a holiday to Niue. Where is that, you may ask? It's about 2,400 kilometres northeast of New Zealand within the triangle formed by Tonga to the west, Samoa to the north, and the Cook Islands to the east. (Thanks Wikipedia!) Basically, it's about a 3.5 hour flight from Auckland up north in the South Pacific. We spent a week at the Scenic Matavai Resort and found Niue to be a lovely, tidy place. It's known as "the rock of Po...

A baby shower cake is not one I've done before so when the chance came up, I volunteered to make one for a friend's shower. Of course there are piles are cute ideas out there but I had limited fondant colours on hand (and the shower was somewhat short notice). So, I found a couple different ideas (the elephant and the bunting) and put them together. Unfortunately there were some fondant cracks (I had microwaved one of the colours to soften it which makes it harden much quicker so by the time I was laying it over the cake, it was cooling quickly). The thing is that I am probably the main one who would notice these things... Can't wait for another new occasion to spark some creative cake making!

Back in June, a workmate's son turned two years old. Of course, like kids that age, he loves Thomas the Tank Engine. Because my cake-making skills are starting to be public knowledge to friends, my workmate asked if I would make the birthday cake. So here it is! It's always fun to have a new project to develop my skills with! And as much as I'd love to eat cake every week - boy the time and energy to practice without an excuse other than practice are hard to come by. There were a few things that I would have wanted to do better (like make the tunnel tall enough for the train!) but oh well, next time.

We've been keeping warm this winter thanks to another talented knitter in the family. My sister sent us these toques and scarf and we've been rocking them for weeks now. It's so lovely to be spoiled with handmade gifts! Especially ones that I have many, many hours of practice to even attempt to try (my knitting skills have amounted to two simple dish cloths thus far). So thanks again for the awesome gift and nice work on them!!

Just another lovely winter morning dog walk.

 Dustin is the first one home most days so he gets the joy of finding scenes like this... Porter decided he wanted to see what was inside of a throw pillow. And look how much his tail is wagging to say how much he enjoyed it. It coincided with the day that Lena sent a shirt for him to wear that fittingly says "Boss" on it. Without catching him in the act, there's not much discipline we can enforce so we just clean up and move on. After sewing the pillow back up, we were silly enough to put it back in the lounge (in its absence there were 3 others that he hadn't touched so we weren't entirely dumb to think he would leave it alone). This is what we found the day after its return: After removing it, another few days later another cushion fell victim to Porter's vicious teeth. So, that was it, he's lost his cushion privileges all together. It's a good thing we aren't very attached to the furniture! Hopefully he grows out of it befor...

In a week I will finish my current job. I gave my notice a few weeks ago after too many months of being unhappy with it. I realized that life is too short to put up with a job that drains your confidence and doesn't allow you to progress! It's always a scary move, leaving something secure and reliable for something else (or the unknown in this case!) but ultimately, I know I'm resilient and have always managed to find work in all of our different moves and choices. It helped that a friend found herself in a similar scenario and also decided to make a move. A little inspiration to listen to my gut and trust my skills. It's been a couple years and the role has certainly been a rollercoaster over that time. I'll sure miss the team but do hope that they end up with someone who has a new reserve of energy to get things sorted. So, I've been on the job search for a few months now, there's only been a handful that I've felt could be fulfilling at this momen...