May is a busy month for us. Fabric-a-brac last weekend, new stock arriving daily, readying ourselves for the workroom to open (more about this soon) and this weekend our home is part of the Khandallah Kitchen Tour - Tour of 10. 

 I highly recommend buying a ticket for this Sunday's tour. Ten beautiful kitchen to wander through. It's a fun day out with a girlfriend. And there's Dunshea's and Rosa for coffee, or the tour's very own coffee and cake stall. Bring cash too. There will be pop up shops including Small Acorns, and artist Sam Walker has both her kitchen and studio open to view. Amanda from Small Acorns will be speaking through the day at one of the kitchens.

And then there's us, and our little house tart up! Our kitchen isn't one of the flash ones. It's more the 'before' kitchen of the tour. We will do the big renovation in a few years but the house works really well for us in the meantime. It's big enough, sunny enough and warm enough. So I was quite happy to give the kitchen a $900 do up budget. That was, until I was asked to be a part of this tour! But come Saturday I'll cute it up and hey, it's worth a visit! Even if just as a respite from fancy double ovens and granite. And for this reason we are also letting the tour upstairs. Four of the five bedrooms will be open to view. One of those is still rather original, we've not had a chance to do it yet, but happy for you to have a lookie anyway!

The kids rooms will be tidied and ready for the 520 ticket holders. Hmm, will be up early making beds and hiding pj's.

And then there's Tea Pea. Our workroom will be open for business. Cushions, bedlinen, new lamps and lampshades, prints, new lunch boxes and all sorts of gorgeousness exploding out of it at the moment. Turning it into a shop is so much fun for us. And I am pretty excited about customers visiting our space. Very excited actually...

How to purchase a ticket. Either pop into Dunshea's Deli on the corner of Box Hill and Baroda St, or in the village there's Village Rose. If you're not in the neighborhood then email Toni tourof10@gmail.com. 

Are you in Wellington this weekend? Do you love fabric? There's only one place for you to be this Saturday. St Anne's Hall, Emmett Street, Newtown. 9 - 12.30.

Fabric-a-brac is back. 40 stalls of vintage and new fabrics, buttons and trims. Oh the excitement.

And this year, I am selling my wares too. Mainly from my personal collection but I will also have scrap bags of Tea Pea fabrics from past and present.

Boxes and boxes of every colour, texture and weight of fabric. Loads of small pieces I'll be selling for $1 or $2. Yes, I have had a clean out and it's not allowed back in the house. It all must sell. Beautiful fabrics that I have been collecting for years but now, with the growth of our business, I have been forced to downsize the collection. And instead of feeling sad to say goodbye, it's a pleasure to know the fabric is going to good homes and will be used. For now, I just don't have the time to sew for myself and it has been sitting, waiting, in our workroom for years.

So there's a small snippet of what I am bringing on Saturday. There will also be longer lengths of fabric, twine and bias for sale. And maybe buttons if I can bare to part with some of the mountains I have here.

Hope to see you there.

Megx

I've been meaning to invite you in to our home for a while now. 

This is our third family home. The first, a 'straight off the front of a chocolate box' 1910 bungalow, was on the market three months after Griffin arrived. Buggy in the hallway, toys all through the small living room - we exploded out of it!

After spending weekends renovating the bungalow, we sort out a new home we could move into and reclaim our weekends especially now we had a baby to play with. Twice the size and with views over all of Wellington we sat back and enjoyed!

 But it wasn't long until we were looking around for a project. Tea Pea was thought of, and another baby on the scene but that wasn't enough. Time for a house to do up.

It took a year to find it. My brief, a 1950's house in original state on a large section in one of six chosen streets in Khandallah, was not an easy one to fulfil. But with the help of enthusiastic real estate agents, we found it. And it was perfect.

It was designed by George Porter in 1955 for him and his family, and it is his wife we bought it from, making us the first buyers of this 58 year old house.

I'm going to do a before and after in the next month or so. The original photos are a delight! But in the meantime here's a few pics of our renovations to date. This is a tart up, and we've not finished yet. Furniture in at the upholsterers as I write. We have plans, big plans, hopefully carried out in ten years or so but we are happy and loving what we have for now.

Welcome, come in. Coffee?

Our old phone. Otto, one of our cute pooches, howls at it's high pitch when it rings. The phone and peonies are sitting on a built-in radiogram.

This corner is waiting for another chair, in being recovered. Do you like the yellow pouffe?

A few of my 1950's Housekeeping magazines. 

The stairs, graduated magenta. And fancy art on the wall.

A wall in our guest room.

And here's a couple of pics in the workroom. I recovered those folding picnic chairs a while back. They are leaning against my pink chalkboard wall.

And out by the wood stack, the old scooter waiting to be turned into art in Griffin's room.

xMeg

We've got them. A perfect solution for new parents. Let them choose, from our well stocked shop, something they need or love.

Do you have a crafty friend? They will have fun shopping for twine, fabric and ribbon.

Out of town friends and family, and those tricky to buy for ones.... send them a gift voucher.

Our Gift Vouchers are emailed straight to the recipient, with a personal note from you. Easy.

Last weekend Scott, the kids, and I spent an action packed couple of day in Christchurch. Glorious weather, fabulous food and special outings were on the itinerary. Thanks to the fabulous suggestions from our Facebook fans we arrived armed with plenty of local knowledge. Friends lent us a car and we off! Well, off in circles for part of it - goggle maps hasn't updated the closed streets - so we got to know the centre of town quite well trying to get to where we were going! All part of the fun.

It was great to see building happening and although there is a tired feeling from residents I felt a wonderful pride in their strength and unity to rebuild and stand by Christchurch. It's a beautiful city. I am always impressed by the cafes, the shopping, the parks and the people. Even the weekend just been, with so much of the city as vacant land and displaced businesses.

We visited visited several parks, including the markets and Riccarton Bush, tragically, without bread.

And boy does does Christchurch have great vintage shops. Will be bringing an extra suitcase next time... Here's a small corner of Mr Mod.

On the way to the airport on Sunday we spent time at the Air Force Museum. 

Thank you Christchurch! We had a ball.

Megx