VACATION!!

Hello everyone! How was your weekend?? I had a pretty choice weekend. It was probably one of the first in a long time when I actually had nothing on/ was actually in my town for the weekend...and all but one of my friends gapped it outta town for weekend. I love the TV show "The Mentalist" but cannot watch it by myself, because when it gets dark and the house starts making weird creaky noises I freak myself out a bit. So discovering that my one remaining friend was a Mentalist fan as well, we decided to do a marathon, and watched 9 episodes of the new season in a row...not gonna lie, I had some pretty weird dreams that night that Red John was chasing me. haha.
Now this was the most exciting part of my weekend...on Saturday night I got a call from my grandparents. The conversation went a little like this:
*talking about random what-i've-been-up-too stuff for ages*
Grandad: "You know how its our 50th wedding anniversary coming up?"
Me: "Yup"
Grandad: "Yea it's a pretty special occasion for us. So we have been trying to think how to celebrate it"
Me: "ok"
Grandad: " Well, we have decided to take the entire family to Vanuatu for a holiday. All expenses paid." 
Me: " What the heck? sdkha;fhgae;fghjkfhgweurlsfghmdnbfvergd (thats me freaking out, coz this is the coolest thing ever)" 

Photo from Here

So yup. This will be me in September. YAY!!! Feeling so blessed right now! 

DIY: Op Shop Jersey

So I did a little op shopping the other day and found a cool grandad sweater on the $1 rack. It looked like it would fit me, so for one dollar, how can you go wrong? When I tried it on at home I found that it was HUGE. I was swimming in it. So I washed it to see if it would shrink a bit or something. Didn't work. As I was looking on a blog called Glasses and Pipes, I came across this genius idea to resize sweaters that are WAY too big. 


Here was the sweater I bought:

As you can see, It's giant. So I just lay it down on the floor with the seams together, put on top a sweater that you like the size of, and cut around. Make sure you leave enough for a seam allowance.  Then sew it back together with a straight stitch then zigzag. Simple

Finishes sweater! YAY! so much better!!!

I think this could be the start of a sweater craze. The possibilities are endless...

You could add cute elbow patches 

Source from here

Or a little collar

Source from here

Or some lace pockets

Source from here

Thrift Store Outfit #2

Happy Saturday Everyone! Its a stunner of an autumn day here in The Love. I'm enjoying just chilling out. 
So heres this weeks thrift store outfit..

Dress: Op Shop

Cardi: Op Shop

Shoes: Warehouse.

Stockings: Warehouse.

I think I need a tripod or something haha. At the moment I put my camera on the fence to take photos. I'm scared the neighbours might think that I'm:

a) Crazy

b) Spying on them

c) A weird tourist

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these shoes. They are probably my most favourite, most worn pair of shoes that I have ever owned. They have a pretty cool little story behind them too. When I first saw them at the Warehouse (up in Whangarei, before I moved), they were on half price sale. I loved them and found a pair in my size. As I was walking towards the counter, I felt like God told me not to buy them. I thought that was kinda odd, since it was just a pair of shoes, but I put them back on the shelf. I went to the Warehouse about a week later and they were still there, so again I picked them up and went to pay for them, but while I was waiting in line I felt again not to buy them. I moved to the Waikato shortly after, to a town where there are pretty much no shops, so when one of my friends said he was going to another small town near by to go to the Warehouse, I jumped at the chance for some new scenery. I noticed they had a shoe clearance sale on, so I went to look, and I found the same pair of shoes that I had been wanting for $4.99!! I would also like to add that they were the last pair there, and they were in my size! I felt like God let me know that day that he cares about the small details of our lives, even a pair of shoes. I thought I was getting a good deal at half price, but he was like "Just you wait, they are gonna get even cheaper." So whenever I wear these shoes, I'm reminded how much God loves me. 

Love, Love, Loving!!

This week there has definitely been a chill in the air! Winter is on its way *sigh*. I grew up in the Winterless North, and this will be my second winter in the Waikato. All I can say is that Northlanders have is pretty darn good in winter!! I woke up the other morning to a frost. Our cars were iced over and it was freeeeezing! My internal winter clock felt very confused because in Northland we only ever have frosts on the very coldest days in winter. and its not even winter yet. 

Anyways since this post is about what I'm loving, even though I dislike the cold, I do love how frosty mornings turn into the most beautiful cloudless days...

And I'm loving that I have a reason to wear pretty scarves and beanies!!

Thrift Store Outfit.

I am a person who's on a pretty tight budget, since I only work part time, but I also like shopping and getting new clothes, which doesn't really work in with the part time job thing! Lately I have trying to make new and different outfits from clothes I already own, to make things a little more interesting. I've also made it my goal that one day a week I'm going to wear an outfit of clothing I've bought from an op-shop. soooo heres todays outfit!!


P.S. So hard taking a photo of yourself..haha

Collared Shirt: Op-shop

Jersey: Op-shop

Necklace: JustJeans

Belt: My mum's wardrobe

Skirt: Handmade

Boots: Warehouse

Bag: Op-shop

Life.

So I haven't blogged in a while, coz I've been feeling SOOOO uninspired. Life's been a bit busier than usual lately, but there hasn't been much excitement to blog about...but heres a few things that have happened since I last posted...

About a month ago, I got the opportunity to play bass for my friend's recording. We got to go to a legit studio and everything. Such fun!

Check it out.."Healing Waters" by Ken Knight.

Also been doing a bit of op-shopping! and found some sweet bargains!

Found this cute lacy top for $7.

And this cute little..umm i actually have no idea what it is. I'm using it to hold my make-up brushes and things. 

AND the best thing of all so far! Some shorts that were originally from Glassons, but heres the best part..THEY STILL HAVE THE ORIGINAL TAGS ON!! Pretty much brand new!

Really bad photo of them..didn't realize how hard it is to take self-portraits. I tried doing the whole taking a photo of my reflection in the mirror business, but then I realized everyone would see my messy room in the background haha..so Photobooth had to do. 

Today I got my easter treats in the post from mum! YUM! Lindt is there best! 

Thanks Mum!

Tunes Tuesday.

ooohhhh yea its back...until I forget again haha. 


Been loving these guys for quite a while now. I first heard of them when I was at worship school. One group was on dinner dishes duty and they were cranking the tunes through the stereo (music always makes tedious jobs more fun right!) This song came on and it caught my attention and I had to ask "Who is this?" 
Will Reagan and United Pursuit.
I just absolutely love these guys and their hearts for worship. I love the simplicity and rawness of it. The heartfelt passion. 
Take a listen. 

Also loving this..

Things I'm Lovin' !

Not gonna lie, this week has been pretty lame for me. Got letters and email from jobs I'd applied for saying thanks for applying, but no. The job hunting game is not a fun one! Sooooo thought it was about time I acted the opposite to the "blah" I'm feeling and be thankful for what I do have...




I'm loving the cute gifts I got for my birthday

Loving my new red dress. 

Loving this cute vest I got from the op-shop for $4.

Loving how much I'm getting outta this awesome book! So good! 

Soooo loving that I get to go back to the Barrier this weekend! My friends Mike and Jess are getting married there. The Barrier is a real spesh place for me. I've spent two lots of 3 months living there. I love how peaceful, beautiful and isolated it is. If you have never been there, you should put it on your Bucket List :)

d&m

Lately God has been talking to me a lot about dreaming, especially dreaming for the impossible...

It started last Thursday when I was driving home to Whangarei. It was just me in the car so I had my music cranked, and was singing at the top of my lungs. The song "Mighty Breath of God" thats on the Jesus Culture album came on. The chorus of that song is "blow mighty breath of God, Move across this place." As I was worshipping I began to daydream about what it would look like if God moved across this nation. What would it look like to see a nation in revival. Then a bit of doubt crept in, and I thought of how the country is now, and was like, man it would take a lot for this country to change. I then looked more closely at the vehicle in front of me. A courier van. On the top part of the back of the van was a picture of a globe with a massive New Zealand flag coming out from it. I thought to myself "thats kinda cool." Then I saw a phrase written near the bottom of the van. "The impossible is not a fact, it is just an opinion." BAM! I then cracked up because God was hardout speaking to me through a courier van. As I began to think about it more, I realized its sooo true. Sometimes we limit ourselves, and limit God because of our own perspective of what we see as possible or impossible. 

I've been reading a book recently called 'Fire and Fragrance' by Sean Feucht and Andy Byrd, and heres an excerpt, that really spoke to me.

"The word perspective, though used much, is understood little and way to infrequently put into practice for a redemptive purpose!Everyone has a perspective. It is not a matter of having it or not. The question is, who is dictating our perspective, what determines out perspective and what values are shaping our perspective. 

Just think for a moment. This morning you woke up and you began to view your day and your life with a specific perspective. That perspective will determine the tint with which you view all of life. It will either release life or death, joy or depression, risk or fear. I believe this to be one of the greatest battles for Christians in this day. How will we choose to view life, hardship, potential and our purpose as believers on this earth?

For way to many, the primary shaper of our perspectives on life is our circumstances. We have become slaves to our circumstances and live most of our lives responding to what may come.The responses are not all negative, but result in a life of defensive move after defensive move after defensive move rather than a continual move forward as a disciplined army taking battlefield after battlefield on a road to sure victory! For many of us, we taken our perspectives from the recent headlines written from a primarily negative , ungodly and extremely humanistic news media. If this becomes our daily food, and report card on the well-being or the advancement of the Kingdom, then no wonder why the Body struggles with a sense of hope for the future. Often this only feeds our propensity towards cynicism and skepticism rather than stirring faith for the seemingly impossible."

He then goes on to talk about when the twelve spies were sent into the land of Canaan. In Numbers 13:2, God tells them to "...spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel..." God had already given them the land, yet 10 of them went in with the lens of taking the land through human possibility rather then the never-failing promise of God. 

I was really challenged by this. Do I see the problems around me with my own eyes and understanding, or do I see them with the lens of Heaven? 

A couple of weeks ago my hours at work got cut to hardly anything. My initial reaction was to panic, but then I thought about and God says in His Word that He is my Provider. It is in His nature to be Provider, so when I say to Him "God, be my provider." I'm simply letting Him be who He is. I think that this is looking through the lens of Heaven and what God says about a situation, rather than looking at it through human eyes.

So dreaming for the impossible. I think that it starts with a change of perspective. With God, nothing is impossible, so I want to start dreaming like nothing is impossible. I want to dream with the lens of Heaven.

Last Sunday, I was at church, and the song "Rain Down" by Delirious was playing. Its one of those songs that you know so well that you just sing without really thinking about it. This time though, one of the lines in the song really stood out to me.

" I FEEL LIKE IT'S TIME TO DREAM AGAIN."

God is so speaking this to me at the moment. Its time to dream again. What are the dreams I have for my life, my church, this nation? Its time to dream again. I feel though that this is not only just for me, but for others out there too. Its time to dream again. 

I want to encourage all of you to take some time out this week to begin to daydream with God. Take some time to dream the impossible. 

Weekend.

This weekend was full of good times! I went up home to Whangarei on Thursday because my beautiful friend Jessie was getting married in the weekend, and also coz it was my birthday and its always nice to be with the family on ya birthday. I always LOVE going home for the weekend. My family and I are really close, and its good to catch up with friends as well, plus a little shopping never hurts haha.

On Saturday it was my birthday and I turned 20!! It freaks me out a little, coz I feel like I'm getting old, like my childhood is officially over. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get used to it. 

Its a birthday tradition in my family that the birthday person gets to choose ANYTHING they want for breakfast. Over the years we have had a variety of weird stuff including doughnuts, lamingtons and gross-full-of-sugar cereal that we were usually never allowed. I chose to have my usual fave. French toast with bacon, banana, and maple syrup accompanied by good coffee. I also invited some friends over to join in. A perfect start to the day!!

We then went to my friend, Jessie's, wedding. Such a lovely wedding and Jess was an absolute stunner!! 

My incredible mum made the wedding cake. How beautiful is it??

The wedding had a country theme to it and on the tables were pretty spring flowers in jars and mini hay bales that had the names of the people sitting on the table, sticking out of then. 

 

Me and some of my friends.

Oh and do you remember in my last post how I said I was going to get back into painting again?? Well, I finished my first one! 

Hmmm bad photo of it, but you get the idea. I gave it to my grandma. It is representative of some things we are praying for. 

How was your weekend?

Happenings.

Hello there..yes, so i did totally forget to do a Tunes Tuesday!! Oh life, why must you be so busy??!! So this blog post is gonna be a few blog posts in one..I've had a few things that I wanna blog about but haven't gotten around to doing it, so I'm condensing it all into one!! haha.

First up...I've had some pretty nice packages in the mail lately..

I got this lovely package in the mail today from my aunty. Its a crocheted blanket that my great grandmother made! I love it! I'm all about family history, and retro/antique. This made my day.

Also got my first NZSale purchase in the mail about a week ago..some lovely colours of nail polish! The pale purple is my fave! The coral is really pretty too!

I have two weddings to go to in March..the first is my friend Jessie, who I've been friends with since primary school, yes we go waaayyyy back! The first of my school friends to get married! I am so stoked for her! The second are my friends Mike and Jess, who were also part of the Internship I did last year. Mike was one of my flatmates last year, and Jess is such an amazing friend. Mike and Jess are having a destination wedding on Great Barrier Island, so that gonna be a whole heap of fun! Photos to come...

Anyways, I decided that I need a new outfit for these up and coming weddings (haha as girls do, we need a new outfit for every occasion!) so I went over to Hamilton for the day. My outfit is sooo different from what I was thinking I'd come back with, but I still LOVE it! Heres a sneak peak...

On the 11/11/2011 at 11mins past 11, me and my friends had an Eleven Party..which was mostly just an excuse to hang out and eat nice food, coz what else do you do in Te Aroha? We made 11/11 Resolutions, just for fun. One of mine was to start painting again. I did art for all my NCEA Levels and got really good marks, but since leaving school I haven't done any painting at all. So last time I went back home, I grabbed all my paints, brushes and canvas I found lying around. Watch this space!!

This week one of my best friends moved down to the South Island. Beautiful Janelle, I'm gonna miss you so much, but I'm so excited about what's ahead for you. You were born for greatness, and I can't wait to see what you and God get up too! Love ya! 

Roasted Chickpeas

ok, so you probably saw the titles of this blog and were like "what the heck??". Yup. I thought that too when I first saw this little idea on Pinterest. Lately I've been trying to eat more healthy. No sugar. No dairy. No meat. No coffee!!! (i know...that one is the hardest, especially when i wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing in my flatmates brand new percolator!) So basically I'm going vegan for three weeks, to try change my eating habits to more healthier ones. I've been at it for a lil over 2 weeks now, and so far I've lost bout 2kgs. Its been really good because its taught me to snack on fruit instead of satisfying my sweet tooth. But I've also been wondering what other snacks I can make that are healthy and yum, so when i saw "roasted chickpeas" on Pinterest, I thought I'd give it a go. Plus so many people were raving about how good they were.

So first of all I drained the chickpeas from the can and rinsed them under water. I then put them on a paper towel to get rid of some of the moisture, then put them on a tray on some baking paper. Pour some oil over top and then kinda move them around to make sure they all get oil on them. I put them in the oven at 180degrees for around 40mins. You can tell when they are cooked when they brown up and start splitting. 

I then decided to flavor them with some half a teaspoon each on curry powder, garam masala, and cumin, but I think it was a bit too much spice for the amount of chickpeas I had so next time i would do less. 

Surprisingly they weren't too bad! I probably wouldn't go to town raving about them, but they make a nice, healthy snack and are super easy and cheap to make. They are definitely not as good the next day though.

Heres another snack idea I tried out! Fruit popsicles!!! Cut up some fresh fruit and put it in some popsicle moulds, then pour in fruit juice! Yum! How cute are these guitar popsicles??

Tunes Tuesday..

Wow Tuesday rolls round fast..haha don't get time to blog in between my tuesday posts so it seems..this must change! 
This weeks tunes are by Andrew Belle..a favorite Noisetrade download (don't think he's on there anymore. He got too cool for noisetrade!) ..best ever decision I made to click that download button!! Me and my friends LOVE this guy's music. Cool beans lyrics, awesome tunes. He is one of our inspirations to write. 

Check out more of his stuff here.
What are you listening to at the moment?

For Laughs.

I have gotten so much enjoyment outta this video...it cracks me up! Stuff Christian Girls Say. watch it and have a good chuckle! 

Tunes Tuesday

'Ello everyone. Hows your valentines day been? 
Heres a very late tunes Tuesday! but it still counts haha. Thought I'd put up some kiwi tunes today.. Loving Lydia Cole at the moment. I saw her at parachute and really like her song "Blind Boy" you can listen to it here!! 
Also been loving this guy for quite a while now. Strahan Coleman. He's got an e.p out called Water and Fire and he's selling it for $7.99 on his site, and trust me, its well worth your dollars! A cool mix of acoustic stuff! As you can probably tell by now, my have kinda music is acoustic folky kinda tunes. 

And didn't Adelle clean up at the Grammy Awards!! Good on her, she has such an amazing voice. 

Tunes Tuesday

Flip this week has gone so fast! Feels like I just posted my last Tunes Tuesday blog a few days ago! The past 5 days have been super busy for me, as I've had the huge privilege of playing bass for Sean Feucht, a worship leader from the States, since he's been in the country. We have been up in Whangarei, in Auckland, Hamilton and then tonight we are in Tauranga. Its been a whole heap of fun.
Soooo for today's tunes I've picked my favorite song of Sean's called "Going Down to the River"...(p.s. doesn't he have the coolest hair??) 

Also, my latest Noisetrade love! William Fitzsimmons. His album is called Gold in the Shadow. Some folky goodness for ya! 

What are you listening to at the moment?? I'm always keen to discover new music! 

Tunes Tuesday

Soooo looking round the blogging world, I noticed that quite a few people have a post that they do weekly, usually on a certain day haha, so here's mine...introducing *epic drum roll*  "Tunes Tuesday" , which will be all about sharing what I'm listening too at the moment!

So at the moment I'm all about Noisetrade, which is a site featuring heaps of musicians, most of which are artists/bands just starting out. How it works is you get to download their album for free (score aye!! and its completely legit!) and in exchange you let noise trade post on your Facebook or Twitter that you downloaded that particular artist, so it gives the artist a bit of a free promo. There is a bit of not so cool music on noise trade but there is also some music that is absolute gold!

One of my most favourite albums I have ever got from Noisetrade is called "Love and War and the Sea In Between" by a guy called Josh Garrels. Very beautiful acoustic music and also amazing lyrics! LOVE! Check out the song below...one of my faves. 

I also went to Parachute on Saturday and bought the album "The Anthem" by Aaron Gillespie , who used to be be in the band Underoath. This is his worship album.  I haven't had a lot of time to listen to it yet, but I'm quite excited bout it! 

Scott, Davy and Myself at Parachute

Can't remember this guys name..awkward. 

The Almost

Coffee Muffins

This coffee muffin recipe is a favourite in my family, as well as with my friends. They are just waaayyy too yummy! The kids in my brother's class at school would always be like "Get your mum to make coffee muffins oi!" whenever there was a class shared lunch. The awesome thing about them too is that it is one of those chuck-everything-together-in-a-bowl-and-mix recipes. So today went to make them and discovered I had no cup-cake liners  or instant coffee. I figured I'd just make a really strong plunger coffee to substitute, but it didn't work as well. This must be the one time in life that instant trumps plunger. As for the cup-cake liners, I decided to have a go at making my own out of baking paper with a few hints I got from here. 

3tsp of dry instant coffee

1Tbsp of hot water

125g of Butter

2tsp of vanilla essence

3/4c of brown sugar

2 eggs

1c of flour

1tsp of baking powder

1/3c of milk

1/4c custard powder


Dissolve coffee in water, combine in a large bowl with the butter, essence, sugar, eggs, sifted flour, custard powder and milk. Beat until all the ingredients are combined and mixture is smooth. Bake in a moderate oven.  

D.I.Y-ness

A couple of years ago I bought this dress from Dotti (i think...) and I wore it a few times but not a whole bunch, mainly because i felt quite awkward with the top part of it not fitting very well over the boobs. Its been in wardrobe for quite a while because I haven't had the heart to get rid of it because it cost me $60 (which is quite a lot for me to pay for one dress, coz I hate paying full price for stuff.) Anyways today I decided its about time I did something with this dress, so I turned it from a dress into a high-waisted skirt. 

Better much? I think i'm gonna get heaps more wear outta this thing!