Felt Christmas Ornament, the Kiwidutch Version…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s the beginning of December and for many western countries the shops have the  Christmas decorations out,  the background Carol music on and are cranking up their offerings of merchandise  to reap  the commercial benefits of the Christmas festive season.

I love the Christmas festivities too, but prefer to try and keep things  low key and true to the origonal spirit of  Christmas as much as possible by emphasising the value of gifts that are handmade with love, time and patience.

Tasks 11 and 12 on my “101 Tasks in 1001 Days”  project  
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/about/101-things-in-1001-days/
  are to make a handmade Christmas tree decoration for each of my two children, each year.

Many of my decorations in the past have been cross-stitched: 
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/stitching-ornament-heirlooms-for-kids/
 but I’ve been branching out into felt ornaments in the last year and fancied making something a bit different  than cross-stitch  ones for a change.

Then I stumbled on a craft post on the internet that got me thinking… Jessica Okui  at  
http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/11/craft-project-felt-christmas-ornament.html
  made a beautiful Christmas decoration from felt, ones that echoes a design of  paper or card decoration designs I have seen around  for years.

I liked the idea of working it in felt, but there were a few points about Jessica’s version that I still felt I wanted to tweek for my version.

First I knew I wanted all the edges of my ornament  to be stitched. Secondly, I knew I  wanted to stitch the two pieces of felt next to each other that radiate directly from the top and bottom of the ornament instead of leaving them oen as they are in Jessica’s version.

Lastly, I wanted not just to stitch the  sections together with thread but also to add beads. Shiny, sparkly beads, to twinkle in the light of tree lights.

So… here is a Step-by-Step tutorial of  the Kiwidutch Modified Version of a Felt Christmas Ornament.

Materials:
- 6 circles cut from felt  (mine each measure 6-7 cm / 2 inches across).
- Beads of your choice
- Needle that will fit through your beads. (a sharp needle goes though the felt easier than a blunt one)
- Embroidery thread of the colour of your choice ( mine match either the bead or the felt or both)
- Thread in contrasting colour  (for basting)
-  Decorative cord or ribbon for hanging up your ornament (20-24 cm / 6-7 inches)

Method:
1) Cut six circles of  felt fabric in the colour of your choice. I die-cut mine but tracing around a small jar lid would work just as well.

2) Place two of the circles over each other and with a contrasting basting thread, make a loose line across it vertically and horizontally, effectively making your circle into quarters. Then, still with your basting thread, divide each quarter in half again so that you finish with two circles of felt sewn together, and marked out in eighths.( This sounds more complicated when it is, the photograph below with the white circles and blue thread should make it clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

3) At the top of one of the basting lines, and stitching through both layers of felt,  attach a bead then blanket stitch the two edges together until you reach the next basting line,  add another bead, blanket stitch to the next basting line and add the last bead.  You will now have three beads attached with blanket stitch joining the sections between them.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

4) Repeat step (3)  only  at the ends of a basting line with a bead on it.This will give you a circle with: bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead, then a basting line with no stitching  or bead at either end, and then bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead again. (Again, it sounds complicated when I describe it, but the photo will show  you how simple it is)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

5) Repeat this process with the other two felt circle pairs. Once they are all completed, fold your decorative ribbon (for hanging it up)  in half and secure it to one side of the middle layer, then line up the other two sets of  felt  on the outsides so that the beads match.

Hand-stitch from centre bead (top) to centre bead (bottom, through all six layers of felt. (Opps, I know the felt has changed colour, I forgot to photograph this step on the white one).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

6) Starting at one of the beads that is not on the centre line, blanket stitch only one layer of the two  along  the unstitched edge until you reach half-way along the circle,  take  the closest piece of  felt from the next felt circle pair and join them together with a bead. (look at the stitched and unstitched sections of  the centre of the ornament in the next photograph to make this clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The easiest way to stitch this is to make a zig-zag pattern all around one side of the ornament, joining all the centres in the middle until you get back to your starting point and then to turn the ornament around and blanket stitch the remaining unstitched edges in the same manner.

Voila! a beautiful hand-stitched Felt Christmas Tree Ornament, made with love and that will make your tree sparkle for years (and even generations)  to come.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the red ornament photo above, there are eight circles of felt (4 doubles together) and not three, as in the white.   The  red and yellow ornaments were experients where I used eight circles of felt  (4 doubles together).  Whilst I first thought that eight would be better than six, the finished  product is I think actually too “squished” in appearance. If you pull one side to make it look right it immediately squishes up on the other side.

To the other extreme the even bigger white ornament was made with 24 circles:  twelve “doubles”and I quickly saw that it looks very cramped indeed. I also used white beads on that one and they hardly show up or sparkle at all (at least in comparison to the dark glossy beads I used for the others).

This means that six circles of felt (3 doubles) appears in my opinion to work best and these are my new Christmas favourites!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Going Potty, being Silly and International Sign Language starts with a smile.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Following up on yesterdays post, where I mislaid and then found a camera chip and wanted to tell you about two more sellers I met in the medieval market in Vila Nova de Cerveira.

Yesterdays post was about a man who faces his impairment head on and works hard despite his disability and he is truly an inspiration to me.

Today’s post was about the genuine friendliness and fun of people despite language barriers.

This gentleman sells pottery items that he has made, I saw his stall and I love pots so went over to have a look. He asked me some questions as he saw my interest and we quickly worked out that my few words of Portuguese and his few words of English were not nearly enough for a conversation.

That didn’t deter us, he clearly wanted to know if I was interested in buying something.  In spite of feeling silly,  I left inhibition behind and with a smile and outstretched arms mimicked an aeoplane  (my arms being the wings) and tried to let him know that we were flying home and that our bags were already full.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

His reaction made it clear that it was a pity, and with a smile he mimicked driving a car, so I got the idea that he meant that next time we should drive to Portugal instead of flying.

Then he noticed that I was smiling as I looked at a chamber pot that had a face on the side of it… he laughingly picked it up and made some more serious arty poses with it as I took photos, then he posed with it upside down on his head.

I left him after a fit of giggles and felt that the world was a better place for having had a good laugh, a good conversation in international sign language and where a little bit of humour and a smile goes a very long way.

It reminds me that meeting the locals is the best bit of travelling abroad, that  being willing to make a gesture to show that you appreciate and admire the goods even if you are not in a practical position to buy, is often appreciated by the seller.

He’s been standing there all day, no doubt many people just averted their eyes and walked on past… a smile was appreciated and we both had a good laugh. This is typical of the down to earth friendliness of the Portuguese, but you know what? Give most people and opportunity to be friendly and in my experience 99.9% of them will.

So… make eye contact, have a laugh, communicate with people, even if you do speak the language, don’t let formality get in the way, smile and go on… dare a little.

These are the true riches of not only travel, but of Life.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Living your Best Life, an Inspirational Man…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m being a bit haphazard here and skipping back to an earlier post today… I misplaced a camera chip that featured a two more of the artisans who were working and selling at the medieval market that took place on the weekend of the 27th August in Vila Nova de Cerveira.

Today I found the chip at the bottom of the side pocket of my camera bag (looked before there but missed it the first time)  so I’m taking the time to re-visit these two artisans because both were  friendly and delightful and because they made a real impression on me.

Neither spoke more than three words of English and my ten words of Portuguese didn’t go particularly far but sign language and smiles are international and we made do most excellently with both.

Himself has taken the kids and his excellent Portuguese language talent to the tapas restaurant  restrooms for an urgent kid pit-stop, and they wanting to take the short route back to the car afterwards, this was my opportunity to negotiate the one side street full of market stalls that I had not yet seen, so I nipped off to have a look around and will meet up with them at the car.

Two stalls in particular stood out… and this post is about the broom seller.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It was instantly clear this this man  suffered from a substantial learning problem, his words came out  slurred and with great difficulty,  but he had a very willing (and very noticeably toothless) smile and when he wasn’t attempting to engage with potential customers he was sitting  on a stool constructing a new brooms before my eyes.

The process is swift, his hands dexterously show that he has done this before, probably thousands of times and the head of the broom takes shape with a speed and ease that makes it looks easy.

I know enough about handwork to know that when it looks that easy it definitely isn’t… if I were ever silly enough to try this, I’d be all fingers and thumbs and people would br cracking up with laughter.

He made a great impression on me because in spite of a clear and profound communication disability, he had found a skill and was attempting to make the very best of it in spite of it.

If you could only have heard him attempting to speak you would understand how painful it must be to put yourself  “out there”  on full show and in full view the market place and public with this kind of impediment. I’m not one brave enough to stand and speak in public willingly at any time, so this man earned my utmost respect for doing this and you know what, his handcrafted brooms were amazing too.

Bravo to this man for not only learning a skill that hopefully helps him to make a living, but for also having the courage to actually set up a stall and do the selling himself.  He is a wonderful example of someone who’s trying hard to look at all the positives in life and not just dwelling on the negatives.

He might have every reason and excuse to use this profound communication problem to not participate fully in life or work,  but it’s clear that he has no intention of letting his difficulties hold him back, and for this he earns my utmost respect.

Sadly even a very beautiful a broom wasn’t going to fit into our bags for the flight home or I would have seriously been thinking about getting one.

I  wanted to make a blog post about him as soon as I found my “lost” photos of him because he is the sort of person who should be an inspiration to us all.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ants… like you’ve NEVER seen them before…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I think that the artisan at the Medieval weekend of 27th August 2010  in Vila Nova de Cerveira,  who made the biggest impression on Family Kiwidutch was George… 

George makes puppets. not glove puppets or rod puppets but Marionette type of puppets.

And what’s special about  George’s marionettes? Well, they are special because they are all Ants.

George hand-makes all his puppets himself and they are a very colorful array of eccentric looking characters.

What’s more they can produce an amazing  amount of movements… and George is an expert when it comes to demonstrating their possibilities.

We had seen George and his wife the evening before, but photography was impossible as it was seriously dark by the time we discovered his stall.   By “we” I mean Kiwi Daughter and I, since Little Mr was rapidly tiring  and fraying around the edges so preferred to sit  with Himself by the restaurant we had eaten at whilst daughter and I had a quick scout around the remaining stalls.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Kiwi Daughter loved the Ants. so I said to George that we could come back for a proper look the next day to check them out in daylight, and  when I said mentioned this he probably assumed that such a comment was a way of a passer-by to escape  buying something.

When we turned up next morning  he remembered us and was delighted that we had returned as promised.

We got talking, and from what I gather, George worked in the field of  Entomologist in a former career, and has a fascination for ants. In fact he expressly asked me to mention in my blog that most people would not know that ants make up 20% of the earth’s biomass and are very very important  creatures in the world ecosystems. (and No…I didn’t know that, either)

George also asked me a question: Do ants work or survive? I said that they work… “wrong!” he replied,  “people work, work is done for money, ants survive because that is their simple instinct”   So… I’m learning a lot about ants today, as you are too, I assume.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I personally love low-tech toys that use imagination so I was immediately drawn to the Ants.. and so were my children, they fell in love immediately and yes, I was most happy to buy some to bring home.

Now, even if I do have to blow my own trumpet here, my dexterity skills in maneuvering these is better than that of my children.

But when it came to making a small video to show you, it quickly became clear that operating the puppet and filming it at the same time was never going to be a success, so I roped in the kids …  the results are ok, but I can assure you that you can make these walk and dance with a very smooth movement and it looks wonderful.

I can do it “OK” ( better than the kids, but still just “OK”).

Georges did it brilliantly and if I had any sense I should have made the video with him whilst we were at the stall.

Needless to say that at the time I didn’t have any sense. Now I only have 20/20 hindsight.

There is a trick to winding these up and storing these and Little Mr. hasn’t mastered it yet, resulting in me sitting untangling his puppet a lot, but Kiwi Daughter has it down to a fine art and delights in showing off her skills.

We hope in time to get as skilled at working these as George is… Ah ha.. more practice is needed, and with  each practice I can assure you are many squeals of laughter and delight.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Rymthic Tap that Rings though the Ages…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One of the most rewarding parts of the Vila Nova de Cerveira medieval festival is that some of the artisans were on hand  in the streets so that you might actually see them working their craft.

This gentleman was sitting on a very low stool, rhythmically tapping away at a piece of metal with  little hammers,  shaping and embellishing by tapping out patterns with additional little patterning tools.

Passing members of the public stopped to look and asked questions (in Portuguese) and he chatted away, answering them as he worked.

He had a stall close by where examples of his work were displayed for sale.

Like all the other stall holders he was dressed in medieval style clothes and with what he was doing he probably looked much the same as artisans did for centuries before him as they crafted items of beauty like these.

The dexterity of his hands showed years of practice and a true love of  handcrafting the metal.

I can only hope that these aren’t dying arts.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Interested in Crafts? I’m offering YOU a chance to WIN …

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m a detail freak, I love embroidery, counted cross-stitch (usually done  half normal size) felt work etc.

I get great pleasure from stitching, being creative and seeing needle, thread and fabric evolve into a finished project that I have had immense pleasure in producing.

A few days ago, as a new member of the Country Bumpkin  stitching website (forum) I was one of two lucky winners of an amazing book called “Embroidered Flowers for Elizabeth”  that the Country Bumpkin team were giving away and Wow! what a great surprise that was!!!

I’ve been SO delighted with my win (and the book hasn’t even arrived in the post yet ! LOL) that I decided to pass on a bit of the good feeling to my blog readers.

I can tell you that after years of seeing embroidery books that did little or nothing to advance the skills of a self taught stitcher like myself, it has been a refreshing delight to see outstanding craft books like the “A to Z”  Books.

I work full time, so day-time classes are not fitting into my schedule,  evening classes are difficult when you have dinner,  kid activities and homework to organise, and weekends are full of family commitments.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Books offer a great alternative, and over the years  I’d exhausted the library and second hand shop shelves filled with craft books that maybe inspired me with a finished article but gave me no clue of how to get there.

The one day I discovered  the “A to Z” series. Brilliant books for stitcher’s,  beginner to advanced, young and old,  with  little stitching background or none, these books are (for me at least) the path of least frustration way to learn to stitch.  They also inspire me to pick up cloth, needle, thread and to start something new, make something special for someone I love and to spend time in a creative pursuit that lets me de-stress, relax and unwind after a busy day.

So. If you are maybe wanting  to extend your knowledge of the stitching craft you are in,  fancying  branching out into something new, or interested in picking up something crafty for the very first time, then I’m offering you a chance to win one of these “A to Z” books for yourself. Nooo, I’m not affiliated with this company in any way, but I am a keen stitcher and want to give a good review when a company IS  listening to what stitcher’s need and want.

All you have to do is to tell me ( via Comments to this post) which one of the A to Z books you would like to win and why.

On May 1st ( yep, you have a good several weeks to enter and I want to allow time for Easter Holiday’s /Spring breaks etc ) I will post  two winning names  in my May 1st Blog post and the two lucky winners may each choose one of the books  from the list below to receive from  moi, Kiwidutch. (I’ll order the book of the winner’s choice from the website, contact you privately via your email address in comments and and get it sent directly to your address)

Here’s a look at the website:

http://www.countrybumpkin.com.au/index.php?cPath=40

…and the books in the series (so far) are:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A-Z of Bead Embroidery,

A-Z of Bullions,

A-Z of Crewel Embroidery,

A-Z of Crochet,

A-Z of Embroidery Stitches,

A-Z of Embroidery Stitches #2,

A-Z of Embroidered Flowers.

A-Z of Goldwork with Silk Embroidery,

A-Z of Heirloom Sewing,

A-Z of Knitting,

A-Z of Needlepoint,

A-Z of Quilting,

A-Z of Ribbon Embroidery,

A-Z of Sewing,

A-Z of Sewing for Smockers,

A-Z of Smocking,

A-Z of Stumpwork,

A-Z of Threadpainting,

A-Z of Whitework,

A-Z of Wool Embroidery,

So… No matter your stitching pleasure, there is sure to be an A-Z book to delight  and inspire you too.

If you want to be in with a chance to win one of these books,   then please tell me in a “comment” to this post before May 1st,  2010 Which  one of the books you would like most to win and  Why!

Don’t slam the door on this step-by-step Chicken Lickin’ Doorstop…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I have a problem that specifically arises inside our house every summer when the warmer weather comes around.

It’s the problem of slamming doors…. or the door that doesn’t slam, but makes an irritating  tick, tick, tick, noise until finally I get cheesed off  and slam it myself in frustration or eventually a decently large gust of wind comes along and does it for me.

We have an older house,  it dates from 1930, and there are wooden “dremples” (thresholds) at each of the intersections of the doors into the rooms and the hallway. This means that the doors have quite a decent gap under them when they are open. This in turns means that many wooden doorstops are too low to fit neatly underneath. Believe me, I’ve tried wooden doorstops.

This leads me to my second problem: The kids…  more specifically my kids and a very large box of wooden blocks that they do actually build with. Some of the blocks are triangular…. three guesses where my doorstops end up living.

Worse, and my third problem… most of all the triangular blocks in the block-toy-box are all too low to be doorstops for our doors, so just raiding the toy box is not the solution. I’d have to find the  two specific triangular blocks hidden in the masses  of  like-looking blocks that actually fit the doors. Add to that that the blocks are sometimes not in the Block-box, but sometimes in the Train-Rails box, or in the general toy-box, or just littered around the house hiding in odd corners, left there according to reasons of  kid logic that I have not yet fathomed.  Forget it ! I have far better things to do with a Finite Lifetime than to spend time on such a pointless exercise.

So… a better solution to my slamming doors problem is in order. I was browsing the internet and can across this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/07/chicken-doorstop-easter-present-how-to-make

Hmmm, looks interesting. Please forgive my lack of technical knowledge, I can’t (yet) figure  out how to put the link for the pattern, but it is in the  Guardian article, so if you are interested in making these then please print it via that…  Meantime I will keep trying to place it here too. (or make my own modified pattern to place here, ‘cos I want to make some changes the the pattern now that I have made it)

Himself and I support a School for Disabled in the tiny developing Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, it gets very little funding. (read: not enough to cover basic costs) Money we raise for them supplies a basic lunch of rice and a vegetable to the disabled patrons, so that they are guaranteed at least one warm meal a day.  I’ve been racking my brains to think of craft ideas to make that are a little different, that will sell, that I could make to raise funds for these  lunches. This thought spurs me to test out this pattern…

First, cut out  the pattern pieces: I have an off-cut of red corduroy for the comb,  sourced  from the local Kringloopwinkel (the ones my kids call the “Krinklewinkle”) and can’t find and bright yellow fabric, but have a little yellow felt that’s big enough for the job. The main green fabric came from the Emmaus kringloopwinkel at  Prinsegracht 36,  a decent sized square for Euro 1.00 and the buttons came from Emmaus Beeklaan.  Recycle, Reuse… good for the planet and means that I’m not blowing the budget on materials so maximum profit for the school.

First I cut out the comb and the beak,  I’m not too sure if they are meant to be double thickness, I decide that mine will be. I sew the sides together ( right sides together) and then carefully turn them inside out.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Then I cut out the triangle pieces…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Take the two small triangles and place the beak inside , then sew down the long side.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Take two of the three larger triangles and sew the comb inside,  (photo above) the resulting fabric will look like this (below) when you see the right side. (Please NOTE: I forgot to do it here, but discovered to my peril later that NOW is the best moment to add the eyes to the chicken, it’s a LOT  harder to add later when you’ve sewn almost all of the sides together already)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Then place the last large triangle on top of the beak piece (right sides together) and sew them.. I’ve done a basting stitch to hold things in place in the first photo and then you see the finished result after the machine stitching…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now place the pieces as shown in the next photo,  and sew them together along the edge where the “gap” is in the photo between the two pieces. (right sides together)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Another basting stitch before sewing…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

After sewing it will look like this:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now… on the photo above, you have long edge on the right side, take the right bottom corner closest to the comb, and fold it up to meet the point above the beak. Sew long this line. The result will look like this:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

You will now have a triangular flap left over and it will be clear where to sew what to what.. DO sew the side that has the beak/comb on it FIRST, (two reasons: that way the final  join that you sew after you’ve stuffed it will be at the bottom at back and not along the side, and you can negotiate sewing around the sticky-out-bits of the comb and beak when you’ve got more room to maneuver them out of the way of the sewing machine). Sew the second-to-last side…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Just one side left to go,  of course since I was not quick enough to realise earlier that my Chook would of course need eyes, so I added them now through the last remaining hole, not the easiest moment to do it, but needs must.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

OK, now the final seam… sew from each end but don’t meet in the middle, you’ll need enough room to put in the weight and stuffing.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Turn it in the right way around and carefully poke out the corners, Fill the tip of the triangle (by the beak) with some soft fiber-fill batting, until it’s about 1/3 totally filled.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now I take two small scraps of fabric, and sew around three sides,…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…stuff this pouch into the opening in the triangle with the open end poking out. Fill the pouch cavity with rice.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Then I did a basting stitch to roughly close the gap whilst I machine stitched the bag closed.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Once the rice pouch is sewn closed, poke the rice pouch fully inside the bag, stuff additional fiber fill around the gaps, and then folding the raw edges inside, hand-stitch the  last opening closed.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Voila, a Doorstop Chicken!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I will make more of these, but this one is quite large, too large I think, so the first thing I will do is to reduce the size by almost half.  This will have the added bonus that it will take less filling to stuff it with.

I will also not repeat the rice filling… I thought about it and am worried it might attract mice. From now on the kids will be on large pebble/small stone collection duty when we are out on our walks when the weather gets warmer and I will wash them and sew these into a little bag  inside instead.

I will also play with the Comb design, maybe  a bit spikier, larger in proportion, and the Beak, can I make it open sideways? make it a different shape… a little further project of design doodles awaits. I also intend to see if these could be a suitable Project for the kids to make at Scouts.

I also need to work on they way I stuff these, my prototype is rather lumpy and definitely needs some refinement.

Still, it’s a start and I will keep my eyes peeled for Kringloop fabric opportunities so that I can build up material for more.

A Blog is born (yeah, yet another one)

Baked Zucchini Recipezaar Recipe No. 27480 by Sueie, Photo © Kiwidutch

So Who is Kiwidutch? a food obsessed, cooking crazy, attention-to-detail craftwork , travel freak who happens to love photography of all of the above. A multi cultural, multi lingual product of what’s fast becoming a typical 21st century family, i.e. spread out between the Northern and Southern hemispheres due to marriage, job, kids and wider family tree ties.

I’m interested in supporting local products, business and people, but also love to encourage a wider International way of thinking, learning and communicating so the ” Local Heart, Global Soul” title of this blog completely sums up my thinking on Life, living abroad, my love of travel and how I want to be as a human being.

I follow nzedge.com to keep up to date with what the small population of Kiwi’s ( New Zealanders) are doing as they venture around the world and ” Local Heart, Global Soul” was a phrase from nzedge that I connected with so instantly that I asked permission to thieve err ….borrow it for my blog name. Permission was duly given and credit where it is due: kudos Brian from nzedge for conveying such an insightful thought in such a succinct way.

I have taken all of the photos in this blog myself… and they are not for free use or to be downloaded or copied: if you are interested in any of them please contact me via the comments box.

This is a blog about my passions… cooking, craft, art, photography with snippets of how my family and I live and interact in the culture and country we live in or the one that we are currently visiting.

I hope that if you too have a Local Heart and a Global Soul, that you will join me in my sojourn…