This weekend past has seen me doing something for my community and the environment.  I have for a while now been trying to give up the evil plastic bag in all it's guises.  Not an easy task when practically everything we purchase these days is wrapped in one or put in one to carry home.  I keep fabric bags in my car and endeavour to use them for all manner of shopping.  I have two small cloth ones in my handbag for small purchases.  All that said, there is always times when I get caught out.  So, reading my local rag I found out about Jamie McDell.  Jamie is pushing to save our oceans, one plastic bag at a time.  Not only is Jamie an environmental campaigner but an awesome singer to boot.  So on Sunday down at my local yacht club, the inaugural Boomerang Bags Community Sewing Bee was held.  The idea is to make re-usable, fabric supermarket bags.  The bags will be left in Boomerang Bag boxes in shopping centres.  So when, like me, you forget to take your shopping bags, you can borrow from the bin and then return on your next visit.

After winning the "Home Colour of the Year Award" in 2014.  Resene featured an article on our colour full home in the Winter 2014 issue #20.  It was a fun photo shoot and I was very happy with the images.  Check out the full story. 

Winning the Resene colour home award in 2014 was a coveted prize for me.  I have always loved colour and to be selected from a large number of entrants, whittled down to five finalists, was a triumph.  

Looking for our little piece of paradise has taken us well over a year of searching and visiting countless properties in varying destinations.  It has not been without heartache and at times desperation but in February 2016 we found it.  Our bolt hole in the Coromandel.  Three and a half acres of native NZ bush alive with birdsong.  It's better than we ever dreamt and we couldn't be happier.  It's been a interesting journey to date, but now the journey takes on a life of it's own as we work to convert the exisiting humble barn with items foraged, recycled, pre-loved or gifted.  Our plan is to be totally off-grid and to keep our impact on this land as minimal as humanly possible.