She's got a ticket to ri-ide...

Meet our new car: Betty White. (Manuel doesn't call her anything...)



What she lacks in power-steering, she makes up for in the ability to drive me to the grocery store and back up the hill so i don't have to climb any more mountains with potatoes and milk jugs!! Ain't she a Beaut!!

Oh and it's a manual transmission. I can drive those now - even with shifting with my left hand!

Hmm....

So this is an actual picture that Michelle captured of an actual face I was apparently making. I have no words... but the resemblance is astonishing!

Paintings for NZ Art Show

This has pretty much been the state of our living room for the past week, as I scrambled to get my paintings done for the show (in time to have them matted and framed too!). This, however, is NOTHING compared to what our living room used to look like when I had to make a model for my Scenic Design classes at ECU. (Shannon, Laura, Tara, and Michelle can all attest to that!)

Here is my most recent Fantail painting. I started using some new ink that I found on sale at the French Art shop in Welly for more saturated and intense background colours.


This guy I started pretty much a year ago and then abandoned...then dug out again to finish for the show. His name is Yellow.

And this last one is the first one I did, also about a year ago. He's been hanging on my wall, but I took him down and out of his cheap Salvation Army frame to get all gussied up and re-framed for the show. Sure hope I sell a couple of these!

July already? Wait! I wasn't done yet......

Well I'll just start by saying, no, I didn't fully complete my June list. I know this news may be shocking to most of you - as you know how stellar I am with time management and prioritizing....but it's true. I did complete some though!! Let's have a look, shall we :)

1. Finish my "alligator chair".
2. Paint my deck furniture. Okay, now these first 2 did not happen because I did not have access to the workshop that I was counting on. In the place of these 2 art projects, I worked on 2 more instead! One was to complete 3 paintings for the NZ Art Show, and the other is a commissioned project that is taking up our entire spare room right now. Pictures of both to come in my next post!

3. Finish the book Blue Like Jazz. yikes! i tried so hard to finish before July - almost there!!

4. Actually take my daily vitamins on a daily basis.

5. Update my blog once per week. - nope. well, at least I updated once!!

6. Complete my NZ taxes and send them in. Somehow I totally forgot this was on my list! haha - note to self: refer back to goal list during the month...

7. Plan a "Christmas in July" party. Somehow "plan a 4th of July party" got in the way... pictures of that to come too!

8. Organize and book shipment of some parcels from home via ship. Although this isn't entirely complete yet, plans are well under way and everything will hopefully be complete by the end of the day – Thanks to my very special helpers at home – Mom and Dad :)

9. Have a date with Manuel at a restaurant in wellington that we haven't tried yet. We went to St. John's Restaurant at the waterfront. When our food arrived I definitely had food envy! Manuel had ordered “the Trio” of Pistachio and spinach lamb cutlets on garlic mash, Wild Hare Wellington on a mushroom tart, and Wagyu tenderloin carpaccio with diced beetroot and wasabi mayo. And I got the catch of the day! Big mistake. I mean, it was good, but not as good as Manuel's looked!

10. This one is probably most important on the list: reconnect with all my great friends!

Okay now for my July list, which will include the unfinished June things as well :)

Finish commissioned piece (mentioned above - more details to come)
Finish reading Blue Like Jazz (this time for real!)
New Zealand taxes
Christmas in July Party plans
Make a website for artwork. www.nicoleday.com coming soon! :)
Read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and complete the exercises
Run 5K

Impromptu Photo Shoot!

My painter friend Marjorie came over for a girls night the other night and Michelle did our hair and makeup for an impromptu photo shoot in our living room :) Marjorie was a Pin up girl from the 40's and my eyes were a "sunset" :)

So my pictures are not nearly as excited as Marjorie's because I was wearing warm pajamas and only have head shots...

Hello June!

So, in honour of my return to the world of blogging, I've decided to do a post about my June Goals. I am always inspired by Nancy Ray and her monthly goal lists - and seeing things crossed out every month too (way to go nancy!)...and I do really love to make lists... So, here, my friends (if I still have any readers out there...) is my list of goals to complete by the end of June.

1. Finish my "alligator chair". Now, I know what this entails, but I'll go into more detail for you: It all started when I bought a cheap retro wooden arm chair from Salvation army... then I took an upholstery class with my friend Wendy to learn how to recover it (this was months ago people...). And now, once and for all, I'd like to call it finished. I want to strip the varnish what is currently on the wood, sand it back down to beauty, then re-stain and re-seal it. I've been sanding and staining wood for the past few weeks on the job I'm working on now, so this really should be a piece of cake.. just have to do it!

Okay now this picture is actually not a picture of the chair i am talking about. the chair I am talking about is in the background (the burgundy one)... apparently (even after trolling through EVERY picture on my external hard drive), i do not have a picture of my alligator chair before i pulled the fabric off..sad. Before I strip and sand it though, i will take one.
oh, and it's called an alligator chair now because of the new fabric that I used to upholster it with. You'll have to wait for the "After" picture to see.

2. Paint my deck furniture.

Here is the before picture from when i bought these chairs before Christmas last year. The natural wood was pretty, but did not weather well.. I am painting them with a high gloss enamel finish that will help seal the bamboo. I have already sewn all new cushion covers for them and I have already primed them. I want to spray on the enamel so that it is really smooth without any brush strokes, so I'll need to take them all to the workshop where I'll have access to an air compressor...


3. Finish the book Blue Like Jazz. Scott gave it to me and I've started it and like it so far...I just need to go to bed those extra few minutes early so i can get some reading time in!

4. Actually take my daily vitamins on a daily basis. I sometimes remember, sometimes- not so much... So for the whole month of June I want to get into the habit of actually taking them!

5. Update my blog once per week. This is HUGE. I hope this isn't too ambitious of me to commit to...

6. Complete my NZ taxes and send them in.

7. Plan a "Christmas in July" party. Since it's winter here now (and actually feeling like the Christmas-hot chocolately weather), I'd like to host a party for all the Kiwi's to see what a Northern Hemisphere Christmas feels like, and for all the Americans here (and a few Canadians..and a German:) - to have a proper Christmas. Where you have to wear a sweater. not flip flops.

8. Organize and book shipment of some parcels from home via ship (so that weight doesn't up the price). I have ordered some paint tools and a few other goodies (clothes! yay!) from the States and will go together with Scott and the gang to ship it all over here. The plan is in place, just need to make it all happen!

9. Have a date with Manuel at a restaurant in wellington that we haven't tried yet. We bought the new Entertainment book, so we have lots of great coupons!

10. This one is probably most important on the list: reconnect with all my great friends! I have been MIA lately and pretty bad about emailing friends back home, and also keeping in touch with friends right here in NZ - so I am going to be better at that this month!! (Starting right now - we just invited Neil and Ness over for Lasagna and Pictionary :)

Manuel's really REALLY long walk

In April, Manuel and a few of our friends (Neil, Phil, and Sandra) are participating in the Oxfam Trailwalker challenge as a team with the goal of walking 100 Km in less than 36 hours. Their goal is actually to do it 22 hours!! People, this is 100 Km - over SIXTY MILES - in 22 hours. They will not sleep, they will just walk. Me and Michelle and Vanessa will be the support van and make sure they have food and water and dry socks at all the checkpoints, etc. And cheer them on when they look tired :)

The money donated goes to Oxfam Foundation New Zealand, which in turn goes out to help poor communities - read more about it here

If you'd like to help Manuel raise his money (each participant must raise at least $500), then go here to donate to team "These boots are made for walkin'"

Vistitors from Oz

Here is yet another long overdue post! (What else is new....)

Going all the way back to December, we had our very first visitors to come and stay with us! (Michelle doesn't count because technically she isn't visiting...she's living here). Paul and Lisa and their little guy Lachlan came over to visit us from Australia for a few days. They were spending a few weeks in New Zealand for their wedding anniversary and stayed with us while having a look at Wellington! Paul is Ann's (my friend from Munich) brother. We've met the whole McMaster gang a few times on our trips to Brisbane and it was so fun having them around!

Here is Lachlan (he just turned 1 in January). He had to especially pack his cute little sweater for our "Wellington summer"...he probably doesn't wear it much in OZ...

We went out to the Karori bird sanctuary on the first day. Manuel and I had never been and it has just undergone a sort of facelift and with the addition of a cool new visitor center (which is still being built)...and who could resist a place called "Zealandia".

This guy was cool to watch. He would step on this lever to open his little food compartment, then fly to a nearby branch to eat...then fly back and do it again. over and over.

Lachlan having a ride on mummy Lisa's shoulders. Seriously, Cutest. Kid. Ever.

Our little nature walk was like being in Land Before Time :)

After our Zealandia adventure, we drove up to the top of the Botanical Gardens to take the Cable Car down to the city to find some Fush & Chups :)

Here's the McMaster clan with a view of what Wellington looks like on a nice day...

We made a quick stop at Farmer's to visit Michelle at work, and brag about how we were going to lunch... :)
The Cuba St. giant umbrella


The City Gallery decked out in dots for some crazy dot exhibition. If Tara owned a City Gallery, it would probably look like this.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there was a UNICYCLE convention going on in Wellington that week. Unicyclists from all over the world were in town for some really cool events including: unicycle basketball, unicycle mountain biking, and various races and freestyle events. The city was seriously filled with unicyclists.

Here are a few boys riding down the stairs on their wheels :) crazy I tell you.

It really didn't take long for Lachlan and Manuel to become best friends on the trip! They were so cute together! Manuel would just carry him around and show him different things. This fountain was a big hit, in particular :)
He was also a very big fan of Manuel's ice cream coffee :)

We stopped and played at the playground next to Queen's Wharf for a bit, which was thoughtfully covered in soft rubber tiles and not sand and dirt.

Lachey is getting very close to walking!

Back to the unicycles a moment, because this picture is really necessary!

We took a little walk to the top of Mt. Albert Park (at least I think that is the name of this place..) for a 360 view of Welly. Miramar and the airport are just in the distance here in this photo.
Near the dump in Happy Valley, there is some really cool rusty junk sculptures, including this spider car. There is also a little Mini Golf course there which we will have to pay a visit to...





Sunset view from our deck
We went to The Cheeky Pippi for brunch, just down at the bottom of the hill from us in Island Bay. They have grapevines growing in the sun room eating area and Lachlan was very interested in touching them :)
Though the weather wasn't so nice in Wellington, it wasn't too bad out in Martinborough. We took a little road trip out to visit a few vineyards and tasted wine. We also went to an Olive grove and tasted Olive oil! Apparently there is a real art to tasting olive oil, including making silly faces and embarrassing slurping noises. Our host there was great though and Manuel and I left with olive oil infused with Fennel. It's actually really yummy, even just on bread!
I'm not going to lie, part of the reason I loved the olive oil so much was because of the cool labels and branding.

Lachlan wasn't so interested in tasting olive oil he was handed around to be entertained out in the garden (which was HUGE).

This is what an artichoke looks like when it flowers. Really pretty!

The olive trees and tasting house Lavender