Temptation

This beautiful machine is parked up in a paddock alongside one of our occasional weekend routes. Someone is very tempted to purchase it. Apparently the log splitter would be really useful. 

Inspiration

It's going to be some time before I'm ready to grow prize-winning produce and I doubt I'll ever produce blooms of the required quality. But if our chickens will only co-operate by laying in the coop, I might just be able to enter some eggs at next year's Kumeu Show... And I know just the right person for making vegetable conveyances in years to come.

Championship Pumpkin

Our collection of ceramic fruit and vegetables was boosted this Christmas by the arrival of this fantastic pumpkin soup tureen.

The tureen has had some bad press but I think it looks pretty damn fine atop our linen cupboard.

Strawberry bowls forever

The latest addition to J's collection of pottery that looks like fruit and vegetables...

Good enough to eat

I had a disappointing thrifting experience last week. I visited one of the new-style Hospice Shops in a smart-ish mall. The shop was clean and fresh but that only made the merchandise look shabby and overpriced by comparison. So this week I visited an older, more rundown Hospice Shop and re-discovered the thrill of the hunt for thrifted treasure.

And I found some treasure. An apple sauce pot that looks like an apple. To add to our growing collection of fruit- and vegetable-themed pottery. Here it is with some of the apples off our tree. Can you tell which one it is?

Safekeeping

J has recently extended his collection of pottery which looks like fruit and vegetables to include containers which look like the food that they are intended to contain.

Witness the lemon-keeper and the garlic-keeper:



Next we need a chilli-keeper and a ginger-keeper.

(Mail)Box Clever

I've been trying to find a quirky mailbox for some time now - if the house is going to be smartened up then we want the mailbox to make a statement too. At the moment, we have a functional but uninspiring cream and green version.



We've found some excellent mailboxes on our travels - this one is a model of the house that it serves.



And these two - high up on a post, for airmail and email - amused me on our recent trip up north...



But so far I've only found boring ones for sale - maybe I'll have to put hammer to nail and build one for myself.

TradeMe Treasure

I found these lovely shelves on TradeMe recently - just the thing for keeping the 1960s feel in our house.



And perfect for displaying a few more of my op-shop finds - a lovely little succulent with a lime green bowl, a cute teacup which is calling out for a tiny potted cactus, and, best of all, a pumpkin pot.



This pumpkin pot will join our endive cruet set, grape and rosebud teapots, red apple salt and pepper shaker, pineapple sugar bowl and avocado bowls. Have you spotted the theme yet?

Rosebud...

Uncle Geoff's inspired Christmas present to James was a rosebud teapot to add to his collection of pottery that looks like fruit or vegetables. Obviously we'll be using it to serve rosehip tea.



The teapot teams up well with Geoff's earlier op-shop-find - a teapot with matching cups and saucers, all made up of bunches of grapes.



Other acquisitions for the collection in 2010 included this red apple cruet set from the op shop in Kohukohu which would tempt Sleeping Beauty...



...and this sweet little pineapple sugar bowl, found in the Foxton op shop...

Pantry Pride

Someone had the bright idea of buying me a labelling machine and so I've been busy for quite a bit of this afternoon organising the pantry...