Flower Potluck: A New Zealand Kinfolk Gathering

Those of you familiar with Kinfolk Magazine will likely be familiar with the dinners they have been holding throughout the US and now further abroad. The Kinfolk manifesto celebrates small gatherings, the sharing of food and a balanced, intentional lifestyle. This year they have moved into once monthly gatherings based around a theme or the learning of a new skill such as baking, making home cleaning products, beekeeping and outdoor cooking. I have loved the magazine since it started and always wished to attend one of their dinners so I am so excited to let you know that Richard and I will be representing Kinfolk here in New Zealand!

Our first gathering will be a Flower Potluck at my dad's vineyard here in Hawkes Bay on May 3rd, where we will eat delicious platters of local cheeses, breads, preserves and dukkah as well as take part in a wine tasting. Autumnal flowers will be on hand but we also ask that the guests bring blooms and foliage of their own to share, just like a traditional potluck dinner, and we will learn to make bouquets together. If you'd like to come along, you can find more information and purchase your tickets here. Spaces are limited to 20 so please buy your tickets soon if you would like to come.

While this and possibly a couple of the other gatherings will take place in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand is full of clever people that I would love to both share a meal with and show off so the plan is to spread the events around the country to ensure as many people can attend as possible.

Autumnal Equinox

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. 

- Camus

As we say goodbye to the sun and celebrate the coming months, wishing for rain as the earth is pretty parched here at the moment, we wanted to share it with you by having a farewell to summer sale. We're working on a small winter collection and so if you head over to the shop now you can enter 'EQUINOX' at the checkout for 35% off all jewellery. 

I love the feeling of a season change and I hope there is lots of good stuff in store for us all as the leaves fall, or flowers bloom depending on where you are. We're up in Auckland at the moment and I'm hoping to be enjoying one of these very soon. 

Monday, Monday: Day Late edition

image from the spring issue of kinfolk, found via old faithful shop and i believe the flowers are the genius of amy merrick. dream everything. 

Sorry this Monday, Monday post is a day late, although I guess it's kind of perfect when talking about feeling pulled between the two hemispheres. I've started my new job, which is great and just in the afternoons. However, this does mean learning to love getting up in the morning and getting back into a normal sleep routine now that Richard is working nights again.

Looking out my window this morning there is pretty much nothing springlike in the air, save for a few hardy geraniums. It was like magic, as soon as the calendar turned to March the leaves started to turn and our front yard is now a carpet of yellow. While Autumn is my favourite season, I can't help but swoon over all the pretty pastels and flowers the northern hemisphere is tempting me with at the moment. It's with each season change that I more truly realise we're in opposite land down here. Even though I am completely ready for the days to get cooler (and for some rain, we're in a drought down here), I can always be reeled back in my soft colours and giant ice creams.

Bits & Pieces

- Evie has done a fabulous (not a word I usually use, but it was the only one that fit in this occasion) round up of jungle inspired rooms and wallpaper inspired by the Beverly Hills Hotel and wishing for rain.
- I meant to post this ages ago but it kept slipping my mind: Some books I like that you might like, by Jessica Stanley. It's the motherload of books to read, and they're all by women. Some I've read, some I've been meaning to read (story of my life) and some totally new to me. I love getting good book recommendations so hopefully you'll find some gems in here, too! I love how she's categorised them, also.
- Pretty late to the game here, but I have no shame about wanting to add this album to my collection (iPhone).
- Tomorrow Is Not A Suitable Day For Doing Things.

Thank you to everyone who commented or sent messages in response to my last post. It's so good to know that we share these experiences, because I hope that it means we share the solutions, too.

Change

We went for a walk around our neighbourhood on the autumnal equinox the other week, it was my perfect kind of evening, mostly clear skies, a slight chill in the air but I was still able to get away with a t-shirt. We used to do these little walks all the time (especially to go get gelato) but life has gotten the best of us over the last while with evenings spent watching Greys Anatomy marathons and trimming veneer, so it was nice to go for a stroll for no other reason aside from watching the leaves turn, stretching your legs and doing some sneaky peekins to people's cozy homes.

This time right at the start of Autumn is my favourite, when the leaves are just starting to change and grey rainy days are still punctuated with crisp clear sunny days. There's change everywhere you look, and you can watch it all happen while eating something pumpkin spiced and wearing tights and a cardigan. I've mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with change, I both crave it and resist it. October means that we're that much closer to our move home which is getting increasingly exciting and scary. I'm at that stage that it is far away enough for me to be getting anxious and just wanting to fast forward, but then realising how much I will miss it here. I mean, Halloween in the spring time just might not cut it anymore.

Back to work for me, keep an eye out for our big shop update tomorrow! 

Sigh of relief

Hello! Sorry things have been a little sleepy around here, I had a bunch of posts lined up for last week that are still sitting in my drafts folder but got a little swamped with deadlines and such (story of my life). Hopefully that just means there will be lots of great stuff this week! Anyway, I had my interview and photo shoot for Hoopla on Saturday morning, which was initially terrifying (what to wear! where to sit! clean, clean, clean!) but so nice to have Leanne come by and chat with her about stitching, art and how we find ways of self expression. Of course it wasn't half as scary as I thought it would be, and I'm really excited to see the finished book. The other projects that Leanne told me about sound amazing! 

After the interview I couldn't quite believe that I had nothing left to do that was pressing, such a great feeling. The weekend was grey and rainy, perfect for staying indoors and working on projects that are just for fun. It felt like such a luxury to sit in my for real, actual clean house, flip through art books, make potato leek soup (obsessed with this soup, the moment the skies show a hint of autumn its all about soup) and scones, drink tea and start a new embroidery project inspired by a Joanna Newsom concert. Autumn seems to actually be officially here, the quilt is back on the bed, Sufjan Stevens is on repeat and my slippers are always close at hand. So nice. 

A few things; 

- Beautiful Soviet-era environmental conservation posters at Broom People. 

- Andy Goldsworthy 'Fall Leaves', this one especially. 

- Fat Acceptance: when kindness is activism

Off to a good start

We headed over to Mayne Island, one of B.C's Southern Gulf Islands for the long weekend to stay at a friends small cabin. It was the perfect way to bring summer to a close and start off September, which has quickly become my favourite month since living here.

We picked blackberries for breakfast, found deserted beaches, visited the Farmers Market, scrambled around rock pools and walked for so long around the island that I'm still feeling it. In that good, well earned rest kinda way. It's now a rainy Labour Day, and I am burning through my to-do list so that I can stop to eat chocolate zucchini loaf, drink tea and get started on a new book. Richard is off work this week due to an intensive week of school, so I get to have him around every night until next Tuesday which I'm pretty thrilled about! All in all, September is starting out rather well.

More weekend photos here if you'd like to take a peek.