The Days of Summer fly by

The days of summer here are flying by. While tales of snow and flood reach us down here in New Zealand, we have days of hot summer sun interspersed with grey days with rain tossed in to keep everything green. 

In the weeks since I last visited I have

 from South Seas Film school

went on a road trip at Christmas and missed all the holiday traffic!!

Had a blast in Auckland.

Spent Christmas with family at a farmstay cottage here. We had no internet access and I will admit I did switch off completely. We relaxed, read books, played games and watched movies.

I learned how to make these paper dresses and shared them on my favorite addiction at the moment .... Instagram. I am here

Worked in my vintage collage journal.

Got very messy with some faux metal techniques for some new books I am making.

and finally .... decided this was the year that I will get over my phobia about being in front of the camera instead of behind it.

Hello this is me - I hope you are having a fabulous 2014.

Thanks for visiting 

xx Michelle 

Lucky day for Me!

Hi Everyone
Sorry I have been AWOL the last few weeks - I have started a new contract and have been busy working to pay for all the goodies I am currently lusting after!
I started a new project last Saturday thinking it would be a quick book to satisfy my creative cravings after no energy at night after work ... well, it is not quite finished. The cover is almost naked apart from the crackle paint but here is a sneak peek of the inside of an altered book I have been playing with.
It is a Junk Shop creation again, with the book, lace and a cut up net curtain used to decorate and some gorgeous downloaded images.

I even used some of my precious buttons!

I have been cursing the fact that I live in NZ and we (boo hoo) do not have the same goodies in our Junk/Charity shops as I see in the Haul vidoes from the States. I never never found a huge stash of lace, I did find a couple of metres once and snatched it all up. But today I have to take it all back. I love NZ, I love our Charity shops and I love my goodies I found today. I will try to use them and not store them safely for ever (very tempted!!)

Yes - after finding countless jigsaw puzzles I finally found some cool card games and I grabbed them, even though there was no one else in the store at the time.

I also love the old book full of black and white photos and some postcards and teeny little homemade paper envelopes.

I might not use them for a while, I might have to look at them and dream.

Hope you all had a lucky day

xxx Michelle