poised

Every year there's a moment when I look around and suddenly notice with surprise the early signs of the changing seasons. The days are suddenly a little longer and the jasmine has clambered its way across its neighbours and is poised to explode like fireworks.
My poor neglected garden has been doing its thing behind the scenes through this long wet we've had in Sydney. Looking around I see the magnolias are blooming and the daphne is in full swing. Spring is on its way.
I've had my head down lately caught up in worry and boring routine, getting through the days, the chores, the routines and responsibilities. I'm much happier when the sun is shining, and days like today are just the tonic I need.

cutest ever

I had a video post of a slow loris here but I've removed it because a little more research (thanks Vera) has led me to find out some alarming facts about the exotic pet trade in this endangered species and I don't want to condone that at all. You can read about the sad plight of the slow loris and the inhuman treatment of the animals taken for pets here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_loris

New Zealand

One of the wonderful things to come out of my recent Brooch Swap was its really international flavour. Swappers came from Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, the US, Canada and South Africa. I still marvel at how the internet makes friends of people separated by miles and continents.

I tried where I could to match people from different countries, and though it made for some postal delays and mixups (especially when the Canadian post office went on a month long strike!) it also meant that lots of people got parcels with exciting stamps and customs slips arriving on their doorsteps.

Thanks to Megan from mousehouse and Melissa from tinyhappy, who posted about the Swap on their blogs, we had lots of New Zealand bloggers involved. And while we Aussies have a long happy relationship with our neighbours, I somehow didn't know many NZ bloggers, save these two lovely girls (though of course one of my favourite mags Extra Curricular is based in New Zealand). So it was lovely to discover a bit more about the scene and meet some more wonderful NZ crafters.

Anyway, I thought it would be nice to ask Megan and Melissa and Clare from greenvalleycrafts, one of our NZ brooch swappers, for some favourite blog links in this small but creative country.  I've asked each to share five favourite links to get us blog-hopping. I would love it too if anyone wanted to share more favourites or even your own blog link in the comments section and I will add them to the post. Especially if you were one of our lovely NZ Brooch Swappers.

Special thanks to Melissa, Megan and Clare. I had lots of fun looking through your wonderful picks, I've nearly been round all the links and there is some wonderful treasure there, some new favourites and lots more for google reader!

Melissa said:
"Some of my favourites include:
* http://felt.co.nz/ - Felt- like a NZ-based Etsy,
* http://sarahelaing.wordpress.com/ - 'let me be frank' by sarah laing- graphic novel/comic blog,
* http://nzvanette.blogspot.com/  - 'vanette' by ella. i really like the way she writes about craft and life as a mother,
* http://tomandemma.wordpress.com/ - 'small town stories' by emma. i like her useful recipes, she's funny, and i've had coffee with her a couple of times and she's great company,
* http://www.alionessyou.com/ - by my friend sonya. she's currently living in amsterdam, but through her blog she still seems close by. i love her photography."

Megan said
"I have so many favourite blogs but the NZ ones that I read pretty much every post they write would be:
* http://greenvalleycrafts.blogspot.com,
* http://littleminx.wordpress.com/,
* http://cottonkiwi.blogspot.com,
* http://missmollycoddle.blogspot.com/,
* http://verydarkhorse.blogspot.com/.
Oh so hard to only choose 5!!"

Clare said:
"I've chosen 5 NZ blogs I love for you:
* http://toastclothing.blogspot.com/ This is Rhiannon's blog 'Toast and Life'.  Rhiannon blogs about her crafty endevours, life, her clothing label Toast and her crafty label Croutons, and her boys.  I especially love seeing her funky outfit posts!
* http://verydarkhorse.blogspot.com/ This is Stella's blog 'The Golden Adventures of a Very Dark Horse'.  Stella is a very talented illustrator and blogs about her new ideas, gorgeous daughter, and the beautiful (often thrifted and re-styled) things she makes for her home.
* http://www.hellofallow.blogspot.com/ This is Kristin's blog 'Hello Fallow'  Kristin blogs about an amazing array of crafty endevours, and her baking posts always make my mouth water!  She also regularly posts about her cute outfits and her two boys.
* http://dee-construction.blogspot.com/  This is Dee's blog 'Dee-construction'  Dee is a mama of 4 who never ceases to inspire me!  Lately she's been busy making handmade dolls, and creating some amazing 'real life pins' and gorgeous outfit re-styles!"
* http://nzvanette.blogspot.com/  This is Ella's blog 'Vanette' - I love Ella's blog for it's Indie feel and her honesty, humour and wit.  I love seeing the gorgeous crafty creations she comes up with, mostly for her two gorgeous children.

+

Leonie one of our lovely brooch swappers has emailled to say she hosts a Kiwi Mothers blog resource which lists lots of wonderful blogs from locals and expats here: http://www.kiwimummyblogs.co.nz/

Kristin's all time favourite is prairiemouse :-) Love the felty doodlejumpers!

Greta loves http://rubyinthedustdolls.blogspot.com/

More brooch swappers :-)
Nin's favourites:
Heart Felt http://teatodtoad.typepad.com/my_weblog/
and Imba http://imbadesign.blogspot.com

And these are Lis's picks:
http://michellespatch.blogspot.com
http://theangelandthepukeko.blogspot.com/
http://allthingsrustyandfabric.blogspot.com/
http://nz-debz.blogspot.com
http://thesewingattic.blogspot.com/

Last but not least, brooch swapper Emily from Millicent Crow has a few more recommendations:
http://www.rw-scissors.blogspot.com/
http://www.confettiyeti.blogspot.com/
http://www.bondstreetbridge.blogspot.com/