I started 2021 with big plans and wishful thinking. I’m starting 2022 actually following through with a few of them. As I’m writing this (mid-January 2022), New Zealand’s borders are still shut tight and I don’t know when I’m going to travel again. It’s not going to stop me from dreaming, planning, and moving forward,…
I’m still in full on candy corn crazy mode and have been looking around the house for absolutely anything that could become candy corn. While sorting through a box of craft supplies, I came across a pair of canvas sneakers that I had bought ages ago for a potential project but never did. With a…
You would be hard pressed to find anyone in New Zealand who doesn’t know who Sir Edmund Hillary is–he’s on the $5 bill! I will admit that I didn’t know who he was until I got interested in Mt Everest during my late 20s–Hillary, along with his sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first confirmed climbers…
I’ve never been much of an ice cream eater–until the awesomeness that is New Zealand ice cream became my norm and now I might have a problem. I used to be adamant that ice cream is only for summers, but it’s fully winter here and I had a bowl of cookies and cream last night…
It took us a long time to find the right house for us mostly because we wouldn’t budge on the number of bedrooms. It was important to us that the girls each have their own room, which meant a five bedroom house. Those are rare in New Zealand as it is and because we were…
I love (and greatly miss!) summer fireworks. There’s something really special about getting together as a community or neighborhood and watching the explosions of colour in the sky. Some of my favourite fireworks memories are of watching the spectacular show Pittsburgh always put on in the middle of the city. They would be set off…