"Candle In the Wind"

I love candles. I especially love scented candles. I am now at the point where cheap scented candles (thank-you The Warehouse) just will not cut it. I've also heard a little bit about the nasty chemicals which are mainly found in the cheaper candles. So recently I've been on the lookout for some delicious scented candles, of the tad more luxurious calibre. Here are a few which I like.

Pomegranate and Raspberry Scented Candle - The Body Shop 

Price: $40

Burn time: 40 hours

Ingredients: Made of responsibly sourced palm oil, paraffin free (no yucky chemicals) with an unbleached cotton wick.

Smells Like: Deliciousness. I love the fruity and fresh smell of this candle. It almost smells like a really delicious fruity candy. Would be perfect for Spring/Summer.

Where you can buy it: Check here for a store closest to you, or if you're outside of NZ, you can buy online.

Verdict: 40 hours is quite a long time, but in comparison to other candles in the same price range, the burning time is half of it's competitors. Not great value.

Love Candle - Ecoya

Price: $53.25

Burn Time: 60 hours 

Ingredients: Hand poured natural soy wax. Presented in a Sorrento jar with velvet
drawstring bag & gift box. 

Smells Like: Sexiness! The scent of the Love Candle is noted as Pink Champagne. It is a beautiful warm, almost spicy smelling. It has notes of blackcurrant and blood orange, but it's not too overwhelming. 

Where you can buy it: at Ecoya online, or check here for local stockists.  

The verdict: A really beautiful smell. Not sure if I'd be too keen to have it as an everyday scent as it is quite sexy smelling. It is the most expensive of the bunch, add that to it's lack of versatility, I probably wont be saving my pennies up for this one.

Tahaa -Vanilla Caramel Triple Scented Candle - Glasshouse Fragrances 

Price: $49.90 

Burn time: 80 hours 

Ingredients: Made in Australia using Non-toxic, food grade wax. Double wick for even burning. Also comes in a re-usable glass jar, with lid (to use as a snuffer). 

Smells Like: You crawled inside a caramel sundae. I could subtly smell this candle as I was walking down Lambton Quay. I followed the delicious warm smell of caramel to Peter Alexander, where I discovered these candles. The smell of this candle is incredibly inviting and not overpowering or too sweet, as some vanilla candles can be. If you have a stockist near you, go in and smell this baby! 

Where you can buy it: Peter Alexander Stores nationwide or Click here for other stockists both in NZ and international. 

The verdict: The shop assistant said she had bought this candle, and that she hadn't
started burning it yet, because the smell was amazing, from just having
it in her room. For 80 hours burn time, compared to the Body Shop's candle, it is quite good value. My favourite of the bunch. Start the saving.

Imagine being a Kennedy

I got a few guesses and a few emails telling me to hurry up with the reveal.



I WAS Jacqueline Kennedy. Well actually we both were Kennedy's. It was a bit of a fail on Brads part. When we were standing apart people looked at him and said "I don't get your costume". But with our powers combined!

Some more pics from the party...

Guess Who

Brad & I attended a Birthday Party over the weekend. Actually it was a double-Birthday. A guy that I work with turned thirty, and so did his wife. It was a dress-up party, and seeing as we were celebrating two thirtieths, appropriately (and awesomely) the theme was 1960's.



Can you tell, by the close-ups, who I went dressed as?

Take a guess by leavin' some comment lovin'. Come on it's pretty easy!





P.S: If you do actually know, because I told you, or you were there, then...Ssshh!

"You can go with this, Or you can go with that"

It seems there is an upside and a downside to everything. Here are a few things that make me happy and at the same time unhappy.



Happy: A beautiful sunshine filled morning       

Unhappy: Leaving my beach-side house to go to Uni.



Happy: Getting an 'A' on an assignment.          

Unhappy: Being marked 1% away from an 'A+'.



Happy: Working up a mega sweat at the gym  

Unhappy: Not being able to walk well the following day



Happy: Learning about the Treaty of Waitangi.

Unhappy: Learning about the Treaty of Waitangi.



Happy: To be a volunteer collector this Friday for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Unhappy: That there is such a need for it.



Happy: Looking forward to the Summer Trimester.

Unhappy: Realising your faculty haven't processed your enrolment.



Happy: That our driveway is being paved

Unhappy: At being woken up, when sick, by the contractors at 7am

Happy again: Having a little time up my sleeve to write this post.

"An Education"

This week has been busy for me. Three assessments in one week. I'm not too sure if it's because when I get tired everything becomes funny, but this week has been oddly filled with moments that tickle-my-humour-pickle.



The first took place whilst discussing annoying classmates, of the 'txt-in-lecture' and 'talk-extremely-loud-in-lecture' varieties, with my tutor.



Me: "Why don't they just shut it? As if I want to hear about their trashy Saturday night at 'Shooters'?



Tutor: "Ooh I do, but if you're going to distract me from the lecture - it better be juicy!"



Me (internal conversation): "Did he just say that? Or are you now crazy & deaf as well as blind?"





As I sat nervously in the office of a man who once described himself as a "Grammar-Nazi", waiting for his critique on my essay, I started to drift off to avoid a panic attack. My day-dream was interrupted by..



"...Are you by any chance of German decent?"



"Actually, it is highly likely that I am....Why?"



"You capitalise every noun. Every noun. Like a German student would."



An awkward silence ensues.



After a few solid minutes he tries to comfort me with...



"...It's nothing to be too concerned about, it's just an observation."





Yesterday afternoon, I met with a tutor to go over my plan for a presentation I was giving that very afternoon. We ended up discussing the Essay which was handed in the previous day. I told him that I had emailed him but never heard anything back. He then said,



"Oh you're not one of those silly little twits that keeps emailing me to ask favours, are you?"




"Uh, no. Thankfully, how awkward would this meeting be right now if I was."





Oh yes good ol' VUW is great for a few laughs. There is even a whole facebook page devoted to sharing them. Before I sign off I just have to share my favourite VUW funny of all.



One day whilst sitting in a Greek History lecture, my lecturer pulled down a map. He grabbed a metre ruler to use as a pointer - and point at the map he did. As he pointed away, he said "so this is Sparta." The entire class laughed at a semi quiet level. Realising what he had said he pointed to the map furiously and yelled. "This. Is. Sparta!" 

image from comicbooks.about.com

"And I'm BACK IN THE GAME! "

I started back at Uni this week - after taking a Trimester off. These are the Top Five Highlights of my week...



5. Being so tired.

Usually it isn't a good thing to be so tired that you literally fall in to bed at the end of the day. Oh but it is. It is glorious. Sometimes I go through stages of not being able to sleep. This week I've been so tired, that I sleep so well that I hardly roll over in my sleep. This is good for my energy levels. It's not so good for my circulation. I often wake up with lead arms. It's still so worth it. 



4. Making new Friends.

I love people. I love making new Friends. I found that a very sweet girl is in two of my three classes. We noticed each other in one of the classes, and swapped details. It's great to have a study partner, sounding board and  Friend.




3.Using my Brain, again.

It's so awesome and powerful to be able to engage my noggin' in learning. It's almost like that feeling when you go to the Gym or for a run for the first time after a long break. It hurts and is hard but man does it feel good.




2. Catching up.

I was lucky enough to catch up with two lovely ladies that I hadn't seen in months and months. It was so nice to be able to pop up to the 5th floor to see Hannie, and txt Lucy out of the blue and schedule a lunch catch up. Also Erica works and studies in town, so yesterday when we both had half an hour spare we had a speed-chat. Like a speed-date. Except we already know each other and aren't looking for love. It's awesome!




1. Visiting 'Archives New Zealand'

Yesterday, as a part of my Treaty of Waitangi paper we visited the Archives. I got to see The Treaty of Waitangi with my own eyes. I found it to be quite emotional. It was both empowering and devastating, but I'm lucky I got the opportunity.







What are some highlights from your week?

"Ladies Let me see your hands up in the air, Ladies Show 'em what you got shake it all around"

On Friday night, I am going to the movies to see Sex & the City 2. I am really looking forward to it. We are going out for dinner first, and maybe a dance afterwards (I'm hopeful). The dress code is "If you're not wearing Heels Honey, don't bother showing up."

Naturally, I've seen a lot of press for SATC2 recently. I have seen alot of magazine spread headlines, such as...

 "Which SATC character are you?"

and

"Which SATC girl do you look most like?"

This got me to thinking, which SATC Girl are my girls most like? So I ran photo's through an online celebrity look-a-like programme. OK so none of us got any of the SATC girls, but some impressive look-a-likes none the less. The Name in green, is the one which I deem to be most accurate.

 

Sandra Bullock

Liv Tyler

Kirsten Dunst

Julia Roberts

Minnie Driver

Shalom Harlow

Katherine Heigel

Kate Winslet

J.K Rowling

Molly Ringwald

 

Thandie Newtown

Audrey Tautou

Mila Kunis

Shalom Harlow

Scarlett Johansson

 

Queen Latifah

Scarlett Johansson

Winona Ryder

Mariah Carey

Beyonce Knowles

 

Julianne Moore

Shirley Temple

Lee Hyori

Melissa Joan Hart

Charlize Theron

 

Jenna Elfman

Mary-Kate Olsen

Sheryl Crow

Kirsten Dunst

Tara Reid

Raven Symone

Eva Longoria

Martine McCutcheon

Ashlee Simpson

Natalie Portman

Rachel Leigh Cook

Camilla Belle

Kelly Clarkson

Delta Goodrem

Hilary Duff

NONE OF THE ABOVE

Apple Bottom 'Genes'

It's a raining, cold day today. I am snuggled up inside with the fire roaring. Days like these remind me of my pre-school childhood. Today I'm counting down my Top Five Childhood Toys.

5. Knitted Toys. My Nan made us every knitted toy under the sun. Seriously. They were so cute, just like the ones (if not the same as) on this website. I wonder where they all are now?

4. My Little Pony. I had a magic-message Earth Pony, called Windy. She was special. She was purple with dark pink hair with chartreuse streak and has a tree symbol. Her Tree symbol was the magic-message, as when you pressed your thumb against it the heat would turn it in to a kite. It was literally magic! On the other side of her bottom she had an apples symbol. She had a small pink bow on her right cheek & green eyes and curly hair. I played with her so much that she got worn really quickly. I also might have given her a hair cut.

3. Costume Ball Barbie. It wasn't the doll that I enjoyed the most. It was the clothes. My Mum was a dressmaker, and would buy small pieces of beautiful fabrics to make unique clothes for us. When she did dressmaking for clients she would often use the scraps to make replica's of the outfits she had sewn, for our Barbie's. She even made a replica of her Wedding dress. We had a large picnic hamper full of Barbie clothes.

2. Popple. I had an Orange Popple. He was so cute! I love how they rolled up in to their own pouch.

1. Patrick. This Goodluck Bear Carebear, was made for me by my Grandad's sister. He was always with me. I still have him today. This is where my adoration for Carebears began.

Did you have any of these toys as a Child?

"If I could write a letter to me And send it back in time to myself at (16)"

I stumbled upon this blog today. I was instantly taken by this blog, as I have flicked through the book, by the same name. The book is called, 'Dear Me: A letter to my Sixteen-Year-Old Self.' What a delicious idea! The book is a collection of these very letters, written by (mostly) British personalities.





Here are a few of my favourites:





Burt Bacharach





"Dear Me,



At 16 I am so glad that I listened to my Mother, and kept taking piano lessons



Burt"







Patsy Kensit





"Dear Sixteen Year Old Patsy,



You adore music more than anything in the world, you have a great passion for rock'n'roll...but that doesn't mean you have to marry the lead singer of every band you ever had a poster of, on your bedroom wall.



Love Your older you!"







And my favourite...





Emma Thompson



"Dear Em (16)



I realise that you are young and in love and that nothing much that anyone old says seems relevant, but seeing as it's me - just us, you.. That is, US I think it's worth a go.

Two Top Tips from 50 to 16:



1) Don't EVER EVER EVER EVER bother to go on a diet. I know you're obsessed and have that awful thing of standing in the 6th form canteen trying to choose between a yoghurt & a breathe of fresh air (whilst wanting chips & a cheese salad). Don't sweat it. Eat regularly, try & avoid rubbish and never diet. You'll end up the same size anyway, so drop it girl & drop it NOW. Believe me - nobody cares. Diets are the best way of confusing your metabolism for the rest of your life. Just be you & get on with it, I cannot tell you how much energy you'll save & how much happier you'll be.



2) When he says he doesn't love you, believe him. He doesn't.



That's it. All the other mistakes you make are worth their weight in gold.



I love you - Em (50)"







If you were to write a letter to your 16-year-old self, what would it say? I for one am going to think about it...

                                                                                                                                                                

So two days ago I wrote this post. I'm now ready to add my letter....



Dear Nicole,



This year, you will find yourself. You will buy funky fashions from second-hand shops. Some people will laugh at your style. Don't worry - you are just ahead of the times, as in a few years everyone will be wearing massive sunglasses, huge earrings and chunky plastic jewellery. Also badges will become 'cool' as will long, long curly hair. Look who is laughing now! You will fall in love with painting - keep at it. You have a few friends that are angels. Hold tight to them, and let the others go their own way. The handful that you keep hold of will provide you with enough Love, support & laughter to see you through the next six years - and probably a lifetime. You will find Love. My goodness it is worth the wait. The next couple of years will be a roller coaster - hold on tight and enjoy the ride.



From the slightly older you.

XXX

Me, age sixteen on Christmas Day.

"Open your heart"

Every August since I was Fifteen years old I have donated $50 to the Cancer Society. To some that may seem like a decent donation, and to others - not so much. At fifteen, being on minimum wage & only working one weekend day & a few hours after school, fifty dollars was almost my entire weeks earnings. But every August I would hand it over. Why? I thought of Cancer as being one of the biggest killers of the time - which it is. Also I had lost my Nan to breast cancer, along with many other courageous people in my life and in the lives of those that I knew well.



Last Thursday I got to see those donations hard at work. Before Mum had her first dose of Chemotherapy we went and visited the Wellington Cancer Society in Newtown. What an amazing place. I hope that you never need to go there, but if you do, I know you'll be in good great hands.





What your donations pay for:





Staff. A lot of people volunteer at the Cancer Society, but the main co-coordinators are paid. They are fantastic people with boundless knowledge & support capabilities.





Books. At the Cancer Society there is a library full of resources on all types of Cancer, and associated issues. Books of inspiration & hope, research & real life stories.







Parking. Free parking for Chemo patients. We were at the Hospital for five hours on Thursday. Can you imagine what that would have cost us had we parked at the Hospital?







Drivers. The Cancer Society provides some patients with drivers, to take them to & from treatments. Your donations help pay for Gas.







Sustenance. Tea, Coffee, Milo & baking. There is a lounge set up in the Cancer Society for drivers, family & patients. If you are waiting for treatment, or waiting for someone to finish treatment, you are welcome to read or watch t.v & make yourself a cuppa.







Wigs. Wigs can cost up to $2000 each! Our kind Government will give you a subsidy of $400 to go towards a wig, but as you can imagine not everyone who is diagnosed with Cancer can afford a wig. Your donations provide wigs for patients to use whilst they have treatment or visit the hospital for appointments.





Counselling, Hydrotherapy & Massage. The Cancer Society offers a free counselling service for Patients & family members/support people. Hugely important. Hydrotherapy & Massage can help alleviate the physical (and emotional?) stresses that come hand in hand with the C word, and the Cancer Society hugely subsidise these services for patients and support people.





Research. Even in the last ten years alone research and medication have come a long, long way my friends. We may not ever find a cure, but we have already proved that research can provide us with a better way of doing things.







Fundraising. have you ever heard the saying you have to spend money to make money? Relay for Life & Daffodil Day are two major fundraising events that the Cancer Society puts its name to.









Education. The Cancer Society provides free resources & education to pretty much anyone who asks for them. Workshops & support group networks are also available.  

That $50 does not seem like a lot of money now does it?



When August rolls around please open your Heart...and your Wallet.

P.S You don't have to wait until August.



More on Chemo later.

"Flowers of your December"

Sometime in January I posted about my family Christmas'09. As I looked over the post today, still gutted by those decoration mis-haps, I realised something. That Pohutukawa Champagne holder is pretty darn cool. At least my friend Mariah thought so.







Here is how I made it....





'Champagne/Sparkling Grape Juice Decorative Cooler'

1. Pick your Flowers of choice. You could also use fruit (lemon & limes would be cool!), shells..or anything really! I've seen it done in NZ House & Garden, with Pink & White roses, and it looked amaaaazing.

2. Select a plastic bowl or bucket. This will give you the shape of your cooler, so make sure you don't choose a bowl that is too big - or too small to accomodate your bubbles.

3. Get a large based glass carafe jug or even better...a 2.25L Coke bottle with some rice or sand inside. Place it inside the bowl. It's important to remember that the base of your anchor needs to be slightly bigger than your bottle of bubbles.

4. Arrange your blooms around the coke bottle or jug, and fill the bowl with water so that it just covers your blooms, but doesn't quite fill your bowl.  

5. Place in the freezer overnight.

6. Once frozen, remove from freezer and rest for 20-30mins. Wipe the outside of the bowl with a hot dishcloth. You should be able to bend the plastic away from the ice from here. 

7. To remove your anchor, carefully bend the coke bottle plastic away from the ice. If you used a glass jug, carefully pour some warm water in to the jug, and carefully wriggle to release.

8. Carefully turn out on to a platter, or even a shallow dish to use as a centre piece. At this point you can return it to the freezer to keep it nice and frosty.

                   

"Oh I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands the ones I love. Some folks just have one, others, they've got none..."

Tonight I sat down at the comp, turned on the T.V (to keep myself company) and opened up Blogger, to catch up on some Blogs. "Missing Pieces" came on the box, as soon as I started to read this post of BelindaJulie's. Coincidence? Probably. Both struck a cord with me.



Watching "Missing Pieces" is a freakin' mine field. I cry every time I watch it (Ep 2 of this season = a cry fest.) Maybe it is due to my own personal experience in having missing pieces.



I am lucky. I know who my biological parents are. However in my Mum's & in my Dad's family history, in those closets, lie many a skeleton.



It hurts me to think that there are members of my family that I may not ever meet. It saddens me even more to think that the opportunity to do so, is now an impossibility for many. I always get in to deep conversations with myself about, how we are all under the same Moon & Sun - and how strange I find that concept. Somewhere under the same sky, there are family members that I will never know. Do they know about me? Do they think about me too?



It gets me thinking about the things we do and don't know about our loved ones. I want to uncover the truth, but sometimes it hurts too much to do so. Is the pay-off worth it? "Missing Pieces" would have me believe it is so - but my life is not a reality show. And if it were it would be on MTV. People would never believe that the things that happen in my life actually happen to real people.

Come to think of it, why don't I have a show on MTV?

In the past I have often asked myself  "Why the heck am I not getting paid to deal with this drama?"



I've thought long and hard. I've decided that I want to know more - in general, about my family. If I uncover dirty little secrets, so be it. But for the meantime life is hectic enough, without me going looking for them.

P.S I took this picture of the Moon this evening. I love the Moon.

'To the left, to the left, Everything you own in the box to the left'

Another confession to make...

I am a bit of a hoarder. I got it from my Nan. 

I hold onto things forever! I never have enough storage space.

So.. last Saturday Brad & I held a garage sale at my Mum & Stepdad's place. Brad's Mum, Fi and his sister Bex & her partner Andy also chipped in to make one big masssssssive Garage Sale. We made over $300 in total! So each party got about $100 each. Not bad for a few hours work and extra space in our cupboard!

All books, toys, household items & clothes that did not sell were donated to the womans refuge and the salvation army.

You can see how super not keen everyone is to be up at 8am on a Saturday

Everyone apart from Fi...

Oooh and look at these....

...Gorgeous! Too bad they are a size 6 not a size 10!

"Birdland on fifty-three, The street sounds like a symphony"

Fifty three has always been a favourite number of mine. When my sister and I were little we would generally be watching T.V at night time, while Mum cooked dinner. During this time the 'Daily-Keno' number draw would be played. At one stage, the numbers that were drawn, were accompanied by pictures, of said number from different signs and shops from around the country. The number fifty-three was always accompanied by a picture of the State Highway 53 sign, which is found in Martinborough - where we lived, until I was almost Nine years old.

Even now, when I catch the Keno results, I always hope that my fifty-three comes up.



'In my shoes' now has reached 53 posts.  I am excited! Actually this post will make 54, so I have officially crossed my personal little finish line. To celebrate, I am changing things up a bit, gettign a little 'crazy' if you will.



You may notice that the name of this post, has taken a different path to my usual post headers. Yes folks, that's right, This post title is a song lyric, not a song title.



From here on in, for the next fifty three posts all post titles will now take their inspiration from song lyrics, not titles. I hope that you enjoy figuring out which songs they come from, or enjoy using Goggle to cheat, at the very least.

'Land down under' (Part two)

OK, better late than never...



...The rest of the trip to Aussie was in-cred-ible. We filled the week with shoping, swimming, more shopping and yes even MORE shopping. I think Brad, and subsequently, our banking consultant's, weren't too happy about this.



One our first full day in Australia we were suprised to be woken up at 6.00am by the sun and of course the heat. We got up at 6.30am and went for a long swim in the pool and took some photo's with Brad's sisters new flashy-bling-bling underweater digital camera.



After the whole breakfast/shower/washing thing, went packed in to the people mover and headed towards the beach. We had a mosey around the morning markets, which was neat. I bought some HUGE earrings. We got very sunburnt at the markets.We than had lunch at the Broadbeach surf club, which is way flasher than anything you see on 'Home and Away', the meals were so cheap and so HUGE. I had a kids meal and could not finish it all. After lunch we waddled down to the changing rooms, then sunbathed and swam in the sea. I thought it was really powerful, as it was hard to stay standing even in thigh deep water. Apparenly that was a calm day.

 

After the beach we made yet another trip to Pacific Fare, then headed home to relax and glam up a bit, before going out to dinner. Brads parents had decided to take us to their favourite Thai resturaunt 'Changmai Thai' for dinner. We had a reservation for 7.00pm, but it felt much later as it gets so dark early over there! Regardless of the time the heat was still cranking. The food at Changmai Thai was fantastic - probably the best Thai food i've personally ever eaten. The resturaunt was just as neat, with all the waiters and waitresses dressed in traditional Thai costume's. The walls were adorned with intricate wooden carvings and there were fairy lights in the tree's. We were seated outside, next to a table of people, roughly my age, who were celebrating a birthday. It was hilarious, when right before bursting in to song, we heard a girl call "Toru,  wha..." There are Kiwi's everywhere!

After dinner, I dared Brad to eat a whole Chilli out of one of the banquet pots. As Brad hummed and haaa'd over the challenge, Brad's Dad, who puts the beat down on Chillis' and other spicy foods all the time, thought he would show his son a thing or two. Turns out this Chilli, was like no other, and had John in a fit of sweat. It was scary as we were asking if he was ok and he couldn't answer. His eye's just kept getting wider and more watery. We quickly explained what had happened to the waiter and he promptly brought out some cucumber. It worked. Thank goodness! I felt bad, as it was my idea. We headed home for some rest, as the following days would bring more shopping and a theme park...

                                        

                                                 

                                             

...Part 3 will be hugely condensed, so I can get to the goodies, that were Christmas, and the best ever New Years holiday.