That’s what we call them down here in sunny niew zillund – that classic hot water bottle. I’ve decided that the ones we just bought, which are highly colourful rubber bottles just itching to warm up some cold footsies, actually need covers on them. The substandard, i’ll-just-move-it-round-the-bed routine doesn’t cut the mustard anymore because really, once you experience the hottie that stays hot all night and doesn’t give you third degree burns on contact, how can you ever expect to go back to plain old coloured rubber? My sentiments, exactly.

So, i’m thinking of these little critters

They’ll also help scare away any monsters in your wardrobe too i’m sure. Then there’s these ones that look like regular toys, but are actually hottie holders! Woopwoop!

And finally, because we all know that penguins actually have mini furnaces inside of them in order to endure the antarctic, here’s little pingu

Funny thing is though, it’s been the warmest May/June since forever, and seeing as i already have my newest flannelette pyjamas from peter alexander keeping me roastie-toastie (they are ridiculously oversized, have pockets for all your bedtime treats, are covered in pictures of kids on roller coasters, and i absolutely love them), i haven’t needed my hottie just yet. Still, gives me time to scout out the best hottie cover – any suggestions?

Having recently moved from my rented apartment in Japan to my parents’ house (my childhood home) in New Zealand (that was then destroyed by the Feb 22nd quake), and now finding myself in a cute little flat near the “red zone” where me and the folks intend to stay until we decide what to do next (them: anticipating the rebuild of their new house on their old property; me: watching. this. space.) i am becoming more and more conscious of/intrigued by/fascinated with/mesmerized by modern architecture and design, and what determines that a house is both safe and secure, and at the same time filled with that real home feel.

My mum is superb right now. Not that she is ever un-superb, but at this point in time, having lost her double-brick, near 100 year-old cottage but being in a position to rebuild, she has gone out and bought a whole heap of colourful sticky post-it tags and a world of interior decorating/NZ Home and Garden/urban architecture magazines to peruse for ideas and my-oh-my does it have me drooling over the possibilities that could be my future home.

I’ve always wanted an open home. You know the one, where anyone can come in and have a cup of tea or coffee with me and a home-baked yumsy of some description. Sit up in a beanbag and watch old movies (on new blurays) on a rainy day. Plant herbs and fruit with me and enjoy them in a spring salad when ripe. My homes growing up have always been that way. My parents have always welcomed in all the neighbourhood kids to play in our treehouses and eat fruit from the trees and veges from the garden; invited in those who are temporarily broken and in need of time to heal; laid out extra bedding on floors and couches in front of the fireplace when it’s cold and dark outside but visitors passing through need to catch some zzzz’s. Dropping in unannounced is OKAY with this clan. We welcome it, and we welcome you.

One quote i’ve always admired from the Bahá’í Writings describes my ideal home,

My home is the home of peace.  My home is the home of joy and delight.  My home is the home of laughter and exultation.  Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined….

~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Watching homes crumble around me is quite saddening, but the essence of those homes can be transported to the new shell as this city rebuilds. I’ve been a nomad for my entire adult life and to come back to my home town and to my parents’ house was a huge move for me; the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. It is here that i always intended to return to when my time to build my future home for my future family came along. I never imagined i would actually build a house, but given the last few months i now can’t imagine ever purchasing anything that is not brand new and therefore up to modern standards of housing codes and practices. But not only that, i now want to create something. Something everlasting.

I looked at a couple of show homes with my brother in Tokyo and they were absolutely delicious. The fusion of traditional Japanese design with modern-day architecture had me making mental sketch-pad notes about mezzanine floors with glass walls and dark oak floors, tea-time alcoves and rock garden views, and always, always, wide open spaces.

Oh how i love space.

I’m not saying i have to have a mansion. Space doesn’t mean huge. Even if there isn’t room for a whole lotta space, air and light and space to breathe are like food for me. And therefore, my survival depends on them.

The thing is, i love old and new and vintage and diy and contemporary and minimalist and sleek and chic.

Now i know why my mother is having such trouble deciding on what kind of new house she wants to build with my dad – too. much. choice.

Still, i do know this much: modern and open-plan is my preference when it comes to the structure. I don’t care so much what it looks like on the outside, it’s the inside where home is found.

I also know it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg, and probably a few extras, to build a house that is fit to become this home that i see in my mind and that i imagine will welcome all these visitors i expect to host in future. That, however, is for a rainy-day post. Till then, here are a couple of gem-like prefabs spied here,

solar globes!

light, lights, and more light

nothing says welcome home than a glowing orb

unbelievably decadent tent-house

eye-spy house

meditative spaces

I have an insanely awesome lunchbox, t’is true. It came from Japan, of course, has two compartments with room for additional partitioning should you wish to separate your avocado from your tuna or egg (yes, i do wish), stays together with a smart elastic band and comes in a matching carry bag. I always have my chopsticks to hand too, just in case i end up eating a salad on the go because something i discovered whilst living in Japan was that the fork is quite possibly the most useless utensil invented when it comes to salad munching. Why, you may ask? Well, have you ever tried to spear your lettuce leaf and found the prongs just stab, stab, stab away, not collecting anything? So then you try to scoop it up and find that oh dear, the leaf has fallen off, leaving you wondering why you weren’t dished out a pair of tongs with your meal so that you might actually get a single morsel of it into your mouth.

Enter the chopstick duo.

These wee gems are totally like miniature tongs. In fact, i would argue they are even better than miniature tongs because they aren’t joined at the top, leaving you freedom to adjust your finger and thumb placement for comfort and heightened control. The ability to fold little parcels of seeds and herbs into your lettuce leaf and pop them into your mouth without the embarrassment of looking like a cow munching on grass, with bits of stalk and stray greenery poking out of the corner of your mouth, is a welcome treat, especially if you aim to impress. You are also saved from falling victim to the classic salad dressing splash that occurs when using a fork, as flailing and wayward leaves dangle from that useless piece of silverware.

And fear not, even as a foreigner, your dexterity with the chopstick is not a far-off dream. You too, can enjoy slower eating, thus more enjoyment of your food; tidy eating, thus more class at meal times; and convenience without risk because, let’s face it, carrying around two rounded tip chopsticks in a holder is much safer than carrying a knife and pointed metal fork, and still more pleasant to use than the tiny plastic variety that accompanies a store-bought salad or the splinter-inducing wari-bashi or disposable chopstick that comes with oriental takeaways.

Having said all this of course, my latest find (courtesy of my dear mum who pointed them out in a lifestyle mag) is this awesomely cool, Mexican oil-cloth lunch bag

Brightens up any sandwich and apple combo don’t you think? Makes you wanna make your lunch each day? I kid you not, i wanted to buy the whole lot of them! The designs were amazingly bright and colourful, and they even made pot-plant holders out of the stuff too, as a way to dress up your dreary plastic pots that come as a standard with most garden-centre herbs and flowers. I will have to keep an eye out for more, because the lady said they’d become so popular that she was going to start having them made right here in little old NZ. I am happy to say that i already had many a compliment from onlookers who saw me pull this out at yesterday’s active nutrition workshop (more to come on that later!)

That’s one iWant that became an iOwn before you guys even got to read about it on my wish list

Next stop on the blogosphere will have to be about this NutriFit workshop – no breakfast before a workout? Coca-cola for energy? Er…yeah… no but truth be told there were a lot of very valuable tidbits gleaned from the day, and certainly a lot of confirmations from the scientific world for things i have been telling my clients all along so, thumbs up for that!

Till next time, have a lovely remaining Sunday!

My old university chum Clementine had me round at her place recently for dinner and i couldn’t help but take a few quick-snaps of the jewels of DIY home décor she had around. The lesson i learnt very quickly was to hunt around at second-hand stores and online for other peoples’ junk, take a trip down to your local Bolt of Cloth with the husband’s credit card (sorry Simon!) and purchase your favourite fabric to spruce up the furniture like new.

This cozy papa-san cost next to nothing online and is the perfect place to curl up in with a good book (or a good cuddle-buddy).

Next up, dining chairs and lampshades – at first glance they were dull and lifeless, but with some bright and fancy fabric, voilá! Cheerful chairs

She had a whole range in her house – the same chair but with different cushions to match the dining area or the sunroom. Clemmie, you are my kinda domestic damsel

I never used to think much of diy until coming back here to NZ and discovering a whole culture of people who do absolutely EVERYTHING themselves. Home gardening, building your own green houses, herb planters, BBQs and whatnot being the obvious ones, and interior decorating and clothes-making next in line if you have the skills, but just last night my mum was a celebrant at a wedding where the bride did all the wedding planning, table-dressing, cake-baking and hall-decorating (i.e., the full sha-bang) all by herself?! Wowser, that’s a lot of work on your big day.

I wouldn’t mind doing most of the catering and decorative stuff myself, but then again, that’s only because my brother’s wedding caterer did such a poor job at delivering such a simple spread that i ended up in the kitchen taking care of things – perhaps that gave me the heebie jeebies about things going badly at my own wedding. I have no great wedding plans, to be perfectly honest with you. In fact, the older i get, the more afraid of being the centre of attention i become and thus, the smaller it becomes in my mind, until someone reminds me that it may be hurtful to a whole bunch of people who are expecting to be invited to that day to then discover that i’ve eloped and no one knew.

Anyway, i digress. The purpose of this post is to holler about diy joy, not what-p’s-wedding-may-look-like.

One thing from Bolt of Cloth that i would like to purchase quick-smart, is this awesome shower curtain that will basically have to always be drawn and never truly used as a curtain, but rather as bathroom art (because how gross would it be if this clever piece became covered in mildew and soap scum…boo)

I just have to wait until i have a bathroom (read, entire house) of my own. le sigh.

I’m starting with an apology. Sorry for being a lamesauce blogger but i assure you, it’s not my fault. I fell victim to the slow, won’t-open-a-single-page version of internet connection and it has been a painful process of trying to find a wi-fi hotspot that will let me do anything at all. Granted, i have my trusty iPhone 4 to respond to emails but blogging, banking and actual work? Forget it. And so, i just disappeared into the ether (otherwise known as, the real world).

The real world is actually a marvellous place, filled with sunshine, good tunes, greenery, and birdsong. I know full well that i prefer the real world to the virtual world but funnily enough, so much of my life depends on that world, it’s almost frightening. And even though there are probably very few people who read this blog regularly (and that may be my own fault for not posting often enough for all you virtual inhabitants), i somehow feel a sense of obligation to post at least something for you on a regular basis, even if that something is just a photograph or a whinge at my lack of techno savvy.

Fortunately for me (and maybe for you?) i have discovered the blessedness that is internet tethering. Seen as i have a couple more weeks to wait out until our internet is boosted back to its regular thank-goodness-for-broadband status, i was at an end as to how to get online and then the answer came: use your mobile phone as a modem.

Oh my life, i’m saved! And so, as i type to you now, it is through the blessedness that is my wee phone, whose internet cap i never ever reach each month anyway so how nice to let it stretch its legs My plan is to get trucking on with all this work i have to do before next week and indeed to write up a few posts that i’ve been saving for this very moment of connectedness, before i turn into an amoeba of apathy and you never hear from me again.

Next stop, the barefoot madness that has led me to be unable to walk like a normal person. Stand by…

I was given a couple of vouchers for our local nood (new objects of desire) design store and as i wandered round, lounging in every chair in the place, i could tell already that i was gonna have a hard time deciding which one would suit my future home… the pictures here are quite small, and they may look like plain chairs to you, but i can categorically assure you that the comfort is outta this world. Which one will reach the top-spot, i wonder…?

this lounger, fitted with a cozy throw rug, oh my joy! you’d never get me out of it!

a rocking chair for the modern gal

high-backed emperor-style. and it’s blue

the points and angles disappear as you slip perfectly into this snug leather perch

The other wee gems i found at this store were for my kitchen,

glass half-pint

yumsy! robot cupcakes

And finally, to tell the time,

i see you

fly away with me

I went for a wonder around town yesterday and spied a whole lot of awesome trinkets and items that i would love to own, if only i had the artistically spacious loft apartment that clearly is needed in order to house all of them…..

First, here is a small sample of vintage-esque goodness…

something i would never wear, but i totally dig

even though it should probably be indoors, this is what i want to sit on, under my fruit tree, where i will type to you folks

it’s a SPACE chair!!!

And now for some toys and ornamental wonder…

phone of my dreams – a touch-tone that resembles the old dial wheel!

sewing-machine water cooler from my fave cafe, C1

because all jewels should be displayed in tea cups filled with rice…

And finally, my newest friends…

little drummer-bot, dancing-bot, and the i-just-do-the-robot-bot

Oh, and then there were the bikes all over the city…

bicycle décor

and no, this was NOT a bike shop. It was for clothes and shoes…

Okay, that is all. Have a nice day!

Ooooh i do love a bit of toast every now and again. Especially the fruit and cinnamon kind, or the grainy kind with lashings of butter and a thin scraping of vegemite dotted about, or spread with avocado and topped off with fresh tomatoes, poached eggs and truck loads of cracked black pepper….ahhhhh the possibilities are ENDLESS!

The difficulty with making decent toast is the toaster. What’s with them not cooking both sides evenly? Is it an unwritten code by toaster manufacturers to make us feeble consumers buy more craplastic from them? I can’t eat burnt toast but i also hate eating toast that is closer to bread than toast. If i wanted to eat bread, i’d have not bothered with the toaster, would i.

But more than burnt or half-baked toast, there’s nothing worse in my book than good toast that has gone cold. I therefore have a bad habit of gobbling my toast down in a mad rush to ensure each bite is eaten piping hot. Yes, you heard me. Gobble.

Maybe this toast-frenzy post is coming out because i’ve not had toast for a number of weeks (ref. my 3-Week Experiment) but it might also be to do with these recent bread-related household items i’ve spied and decided that i want (mostly from design milk)

Bread slippers, to keep me tootsies warm over breakfast

Toast printer by Othmar Muehlebach

(and info from his site tells us that possible improvements could include the following:
– cartridges to add butter and jam
- to toast images or text like “good morning honey”
- to heat the ground plate to keep the toasts warm
- tandem toasting
- electricity through USB from a laptop

Toast coasters by Patricia at Oiti

And last, but certainly not least, at the top of my wish list is this amazing SEE-THROUGH toaster that is still under construction at inventables

It will be mine…oh yes, it will be mine.

…and when peering into the locked glass cabinets of all the fancy antiques that the shop WON’T sell (because they’re too cool to part with them…fair enough too) it reminded me of the next iWant to add to my fancy cup collection (first spied on Golriz’s blog page but available from photojojo):

Actually, that’s enough drooling. I’m buying!

Of course the French would want Perrier flowing from their drinking fountains, much like the Italians have San Pellegrino flowing from theirs.

Maybe us Kiwis should have  a trademark fizzy fountain. Any thoughts on what it should be? L&P? Macs Ginger Beer? I know what i’d choose: A Feijoa Fountain!