Emma's Photo a Day 2018

Searching my room for things to take photos of .....

Trying to avoid sugar cravings with some herbal tea. It's generally not successful but they're not too bad.

Enough stuff for 10 people has no left the house and the bed is all packed up.

When a rubber ducky is no longer what it used to be but a temperature indicator!

She's got pretty good eyes on the camera.

Awwww cute, there are some with me in them, but no where near as cute.

So much temptation at work sometimes, and this was delicious but the icing was insanely sweet and I spent the afternoon recovering from a sugar high with a massive low, probably not ideal when trying to deal with work.

So much technology for such a little thing to do, and is now totally redundant with me.

Someone has their own door. Someone does not like to use their own door when anyone else is looking.

This is where I saw Bambi, still so sad :( Also sad is that its so disrepaired and seemingly impossible to make it a workable theatre.

Coordinating 15 or so people for lunch on an island, not too hard, although almost left one behind on the bus back .... but success of a day all round, happy bride to be, happy guests, not so happy morning afters, thankfully rainy for a legitimate reason to Netflix and not do any other life. Many photos could be chosen, this one seems safest.

The general vibe I have when it comes to doing this.

It's harder than you'd think to find a fake veil on not much notice, luckily flower headpiece was a solid back up. Although when it came to it, this was by the most understated on the day, definitely outdone by the entire table of headpieces made of jungle fabric and fake fruit.

Negative response to prior posts comes too late for today's photo, as it was the only one that was taken so must go up. You'll be glad to know that I'm pretty sure I did stop after this one though. And no, I don't think these would be edible and I'm not willing to try!

While I was working hard all day, it seems the mushrooms too were working on their progression in life

Some spontaneous growth is going on in these wet muggy conditions

First dessert night of the year and it was a near success, let down by the endless rain which did not allow of any Kubb activity despite the talk of possible indoor or carport arenas being developed. Couldn't decide between two things, so just made them both. Inspirational recipes/photos/themes for future nights welcomed. Powering through

The last visit to the bridal shop today, with a wedding about 6 weeks away now. This was probably the easiest part of the day, most of the rest was taken up with the first hockey trials of the year and the much drama that went on prior, during and afterwards, not to mention the most inconvenient rain.

One of the items that will be exiting the house with me in a few months.

Finally I'm around and no rain back for first night of club night, and what a beautiful evening it turned in to.

So shiny and soft, sadly I do not have the time or patience to recreate what the hairdresser can do. Even worse is the next time I go pretty sure she'll force me to deal with the grey issue, when I'd really just like to be in further denial.

Gotta love a public holiday, especially with the weather agreeable enough to walk myself over to Remmers for baby catch up time. The introductions look like they may have to keep happening for awhile before they become firm friends, but all the better to remind them about in 15 years. The below is tree vs. wall in Mt Eden, and I'm thinking that eventually tree will definitely win.

Got home from work, remembered I had taken no photo yet, pretty much turned to the first thing I could see.

Oddly I think I have managed to resist doing any kind of baking up until this point in the year, quite impressive really, or maybe it just means I've been eating too much cake elsewhere, or more likely ice cream with all the heat. But I was feeling hungry, so naturally why not make some chocolate chip biscuits. Also yes, I realise this picture is upsidedown, and while that may seem a simple fix, it really really isn't with this impossible to use format.

So much back and forth today, rain in the morning walking up Mt Eden, sunshine in the afternoon walking the bays from Milford, to rain again in Takapuna, however there was some good food and delicious cocktails spread out amongst it so no complaining.

See you in 6 months!

Rain days are so hard, but to be fair even if it's not raining I can still find it a challenge.

And this is how I round out the first month of the year down. . . . . .

Whoops, pretty much forgot totally with this one

Another crazy hot day, almost too hot to be by the beach, but for sure everyone was out there. Or so we thought as we began driving inland to Hamilton, stopped off at a waterfall on the way, which it seemed like if you weren't at the beach you were here instead. A lovely afternoon in Hamilton visiting with Charlotte and harvesting the garden for dinner, and so managing to avoid any long weekend traffic on the return to Auckland.

An early start today, mainly as it was really starting to roll into the heat wave and our room had no kind of cooling. It was even too early to get breakfast as despite the fact all the boats looked like they'd started heading out no much else was happening. This day really emphasised the useless signaging or the fact we didn't have a 4WD, because it was hard to find places to stop at, wisely I think the locals make it hard to find as they're probably amazing and they don't want to share, or else you need to drive down the riverbeds to get there. But we had a lunch stop in Opotiki before heading into the Mount, with enough time to get gelato before grabbing dinner before the cricket started. Been awhile since I've sat on grass banks for the cricket but a lovely atmosphere even if they were a bit slow to get going and so didn't quite get the win in the end. Thankfully the next sports even of the night ended in a Federer Grand Slam win so well worth watchi...

A rainer morning to wake up to, which was going to mess a bit with some of our sightseeing for the day but what to do. Headed out of Te Puia Springs through Waipiro Bay, which I thought was a beautiful bay, bit rough on the roads to it but to be expected by now. Detoured off to Ruatoria although not sure why exactly and there was not a lot going on, and turned around pretty fast to continue on. St Marys church in Tikitiki was definitely worth the stop however, beautiful carvings and stained glass windows with meaning to the local area. Not to mention that all the pews had crocheted cushions all over the them, no uncomfortable seats there. A snack stop in Te Araroa before heading out as far east as you can go in NZ, we took the bumpy road and navigated through herds of cows, slippery corners and thankfully no other vehicles when we came to the one lane wide sections. Arrived to a lot of low lying cloud, but there were steps to be conquered, and all 700-800 were done, different p...

Headed off eastwards from Gisbourne on the Pacific Coast Highway, potentially running away from the stormy weather unsure if it would catch up or not. Many many logging trucks on the road and not much else, but plenty of coastline to stop in on, although some of the roads to get to them were a little bit precarious, who knows how the campervans and caravans do it. A long walk out to the Tologa Bay wharf, the first of an example of something that used to signal big industry around here that's no longer really required, mainly I suppose as the trucks can just transport things quicker to the Gisbourne port. The photo is of Anaura Bay which we had been told good things about and probably didn't get to see in it's best light, but we did have a great nap on the beach and didn't get rained on so a big plus. Pulled into Te Puia Springs for the evening, including a fascinating tour of the hospital, then headed back to Tokomaru Bay for dinner which is where pretty much ev...

Mini holiday time, and such a lovely evening to head off to the southern east. Debate between the photos out of the window of the plane or the beach in sunset, and the beach pretty much had an easy win.