And so this is Christmas – and a chance for me get some of my projects finished. I have sold everything I have done but have lots of ideas for more and they will emerge in the new year I hope. This photo is of the Marvellous Mapster Brothers in their new home in Auckland- they look very comfortable there and they are blending right in.

I would like to take this Xmas moment to thank you all for supporting my website and me. I have had more than 11,000 hits on my website- an amazing occurrence when you think of how small the operation is and how small I would have expected the audience to be. However, it does reinforce my belief that people like to read stories about real people and real lives – mine is not really any different. And I feel so pleased when I think of all the different pieces of furniture making a statement around the country; I feel more than pleased, I’m totally amazed really. So- thank you all, for buying them and for supporting me.

Life is a little better these days but as my father would have said – “no rose garden”. The life of a widow turns out to be excruciatingly lonely – well, it’s not exactly lonely – it is more that you are alone. I miss Brian every day and I think it is one of those things that you just cannot grasp unless you have been there. It feels like a dark roof over my head all the time but just occasionally these days, it is as if sliding doors open briefly and let the light in – they are great moments and I think they will get more frequent and last for longer as time goes by – I hope so.

Meanwhile, summer is here - Xmas around the corner and lots of little projects for me to do including my DIY-house-fix-up-for-the-inept project. I want Mitre 10 vouchers for Xmas!! I have all but finished the bathroom which is looking great although managed to drop the bathroom mirror while putting it up not once but TWICE! It was just too heavy for me to hold but I didn’t accept that, so after the first time when it completely smashed, I went and bought a new one and luckily the second time when it slipped from my trembling weak old woman’s grasp, I only chipped it. So- I decided I will live with the chip - after all life is made up of imperfections and the lesson is?  I’m not as strong as I think I am – there are limitations after all.

So - thank you again for your wonderful support of me- for buying my furniture, your wonderful supportive comments and enthusiasm and for liking my stories and thinking of me.  I wish you all a very happy Christmas and all the best things in 2016.

Lesley

PS - and watch this space for more widow adventures. Life has got to get more interesting than this- surely???  I am going on a long distance tramp- 250 km by myself for my Xmas holidays- so that that will test if I am as strong as I think I am!! But regardless, it is sure to yield an interesting story or two. L

December 2015

Have a look at these two gorgeous boys. They have had the treatment and are looking pretty good. They are not exactly the same, but they do look like family. In fact the bigger one is an Air-Rest and the other is from Smith and Brown and Maple. Remember them? I think the company was originally called Smith and Brown and then they joined forces with Maple and came up with that odd complicated name. That style of chair was everywhere when I was young and they are still all over the place in various stages of disrepair. I noticed two in the very trendy retro Laundry Bar in Cuba St the other day. That company, Smith and Brown and Maple, used a have radio ad that ended with –“and don’t forget the Maple”. Anyway….. I think you had to be there!

The bottom line is these two boys are getting another turn round and are looking pretty sharp. The map fabric is right “on tend” even though it doesn’t actually seem to feature New Zealand - what a cheek – but the sentiment is good. I am hoping someone will want to buy both of them but I am happy to sell them singly (is that actually a word? I mean you can buy only one). I think $250 for each one but I am happy to negotiate for the two. Email me if you are interested. There are more photos of them on my photo extravaganza pages.

Now I am getting on to a little two-seater sofa that is going to be white on the back and with enormous flowers on the seat, plus I am going to do a couple of chairs in old blankets if I can find some good ones. I am not sure why I am thinking of covering chairs in blankets just as the weather promises to get better – must be some perverse widow thing.

I have moved out to my little house at Foxton Beach now – it is so fantastic here and a secret fab location for those in the know, but not for long if I keep on going on about it I guess.

I am falling into that old widow’s trap of thinking that you need to kind of rebuild your home. It seems there are some predicable patterns that befall the majority of widows and we mostly end up going through them – first you have the terrible panic about money, then you start selling your house or renovating the one you’ve got. I have managed to combine the two so I end up with renovations while panicking about money – not pretty.

However, it does force you to be innovative and here's this weekend's example. I buy the cheapest blinds you could ever get but then have to figure out how to get them up – ah – how I would love to be able to boss Brian round as he struggled to do it. I am so useless at that sort of thing – I can never even understand the instructions, let alone how to actually do it. 

So I asked three different men if they could help. The first said:  “I’m not handy”, clearly not!!!! The second said: “Of course I will help – I’m on my way” and then never showed up (no prizes for guessing who that would be) and the third said; “I'm too busy”. Thanks guys.

So what’s a girl to do ? Nothing for it but to sit down with that tiny little bit of paper with instructions written by Martians for other Martians and try to figure it out. And guess what? – I did it. It took almost all day but who cares. So another thing that I can add to the list of things I have had to learn – even if I don’t want to and sometimes it’s not so bad.  The sun is shining in Foxton, the chairs are done and waiting for their new homes, the lawns are mowed and I have a good book to read – what’s not to like? L

November 2015