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“Spring, Spring, Spring!” sang the frog. “Spring!” said the groundhog. 

“Spring, Spring, Spring!” sang the robin. It was Spring. The leaves burst out. The flowers burst out. And robins burst out of their eggs. It was Spring.

The terry jackets from DUNS Sweden are a great reminder that it takes time to make our clothes. And that time is put in by skilled people using handcraft and remarkable machines.

Here you can see a visual tour of all that's involved in the making of the application on the front of the terry jackets. 17,600 stitches and 45 mins for the machine to sew 12 applications on. And this doesn't include the time it takes to place all the parts in the right place, or the time it takes to prepare and cut all the small pieces before they can start. What an amazing process.

My quest to make monkey bars for Mundo led me to research how to bend aluminium. 

I thought this would be a challenge as was concerned with it breaking. However, a quick search on Google found me a couple of very handy articles. 

Last week I took the plunge and made an investment in a new food processor. Now I won't hide the fact that it was far from the cheapest around but what I can say is that there is no substitute for quality.

Its been nearly a couple of months now since Old Blue Mundo headed south in a couple of big boxes to its new home. Old Mundo served me well. It showed me the wonders of cargo biking. I carted kids, friends and the whole family. Groceries, kids bikes and swimming gear. I even got to go on a child free date with my husband.

As cheesy as it sounds, it changed my life, and potentially my kids lives. They know that if we're going somewhere then it's normally by bike. They ask for Mundo and take pleasure in finding their helmets (be it at 7am before everyone else is out of bed) or climbing on themselves. And for me, what fun it is. How versatile, and practical it is. It's how I get around. And is my first choice for short to medium length trips.

A few months ago I finally finished a project of mine. Well, actually it was a few projects that got finished. Firstly our shed got spouting. That was a few years in the making. But the thing that fuelled it all was wanting to install a water tank and hand pump for the garden and play.

We have some very good family friends, the sort that turn up a day early for your wedding and just get stuck in sewing 18 table clothes and peeling and preparing huge amounts of vegetables without being asked. Then on the day they look after loads of other bits that you didn't even think of like making the church look nice. The legendary sort.

Meet Elka, the new Hoopla Kids mannequin. At least, this is what she was made for. It appears Ella has other ideas about what to do with her. In the space of a few hours these are just a few of her adventures . . .

Given we are well stocked in blueberries at the moment we have set a challenge to a few who have come through our door:

Choose a recipe and create something using fresh blueberries to share.

They were then sent away with a tub of blueberries for their delight. No deadlines.

My first instalment was blueberry muffins. A classic, not actually intended for the challenge but one that fitted the criteria.

've decided it's time I had a mannequin as part of my stall at the Wellington Underground Market. I've searched trade me and google and found a few but they don't come cheap so I decided to make one myself.

One of the joys of being a piano tuner is that we have collected up a few nice bits a machinery which come in handy for all sorts of things. For example how about a recycled rimu clothes rack?

So I got out my roll of brown paper. I asked Ella for her help but she was too busy making muffins with duplo in our half built porch. But as soon as Sammy had obliged she was in wanting her space on the paper. I drew around both of them.