Cheers,

Amanda

The scroll has lain buried behind a print in a picture frame belonging to the Harvey family of Australia since the 1940′s, as far as we can tell.  When moving the picture recently, the frame fell apart and the scroll was revealed.  Unsure of how the scroll got there, the Harvey’s felt obliged to return it to the family of the slain soldier, and my mother received a call (via another cousin) from a staff member at the Auckland Museum, trying to find links to the family of the soldier, Rifleman L. E. Parkinson. 

After a quick browse through our family “bible”, “Parkinson of Opotiki”, we realised that Lionel Eustace Parkinson was the brother of my great-grandfather, Bert Parkinson.  My mother remembers her grandfather always referring to him as “Uncle Dud”, and knew only that he was said to have been “very tall, very good-looking” and had “been killed in the war”. When we received the scroll this week, enclosed was a copy of the research that the Auckland Museum had done on Uncle Dud, stating that he had been killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, Belgium and that his name was noted on the Tyne Cot Memorial, near Ypres, Belgium.  They even provided us with details of where in the memorial we could find his name.

As it seemed the fitting thing to do, seeing as the Parkinson family are so huge and far-flung, Mum decided to donate the scroll to the Opotiki Museum, so that it shall be able to be viewed by all of the family for years to come.  If you are descended from the Parkinsons of Opotiki, you may view this and other Parkinson family memoribilia at the Opotiki Museum, Church St, Opotiki (opposite the Hiona St Stephens Church).

Today, April 25th, is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.  On 25 April 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed at what is now Anzac Cove in Gallipolli, Turkey.  It is not celebrated as a military victory as it was certainly not that, rather a date to remember the thousands of New Zealand and Australian soldiers who were killed both at Gallipoli and in subsequent campaigns in later wars.  CLICK HERE to read all about 25 April 1915 and see the horrific statistics.  It is always celebrated somberly in our family as my grandfather fought at Monte Cassino and at El Alamein.  We were lucky, as he survived both battles, and indeed 4 years of military duty, to return home and marry my grandmother.  He rarely spoke of his time fighting, and he returned to Cassino in Italy for the 60th anniversary, accompanied by my mother.  It was a very special trip. 

Today is the day we commemorate those who laid down their lives for their country so that we who have followed may have the freedom we enjoy as a nation today.  Today we thank them for their sacrifice. 

THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE – 12 OCTOBER 1917

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row… “

“90 years ago New Zealanders took part in the Battle of Passchendaele in Flanders, Belgium. In fact, 12 October 1917 represents the worst military disaster in our nation’s history when more than 2,800 New Zealanders were either killed, wounded, or listed as missing. Some of them are buried in war cemeteries row on row but many have no known grave — they simply lie in Flanders fields where the poppies still blow.

This online exhibition is the RSA’s commitment to ensure that New Zealanders who lie half a world away in the fields of Flanders are never forgotten. By remembering on 12 October – whether in Belgium or at home – you are keeping faith with that solemn request in the final lines of that most famous poem:

“If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

in Flanders fields”.

We will remember them.”

- courtesy of www.rsa.org.nz

I think the most exciting additions are the handmade memory albums and gift tags that my Mum is making for the site.  She is under the “Gifts and Accessories” link – CLICK HERE to see   She will happily handmake these albums for you to your own specs - they are not merely albums, but works of art! 

On a different note, my 7 year old daughter, Georgia, recently “discovered” the games and Paint programmes on the new laptop.  Now I have to fight for my time on here (sooooo not on!).  Anyway, she created her own folder on the laptop so she could save her Paint pics for later.  I found the pic below recently and was so impressed with her use of colour and form, I thought I would share   Maybe creativity is in the genes?

Enjoy

Amanda

PS: She saved the pic as “coooool” in her folder

Just as well I do my best work at this time of the day/night – this is true – between 10pm and 1am are my most productive times cos I’m quite the nocturnal wee beastie

The house is quiet, except I have J2 (Sky music channel) playing on the TV.  Everyone else is asleep.  I just checked on Georgia because she was mumbling in her sleep, but she’s fine, fast asleep, just as she should be.  Kids are so cute when they’re asleep aren’t they?  I always used to get myself into trouble when the kids were little – I’d go in just before going to bed, to check on them and re-tuck them in, and I could never resist a gentle kiss (forehead, arm, leg, whatever what outside of the covers).  Invariably, until they reached the age of a year old, this woke them up.  Whoops…Willie would say “Did you just tuck him in?”  and I would quickly say “Yes, but it was only a REALLY soft kiss, he can’t have felt it - he must be dreaming, let’s leave him and see if he goes back to sleep by himself”.  “Himself”, of course, was Cammie.  Georgia was always a really heavy sleeper, right from the start.  Well, once the colic was over with at 3 months, anyway….ah, those were the days   Hard to believe my wee girl will be 8 this year.  Where does the time go?

Cammie was funny last night.  We went up to Mum and Dad’s for dinner and he had been down watching the local lads play rugby earlier in the day, so he was pretty knackered.  He lay down in front of the TV and went to sleep on the carpet   He hasn’t done that for about a year, it was so cute.  So we scooped him up and took him home to bed.  He was too tired to even wake up as we put his coat on and popped him into his car-seat and he slept all the way home, slept through being carried into the house and into bed and then slept right through the night.  Ah, the bliss of it all!

Well, on that note, off to bed.  Hope to finish this website udpate this week – oh, pleeeeeeeeeeeeese let it be this week!!

A

Yes, it does have a whole lot of features that my current site doesn’t have, but man – it is REALLY hard work!  I estimate I must’ve spent a good 30+ hours on it already, and I’m only about 1/4 of the way through adding my products (time for a clear-out of the old products, I’ve decided!).  I’m cuttin’ ‘em up and recycling!

The new site is going to be great though, grumbles aside.  New host is brilliant (great tutorials for setting up) and there are so many new features, I didn’t fully know what they all were until about 10 or so hours into it…!

I’m going to be able to offer gift certificates (automated ordering process – you won’t need to email me with your details, just choose an amount and pop one in your cart), options for earrings and others (ie: studs, clipons, open hooks, self-closing hooks, upgrade to sterling silver hooks etc), I’ll have a dedicated “Press” page, you can start up your own “wish list” for when payday comes around (or to put ideas in there for birthday pressies for friends and family – so handy!) and tonnes of other exciting new features.  I’m very excited!

I am about halfway through adding the 78 pairs of earrings I have on offer, but I can stand it no longer – for the first time all week, I’m off to bed before 1am (it was 4am last night/this morning – although, technically, as the clocks went back for daylight saving, it was only 3am LOL).

I’m updating the front page of my site with progress reports as I complete each category of the site, so keep an eye out.  My regular site is still up and running and fully functional throughout all of this – you will just need to change your bookmarks for a week or so, to www.pallinadesigns.vstore.ca instead

Right, off to bed…hope you all had a good weekend!

A

Just needed to share

Amanda

PS:  Have added a new bracelet to the site tonight – a real beauty!  I’ve called it “Symphony” – sneak preview below

Chilled out on our own on Thursday night (boy, did we need it after that week!), then A&S arrived on Friday afternoon.  I had spent most of Friday morning tidying up in readiness…as the kids both followed me round making more little messes, so by the time A&S arrived, I was soooo ready for a glass of wine and a catch-up!  My hubby had gone fishing at the last minute that morning with Dad and a friend out on his boat, and lo and behold (first time in ages) they came back with a shedload of fresh fish!  You cannot imagine the joy – after so many fish-less escapades (I was starting to think he was going to the pub for a pint, rather than actual fishing) I was happily shocked    My sis and her 3 kids were over for the night, staying with the folks as our “hotel” was fully booked, thanks to A&S, so everyone descended on us for fresh battered fish for dinner and it was marvellous.  My sis and I were like a well-oiled assembly line in the kitchen, preparing the fish in small chunks, and beforehand I’d chucked together a lovely salad, and Mum had bought one down that my sis had “prepared earlier” as well.  It was just delish!  All 5 kids and 7 adults totally gorged ourselves   A few glasses of beer/wine and we were all well-stuffed.

Saturday turned out great – we didn’t really have any plans but the weather was beautiful so we threw some beach towels, sunhats, sunblock and buckets in the car and all headed down the East Coast to Te Kaha for some fishing.  Threw the lines in just past Torere Beach and within half an hour my hubby had hooked a lovely snapper – his first from the beach!  Another highlight was the invention of our new favourite game: “Who Can Get the Most Stones In the Bucket” – what a thrill!  Now, this game (we have decided) has everything:  everyone from a 4 yr old to a 42 year old can play (and we did), the stones on the beach were plentiful (and free) and the bucket was cheap (and probably not quite big enough, judging by the amount of misses and near-misses we racked up).  For sheer “home made entertainment” we were pretty impressed with ourselves, I can tell you. 

After about an hour of this (and no further fish), we decided to up anchor and head on further down the coast.   Found a lovely spot about 5 mins drive from Te Kaha, where we spent the next couple of hours, but alas no more fish.  Ended up in the newly refurbished Te Kaha Hotel – wow, what a difference in that place these days!  The place was humming and it was the perfect atmosphere to sit on the balcony overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean (literally – the deck overlooks the beach) and enjoying our drinks.  We stayed for a short time but it was getting late and the kids were getting a wee bit on the grumpy side so we headed home to Opotiki and out for dinner (which was gorgeous, if a little slow in coming – we nearly ate the kids meals, they came out first – unluckily for them in some ways!).  Finished off the evening with a few more drinks at home…and got to bed around 3am   First time I’ve done that for awhile…probably the last for awhile too!

Sunday the weather was just toooooo hot…we didn’t venture outside much at all.  It was that hot.  Not pleasant – burny burny for fair-skinned folk like me too.  We threw a couple of salads together in the late afternoon and headed up to my folks house for a lovely bbq though with some more friends, and fair enjoyed ourselves

We all woke up on Monday feeling not the best…it appears that A&S had bought up a nasty stomach bug with them from Wellington.  S came down with it first (A had it earlier in the week apparently) and by the time we waved them both off at luncthime on Monday, both my husband and I were also feeling ill.  After a phone call to my Mum, it transpires that both her and Dad were feeling icky as well…luckily, the kids were germ-free.  The next 2 days were spent in bed feeling miserable and today (Wednesday) I managed to get back to work but am still not feeling quite right.  Hubby came home early from work, Dad went in but feels rotten and Mum spent the day in bed still. 

Needless to say, I haven’t had much of a chance to make anything new for the website as yet.  Between working on the custom orders I have, having A&S here for the weekend and fighting off this bug, time has just gotten away from me. 

But, that said, I have also been busy taking new photos of my earrings, rings and some other items on the site and will be slowly updating the photos in the next few weeks.  A few have been already done, many more to come.  I also managed tonight to add a couple of new pairs of earrings onto the site.  Not much, but a start.

Hopefully, when I start feeling better, I will have more to show for myself.  For now though, I’m off to bed.

Amanda

Sunday my sister and my neice and nephews visited for the better part of the afternoon, so that was lots of fun.  Always minor chaos when my 2 kids and her 3 kids get together!  I can’t believe how much they’ve all grown…the eldest is 10 and the youngest will be 3 this year, and they all get on so well.  Lovely to see

Monday I had a showing for some private clients in my studio.  They managed to find the sought-after gift for a special birthday of a friend of theirs without too much bother…and “Contessa” (bracelet that I adored) is off to a new home in Canada.  How cool!

Tuesday night I had a display/demo for the lovely ladies of the Inner Wheel, who were having a meeting, at which I was the “entertainment”.  Abit nerve-wracking to sit in front of almost 30 women and show them how I do my wire-working   Luckily they were all well-fed and quite relaxed by the time I got there, and were quite happy to sit and watch me whip something up and ramble on about crafting in general and jewellery-making in particular   And as an added bonus, “Fiordland Queen” (my gorgeous paua bracelet) and “Pixie” (a lovely wire-worked cuff) went off to new homes also. Quite a few of the ladies mentioned to me afterwards that they would never look at jewellery the same way again, that the evening had given them an appreciation of what goes into the construction of an item of jewellery.  A few also said “I thought you were just going to be putting beads onto thread for us!”.  Hehehe!  So, a couple of orders later, a wee bit of supper, and we were all saying goodbye and heading off into the warm night.  Such a lovely evening

Wednesday came and it was my turn to take my daughter and her 2 little friends along to tap dancing class and then back to our place for a wee play.  That was fun too.  I had to laugh when I heard them giggling in her room and listening to them playing made-up games with the dollies and teddies – just the cutest!  In the evening I made up a pair of earrings and pretty angel bag clip for Sue, repaired another bag clip (which an errant bead had come off of) and wrapped up Em’s new handbag - yes, “Jackson” is off to a new home in Auckland.  Happy birthday Em

Today was Thursday and it was another busy day.   Jill picked up her repaired watch (complete with new battery and a polish!), and we had one of my daughter’s friends stay for another wee play after school again, which is always fine by me, as they play together so well.  I managed to cut out another gorgeous felt piece for another handbag (watch this space!) and frustratingly discovered that I have run out of iron-on interfacing for my bags….again.  I need to get more.

I’ve also been on a tie-collecting mission of late, having been given more stock from friends with elderly male friends/relations.  Some are real doozies!  I just love the 60′s and 70′s ties particularly – the colours…mind-altering!!!!  So I hope to get another one or two of the “Bohemian” styled bag onto the site within the next few weeks, time permitting.

So, it being well after midnight now (the earliest I’ve managed to get to bed this entire week!), I’m heading off to hit the hay.  I’ll leave you with a pic of the “Mediterraneo” bracelet, which was the one I created on Tuesday night at the Inner Wheel meeting.  Despite the pressure I felt to perform in front of an audience (not my first, I must also say – I’ve done quite a few of these now, and always in front of quite a crowd), I’m really happy with the bracelet  – what do you think?

 Amanda

You guessed it – I did it (hehehe!) and apparently, I look like (this is sooooooooooooo funny!!):

Kate Hudson (I wish!), Hilary Swank, Julia Roberts (yah, right!)….!!

Try it yourself – here’s the link: http://www.myheritage.com/celebrity-face-recognition?morph=1

Have fun!!!

So, have listed it for sale and will see what happens.  The Bohemian, Cutsie Pie and Secretaire handbags all went to a new home last week (thanks Wendy!), so I was feeling the need to create   The felt/wool pattern reminds me of Jackson Pollock’s artwork, so hence the name…

Now I am hooked on felt and woollen felting – was up till 12.30am this morning searching online and came across some great tutorials, so am keen to get some wool and give them a go.  So watch this space…more felted bags to come soon!  I have a whole heap (24 squares, to be exact) coming from Australia hopefully next week and I am eagerly watching the mailbox…!

The new job is going well.  I love working part-time!  Georgia and I spent some time doing homework tonight as yesterday it was little brother Cammie’s 4th birthday so we all went up to Nanna and Poppa’s for a party.  Just us, but we made enough noise and fuss for a bus-load nevertheless   Birthday cake was courtesy of the Cheesecake Shop (I soooooo love their cakes!).

Well, I’ll leave you with a pic of Jackson, and get back to the TV – raining cats and dogs here and has been all day.  The perfect day to curl up in front of the telly with a nice cup of coffee and the leftovers of last night’s cake

Catch you later,

Amanda