settling in and getting ideas

I'm settling in nicely here in Nelson. It's quite a lovely country and at least once a day, I look around me and think, wow. Have I mentioned that before? Yes, I think I have.
I love the fact that there are three, count 'em, three fabric stores within 10 minutes of the house. I love it! I've been working on projects and Laura has been quite helpful with design ideas (although, I feel that we're going to struggle when it comes to not buying our own creations!). We've been busy, busy bees and have been making plans for our little business venture. We are going to be attempting to sell our stuff this weekend at the local market. Getting a stall there isn't expensive and since it's going into winter, the competition isn't high. Hopefully we can make some money this weekend and start working on a following of our line of clothing. So here are a few pictures of what I've been working on and I have four other projects waiting to be sewn and a pile of projects to be cut and pieced together. I'll be busy for awhile!

This last Friday we decided to take the evening to drive to Christchurch to drop off Jesse Dart. He had been visiting for the week and as we had nothing else to do, we packed up and left after Luke finished work. Fortunately, Elijah slept most of the way there, but unfortunately, I get car sick in the back seat on the New Zealand roads. Ugh. If I have to sit in the back seat of a car when in NZ, I'm not going to see much of this country! So we got to Christchurch late Friday evening and managed to meet up with an old friend of mine. When I first got to Korea, I was a teacher by myself for a couple months, but in December 2006 I got a co-teacher. A korean gal who I got along with splendidly came to work with me for a short while over the holidays. Kowoon only stayed for a few weeks before moving out of the country, but we kept in touch sporadically since then. Once I got to Nelson, I emailed her and found out she lives in NZ as well! She met us and took us to a great korean restaurant! It was delicious and well worth the 5 hour drive. haha. I'd like to go back to Christchurch sometime and see more of the city and spend more than one night there, so at least I'll have someone I know there! Well then, I better be off now to find some dinner and make sure the fire is going well in the fireplace, because this house is COLD!