Gnome away from home

Far too hot for gardening so this gnome and sidekick got out of the house yesterday and were spotted looking statuesque at Nelson's Summer Six event.

Read more...

Joy of singing when you are 6

Submitted by Ms Sharli, age 6

Read more...

Wildly manky to magnificent!

This is a story of domino kindness, generosity and collaborative creativity. It’s about how one act of generosity can inspire another.

Craig and Michelle Hunwick’s daughter, Bo, received life-saving treatment at Starship Hospital. As a result of this she is now a happy, smiling 3-year-old. Craig and his team from Nyberg and Nelson Upholstery generously agreed to let their highly creative inner upholsterers sneak out, upholstering a couch as part of WASA!® 2010 Wild and Sneaky Art Festival. Award winning interior designer and WASA!® director, Julia Kelly, went wild with the couch design which everyone loved, also at no charge.
 
WASA!® wanted to acknowledge Craig’s generosity, so Julia swung into action and raffled the couch to raise funds for The Starship Foundation. $530 was raised for The Starship Foundation during WASA!® Festival Week 2010.

A very delighted 4-year-old Bindi is now the proud owner of the gorgeous WASA!® couch. The couch has gone from being abandoned and left to die down in a back garden by three successive families to a wildly funky, colourful gorgeous piece of furniture that now resides proudly in the rooftop apartment of Bindi’s family. Her Dad, Ajay, from the Mid City Motor Lodge said that Bindi felt like she had won the lottery – and her Mum, Rhonda, said she would probably want to sleep on it tonight.

 

We should add that the couch was very sought after, with one person buying 10 tickets in the hope of getting it (…we would like to say sorry you didn’t win to Katrina from MoreFM! Despite her disappointment in not winning the couch, she generously offered to call up the lucky winner live on the air).
 
The WASA!® crew found it a little difficult to get five people and a couch into the elevator at once, however, it was totally worth it to be able to deliver the ultimate Christmas surprise to Bindi, send a cheque to The Starship Foundation and know the couch will be well loved.
 
Clearly, the moral of the story if you are a couch is that even if you are abandoned in a garden and filled with beer bottles and it seems like nobody gives a damn – don’t give up! You might just be the next centrepiece for an event and there is always someone out there who will love you!!!!!!!!

Read more...

Ooo-ahh those lit-up houses!

Until this year I had never been to check out the wild, sneaky and astonishing creativity of the people who enter the Nelson light up your homes competitions. Thanks to my 6 year old god daughter for inviting me to check it out.

A house that looks like an everyday house by day comes alive at night, transforming into a wildly colourful 3-D canvas of epic innovational dimensions that brings wows and ooo-ahhs and smiles from adults and children alike.

People wander up cloaked in wonder, exchanging conversations with people they do not know on anything from lighting technology to what was there last year, to how it’s all done and where to get lights and who might win it this year.

I love the vibrant colour, diverse eclectic mixtures from large, jolly, air-pumped smiling back-lit Santas to delicately lit butterflies alighting in formation, gardens growing candy sticks, jovial reindeer and sparkling bejewelled clothes lines that add a whole new dimension to hanging out the washing.

This is such a generous act of creativity, because it brings delight to so many members of the public. When people let their creativity sneak out like this, it enriches our lives, puts smiles on faces and builds community.

Read more...

Pig pen

No sign of chauvinists at this Brightwater property where the owners aren't taking anything for grunted.

Read more...