WooHoo!!

Made it the front page of etsy.com and creaturecomforts! Yay!

Another One Bites the Dust!

It's official. We're taking over the neighborhood.

Jude (Ash and Siggy's Mum) has just bought the house next door to Evan and Sig's place. I can't believe it. Total number of family members in a two-block radius=9! Nine! When my Sis and her family arrives, that will bring the total to thirteen. Ooooh, that sounds unlucky. Maybe we're pushing it too far. Are we crazy?

I still can't help but think that we're doing the right thing. Rallying against the global economy or something. I used to listen with such jealous interest when my Nana would talk about the olden days when the whole family lived on the the same hill. Granted, I wish my family was a little better represented on this hill. Not that I don't love who I've got here, I just wish I could wander up the street and have my parents back me while I sing "Psycho Killer" in their music room.

Anywho, we're still waiting for Ashleigh to add number 10 to the tally (just occurred to me that we won't have 13 as a total, but 14...phew!) and trying to calculate how long it will take for her parents to join us on the hill.

Wish us luck in lawn bowls tonight, teams DeVille 1 and DeVille 2 both won last week. I'm hoping for a repeat.

I've got a secret!

And no, I'm not pregnant.

BUT...I do know the finalists for the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards. And I can't tell anyone until next week when they're announced publicly. Not that any of you probably care. Unless you're a hopeful in which case you probably care a damnload. I wonder if bookies cover book awards?

I've volunteered to be the regional coordinator for the festival leading up to the awards in May. These are the most important awards for NZ children's, youth and young adult books and I am SO excited to get to be a part of the celebration. Even though no one else in Nelson would agree to do it, so the job itself probably sucks, but I don't care. There's nothing I love more than kids, books and getting to boss people around, so I couldn't be happier.

I got to fly up to Wellington today FOR FREE for the seminar for all the regional coordinators and it was so exciting. Nothing feels fancier than having someone else book all your flights, arrange for taxis, greet you in the lobby and then escort you to the 12th floor conference room that looks out over the harbour. There was actually a guy with a sign with at baggage claim waiting for me. Every time I fly I get this secret hope that there will be someone there with a sign waiting for me. I also always think that if I look sad enough they'll bump me up to business class.

Plus there was finger food all day and since I was just there for the day I didn't even have to pack a bag. No luggage in an airport is awesome. I think I'm going to get a job in Wellington. The flight's only 25 minutes which is shorter than my walking commute to the cafe. Al Gore be damned!

That's all for now. Love, Laurel

Ok, Seriously

You should move to New Zealand. Or at least come visit me. I'll make you pancakes and put a little jug of water next to your bed. And hopefully, my boyfriend's beautiful Mum will come over with lobster that one of her friends left for her on her porch. Except they'll call it crayfish 'cause they're funny that way.

And then Ash won't just break it up and put it on a plate, he'll make a beautiful platter with aioli and rocket (arugula) and lemon wedges. And then he'll say, "ladies, let's open that bottle of bubbly and eat this on the deck." And I'll nearly pass out because, holy hell he's got a good life aesthetic.

This is what it will look like:

Check it out!

We're about done! Yippee!

ashhilton.com

Harvest Feast!

So, I've attended a bachannalia festival before. I was convinced to hangout topless with bunches of grapes painted on my breasts. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do when there were 7 of us at the party. Hours later when there were about 50, I started to doubt my decision. Ash and I had a harvest feast last night, it was nothing like the first one I attended.



This is what inspired it all. Corn. We grew our own corn and apparently, that's hard to do. A lot of times it comes out small and tough and not very nice at all. This was none of those things. It was so tender in fact, that it didn't even stick in your teeth.



This is our version of an Italian poached meatloaf. Ash read about it in a magazine. Some Italian family that lives in New Zealand now made it. They hang out and eat food and play ping pong while wearing capri pants and skinny sneakers. We want that life, although we're probably not effortlessly good looking enough to have it. And our fights aren't nearly as cathartic.



Well, maybe some of them are effortlessly good looking. Anyway, who cares about good looks when you're eatin' tiny, beautiful potatoes that grew right out back. And the sun is shinning and you've got a linen table cloth that only cost $5.00 at the flea market. Not to mention the fact that we had enough plates for everyone. Once again, I only feel justified bragging about all of this because, really Ash did it all. And I'll brag about him all I want cause I have to live with the bastard.