Goodbye, For Now...

Well peeps, after much thought and consideration, I have decided to take an extended blogging holiday. Nickel Pickel is feeling like it has run it's course, in it's current capacity at least. I originally started blogging when I moved to Australia and found myself insanely homesick and wanting a way to share what I was up to with my friends and family back home. It then followed me around the world and now 3 years later I am back in NZ, and feeling like it's time for a change.

At this stage, my plan is to be blogging again in the New Year, hopefully with a little more direction then I have now, some new projects and with renewed energy. It might be here at Nickel Pickel, it might be somewhere completely new and fresh! Wait and see, but I promise to keep you posted.

Don't worry blog friends, I will still be lurking and randomly commenting on all your online goodness, but from Nickel Pickel, it's bye for now, and thanks for all your lovely, kind words and encouragement over the years!

x Nikki

Collaboration With A Faery

Been having fun over the last couple of weeks coming up with some ideas for FaerySarah's new blog header... She worked her magic with it and wollah! It's FaerySarah cartoon style!

New Header

Jeepers, blogging does nothing for controlling my extreme, unhealthy habit of procrastination.
Anyone else have trouble refraining from 'tweaking' all the time and making new headers!? Yikes!

I'm Baaaa-aacck!

Wow what a way to finish off blogging about my trip around the world with a fizzle! Sorry everyone. World's most consistent blogger? FAIL.

But in bigger news - after 2 years of gallivanting around the world I'm HOME, like, New Zealand home! Which makes me very excited because it means getting my mits stuck into my boxes of 'creative goodies' in our storage unit. It means eventually having a steady income for the first time in a year so that I can go and buy MORE creative goodies.
It means that just maybe I can start to turn this blog into what I think I always intended it to be - a little more about me and my creations and a little less about the randomness in my life. OK who am I kidding, it will absolutely still be about the randomness, but perhaps a little more balanced.

It's gonna take me a little while to get on my feet and get some sort of order and regular blogging going on around here, but I'm looking forward to what's on the horizon!

Plus I'm really enjoying just being with my family and friends again and sinking back into the Wellington pace of things. Oh and making my way through the 3000+ unread entries on my google reader. Aggghh!

Bear with me peeps, things should get good around here, just wait and see...

Oh Woops... Catch Up

Oh geez, everything's going by so fast!

It's involved a bit of this...

Some of this...

And then lots of this!

Mmmmm gelato.... soooo goooooood.....

Home in ten days! Exciting!
Then it's back to the real world, the design world, and maybe some serious blogging... or maybe not. We'll see.

I Think I'm Back Now

I think I'm back now, slowly finding my mojo again. I've been working, relaxing, and planning things for the near future. I'll tell you all about it soon...

Over It

I'm so over blogging at the moment. I've completely lost my blog mojo. To top it off, my camera has crapped itself so I can't even take photos of random things to fill in with.

I never even thought I'd say this but I'm over my list of blog subscriptions in google reader too! Not over the blogs or the people themselves, I just can't even bring myself to get excited about everyone's new posts for the day like I used to, I'm sorry! It's nothing personal TRUST me, I just gotta find my groove again. I love all my fellow bloggers, really, you have no idea the tension it causes even in my relationship cos' usually I would rather sit and read through all your lovely blogs then watch a movie with my man. But my head's not where it should be right now, I'll let you know when my mojo's back. Promise!

Hand Made Love

    

I have recently found the blog of Melbourne based artist, Handmadelove.

She posts about all sorts of lovely art and life related things, but one of my favourite parts is that she draws and paints what she eats every day. From what I can gather she started this for a school assignment but it looks kinda fun, and I love the little illustrations she produces!

Help Please... Possible Blonde Question Needs Answering!

So I am the first person to admit that I'm still really crap with all this bloggy stuff, and so I am putting out a question to you all that may be fairly easy to fix or maybe not, probably the former...

Lately I have subscribed to lots of lovely blogs but their new updates don't show up in Google reader. They are on my subscriptions list, I can see them listed in the navigation bar down the side, and if I click on each individual subscription I can see all their latest posts, but in the main window, I don't get to see them when they post new stuff.

On their individual pages there is an option on the side that I can un-click which says 'mark as read' so I un-click that, thinking that perhaps somewhere I've made a setting that is telling it to automatically mark the new posts as read so reader doesn't bother showing me when new posts are put up, but then when I close that window, and go back into it again, it is ticked again... I am ASSUMING that my problem is something to do with this option being selected, but I can't for the life of me work out how to keep it unselected and all I want is to see ALL the new posts from my subscriptions!

I have looked in all the settings etc but can't find what the deal is.... VERY ANNOYING! Any suggestions/help would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks peeps!

By the way, if that made absolutely no sense to anyone please disregard the gibberish!

Travelling Update

A little while ago I posted a link to the new blog I was going to get started, dedicated a little more to our travels and everything that goes along with it. Well, I've been thinking really hard about it, and have decided that if I'm realistic, I'm going to have problems finding enough time, money and internet cafes to update this blog as it is. How on earth am I going to update two!? So I've decided to scrap the other one, that never really got started. It's called being honest with myself. Maybe that's something I will work on this year... So I think soon you will start to see some posts relating a little more to travel. Not that we've left yet, there's two months to go, but the prep has started. My 'To Do' list is growing, my nerves are escalating, my paranoia and uber-organisational urges are becoming hard to control. So it really is inevitable that you will see some posts about this. Coming soon, I think I will post about packing. Yes, I'm two months out, and already thinking, no, panicking about it. How is a girl who can never have too many clothes, going to pack for 10 degrees, coming from 40 degrees, and fit it all into a back pack? Really? More of that to come me thinks...

Toot toot toot!

That would be the sound of me tooting my own horn, as I have successfully managed to customise my blog format from two columns to three... AND this included adding, deleting and writing new coding (scary, un-chartered territory from my perspective!). So now that I have mastered this, I am going to be attempting more changes in the weeks to come, so my blog may look a little piecemeal for a wee while, never fear I am still around, still blogging, still reading, it's just a work in progress... like everything in my life!

I Heart Gala

Images from Gala Darling

The beautiful Gala Darling... Strong, clever, beautiful girls like Gala inspire me every day.

Catch her blog, it's choca bloc with so many tips, tricks and goodies!