Our Life
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Japanese Furoshiki: An eco-friendly alternative to paper gift wrapping
Whether you want to package up tiny jewel boxes, bottles of fizz, or magazine-shaped Christmas gifts, you can easily master this folded-cloth technique to wrap and carry anything beautifully.
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Take a peek inside Wellington's iconic boat sheds
For more than 100 years Wellington’s Clyde Quay boat sheds have been happy places for people who love tinkering with boats.
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How to build the ultimate tree house
You don't need a permit, plans or instructions to build a tree house. All you need is some nails, timber and a hammer.
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How to build with SIPs
A small house in an olive grove is the smart home of Brooke and Maggie Noonan's dreams.
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From KwaZulu Natal with love
Beautiful, hand-made beadwork decorations put the compassion into Christmas.
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3 new books NZ foodies will love
Three books that traverse the diverse culinary landscapes of Central Otago, Sri Lanka and Dunedin are bound to get food and wine-lovers talking.
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DIY project: Build a vertical gutter garden
Build this smart stand-alone ‘gutter garden’ to grace a deck, patio, courtyard or an external wall. It has a shallow base and best suits shallow-rooted plants.
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Have you done enough for a chocolatum rotunda?
The humble New Zealand biscuit is celebrated in a new tea towel and poster.
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Finding a solution to period poverty in NZ
Six months' volunteering abroad inspired a 24-year-old Wellingtonian to look for a sustainable and economical solution to a worldwide problem - and to implement it on her university campus.
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DIY Project: Build your own Pizza Oven
A comprehensive step-by-step guide to building a pizza oven for your backyard.
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Make your own 'Chick Inn' coop sign
Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a Chick Inn Coop Sign, as seen on the cover the Summer bumper issue of NZ Lifestyle Block.
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6 design tips from NZers who built eco houses
A smart home is one designed and built to a standard that few NZ houses meet. We talk to three design specialists about building small, efficient, warm, smart homes.
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Sister act in the Sounds
Keeping it in the family, two talented Picton creatives share a love of hand-crafted work with individual pieces that take fierce focus and many hours to make.
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An Italian/Maori romance
Whanau, film, theatre, love and Neapolitan sauce are paramount in the lives of a super-creative couple who have masterminded the revival of Italian cinema in Aotearoa.
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Kids' craft: Make a rockhopper penguin
Keep the kids busy these school holidays and support the Eastern Rockhopper in Forest & Bird's Bird of the Year competition with this easy toilet-roll craft project with printable stencil.
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Bubbles, undies and animals – the life and art of NZ children's author Ruth Paul
Ruth Paul is a children’s book writer and illustrator who shares her semi-rural lifestyle with her husband, sons, dog Teddy, and other wandering wildlife. She’s also just won Best Picture Book at the recent Children and Young Adult Book Awards.
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Flying cars and farming robotics
With lab-raised meat and plants picked by robots, what was once science fiction is now reality.
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Ruth Pretty's top tips for setting a beautiful table
Ruth Pretty 'the host with the most' shares tips for how to create a dinner party to remember.
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Taranaki gardener grows pet health business
A Taranaki gardener has found there are some growing opportunities in the $1.5 billion pet health business.
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7 homemade beeswax products
If you are lucky enough to have access to beeswax, or have a good stock from your own beehives, then you can use beeswax to make useful household and cosmetic products.
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The US market is hot for this NZ-designed electric farm bike
An award-winning New Zealand-designed electric utility bike for the farm is on the road to success in the US market.
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10 inventive NZers share their DIY coop designs
From a water-powered hen gate to a repurposed trampoline - ten inventive New Zealand chicken lovers share their best DIY coop designs.
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A life less ordinary in a 1978 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II
Once the domain of royalty and rock stars, a glamorous Rolls-Royce is living the ordinary life in Rotorua – well, almost.
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Book Club reviews Into the Night by Sarah Bailey
The reviews are in for Australian crime novel, Into the Night.
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The art of making paper
Looking for a satisfying craft project, therapeutic activity and a better way to recycle all in one? Paula Lang in Whangarei suggests trying to make paper.
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Video: A special poem for National Poetry Day
Wellington poet Chris Tse delivers a special poem for National Poetry Day from his collection He's So MASC.
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Video: Home sweet tiny home
A young Wellington couple talk about designing and building their first home, a tiny house on wheels, and reveal what it’s really like to live in a whare iti in winter.
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Intermittent fasting and its effects on the brain
Intermittent fasting has rapidly gained followers in the medical profession and public arena, but why and how does it work?
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A pub crawl through NZ history
These five historical pubs have have survived the gold rush and the six o'clock swill. They are well worth a visit for those who wish to soak up some New Zealand history with a cold one in hand.
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5 tips for building a small shed
You can never have too many sheds, but if your budget doesn’t spring to something that requires a council permit, it is possible to build a garden shed under 10m², the typical size of a shed before you need one.
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The bookshop at the end of the world
Rare books with adventure and action tucked into their pages have found a home which restless spirits of all kinds will appreciate in Oamaru.
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Film review: She Shears
A must-see New Zealand documentary follows five female sheep shearers on their journey to the Gold Shears.
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Part-time vet, full-time romance novelist
An Otorohanga vet has won an international following writing romance novels with a country twist.
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How taxidermist Peter Wells is preserving NZ natural history
The art of the taxidermist lies in the delicate processes of preservation and presentation of creatures great and small.