Our Life

Meet 21-year-old fine arts student and artist Lizzie Snow who is winning fans around the world with her intricate geometric mandala designs. Watch our exclusive video.

Lunchbox snacks, leftovers and half-eaten avocados can all be kept fresh plastic free with a few simple swaps.

In between many entrepreneurial pursuits, one hardworking, creative woman has left a living legacy - a five-star garden and a close-knit family - and made her mark on her community.

Beeswax is thought to help heal bruises, inflammation and burns, which make this oil an excellent ingredient in homemade salves and cosmetics.

Amid teenage comic hopefuls sweating backstage at a comedy club, 52-year-old Sacha Jones sat reading a Charles Dickens’ novel. “People said, ‘Aren’t you nervous?’ and I told them, ‘I’m old!’”

A new book from a permaculture expert helps beginners conquer their fear of fruit tree  pruning.

Shocked at the number of cold, damp houses in New Zealand, a Waikato-based couple searched for their own building solution. A ground-breaking passive house provided the answer.

Nicole Barratt shares easy everyday swaps you can make to ditch plastic.

Want skin that looks film-star fab and forever wrinkle-free? Develop a more trusting relationship with needles say the experts.

As an ingredient in cosmetics, beeswax acts as both an emollient, soothing and softening skin, and a humectant, attracting water and helping to absorb it in the skin.

Two young Hawkes Bay parents are proud eco-exponents who turned their personal mission into an industrious enterprise. They're helping their little corner of the world go plastic free with beeswax food wraps.

A Wellington entrepreneur who created chainmail worn by Frodo and others in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is making sturdy armour for buildings.

It’s finally happening. After lots of talk, greener bagging options are set for a checkout near you.

Lisa Scott gets her skates and her badass attitude on at the roller-derby rink.

Sorrel is a robust and persistent sort that grows like a weed (which it’s not) and can be used to tart up your tastebuds in a variety of dishes.

Here's a free pattern to knit some cute cotton wool booties for babies in need World Knit in Public Day.

These Wellington boat sheds – some of them important local landmarks – mean many things to many people.

Rather than burning your seasoned firewood, with a tight budget and some time, you can use it to build a home.

When you learn the best childhood lessons in a garage, and spend the ensuing decades tinkering with troublesome classics, you’re a bona fide car devotee

Heating your home using a wood burner is cheaper than ever in New Zealand, if you know how to get the best out of it.

Vision, grit and a good shot of gumption propelled the World of WearableArt from a small-town show to a global spectacle.

One of the first commercially-produced cosmetic products in Europe was the ‘Queen of Hungary’s Water’, a simple but versatile cleanser that you can make at home.

A teardrop-shaped caravan and a triangular apartment, both built using wood, are in the running for a design award that celebrates this living material.

When a Texan belle arrived in New Zealand for a three-month holiday, she didn’t plan on meeting a rugged West-Coaster. Thirteen years, two kids and a thriving jewellery business later, there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.

Turn your wool into a nice cosy hat for winter.

An enormous jar of peanut butter is being auctioned for a good cause.

Lisa Scott goes backstage at iD Dunedin Fashion Week, tries on an androgynous face and rediscovers her inner Milla Jovovich.

Here’s how to create a future-proof plan for your lifestyle block or farm to make sure you do it once, and do it right.

Chickens with breathing problems can wreak havoc with your flock and are difficult to identify, but here are some signs to look out for.

Trying to make sense of South and East Auckland is like peering into a kaleidoscope. Every twist reveals a new scene – there’s the colour of Otahuhu, the calm of Clevedon, the mana of Mangere, the solitude and beauty of the regional parks and the history of Howick.

When self-sufficiency enthusiast Julie Legg tied the knot on her Waikato lifestyle block, she created her own finishing touches for a wedding with flower confetti, bunting and other themed decorations.

The founder of a groundbreaking artisan bakery has returned to her childhood stomping ground and  a creative calling that was always waiting in the wings.

We caught up with Karen Joy Fowler, author of the bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club, ahead of her Auckland visit in May.

Social butterfly Lisa Scott is bent out of shape and all in a flutter doing hot yoga in the butterfly enclosure at the Otago Museum.