I’m starting to think we should always have a public holiday on a Wednesday – it’s a great way to get through the week!  Though I have to admit I did have a moment when I thought it was Saturday! We’ve had quite a week in TN HQ – getting ready for the trade expo at the end of the month, restocking some of our lovely stockists, and making some changes around our Etsy and Felt shops! More on that to be announced soon but you may have noticed that we now offer FREE shipping on all our items if ordered from Etsy to any New Zealand location! Woohoo!

I hope you all have had a lovely week and have great plans for the weekend. We’re headed to Taupo to a fun farm wedding! We’re quite excited for the glam camping by Wildersnest and to help with the styling on the day!

1. Love the elegant touch this geometric necklace provides!
2. These latte bowls are the perfect size for anything and everything – just the best.
3. How precious are these alphabet trays?!
4. 15 minutes Thin Mints made from 3 ingredients, winner!
5. Absolutely love these vases – spotted them about a year ago and still love them!
6. Tell them how you feel with these lovely vintage push pins.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks roundup and have a fantastic weekend! x

Who can resist a sweet treat – especially during these warm summer months!? This months free digital wallpaper is a new design made special just for our digital wallpapers! Love the artwork? Let us know and we may just make it available for purchase as a print or card! x

Desktop Wallpaper Download sizes:

February Ice cream (Widescreen 16:10) 1920×1200
February Ice cream with calendar option (Widescreen 16:10) 1920×1200

February Ice cream (Fullscreen 4:3) 1600×1200
February Ice cream with calendar option (Fullscreen 4:3) 1600×1200

To simplify things I’ve only made two sizes of the design but it should work on most screens – just use either the “centre” setting or “fit to screen” if it doesn’t look quite right.

iPhone Download sizes:

February Ice cream, single - iPhone 4 640×960
February Ice cream, multiple - iPhone 4 640×960

February Ice cream, single - iPhone 5 640×1136
February Ice cream, multiple - iPhone 5 640×1136

The formal bits:

All photos, desktop wallpaper art, and designers are copyright. The use of this wallpaper is free and strictly for personal use. Sharing of these images on Pinterest, Facebook, or any social media is welcome, as long as you source and link back to Toodles Noodles.  If you’d like to blog about this post, feel free to, as long you credit and link back to this post and/or Toodles Noodles. Thanks so much for reading this boring but necessary bit!

What a beautiful summer New Zealand has been experiencing these past few weeks! I don’t think I’ve had this kind of heat and clear blue skies in years – and am loving it!

One of the great things about living in Auckland compared to Wellington is that people love to wear colour – it reminds me of when I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. You go from an all black wardrobe to an assortment of brights and patterns - something this designer loves! One can’t help but feel vibrant and happy when surrounded by brights!

A lot of new things have been buzzing in the studio this past week!  We released our latest addition to the shop: baking decorations! Here you can find cake and cupcake toppers in all our designs. And don’t forget, just like with any of our work – have something in mind but don’t see it online – let us know and we can custom make it!

We’re also working furisouly away getting ready for the New Zealand Gift and Homeware Fair - our first trade show! Not to mention working on two new products to be released soon and a few markets coming up as well!  All to be released in detail soon..!

Now enough talking and onto link sharing:

1.  Vibrant streamers and pom poms light up this barn in a heart felt Main wedding.
2. Loving the typography treatment on this poster by Luke Williams.
3. Gluten free has never looked so good – beautiful packaging by Nancy Hope.
4. In love with this hand painted flower garland cake topper – what attention to detail!
5. We found this shop earlier this week on Etsy and fell in LOVE – everything is just amazing!
6. Rhubarb Ice Cream with Oatmeal Shortbread, don’t mind if we do.
7. J.Crew has come out with a new line of boat shoes – I’ll take one in every colour and pattern please.

I hope you all have a great weekend and stay tuned for more announcements and February’s wallpapers! x

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and we know how important it is to pick out a thoughtful card and gift for that special someone. Or in some cases how adding that extra special something and wrapping your gift just the way you pictured it.

We’ve put together a gift guide to help inspire you for February 14. Here’s a selection of some items for that big day all available for purchase from our shop!

1. Full of Hearts, Gift Wrap Kit  – $21.00 NZD
2. Love you Long Time, Gift Tags – $6.75 NZD
3. Puppy Love, Gift Card – $6.00 NZD
4. Stay Awesome, Notepad - $12.00 NZD
5. Full of Hearts, Cupcake Toppers – $12.00 NZD
6. Perpetual Calendar – $28.00 NZD
7. You are my Superhero, Note Cards – $13.50 NZD
8. Love you Sunshine, Print - $25.00 NZD
9. Full of Hearts, Favour Bags – $10.00 NZD

Well it’s that time of the week again – time for our weekly roundup! It’s been quite a week around this neck of the woods.

We moved house and studio last weekend (leaving us without internet until yesterday….sigh), we were super lucky and won tickets for the Auckland Seafood Festival this weekend through Te Awa Winery, and had some lovely birthday celebrations out with friends and delicious cakes from the lovely Made From Scratch.

The shop also had a big week being featured in the Etsy Finds email with our Full of Hearts gift wrap, our Blue bird gift wrap making the front page and our Your My Superhero note cards made the new To & From Valentine’s Day Guide - all of which has left me feeling well – a bit lovely dovey!

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought I might just theme up this week’s Weekly Roundup with a bit of a romantic feel. We also have heaps of gift tags, cards, prints all for that special day in our shop, so shop on by and have a nosey!

1. These sparkly hearts make the perfect accessory for that sharp blazer or pretty bun!
2. A sweet treat made with bittersweet chocolate is a direct line to my heart.
3. Is there anything better than a luxury picnic with the ones you love?
4. Cold never looked so cute with these leggings.
5. I sure do love a relaxing bath after a long stressful day!
6. Time to spruce up those cocktails…mmm… pomegranate…

I hope you all have had a great week and have fun plans for the weekend ahead! Until next time… x

Happy Friday everyone! Looks like 2013 is off to a booming start for so many people – including us here at TN!  Just last week we found out that we might be able to move into a new bigger, sunnier home and just this Wednesday we found out we’re moving this Sunday!  Nothing like a short deadline to get things going!

With that in mind I have put together this fresh, new feeling weekly roundup!  I hope you find it as peaceful as I have and have a fantastic weekend!

1. Nothing says comfort like Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Stuffed with Homemade Caramel – oh yum!
2. Loving the fresh olive branches on the table settings at this wedding beautiful wedding.
3. Who would mind doing cleaning when your dustpan is smiling back up at ya!?
4. Absolutely love these beautifully designed bottles by Amy Hardy featured in Southern Weddings Magazine.
5. This week I discovered a new beautiful blog named Age Old Tree – beautiful!
6. These colourful spoons will brighten up any morning…

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and can’t wait to show you images of our new home! x

I have a soft spot for products made locally. When you combine that soft spot with cooking and beautiful packaging – things get can get a bit crazy! Over the past year, I’ve been lucky enough to meet Jo from Bees Blessing. And I can guarantee she is as delightful as all their products!

Tonight I made an absolutely delicious marinade for our chicken made with their latest treasure: Lemon & Thyme.  I’ve never tasted anything so tender and full of flavour – it was absolutely fantastic. The chicken tenderloins were only marinaded for 30 minutes before being grilled. Here is what I made this evening (give or take).

1/4 cup Bees Blessing
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp fresh ginger
2 Tbs fresh garlic
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp dried coriander

The chicken was served along side a large green salad made out of:

baby spinach
basil
sundried tomato feta
sundried tomatoes
pine nuts
sunflower seeds

Look for Bees Blessing in a cafe or store near you and make sure to pick it up on your next shop!  I guarantee you won’t regret it!

Well, we did it everyone – a big high five for surviving the first week back to work after the holidays!  I’m not sure about you, but man was that challenging….email correspondance slow with some people still being away, work slowly trickling, the weather teasing – but we did it! And for those of you still not back yet, well we’ll just call you lucky ducks.

This Sunday, I’m having a birthday – a biggy actually! No big plans have been made for the weekend. My partner and I are going to dinner on Saturday night but apart from that I look forward to sunshine, coffee, wine, and relaxation. With that in mind – I came up with this week’s roundup! I hope you do enjoy and have a fantastic weekend as well. x

1. Lovely Baby’s Breath typeface formed with Gypsophila/Baby’s Breath. The meaning of Gypsophila is to miss, to adore, and to give. Gypsophila often serves a supporting role, but its existence is significant.
2. I sure wouldn’t mind spending most of my birthday weekend under this marvelous tree!
3. Loving this coffee branding by Alex Westgate for the Coffee Shop.
4. Yup, this cute kitty has the right idea!
5. Crumble has always had a soft spot in my heart – rhubarb mulberry crumble you say? Now that sounds like a must!
6. Thinking this lovely banner needs to hang in my office…
7. And what’s a birthday without balloons!?

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and good luck easing back into work life! x

Summer is a great time to experiment making new salads. You really can’t go wrong – some baby spinach, fresh tomato, avocado, pine nuts and topping of the day! Here is one of the salads I made over the holiday break, mentioned in my Staycation post, which I promised I would post! I hope you enjoy! x

Serves 4 – 6

Preheat oven to 200C

Simply cook a piece of venison roast with some pumpkin and herbs of your choice – for approximately 20 minutes (depending on size of meat and pumpkin pieces).  A great tip when cooking with meat like venison is to rinse off completely before cooking as it helps get rid of the gamey / metallic flavour a lot of people taste. My personal favourite company in New Zealand is Silver Fern Farms – the quality is fantastic!

In a medium sized salad bowl mix together: baby spinach, baby rocket, a handful of pine nuts and sunflower seeds, and fresh basil leaves. Hand mix all the elements together and set aside.

Once the venison and pumpkin are ready and slightly cooled, add to salad bowl and top with crumbled blue cheese. I personally don’t add any dressing as find the venison and blue cheese full of flavour! The salad goes great with homemade crostini or pita chips!

Enjoy! x

To all my readers in the southern hemisphere - Happy Summer everyone! As you may have read from my previous post – the weather here in Auckland has been a bit pants but as of tomorrow we’re supposed to experience sun for a whole week! I’m getting quite excited about the prospect of going to the beach, exploring waterfalls, going on walks – oh the possibilities!

Yesterday we went strawberry picking – my first time berry picking! I had such a blast even though it was a bit drizzly out and we left the fields with 4.2kg worth of delicious, ruby red strawberries! In hindsight that may have been a bit of overkill but we had a blast doing it and now have heaps of berries for our morning smoothies – win win!

So with all this excitement of summer I decided to make this weekly roundup a bright and colourful one! I hope you’re all having a great holiday!

1. Stunning single Marbella Hammock from Citta Design – want.
2. Beautiful packaging done by Curious Design for Phoenix Organic beverages – it just looks so refreshing!
3. I’ll take two margaritas please!
4. Protection from the sun is important down here – this stylish hat is available at Witchery.
5. You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream! This beautifully packaged organic ice cream picked up a silver award at the Best Awards this year.
6. You can’t beat a good beach towel – Country Road has a great range on sale now!

I sure do hope you are all enjoying some delicious sun and enjoying the holidays with those close to you! x