Opening hours: 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturdays.  Parking available...

Stitch Ministry
42 Galway Street
Onehunga | p: 09 622 2242
w: www.stichministry.com | e: thevault@stitchministry.com

We may have only moved half a km down the road but our new show room represents a coming of age for us. This is the store we always aspired to have and its been fantastic being in our new home.

With the rising price of fuel and added household expense we have been focusing on bringing our customers more affordable design choices. This winter is turning very cold and what better way to keep warm than with a faux fur throw...

Usually $99.00 now only $59.00 while stocks last. It’s the perfect accessory for the sofa the end of the bed or just around your shoulders.  Design should never be about having a big budget. At Republic Home it’s simply about choosing items that complement and enhance each other.

Be sure to enter our online competition!

Republic Home
3 Pompallier Terrace
Ponsonby | p: 09 361 1137
w: www.republichome.com | e: republic.home@xtra.co.nz

Enjoy $315 worth of services for just $95. But be in quick as this offer is valid for July only!

Face peel: Including skin analysis, rejuvenating skin treatment and after-peel nourishing treatment, normally $85.00

Hydration facial: Including skin analysis, eyebrow shaping and energinC hydration treatment, normally $95.00

Manicure/Pedicure: Including a hand/foot soak and cuticle treatment, normally $60.00

Max7 treatment: Light treatment to boost rejuvenation, plus after treatment moisturise, normally $95.00

Here is a wonderful opportunity to treat someone special, or your special self! For July only, you can pre-purchase our treatment4you voucher which entitles you to an Hydration Facial, Face Peel, a manicure or pedicure and a MAX7 light treatment - all for only $95.00. And you can book these anytime between July and October, 2008.

This represents $225.00 for only $95.00! BUT - as a third birthday special if you quote promotion code: PST4U when booking we will take a FURTHER $10.00 OFF!! An incredible $225.00 value for only $85.00.

Call or email us today!

The Pureskin Clinic
1/209 Ponsonby Road
Auckland | p: 09 361 1511
w: www.pureskin.co.nz | e: auckland@pureskin.co.nz

Find us on Streetscroll

The second week of the holidays is always a bit tricky. After a week without school kids are starting to get restless. The initial fun of being ‘on holiday’ begins to wear off and parents start to panic as the prospect of world war three breaking out in the kitchen becomes a definite reality.

But don’t panic just yet, because The Fairy Shop on Ponsonby Road has the answer. Bring your children, of three years and up, for magical fairy shenanigans...

Holiday programmes at The Fairy Shop have been keeping little ones happy for a few years now and the friendly professionals know just what it takes to put a smile on your little fairy’s face.

“Our holiday programmes always have an element of messy fun whether it’s a gluey craft activity or biscuit decoration,” says Theresa Elliott, owner of The Fairy Shop.

Messy activities that might be a headache at home are taken care of with ease at The Fairy Shop.

“We let kids go for it creatively, without being too worried about the mess or clearing up. That’s why parents keep coming back - kids have fun and parents don’t have to clean up the mess!” says Theresa.

The theme varies but the tried and tested formula remains the same. There are three one hour morning sessions starting from 9.30 and going through to 1.00pm, for younger children, then the two hour afternoon session starts at 1.30pm for slightly older children.

This year the morning sessions focus on three of our favourite stories; The Gingerbread Man, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood. Children get to share the story, and then get to work decorating their own gingerbread man, a gorgeous Rapunzel hair accessory or create a Little Red Riding Hood picnic to eat in the newly decorated picnic room.

The room decoration in the party room is what the afternoon session is all about. Children will go on a magical journey with Tinkerbelle to Never-neverland, where each day will have a different focus and incorporate the fairy magic of the Peter Pan story including mermaids, pirates and learning to fly, of course!

Parents are welcome to drop their little ones off to go shopping or relax and have a coffee in the Ponsonby winter sunshine.

Contact The Fairy Shop for bookings 360 1560 – it may just save your sanity and the kitchen.

The Fairy Shop
79 Ponsonby Road
Auckland | p: 09 360 1560
w: www.thefairyshop.co.nz | e: thefairyshop@xtra.co.nz

IN MY WORLD

NEW ZEALAND’S BEST REWARDS PROGRAMME

ALLOWS US TO REKINDLE THE FLAME OVER A TROPICAL SUNSET

American Express® Membership Rewards® with Turbo™ turns the everyday into indulgence.

It’s never been a secret – however, now it’s official. Nothing rewards you like American Express Membership Rewards with Turbo. Cannex, an independent research company, recently compared every major credit and charge card rewards programme in the country, and Membership Rewards with Turbo came out number best overall1.

When comparing costs, features and the number of points needed to redeem flights, the research showed that with Turbo you could take off an average of 44% sooner on international return tickets, and an impressive 53% sooner, on average, with domestic return tickets.

With 2 points earned for every $1 spent on your Card, Turbo rewards you faster. Membership Rewards direct ticket enables you to pay for your travel and acommodation with points or a combination of “points + pay2. So apply today and make American Express your preferred way to pay

1. Cannex November 2007. To view the full report, visit www.americanexpress.co.nz/cannex
2. Membership Rewards direct ticket terms and conditions apply.

American Express International (NZ), Inc. Incorporated in Delaware, USA. *Registered Trademark of American Express Company

“The Big C”, Cancer, has been one of the major topics I’ve recently been immersing myself in at the Australasian Veterinary Conference. Currently more than One Third of all our pets reaching the age of ten will be killed by cancer...

As our knowledge of tumours and our techniques of treatment have rapidly progressed, so have vet’s ability to deal with these diseases and in many, many situations, to fully cure our four legged patients. The best advice I can offer to all pet owners is to regularly examine your own animals for signs of any lumps or swellings. Start them from a young age to assist with tolerance, and thoroughly check them from nose to tail. Open mouths, pull back lips, feel their skin surfaces, part their coats and “play” with their feet. The earlier you detect a lump the better, if one is found don’t just assume it’s nothing important, and don’t ignore it in misplaced fear that it wouldn’t be treatable. Instead promptly present them to your vet for further investigation.

The first (and often only step if the mass is benign) is for us to take a sample. Without testing there is no one on this planet that can give a totally accurate diagnosis. We can usually do this with your pet fully conscious using local anaesthesia and a fine needle aspirate, or a punch or wedge biopsy of the unusual tissue. If the lab reports the cells to be very benign (e.g. a Lipoma) then we can normally all rest easy at that point. Some benign masses are still best removed as they can press against nearby organs and interfere with blood circulation. On occasion we instead see signs of malignancy, with the threat of local tissue invasion and spread to other parts of the body via blood and lymph systems.

Total surgical removal is by far the most effective treatment in the majority of these cases. It is therefore crucial to get onto these early when the mass is smaller and can be removed with less disruption of surrounding organs, and has had less opportunity to spread. With some tumours we will also use a course of cancer killing drugs (chemotherapy), and radiation therapy is available to us if required. These modalities target the DNA of the cancer cells preventing replication, causing tumour shrinkage (sometimes useful to allow easier removal) and restricting the disease’s ability to spread. As pet owners we can make choices for our pets which drastically reduce the likelihood of developing cancer in the first place.

Spaying bitches in their first year of age reduces the likelihood of mammary tumours by 15 times, and fully neutering a male with a retained testicle prevents otherwise very likely testicular cancer. Check your pets often, get anything abnormal tested, and lets work together early and comprehensively to totally cure these diseases whenever possible.

Kind regards, Dr Alex Melrose. BVSc MRCVS.

VetCare Grey Lynn
408 Great North Road
Auckland | p: 09 361 3500
w: www.vetcare.net.nz | e: alex@vetcare.net.nz

Lucy G is an Auckland based professional landscape photographer specialising in panoramic Auckland / New Zealand photography – from West Coast Beach scenes, urban landscapes, graffiti collages, abstract landscape photography, iconic New Zealand images and much more ...

You can buy limited edition photographs as small matted photos ($65 each) which are perfect presents or as larger canvas artworks for your own wall.

Check out where Lucy is selling around Auckland next by jumping on her website.

Each month there is a new prize draw and July’s giveaway is your favourite ‘Lucy G’ landscape print in a stunning white box frame worth $140.00

Be in to WIN this great prize by going to Lucy’s website and choosing your favourite panoramic photograph from her catalogue.

Auckland

Whilst the Chinese were rushing to the aid of Pandas endangered by the recent earthquakes, Aucklanders flocked to the aid of another black and white friend, a stranded Orca at Whatipu. After being relocated to Takapuna beach, the orca was last seen off Devonport.  Should you see this rather confused orca, or any other orca in the Auckland Harbour, please contact 0800 SEE ORCA.

Auckland | Until July 20th

Performers from around the world will take you on a journey of courage, grace and agility. Performing canines, Mr Wong the Clown, amazing acrobats, high flyers . . . a circus like no other. It's amazing that even after you open your eyes, it's still unbelievable.

Show times vary from 12.00pm, 2.00pm, 4.00pm and 7.30pm depending on day.

Auckland | Until July 31st

Narrated by Ewan McGregor, we take you on a journey to experience what it is like to be an Astronaut in space. From floating around an international space station to manoeuvring through microscopic regions of the human body as it prepares for zero gravity. Check-out Chad the space test dummy, as he takes a light-hearted look at helping us to understand the many environments of space.

Auckland | Until July 19th

ARTSPACE is pleased to announce Architecture for the Nation, the new artists exhibition for 2008. Six artists have been invited to develop new work as part of the cutting edge exhibition programme at ARTSPACE. This exhibition highlights new and vital art practice and aims to reflect the momentum of contemporary art in New Zealand. The new artists exhibition has become an annual event that offers a space for experimentation for some of our best and brightest.

Hamilton

Would you like to come face to face with a cheetah, feel the mud-covered skin of a rhino, or sit quietly with a troup of lemurs as they feed? Eye2Eye is a programme of behind-the-scenes animal experiences which allows you to meet the animals, be part of their dail husbandry routines and support our conservation initiatives.

Petone | July 19th

The second annual Petone Winter Carnival is a major one-day festival celebrating the very best of winter on the iconic Petone Foreshore.

Highlights of the Petone Winter Carnival includes chalk art drawing, circus and flying trapeze workshops, a polar plunge into the chilly Wellington Harbour, a spectacular and awe-inspiring series of high-wire circus acts and the breath-taking Pelorus Trust Fireshow.

Wellington | July 18th - August 3rd

All the information is now online, so browse through the films, shedules and news, and enjoy making this Festival your own. Register with 'My Festival'  to start doing it now.

Christchurch | July 12th

Dora the Explorer is coming to NZ for the July school holidays! Dora, Boots, Diego and the gang will be live performing Dora's Pirate Adventure, just for you!

Check the website for Napier, New Plymouth and Wellington dates!