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Jussie of Lake Hāwea Station was born into a farming family. Her mother was raised on a dairy farm and her father on an orchard. She is a trained Speech-Language Therapist and Journalist and authored the best-selling book Every Bastard Says No. She is a keen hiker and along with her partner Geoff they are involved in mentoring many start-up businesses and have a passion for entrepreneurial spirit in New Zealand.

They have a great team on board who have united to take Lake Hāwea Station forward with the goal of becoming 10x Carbon Positive. Currently, they are the first farm in New Zealand to be 2.5x certified carbon positive. They live the values of the station. Environment, People, Innovation.

We stopped in and chatted about all things carbon, biodiversity, and her favourites from Everyday Needs.

1.  Bird Silo

We have one of these feeders up by the original homestead and another one down at The Hide, our wedding ceremony spot. We've popped it amongst the Kanuka and Manuka trees next to the lake. They are a charming reminder of a much bigger LHS goal to regenerate biodiversity, one of the pillars of the station.

2. Palorosa Handwoven Basket

I use this bag as a garden basket to collect things around the station, like the beautiful red plums that we picked this morning.

3. Vadoek Cotton Tea Towel

These tea towels are in our accommodation, Packhorse, and Homespur Cottage, originally the old shepherds huts, which have undergone conscious renovations which have seen them maintain their charm while being fitted with modern design and comforts..

4. Stanley Thermos

An LHS staple… We have a huge collection of these Stanley thermoses. The climate here means you cannot set off into the high country without a cool icy thermos in the summer or a hot toddy in the winter months.

5. Gotland Baby Wool Throw // Multi Grey

I do feel like Everyday Needs products have a spiritual home in the South Island and here on the station, we love anything wool, like these baby blankets which are a perfect colour for the south

Our friend and neighbour Pat is the manager of Allpress Coffee Ponsonby and for the last four years, we've been coming to him for our daily brew.

Pat has been making coffee in and around Ponsonby for more than a decade. Born and raised in Auckland, with a brief stop in New York to help set up 'Happy Bones,' an espresso bar in Nolita, he currently lives in Grey Lynn with his wife Aleksandra Petrovic and their Persian cat - Catstopher Wallace.

We chatted to Pat about some Everyday Needs items that he's collected over the years and how they function in his home.

1. Stanley Thermos

I can’t be without coffee and this is my go to thermos for when I’m in the great outdoors. This guy has been with me along the Tongariro Crossing and the top of the Pinnacles in the Coromandel. One of my favourite things to do is wake up early, make a Chemex, pour it into the Stanley Thermos and put this in my wife’s tote bag so I've made her a cup of coffee even though we’re on opposite sides of the city.

2. Up, Down & Other Opposites with Ellsworth Kelly

On my first trip to New York I was blown away by Ellsworth Kelly’s Spectrum V at the Met, it was such a simple but imposing work. I’ve bought this book and a few others from the series for my niece Annabelle and nephew Hayden. The books make art accessible to young minds without being patronising or glib, and I hope they spark a love for art in their busy little minds.

3. Trusco Steel Toolbox

My wife is an artist and illustrator, and has many coveted pens that I’m not allowed to touch. I few years ago I got one and then a few more or these mini toolboxes to keep them organised and safe from prying hands. They stack wonderfully and lend a workshop element to her creative space.

4. Arnold Circus Stool

I think the Arnold Circus stools have become a twenty-first century design staple. For me, they evoke a giant crayon in a children’s playroom. When we bought our place in Grey Lynn immediately we got half a dozen, all in different colours to give some visual texture to our outdoor space.

5. Opinel Essential Knives // Set 4

I’ve worked in and around kitchens most of my life and I’ve always admired the command a chef has of their knives and the awe with which these essential tools are held. While I’m not much of a cook, I do enjoy it and while I have a Chef’s Knife for carving the Sunday roast, these four are the ones that get used day to day. The rosewood handle has a great tactility and the blades have lasted well through a lot of use.

We asked local gallerist Tim Melville (Te Arawa, Te Atiawa) to choose his top 5 Everyday Needs items. Tim returned to Aotearoa in 2005 after 20 years in London. While there he completed a career-changing Art History degree and opened his Auckland gallery in 2007..

He is probably best known for his representation of emerging New Zealand artists, but his project has also introduced artists from Australian Aboriginal communities to New Zealand collectors and curators. He sees resonance in shared attitudes toward ‘country' in Australia and whenua in Aotearoa and he is interested in exploring their meeting points.

As one of the few Maori gallerists in the commercial art world Tim feels a particular responsibility to translate the values imbued within indigenous artwork for his gallery's predominantly European audience of friends and supporters. This kaupapa is supported by a business model whose integral values include aroha and manaakitanga.

Until recently Tim was a member of Haerewa, the Maori Advisory Group at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. He has also served as a Trustee of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation. He is currently a member of the Board of Tustees for the Wairau Maori Art Gallery which is located in Whangarei's Hundertwasser Art Centre and is scheduled to open in December 2021.

1. Folded Metal Bookends

There are floor-to ceiling bookshelves behind my desk at the gallery. They’re simple library shelves made by Dexion..folded metal, inexpensive, sturdy-as … and these bookends are a perfect match. The colour range is great too.

2. Rush Table Mat

When I was living in the UK I coveted the bulrush matting that you’d see in smart flats and Country Houses. It always looked so rustic and warm and welcoming. Rush matting is impossible to find here but these tablemats are a nice consolation. There's a sprig of dried bulrush flowers sewn into each one..

3. Recycled Sari Ribbon

When gallery clients need an artwork to be gift-wrapped we use brown paper but we let them choose a wildly-coloured sari ribbon and it never fails to delight.

4. Glass Teapot

We keep a few of these in the gallery kitchen for guests. My colleague Olivia notices when we’re settled on the sofa and comes in to offer tea. There’s something unexpected and really very nice about being offered your own individual teapot, especially when it’s a beautiful glass one like this.

5. Nanette Cameron: Interior Design Legend

I grew up in Pakuranga in the 70s when it was a brand-new subdivision. Some of the kids at school knew about Nanette Cameron’s (now-legendary) house in Glenmore Rd with its super-modern interior design and its amazing swimming pool. I was never lucky enough to visit, but not long after I opened my gallery in the mid-2000s Nanette visited me. I was slightly star-struck, but as well as having a gimlet eye for style and an unrelenting curiosity she’s one of the kindest and warmest people you could hope to meet.

Finn is a knitting technician and textile artist based in Auckland, New Zealand - and is also one of the team members of our Ponsonby store.

Finn has an obsession with all things wool which lead him to developing his own knitted merino blankets for Everyday Needs, all made and hand-finished by him just down the road.

As well as working at Everyday Needs, Finn is passionate about local textile production. He is currently working at AUT on projects that intend to enhance and support the NZ wool and textile industry.

1.Misma Anaru Ceramic Utensil Holder

This little object is both beautiful and incredibly practical. I love that they are all locally made by the talented hands of Misma Anaru, so each piece has its own feel. I use mine to hold my collection of incense (most of which are from Everyday Needs), but I’m always finding myself finding different uses for it.

2.Golden Pavilion Incense

Speaking of incense, these are my go-to when I need to wind down. I’m a huge fan of all of the Shoyeido Incense, and any scent with benzoin or sandalwood usually has my full attention, but the lightness and warmth of the Golden Pavillon incense is the perfect way to start and end a day.

3. Maryse Manuka Leaf Exfoliating Polish

As someone with really sensitive skin, I’ve always struggled to find skincare products that work. All of the products made by Maryse are incredible. They smell great and have the most natural ingredient list I’ve ever seen - however Manuka Exfoliator is something else! You don’t need to use much of this magical powder to feel super refreshed. Half a teaspoon or less mixed with water or some of your favourite cleanser and its the best exfoliator you’ll ever use.

4.Light Summer Towel

I’m always on the look out for colourful and well made materials, so the Mungo range of towels have to be a favourite Everyday Needs item of mine. Made in South Africa, these Mungo towels come in the best array of colours - and the heavy-weight cotton weave makes them both quick trying and super hard wearing. Investing in one of these for summer is a must.

5.Cast Iron Bottle Opener

You can transform the most basic of beers into a craft beer experience with this cast iron bottle opener made in Japan. The simple range of designs and quality of materials make it the only beer bottle opener you’ll ever need to own. It will have you offering to open everyones drinks for them!

Painter Kate Small’s new exhibition, ‘Welcome to Holland’ was due to open at Anna Miles Gallery two days after lockdown... so for now the paintings can be seen online only.

Anna caught up with Kate at her Masterton home where she is currently teaching Wairarapa College art students via Zoom. 

Kate’s paintings bring together her fascination with colour and an unusual level of feeling for the ordinary rituals of domestic life. It was as a student at Elam School of Fine Arts that her lush form of abstract expressionism first became populated. There were two key sources for the original figures in the paintings — Eadweard Muybridge’s C19th photographic studies of figures carrying buckets and brooms, and 1960s Jantzen tog advertisements.  Some things never change — 30 years on and the tog-wearing inhabitants of Kate's ‘Welcome to Holland’ paintings are still accessorised by the accoutrements of housework (mops, rakes, vacuum cleaners and the occasional front loading washing machine). 

Kate was delighted to find the Everyday Needs site has a whole section devoted to ‘Housekeeping’. A number of colourful and utilitarian items soon caught her eye. If a grey dustpan turns up in a Kate Small painting, you’ll know where it came from.

1. New Zealand Crayons

This packet of stripes is hard to resist. My first thought was what more could you want than a set of Te Reo crayons.

2.  Companion x EDN Lawn Lounge Hat

I like the fact that this hat is called ‘lounge'. It is a very nice shade of pink with a generous brim perfect for a Masterton summer.

3. Stainless Steel Thermos

I have a soft spot for sturdy Stanley. At art school and ever since I seem to have had a Stanley knife permanently in my pocket. At school my students think its amazing I’m so fast at sharpening pencils and chopping paper . . . It’s all due to Stanley in my pocket.

4. Belgian Linen Tea Towel // Check

Being woven, the checks of this tea towel look ‘layered'. The grid has that slightly transparent quality I’m always aiming for when layering paint.

5. Dustpan and Brush Set 

There is something very attractive to me about the Iris Hantverk Dustpan and Brush set. What a beautiful grey they have produced.

This week we chatted to our friend and collaborator, Auckland-based artist Gabrielle Stoddard about her favourite everyday needs items. Gabrielle's multidisciplinary practise includes mediums of photography, printmaking and textiles. She appreciates craft and products by makers who share similar values to both her and everyday needs. We recently collaborated with Gabrielle to make our exclusive T Totes in a soft cotton and linen blended yarn. These are a great little bag to take grocery shopping or for putting your everyday items in.

1. Sweet Almond, French Clay Sphaera Soap

A kind gift turning into many repurchases. The most delicious product to share in the bathroom, always enjoyed by those who visit. I truly adore Sphaera soaps inside and out, I love watching the soap bar mold in my hand while it's under hot water and how it changes in form from its start to end.

2.  Arnold Circus Stool

The most practical piece of furniture I have ever owned. I have one living in my bedroom as a stand for my anglepoise lamp, one at the dining table and the other for anytime I need a laundry basket, footstool or for a pile of books I have no idea where to put.

3. Delfonics Ballpoint Pen

I have always loved stationery, from a very young age I was that kid who always had one favourite brand of pen and a pencil case I had searched all school holidays until I found the perfect one. You will find one of these Delfonics ballpoints in my current pen collection and I can vouch for its simplicity and loveliness.

4. Penny Sage X Sphaera Laundry Bar

Everyday rituals and self care moments are always fostered when using this gorgeous soap bar. I try to attend to my delicate laundry basket at a quiet time on the weekend where I enjoy dissolving thin shavings of the bar into a bucket to gently wash all my gentle fabrics. Sphaera laundry bars are also the only product I use to wash my T Totes.

5. Ruth Castle Star Dish

The delicacy of these Woven dishes are so fascinating to me. I love enjoying my breakfast in the morning catching a glimpse at the soft shadows it creates on the wall. Ruth Castles weaving speaks to my interest in tactility and gesture along with craft.

Brett Band is the local designer behind Paceracer, a recent addition to everyday needs. Brett's mother was a dressmaker, and his father a bridge engineer, which explains the wonderful balance between detail and robustness in his watches. After studying Industrial Design and Sustainability at AUT and designing for a number of NZ brands, Brett became interested in traditional watches due to his curiosity in how they are constructed. His attention to detail and the personal finishing of his timepieces make them truly special.

1.  New Zealand Crayons

I have a 2-year-old niece these were a perfect Kiwiana gift for. She was born in Amsterdam and is Kiwi, Dutch and Italian. I sent them for Christmas last year for her to get a head start on practising her signature.

2. Norwegian Lambswool Blanket // Mikkel

My couch at home is pretty simple with a wooden frame and cushions, quite vintage. Every time I scroll through the website I stop on this blanket, the bold block colours are pretty appetizing. Even the stitching and branding make it irresistible. It would be good to see it on my couch.

3. Interior Portraits

I've always enjoyed flicking through images of interiors - who doesn't really? I've got an interiors Pinterest folder I look at once every three years but seem to save dreamy interiors into it on a weekly basis. So it's a book for the coffee table. Maybe it'd go well with the Mikkel blanket.

4. Opinel Essential Knives

Opinel knives are so crisp and good to cut all sorts of things with. I'd like to add these to my collection. A friend of mine and I like Opinel so much we once bought twenty of them and split the deal.

5. HAY Palissade Stool

The small details of this stool I think are what makes it look good as an overall object. The feet are pressed out to a bevelled shape just at the ends - just enough, and this catches the light really nicely, as well as encapsulate the subtle trim of the wider rubber grommet feet at the same time. The top of the seat sits just below the two frames on the outside, a cool little detail to keep the hips in place. Not to mention the balance of the palisades, they have nice bends, and the spacing between looks comfortable. Where they intersect into the tubular frame, its just done well, a clean weld. Quality. They even match the top curve of the outside bends of the tube. After all that, the weight of it just makes you appreciate its robustness. My workshop needs a Palisade stool.

We asked director of Objectspace Kim Paton to share her favourite Everyday Needs pieces with us. The Everyday Needs team enjoy catching up with Kim at events run by Objectspace, NZ's leading public gallery decicated to craft, design and architecture. Kim was the driving force behind the development of Objectspace's wonderful new space in Ponsonby. Kim has curated and written extensively on craft and contemporary art and holds a First-Class Honours degree in Sculpture and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management.

1.  Ruth Castle Fruit Dish

The Woven Dish (fish basket technique) is my favourite of Ruth Castle’s works, I love its incredible simplicity. It beautifully articulates the negotiation between the maker and her materials. A survey of Ruth’s work was the first exhibition scheduled to open at Objectspace a fortnight after I took over the position of Director. Her work taught me a lot very quickly about craft in New Zealand. Craft historian Damian Skinner describes Castle’s practice as one that embodies a radical demonstration of the maker’s belief in the agency of her materials. I love the idea that the materials Ruth selects have their own force - what Ruth does is as much to understand what the material wants to do, as it is to impose her own ideas on the making of each basket.

2.100 Chairs by Martino Gamper

One of my all-time favourite exhibition catalogues. A testament to the simplicity and purity of an idea. It is simple and modest in form and gives you just enough information to be the perfect memento to an extraordinarily good exhibition.

3.Hex-O-Matic Mechanical Pencil

Everyone has a favourite stationary item, don’t they? Mine is a mechanical pencil. I visited Japan for the first time this year and came home with a suitcase full of them. This one is heavy to hold and cool to the touch.

4.Gidon Bing x EDN Stackable Mug

I’m the kind of person that picks a coffee cup for life, one cup that I use every day. It doesn’t matter what else there might be on the shelf, I love the routine and ritual in a single object that I start every day with. Gidon’s short stackable cup is perfect.

5.Taper Rainbow Candles

When I was growing up in Christchurch, my favourite weekend activity was visiting the Arts Centre markets. There was a permanent candle maker in residence, and you could select your colours and have a tapered candle dipped while you waited. I would have given a pair of rainbow tapered candles as a present at every birthday I went to from ages 10 to 15. I love that these are back in my life, a humble handmade object.

Long time customer of Everyday Needs, Rebecca Commissaris is an artist and architect in Freemans Bay. She practices at Cheshire Architects while maintaining her own art studio at Strange Haven on K-Road. Her upcoming book and corresponding exhibition titled Can I Borrow Your Spoon? chronicle her 3000 km walk on Te Araroa Trail where she painted the landscape daily. Rebecca recently received a scholarship to Yale’s School of Architecture, where she will begin graduate work in July. She continues to paint daily, convinced that a habitual practice automises the brain, allowing the creative and emotive mind to innovate in unexpected ways.

1.  Ruth Castle Lemon Basket

My partner and I eat a lot of fruit. Like 10 kilos a week. After shopping, one of my favourite things is to organise fruit by colour and form. This basket further satisfies my enthusiasm for well-organised fruit. At the moment it is loaded with limes from our trees. The chartreuse green is striking against the dark wicker.

2.Handmade Large Serving Spoon

These servers are almost too beautiful to use. But I don't believe in reserving prized possessions for special occasions only. The Kauri timber has darkened over time and residue oil from salad dressings brings out a wonderful gold fleck in the grain.

3.Apple Farmer’s Basket

Our kitchen has only open shelves and counter-tops, nowhere to hide anything. A nice consequence is that I purchase only beautiful things; glass jars filled with nuts and grains, hand-thrown teacups and my apple basket. It’s usually sitting in the corner of the kitchen, loaded with watercolours, paintbrushes, a picnic rug and some dried flowers. The pattern and density of the weave make anything inside look beautiful.

4.Birds & Other Animals with Pablo Picasso

I look through this book quite often. Every time I open a page, I am amazed by how with a single line Picasso captures a hawk or a penguin. His line-work is so effortless and confident.

5.DP X EDN Zipper Pouch

This little bag goes with me everywhere. In it, I keep all my essentials: cards, pen, pencil, a miniature scale ruler, my 12-pan tin of watercolours, paintbrush and a hand-made sketchbook. Since it’s semi-waterproof, it protects my main bag from watercolour stains and ink spills.

In celebration of Mother's Day, we caught up with the wonderful Holly Houston, talented photographer, ceramicist and mum to Willow and Ira.

1. Handmade Spatula

Courtney Petley is a good friend, and quite possibly one of the funniest people I have ever met. I love all of her work, but this spatula in particular blows our minds, my boyfriend and I are both obsessed with it. I don't know what it is about it, but it just keeps on getting better with age. I have actually bought a few of them now, as it's one of my favourite gifts to give loved ones.

2. Sans Activator 7 Body, Hair and Face oil

I'm terrible at hair and make up, but I go pretty big on fancy natural skin care. Sans is one of my absolute favourites, I slather this oil all over my bod and it smells like heaven on earth. In the summer when we go away camping, I can get away with taking nothing but this oil and a comb and I'm set for weeks.

3. Toast Tongs

We live in the teeniest flat, with the teeniest kitchen, so lots of our appliances live in weird places. Our toaster is on top of the fridge, and I am constantly burning my fingers trying to blindly grasp the toast from way up above! My boyfriend is very tall so it's no problem for him, but I really need these tongs.

4. Taper Rainbow Candles

I try to incorporate special little rituals into my daughters life that make mundane things feel a little more magical. During the darker months I will often light candles on regular weeknight dinners. As I mentioned, our flat is tiny so we can't have a dining table, we all sit on the floor around the coffee table, with these long table candles, its a bit ridiculous, but I do love it.

5. Aran Sweater

I saw these recently when I was visiting in store, and had to have a wee pet of them. I'm a bit of a sook about winter, but these sweaters make me feel like it might all be okay.

Our newest Edit features Harrison Gyde, the designer behind our current window installation. We're big fans of Little Dough Co in Wellington, which was founded by Harrison before moving to Auckland to start his design studio, Some Studio.

1. Folded Metal Bookends

My partner and I have just moved up from Wellington and have yet to find a spot for our ever-increasing library. Thanks to a pair of these however I am able to have at least a few titles out at a time, reminding me to actually open up some old favourites and read them again. Only problem is, I find myself getting distracted each time I walk by.

2. Eleanor Pritchard Dovetail Blanket

Not many know, but I used to weave at university whilst studying Textile Design, so the pure technical beauty of Eleanor’s work is a real pleasure to see up close. As the mornings get colder I am finding myself wishing for a snug blanket to wrap up in while I get up to brew coffee in the morning, and this one is perfect for the job.

3. Anglepoise Type 75 Lamp in White

As much as I love Margaret Howell and all that she does, I find it hard to look past the timeless white version of the Type 75. I have a set of Artek 60s for beside the bed and the combination of the two would make sitting in bed with a cup of tea my favourite part of the day. An elegant solution to the ill-fated pitch-black walk to bed from the light switch.

4. H&S Stacking Glasses

I know it might be sacrilege but I am a fan of one type of glassware in the house for all situations. I have no qualms with drinking wine from tumblers, and the stacking nature of these glasses are rather pleasing, maybe it’s because they remind me of something Ettore Sottsass might have designed. I can just see myself pouring a sneaky extra half a glass more than I really should at the end of an enjoyable dinner with friends.

5. Vitra Toolbox

I love these things. No matter how hard I try I always end up with small collections of things scattered across my desk, be it inspiration material or ideas to hold onto for a later date. It’s nice to have a receptacle for the mess I manage to make, and somehow makes me feel like I am a grown-up when everything has it’s place.

In celebration of International Women's Day we caught up with one of our favourite ethical entrepreneurs Louise Garland. Louise is the Naturopath and Medical Herbalist behind local brand Wild Love. We receive regular deliveries of her wonderful Kawakawa healing balm and natural teas which are always quick to sell out due to her dedicated following. 

1. Patterned Socks // Dandelion

Being a herbalist, of course, I adore these socks.  Dandelion is one of my favourite medicinal herbs so when I saw these it was love at first sight.

2. Handmade Round Incense Holder

I've been an incense fan since forever.  I remember going to Victoria Park Market in the '90s to buy it.  My dad hated me burning it in the house, I think it gave him flashbacks to the '60s.  I still light it whenever I get the chance and this holder by local maker Petley makes my obsession look so beautiful.

3. Unitea Glass Mug

I love that through these glass cups you can see the beautiful tones of herbal teas.

4."We flutter for an instant and think it is forever"

One of my favourite places to spend time is the beach, and this incredible pencil drawing by local artist Mallory Allen takes me there every time.

5. Companion x EDN Lawn Lounge Hat

Right now I'm looking for a new place to call home. Most importantly I want to find somewhere with space to grow some herbs at the very least, and if there's enough room for some veggies too that would be a dream. I'm already visualising wearing this hat while pottering in my garden for hours on end. Fingers crossed!    

Photo credit Mark Barber