oops amidst the madness

have i really not posted in that long? That is quite appalling, but i have fantastic excuses - the world has gone mad. Well, almost. Am currently doing the work of three people at what has turned out to be a very busy couple of weeks at work, and it doesn't look like it will let up soon.

And the Aro Street Market is on again this week, so of course my brain is desperately trying to fit in the logistics of that along with everything else. So last night, half drunk from work drinkies the boy and i had a card making mission and got done about as many as we think we'll need, which was a bit painful seeing as all i really wanted to do was relax.
The other problem with it is that i have two sewing table options at home: too high or too low. So i go for too low, and end up all hunched over at this mini table. But at least i can see.

Anyway, the madness continues - off to the ROAR art auction tonight which should be a fun-ho time.

endless frustration

I had a blog all written and waiting for photos last night and then the boy's computer froze. Good times. This is a quick post to say things are super hectic at the mo so not sure when will get the next proper post up. Hopefully sometime this weekend, when i'll finally get to relax!

hello, friday!

I am at work. it is 4pm on the cusp of Labour weekend. The sun shineth. The office is very jolly and due to said jolliness i have consumed far too many chocolate peanuts and dried mango.

I have been sitting on the same piece of work for the past several hours trying to figure out how to make it look fantastic and have been failing miserably.

Plans for the weekend:
sewing!
knitting!
crafting!
photographing!
relaxing!
reading!
sleeping!

I would really like to go somewhere nice to test drive the tent but i am extremely aware that every time my car ventures out on to the road this weekend my risk of being in an accident is multiple times higher than normal, so i think we'll be saving that for another, non long weekend.

By the end of this long weekend i will also have found out if our cards are to be stocked in a gallery in Taupo, if the answer is yes, i will be strongly motivated to go on a recce to see if some local places will host our creations. Nothing like positive reactions to make you push yourself a bit further.

It is now 4.09 pm and only 51 minutes till i go home. woohoo!

the price of milk

ugghhhhhhhhh hayfever. I wrote this yesterday, intending to put it up last night, but i got too distracted by knitting. So imagine it's monday.

I really can’t get over how much the groceries cost me on the weekend. I kept reading things about how food prices are going to go up, and lo and behold, there were up. Maybe it also had something to do with doing the shopping at a different supermarket too.
What got me the most was the price of butter. Normally I pay $2.00 for 500g at Pak N Save. At Woolworths yesterday it was $3.50 or something absurd. $3.50! I couldn’t get over it. I knew prices for butter were going up but by 75% is obscene. I’m going to have to rethink the amount of baking I do – and may just have to change from cookies and ginger crunch to scones. Which just aren’t the same as they lose that nice lightness after a day. So let’s just say I’m glad that we started to grow our own veges – it may just be the one thing we can save money on so that we can afford things like butter and flour.

That whinge over, I had the most amazing breakfast yesterday. Inspired by the boy’s breakfast of banana and peanut butter on toast, I decided to one-up him with peanut butter and slices of apple on spelt and flaxseed vogels. It was, quite simply, divine. One of those breakfasts that are so good I am going to save it for my weekend treat – not because it’s hideously bad for me but because I like it so much I don’t want to eat it so often it loses its appeal.

Despite my grand plans for crafting on the weekend (hand stitched linen napkins, new summer pj pants, maybe a tote bag) all I managed was a peggy square that wasn’t the right size. My excuse? The boy decided to invite a couple of friends over for dinner so I ended up hanging in the kitchen making my first ever butter chicken, flat bread and raita, and some reliable as ever brownies. I was a bit reluctant at first but ended up really enjoying the whole process – planning what to make, what to serve it in (discovering that we seriously lack serving vessels and utensils), and then sitting around drinking red wine, eating and chatting with the evening sunlight streaming through the windows. We’re so going to do it again. I can’t wait. And now I have four boy-less evenings to dedicate to things like (hand stitched linen napkins, new summer pj pants, maybe a tote bag.

I also started thinking about Christmas, while I sat and knitted my half ass peggy square. What can I make everyone without spending too much? And what do you make guys for Christmas? I kept thinking that it would be a bit lame to make the women everything and buy all the boys presents. Hmmm. The other tricky thing is that I would knit them all beanies and scarves, but it’s a tad unseasonal for that in the southern hemisphere. I’m going to have to brainstorm.

great ephemera

I realised that i totally forgot one crucial magazine from the magazine post, and it is one that i see many times a day. Is not magazine lives on our kitchen wall. We bought this double A0 poster magazine in Melbourne last year. A group of aussies get together, write and draw some stuff, get it printed and paste it up alongside band posters and advertisements on the street. You can also buy your very own copy from a book shop that i forget the name of. I love its simplicity and its massiveness. If anyone is keen to help me set up an NZ (or wellington at least) version, let me know. I'd be fully keen.


aaaandd...i bought the readymade book! woohoo for Borders - i got back to work from my lunchbreak yesterday to find a nice wee surprise of a '40% off any book' voucher in my email. So as soon as i finished work I bought it for my hot little hands. Very happy. Only problem is that whilst in borders, i also discovered that i really want Jamie Oliver's new cookbook that includes how he grows his own vegies, which is also $55, and another craft book that's around the same price. Why is it that all the books i want right now are $50? Top of my list is still Bend the Rules Sewing (which Borders doesn't stock). All in time...

this is cool. i went for a bike ride this morning- a nice long one where at one point i was struggling so bad against the wind a snail passed me on the road. Hehe.

And last but not least are my sweet new vegies. We have a minute section at the flat so it's all about pots. I literally just planted them, despite the wind's attempts to blow me and the plants away. I've always been adamant that i don't 'do' gardening, so this is one big experiment. We have cocktail tomoatoes, beetroot, mixed brassicas and mixed lettuces. I just checked on the worms too and they have eaten SO much this past week and have had loads of babies. Which is a relief as i was getting a tad worried. Woohoo for new hobbies! (yes, i am still crafting.)

i only believe the stars...

when they are true.

I had a much better day today, thanks in part to last night's wee imbibing session. And when i got home, i found some good news:

I only rarely read my horoscope, and when i do, i always dismiss the ominous ones as crap and the good ones i tuck away in my memory for a rainy day. This one, though, really hit the spot. I feel like everything i'm doing at the moment is building up to some sort of climax that will make some huge difference to my life. Work has great potential, craft has great potential, the boy's work is slowly gaining momentum, the sun will soon come out (i hope!).

Which all means that i feel like i'm looking forward to something but i have absolutely no idea what it is. Christmas, perhaps!

On the craft front i decided the time was ripe for some tidying up - sewing in strands on some knitted squares for a blanket (possible christmas present) and making some citrus slice for the boy to munch on when he gets back tomorrow. Does that count as craft? I dunno. And i have to come up with a stamp design to be made up by next wednesday so i can stamp all our cards amd send them off to Taupo. Hmm that doesn't leave me much time, does it?

rain rain go away...

I'm a magazine addict. And i've known it for a long time. but i seem to have found a nice cosy habit in the past year or so of specific hits that once bought, will keep me happy, just having them, for quite some time. Even if i don't get the chance to read them for awhile after they've found their place in my hot little hands, i'll be surrounded by a mellow luxurious glow in the knowledge that they are mine to cherish. Yes, i'm waxing lyrical. But frankie, for one, is a magazine that helps me find my place again. It has just the right balance of interesting features, fashion, craft and baking. The same writers appear issue after issue like good friends should.

I discovered frankie whilst in Melbourne, and i swear it was the happiest day of my winter season when i found the little book shop in Methven, Canterbury stocked it last year.

Russh i nicked from the lunch room at my boring as hell job in Melbourne. It was love at first flick - all the lush product shots, the collages, the pictorial research. I drooled. I have since graduated to purchasing rather than pinching. The best thing is that it comes out with the same regularity as frankie, so often i manage to get a double hit.

Oyster i like, but not enough to buy all the time. It's above the $10 mark which always makes me hesitate, unless there is something absolutely brilliant that catches my eye on the first browse.

My most recent discovery, however, is readymade. Out of the states but reading like a pommy mag, it is all about diy homewares. This means powerdrills and timber. Not that i really have the means or facilities to make a craft corner workstation, but it's still pretty cool. It's a bit on the spendy side and i'll probably only buy it the once - now that i've discovered they made a book! If you see the copy at borders on lambton quay, look closely and you'll see my name on it. No touching, thanks!

and then for the slightly more geeky - i always buy the healthy food guide as it has really good, easy recipes, and is interesting and motivating - i'm always inspired to eat that little bit better after reading each one. Helps keep out of the same-old cooking rut too.

For the sporty - i pick up Manual for the boy when i can, as it's published by the boys who made staple (sadly now defunct), and i was very impressed by their women's issue of spoke - tho all the use of 'mountain' in relation to 'biking' put me off a bit.

That and New Zealand Snowboarder, tho both it and manual really annoy me due to their serious lack of attention to female snow and skate boarders. We do exist, ya'know, and we read your mag (mainly for the gear, i must admit).

Every once in awhile i'll pick up vogue, but i got sick of their 'you must have this chanel bag' mantra -it's a bit too commercial and ...hmmm... rich middle age women for me.

Ok that was a bit more rant than i intended, sorry!

and extra good news from our market on saturday - we may have a gallery in taupo lined up to stock our cards. woohoo!

now i really must get me to bed before i pass out. 'night

ahhh relaxing at last...

It's been a pretty full on weekend - two early mornings, the market, the boy's birthday, the rugby (oh, shame). I have to have my two cents about the rugby - and no more, promise. Yes the All Blacks should have won, and it is terribly sad, but it could have been worse. And if you put our ability in perspective - just think if Australia had to pick their national team from the population of Melbourne alone - which is essentially what NZ has to do - They would suck. So we are awesome, and we know it with or without a trophy. Big ups guys, you did the best you could on the day. Life goes on.

So enough writing - here's some photos!

Thanks so much to everyone who came along to the market on saturday, we had heaps of fun! If anyone is interested in cameras, cards or ipod covers, send me an email :)

too much for one day...

I had the most absurd day. It was so full on at work (for once) and then i came home to more work - helping the boy label and price his cameras for the weeekend. Only just finished so just a couple random pics. Above a work by Paul Bradley, and below, my hand putting the finishing coats on my snowboard (which did have an ugly boy design on it).

Sunshine, please!

Oh for some good weather!
It's true you can't beat Wellington on a good day, but when it's crap, it's crap.
Me and the boy have got everything crossed for sunshine (or no rain, at least) on Saturday, as it is our debut at the Aro Street Market. I will actually cry if it rains.
We've been super busy with plans for that and for tim's birthday - we had a few cocktails with friends last night, and at one stage the boy had 4 (yes, 4!) cocktails in front of him. Go the 2 for 1 is all i can say!
I haven't been able to get back on the bike this week thanks to the weather and daylight savings which is making me all twitchy.

I've tried to make a habit lately of doing things that scare me. The market is one. Going to the dentist is another (it took me about a week to pick up the phone, i swear). But every time i've put down the phone or sent an email i get the best rush - i've done it! Taking that first step - even if nothing comes of it - reassures me that really, i can do anything. I am the last person to have deep and meaningful philosophies about life but this one does work. Having said that, though, at the moment there still seems to be something kind of...missing. Hmm.

Anyway - i really, honestly will put some photos of the latest craft adventures up tonight.