Grey day and fabric stashing

I do have a life, sometimes!

Ah, thank you wellington for the rain. Really appreciate it. No Aro Fair today, and i highly doubt it will be on tomorrow either. Bummer. Not sure when the next market will be now...

So instead of marketing, i headed out fabric stash enhancing with a friend. We picked up some gorgeous Ricochet wool suiting from Global Fabrics so there will be a sewing sesh tomorrow in order to help her make a work skirt. I'm a disbeliever in patterns when it comes to skirts so fingers crossed i haven't lost the knack of making it up as i go along. 

And i have so many sewing ideas i my head, but as usual there aren't any patterns around that fit in with my vision. I'm thinking i should bite the bullet and do a pattern making course somewhere. 

Hmm half an hour til earth hour. Because i'm such a boring nana at the moment, i'm at home. Not so sure how knitting in the dark will work. Or how keen my environmentally-ignorant flatmate will be on doing her make up in the dark, hehe.

dropping by

More just dropping by. I'm avoiding sorting stuff out for the fair tomorrow - oh yeah, the fair! Aro Valley Fair is on from 10 - 4 on Aro street tomorrow, come along! I shall be there, selling. Stuff. Without the last lingering traces of my cold.

What i'm a bit more preoccupied with at the moment is thinking about how it's been 5 years tonight since a good school friend of mine was killed in a car accident. I still remember getting 'that' phone call at work, walking to my friends house numb, not knowing how to react...going to see her, lying so peacefully on her bed at home, her sister sitting next to her eating MacDonald's...all such a waste. She was the most incredibly creative person who had a rough ride after we all finished school. She didn't really know what to do with her life, and got mixed in with a guy who wasn't good news at all. And neither was his family. Which made it all the harder because he was the one driving.

In the odd way that life works, I just happened to drive through the intersection where it happened while i was working today. And it's not one of those places i drive through very often. There were new flowers on the traffic light pole, and all  i wanted to do was stop, like i used to, and sit and think about her. But I had my boss in the car, so couldn't.

Instead i'm sitting here listening, randomly and without intention, to the Jack Johnson album that i was thrashing at the time of her death. I remember dropping a friend off at home after we'd been to see her and that friend mentioning how much she loved the album. Like i said, isn't it weird how life works.

Arrivederci Ella. The next glass of wine is for you.

Dumb day

Been one of those days. So dropping in without much to say...think it may be a good idea to get out of the house now that i've stopped coughing it down...

oh yeah remember my car washing expedition of a post ago? Well, i was lazy and drove to work, and came back to find three HUGE bird poos right on the bonnet. Sums it all up really!

mmm real food

polaroid from holiday in Jan - just cos.

Well, i'm not better. Last night I was treated to a roast with all the trimmings at my parents' house, and that perked me up a bit. But the cold has dug in its heels.

Which means that i have no energy to look after myself. For example, lunch yesterday was my dark chocolate Lindt bunny. The crap thing is, i don't think i could even taste it properly, and now there are no more lindt bunnies for me. Sucky.

there once was a bunny.

This morning i thought i'd kill two birds with one stone. Flag breakfast and make myself pancakes for brunch instead. Which was ok, until i finished washing the car and was absolutely starving but still had to make pancakes. Sucky again. 

Not so sucky is one of my friends has come back from her weekend away and has offered to make me dinner. Think i'll be taking her up on that.

In the meantime i'm trying to burn wedding photos to CD. It's taking freaking ages. 

muffled

Please excuse the following post: i feel hideous. The cold has taken hold...

So much excitement about Easter weekend, and i'm doing my best to re-channel it, but it's a bit of struggle with my head stuffed full with cotton wool. mmmm.

Friday was pretty uneventful, lots of doing nothing, moving things around, and general tidying up. 

Saturday was good fun - went bike stuff shopping with my Dad (yay dad!) so i am now the proud owner of a not too girly bike helmet and some terribly unsexy bike shorts. And a bike computer that i'm not even going to attempt to figure out in my current state of mind. Now all i want to do is go for a ride - it is absolutely perfect bike riding weather. oh the pain!

Then I headed off to Craft 2.0 to meet the lovely Megan of Frou Frou Frippery - I was meant to give her  my spare copy of Afternoon Tea and of course completely forgot to take it with me. But I met her, she was lovely, her hoodies are gorgeous in real life, and she gave me fabric. yay! 

As usual the place was completely packed, but off in a serene wee corner of their own, were the producers of World Sweet World - a magazine that is full of everything i am into it's a bit scary...so had to have one of those, and for my troubles was given a big roll of billboard vinyl to cover my kitchen chairs with - how on earth did they know i have been meaning to do that for the last year?! Now i have something to cover them with i might actually get around to it...

Sorry, too lazy to rotate the pic. But you get the idea.

Did i mention i won tickets to Summerset? Well, i'm glad i didn't pay for them - I felt several expletives of gross after two sets so headed home to wallow on the couch under my blanket and watch tv. Managed to see Minuit (my fave) and Black Seeds so it was worth it...a few things they could do better? I think when more people get there the atmosphere probably improves, and perhaps a bit more variety in their acts - i had no idea who any of the international peeps were and if they had a wider range of styles one would think they'd get more people along. BUT, great freaking venue. The grass was all perfectly short and uniform after the cricket, it was beautiful. 

All the crap I had next to me whilst couch-wallowing. Yep, that's progress on thermal! I'm getting a bit worried about my lack of skills for when i reach the neckline...

Think it's back to bed to think of all the things i'd much rather be doing - taking photos, cleaning the car, sorting out my room, baking hot cross buns, knitting, sewing....instead, sick.

more ch ch changes...

my hair is now an edible shade of brunette...scared the crap out of myself when i got flash of colour in the mirror before - but it's a good change. I love having dark hair...makes me feel all mysterious like. 

And i finally, finally got myself officially employed in the role i have been acting in for almost 5 months. There was a bit of stress for a couple of days there that maybe i wouldn't get it - had to go through the whole interview process to keep HR happy. I caught a glimpse of the competition yesterday and that was a bad, bad thing - it's so much easier when you have no idea what you are up against. But it's me, it's now my job and i can fully own it, not just 'pretend'. Though, i do still feel a bit like i'm pretending. Hmmm.

Anywho, in typical me fashion, my body has recognised the build up to a long weekend and decided to get the cold that everyone else had two weeks ago. Thanks body. I am absolutely determined that it will not rain on my Easter. I won tickets to Summerset an there is no way i'm letting them go to waste...

The eyes have it

they are literally going to fall of my head. So, so tired. 

But, i did knit thermal on the bus all the way home. So strangely satisfying...

woohoo photos

Finally! She says

mmm pretty hydrangeas

recent stash enhancing fabric - same old story - who knows what will be made from either?

Late christmas present from my bro in Sydney...

progress on thermal (now on its way after 4 frogs)

and there has been plenty of magazine love in this house lately...

all together now - mmmmm johnny depp...

circular frustration

After spending ages on thermal this afternoon, i discovered it was twisted. Frogged again (third time). Damnit.

think i need to go looking for tips on how to not twist on my circulars.

work in progress

to help me deal with some tough things at the moment, i've cast on this in Naturally's Haven 100% (NZ) merino in a gorgeous eggplanty colour (batch 7344 to be hardout) . mmmm it's so nice to work with. did get about 5 rows done, but it wasn't in very good light and i'd dropped a stitch so the rib didn't line up. munter. just cast on again, hopefully i'll win this time.

my life in shades of purple

We finally got the mac set up in a cosy corner of our room. mmmmm it is so beautiful. the never ending saga of the photos continues - found the camera cord! but the batteries are dead. ugh. 

one of those days....had a great day at work, achieved heaps, then got home and crashed. I'm blue. The mess in the bedroom and study are driving me mad (we still don't have all our furniture sorted), i have reading from work i should be doing but i can't concentrate.

one of those evenings where i know what i would love to do with my life, you know, when i grow up. Sew. write. design. read. Not give my life over (that's what it feels like at the moment) to working for someone else's cause. 

Which is probably why i was so bummed, and then so very excited, after the two fairs on the weekend. Because i know i can do it. 

but for now, tim has bob dylan playing, i'm sitting on the bed lit by the glow of fairy lights and the computer screen, starting, finally, to relax. I can give myself a break. I'm doing ok. in fact, if i think about it, i'm doing more than ok, i just don't cut myself enough slack to give myself any credit for it. Kind of like i'm faking it. If stuff sells, surely it isn't because people like it? and if something clicks at work, surely it isn't because of my hard slog? And even though i've achieved this and that, all i can think of are all the other things i want to be doing - like having the energy to go for a run, or make something different for dinner for once, or to stay out late on the weekend with my friends. Catch up with friends full stop, even.

there's always tomorrow. huh, or is there?

the markets in four seasons

We had the most incredible weekend - Newtown Fair was the best fun i'd had in ages. Though I would have loved to be one of the people walking around checking out all the gigs, the stalls and the food, it was just as fantastic to be on the other side - meeting heaps of great people, having a boogie to the batucada band as they went down the street, being buffeted by the smell of the curry stall right next to us. Not sure how i managed to stop myself from buying anything from the second hand stalls on our other side - one of them had four MASSIVE boxes of fabric - i was gutted that i just didn't have time to crouch down and rummage.

but great fun was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and chatted, you made our day.

I still don't know where my camera cable is (three weeks after moving in!). I do promise to get some photos up soon.