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.

rain on my parade...sort of

We made if to about 3pm at Martinborough fair before the skies opened on us, and we called it a day.

And i'm not sure if i'm ready to call it a success. We did meet heaps of cool people, our stuff was well received (we had some great feedback on our photography), it was pretty relaxing. But, considering what we came away with, i think Martinborough just doesn't have quite our target market wandering around. Looking at some of the other stall that I loved, i have a suspicion that they walked away from today thinking the same.

Here's hoping for Newtown fair tomorrow - if only it would stop bloody raining. Why, Wellington, must you be gloriously sunny all week when i'm stuck at work and then turn the taps on full on the weekend?

It's all good for the farmers though, I guess.

not so fun times in the sunshine

I have a fast whinge to do about the Khandallah fair. It was ass. Reasonable amount of people, but lots of looking not much spending, and as a result i think the stall charges were way too much. I only just broke even. Which has made me wonder if our product is any good, if we should keep doing it...but we've got a new order, so i'll stick with it for now. 

But, if anyone would like some Christmas cards! Let me know - i have squillions. Say i'll give ten to anyone for free. Send me an email i'll put them in the post. :)

oh and i completely melted in the sun. It was hideously hot - 27 degrees! in wellington! that never happens, climate change is rearing its head, baby.

so to compensate for the whinge i am going to announce my total adoration of paperchase right now. I absolutely adore their Christmas decorations. It doesn't help that i seem to end up in borders all the time, browsing when i have nothing else to do on my lunchbreak. Which is how i ended up with the coolest bell decorations. They even jingle. Tim had fun juggling them. Only bummer - they don't with any ties so i have to go get some ribbon so i can put them on the tree. Now i just have to stop buying things for myself and start buying presents for others. It's the cruelty that is Christmas - you spend so much time looking, and all you seem to find is stuff for yourself. 

woohoo photos!

they're a bit crap -which is what happens when you take them at about 9pm, i suppose!
Awesome present from the boy number 1: a dewey decimal catalog chest originally from Vic Uni in Wellington - where i studied. It is beeeeeeeeeautiful. all rimu...now i have a gazillion draws to stash my stuff in. woohoo!

Awesome birthday present from the boy number 2: my very own, mint condition Polaroid camera. It is insuch good condition, the tape around the strap hasn't even been taken off yet...i get the feeling i'm the first person to use it. I got some happy snaps at dinner last night that i will try and scan when we get the mac all set up.And finally, i have to do a morning tea shout for my birthday, and i've been so busy i haven't been able to do it yet. Tomorrow is the day - Tim helped with the decoration.

i'm actually just looking around and seeing all the other stuff i should take photos of and post about - like our purchases from the market on saturday, my christmas present works in progress...but they'll just have to wait. I'm taking friday off because i quite simply need a break - and hopefully i won't get all stressy, like i did in the weekend, about how i really should go in and catch up.

my grand plan for the day: some serious card making pre-khandallah fair, some $100 art sale stalking so i can decide in advance what i'm going to buy on the night, and hopefully some purging of stuff that is taking up too much space in our flat - bring on trademe! and bring on the weekend already - i can't believe i'll be waking up to wednesday tomorrow. Gees.

sleep, glorious sleep

I can't believe it's already 6pm on Sunday. Where has my weekend gone?


Friday night i was so exhausted i went to bed at 8, and when the boy got home around midnight and he said hello i could barely lift my head. The most frustrating thing was that i woke up at 6.10 am on saturday morning and couldn't get back to sleep again...so i eventually gave up, started sewing and organised everything for the market so the boy got to stay in bed til 9.


I'm super glad we did make it to the market - it is enforced relaxation time. I can sit and chat to people and hand sew and don't have all those niggly household jobs hanging over my head. It was a pretty quiet day yesterday but we still did ok. The best part of the day though was when a strange man quickly and quietly handed me a wad of papers - application forms for three local markets. woohoo! So in the coming months we will (hopefully) also be doing: the khandallah fair (9 Dec); the Newtown Fair (2 March); the Kilbirnie festival (6 April) aaaand all going well the two martinborough fairs in february and march next year. actually that would mean two fairs in two days but we'll have to plan well for that one.


Anyway i'll be glad of the excuse to make more ipod covers - when i was up at 7.30 yesterday sewing i remembered how much i love making them - they are actually relaxing, and i love putting together different fabrics and thinking of new embroidery designs to put on them. They haven't done terribly well at the aro market thus far but i don't think it's quite the right audience for them anyway.

And i just half-succesfully made us pho for dinner. (i think it's vietnamese soup). It worked really well considering i improvised on a few ingredients - but that is the story of my life.

Enough boring writing, here are some random photos.


I realised there wasn't a single pic of me on here. totally anonymous no more! Me and a very hairy boy on the way back from a trip to the mountain. Oh, for some snow!
And i didn't get to have any of my lovely toast this weekend due to lack of peanut butter in the house. Dumb. Maybe next weekend.
Not terribly exciting photos but i promise to work harder on that front. Here's to another mad week...

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.

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 :)

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.