Cuba Street Carnival was friggin incredible. 

I'm not going to go crazy on it here, so jump over here instead to see how OutdoorKnit rocked the place. Oh yeah.

Yesterday i returned to the scene of the crime and then took a wander along the left bank alley. That place has got it going on, graffiti wise at the moment. I can't wait to get to London and spy me some Banksy! 

[this is where there should be some photos. but blogger doesn't want to upload them. boo]

There is now less than a week until i head off. If i had a dollar for every time i'm asked if i'm excited, i'd have enough for the flight home by now. Yep, i'm excited. But all the excitement is for things i'll be doing this week before i go, rather than the leaving itself. There are so many amazing people in Wellington (and the rest of NZ) that i will miss enormously. So it's lucky we've got the interwebs to keep us all connected, right?

I think i'm ready. I'm sewing a jacket and a high-waisted skirt, i have quite a bit of knitting to get done, and i have to decide if i take any of my sewing tools with me. Do i take my sewing scissors, for example. I have lots of people to see and farewell - not that i'm keen on the farewell bit. Might live in denial sometime longer and just say, see you later. Cos i will. See you all later...

oops, i lost track of time. 

The past three have consisted of three things: moving, cleaning and driving between the hutt and wellington. Joy of joys. My body is so tired, i think i'll treat it to a bath a bit later. 

But now,  a few blogs that I enjoy. Because, mainly, they have pretty pictures. I'm a bit too slack to update my blogroll, see....

First, Meet Me At Mikes. Please? once upon a time, i lived in Melbourne, and i went to this shop. It was at the end of a long luxurious day wandering (and buying) at the Bridge Street shops. They had cool stuff. But i'd spent all my money. I think that since i was there in 2006, they've evolved into something a bit different, and now there is a second shop, in my fave part of town, Fitzroy. 

The Craft: blog is always full of cool stuff too. Every once in awhile i'll consider buying the mag when i'm in Magnetix, but it's a bit pricey here and to be honest, i'm not so keen on the layout of the thing. But the blog is full of great, random crazy ideas that makes one appreciate just how many awesome crafty creative people are out there. Also makes one feel a tad inadequate and wonder, 'would i have ever thought of that??'

And for some glam: this chick finds some beautiful things. I love looking for and finding beautiful images (one of the wondrous discoveries of first year design) but it's not something i think to do very often. 

During the madness I did find the time to have coffee with a friend and spot some more graffiti. One has to stay sane, ya'know. The current obsession is with paste-ups. Just that much more depth than a spraycan.

I am doing some serious procrastination. Packing? What packing? Ahem. So I bring you my mood board ( just turned into my desktop) 

And pics from my wander round town in the glorious sunshine. If they ever upload.

random randomness

A few random thoughts today (sorry no pics still - i'm working on it)

Is it just me or is the traffic in wellington, especially from the city to the southern suburbs (miramar, kilbirnie) and from those burbs to the bypass, getting craaaaaaaaaaaazy? Every evening, tim picks me up and we go home together, and inevitably get stuck in traffic. Each day it seems to be backed up further...so i suggested to tim he write a letter to Annette King, Minister of Transport, to have a whinge. Which begged the question: What is the root of the problem? I thought he'd say, well, obviously it's the Mt Vic tunnel being only one lane each way. But the 'round the bays' traffic is just as bad, if not worse. So he surprised me by saying, 'look at all those f***ers in the cars by themselves. It's all these people driving with only one person in the car.' And that's totally it. But what can be done, besides enforcing carless days that can combat the problem? Subsidising public transport is one idea, but would Welly's bus system cope? I'd dare say not. The bus drivers at least would become more insuffereable than they already are.

What piqued my curiosity today was, whilst stuck in said traffic, the girls in the hi viz vests giving out pamphets and talking to the motorists stuck in the traffic coming out of the mt vic tunnel going into the bypass. What were they talking to them about? Maybe the boy and i should set up a car pooling thingy and use the same approach - talk to drivers while they're stuck in traffic. Cos i'm not over committed already.


My other thing at the moment is contemplating the use of someone else's work as your own 'art'. A local artist has an exhibition coming up or is currently on (not too sure) and she has photographed the work of local taggers and graffiti artists and is having an exhibition of it. Well, sure she wants to give away copies of the images to any of those responsible that come forward, but is it really her right to use the images for her own gain in the first place?

I must admit here that some of the images the boy and i use for cards are of graffiti. My decision in our case was a) the work is all australian (the photos were all taken when in Melbourne) and b) the images rely substantially on our own ability to compose a photograph to give it value. I decided about this time last year that while both the boy and I have taken images of graffiti around town, I would never use them for our own gain. Unless somehow we got in contact with the artist and had explicit permission to do so. That effort would be a bit beyond me.

Having said that, no, i haven't seen the photographs. Maybe i should. And i actually own one of the artist's works. ironic.

After that ranting, i suppose i should mention what craftiness is going down. Mainly bag making, so nothing much exciting really. I am totally in love with my wee haven that is my new sewing room - it is bliss to have my little hidey room where i can be in my own little world. the boy isn't used to it - the other night he came in with a 'oh, so that's where you are' - he'd been looking for me and couldn't figure out where on earth i had gone. brilliant.