The one where I out myself...

I am half of the Wellington graffiti knit crew, OutdoorKnit.

And we're going to be at the Cuba Street Carnival! yay! For more info, go here.

And apologies for not keeping on with the fabric sale thingy - i'm plodding my way through the most hard core job application i have ever had the pleasure of completing. But it's not complete. Oh well, I have until 5am NZ time to finish it. Not sure of my chances, but no harm in trying, right? And I need all the practice i can get. 

Don't mind me while i swear and whinge about how my mac is currently refusing to have any sort of consistent net connection. I think it hates me because somehow it found out that i sold it. boo.

Woops, missed a day on the great fabric fire sale. Never fear, another day is here!

So above are three cottons - the one in the top right hand corner is quite light, and the other two are quilting/craft weight. Now because i'm lazy i haven't measured them. They're not huge, but they're not tiny either. Again, $5 plus p&p (about a dollar, i'd guess). email me at tashbarneveld at hotmail dot com if you're keen. The spotties from the other day are still available too.

You may remember my ranting about how crappy my year was last year. It was crap. I'm now all focussed on the future, and making the most of all opportunities. Which involves, of course, reading my horoscope and ignoring all the ones which are bad or i don't like.

I haven't had reason to ignore many, in fact i've pulled a few out of the paper just because they've been so good. (nikki, these are all yours too!)

Here's a selection:

Today's, on msn:

Don't let things bother you, dear Sagittarius. Have confidence that you are on the right track...

hmm i seem to have lost one of them. oops. oh well.

Here's my 2009 one from the Sunday Star Times:

'...2009 represents the first year of an astonishing climb. You could be the next Bill Gates. It's all possible now.'

How appropriate. I wonder if I should try get a job at Microsoft...or at least finish filling in the London job applications i've got...

i'm starting to get a bit impatient. London is getting ever closer, and yet six weeks still feels an eternity away.

The job hunt has begun. Well, the browsing has, at least. I finally know what i want to do with my life - arts administration, politics, or run my own craft business. And i'm not particularly keen on going into limbo with any of those things while i'm away.

However, if none of those work, i reckon i could be a barista.

Coffee used to scare me. Well, the concept of making it did. And i hated the thought of getting hooked on the stuff. Now a total coffee snob, i refuse to drink anything other than espresso with frothed milk aka the latte, and can't stand the taste of instant. bleugh.

Which provided a bit of a hurdle on the savings game. $4 a day for a coffee with london town on the horizon caused internal conflict. Coffee not only provides a tasty beverage, but precious 'me' time over the paper, or people watching, or writing. 

Then my mum bought a coffee machine (oh yeah, did i mention that i'm officially back in the parental abode? yusss). 

mmmmm. 

Savings galore and now i'm training myself in the art of making the perfect coffee. Still haven't quite got the hang of making the milk look all pretty, but i'm working on it. 

oh and i made macaroons to stave off the boredom. recipe? oh yeah alright:

from the Australian Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits

2 eggs, separated

pinch salt

3/4 cup of sugar

3 cups coconut

and i added chocolate chips, and you could probably other nuts and other fun things too

beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition; beat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in coconut (and chocolate), mix well. Spoon level teaspoons of mix onto foil lined over trays. Bake in moderate oven (i used about 170) 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool.

Easy peasy!

Right i better go find something productive to do. Rather looking forward to the inauguration of Mr Obama tomorrow, even if it does mean getting up at 5.30am to watch it. Oh if you haven't already - go see Frost/Nixon. Fantastic. I heart Sam Rockwell. The acting is quite simply spectacular.

Grey's Anatomy therapy - part 2.0

Yesterday I left my office for the last time. I didn't really want to leave. I kinda liked my job. I really liked the people I worked with, and the endlessly dynamic environment.

As i got in my car to go, the cathedral bells tolled. How appropriate.

I had coffee at the Dowse, and wandered round the 17th Annual Wallace Art Award exhibition. I love the Wallace exhibition. I wrote notes - which will become the next blog post.

At my parents', i sat on the couch and put on season one of Grey's Anatomy. Ahhh, bliss. Having already covered off season two and three a couple of months ago, it's quite nice to watch episodes where Meredith and McDreamy's relationship is still entertaining. Mmmm McDreamy. I could do with one of those.

Complete, unadulterated pop culture. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it frustrates me and makes me think. Best of all, it makes me feel better.

i'm baaaack and revealing some little secrets.

Whew. That was mad. Still is, in an end-of-school, it's almost Christmas, don't have a job  much longer sort of way.

Secret number one: I worked in the office of the guy who won in this electorate in the weekend.

ok so that's my only secret really. and lots of people knew it already. It meant lots of very long days, weekends, and actually quite a lot of drinking to keep me sane (is that a contradiction or what?). 

But it was a total blast. Working in the office has been amazing - I have met some incredible people, been to some pretty cool places (even if they were only in the Hutt) and have a new appreciation of our society. 

I even got to hang out with the now former PM a couple of times. And get her coffee. Oh the exciting life I lead.

But now my boss heads into opposition and I have plans of my own. 

I am free to head off into the big wide world and take advantage of the perks of my Dutch passport. So my plan moving forward is to do a whole pile of work on this project, be a starving artist for a few months until my lease expires, and then jump on a plane to London.

It also means i have much more time for blogging. 

So tonight, Matthew, I have some random bullet points:

• I don't drink coffee. I now have a two-a-day habit. My little walk across the road to Green Land below the Ministry for the Environment building is a little ray of sunshine. They are awesome. Try their afghans.
• I am going to run every day now i have the time. I am slightly more round post-campaign and none too happy about it
• I love voting.
• I love sleeping.
• I finally got my socialising groove back. I know some pretty damn cool people, and am so lucky to get to hang out with them.
• I'm sad to be back at my flat and no longer have the daily company of my family (hi mum!), who fed me and gave me a bed to sleep in for the last two weeks, and then put up with grumpy me on sunday morning.
• I love taking photos and am determined to carry my camera everywhere with me from now on.
• I think a nation is measured by the way it treats its most vulnerable. And i'm concerned the new government won't treat them so well. But good luck to them. I'll be back in 2.5 years to help win the next campaign.

Expletives to follow

I am ready to have a big fuck off tanty. Evidently with lots of swearing.

I am so done with flatmates. I am so sick of being the leaseholder and therefore responsible for paying rent if someone leaves. I am so sick of people taking advantage. I am sick of fussy people who have no idea. I am sick of the stupid women who work in my office and talk shit all day and have the productivity levels of sloths. 

Have i mentioned that i asked horrible flatmate to move out? Yay for that! he's gone! And i thought i'd found a lovely lovely new crafty relaxed flatmate. She moved in, put her cute stuff around the house, and then decided to move out because the room gave her asthma. She said it was damp. She has a ventilation duct right into her room, it isn't mouldy, it gets the sun - all things that are hard to find in wellington. 

You'd think she would have considered the fact that all her stuff had been in storage for months and would be all nice and dusty. I think the real story is she found somewhere else. And now she wants her bond back straight away, when i've just paid out someone else's, am already paying rent for two rooms and now have to find someone else to go into that room. Talk about fucked off. And of course i'm too nice to say no, she has to wait until i get paid or get someone else in the room.

I am tired, I know have to clean the flat for people to come round tomorrow night, and i am seriously not in the mood to play nice Tash and hope that someone else wants to move in.

Besides that, i now have two highly irritating women working in my office instead of just one. I have to listen to them talk crap all day (one has an extremely high opinion of herself) and am painfully aware that they aren't remotely productive and aren't actually doing the job very well. It makes it so hard to concentrate and get my own work done, especially when i'm already tired and stressed by other things. 

It's all bad enough that I just want to call my mum and have her make everything better. 

Work. Is. mad. I. Am. tired. 

mulled wine, hot fire and dinner to decide upon.

still not sleeping well. boo. 

but snowboarding sunday. Yay. 

that is all. 

soonness

no, it's not a word. But soon-ness is how i'm feeling tonight. Everything is 'soon' at the moment. Waiting, with baited breath, when some things are going to happen. I'm going to have to be prepared, but i'm excited. Work is going to take off and go nuts, but i can't wait. I've had a few days of super good work stuff going on and i'm getting my mojo back. Goodness knows i need it.

and i'm hanging out to get a snapper card. So few people have them yet i'm all super jealous whenever i see someone actually USE those cool teardrop shaped things on the bus (which also make a great noise). Pay day next week may call for the purchase of one. 

i'm also quite looking forward to the weekend - a bit of cooking dinners to freeze for the next few weeks, some baking and hopefully finishing thermal - so close to being done i can almost smell it!

blogging. um stuff

oh. ah right. blogging. that thing i do. normally when sober. 

let me explain. i'm normally a nice relatively undrunk lass. of late, my colleagues have led me astray. which is why i am sitting in the dark eating fish and chips at 9.32pm on a tuesday night. when any reasonable person would be getting ready for bed, soberly, and anticipating the next day. nope not me. led astray. 

so err, happy - we won netball last night. Can't remember the rest. though the boy feigned serious illness yesterday and guilted me into cooking him dinner after netball. only to be revealed that he had been drinking til 4am monday morning. where is my dinner? hm?!

and it seems that when i am drinking, i talk. alot. (i knew that) the worrying thing is, it seems to all be about knitting. oh dear.

I am now apparently knitting a fluffy red beanie and a scarf or beanie (which ever strikes my fancy) for two office males. hmm.

now i feel slightly ill from greasy chips and much gin and tonic. and vodka. oops. fun times, though...

advice, please

Work has become a series of brick walls that I keep smacking my head on, so by the time i get home all i want to do is collapse in a heap and shut the rest of the world out...only to do it all again the next day. I am the kind of person who wants to do the best possible job no matter what, but it's proven yet again that my personal life is what suffers. oh and my head. My body is now yelling STOP and i don't know what to do bar taking two weeks off, which is currently not an option. 

Anyone have any no fail ways to deal with such things? bar knitting (which is also currently stressing me out cos i don't really know what i'm doing at this stage of thermal) and spending loads of money that i don't have.

In the meantime I have hot shoes and just made the very last payment on my half of our car. woohoo!

I am in Sydney! On holiday, officially, though i just spent 45mins working through emails to sort out some niggly things...painful, that.

So far I have:

• had numerous asses connect with my shoulder as people pushed by my seat to get to the toilet on the plane
• walked around Balmain with my big bro (so much to look at! why didn't i take my camera?)
• scoped out shops to visit tomorrow and saturday (Tapestry Craft are having a SALE and Tessuti (a fabric shop apparently) is just down the road)
• worked. see my grumpy face
• felt the need to collapse in a heap and sleep for hours - which i will be able to do in oh, about twenty minutes. bliss.

Just 'cos

More of the same really - pottering along, work isn't too crazy at the moment which is wonderful - i've been coming home lately not feeling totally stretched to the limit and wound up. So I can just potter around and bake chocolate cakes. And spend too much time on the net. 

Am trying to sort things out so i can go on a date tomorrow (is it a date? not sure. hmm) without having to come home after and stress about all the things that need doing before i go to Taupo for the weekend and a newbie moves into the flat on Saturday (while i'm not here! uh oh!).

Confused? Me too. 

I'm also really bummed because i'm missing THREE fairs by going away this weekend. I committed myself to the trip before i realised. So to anyone who goes to Aro Street Market, Mighty Mighty Market or Kilbirnie Fair, have a great time for me!

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...

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?

freaking friday

woohoo, a photo!

I had the foresight to take tomorrow off from work before the crazy early mornings and long days that i'll be having this weekend, and boy am i glad i did. It felt like friday today - slightly crazed, over tired and stressed out which meant i was oddly perky and happy. hmm, weird how that works. The cupcakes someone shouted for morning tea probably contributed.

Work has been seriously busy and 'home' work has been just as bad, making bags for the coming markets.

There have been some great moments this week though - donuts for tim from Pak'n'save, actually seeing some finished products, getting my christmas present from my bro in sydney along with a letter (more on that in another post), being told that someone is starting work in our office next week to help me - this has got to be the best. I'll be able to hawk off all the crap that has building up over the past few weeks that is still technically part of my job but super, super low on the priority list. Those things that need to be done simply to keep the office ticking along nicely. and, err, i'm brushing up a bit of paperwork.

one of those days...

i couldn't focus, couldn't concentrate on anything. Ate too much crap (morning tea shout was on), didn't go for that much needed run at lunchtime (though no doubt that would have made me feel way better) and felt like i was achieving absolutely nothing. For several reasons I didn't get alot of sleep last night and man did it show today. About all i could manage was a bit of not-much-effort-required work. Like, filing, stuffing envelopes, the boring but mindless stuff. Anything beyond that and my brain would stop functioning.

But this evening has made it a bit better - cabbaging out over a huge glass of wine and then we went to Aunty Mena's vegetarian place up the top of cuba. We were going to haunt the 'fluorescent chinese place' but decided to be different for once and try somewhere new. It was awesome, and super duper cheap. I barely got halfway through my dumpling noodle soup, and the boy's curry had so much flavour. I was fascinated by the lady standing in the back kitchen doorway cutting up and pulling apart cabbages...she had the look of someone so calm and at peace with herself. I wish i'd had a camera with me, so i could capture her...maybe next time.

There were some generally fascinating people around tonight - the lady who crossed the road half way on taranaki street and proceeded to stare oddly at something on the ground, the girl driving the car next to us at the lights squealing that 'oh my god i so just a random text' to the guy next to her who was giving tim big ups and going 'yeahhh red terror!' Ahem. The red terror is the boy's mini. He used to own it once upon a time, sold it to work at Ruapehu for a winter season, always regretted it, and then when it came up on trademe recently he bought it back. Have i talked about this already? well, he didn't ask me about it. So i am still not convinced that we need two cars.

right. sleep time.

is it friday already?

man this is awkward - lying on the bed, resting on my elbows to type on the laptop.

Not sure how i'm still functioning really - has been the maddest week. And was a super mad day today - fridays always are at work, which is a bit of a killer.

But somehow i managed to make a pattern and do masses of ironing (stash got washed and dried today) and a little bit of cutting out. Hopefully i'll be able to dedicate sunday to sewing...oh can't wait! plan for tomorrow - out to petone fair, maybe try and hunt out some drawers and a desk for the flat (my clothes have nowhere to live), and then see if i can sell some clothes to recycle boutique before spending all my money again at the global fabrics sale. mmmmmmmmmmmm fabric. might see what knit world has going at the same time...

next week we should have the mac all set up and i'll be back to more regular posting - have a fab weekend!

absent WIPs

I had every intention of posting photos today, but now that i've got around to it i've lost all the good light. Hold on, i'm going to do a quick scoutaround to see if anywhere in my mini flat has some decent sunshine. 

OK, got some, in the lame-ass kitchen light. Woop woop. 

Surprisingly, i had a brilliant working day. I finally cleared 95% of my backlog of 

work, and boy, is that a good feeling. I still have loads of administrative stuff to get done, but i have a plan of attack for that. It's called telling my boss on Tuesday that i can't do either job justice whilst i'm doing two, so could she please get someone in to help me? or at least tell the other naughty children in the office to give me a hand with yes, the mundane jobs that noone ever wants to do. And this week has revealed to me that i am confident enough to say that i can do the more senior job, but whether it is offered to me or not is a total dark area to me. I have no idea of the intentions there. So, like most things, it's wait and see. The story of my life.

In the meantime, I have this damned cold to get over - and going from how long tim has been suffering for, i could be stuck with it for awhile yet. Fingers crossed i'm not coughing and blowing for the wedding this time next week. 

I also picked up 330 photos that i had printed for cards for the fair today. Thank goodness it's a long weekend and i'm too broke to do anything! And i added another work in progress to my pile - i decided i'd make myself a clutch rather than buy a bag that really isn't in my budget or quite what i'm looking for, so, use your imagination:

Basically what i'm heading towards is a simple rectangular bag, zip along the top, and a loop coming out the side that i can put my hand through to make it easy to hold. The coral colour is a bit darker than the secondary colour of my dress, so that is going to be the lining - i'm loving how it warms the colour of the silk so it's pinker. All for a grand total of $10.30. Brilliant.

and going full-tilt with my stole - it's not going to be quite what i wanted, but as with everything, i don't have time. Especially not the approx 4 weeks it would take me to knit a lace pattern in it. Photo of progress tomorrow, perhaps?

Lastly, we have another open home tomorrow. which means more cleaning. fun-ho. At least the place is pretty much under control - a bit of removing the clothes from one wardrobe (the floor) to another (the real one) and a swipe at the dust that collects with abandon in the bathroom. That should do it. 

and um, actually lastly - another WIP - one that takes virtually no work at all. I can't wait to eat all my lovely home grown relatively organic baby tomatoes, that have been feed with worm wees which started off as our food scraps. Ahh, the circle of life.

i heart christmas

especially because i just had a work lunch. along with said lunch i imbibed perhaps two glasses of wine more than i should have. All attempts at work are rendered futile. Must abort. More work drinks commence at 1800 hours. uhoh.

title? hmmm

nope, can't think of a title.

I have been at the office for 3.5 hrs now (figure that out - it's 11am) and have done approximately an hour's work. unless you count all the phone calls i've taken, that might edge it up a bit.
But figuring i have working been my little ass off for the past month, i figure i can finally have a morning of slackness.

Slackness has also been seen on the exercise front this week due to the wind deciding to make itself known again, which doesn't bode well for bike riding. And i've wanted to do things other than run with my lunch hours lately. Hopefully i'll be in the mood to go for one when i get home, or my waistline may be in big trouble.

On the exciting news front, i bought a computer! well, the boy and i did really. A shiny new imac. We went into the mac shop the other day to buy it, but after some confusion, they didn't have the one we wanted in stock. 4-6 weeks to wait for it. My ass. I got a bit stroppy. What made me more stroppy was the fact that the VERY NEXT DAY they had a full on magazine style brochure in the paper advertising the freaking thing. Talk about good business - not - if you don't have it in stock, why are you doing a mega promo of it?
So in protest i went online and bought it, and we should have it in about 2 weeks, if not sooner. woohoo! I guess maybe i should be nice and call the store to say we don't want theirs anymore...

And it's the weekend tomorrow. I have coffee with a friend, shopping and crafting of the christmas and market stall kind. happy, happy day.

ok now maybe i should do some work.