2 hours of bellydance and finger cymbals!

I've decided I want to take my bellydancing a bit more seriously - so I've decided to step up my classes a bit.

I want to get to the stage where I can perform at one of the Hafla next year - because I basically got into bellydancing because I liked the performance aspect.

I've had trouble getting to two classes a week though just because I have so much else one - so I decided I will do two classes - one after the other - on Thursday night.

Last night was my first double bellydance class - and I am still exhaused the next day! Both classes were so full on!

But I did get to start to learn finger cymbals in the second class which was so much fun - even at this stage I have a pair of REALLY budget ones - but Rich has been asking what I would like for Christmas. A pair of nice brass finger cymbals are now officially on the list:)

Back to the Future

You may or may not know that Rich and I hate the supermarket and I mean HATE it with a passion. There is nothing good about supermarkets - they are crowded dens of commercialism and I hate them! But then we have to eat so we have to go.

Then once we have done shopping we have to wait around for a taxi because we don't have a car - the whole things is just painful.

But our problems may now be solved - the other day whilst surfing the net Rich happened to check out the Foodtown site and it turns out that to get groceries delivered is about the same cost as the taxi we normally get home from New World.

Humm so lets see pay $15 and NOT go to the supermarket and shop online OR pay $15 and go to the supermarket get annoyed at everyone and everything and go home grumpy. It's not too hard a choice really.

I do feel slightly weird about getting groceries delivered - in some ways it seems like something that should be reserved for the elderly or people with disabilities.

But that weirdness quickly passed, when I realised I don't have to go to the supermarket this week!!

Our groceries are going to be delivered tonight between 6pm and 8pm - excellent.

How CUTE is this!!

Check out this link to a knitted tofu pin cushion - it's the height of cuteness!

http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2006/06/15/tofu-for-you/

I'm a Barbie Girl - In a Barbie World

Seen as so many people loved my Barbie Bling (awww...thanks guys you rock) I decided to make some more as I thought it could help me make some coin in the upcoming Christmas market season. So I've now moved beyond earrings and into necklaces - I think when my next bundle of Barbie accessories turn up I shall make some charm bracelets.

Anyways - here's the current crop of Barbie Bling!

Pataka Markets

On Saturday I hung out with my friend Jo that I hadn't seen for ages - she took me out to Pataka Museum at Porirua for the markets.

I'd heard of these markets before but I had never been - they are very very cool! Much like Craft 2.0 - lots of cool local people creating lots of interesting things.

I bought these really cool watermelon earrings.

It was a bit annoying actually as a lot of people I know or at least have seen around at other markets had stalls there - but Rich and I never heard about a shout out for stalls so we weren't able to have one:(

Oh well - there's always Knack markets and Craft 2.0 plus the day was mostly to hang out with the lovely Jo.

Jacqui's Cell Phone Cover

A few weeks ago I was hanging out with my friend Jacqui, when she pulled her phone out of a fingerless glove! I thought her phone could do with a nicer home than a fingerless glove so I knitted her a cell phone cozy for her birthday. To be honest, her birthday was a few weeks ago now, but I did show her the cozy whilst it was in progress.

The cozy is now, however, complete! Here's a photo of it - all I need to do now is catch up with Jacqui and hand over her cell phones new home:)

Inspiration for a long term project!!

My new favourite website is http://www.craftzine.com/ and whilst checking it out the other day I found a project that is really inspiring that I want to make. Here it is -

How cool is this? It's like a rock and roll bedspread! Now I am the first to admit that the Black Crows and the doors aren't my thing. But with the right t-shirts I think I could make one that was pretty cool.

My vision is for a throw for our couch though rather than a bedspread - as after only two years our couch is looking a bit naff (my mum did warn me about buying burgundy coloured furniture and said it would show up every little stain and be hard to keep clean, but I wouldn't listen. Now I have a couch that shows up every little stain and is hard to keep clean!).

I'm not sure how many t-shirts I would need - but Rich has already volunteered three of his that are past their used by date (due to wear - not due to lack of being awesome) - so I already have Placebo, The Hives and Shihad for my t-shirt throw (I may also have Iggy Pop but Rich isn't sure if he can let Iggy go just yet).

I have had a look on trade me for music t-shirts but that was pretty slim pickings - they all seemed to be new t-shirts that people wanted to sell for around $25 a piece! Doesn't really work with my DIY dream!

So I think over the next few months I shall be checking out as many second hand shops as I can for band t-shirts worthy of our couch throw.

But if any of my dear friends out there have old band t-shirt of bands I may like - feel free to send them my way *hint hint*

For more information about the band bedspread above check out this blog -

http://wisdomofthemoon.blogspot.com/2007/10/oh-waitings-so-hard-to-do.html

Barbie Bling!

Here's a photo of my latest craft creation "barbie bling" - jewellery made from barbie accessories:)

The hardest part of this project was ACTUALLY finding barbie accessories - these days you can't buy barbie accessories separate from the dolls!

But never fear - that's what trade me is for - here's my first bunch of barbie bling.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JESS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!

A craft magazine that's actually cool!!

As we all know from the contents of my blog I LOVE craft - yes I really do!

There's something about creating something with your hands which just makes life better (especially when your day job is an office job where sometimes it feels like all you create is paper).

Some people laugh when I say I like craft, but they usually change camps when I show them the sort of craft I'm into - which is the alternative/DIY school of craft opposed to the crochet toilet roll holder school (not that I'm bringing crochet down! I have a crochet "how to" book I'm taking away with me on my Christmas trip).

Anyways - thus far I've bought some cool alt craft books and also searched the Internet extensively for alternative craft ideas. But the one thing I've been lacking is a decent craft magazine!

The other week I was waiting for a friend at Midlands Park and decided I'd check out Magnetix whilst I was there - as usually I avoided the "women's interest" section (what an oxymoron - a bunch of magazines made to make women feel insecure cannot be in our interest!) and checked out the Craft section thinking maybe I will find an interesting idea or two in the "Nana craft" magazines.

However, I came across an American craft magazine called "Craftzine" - the name was ALREADY a good start! Craftzine is my new favourite thing about crafting. It's a mix of stories about other crafters and "How to" for a variety of different projects:) I am looking forward to making the Japanese Candy Box purse.

Anyways - I loved it so much - I decided I needed more, more, MORE! So I have now subscribed to the magazine and have been kind of obsessively looking at their website over this weekend (so many many cool ideas for refashioned clothes!).

Here's the link for the magazine if any other alt crafters out there are feeling like they need some inspiration!

www.craftzine.com

Fireworks!

I love fireworks - growing up I think I anticipated Guy Fawkes evening with even more excitement than Christmas.

During the day mum would help me and my brothers make a Guy to burn (although when I was older and found out WHY we burnt a Guy I was kind of creeped out by it - but it was all good fun in the days of my innocent youth), then we'd help Dad collect wood and build up a bon fire and when it finally go dark Dad would like the fireworks and us kids would have sparklers.

The anticipation of each firework being lit was almost too much the handle - the joy when they lit up crazy colours and the surprise when it was one of those screaming ones and the disappointment when one of the fireworks was what Dad referred to as a "Fizzer" (put on a bit of a poor show or just didn't work).

But over the years the number of fireworks have diminished - when I was really young they banned double happy's. I remember this well as Dad bought up large and kept a pretty big stash in his writing desk which we gradually used up.

Next it was our friends the sky rockets - which I loved - especially when Dad would light a whole bunch at once.

I think other sorts have also been banned - sadly I haven't lit a firework in many years. Since moving in with Rich we have been confined to small units and apartments with no gardens or room for fireworks. But we are lucky enough to live in Wellington where the council does put on a beautiful fireworks display.

Public displays are all good - but they aren't the same as getting the whole family together in the back garden.

For years and years I've been against the idea of banning all fireworks. Not only is it a good chance for families to get together and have a laugh it's one of the few celebrations that hark back to my English (ok actually Cornish but close enough) roots.

Most other celebrations have been nicked from someone else but Guy Fawkes - even though it's kind of creepy in some ways - was mine! A celebration of my history! Of where I came from! It hadn't been commercialised and made tacky - it was just about the family getting together and lighting some fireworks in the back garden.

I was against the banning of Guy Fawkes because I refused to believe that as a country we were actually needed to have fireworks taken away from us - I mean - surely we're not that irresponsible?

But in the words of many a primary school teacher "One person's silliness will ruin this for everyone"!

On Friday night Rich and I were walking past the Mill Liquor Save - one of the flats at the top were having a party - nothing too unusual there...then we realised they were firing a Roman candle out of the window of the flat and down onto the street and the road. I'm not talking about silly 12 year olds here - I'm talking about people in their 20's who know that they are being MORONS!

Anyways, as we are walking along and thinking that this whole thing isn't too flash - they start aiming the fireworks on the foot path where we are walking. I'm going to give these moron's the benefit of the doubt and assume they were not trying to hit us directly and only trying to scare us. But either way - it's an incredibly stupid thing to do.

It was at that moment I realised that as a nation - we are too stupid to have fireworks and yes the government should take them away. We obviously can't be trusted. It's a pretty sad conclusion to come too after all these years of having a love affair with fireworks.

MO-vember

Yes it's that time of year again - I'm not sure if it's the same in all parts of New Zealand but I have to say in the public servant area of Wellington Movember has taken off with avengence!

I can't believe how many men there are around with mo's and there is a good wack of guys around growing the old school handle bar mo.

This year Rich is getting into to act as well and decided to grow a mo of his own - perhaps I'll be able to blog some photos of my "Mo man" at the end of the month.

If you have no idea what I am talking about you must be blind - or not living in NZ. Either way - if you want to know more about Mo-vember check out the link and you'll find out that this explosion of facial hair is all in the name of a good cause.

http://www.movember.com/nz/whatismov/07/What-is-Movember/?=adwords

"No new clothes" Manifesto

What the hell? Teresa not buying new clothes? What's going on? Well I tell you what's going on folks:)

Both Kat and I want to go travelling next year (to different parts of the world for different reasons) however, Kat and I are both clothes horses (I'm sure she won't be offended by my saying she's a clothes horse) which usually means spending a fair wack of money!

Recently Kat has been teaching me to sew and I have also been getting into the idea of altering stuff I already own and cheap and choice finds from the second hand stores into new stuff - great way to save some pingers and also to reduce my "carbon footprint".

Anyways Kat and I decided a good way to increase the time we spend crafting and decrease the amount of cash we spend on clothes was to make a vow of "no new clothes for the next 6 months".

This shall be tricky, and no doubt there will be slip ups along the way - but I think we can do it!

Here's my list of rules for "No new clothes" -

1. For the course of the 6 months I may buy fabric, second hand clothes (including second hand clothes from trade me), clothes from clothes swap parties - but no new clothes!

2. The exception to the first rule is I may buy new underwear, hoisery, togs and shoes (if they are a necessity - like if my gym shoes break)

3. Teresa and Kat shall have a regular sewing night!

4. At the end of the 6 months - we will much more fabulous, more personalised wardrobes than we have ever had before!

Let the games begin - as always - creations will be posted on my blog.

What is the tallest building in Melbourne anyways?

I didn't have too many plans for my final day in Melbourne, I was by myself again so felt like a cruisy day checking out the shops - but I did have one goal - I wanted to visit the tallest building in Melbourne and my guidebook told me this was the Rialto towers.

So taking the word of the guidebook as law I made my way to the Rialto towers and paid my money and headed to the top of Rialto towers.

When I was up in the Rialto towers I was damn sure that one of the buildings in the distance looked taller, and the staff kept saying that the Rialto tower was the "tallest residential building in Melbourne" so I thought something a bit fishy was going on - I got the distinct feeling my guidebook was sadly out of date!

After visiting Rialto towers I came across a man with an old fashioned horse and carriage - I'd seen them all over the city over the past few days and I kinda figured - I'm a tourist - I can do geeky tourist things! It was really great talking to the carriage driver as he gave me some insight into the city. Including the fact that the Eureka Towers was the tallest building in Melbourne at 88 stories high! He even gave me directions of how to get there - so I knew what my next task would be after the carriage ride was over.

My next adventure - head for the Eureka towers - which actually is the TALLEST building in Melbourne at 88 stories high (and the lift was much quicker than the one at work - even though that lift only has to servie 13 floors).

The Eureka towers were so tall my ears actually popped going up in the lift - but the view from the top was excellent.

A day of getting back to our childhood...

The Sunday I spent in Melbourne was a bit more laid back....which is good...that's what holidays are all about:)

After a slow start to the day (just to mix up the time difference even more - daylight saving started in Melbourne that day) we went out to Brunch and then headed to St Kilda for fun at Luna Park!

I think Luna park is meant for 10 year olds - but that wasn't going to stop Alaina and I - in fact it was an encourangement! We decided to go on the ghost train, the pirate ship (where we tried to out scream some adolescent boys) and finally the roller coaster! It was all so fun! Boggy had a fun time documenting our adventures - completing a "Photographic essay" of Trees and Ally in Luna park.

After hanging at Luna Park for a while Boggy and Alaina took me on a bit of a drive around Melbourne and pointed out some of the flasher areas with Amazing houses.

For the rest of the day we just chilled out and then Alaina and I headed out for Italian food - mmmm...tasty although one of the waiters was bloody cheeky - don't you hate it when someone thinks they are funny when they are CLEARLY not!

October 27th - Shooping, Shopping, Shopping!

As expected - I woke up pretty early - but I actually managed to get back to sleep and woke up at the more respectable hour of 7:00pm.

After getting ready, Alaina, Boggy and I headed out to Brunswick and had some yummy breakfat - it was so nice sitting out in the sunshine enjoying a nice meal of a beautiful day.

Boggy left after brunch and Alaina and I decided to head to the shop. Shopping in Brunswick is so cool - just like a much bigger Cuba Street. There's heaps of shops selling quite quirky designs and also quite a lot of shops selling things made by local Melbourne designers, which is always good.

So for there next few hours we shopped and shopped and shopped. It was so cool to hang out with Alaina and I really loved Brunswick as it had a really cool vibe and heaps of cool street art! It's fantastic!

Whislt shopping, a lady in one of the shops told us about a little market on a side street so we went down and checked it out. It was an incredibly cool market, Like Kraftwerk or Craft 2.0 in Wellington. I bought a few really cute a quirky things and talked to a few crafty people which was awesome - felt like being at home:)

After a rather LONG spot of shopping, Boggy picked us up and we all decided to hang out in the Botanical gardens for a while and just chill out with a cold drink as the day ended up being pretty warm.

We also checked out the Melbourne war memorial which was pretty amazing - there were some great views from the top.

I had decided early on in the day that I wanted to go to the Melbourne Sky Wheel, and Alaina finally gave into my whim and said she's come with me - so Boggy dropped us off at the Sky Wheel. The Sky Wheel is of course a big Ferris Wheel. It was pretty cool and had fanastic views of the city.

After our "adventure" on the Sky Wheel Alaina and I headed up to the arts centre to see if there were any interesting shows we could go to that evening and ended up getting tickets for a dance group - but the very cool thing was that for that performance only Sigueour Ros were performing the music! Which was pretty exciting:) It was an contemporary dance company which was cool as I'd never seen anything quite like it before. The dancers were amazing - so strong and also very graceful, but the costumes in the second part were SO ugly.

After the performance we went to search out somewhere for a (late) dinner. I wanted to eat at a Greek place, as we don't have a lot of Greek places in Wellington. When we arrived at the Greek place Alaina wanted to take me too the waiter was SO rude and smarmy we decided to try somewhere else instead. We ended up at a place called "World" and they had Mezze platters so I was very happy!

Later on October 26th....

So now I am feeling much less grumpy....

Arrived at Melbourne airport after a relatively nice flight and had to wait a while to declare Ally's mallowpuffs!But when I actually arrived out into the main entrance to hear Ally yell out "Trees" very excitedly I was really stoked and SO happy to be in Melbourne!

We went to Ally's to drop off my bags and so I could freshen up a little - seen as I had been awake since 2:40 am and when I got to Ally's it was already about 11:30 am NZ time. I met Ally's partner Boggy briefly and he drove us to town so we could have breakfast. I arrived at the restaurant wondering why I was feeling so hungry but then I realised I had breakfast very early and no morning tea and now it was about lunch time. We went to one of Ally's regular haunts near her work and I had some yummy muesli....tasty!

After breakfast/lunch Ally had to dash off to her office which gave me the rest of the morning in Melbourne to myself. I had decided on the plane that in my first day in the city I wanted to do two things 1) Visit Chinatown and 2) Vist the Old Melbourne Gaol. But for my first few hours in Melbourne I just ended up wandering about - I didn't even go into any shops (despite really wanting to go into a couple - but they were shut as it was before 10am).

I did get to go and have a wander around Federation square, and the one thing happened to me that always happens to me when I have no idea where I am...I got asked for directions - I guess that's good though, must look like I know what I am doing rather than looking like a lost tourist.

I manged to get back to Ally's work at 11:45 am in time for my pedicure which Ally shouted me as a holiday treat:) The pedicure was nice, and I got a shoulder and foot massage as well - although the beauty therapist pointed out I should be having massages more often due to the fact I lift weights and walk a lot (she kinda worked out I lifted weights and walked alot from all the tension in my back and feet). Maybe I should start going to those Friday evening massages at The Cross?

Ally had to leave straight after the beauty treatments - so it was time for more exploring of Melbourne by myself. I have to say I love the fact that A) Melbourne is in a grib pattern and B) that I had a map!I ended up visiting Chinatown first - I still can't believe that neither Auckland or Wellington have a Chinatown. The Chinatown in Melbourne is pretty darn cool - the streets look slightly different to the other streets in Melbourne as they have these awesome archways and cool oriental looking street lights and lots and lots of interesting shops - like a restuarant I found called "Post-Mao". A lot of the restaurants have women outside holding onto menu's telling you to come inside for food - I've never seen that in NZ but maybe it happens a lot in Asian countries?

The shops in Chinatown are very cool and sell the just plain tacky through to the "cutie cutie". The other thing I loved about Chinatown was that as well as cafe's they have tea houses:) I went to a Taiwanese tea house and had some blueberry tea - Wellington needs tea houses!

After Chinatown it was time to head for the Gaol - which is a huge and amazing looking building - I felt like I was walking around it forever until I found the entrance (at one stage I was wondering if I had the wrong building). The old Gaol is amazing but also creepy. It was the jail where Ned Kelly was executed, a lot of other people were also executed there - which did give me the creeps.

The Gaol also holds the death masks of people executed there and some are on display (including Ned Kelly's). Some of the cells are open just to have a look in and other cells have displays in them but they are all so small - I can't imagine people living in them without going crazy. The other scary thing was that originally there was no separate wing for the women prisoners - they were with the male prisoners and had male wardens - very scary stuff. Whilst I was there I managed to pick up an interesting book about women in the prison system to add to my collection.

After visiting the prison I still had some time before it was time to go and meet up with Ally and I felt like I had a bit too much reality for one day so needed to do something frivolous. So I decided to go and check out Melbourne Central, which is a big indoor Mall - malls arn't usually my scene, but earlier in the day I saw a very cool shop called "Dangerfield" but it was shut - but I was told there was another one in Melbourne Central.

It turned out Dangerfield was VERY cool (I visited twice more whilst in Melbourne!). It reminded me of Illicit in NZ - lots of cute Rockabilly style clothing. I ended up buying a really cute dress - blue with sailboats on it and a few other cute cardy's and tops and some sunnies and a t-shirt for Rich!

After I left the Mall I thought I would be late back to Ally's work - because I though I was lost - but I managed to get my bearings and arrive in time EXELLENT!

When I caught up with Ally we went out to have a drink with one of her friends, and then out to dinner at a cute Chinese restaurant called "Ginger Boy" with another of her friends.

Ginger Boy was really cool - one of those places that brings out a whole bunch of different meals to share - I liked the Chilli Tofu.

After dinner the three of us went out to a Chocolate Cafe - I was restraint and only had a hot chocolate - it was SO nice. It was such a beautiful night that we just sat about on the chairs outside the cafe and chatted for a while eating our desserts.

At the end of the evening it was only 9:30 pm or so Melbourne time - but that was about 12:30 or so NZ time and I was exhaused! I SO needed sleep!

Friday 26 October - time 4:29am - waiting for flight to Melbourne

Here's an extract from my Journal whilst waiting for my flight to Melbourne.

The things I do for friendship!

I'm waiting at Wellington airport at 4:29am waiting to board my flight to Melbourne at 5:35am - I am already SO tired.

The waiting is always the worst part. I left Aro at about 3:30am, then the taxi driver told me that the airport doors only open at 4:00am!

So I am now at a loss as to what to do for the next hour or so - I've already checked out the Duty Free. I am seriously considering buying an Ipod or some other type of Pod that plays MP3's - but I think I'll wait till after I've left Melbourne.

The food places here at the airport are already open and people are already eating heavy greasy breakfasts first thing in the morning - perhaps more out of boredom than anything else?

I have to say that there are VERY limited healthy vegetarian options at Wellington Airport at 4:36 am on a Friday morning.

I guess I will wander a bit - I am meant to buy vodka for Kat and Cigarettes for Fiona but I think I will buy those when I leave Melbourne to use up the last of any Australia cash I may have.

Perhaps I will go to Whitcoulls and buy a magazine to keep me entertained - but then - all magazines you can buy at Whitcoulls for women are tripe! I really don't want to read Cosmo or Cleo or Women's weekly.

Bring on Melbourne I say!