George A. Romero's: Diary of the Dead

So it is coming up to one of my favourite times of the year, International Film Festival time!

But this is also ALWAYS one of the most frustrating times of the year also as there are so many interesting and crazy films on that I want to watch and I never have enough time (damn having to work for a living!) or enough cash to see everything I want to see.

I have to admit - film festival time also always leaves me wondering why we must endure so many crap movies at the cinema when there are so many excellent films being made. I guess it's the same reason why I must endure so much awful music when there is so much incredible music being made - if anyone knows the reason why please tell me!

Often by the time Rich and I get around to buying tickets some of the films we want to see have sold out. This year - we decided to make a list from the outset of what we want to see, and then we culled this list, and culled it again and managed to get the list down to ten films.

We haven't yet bought tickets for all of these films, but last week I did go and buy tickets to one of the films as I cannot miss out on it!

The film is George A Romero's:Diary of the Dead - unless you're are a zombie/horror movie freak you will, in all likelihood have no idea why I MUST see this film and why I MUST see it at the cinema. Put simply - George A Romero is the godfather of zombie movies, in fact, I'm not sure zombie movies would really exist without him- he's made all the best zombie films - Return of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead as well as a few other more random horror films like "The Crazies".

Put simply if you love horrors and you love zombie's George A Romero is the man - and I have to say I am more than just a bit excited to have two tickets to "Diary of the Dead" sitting in my wallet right now!

Ange's Birthday Celebrations

Over the weekend it was my friend Ange's birthday celebrations out at her place in Johnsonville, it's been far too long since we've been out at Ange's so I was really looking forward to it - plus Ange always makes the most amazing food (and always takes into consideration vegetarian types like me).

So it was good just to hang out, have a fun meal have a few drinks and celebrate Ange's birthday!

The very very tasty and very very cute cake that Ange made - it was from a healthy cook book too - healthy and tasty is possible!

Ange's Paper Bead Necklace

So this is something I've wanted to make for a while, and I thought the lovely Ange would appreciate a necklace made from paper beads so I decided that seen as it was her birthday I should get sorted and suss this project out.

I turned out to be a bit more time consuming that I thought it would be, what with all the cutting and cutting again and rolling up and gluing and varnishing and threading. But I think that the final result was pretty worth it!

Bead Making Class!

Recently, it was decided that the craft group needed to move beyond just everybody sitting around the table doing their own thing. A few of us thought it would be a good idea to introduce a teaching component into the mix. So recently I taught the first class - it was an earring making class.
Even though I have been doing jewellery making for years the thought of actually teaching other people something was a bit dauting - luckily for me only three people showed up. May sound like a poor turn out but it took the pressure off me a lot.

In the end I decided to teach those that turned up (Kat, Fiona & Celia) some simple dangly star earrings.

Fiona's Whale Brooch

So a few weeks back when it was Fiona's Birthday I decided to make her a softie - but so it was a more useful softie I decided to make it a brooch as well. It was a bit of a big brooch though so I think it may live out it's life attached to a bag rather than a top!

Amazing Fiona's Amazing Cupcakes!

It was recently my lovely friend Fiona's birthday and to celebrate she held a good old fashion tea party out at her place - with pretty little cups and saucers and the most AMAZING cupcakes I have ever seen all made by Fiona and her friend Sarah - just look at how cute they are!

Our Anniversary Weekend in Nelson

So a few weekend back Rich and I went to Nelson for the weekend to celebrate our 6 year anniversary! I'm not sure where those 6 years went...ok....now I am sounding seriously old!!

For the first part of our trip my camera didn't work - due to the batteries being flat (which was very hard for a photo geek to cope with) but then I managed to hunt down a dairy and get some good quality batteries and I was on my way with mad photo taking again.

Here's a few shots from our trips - firstly the cathedral and the surrounding park, as well as some of the lovely buildings in Nelson.





These photo's were taken from the top of our motel at sunset - I can't even begin to describe how cold it was up there at sunset. The days in Nelson were nice and Sunday but the evenings chilled to the bone! (But I admit I am an uber wuss when it comes to cold!)




The next day we decided to walk to the top of the hill where the "Centre of New Zealand" is, there was a trig up there but I am not actually convinced it's the centre point of New Zealand but then I am a complete cynic! Along the way we came across more lovely scenery - lots of pretty parks and trees with their autumn leaves.



The view from the centre of New Zealand over Nelson




After the centre of New Zealand we did a few more wee walks around the city and came across a few amazing old "manor" type houses like this one.




Our final morning in Nelson - with the sun shining!


Returning home to Wellington from Nelson (and before you ask, yes when we touched down in Wellington it was raining!)

A Long Saturday Night Out!

So this Saturday just been was my good friend Ross' birthday - so he invited Rich and I out to dinner with him. We ended up having dinner at Harem (I promise you all - I didn't force Ross to have dinner at Harem - it was his choice!). The dinner was fantastic as per usual and Ross seemed to like the t-shirt that Rich had stencilled for him. Ross is a huge fan of the "Alien" series so Rich stencilled a t-shirt based on the poster image of the first movie. I should have really taken a photo to show off but I just forget!!

Ross had a ceroc dance party later on that night so Rich and I hung about town whilst we waited for the Thought Creature album release party - yah!! I have been waiting for this gig for ages as Thought Creature has to be my favourite Wellington band and they always put on the best show. This time it included the throwing around on handmade plushie toys and people dancing on stage in all sorts of crazy costumes - like rabbits, there was a girl in a victorian style dress wearing a big teddy bear head and some guy with a bull head on. So awesome!

But by the time we finally go home from the gig it was 2am - we had left home at about 5:30pm to meet Ross for dinner! Crazy!

More thoughts on possible pony modification....

Is there anyone else there that finds that sometimes if you start to research an idea on the interweb you suddenly find a whole subculture that you never knew existed? Well I have now found that there is a whole "My little Pony" restoration/modification community that I never knew existed. Which has further planted the idea in my head that I NEED to modify a goth pony of my own.

I now have a couple of trade me bids down on unloved ponies - little do they know what awaits them if my auction is successful! Muhaha!

I have also found a site which specialises in My Little Pony hair for customisation/restoration.

http://www.mylittleponyhair.com/

Where is my notebook....I need to get designing this pony....

Chinese Influenced Crafts!

So as you can all see from post after post after post I have recently been to China - and China, of course, ROCKS!!

Here's a couple of things that I have made recently that were inspired by (and include materials from) China.

Firstly is my Postcard Poster - when I was in the artist district I picked up a whole bunch of very cool postcards and I decided I wanted to display them. But they didn't really seem worthly of their own little frames. But at the same time they were far too awesome to just stick to the fridge. So I chopped them in half and zig-zagged them together.

My second China project was based around a vintage look postcard, chopsticks and glue...lots of glue...

Should I - or should I not customise a my little pony?

So looking through Craftster recently I came across a post by someone who had created a zombie my little pony - awesome! I have been thinking of things I can use to decorate the house for my upcoming "macabre" tea party and I'm thinking some zombie/goth ponies could be the way to go.

Here's an amazing website all about customising ponies - I really think I should give this a go! Naturally, if I do get around to customising a few then I will blog all about the results.

http://www.aikarin.com/mlp/customs/customtutorials.html