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

Final Day in Shanghai - The French Concession!

So on our final day in Shanghai we decided to head over to the French Concession - it was another super hot day so Fiona decided to take her super cute sun umbrella that she bought from "Story of Shanghai" -

The French Concession was another area of Shanghai that was different to any other, as you can guess by the name it was an area that original had a lot of French Settlers. We checked out an old period house that had been decked out like a muesuem, ate strange cake (the Chinese do a lot of things well - one this they don't do so well is cake) and had a general looksee around

For me, I think the highlight of the French Concession was visiting the "Birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party". Visiting here was a bit surreal - especially when you know a bit of the history behind all of the things that happened during the cultural revolution. It was kind of strange to be in the same place that Chairman Mao walked - one of those moments when history hits you.


We then headed over to a district of Shanghai (still in the French Concession) the housed a lot of emerging artists. Not necessarily "fine arts" but things like clothes, accessories, toys & nick naks. The whole area had an intellectual property policy - basically - don't steal other people's designs and ideas!! Which was pretty refreshing - China doesn't seem to be too big on copyright protection....






After our look around the french concession it was time to return to old Shanghai - firstly to pick up our newly made threads from the fabric market, and secondly for Fiona to pick up her amazing shoes from the Shanghai Cobbler.




So after picking up all our purchases the question was - "what to do with our final evening in Shanghai?" The answer was to go for a cruise along the Bund river!