Yah! Swap Package!

So today wasn't the best day I wasn't feeling well (as per usual) and I had a very stressful day at work that didn't seem to end **sigh**

So I was VERY excited when I got home and my chocolate swap package had arrived.


This is the chocolate component of the swap - there's a whole bunch more crafty goodness I have pictures of which I will post later when I have more time (including an eyeball bag - awesome!).

It's a whole bunch of chocolate - but Rich has kindly offered to help me dispose of it (just as well really because there's so much).

Receiving this package makes me excited about the other two craft swaps I've signed up for on craftster (I figure if I have to spend more time at home because I'm not well I may as well spend that time crafting).

The first swap is a matchbox swap - basically you have to decorate a matchbox and fill it with craft supplies for your partner.

The second is a Kitsch Cowboy theme swap which I am super excited about, although the actual crafting is still quite a while away for that one.

Goodbye old friends

So as those of you who know me well know, I am rather attached to my black knee high Doc Martin boots - so much so that they are basically an extension of my body. I've worn them to everything from gigs to weddings and I even wore them on my flight to China last year as they were the post comfortable footwear I owned - which I'm sure some people think is a little strange.

I've had to have them repaired a few times, usually because the zip had broken, but today was a sad day when I realised that my boots were broken once and for all.

You see at the end of last winter then began to leak a little in the rain and I realised today that they had split at the sole - and there's nothing that can be done to fix that. Also the soles were wearing through. Basically my boots were very very sick and it was finally time to take them off life support.


So today I decided it was time to part with my old boots. But never fear - you won't have to get used to me wearing anything too "lady like", lets face it, when you walk as much as I do in all weather a pair of girly shoes just aren't going to work (or last very long). So I went and bought another pair of Black, 20 up, Doc Martin boots. Look at how shiny and new they are!

Nice things from nice friends

So as many people knows, my health isn't too good at the moment, I'm waiting for the (incredibly slow moving) hospital to give me a ring/letter to let me know that it's time for the operation I badly need.

But whilst I am waiting - life can be pretty hard at times. So I was pretty stoked when I came home from work yesterday to find a package from my friend Carolyn with a little card and pocket mirror. Very Cute!
The writing on the front on the card is a bit blurry so you can't read it but it says "If this situation has you thinking of four letter words..." Oh if you only knew how many four lettered words came out of my mouth about this situation you would be horrified kitty cat.

My friend Ange has also offered me some advice on fighting the nausea that my medication causes (Ange is pregnant so should know a thing or two about curing nausea) - her advice - Peppermint tea and ginger nuts. She even bought me over some of her own stash of very nice and very fresh peppermint tea.

Also my lovely friends Nat and Fiona are helping me plan a day of "Lovely Things" at the start of April to take my mind off all the unpleasantness and give me something to look forward too. So far we have scheduled for the day Brunch (homemade pancakes/waffles & fresh fruit & mocktails), soy candle making, facials (as instructed by Fiona), a clothes swap (with cupcakes), make-overs (and possible photo shoot with Nat) and finally dinner out and maybe a show if there is something worthwhile watching.

Saturday Night

So on Saturday night, after a very long day at our course, we didn't feel like heading out.

We hadn't seen our friends Shelley and Ross for a while so they decided to come over and say hello - so what better occasion to make mini cupcake with orange icing.

Ross also came bearing gifts - the first was this cool but creepy fimo finger puppet guy that he bought for me from Craftstock (a craft fair for the attendee's of a computer geek conference that I didn't go to but Ross did so he bought me a present - yah!)
I also got a new pair of Nightmare before Christmas knee high socks. They were actually my Christmas present from Shelley and Ross that they bought for me when they were in the States last year and never got around to giving to me. Oh well better late than never - a Doc Martin wearing girl can never have too many pairs of knee high socks;)

Cuba Street Carnival

This weekend was the Cuba Street Carnival, unfortunately, Rich and I could not take in too much of the carnival madness as we had a course on which ran from 9am till 6pm (and as you can imagine after the course had finished for the day we were so tired we didn't really feel like taking in any carnival madness).

But here's a few photo's of the snippets of carnival we did see in our lunch break and afternoon tea break - my favourite was the skeleton stilt walkers.

Vampires & Zombies

Another Super cartoon from my friend Fiona!

Chocolate Swap

So it is a couple of days later - but tomorrow I will finally send my "Chocolate Swap" package off to my swap partner in Scotland. Seen as my partner knows my blog I can't post photo's of everything I've made her until after she receives my package - because that would ruin all the fun for her!

But I can send a couple of photos of the "two layer" package I intend on sending off tomorrow. The bottom layer is the "Chocolate Layer" it is a chocolate swap after all. The top layer has all the craft goodies and a few other chocolate themed bits and pieces I found about in the last month or so. I can't wait to receive my package - I love craftster swaps!

The Killers Have Cancelled their Christchurch Show

It does not make me smile - I do not need any other bad news right now.

Valentine's Day!

Just so you know, yes, Rich and I do celebrate valentines day - but I guess not in the typical style.

Firstly we always make gifts - we never buy them (partly because we are artsy fartsy types and partly because I really doubt either of us could find the right valentine in the shop - teddy bears and pink hearts really aren't our scene).

I made Rich a shrine to zombie love - It's slightly disturbing - but then that is the desired effect.


Rich made me a travel journal, because I've been wanting one, he's lately taken up the art of bookbinding and made me a journal of an old recycled hardcover book which is extremely cool. He even included a little bookmark in the binding.

I also made some cupcakes to celebrate the day - because any reason is a good reason to make cupcakes. These particular ones are "Very Berry" cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing.


We ended the day with dinner out at a Turkish place in town and a movie. The movie was one we wanted to see when it was on at the film festival last year but we ran out of time and money to see it (as often happens during film festival time!). It is a film from Norway called "Let the Right one in" and it was a very cool story about an outcast boy who makes friends with a new girl in the neighbourhood - who happens to be a vampire. It all sounds a bit Twilight I know - but this is actually a decent horror film whereas I found Twilight to be like a teen drama (that just happened to have a family of vampires in it).

Oh the Craft Geek Excitement!

I have just found out that the craft group that Kat and I run - Crafty Foxes - has received a bit of a shout out on the Craft 2.0 blog.

Craft 2.0 is a craft fair and general institution of crafty awesome-ness in Wellington. So it's pretty cool to get a mention on their Blog.

Let's hope it brings in more Crafty Foxes looking for a home!

Here's the article on the Craft 2.0 blog about our wee group (well it's about craft groups in Wellington in general but clearly ours is the coolest).

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's Friday the 13th today - originally we were going to have Shelley and Ross over for dinner & horror DVD's tonight but it turns out that's not going to happen now (I'm not feeling so well).

But I figure there is another Friday the 13th next month and when that rolls around I am SO making some of these cupcakes with Jason toppers - the pattern for the topper is on the Bake and Destroy website. Awesome.

Also I've been wanting a new hoodie for ages and I haven't seen one that I really want, but I think I could rock one of these "Bake and Destroy" hoodie's. Although the exchange rate isn't too good at the moment and I'd have to get it sent over from the States. But it would be worth it - it's the perfect mix of punk rock and craft.

Anti-Valentines Swap

Let's face it - if you have a bit of a dark nature like me and prefer skulls and coffins to rainbows and flowers valentines is a bit like hell on earth. Stuffed teddy bears from The Warehouse holding love hearts saying "I Wuv You" are enough to make me hurl! But as we have discussed before - I'm not like most girls.

Given my view of "traditional" valentines gifts, when Kat suggested that Crafty Foxes do and Anti-Valentine's craft swap I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea.

He's the present I received from Kat it's a reasonable sized jewelery roll. Most women would be able to fit their jewelery in this roll - however - most women don't own over sized plastic Pac Man earrings. But I will be able to fit a LOT of jewelery in this baby when I am traveling.


My swap partner was Natalie, who had previously commented that she thought some of the subversive cross-stitch designed I'd stitched up were pretty cool. So I decided I'd make her an uber girly cross-stitch with a dark side. She said she is going to put it on her desk at work - I wonder how long it will be before people actually work out what it says?

Cool Graffiti on Left Bank

Just some Graffiti I encountered on Left Back that I thought was awesome.

Boo Hoo!

I really like the idea of magazines, it's fun having something to flick through, but unfortunately there aren't many magazines in the world I like so called "woman's magazines" largely make me want to barf. I really don't care about Brangelia or whether Jessica Simpson is "fat" or not - it's all bunch of arse as far as I'm concerned.

There are really only three magazines in the whole world I like - "World Sweet World"(a Wellington based craft/environmental magazine) "Bust" (a feminist magazine) and "Craft".

So you can imagine how annoyed I was yesterday to find out that production of Craft Magazine is going to be stopped due to so much of the magazine being online already and moving away from a paperless society and all that kind of stuff.

All of this I understand and appreciate but there's nothing quite like having the chance to flick through a cool magazine. Plus I prefer making things from books over the internet - I'm not sure why I just do.

So it's a little sad really and now I am officially down to two magazine I like to read. But on the upside the final issue does have some cupcake related crafts - so life isn't all bad I suppose.

Derby Camp

So last weekend was Waitangi Weekend - it was also "Blood & Thunder" training camp weekend in New Plymouth with league's from Taranaki and Auckland and coaches from the States.

After the first day we thought we could quite possibly die, but after that it got better and on the fourth and final day we didn't really skate much at all - phew!

I didn't get to take as many photo's as I would have liked to - but here's a few from the weekend.

More Cupcakes for Rich

I've just come back from a long weekend away at derby camp - before I left I made Rich these Neapolitan cupcakes. They were all swirly and Neapolitan on the inside too - unfortunately the icing didn't come out quite as perfectly on my cupcakes as it did it the book. I'm sure they were still tasty though - even with wonky icing.

George A Romero

George A Romero is a legend in my books - if you've never heard of him before you need to watch more zombie films. He's made so many legendary zombie/horror films (most of which I have seem - many more than once).

It's also his birthday today - he's 69 - blimey. Hopefully he's got a few more zombie movies left in him yet.

Na na na na na.....Bat Cookies

So here's some more adventures in baking. Some of the derby freshies decided to go for a skate after work on Friday. So I took it as a chance to make some cookies. Here's the naked bat cookies.
And these are the fully clothed cookies with sprinkles...I got commended on the cookies so the baking skills must be improving.