Instagram - Week Five

It's time for another instagram photo dump post -thanks to all of you that have asked about my cold/flu/bug - to tell you the truth, its gotten a little bit better, but not much. I'm finding it hard to concentrate at work and by the time I finish work each day I am totally exhausted. I had a lot of stuff on this weekend - but I decided to cancel pretty much all of it due to my general exhaustion. Perhaps I'll get to see my friends again some day soon? 

Anyway - here's a snap shot of what I've been up to over the past week or so.

The last week has seen me using a lot of these for my sore throat - one of my many ongoing ailments!

Last Saturday Rich and I went out for a walk along the waterfront, despite being sick I was getting a pretty major dose of cabin fever and it was a STUNNER of a spring day. We picked up some hot drinks from "Bernie's" on our walk.

As the saying goes - "You can't beat Wellington on a good day".

Last Sunday Rich and I went out for a late lunch at "Carribean" - I love these giant mirrors they have in this cafe.

Tribal fabric I decided to make a new frock with - if a new frock won't cheer me up, then I doubt anything will!

So this was on Monday, got up, got dressed and then realised I wasn't going anywhere. After this I'm pretty sure I texted to to let them know I wouldn't make it in and then went back to bed.

On Monday afternoon I decided to do some study - but I can't say it was terribly successful.

I found a box to put all my patterns in - it made me realise just how many patterns I have!

I bought this pattern to make a dress for Ross and Shelley's wedding - then I just felt like my skills weren't up to it and chickened out and made a more simple design. I think I'm ready to attempt to make this dress for New Years Eve.

I forgot just how much I loved this pattern - the collar is so amazing, I think I need to make this one very, very soon.

Still feeling crappy - but wearing my new handmade Aztec dress.

We got another postcard this week - our friends Lisa and Aaris are travelling through Europe at the moment and sent us a postcard from Sweden.

We had a national earthquake drill this week in New Zealand - we were handed out these little fliers at work.

My next dress will be made from this fabric in celebration of spring - I am thinking that I will tackle a wrap around dress.

Instagram of this weeks Wednesday wardrobe challenge - modern 1950's.

Rich and I watched this movie this week - its amazing and so beautiful. I really loved it.

My cup went missing at work and I was SO annoyed - thankfully it returned to me the next day.

I bought tickets to Billy Bragg this week for Rich's Birthday present - hurrah!

A few of the DVD's that turned up from fatso this week.

Seen as I've had a pretty crappy week - Rich went out and bought me Korean food for dinner on Friday night. Yah!

I saw these Hello Kitty lollies in the window of a store in town that imports a lot of confectionery from overseas. But I was very restrained and didn't buy anything.

Yesterday we went to the Wellington Botanical Gardens as the tulips are in full bloom - so happy spring is here.

Across the road from the botanical garden there was a lantern festival at the Chinese Anglican Church.

I am clearly colour obsessed with colour co-ordination - I even match these flowers!

Rich went shopping for sneakers yesterday - so I tried on the most crazy I could find. I was tempted to buy these gum boots - they are pretty rad!

Today was a day for even MORE study - I've got an appointment with my kaihautu (teacher) in about three weeks and have so much to do before then.

True movie geekery - Rich and I have matching Alfred Hitchcock mugs!

Here's hoping this week will be better and I'll finally kick this bug!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: Modern 50's

Today's Wardrobe Challenge is one of two provided by aspiring tattoo artist CB - Modern 1950s. There was a time when I was really obsessed with anything 1950's - but I have to admit these days I seem to be embracing all kind of vintage, rather than sticking exclusively with one decade.

Our dear - our lounge is far from tidy! Oh well - I guess that's what happens in an apartment which is occupied by two artsy fartsy types.

 

Some of today's accessories - a doughnut ring and Hello Kitty charm bracelet.

Also a brooch I bought at Craft 2.0 some years ago.

Heart shoes and fluro pink fishnet tights.

Close up of the fabric of the dress.

Hope you folks are all having a lovely week!

OUTFIT DEETS:
Shoes & Scarf - Retro Room, Willis Street, Wellington
Tights - Farmers
Dress - Baby Girl Boutique
Cardi - Op Shopped, Opportunity for Animals
Brooch - Craft 2.0
Ring - Newtown Fair
Bracelet - Hello Kitty Cafe, Hongdae, Seoul
Belt - From another dress
 

Adventures in Aztec

Hello World - if you follow me on instagram, you'll already know I've had a really rubbish four days. Rich and I have both been sick with a nasty cold/bug - today I went to work but I'm still far from 100% and I have so much to do (isn't that always the way).

To make matters worse - it was an absolute stunner of a weekend, one of the best we have had for months and months. I'm crossing my fingers the beautiful weather will keep up so I can enjoy with some sunshine this weekend.

The one thing I DID manage to over the weekend is complete a new dress, its a simple tunic dress from my Sew La Tea Do book.

I've had this aztec print fabric sitting in my stash for a while, I bought it at the last fabric-a-brac and I decided that it was time that it finally became a dress. Here's a close up of the fabric.

I hope you've all been having a great week so far - here's hoping that I'll be feeling a bit better tomorrow.

Instagram: Week Four

It's been a while since I did an instagram post - here's a few pictures from the last week.

Waiting at Paramount Cinema for this weeks film society film to begin.

Courtney Place after work - summer is on the way - its still light at six in the evening.

I received two postcards from my friend Dani in Florida this week - the first was from the Kennedy Space Centre.

Yet another order of avon arrived this week.

Postcard from Dani - this time from Mississippi!

I'm kind of addicted to carving stamps and stamping at the moment - here's a wee Halloween themed stamp I made this week.

I got a new watch this week - Hello Kitty of course!

I bought these adorable post it notes this week - they remind me of life in Korea.

I'm working on a bat softie at the moment - here's one of the wings. I'm kind of impatient with hand-sewing, so I have to do it on a step by step basis.

Finally some street art I saw this morning near our apartment.

Ask Trees: Part I

Hello World, you'll remember a while back I had an Ask Trees post, I figure its time I answered some of those questions.

The first couple of questions are from Alicia, by blog buddy and penfriend:

what would you do if you were sitting quietly in your living room one night while rich was asleep and it felt like there was something crawling on your face. you think it's just your hair, but then when you go to brush it away you realize that it's actually a horrible CENTIPEDE!!!

I would most like let out a wee screen, flick the centipede across the room and then take a photo for facebook/instagram. I'm not sure what I'd do with the centipede next - as I live in the middle of town and there's no trees or grass around here. I think I'd put it in the car park and hope for the best for the little guy.

I guess I should say here though - generally creepy crawlies don't freak me out too much - however if in this proposed scenario it had been a cockroach or a huhu beetle, Alicia would hear me screaming from Pennsylvania.

Fun fact - this actual scenario happened to Alicia, well actually perhaps that's not so fun.

Alicia also sent me a "bonus question"

bonus question: what's the best thing about being a kiwi? 

 I'm not even sure where to start on this one - so, so many good things about being born in New Zealand.

The more I see of the world - the more I realise just how lucky I was to be born at the bottom of the world. Sure we are far from perfect, but there's a hell of a lot of good things happening down here and I'm so lucky to be part of it all.

So in no particular order - here's the top five things about being a Kiwi (for me at least):

1) Kiwis don't take themselves too seriously

Compared with other people I have met in my travels, Kiwis just don't take themselves too seriously and making fun of your friends, family and yourself is just part of life.

Where else in the world would a police officer have a conversation with a suspect like this:


2) We make some of the best movies in the world

So perhaps I'll a little bit bias about this one, but we do make some incredible movies in this country, often on a tiny budget.

Here's a few of my favourite Kiwi films of all time:

The Quiet Earth

2. Sleeping Dogs
3. Meet the Feebles

 4. Vigil


 


5. In My Father's Den


3) In the grand scheme of things, New Zealand is a very liberal country and social change appears to happen very quickly

One thing I noticed living in Korea was that the physical environment changed very quickly - a 10 story building could go up in a matter of months and the built environment was constantly changing. However, the the social context were very slow to change. Whilst living there I met people who were surprised that New Zealand had a female Prime Minister - they were even more shocked when I told them she was the second female Prime Minister and had been the Prime Minister for nine years.

In my relatively short lifetime I can remember the legalise prostitution bill and the civil union bill both going to the house with great controversy - but now people seem pretty accepting of both acts and just get on with their lives. Just recently a bill passed its first reading in the house which will allow same sex couples to marry, I'm hopeful that will pass into law also.

Down here, things do seem to change pretty quickly and I think I would struggle to live in a country where things are more conservative or where change was slow to come.

Also - New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893, women in this country have had the right to vote for over 119 years. That's pretty incredible.

Image from Te Ara

4) I can have a professional job and still wear whatever I want to work

This certainly isn't the view in the whole country, the rural areas do tend to be more conservative, but it seems in Wellington - particularly in the public service, you are judged on your skills and talents rather than what you look like.

This means that I can still dress how I want and hold down a good job - I'm pretty sure in other parts of the world, I'd be expected to put on a black suit and march to the beat of a corporate drum. That's really not the case here at all! I work with people with piercing and visible tattoos and its not an issue.

Also my hair extension in whatever rainbow colour they may be have never been questioned or so much as raised an eyebrow in my office.

Although - more than one person has told me that I do bring colour to the workplace - which is a positive thing!

I think I'd feel like I was losing a bit of myself if I had to "tone it down" to have a job I loved - thankfully in this part of the world, I can have both!

 5. It's BEAUTIFUL down here!

This music video - "Aotearoa" (which is Te Reo Maori for New Zealand) by Minuit came out when I was living in South Korea. I watched it in my classroom and I just about lost it - pretty much everything that's good about New Zealand is in this video. Enjoy!


Last but not least - New Zealand - WHAKA YEAH! (You may not get about 90% of this if you're not a Kiwi - sorry)