My first blog meet up

In the past I've been luckily enough to meet some of my fabulous blog friends - namely Helga and Chloe but until a few weeks ago I had never attended a bloggers meet up.

So I was kind of excited when my friend Kat asked me to join the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network and attend their January meet up.

To be honest I was a little nervous, I'm not sure I'm a sewing blogger, I'm really just someone that blogs about stuff I do which sometimes includes sewing.

But I was so glad I went a long as I met a whole bunch of amazing ladies who are all fabulous at sewing so it was kind of inspirational for me seen as I still feel like I'm only just starting out.

We met at the "Colonial Cafe" which is a temporary cafe at Wellington Musuem of City and Sea to celebrate the Queen Coronation. It was nice of the Queen and Price Phillip to stop by to meet us and have a few photos.

Can you tell I'm not much of a royalist? I'm really much more interested in whatever is happening over to the right.

If you want to check out the blogs of these rad ladies (and you really should) then you can find them here:

Ladies in the back row -  Joy, Mel & Kat 
Ladies in the front row -  Me (well duh), Jo & Nikki


The next blogger meet up is in March - perhaps I'll even have time to sew something new before then to wear along.

Hope you're all having a good week so far - I'm off to work on my latest cross-stitch project "Hugh Manatee".

Homemakin' : Week Four

I am coming to realise that my goal of doing something rad for the apartment each and every week is not really going to happen with everything else I have going on in my life. But you know I'm totally ok with that, I'm going to do what I can when I can and be happy with that - its not like I live in a total dive or anything. I just want it to be the wee bit nicer.

On to this weeks Homemakin' project,  this is a big one so its going to be a two weekend project and it involves a lot of t-shirts. About a million years ago I saw a blog post where someone had made a quilt from all of her boyfriends old band t-shirts. I thought that was a pretty rad idea, Rich and I already had a few band t-shirts we couldn't part with and I looked out for other t-shirts when I was out op-shopping.

However, before I could completed my stash of t-shirts we decided to leave the country, but not all was lost for the t-shirts as old t-shirts make perfect packaging material for breakables.

When we were at Mum and Dad's at Christmas we unearthed some of our treasures - including breakables wrapped in the t-shirt collection. I decided it was time for these t-shirts to reach their full potential and become a quilt, so I bought them home with me. Last weekend I cut them up and sewed them all together to make the quilt, it isn't complete yet as I want to buy some fleece for the back part, when that's done I can show you all the finished article.

But for now let's have check out an initial WIP shot, this is a pretty big quilt for a queen bed so its kind of hard to show you the WHOLE quilt when its not on a bed, but you get the general idea.

This quilt is very rock n' roll but also extremely soft - some of the t-shirts were VERY well loved before they came together as a quilt. I was going to show you a few close up shots but blogger is acting all crazy and doesn't want to upload any more photos! So you'll all just have to wait for the completed project for more.

I hope you all had a super weekend xoxox

Vintage 1930s Capelet

Finally a sewing post! I have to admit I haven't been doing as much sewing as I would like to do lately. With so much nice summer weather and Rich not studying I've just not found much time for sewing. 

However, I have had the chance to do not one but two courses with the Dreamstress at one of our local craft stores Made On Marion.

The first course was to make a 1930's vintage Capelet - the course was over two Friday nights and it was a lot of fun to make. Unfortunately its a little bit crumpled in these pictures - but you guys get the general idea right?

Ria and I decided to go for a walk one evening last week as the weather has been so amazing lately and she took these photos for me whilst we were out.

This capelet makes me think of lovely Desiree with its 1930s style and also I know how much she loves Chinese lanterns.

Speaking of the Chinese Lanterns - check out a close up view of the lining fabric, I really wish I had bought more so I could have made a dress from this fabric as I absolutely love it. Unfortunately I think it must have all sold out at Arthur Toye as I can't find it there anymore.

All I need now is a fabulous dress and a fabulous occasion so I can wear my capelet out and about.

I hope you have all been having a great weekend xoxo

Auckland Part III - Laneway

Hello World! I've not been on the internet too much lately and I'm really far behind with my blog and blog reading.

But finally I have time for a quick post before heading out for an evening walk with my lovely friend Ria - seriously people, we are having the best summer in Wellington ever!

So our third day in Auckland was spent at the Laneway Music Festival - this is the first time I've been to this festival. Rich went last year when I was traveling in Asia and had a great time, so we decided to go together this year.

As an added bonus our friends Conor and Sue had returned from the UK just days before so the four of use got to go together and had the best time.

I've only been to a couple of music festivals on this scale before - The Big Day Out (which no longer comes to Auckland - but I did go like 6 times when it still came to New Zealand) and an Indie music festival in Korea (one of the best days ever).

I had a blast at Laneway - the sun was shining and I saw some amazing musicians (including Bat for Lashes again - hurrah). There was also some good and even healthy food options (not just nasty chips and hot dogs) and I got to hang out with some of my most favourite people in the world - good times all round!!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: Birds

Today's Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge was "Birds" - I do have one frock with birds on it, but I put it onto day and I realised I just don't love it. So straight onto the clothes swap pile it goes! 

Instead I wore a dress which has a pattern that kind of reminds me of feathers and I added some bird accessories. I don't think this photo of me is the best - but sometimes you just got to work with what you've got!

I added some bird themed accessories - a brooch and a necklace.

I was very lucky today - I received a Valentines package from Alicia,

including stickers, chocolate and jelly beans (oh and Hello Kitty of course)

You read that right folks - smokehouse BBQ potato chips chocolate! We haven't tried it yet, but it is intriguing. 

OUTFIT DEETS

Shoes - Number 1 Shoes

Tights - Glassons

Dress - From a Clothes Swap Party

Belt - The Warhouse

Brooch - Bought in Whanganui
Necklace - Gift from Rich

Auckland Adventures - Part II

Our first day in Auckland was spent at Rangitoto Island and our last day was spent at the Laneway Music Festival (more about that later) - it turns out our "inbetween" day was pretty fun too. We didn't actually have any plans - but Rich suggested that we all go and check out the Auckland Art Gallery.

This was my first trip to the Auckland Art Gallery (shameful I know!) and it was a whole lot of fun - here's a few of my favourite exhibits, plus a view from the balcony.

This was my favourite exhibit at the art gallery - its basically a room of mirrors. A room of mirrors is a pretty basic concept, but so much fun.

Here's a photo of Nankz, Sue (who just returned from London) and Me hanging out at the gallery. I have to say the Auckland Art Gallery is MUCH more camera friendly than the City Gallery in Wellington.

Nankz had to head back to Wellington at about lunch time (boo!) but Sue, Rich and I spent the rest of the day hanging out in Auckland. Not doing anything in particular - we headed out for lunch, did a bit of shopping, visited the park and just caught up. It was a pretty awesome day of not doing too much!

I hope you all had a great start to the week - posting these photos make me want to go on holiday again and hang out with my friends!

Tropical Skirt!

Hey Folks! Just a short and sweet sewing post tonight - I just wanted to share with you all my latest sewing creation. It's yet another half circle skirt using the same pattern as I did for my sailor skirt and my Singapore skirt.

Although I really do like this style of skirt, I have to admit at times it is NOT the best design for windy Wellington weather! Luckily its been pretty calm lately. Hope you folks all had a lovely weekend xoxo

Homemakin' : Week Four

I've missed a few weeks of these posts - first of all I went to Auckland and then I went and spend a whole weekend at a sewing course, which left me little time and energy for doing anything house related.

This weekend seemed to go so fast too - but I did manage to find time dig out this pretty lady and finally hang her on the wall.

When Rich and I went home at Christmas, we had the chance to look at some of the "stuff" we put into storage at my parents before we traveled overseas.

We couldn't bring EVERYTHING home - but we managed to stuff two carry on bags full of bits and pieces and amongst these bits and pieces was this pretty Mexican lady. I bought her some years ago from Iko Iko and I always thought she was amazing.

I really wanted to put her near our stove - given that we cook a lot of Mexican food it seemed appropriate. But it really wasn't going to work out, so instead I put her above our calendar in the kitchen. What do you folks think?

We have some cheesy calendar from Typo which includes a whole bunch of different versions of the "Keep Calm and Carry On" thing - obviously this month is Lord of the Rings and there is a Harry Potter month and a Zombie month. To be honest, I'm  not too crazy about it but we didn't get a calendar this Christmas, so I just picked this one up cheap.

I hope you've all had a good weekend - another weekend of stunning sunshine here in Wellington!

Auckland Adventures: Rangitoto Island

For some time we have been wanting to head to Rangitoto Island in Auckland with our friend Nankz. We had been playing on the visit for a while and it worked out that Nankz was happy to visit Auckland on the same weekend that we were already going to attend the Laneway Music Festival.

It also worked out that our friends Conor and Susan had returned to New Zealand (after 5 years of living in the UK) a few days before we all went up to Auckland for the weekend, so the timing was just perfect!

There's only one way to get to Rangitoto Island from Auckland and that's by ferry - it only takes about 20 minutes to get there. Here's a picture of the Auckland ferry terminal, which I've always thought is a pretty old building.

Here's just a few of the photos I took on the day we visited Rangitoto Island. It's a volcanic island so all that black stuff is volcanic rock - just imagine what it would have been like when this island erupted!

From the island you've got some amazing views of Auckland city - unfortunately my wee camera doesn't have the ability to record the views very well. 

Our visit to the Island was pretty amazing and I'm glad we finally did it after talking about it for about six months - I will let the photos do the talking so you get an idea of what the rest of our day was like.