Travel Memories Tuesday: Dreams are real

This weeks Travel Memories Tuesday isn't so far into the past - in fact its from my trip to the USA earlier this year. If you've been reading my blog for a while I'm sure you will remember that earlier this year I finally made it to "the big country".  I visited so many places and there was so much to see and do and so many fabulous friends to spend time with.

I was lucky enough to spent time with my awesome friend Alicia and her husband Bear in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. They are the sweetest couple and did all they could to make my "All American" dreams come true.

One of my lifelong dreams was to visit a drive-in movie theatre - we don't have drive-in movies in New Zealand. We do have outdoor movie screenings in the summer, but I wanted to go to a for reals drive-in - with the snacks and everything. On my last day we went to the drive-in and it was so amazing, I loved every minute of it! Thanks Alicia and Bear - DREAMS ARE REAL!

Fabric-a-brac: November 2013

A couple of weeks back I volunteered at Fabric-a-brac - If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know how much I LOVE fabric-a-brac! I'm even included in one of their blog posts here.

My friend Kat is one of the organisers of the event, when she did another shout out to see if any of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network girls would like to volunteer at the event this time around I put up my hand again. Last time I helped out on the Hospice stall and this time I was helping out in the cafe - serving up the treats and tea.

The cafe was very cute and homely - part of my job was to take cups of teas and treats out to people on a tray. I even wore an apron - I look almost domestic! I even wore a dress made from fabric that I bought from a previous fabric-a-brac.This photo is from the fabric-a-brac facebook page.

 This time around my main scores were sweet patterns from the 1960's - as you guys know, I'm all about the 1960s.

I also bought some fabric, my most recent laurel dress is from the purple fabric I bought at fabric-a-brac and I still have leftover fabric. What else should I make?

Finally how exciting is fabric-a-brac for sewing geeks? This photo really says it ALL! This is another photo from the fabric a brac facebook page - that's Kat on the left, me in the middle (DUH!) and Nikki on the right. All Wellington Sewing Blogger Network girls (of course!).

Purple Laurel Dress

So guys the last few days have pretty much been the worst - I had a three day sinus headache which spanned the WHOLE weekend. I had things I was meant to do, like attend the Wellington Sewing Bloggers one year anniversary dinner and  did pretty much nothing apart from sleep, eat fruji iceblocks and feel gross.

The most annoying thing about this wasted weekend was that I didn't get to wear the new Laurel dress I made to the Wellington Sewing Bloggers dinner. This is the second Laurel dress I have made, you can see the first one here. It's a simple 1960s styled dress - which is just MY style if you know what I mean? I'm much more in the whole 1960s/1970s look (with a big soft spot for the 1980s as well).

As I didn't make it to the bloggers dinner I couldn't ask my sewing blogger pals to take a picture, so instead I got Rich to take a photo or two. These photos were taken near what we call the "Skeleton House" - although I'm sure it has a real name and was made by some fancy artist.

Here's a photo of me, in my new Laurel dress by the skeleton house. You can't see the dress that well - the sun is kind of bright! Also my slip is peaking out from underneath - I'm sure that's a major fashion faux pa, oh well just as well I don't care about fashion.

A close up of my tights and that lovely fabric - I bought this at the most recent fabric-a-brac (I will post more about the event at another time).

Here's another shot of the dress - inside the apartment this time, the lighting isn't so great - but you get the picture. Complete with Rich's guitar case to the left and my ironing board to the right. It's my ironing board as the only reason an ironing board gets used in our flat is sewing.

I hope you've all been having a lovely week and I hope that by the time you're reading this my headache is well and truly gone (or I may be having a wee bit of a meltdown).

Travel Memories Tuesday: Hideaway Island, Vanuatu

Oh Vanuatu - how I love you! Beautiful weather, friendly people, fresh fruit, snorkling. I wish I was there RIGHT NOW!

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2013

I've been a little quiet in the past week - that's not to say its been a quiet week, quite a lot has happened but I've just not been in a blogging frame of mind. It happens sometimes right? 

Anyway I wanted to share some photos of the Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase Rich and I went to last Friday night. It's my good friend Ria's second year at Toi Whakaari studying costuming - she graduated early this week. So we went along to support her and see all the fancy costumes in action.

Each of the second year students had these displays set up of their ideas and inspiration - here's Ria's. 

Now onto the costume fun times - I didn't get photos of ALL the costumes - but I tried!

Then there were Ria's amazing costumes - she made not one - but TWO! They danced around and it was awesome.

After the show we had a chance to look at some of the costumes up close - so much hard work has gone into each one.

Here's Ria's two costumes up close - they are so freaking amazing - I love the fox head guy.

Rich took a photo of Ria and I posing with her creations - they are so bright and crazy you can hardly see us!

Here's another photo where you can actually see us - I didn't realise Ria was THAT much taller than me!

It was a really fun night out and it was great to see all of Ria's hard work on stage - I can't wait to see what she does next!

Travel Memories Tuesday: Melbourne, Australia

Oh Melbourne - you are my favourite city in "the lucky country" - my best friend from law school Alaina lives in Melbourne and I always love visiting her.

Amongst other things, Melbourne is famous for it's incredible street art. When I last visited I snapped a photo of this simple, but beautiful piece of street art. Keep beautiful Melbourne.

Fireworks Fun Times

This weekend has been a busy weekend full of adventures! One of the things Rich and I did this weekend was check out the Guy Fawks display on Saturday night. This year the council decided not to have the Guy Fawks display on the 5th of November, instead they had it on the following Saturday night so more people could check out the display.

This year we decided not to head to the waterfront, but instead headed up to Mount Street near Victoria University. There were less crowds and we still had a really great view of the fireworks.

As always, I still think its pretty weird we continue to celebrate Guy Fawks in New Zealand - but we get to see a fancy fireworks display for free, so I'm not going to get to hung up about it.