A few weeks back Rich and I heard about an event that was happening at the Carter Observatory called Celestial Cinema - being fans of both cinema and space we decided to go along. Although there were quite a few technical difficulties on the evening we got to see some really cool films, they were screened inside the planetarium.
The movies were a mix of old time fantastic movies and real life information about space, including documentary footage of a Russia space walk in the 1960s. My favourite was a trip to the moon, which you can watch on you tube if you'd like to, but there is something magical about being able to watch it on the big screen inside a planetarium!
For the price of our movie ticket we also had the chance to explore the gallery at the observatory for free, I hadn't been here for years but the exhibits are really cool. We had about half an hour to look around, but I'd like to come back soon and take a better look.
I decided I needed a new dress for the event, fortunately recently the Salvation Army op shop moved and is now around the corner from my house (actually this is both a good and bad thing). Anyway I found a bunch of super looking 90s celestial fabric at that op shop and celestial cinema seemed the perfect occasion to make something with the fabric.
The pattern I used for this dress is Colette Peony , I've had this pattern for a while, but just haven't gotten around to making it. I've seen a lot of cute versions of this dress around the internet, so I thought I'd give it a work and this space fabric just seemed like it would work.
On the evening of the movie I wore the dress with my ouji board cardi as it seemed to fit with the whole mystical celestial theme. I bought this cardi from cosmic corner in Wellington, just because I think ouji boards look cool - ok?
I had a bit of a nightmare with the neckline on this dress, it was originally way too high for me so I just kind of hacked it and added bias binding. Perhaps not the best and most measured approached. I'll tackle it differently next time for sure.
Despite the hacked neckline, I'm pretty happy with this frock and I will make it again for sure. I really like the shape as the skirt isn't too much for me (I'm not really into huge circle skirts these days) and I like the fact it has sleeves, because I'm pretty much always cold in Wellington, even in summer.
I hope you guys all had a fun weekend - I'm been having a quiet one, but I did get some sewing in.
Our first stop in the continental USA was Seattle, I have to admit Seattle isn't a place I'd ever really considering and I can't remeber how it ended up being one of the stops on our USA adventure! But sometimes the best places you visit are those you have no expectations for - I loved our time in Seattle, it is an amazing city.
First stop was our hotel, but it wasn't any boring old hotel. The hotel we stayed at was in the international district and its called the Panama Hotel. Although its called Panama, its roots are actually very Japanese, as it was a boarding house Japanese migrants lived in when the first arrived in the USA.
The Panama Hotel is in the international district, that has a whole bunch of interesting food and shops. There was also some really cute street art, like these Japantown signs.
Our first stop in Seattle? Well we really needed some real food! But on the way to find some eats we came across the city library, Rich has heard of this library and knew it was pretty fancy so we decided to take a look inside.
Our next stop was the Pike Street Markets - the size of these markets was completely mind blowing. The fresh food parts of the market were so full you could hardly even move - but there were lots of fun retail stores there so we spent most of our time checking those out. We did buy some of those amazing blueberries though!
After finishing up our blueberries we decided to check out the Olympic Sculpture Park and part of the Seattle waterfront walk. I miss these blue skies, just looking at these photos again makes me wish summer would hurry up already!
After looking around the waterfront and park we did spot the sky needle, but decided to check it out the following day. A night flight with little sleep the day before meant we were both pooped and in need of a rest!
However, after dinner we came to life a little more and decided to explore the International District a little more (it wasn't getting dark till 9pm so plenty of time for night time exploring).
Our second day in Seattle was MUCH busier than the first and deserves its own post for sure! Hope you guys all had a great weekend xo
