Colette Myrtle Dress

Some of you may already know I've not really been into making stuff for myself lately, I don't know why. I've just not been into it. I feel like I've been losing any desire to sew anything at all really. Which is a problem when I have a tonne of patterns and a bookshelf full of fabric.

So I decided to push myself to make something and see how it goes, I have had the Myrtle Dress from Colette patterns sitting around for a while and decided I'd try to make it up. I felt like I wanted to make something new, but didn't want something with a bunch of fitting dramas - so a simple knit dress is perfect.

I also decided to use some fabric I already had in my stash, as I'd never made this pattern before I didn't want to crack into anything fancy, so I used some paisley fabric I picked up at the op shop for a few dollars.

I posted a few photos of the dress on instagram along the way, because that's how I roll these days.

Here's the finished dress - I'm a bit on the fence about it, but I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with the dress or if its just my current "bleh sewing" mood.

I do have a couple of problems, one my hair is totally out of control (haircut on Saturday - yes) and two - I literally have no flats anymore. I threw out a bunch when we moved and not I really only have these skull ones and my walking sneakers. I think I need to go shoe shopping, these shoes don't work with this frock at all.

Here's the dress without the cardi, I have to admit one of the reasons I've been a bit reluctant to make this dress is that its sleeveless and due to the construction, I'm not really sure how to add sleeves. As I'm pretty much constantly cold, I'm not a big fan of sleeveless dresses, but I guess that's what cardis are for right?

Here's another "Action Shot" of the dress when I was out with Ria - photo is taken from the outside garden area at Te Papa. It was obviously windy, because I live in Wellington.

I don't know, I'm just not sold on this make and I think my next project will be for someone other than myself again. Not sure how to break these "sewing for myself blues" guys! Any tips are much appreciated.

USA part Sixteen - Our final day in the USA!

So this is it, my very last post about our epic three week trip to the USA. We decided to take it easy on our last day - but there was still a  lot of walking, because that's how we do things.

First up - did you realise that Venice Beach got its name from a suburb that was originally created with the same name that had artificial canals? (Just like in Europe - Obviously!). Soon as Rich told me that was a thing I HAD to see it.

Venice was seriously beautiful, we saw a couple paddle boarding (you can just see them in one of the photos above) and a lot of the houses had little boats as well as beautiful gardens. If you're ever in Venice Beach and want to escape the madness a walk around this neighbourhood is well worth it.

After we were finished strolling  around the canals we decided to have a look around Abbot Kinney Blvd (I think that's what the area was called). It's a really fun shopping street, with a lot of amazing street art.

I loved this old "mailbox" you could peak inside and get a view of old Venice, much more fun than a historical plaque.

By the time we finished up it was only about 11am and we had a night flight, so what did we do next? Walk to Santa Monica of course!

I have to admit when I was a kid I always dreamed of visiting a beach like this - it wasn't about going to the beach at all (I went to a tonne of those regularly growing up) it was about visiting a busy pier, with games and treats. I just really wanted to go to a carnival at the beach - well my dream came true at Santa Monica!

Also Rich got to play one of his favourite games and shoot some hoops - sadly no prizes were won.

Well that's it folks, the end of the posts about our trip (wow I'm going to have to think about something else to blog about now, maybe even get back into outfit posts!). It was an epic trip and yes we were exhausted by the end of it, but it was well worth it. We saw so many incredible things and met up with so many friends.

Also we have booked our next overseas trip (because we have a problem,  its called a travel bug) in Easter of next year. Any guesses as to where we are heading off to next?

USA Part Fifteen - More in and around LA

Once upon a time in a land far, far away - Taipei, Taiwan to be exact, Rich and I met a really super cool couple from Orange County, California called Lisa and Aaris.

So the giant KL probably gave it away...this photo wasn't taken in Taipei, but in beautiful Kuala Lumpur. I met up with Lisa and Aaris here a few years ago (unfortunately Rich was still studying at that time, so I was traveling solo). Lisa has also been down to visit us here in New Zealand.

We were both pretty excited to see Lisa and Aaris again and hang out "on their turf" when you meet people traveling the conversation often come up "when you come visit me in XYZ we will do this...." so when you actually get to visit these friends in their home town its pretty exciting.

First things first, Rich and I said goodbye to central LA and jumped on a train and headed over to Irvine, Lisa had warned us "there's not really anything in Irvine" - sorry Irvine, she wasn't making that up.

The palm trees are kind of cool right? Lisa was going to take us up in this hot air balloon in Irvine so we could get a better view of the area, but as it turns out the wind was too high so no balloon ride for us. Instead she took  us to a mall for lunch while we waited for Aaris to finish up at work.

I'm going to be honest guys, we didn't take too many photos for the rest of the day as we were too busy hanging out and catching up on the last couple of years. During the course of the evening the topic of Voodoo Doughnuts came up as Aaris was one of the friends we had that was a big advocate of Voodoo Doughnuts. Although he agreed they were good, he told us there was a local place that was even better. I have to say I'm glad this doughnut place is in California, because if it was in Wellington I would want to go there every day (which would mean I'd weigh about 100 kilos).

After a brunch of doughnuts in the sun we spent the rest of the day exploring the Getty Centre, but I have to say although there was a tonne of interesting exhibitions I was more taken by the gardens outside and the view of LA.

After a couple of days it was time to say goodbye to Lisa and Aaris, I was really sad to say goodbye to them but hope it won't be too long until we meet again (until then its going to be facebook and instagram). They were good enough to drop us off to our backpackers for our final night in the USA at Venice Beach.

Until this point this was  pretty much all I knew about Venice Beach - which I learnt from a flavoured milk TV ad at some point in the late 90s. It involved a guy with dreadlocks rollerblading along the beachfront, it was super cool at the time. I have no idea why he would be drinking New Zealand flavoured milk.

Although it was kind of appropriate that the ad was made in the 90's as to me, Venice Beach felt a bit like a wacky music festival in the 90s. I'm not being insulting here either, I went to a few music festivals in the 90s and it was a good time!

However, the highlight of Venice Beach Freakshow - when I text my friend Alicia to let her know I'd been she freak out as turns out there is a reality show about this place!

I'm so out of touch with pop culture, but I did love the freak show and one of the freak show folks told me she thought my tooth necklace was really cool, so I was stoked.

Well that's my USA  posts ALMOST over! One more to go with a few more details of Venice Beach and Santa Monica.