Halloween 2016

I know its nearly a week since Halloween, but better late than never I say! I thought it would be a bit of a bummer having Halloween on  a weekend this year, but actually I had a pretty great day.

It was a Monday, so I still had to go into work but I thought I'd dress slightly more creepy than usual (well not really), so I wore my wolf man dress (It's not made by me,  the label is Sourpuss clothing).

We did "secret trick or treat" at work, a bit like secret Santa, but only better because it was Halloween themed. We have some pretty great bakers in my team and one of my colleagues go this amazing cemetery brownie!

I received this week ghost with fudge inside, the ghost is now in my craft room holding all my thread.

               After work we went to Film Society, where they were screened Night of the Demon in honor of all things Halloween. I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while and it did not disappoint! I love old horrors as much as I love the modern ones (well actually often more than I love the modern ones).

 After the movie we went to the Space Place for a Halloween show in the planetarium, I'm looking forward  to taking my nephew Lukah here when he visits later this month.

The show included a free creepy cupcake, aren't they so amazing? It was pretty hard to choose only one, but I went with the ghost as he's a little bit cute as well!

I hope you all had a great Halloween, ot a not too terrible Monday if you don't celebrate Halloween.

Halloween Swap 2015!

Hello All and Happy Halloween!! I hope you all have some kind of creepy fun times planned today. I've going out to lunch with my lovely club friends in theme and then a few of us are heading to Tretham for the Pet Festival, apparently there is a costume competition for pets. I'm pretty excited about that.

Anyways I thought I'd share a post today of the things I received from Vany craft ninja for our Halloween swap this year.

Due to the cost of postage and well, LIFE being busy we decided to cut down our number of swap days from 13 days to a week. Still a week of Halloween is still a pretty great time!

DAY ONE

This is day one's package, which I was really puzzled by, I mean what could be in HERE! One big box and a bunch of pod shaped packages?

The big package was these Hello Kitty kinder surprises - Vany told me about these ages ago. I was so happy to have a box of my own.

But guess what was in all the pod shaped packages? A bunch more Kinder Surprise capsules, fulled with Hello Kitties.

This little dude was  also  in one of the capsules, he's a Natoons character.

This package was so much fun to open, who doesn't love a package made up of a heap of tiny packages.  Also so much Kitty - yah!

DAY TWO

Day two came in its very own box with three wrapped packages inside - two small ones  and one big one. What was in the smaller packages?

 Inside the first small package with this this cute Hello Kitty skeleton patch - I LOVE the wee bow.

The second little package was this ADORABLE My Melody ghost patch - its one of the cutest things ever. I love it.

What was in the big package? My favourite German chocolate - so delicious!

DAY THREE 

On day three I found a note from Vany that I had totally missed previously! This is our third year of swapping at Halloween times, hard to believe!

 Here's the package for day three - what's inside?

Something to reflect my love of lavender and visiting lavender farms! Some really beautiful soap! She also made these two cute scent sachets filled with lavender - skully bird and bunny.

DAY FOUR

 Day four was a day of craft supplies that included a DIY felt bird kit, very cool shark ruler, cross-stitch phone charm and creepy cute patch.

DAY FIVE

Day five was a cross-stitch day and included this awesome "What we do in the Shadows" cross-stitch.

DAY SIX

Day six was a day for all thing tea related! I received a box of tea, complete with a skeleton dressed as a bunny and a little plate for putting used tea bags on. I have a bunch of teas from Germany to try now!

DAY SEVEN

Vany has made me SO MANY amazing things over the year, but this was really next level. I don't know how she got so many things I love into one item (and also how she new my current bunny slippers were totally past it).

 That's right people, she made me zombie bunny slippers and in case you were wondering, the nose is a tiny skull.

The bottom of the slippers says "zombunny"  obviously! So amazing!

Well that's it for my Halloween swap package from Vany - pretty amazing right? I'm excited for next year already!

The Monthly Stitch - Frocktober - Purple Velvet Dress

You may remember this post where I told you all my plan for frocktober was to make one Halloween themed dress for each week in October. I feel like I may have over-committed myself, but I am going to continue to try and make four Halloween inspired/themed dresses even if some of them come into existence after Halloween.

Here's my second Halloween themed dress - its purple (again) and its a very deep shade of purple. This is more of a gothic witch inspired frock.

So I should let you all know that the last couple days have been EXTREMELY windy, even by Wellington standards and that's been putting my haircut to the test. Which is a problem, my haircuts are usually based on being manageable in our wild weather conditions!

This is another dress made from Maudella 5619 - basically when I find a pattern I love I used it around a billion times! I'm not as crazy about this version of the dress as early versions, I may try it with a belt and see if I like it more.

I am currently working on my fourth Halloween dress and I have started stitching it up - want a sneak peak? Well here you go!

It's being made from a pattern I've never used before *shock horror* the Derby Dress pattern by Christine Haynes. I'm making the fabric on the right and I'm using black cotton and some of that sweet little ghost/coffin fabric. 

Just one thing before I go - I thought I'd share my wee ghost necklace - I think he adds an extra creepy cute touch to the outfit.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend - now its time to go and sew up my next dress!

Instagram - Week Six & Travel Questions Answered!

It's a time for another snapshot of my week - via the wonderful world of instagram!

So I won't be picking up my tickets for my flights to the USA until about two weeks before I leave - but I do get an electronic ticket and that's pretty exciting.

I thought I'd see if I could pull off wearing a headscarf - I'm still undecided.

A pair of glasses I ordered online from Clearly Contacts arrived this week - but I need to take them into the optometrist as they don't fit quite right. Also - there are HEARTS on the frames!

I bought this cute little sweater clip from Sucre Noir - so creepy cute!

It was Rich's Birthday last Tuesday - so I bought him this wee cupcake on the way home.

My Mum and Dad bought Rich some art supplies for his birthday - including this cool sketchbook.

So the previous tenant put butterfly stickers on the bathroom mirror - also I look really intense.

I FINALLY go my boots fixed - so I can wear them again - yah!

The next few pictures are all of the BEST Halloween package EVER from Alicia - creepy cute sewing themed doll, pop rocks, Hello Kitty Halloween stickers and cute card!

I had a girls night in with my friend Jaimee on Saturday night, another old friend Emily that I haven't seen in AGES came along too. It was so rad - I want to hang out and have girls nights all the time now. This is the view from Jaimee's apartment.

Jaimee made vegetarian lasagne and it was awesome.

This is Jaimee's cat Luca - she's pretty darn cute. I hate that I'm allergic to cats!

I saw this t-shirt in a shop window in left bank arcade - I don't really need to say any more - do I?

Rich and I went to a Mexican Restaurant at the weekend - I had mandarin soda to drink and a Mexican Jandal to eat. I also thought the big sugar skull was SO awesome.

On Saturday night we went to see Billy Bragg with friends and it was super awesome! We started off with a few drinks at the Little Beer Quarter and then went to see Mr Bragg at the opera house. Such a good night out.

Rich and I went to feed Luca on Sunday as Jaimee was away - she did her best to make us feel super bad for not spending the day hanging out with her.

I had to do more study on Sunday - eventually I will finish up this course.

We went to the Indonesian festival and got free noodles.

I got a late birthday present from my dear friend Alaina in Melbourne. It included basically the best tea towel in the history of the world and boxing kangaroo gummies.

Walking home tonight - blue skies! The days are getting so much longer - summer is almost here.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my travel post - a few of you asked me where this photo was taken and was it in the sleeper car of a train.

 It's not in a train at all - its a Japanese Capsule Hotel - that's right, this little space was our room for about three nights. Accommodation in Tokyo is VERY expensive! So we decided to spend a few nights in a capsule hotel to cut costs - it was also a very unique Japanese experience. Here's a few more photos.

The nights we stayed the capsule hotel was pretty quiet - which I was actually pretty thankful for. You had to keep your belongings in a locker because there just wasn't any room. We also had traditional Japanese bathrooms - which are communal (men and women are separate of course) and a wee TV in our room. Fun but also crazy times.

Meg asked if I could do a post about "looking adorable" whilst traveling - I think I will do that closer to the time I leave for my trip. I've actually already started to think about some dresses I want to sew for the trip - what a geek!

I hope you all had a super Monday xoxox