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.

Lady Date: Vintage Market

I'm going to be honest with you guys - my desire  to blog has pretty much disappeared lately. I can't say I'm exactly sure why, lets hope it returns soon. 

I did want to share with you all though a morning out Ria and I  had recently. One of our local Saturday markets, the Frank Kitts Market (or Wellington Underground Market as its officially called) occasionally has themed market days and last week it was a vintage themed market so we thought we would go and check it out. 

I try to never have very high expectations for vintage themed markets - often vintage markets seem to be selling stuff for really inflated prices or just don't seem to have anything that interest me. However, this one was awesome. There may have only been a handful of vintage stalls (as well a the usual stall holders) but they had such great stuff. 

It seemed that my camera wasn't really up to taking photos on the day, so many of them came out blurry. There were so many great stalls though, including one from Georgia from The Velvettes which was awesome. 

Much to my surprise, both Ria and I bought SO MANY TREASURES! Normally when I go shopping now something has to be exceptional for me to buy, as so often I think "But I could make that and I already have a pattern/fabric that's pretty similar" but this time - I hit the jackpot!

 Super fun 1960's shift dress - the patterns is perfect! I've already worn this one to work!

 1980's candy stripe dress.

 Awesome bright orange NZ made 1960s dress.

 Floral 1970s polyester dress, I need to shorten it a bit as it is the weirdest length on me (neither long or short enough to look right).

 Just look at that pattern - amazing!

 A super warm wool cardi in red - you can never have enough cardis.

 A blue handmade cardi - super warm.

This isn't vintage at all but I did get a couple of metres of cute floaty anchor and heart print fabric - turns out at least two other people I know have this fabric as well.

Finally, after the market Ria and I decided we needed a break for morning tea and went to French Cancan which has recently opened up near our apartment. It's little bit fancy!

Hope you have all been having a great weekend!

Craftster Swap: Affirmation Swap - What I recieved

There was a time, many years back when I was more into general "crafting" and less into sewing and I used to take part in about a million swaps on Craftster.

Perhaps you've never heard of Craftster and the craft swaps they run before, but the premise is pretty simple - someone comes up with a theme for a swap (it could be almost anything you can imagine) and then people sign up to join in. The sign up period stops at a certain time, the organiser of the swap assigns partners and you have a period of time to craft some items and send out to your partner. It's a lot of fun and in the past I got a little addicted to these swaps - doing up to five at a time (the maximum you can do via craftster) which was WAY too much.

I decided I wanted to get back into swaps again this year, but take it easy and only really do one at a time - so in January I signed up for my first swap which was an "Affirmation Swap" - seemed like a good way to start the year. I can't share what I made yet as my partner hasn't recieved her package. But my package arrived yesterday in the mail - so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

Obviously the best part of taking part in swap is when you first open the box and see all the treasures inside.

The handmade item I received were these two really fun hoops with embroidery - "You Rule" and "You Rock". I think I need to start a wall for all the fun hoops I have made and received.

I also received these stickers - I really, really love stickers and these are kind of perfect for the "Top Five" journal I am trying to keep this year.

I also got a whole bunch of tea to try, I don't even remember telling my swap partner I love tea - but I do!I drank a lot of tea on my trip to the USA last year (obviously) but I didn't try this brand. I had a English Breakfast Tea after work yesterday and it was pretty good.

Finally, all of the other treats! My partner sent me some valentines treats as it was around valentines day she sent the package. The heart shape wand is filled with reeces pieces, I also got some junior mints and girl scout cookies.

So there you go - my first swap package of 2014! I really want to show you all what I made, because I'm pretty proud of it, but that will have to wait until it arrives in its new home. Have a lovely weekend xoxo

New Years Holiday Fun Times!

This is going to be a photo heavy post! I hope you guys don't mind - but I have so many things to share. Over New Years Rich and I stayed in a bach (that's North Island New Zealand speak for a holiday home) with a bunch of old University friends.

We stayed in Martinborough -which is know for it's wineries and fancy foods! I don't drink, so the wineries are for me - I was just happy to hang out with some of my oldest and best friends.

I just love the street names in Martinborough - we stayed on Cologne Street and whilst Rich and I were out for a walk we came across New York Street.

We had some beautiful weather and as you can see Martinborough is a pretty little town. I love the old buildings.

I'm pretty lame - so I thought this sign outside the deli was pretty amazing.

Here's out table all set up for New Years eve dinner - we had a huge BBQ dinner, it was awesome.

My friend Conor cooked BBQ bananas for dessert and our friend Boggy melted down a block of chocolate for chocolate sauce. It was a good time!

One day we all headed off to Carterton to check out Stonehenge Aotearoa - some people's cars were fancier than others....

Stonehenge was the kind of awesomely cheesy tourist attraction I LOVE - I'm not sure everyone was as impressed as I was. But it was really $8 well spent!

After Stonehenge was stopped off in Greytown for afternoon tea, as it New Years day not much was open. But this amazing and cute cafe was! It was super girly, the do High Tea, ice cream and all kinds of other sweet treats. Plus its adorable which is always important.

On the day we were due to head back to Wellington we went to check out this field, initially we thought it was lavender. But its some other kind of flower - which makes for great photos!

 

Eventually we all returned to Wellington, for more fun times hanging out! It was pretty much the best.

I was pretty sad to say goodbye to my friends from Auckland and Melbourne, its not often we all get to hang out anymore. But we will all catch up again for a wedding in March. I can't wait until then!