Brooklyn Fun Times!

The weather here at the moment is really changeable at the moment - we either have bleak stormy days or glorious sunshine! 

Last Sunday was one of the days of glorious sunshine! So Rich and I decided to walk up to Brooklyn via Central Park. 

But there was evidence of stormy times around - the original path we tried to walk along didn't work out for us. The bridge crossed the stream had been all smashed up by a tree that had fallen in recent stormy times.

 So we had to retrace our steps and then walk up these stairs - but its ok, we live in Wellington - hills and stairs are everywhere.

Then before we knew it - we were in Brooklyn! It's a cute little suburb, I'd really love to live here one day. Plus I could wouldn't have to do as many squats at the gym if I had to walk up the Brooklyn Hill every day.

 There is a wind turbine in Brooklyn - so they have these cute wind turbine tiles along the footpath.

 The old fire station facade still remains standing next to the new fire station building (which is much less interesting).

Also we made a kitty friend - he's actually staring at a cat on the other side of the road. Yes we are both allergic to cats and shouldn't be petting strange cats whilst out walking. But he was so friendly and adorable.

We decided to keep walking to a monument up on another hill that looks down on Brooklyn - we weren't sure what it was a monument for, but it turns out its for the fallen soldiers of World War I.

Did I mention its totally awesome that Rich has taken a break from study over the summer so we can hang out at the weekend? Because it is!

Hope you all have had a super week.

Travel Memories Tuesday: Napier, New Zealand

This week I decided to post something a little bit closer to home, I guess every single post doesn't have to be on the other side of the world.

This photograph was taken in Napier, for those of you who don't know much about New Zealand history Napier had a major earthquake in 1931 and most of the city was destroyed. Because of this a lot of the buildings in Napier are art deco style as that was the style at the time the city was reconstructed. 

The photo below is actually of a bank - but I loved the ceiling - a combination of art deco style and Maori design.

The Meg Dress!

As I've mentioned before, when I was in the USA staying with Alicia and Bear in Pennsylvania, Alicia took me to Jo-Anns and I bought a whole lot of fabric. This is the second dress I've made from the fabric I bought and its a really fun sugar skull print.

I would have loved to have said I wore this dress on Dia de Los Muertos - but I actually made it the day after and wore it to work today. Better late than never right? Also I'm totally including this as dress number three of my four Halloween dresses.

I've decided this dress shall be known as the "Meg Dress" - sure it could be my "Sugar Skull Dress" but the reason I got off my butt and actually made something with it was because of this dress my friend Meg in Philly made. We are fabric twins!

Also I could imagine Meg making a dress from this pattern - its the "Back-to-school shift dress" from Simple and Chic sewing by Christine Haynes. I have made this dress so many times before - see here, here, here, here and also used it as a pattern for this costume. I wanted to make a simple dress from this fabric and I also wanted to use a tried and true pattern as I didn't want to mess up my precious sugar skull fabric!

These inside photos aren't the best - especially taken in the hallway of our apartment building. You can see the weird painting outside our apartment, its kind of grey and dull. I wish the body corp would put something more fun and bright up!

I hope you all have a great week - I've decided to take annual leave this Friday, so I only have three days of the week left. Hurrah!

My Favourite Halloween Tradition: 13 Days of Halloween

In New Zealand Halloween isn't really a thing - when I was a kid pretty much no one in the small town I lived in celebrated it. People do celebrate it more now and I've been to plenty of Halloween parties in my time and some of my friends that live in more "child friendly" parts of the city do get trick or treaters (you don't get any when you live in an inner city apartment). 

In general I LOVE the idea of Halloween - a celebrations which includes two of my favourite things - sweet treats and scary monsters can ONLY be a good thing. Plus I do have an annual Halloween celebration of my own, every year I do a "13 Days of Halloween Swap" with my friend Vany in Germany.

Vany and I met through Craftster - you see there was a time I did a lot of craft swaps with people on craftster and I got partnered with Vany not once, but twice for swaps and we became friends and each Halloween we do a 13 Days of Halloween Swap. Basic idea is you wrap up 13 packages and send them to your partner and you ope up one package in the lead up to Halloween. It's pretty fun and perfect for us as we both like Halloween and creepy things in general so much.

I should say here though, Vany is no regular crafter, she is in fact some kind of magic craft ninja with super skills. You'll see what I mean when you see what she made me. Here's what I received for the 13 days of Halloween for 2013.

Before my packages arrived Vany told me it was actually cheaper for her to send four smaller packages rather than one large one - its a good day when you receive four boxes in the mail! 

Vany is always so kind and includes a few "extras" in my packages - usually my beloved dark chocolate German chocolate.

 Check out how gross this eye ball lolly is - I can't even deal with it!

Other extras included some cute wee robots (for Rich of course) and these fun window decals - these may now be a permanent fixture in the living room. Isn't the view from our apartment glorious?

What else did I receive over the 13 days of Halloween?

DAY ONE

I received some "freakshow" coasters - how cool are they? Vany also sewed the little case they are sitting in and she also sent me a Hello Kitty bracelet as she knows how much I love Hello Kitty.

DAY TWO

I received a Halloween wreath with two cute little owls, its not hanging in my sewing corner. I also received a Hello Kitty charm - its super cute, love all the little stars.

DAY THREE

On day three I received the most amazing shoes EVER! These amazing Nosferatu shoes - how great are they and they fit really well too. I also got this chocolate spoon, which I still haven't eaten yet!

DAY FOUR

On day four I received the most amazing note cards - look at these monsters and their adorable faces! I also received some of my favourite German chocolate.

DAY FIVE

Whilst everything was amazing I have to admit, I think day five may be my favourite day. Look at this amazing hand painted octopus box. It's an upcycled chocolate box! I also got more chocolate (you can never have too much) and also some fun nail art stuff. 

DAY SIX

For day six I received this fun magnet set - now we have a dancing skeleton on our fridge! Those chocolate coated gummies were pretty good, I've never had lollies like that before.

DAY SEVEN

I received a notebook and pen covered in my favourite things -  Hello Kitty, Kuromi and My Melody, Monsters High, skulls. So awesome! Vany also personalised the notebook with my blog name and included a wee pocket at the back with more stickers. She also send these two zombie dudes - on is a barber and one is a doctor.

DAY EIGHT

So guess what's hanging on our bathroom door right now? A zombie mermaid cross-stitch - I know you're jealous. She is amazing.

DAY NINE

Day 9 was a day of pouches - you can NEVER have too many pouches. Don't you LOVE the fabric of the heart shaped pouch and isn't it awesome that its heart shaped. I love the fuzzy monster pouch too.  I also got another Hello Kitty Charm - if you look closely you will see she is a sewist! She is carrying scissors, has a tape measure on her neck and a pin cushion on her wrist.

DAY TEN

For day 10 I received two cute fabric bracelets, I especially like the one with the spiders. I also got a zombie cupcake pincushion - which I LOVE and one of those things that you plug into your phone when you're not using your headphones, do they even have a name? In case you were wondering, yes that is Hello Kitty's hair bow. 

DAY ELEVEN

One of the reasons Vany and I get on so well is that we both love horror movies - so it only makes sense she would make me a "Bates Hotel" towel and not to forget those zombie brain soaps for the bathroom!

DAY TWELVE

If you're scared of clowns, or found "Stephen King's IT" scary, you may want to scroll quickly past the next part of this post. That's because I got an amazing "IT" and also and adorable "Creature from the Black Lagoon".

DAY THIRTEEN

The final day of the swap is always so bittersweet - I always feel so sad when my 13 days of Halloween is over with for the year. For my 13th day of Halloween I received a vintage look apron and some cupcake baking supplies.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the treasures I received - I'm so happy I have this fun Halloween tradition. Already looking forward to 13 days of Halloween 2014!