Handmade

On Saturday I went to two classes at the inaugural Handmade at Te Papa.

The fibre seems to have an angelic glow about it in the photo. Well, looks can be deceiving.

In the first class I learned that spinning with a spindle is really really really really hard. I was especially gammy at it so after about half an hour the tutor said, 'Okay Cherie, come and sit up here by me.' After that I improved a little bit, but not very much. And at the end of the hour and forty-five minutes I was so tired from concentrating I wasn't sure I'd make it through the next class.

A reviving few hours in the Knit Lounge perked me up though and I got to covet an amazing crocheted blanket that someone had found at an op-shop and brought in to contribute to Tash's knit graffiti installation (which, unfortunately, I didn't get to see as I had to zoom off to the Wairarapa on Saturday evening, but hopefully she'll post some photos on the OutdoorKnit blog). I badly wanted to steal it. The colours are so great and the pattern is enough to make me want to learn to crochet.

In the 'Learn to Make an Embroidered Needlebook' class I got to do two very exciting things: meet Melissa of Tiny Happy, and learn how to chain stitch! Here is my not-quite-finished poor excuse for an embroidered needlebook next to one of Melissa's beautiful ones:

I was very pleased with my new found chain stitching ability though, I believe I said, 'I'm chain stitching! It's like magic!' aloud a few times. Well, it is. I also got to use a magic sewing machine that was all electronic and flash. Want to change the stitch length? Just push a button. Want to make sure the sewing machine doesn't run away on you if you accidentally put your foot down a bit too hard? Adjust it to a slower maximum speed. Magic!

Overall, my Handmade experience was a good one. I think some of the classes needed to be longer than an hour and forty-five minutes (I heard quite a few other people saying so and I definitely agreed in terms of my embroidered needlebook class) and that the cost of materials should be included in the class cost so that people know the total cost up front, but apart from that I will try to go again next year if it's on and hopefully have time to hang out a bit more. I wish the Knit Lounge was there every weekend!

I'm going once, I'm going twice, I'm sold to the lady in the second row...*

TradeMe is dangerous. But sometimes there are treasures that just have to be bought: $37 for a boxed set of Little House on the Prairie - the editions with the covers I love most! There's nothing like winning the auction for something amazing.

Today it's exactly two months until my dream time holiday. The winter of frugality needs to kick in in the extreme from June 1st...

*Auctions always make me think of two barbershop songs, 'Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)' and 'The Auctioneer'. I especially like the second one, the claps get me every time.

Food (Show) Glorious Food (Show)

Yesterday I spent five hours at The Food Show. I hadn't been before and I didn't intend to stay that long but I arrived at 10am with Beth and somehow it was 3pm before I knew it.

We sampled all sorts of things - amazing yoghurt, cheese, sausages, chocolate puddings, bagels, wine, beer, margheritas, gin...and watched two cooking demonstrations, one by MasterChef NZ judge and Euro owner Simon Gault,  and another by Julie Biuso (who I hadn't actually heard of before). I learned how curly fries are made and saw some impressive desserts being judged.

And out of all that was on offer, what did I end up buying? Tea. Three different types of delicious tea.

Boredom in Seattle, hilarity in Gotland

After the epic endurance feat that was Cleopatra, we decided we needed something significantly lighter for classic movie Sunday two weekends ago. I felt like something a bit frothy so we got a supposed modern classic, While You Were Sleeping.

UGH. In my opinion, this movie is not deserving of its romantic comedy classic status. It's not like I had high expectations and I was even prepared to overlook the tenuous plot foundations (how hard is it to say, 'I'm sorry, no, you've misunderstood, I'm not his fiancee, I'm the woman who saved his life'? I'm pretty sure the family would have been just as pleased to meet her). But, feasibility aside, it just went on way too long. Even though it's only an hour and 43 minutes, it felt much longer. It was too much to buy into and too frustrating that Sandra Bullock's character let it get to the point that it did before telling the truth. This movie did not fill me with warm romantic fuzzies. It irritated me. The best thing about the whole movie was the grandmother, played by Glynis Johns, the woman who played the mother in Mary Poppins.

Last weekend, however, was a triumph. Pippi Longstocking. The 1969 version made from a collection of episodes from the Swedish TV series. I hadn't seen it before (I'd only watched the 1986 American version when I was younger) and it was hilarious! Mainly because of the English speaking voices dubbed over the Swedish - the accents and voices of the characters seemed to change a lot, my favourite were the criminals who initially sounded kind of Mexican but by the next time we saw them they had become British.

The girl who played Pippi was so cute and gave Pippi such personality and the little girl and boy who become her friends were such cute wee Swedish ingenues. The story itself and some of the dialogue and editing was so random it was extremely entertaining. The special effects were especially special.

I found out from my good friend Wikipedia that the show was set in Visby in Gotland, an island belonging to Sweden. My family on the Jacobson side were originally from Gotland so that pleased me greatly. I've decided that this fact, combined with my hair colour, means I pretty much AM Pippi Longstocking. I wonder how my flatmates would feel if I got a monkey?

Autumn ending

Hockey on a beautiful day in Lower Hutt last week 

Dessert at Foxglove. Amazing. 

Mt Ruapehu yesterday at about 3.30pm 

Seeing a plane out the window of a plane is quite disorientating...



Playing with my new camera. Oooo the clarity. But also, look at that salad. I was pretty pleased with myself.

Action!

Yesterday Alex and I got asked to help out a V48 Hours team. It was so fun! I've never done any film stuff before (except for a few years in which my sister, step-sister, step-brothers and I were into using the home video camera on the weekends we were all together to make our own episodes of the TV programme Mirror Mirror, our own soap opera called Caroline Crescent, and a TV drama along the lines of the old Montana Sunday Theatre programmes that used to screen on channel one, all complete with ads and my sister quitting in tears because I was being too bossy).

Despite the time pressure, everyone we worked with was really nice and seemed to be there to have a good time as well as to make a decent short film, which is surely what the competition is all about. I secretly liked them saying, 'Quiet on set, rolling, sound, speed [I didn't work out what that actually meant], scene three, take one [clapping the clapperboard], action!' It was just like the movies...

I not-so-secretly liked the bonnet I got to wear (the film is set in Victorian times). Once it was on I refused to take it off for the rest of the day. I also loved Alex's dress. Such a good colour.

Doing some unrelated photo acting while waiting around; sadly this was pre-bonnet 

For the conversation party scene we went to the Government Buildings, which are currently home to the Victoria University Faculty of Law. I had never been in there before (despite passing the building every day on my way to work for the last five months) and it's so cool. Apparently they do tours every weekend so I might have to go along as I only got to see a wee bit of it yesterday.

It's the largest wooden building in the Southern Hemisphere. And there is definitely a lot of wood.

Shake-em-on-Downers

Last night as I was walking home from work I came across a six piece jazz band* playing on Cuba Street. I wasn't in any hurry so I sat down and listened to them for about forty minutes. It was a little bit chilly but it was so worth it. I even got my knitting out for a wee while. They played some old favourites ('Puttin' on the Ritz', 'It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)', 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow') and some I didn't recognise.

Then they announced that their last piece for the night would be a Charleston and encouraged the people standing around listening to dance.

And they did!

*They had some cute wee business cards in their suitcase, they're called The Wellington City Shake-em-on-Downers and they're available for weddings, parties etc via shakeemondown[at]gmail[dot]com.