Merry Christmas!

It's after midnight so technically not Christmas any more. I was feeling a bit refluxy so have got up. Being vertical helps. Typical after a delightful day with a lot of rich food. Even grazing, it takes its toll.

So, nothing from me since August and then a couple of days ago. A quick recap is in order I feel:

• The shop has been delightfully busy as people support small businesses, and have rediscovered crafting.
• I've done several shows - audiences were a bit frenetic at first but have settled down. Most gigs are selling out. We are VERY lucky to be able to do this and I feel terribly for performers everywhere who cannot!
• The project I was employed to oversee was canned in a funding cut, and therefore so was I at the end of October. I got a nice pay out and we're still living off it, and I was hoping to have something in place for after Christmas but now we shall have to wait and see.
• I took on making denim jackets and it's taking off nicely. Not making the actual jackets but embellishing them. I've sold seven already and pump out a few every now and then. They are a nice addition to the patches as a product. 
• We get to move back into our own home FINALLY on 8 Feb. I. Cannot. Wait.
  

A Christmas show in late November up north in Raglan.

This jacket is well gone. Felix made a whole window display of them in early December and they just started selling, as did the patches without the jackets. I have had to make a huge batch only 6 weeks after the last lot.

 Four days off, and twice! Such luxury. I've not been working all week like I was when I had the day job, but have tried to give David an extra day off a week plus we've been busy enough for us both to work as well as our staff. So I have a long list of creating at home projects, catching up with friends and working on calming my brain down. 

This past year has been hard on my brain. I can see now that I've been running in the amber and red zone for most of it, not really thinking just getting through. This needs to stop - my brain is what earns me the big bucks and if it cannot function, what use am I. So, calm and mindful activities, a growth mind set, being deliberate, not trying to do 25 things at once all the time and feeling frazzled.

I mean it's worth a try!

Sweet Baby Cheeses!

 Long silence here - I feel like nothing happens worth reporting on. Does anyone else get like that? Yet I love the minutae of other people's lives.

Anyway just popped in to share this gift bought to me today; a statue of Baby Cheeses.

After a fraught day where I had a couple of inexplicable melt downs, this was pure joy! We enjoyed it immensely.

I hope wherever you are and whatever stage of Sauron 19 management you are in, you can find some joy too <3

Deja Vu?

Here in Middle Earth we thought we had gotten rid of Sauron-19 but it's broken out with 69 cases all linked, thankfully, to one cluster, or in quarantine.

But, we are in Alert level 3 in Auckland, and Level 2 everywhere else. For us in Welly this means social distancing in restaurants and bars and shops, voluntary mask wearing, working from home if you can etc.

Frankly I can't see much evidence of this L2 differing from normal life. It was VERY different when we were coming out of Level 4 then 3, as everyone was in the habit of maintaining distance etc.

What HAS happened however is a huge surge in mask making! At the shop, where I've been working for the last few days while taking annual leave, we have sold hundreds of metres of fabric, cut hundreds of fat quarters, and made thousands of stretch ties from cutting strips of knit fabric. 

The entire country seems to be out of elastic - the factory that produces it about 100k north of here, can't physically produce enough to keep the supply going, hence me paying people to cut strips. 

It's a fun time! 

I am finding my patience with sciency types talking about masks who know nothing of textiles very worn thin. Suggesting a water proof layer? Good work. If it is impermeable enough to not let water through, you can't BREATHE through it. Synthetic fabrics tend to repel moisture but this means any moisture simply goes through the holes in the warp and weft.

Natural fibres absorb moisture and disperse it. So, a damp mask is still going to keep working whereas its synthetic equivalent won't. A kitchen paper towel is an excellent filter because of its absorbency.

This is common bloody sense.

Anyway, I am so tired I can hardly see, I'm cold and I just want a bath and bed. I left my glasses somewhere, I spent several minutes looking for my phone while talking to a friend on it,  think I'm done!

Be well and safe wherever you are my loves

Upskilling in Isolation

One of the principles of adult learning so that adults will easily learn skills that they NEED. Well, up until now I've not needed to understand how to make videos, but now I do.
And Zoom meetings
And my Phone camera
The works!

Terrifying reality!

Like many other workers who do white collar jobs and are working from home, I'm on Zoom several hours a day. Also for social reasons I confess. This is me on my laptop video looking stern (glasses) and trying to put something behind me to quieten the noise of all my sewing and stage supplies on shelves. I don't think my jerry-rigged curtain is wide enough!
Anyone else rapidly acquiring new skills?
Here's my latest video attempt btw. For anyone who wears false eyelashes. Tom you might find it useful. Eyelashes on sculptures?

I'm wired for sound!

I fell asleep on the couch at 7.30 last night. It was a long day. The supermarket was eerily quiet, I loved it. I sang along to Cliff Richard on the video screen who was Wired for Sound, one of THE most annoyingly optimistic songs ever sung. Pastel lycra on roller skates. SO CUTE.

I don't know what came over me, I bought such random things. Donuts and baked beans?
AND, I finally bought toilet paper. We have plenty here in NZ as we make it. A bit of useless trivia for you!
Apparently there were queues to get into them on Monday-Wednesday and I do wonder about the logic of some people when the message was loud and clear, people can keep shopping. Surely risking crowds is more dangerous than anything else right now. Did they think the COVID 19 was waiting for the GO pistol to go off on midnight on Wednesday? Surreal...
First day of just being at home. Work, some. Fielding calls, some. Connecting with people, some.

Sorting rhinestones? Some.

I-sew-lation

Well, I'm in for the duration at last. Three days of helping people stock up, trying to make sure people stayed apart, used sanitiser, cleaning counters, ringing suppliers, keeping staff updated - I'm exhausted. We did our biggest trading day EVER yesterday. I've not had time to think.
Well I mean, I've done nothing but think. I've had at least three trains of thought going. The one that is trying to think of all the things I need to do NOW, the one that is trying to imagine all the things I should do in the future, and the one that is planning what I am going to do with my time during lock down. Besides work from home of course (at my day job).
So, now one of those trains has been put to sleep, so to speak. Parked up? I don't really know what it's called I'm not a train spotter.
The second is puffing quietly away in the background.
The third one is WEEHEE!!! The third one led me to sneak an online order in for enough rhinestones to complete a couple of UFOs. It led David to choose a wolf fabric for a shirt, and I'm planning other sewing projects and rhinestoning projects too. AND writing songs.

Today Felix coined the phrase i-sew-lation. He loves a good pun! In dwellings all over the world, it's in full swing, and I am ready to leap in, feet first!

Clothesline Circus

 Friday 13th March saw Hans and me heading up to Palmerston North, to be in the fabulous butterfly show, Lola and Friends - Clothesline Circus. A butterfly show exists only for one night, it is partly improvised, partly rehearsed and even if we did it a second night it would be a different  butterfly.
We thought our show was to be in the smaller Globe Theatre but it was in the big, 200 seat one with a large stage and all the cool things of a properly spec'ed theatre. Look at the amazing set! I love how different it looks in different lights.
Well, who was the star of this ensemble piece? Me? Hans? Lola? Nope. It was Chase, the Circus Dog. A rescue Pomeranian of extremely even temperament (a polite way of saying he simply can't be arsed doing anything but sit)

Blue wash for mystery and magic

With the working lights on, it's still gorgeous! That's our amazing producer on stage talking to someone...Doug? Can't tell.

Chase!!! He is the cutest fluff ball and was amazing. He did NOTHING, which means Lola had to fake all his stunts and it was hilarious!

Dressing room selfie - I never got one with Hans - trouble with running around in your undies is there's nowhere to put a phone so I only took a couple.

I took this one to show Jack my eye makeup, which is the living embodiment (in my mind anyway) of the line from "Ne me quitte pas", which I translate as: "When evening falls, does not the dark make perfect love to the sunset's spark?"

It was a beautiful, delightful, magical show and a huge tribute to our darling friend Lola Illusion.
I've got two shows in the next few weeks and we're wondering if and how they will go ahead, what with pandemic restrictions. Parlous times, but hopefully it will all be worth it and the virus will blow out soon.

Family Resemblance?!

I've mentioned from time to time that I have adopted children, Jack and Penny. Both of them stage managers, makeup experts and generally the darlingest of darlings. They are fierce and funny and look after me and we are most definitely a team.
For months we've all talked about getting family photos, outrageous ideas abounded and giant inflatables kept coming into it. I put my foot down at these. Waste of plastic.But we all saw eye to eye on an "Addams Family" type shoot.
So when the clever David Rowe was in Wellington, we nabbed some of his time and he made these!

Addams Family?

They never got their legs from me!

They can both walk normally in those enormous heels. I don't think I've ever had that skill and now it's flats all the way. :)

It's MARCH?!

I wish I could wonder where the time has gone but I know exactly where it's gone.

• Full time work
• Moving house
• Organising other aspects of moving - this is not just moving out for the next people but moving out for a major construction so that means all curtains and rods, the oven ffs, every single thing.
• sorting the logistics of everyone moving out - keys for the builders, cancelling rubbish and recycling etc.
• Having our car die mid planning and having to get a new-to-us one.

So, we are in our new place, surrounded by less boxes but boxes nonetheless. We are aware that things are not complete at the other end!

We do like our new car, just not the cost on top of all the rest. Moving is so expensive, what with bonds and rent in advance and movers, necessary due to our combined broken bodiness.

But today I took the first step in getting physio. Finally. Not above time, you may tut. :)



I have done two gigs among all of this. Well three really, if you count an emergency Music Quiz Round last week. One with darling li'l sister!