Fixing and making

 It's been a time of repair and sorting. My fabric cupboards had bowed out a little, very likely from being overstuffed. David screwed brackets into the central shelf of each to hold them in and now all is well. 

As a result, I've carded the rest of the pieces I had loose, stacked them into containers and my studio is much tidier and my stash easier to read. Also introducing another clothing rack for the piles of denim jackets yet to be decorated for sale. They are in the way and every time I go sew a batch I have to size and sort. My intention now is to hang them in size order. David has assembled the rack, we just need to rearrange some stuff to tuck it into a spot.

I have next week off work, then working part time for two more weeks to support "my" users for go-live before hopefully moving onto a new project elsewhere. So, it's SEWING week!

My original idea was to sew for me, but in reality I have far more clothes than I need and costumes are way more fun! I have a whiteboard of projects for the year, getting ready for the big shows coming up.

All of this organising and planning happened because Ian came to stay last week, and he is such a good person to talk through plans with. It is very ME to think better with someone else!

Trouble in the far corner

 There's been a falling out in the laundry cupboard. Dryer is sulking from a distance, while Washer crouches alone and exposed. This all because our downstairs neighbour, after an absence of several months, came home to a washing machine (top loader) full of water, and a knackered ceiling.

Investigations ensued only to find that our washing machine tap pipe wasn't quite screwed in properly, causing a slight leak. But after several months those drips added up! 

We had no idea as there's all of 3cm ease down each side of the appliances, being chonky European boiz, and to get this far, MrC had to take the doors off the cupboard to get the dryer out, to be able to see the tap. Plumber has been and sorted it.

Thank goodness all that is under our laundry cupboard is another laundry cupboard...

Sadly we can't quite face putting it all back together again so the place is a mess. Hey ho...

March already?!

A window of jackets I made.

Ok, fess up, who stole January and February? Time keeps on slippin' into the future, as the Steve Miller band once famously sang.

But you're not here for trite comments about the ravages of time! What have I been up to?

Sewing: I had a mending and to-do pile a metre high, so I attacked it - finishing patch jackets (now in the shop window above), sewing up gaping dresses, and moving onto some delayed projects like making pillow cases. And I'm now half way through an organza boa. It is pink, purple, blue, turquoise and burgundy, giving it a paua/abalone vibe.

With omicron charging through our country at great speed, I am working from home, rescheduling flights to postponed gigs, and limiting my social life to one on ones and the Thursday quiz.

Lots of friends have got the O, but nobody is really sick thank goodness, thanks to the very high vaccination and booster rates here. I don't have the luxury of time for being sick right now as with the shop tanking, but not enough to get a subsidy, my income is keeping the whole ship afloat.

Thank goodness for having a job, being able to do it from home, and being safe!

This is my life now, working from home in my studio with glimpses of showgirl!

A little late but still...

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This video is a little late, like two weeks really, but there you go.

I LOVE this song, but that won't stop me using it as a fun moment.

I dropped a line that says, "I had good intentions" ironically because I always do have good intentions, including to remember all the lines. :)

Christmas Eve

 

It's Christmas Eve here, 11pm, I'm about to go to bed. Food prep complete for tomorrow, presents all wrapped, crackers made, shop balanced and all tucked up for two days, and here we are.

My tiny tree is on the end of the kitchen bench - it's the only flat surface in our living area, but as it is enormous, the bench not the tree, it's not really in the way. It's actually the top third of a 7 foot tree, and David cleverly made it fit in the base with corrugated card. Kiwi ingenuity. I finished my day job last Friday and putting up the tree helped to flip me into holiday mode.

I had the most delicious late thanksgiving dinner at my friend Emily's where she just cooked the turkey legs and they were so good, I decided that was going to be our Christmas dinner. Then Jamie Oliver got on TV last week with boning and stuffing them. So, David boned them all out for me (we joked that he would have made an excellent butcher, which would horrify his lifelong vegetarian mother!) and tonight I stuffed and rolled 12 of them with pork sausagemeat, apricot and sage stuffing.

This year I have refused to bake any dried fruit foods as it is too hot! So I've made a trifle, experimenting with raspberry, rhubarb and orange flavours, with a dessert wine and Cointreau as the soak. The sponge is gluten free, and a bit dry but hopefully the booze and fruit will sort it out.

Late on Wednesday, having sewn up all the semi-constructed masks on my sewing table for the shop, I decided that masks were the new hats for Christmas crackers and made 12 more. They are all gorgeous, but sewing 30 masks was a mistake and my back is not happy with me. So on top of my knee, I'm hobbling around, getting on the floor every couple of hours to do stretches and hoping it will stop spasming. Cooking sitting on a bar stool is quite tricky!

On the News we are told that retail spending is down this year, but in our tranquil little shop we've had our best week ever in ten years. For this we are very, very thankful.

It's a funny time. Covid and bereavements and weather events and bad health - I don't feel much like celebrating. But because of this it is important to celebrate anyway. I'm sitting with things as they are - the good, and the bad. Rather than focus on either side, just to be with it. 

So on this Christmas Eve, I'm relaxing, contemplating bed and thinking of you all. Natalie if you read this I hope you are ok with the terrible tornado ripping through Kentucky. Sending love your way.

I wish for you all some peace and replenishment among the ambiguity. xo

Frock Tweaking

Hello! Long time no chat! I've been busy and it's all not very interesting really. I did the Christmas Caburlesque show on 4 December and we did a variation of it - bigger cast, more variety, over the hill in the Wairarapa.

I'm tired of my red Christmas dress really, so I decided to try something else. This dress I made in 2017, and I've honestly never loved it in spite of it being the most ambitious costume I've made. I just felt the result never delivered on the effort.

It feels like a dress a child would wear at a pageant. The bottom flounces droop instead of being deliciously frothy. It's not long enough or too long at the front. Meh. So, I stood in front of the mirror in it and pulled and hoiked and hitched, and bingo!

The result! the frothy flounce pops now, it has proper hi low, I prefer the assymetry and the hitch makes the dress a bit narrower. It's caught up with some strong stitches, and I'm going to play with the rest of the flounce to see if I can make it turn out more too.

It's the only costume I have that has a blue/green base as they're not really my colours but I LOVE the way the sequins on this fabric are shifting shades of blue, turquoise, lime and jade, just delicious!

The froth is green and blue organza, and because the fabric is translucent, the colours mix to make these turquoise colours. YUM.

I'm not sure that my Snag Christmas tree lights tights were the best choice to wear under them on the weekend but hey ho!

New Beginnings...

The Hunter Building, Robert Stout building tucked in "behind" it in the photo

I started a new job today. It's in a building that has been a part of my life since I was a teenager.

Back in the summer of 1982/83, I spent weeks making costumes for Romeo and Juliet in Hunter, which was not being used because it was very seismically unstable. By the mid 90s it was strengthened, restored and in use, and I was the person responsible for private hires for conferences, fashion shows and weddings. Then I was in Robert Stout in the Graduate Students Office.

We're in the attic of Robert Stout (refer my crazy red scribble) with opening windows and no lift. It's fabulous. I used to be on Level 2, so I've gone up in the world! I think it would make a fabulous apartment.

Also, today as I was having those intro meetings with project team members explaining how it all works, one was telling me how he got to be there because of the experience he had from his home town in Canada. I asked him where in Canada and he was all, "Oh, nowhere you'd have heard of," but sure enough he is from Saskatoon. My spiritual other home!

Small world, all connections.