crusty coconut ice and freaky fudge
Thursday 30 March, 2006
This is the last time I will mention Toast for a while, lest I labour the point too much - ha ha - but here is a peek at the lovely owl skirt Rhiannon made for me. Isn't it the cutest? And looks all the more cute with my blue glitter boots!
I was planning on posting some sweet photos today of the many little bags of pale pink and pale blue coconut ice and the dreamy chocolate fudge that I made for Willoughby's school gala day this weekend.
Harumph! My coconut ice turned out BAD - the blue food colouring just made it go an icky snot-green colour and my hand slipped with the cochineal, so the 'pink' is more like a blood-clot colour. YUMMMMY! And the fudge started setting IN THE POT so I had to chip it out and consequently its all grainy and ugly and geez, they both just suck, really.
So no pictures.
Am I going to bag it up anyway and take it to the sweet stall? Hell yeah - kids buy anything! I'll just called it 'Monster Crunch' or 'Dinosaur Crystals' or something...
Me and my mate Rachael are going to be the face-painting fairies! Wheee! Fun (I hope!)
Have a lovely weekend!
Stripy sock wisdom for the day - "Never try to cook bulk batches of confectionary at the end of a long day of parenting and assignment marking, when you are tired and tetchy and want to be watching Coronation Street!"
Now there's one for the Fortune Cookie industry! :)
Posted on 30 March, 2006 | 10:14am | 0 comments |
HE SPEAKS!
Wednesday 29 March, 2006
Magnus has started talking! (I know this is only of interest to his parents and aunties and uncles and a few of our friends, but jeez, it is exciting so I can't NOT mention it!) When his Dad goes off to work in the mornings, Magnus waves and says...wait for it...
"Bye-Dah!" (this is baby speak for "Goodbye, Father, have a pleasant, conflict-free day at your place of employment and don't forget to take your packed lunch which Mother has so thoughtfully made for you.")
Willoughby's first words were "Dere-Yah!" which meant "there you are!" or "Yo! What up, fool? How's it hanging!"
The other day I posted about Toast clothing. In the photo above I am wearing my fab new sleeveless hoodie made especially for me by the lovely Rhiannon of Toast and received in the mail yesterday. Thank you so much, m'dear.
Magnus is sporting a bad haircut inflicted on him by his mama because his hair was getting in his eyes.
MUST get back to my marking...even though blog-land is much more fun.
Before I go, Rhiannon also sent me some 'Mamazines' - a parenting zine from the USA and one of them had this written in the back:
"Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist. Keep fighting! Keep loving!"
Wonderful! Have a good day, lovelies.
CYBER KISSES! xxxxxxxxxx
P.S (= post-snail-mail footnote:)
Just got a letter from National Radio to say that a short story of mine will be broadcast on Monday (3rd April) at 10.45 a.m.
Argh! Eerckkk! Acckkk! - nervous biting of nails!
P.P.S-
After I got the letter, it occurred to me that my name might be in next week's Listener, in the radio listings...and IT IS! This is VERY WEIRD! *swallow* *gulp* *wriggle*!
Posted on 29 March, 2006 | 11:08am | 6 comments |
papers to grade, coffee to drink
Tuesday 28 March, 2006
The sun is out, the baby is asleep...ahhh. Nice.
Yesterday I hit a 'fill-a-bag-for-$2' sale at my local oppie! Wheee! Unfortunately it was quite picked over so I only got the one bag...but I did pick up a great hot pink embroidered and beaded top, a pile of hippy tops for a friend, some lovely old 1950s tablecloths, and a fabulous designer top from Portugal that has hand embroidery! birds! swirls! AND darling puffed sleeves at the wrist. It's a summer top so I've packed it away to be a nice thing to re-discover in September.
I've got a big pile of papers to grade though, so I'm drinking coffee and getting busy with my red pen. I'd best get on...
Hope you are all well and smilin'.
xxxx
Posted on 28 March, 2006 | 9:53am | 5 comments |
why is everything in my life a symbol or a metaphor?
Monday 27 March, 2006
Ha! Because I'm a writer I guess...but man, it gets exhausting living a life where everything has 'underlying themes' and 'symbolises' something else...geez, I'm such a bad buddhist, I fight to "just be".
What am I on about today? Well, my bedroom. When we moved into our house two years ago, we quickly got every room as spiffing as we could (given extreme budgetary constraints) and apart from a bathroom do-up needing to happen, and some curtains needing replacing, I'm pretty happy with out wee dwelling ...EXCEPT our bedroom...which has been neglected and has become a place to go and flake out rather than the 'sanctuary for a couple' it should be. (I don't want to post a picture of my bedroom because, trust me, it is hideous and would not be an interesting or uplifting sight.)
I've painted it a calming egg-shell greeny-grey...but it has ugly bed linen and hideous curtains and is often covered in kids toys and has clothes all over the floor...
So I'm launching "Operation Beautify Bedroom"!...where's the symbolism bit? Well, I've been thinking that the ugly, messy bedroom kinda SYMBOLISES what happens to your life as a couple when you have children...you put yourselves last, you don't nurture your relationship simply because you don't have time/energy...
I need $$ to replace the curtains and bed linen (better start selling some threads on Trademe!) but in the meantime I started yesterday by making a heart out of fairy lights over our bed to re-introduce the concept of romance to our room. I also put up some old pictures I've been collecting from op-shops (criteria = 1940s or 1950s, floral, cream frames)...they are probably a bit girly-shabby-chic for Fraser's taste, but the day he shows any interest in the aesthetics of his surroundings is the day he gets an opinion! :)
Readers: do you have any suggestions for what colour curtains might go with the paint colour you can see behind the paintings? and another random question...do you have any suggestions for jewellery storage/display/organisation? I have A LOT of cheap but lovely costume jewellery which at present is in a tangle in my one jewellery box. Suggestions welcome.
I'll keep you updated on the do-up. Have an aesthetically-pleasing and symbol-free day! xxxx
Posted on 27 March, 2006 | 11:17am | 3 comments |
sick baby
Sunday 26 March, 2006
Bad weather and illness...can winter be here already?
Poor Magnus is not well at all - he's been growing lots of molar teeth (five!) and suffering with it. He also has a vomity-bug. Niiiicceee. One cute thing, though, was that he was falling asleep on our chests which squirmy one-year olds don't tend to do...so that was nice and cuddly.
Most kids don't get their molars until they are around two. It must be hurting him a lot to suddenly have all that extra dentata in his mouth.
In other teeth news, Willoughby lost his first tooth this morning! Thank goodness, because it had been as wiggly as hell for days and was, frankly, revolting. So now he is sweetly gappy and looking much older as a result.
And that sums up my world at the moment...off to hang out one of the seven loads of pukey, dirty laundry!
Hmmm...I hope I get some nice snail mail today 'coz it's going to be a long one! (Expecting two parcels...)
Posted on 26 March, 2006 | 11:09am | 2 comments |
Get Toasty!
Saturday 25 March, 2006
My cyber-friend, Rhiannon, has launched a lovely new online shop! You must go take a look RIGHT NOW and support this wonderful young Mama/funkster/crafty-genius...buy one of her very underpriced and highly original garments and you won't regret it!
Why buy 'Made In China', off the peg, bad karma, sweatshop-manufactured "fashion" when you could have something as unique and darling as the hoodie above? Doilies and tanks? It would take a Rhiannon to think of that.
Wunderbar! Get off here and go there...NOW! ;)
Posted on 25 March, 2006 | 6:42pm | 4 comments |
I am not this person anymore
Thursday 23 March, 2006
...more on the "constant state of becoming". Look - there is me, and yet it is not me now.
Yesterday I was spending a bit of time in my photo archives...cleaning up, resizing, sorting...and I came across this picture.
Wow - here is eight month pregnant me, in (very windy!) Wellington on a weekend away from Willoughby (the first time we'd been away without him!) celebrating my tenth wedding anniversary. (I know! ten years...yes, I was a child bride.)
Let me tell you how I was feeling - I was happy to be away but I was physically uncomfortable, my boobs huge and tender, my hands and feet swollen, I had to pee every twenty minutes because the baby was pressing on my bladder, I felt like a whale, I was hot-then-cold, cold-then-hot and couldn't regulate my body temperature. Ick!
For some reason I felt really moved by this picture. Already it feels like so long ago (Magnus is 14 months old) and all those pregnant feelings came back.
I can't speak for anyone else...but when I'm pregnant I feel all of these things in equal doses:
excited, scared, special, vulnerable, "other", weird, vague, body-centred instead of brain-centred (unusual for me), sensitive, itchy, tired, heavy, tender, on display, public property, on a thin line between joy and despair at all times, and did I say vulnerable? vulnerable...vulnerable...vulnerable...okay, so maybe not equal doses...I felt very vulnerable.
So anyway...when I saw this picture yesterday, some cocktail of all those feelings came rushing back to me and I found myself misting up a bit.
It's so weird, but once the baby is born the pregnancy gets left behind so abruptly and both baby and mother hurtle forward into the future...of how the family will be with the new person...getting to know the new person...the mother re-establishing who SHE is now, because after each child she will be the same yet fundamentally different...
but for nine months, we were one. Magnus was a faceless, personality-less big hard lump of potential. I was his fleshy hopeful, terrified home.
Hmmm...I don't want to ever forget that.
Posted on 23 March, 2006 | 7:14am | 3 comments |
irony
Wednesday 22 March, 2006
Yesterday I did a workshop with Diploma of Counselling students called "Journaling for Self-Care'.
Can you see the irony? Me, whining-person, moody-freak, person who has been dwelling in the doldrums...teaching others how to be light-hearted and happy and how to look after themselves...
oh dear
but! the great thing was, preparing to teach the workshop forced me to revisit issues of self-care...to re-read my own handouts on the topic...to look again through my SARK, Keri Smith, Anne Lammott, Deena Metzger and Sabrina Ward Harrison books...dusty with neglect.
It was all very good for me. I even found myself spontaneously smiling!
The class were incredible. I was humbled. They were all 'mature' students (30s-50s) so had lots of life experience. They were so welcoming and receptive (not something you always get, in education!) They blew me away with their community work and commitment to looking after others. Some examples:
-a mother of TEN (yes, TEN!) and grandmother of FIFTEEN who works in a community mental health centre and also works with Maori women, doing self-esteem work.
-a man who does 24 hour live-in care with Downs Syndrome men with a history of sexual misbehaviour.
-a woman who works in a women's health centre and also volunteers with Women's Refuge and Parentline...
and so it went, on and on...
These people were so amazing, their capacity for giving seemed endless. I felt inspired by them and also ashamed at how little I do, in terms of service to my community.
I really really hope I showed them a little bit of stuff about how they might look after themselves in the middle of all that giving.
And in giving them a little bit of me...I gained so much.
Posted on 22 March, 2006 | 10:09am | 0 comments |
a constant state of becoming
Monday 20 March, 2006
I watched a documentary about Bob Dylan last night. I don't know much about Bob Dylan, so it was a fact-finding mission. I learned a lot about American history, about Bob himself and also about Woody Guthrie, a huge influence on Bob's early music. One thing that took my breath away was that as early as the 1940s, Woody Guthrie performed music with this guitar:
How punk rock is that? I absolutely love it.
One thing that Bob talked about was how hugely painful and irritating it was when he rose to fame and people were constantly asking him to categorise himself and to take on the mantle as "spokesperson of a generation" (can you imagine the pressure of that moniker?) He said that from a young age he was aware that "we are all in a constant state of becoming" and as such was wary of labels and boxes and corners. Isn't it amazing how sometimes the perfect poem/song/phrase will appear in your life just when you need it most?
"A constant state of becoming"...I'm familiar with this concept from Buddhist texts, but I guess I'd forgotten it for a while and it was like a long drink of chilled water for me to hear it again last night. I felt all the pressures I'd been putting on myself dissolve away. (I'm not saying I'm miraculously 'better'...just that I felt comforted. I don't want you to think I'm some annoying pollyanna that just needs one inspiring phrase to feel chipper again.)
Thank you all so much for the absolutely delicious and thoughtful comments and emails you sent me after yesterday's post. Blogging is SO AMAZING for the online-community factor, and I felt buoyed and nurtured by you all.
Today, I'm going to remember that there are no absolutes, there is no 'destination', I am constantly becoming and today, I'm going to get my head outta my butt and just BE.
Posted on 20 March, 2006 | 7:30am | 0 comments |
the monster that is self-criticism
Sunday 19 March, 2006
I've been in a real funk for a couple of weeks now. Most days I put it down to lack of sleep and try to ignore it. On the weekend though, I had one of those "what the hell am I doing with my life?" melt-downs...do any of you guys have those?
Usually I can feel blah for a while, but then I'm good at distracting myself...being sweet to myself...cheering myself up...
This time though, I just feel a bit stuck. I want to change the negative loops in my brain that are telling me I'm not achieving enough, I'm not good enough, I'm not motivated enough etc etc...
It doesn't help when the house is a sty, my taxes are a mess, I have zits and I can't remember the last time I wrote something that wasn't either a) crap or b) another whining or trivial blog entry.
My favourite affirmation, and it is one that I send to my friends and write in all my journals and try to chant to myself when I'm walking...is:
"You're gorgeous, and you're doing so well."
Lately though, I'm just not feeling it.
I guess I'll start the crawl back up the self-esteem/self-motivation ladder with a bit of housework and then some gardening (when in doubt, get dirty amongst the weeds) and a bit of journaling.
Maybe I need some new tricks...how do you guys pull yourselves out of the existential blahs?
Posted on 19 March, 2006 | 10:07am | 6 comments |
feijoa goodness
Saturday 18 March, 2006
Every autumn I start to go into raptures to anyone who will listen (and many who wish they were not in hearing distance) about FEIJOAS and how much I adore them and how excited I am about it being feijoa season.
I haven't wrapped my lips around a fresh one yet...nearly time, but not quite yet...but today after a long scooter and leaf-throwing session at the park with the boys, we decided to have ice-blocks on the way home and there is a new FEIJOA AND LIME WITH GUARANA popsicle!
Yargh! If you like frujus or feijoas or lime or all or any combination of these things GO AND EAT ONE NOW. They are sour and zesty and zingy and feijoa-ish and quite the most delicious thing I have eaten in a long while. All for a mere $1.80.
Swoon.
Posted on 18 March, 2006 | 2:47pm | 1 comments |
while I'm not usually much of a 'joiner'...
Thursday 16 March, 2006
...I've joined the 'wardrobe remix' group on Flickr. I've been admiring it from a distance and finally decided last night that I want to join in the fun.
For a while I thought "I'm too old, too busy, too fat, too unstylish, too dorky, too intelligent to bother with something so trivial, too lazy..." and other not-useful or kind thoughts about it...but last night I decided to get over myself and join. As you know if you've been reading over the last few weeks - I've had a wee style renaissance...after feeling like I've been wearing baby-friendly jeans and machine-washable tops for ages (and before that...hideous pregancy threads) I've gotten all inspired and interested again. I've dusted off my skirts and splashed out on a whole lot of coloured tights (orange, jade, bright purple, burgundy)...
I've done two posts and you know what? It is tremendous fun and takes no time at all. I'm feeling kinda shy and dorky about the whole thing...but happy, too.
Today's outfit:
Turquoise jumper=Frutti (but I scored it at an opshop for $15!)
Skirt=Frutti
Stripy Socks=Farmers
Blossom Shoes=Kangol
Bad Hair=got outta bed at 6am, baby had hidden hairbrush, pigtails hide the mess (kinda). Haircut tomorrow - thank the lord.
Posted on 16 March, 2006 | 8:30am | 3 comments |
when life gives you lemons...
Wednesday 15 March, 2006
make lemonade, so they say. And that is what I'll be doing today. Seriously, real lemonade, not metaphorical lemonade! We have a cascade of lemons off our tree and so I'm going to make 'Nana Smith's Lemon Drink' which is a lemon cordial made with lemons and sugar and citric acid and epsom salts - yeah, I know, weird. But it is the yummiest drink - you only need a wee bit at the bottom of the glass and then you add water. It is also great for lemon/ginger/honey hot drinks when you are under the weather. It lasts forever in the fridge and is a good way to give kids a 'sweet' drink without too much sugar. (If anyone wants the recipe, leave a comment and I'll post it.)
I got a little more sleep last night (thank the lord) so today have some energy to do stuff. I'm going to make lemon drink, make a bulk batch of hummus so I can freeze it in wee containers, dig chicken poo into the garden and plant some winter veges...it is nice to have a little bit of energy again after days of lumpishness.
The picture today is the latest in my "use up all the crap in my crafty cupboard" project. It is an op-shopped 1970s purple scarf that I have customized with felt applique. I wore it at Drew's on the weekend and he said it made his eyes hurt. That was the aim, I must confess. I'm on an anti-black/pro-colour spree.
Next projects are to felt and reconstruct a red jersey that's been lying around and to applique a grey scarf with pirate motifs for Drew. Whheee! I'll post photos when they are done. I'm testament to the fact that you don't actually have to know how to do anything to make stuff. My skills are crappy...I just sew instinctively and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Better go squeeze those lemons!
Posted on 15 March, 2006 | 9:55am | 1 comments |
stuck record
Tuesday 14 March, 2006
I know I talk about sleep deprivation a lot on this blog and those of you without kids probably think I'm a light-weight or a drama queen or something...BUT!
Magnus (now 14 months old, so not a tiny baby) is cutting his first molars (top back teeth). He's getting them really early and they are causing him much pain and distress.
Last night I went to bed at 9.30p.m in a desperate bid to get enough sleep for once. Magnus woke at midnight and took nearly an hour to settle. I couldn't get back to sleep and then he woke again at 2 a.m. and took half an hour to settle. I made myself a cup of herb tea and read for half an hour to calm myself, then managed to get back to sleep. He then woke again at 4 a.m. and this time Fraser settled him, but I was awake for the length of time he was crying (ages). Then he woke again at 5.30 and Fraser rocked and held him and I took over at 6.15. After that, I got up.
Today I feel...I'm sorry to be crass but there is no other way to express it...totally fucked up by lack of sleep. I've been feeling tired for as long as I can remember and I haven't slept for more than six hours in a row for nearly six years. Even when I'm in a situation (like Saturday night) where I COULD sleep in...I can't...my body clock is too confused and I boing awake at 6 a.m.
The only reason I'm telling you this is to get it off my chest...because now I have to go and be Mama and somehow find it in myself to be fair and rational and calm and cheerful when I feel like death warmed up.
This is torture and it's driving me NUTS.
Bah humbug.
Anyone want two kids? Slightly used condition? Good genes but bad sleeping habits? Going cheap to the first bidder.
Posted on 14 March, 2006 | 7:04am | 3 comments |
this is amsterdam
Monday 13 March, 2006
I went to Amsterdam once.
I ate stroopwaffels and frites with mayonnaise and slept in my sleeping bag on the street because I couldn't find anywhere to stay and drank Amstel lager and drank strong, gritty coffee in a 500 year old cafe in front of an open fire and even walked through the red light district (mostly with my eyes shut) and no, didn't have any dack because I'm a big geek and went to the Van Gogh museum and the Sex museum and the tulip market and Anne Frank's House and bought little delft-ware tiles and lots of boxes of chocolate hagel to take back to London.
But I didn't buy myself any wooden clogs. Why not? What a dick! Now I wish I had. I would get shiny red ones and also a plain wooden pair so I could customise them like that scene in Basquiat where he walks around New York in his pyjamas and big plain wooden clogs that he has doodled all over and written 'TITANIC' on the back...
(Can you tell that today I am a) bored and b) just drank coffee?)
These are my feet in Drew's clogs. They look so cute AND they rhyme with BLOGS and they are comfortable too. Hey, next time you are in Amsterdam...can you pick me up a coupla pairs?
Posted on 13 March, 2006 | 12:36pm | 6 comments |
this charming man
Sunday 12 March, 2006
This charming man is my oldest friend, Drew and these are some snapshots of his super-stylish flat, including his phenomenal view of Wellington harbour.
(He didn't want me to take that photo of him as we'd both been walking for a long time through the cold and rain and were waiting for a hot coffee to lift our spirits and heart-rates...but I think he looks gorgeous anyway...anywhere...)
I stayed with him on Saturday night on a whirlwind trip to Wellington with my parents-in-law and luxuriated in the pristine stylishness of his house. No clutter, no primary-coloured plastic anywhere, no snot/banana/peanut butter stains on the sofa/carpet/curtains. He even gave me his bed for the night which is a super-comfy futon with cream-coloured cotton linen and giant pillows. Basically, a night at Drew's is like a night in a very stylish hotel for me. I loved every second.
It was nice to have a little child-free space in my weekend, although I was fretting a lot of the time about how things were going back home (absolutely fine, incidentally) and by the time I got home on Sunday after lunch my boobs were enormous hot bazookas (the sage tea didn't work, but it could be because I used dried sage off the herb rack at the supermarket instead of getting some sage-concoction from the Health shop. Duh. Maybe the sage you use for medicinal purposes is different from the sage you use to make sage and onion stuffing? - ha ha) so I fed Magnus just to relieve the pain.
Basically, the 'milk bar' has greatly reduced its hours, but is not entirely shut. Just as well I didn't burn the maternity bras yet. Still, progress was made AND I got to eat great vegetarian thai food with my oldest friend.
I love you, Drew, thanks a bunch for being such an oasis of calm, charm and understanding in my life.
*kisses*
Posted on 12 March, 2006 | 2:16pm | 0 comments |
brown is good in autumn
Sunday 12 March, 2006
The weather has taken a sudden turn for the colder lately and I have even had occassion to break out the scarves and wool jackets!
Here is one of my favourite autumnal outfits from wardrobe remixed. Its all good - the stripy tights, the cute shoes with the turquoise bows, the bag (BIRDS!), the white crochet brooch, the velvet skirt, the re-constructed jersey. Yum.
This person is called Valerie and she has own reconstructed clothing shop online. Check it out - the clothes look so carefully made and are a wonderful way to mix retro and contemporary.
I went through a long phase of being anti-brown, thinking it was too wholesome and boring and hippy and dull. But I'm right back there, now. After all the brights of summer, brown seems soothing and warming and cuddly somehow. After all, brown is the colour of chocolate and tree bark and teddy bears and old leather sofas and good, healthy dirt.
Posted on 12 March, 2006 | 9:26am | 0 comments |
weaning weekend
Thursday 9 March, 2006
Eeek! Wish me luck. I've been cutting Magnus's breastfeeds down and down and Fraser and I have decided to do the 'cold turkey' approach for the final part of the weaning process, so as of Saturday I am going to stop breastfeeding him. I'm going to drink pots of sage tea (which dries up the milk supply) and my career as a human milk bar will be over.
I've talked to many mothers - some do the 'cutting feeds down and down' approach and some do the 'cold turkey' approach. I'm kind of doing both. The 'cold turkey' Mamas say that it is quite hard for about 48 hours and then it's absolutely fine.
Yigh. I'm not looking forward to the tugged heart-strings...but I AM looking forward to burning my hideous, pilled, five year old maternity bras and wearing frocks again. Wheee!
Posted on 09 March, 2006 | 7:16am | 3 comments |
Happy Blog Birthday To Me!
Wednesday 8 March, 2006
It is Stripy Sock Studio's FIRST blog-birthday today!
A year ago I started this blog with some big ideas about what it would achieve...
I haven't done any of them really. I haven't offered journaling ideas, like I thought I would. I haven't showcased my creative writing. And I've been terribly slack about updating the stripy sock gallery and changing my links page.
But I HAVE written a lot over the last year on here...and I'm pleased that I have it as a record. I've had lots of fun (the Stripy Sock Photo Competition was amazing) and 'met' lots of wonderful people - (especially Jenny, Melissa and Rhiannon.)
Behind the scenes we are (slowly slowly) working on a site redesign and SSS will change again.
There are some things I want to change, but on the whole...this is it, this is me...different obsessions each week, mood swings, short attention span and a child's delight in things bright, cute and sparkly.
Thanks for reading over the last year. I've loved reading your comments and I look forward to another great year at SSS.
***
AVAILABLE TO A STYLISH HOME
Here are the fab, red 80s ankle boots (size 9) that I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago. Send me an email if you are interested in swapping for them. I love them, but haven't worn them once in the year I've owned them and I know with the 80s resurgence going on right now, someone with a more 'street' style than me will love them.
Posted on 08 March, 2006 | 6:38am | 3 comments |
Happy Womens' Day
Tuesday 7 March, 2006
It's International Womens' Day today! So a big yaay for all the mothers, daughters, female friends, lovers, cousins, sisters and sisters-in-law, neices and grandmothers and other lovely women in our lives.
Women rock! Women have wisdom and intuition and an amazing capacity for love. Women are strong and sensible and silly and stylish and full of spunk.
In breaking news, in Wellington today there will be a Women's Day Stripy Sock event! The anarcho-feminists of Wellington will be wearing stripy socks and roller-blading around central Wellington with placards etc. Wheee! Go laydeeees!
In Palmerston North, there will be a more demure lunch going on at my house. But we'll be toasting the health of women world-wide all the same.
(Picture today is my NEW stripy socks and NEW shoes. I hardly ever let myself buy socks these days because I have a ridiculous amount of them - but in my big wardrobe purge last week I threw out a few pairs that were full of holes so felt like I could let one pair into the house.)
Have a happy day full of womany-stripy sock good wishes!
Posted on 07 March, 2006 | 6:22am | 2 comments |
sometimes it pays to wait
Monday 6 March, 2006
Because I live in an ex-State house (built in 1947) I have a tiny dining room. It also means that in a few of my rooms, I've adopted a (slight) mid-century theme in the way I've decorated. For the past two years we've had my grandad's large, heavy Edwardian table in the dining room which was way too big and bulky and just looked plain silly.
I've been on the outlook for a formica table and chairs because I LOVE formica dining suites and because I thought the size would be better and it would go with the theme. I had in mind a red one with shiny chrome sides but I hadn't seen one (in good condition) for less than $400. Way over our budget for a non-necessity.
Sometimes patience pays off! On Friday - I was walking to school to pick up Willo and THIS dining suite was on the path outside the op-shop with a sign saying "$40, reduced from $55. Free Delivery." Wooo! And it isn't red or shiny chrome and it isn't 50s. (There is a maker's stamp on the bottom saying "10 October 1967") but its perfect! The beige upholstery goes with the light green I painted the walls. It looks beautiful under the big painting by my friend, Sarah. The size is perfect and it was obviously designed to go against a wall because it has three chairs and two darling little stools which sit snugly against the wall side. Best of all...it has STARBURSTS and GOLD GLITTER in the formica. Swoon.
I'm feeling happy and am loving drinking tea at my stylish new dining nook which now feels a bit like a corner in a cute cafe, rather than an ugly room that I avoid except for meal-times.
LESSON: When you have something you are searching for at second hand shops, if you are patient and tenacious...it WILL come your way!
Posted on 06 March, 2006 | 8:13am | 2 comments |
self-sabotage
Saturday 4 March, 2006
I'm 33. By now, I know what I need to live well and happily:
I need to write in my journal on a daily basis.
I need lots of sleep.
I need lots of water and herbal tea.
I need visual inspiration, constantly.
I need vegetables. Heaps of them.
I need to write.
I need to move every day - either yoga, dance, swim or walk.
I need laughter.
I need something interesting to think about outside of myself.
***
So why is it that I have some weeks where I stay up too late (BAD idea for someone who gets woken several times a night by an unsettled baby). I drink too much coffee. I stay away from my journal. I don't write. I waste too much time on the internet...looking to fill a hole in my life, instead of LIVING my life! I get more and more short-tempered with the children, myself, Fraser. I eat endless rounds of toast, instead of looking after myself with soups and salads. I skip my exercise and get more and more stuck in stasis. I feel cornered, cramped and cranky. WHY?
Does anyone else suffer from bouts of self-sabotage?
I think it is a lot related to tiredness. I'm always tired and feel like I could sleep for weeks if I had the chance...but I find it SO DIFFICULT to go to bed early when the nights are my main free time, no children, no demands, I can do what I like. I can sew without the baby grabbing at the needle, I can paint without needing to set up a paint station for Willoughby as well, I can write FOR A LONG TIME at a stretch without having my thoughts constantly interupted. I can bake biscuits quickly - without 'helpers' who end up making a huge mess. Ooh I sound like a grump, don't I? But can you see how it is hard to give this up?
It's a bad cycle. I'm shakey with tiredness now and it's only 8a.m. but I stayed up too late last night making snail mail packages to friends, and then Magnus woke THREE times, and then Willoughby bounded out of bed at 6a.m. demanding porridge.
The solution is obvious. Go to bed early, Helen. Each day I resolve to. And then every night I think "I'll just fold this washing"..."I'll just finish mending those trousers"..."I'll just quickly write something in my journal" and before I know it, it's late.
One thing I know for sure...sleep-deprivation can make a girl real nutty.
Posted on 04 March, 2006 | 7:33am | 2 comments |
wonderful wednesdays
Tuesday 28 February, 2006
Okay - here are some of the crafty bits I mentioned yesterday. I feel like such a goon posting photos of myself on the internet, but in the continuing quest for 'radical self-acceptance' as SARK calls it, I'm going to try to post more photos of myself without cringing. (Having said that, I have an enormous PMT-zit in the middle of my forehead in this picture...but I radically accept the zit. I do! Honestly.) **Rhiannon and Melissa - I'm wearing the super-cute mushroom badge. Thanks, lovely ladies!)**
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Wednesdays are wonderful because I get to go to yoga in the morning, and then get to have lunch and chats with dear friend Rachael because she watches Magnus for me. It's a lovely oasis of 'me-stuff' in the middle of the week.
I know the weather is cooling when I start fancying desserts about 8.30pm...while I usually make do with a cup of peppermint tea, Fraser was in the mood for baking last night and someone had given us some fresh, tart new-season apples so he made THE BEST apple shortcake and we ate big slices very late in front of some episodes of 'Little Britain' on DVD.
Mmm...autumnal decadence...staying in, blobbing on the sofa with your loved one and eating pudding!
Posted on 28 February, 2006 | 2:48pm | 4 comments |