swappity swap
Wednesday 31 May, 2006
I'm here! it's just paper-grading time again, which means I have to behave like someone with a "real job" - hah! and use most of my computer time for working.
I went to possibly THE BEST clothes swap I've ever been to on Sunday night...and I must have been to at least ten. It wasn't just because I got lots of fabulous things (a friend who used to be the same size as me has shrunk a few sizes and so I inherited lots of her skirts, tops, and a fab dress-thing she made from a vintage petticoat! Whee!) but it was because everyone who was there got LOTS and was really happy and excited by their scores.
There is nothing worse than a clothes swap where one or two people trudge sadly home with nothing in their hands, or a clothes swap where the people there aren't actually 100% ready to give the stuff away and keep changing their minds and then get talked into taking their stuff home! (Yep - I've seen it happen.)
I also witnessed two friends fighting over a pair of op-shop paisley PJ pants that I was giving away and I eventually was called on to decide who should get them! It's so true about one person's cast off being another person's treasure!
Here are my thoughts about how to run the optimum clothes swap:
::Firstly, and mostly importantly, it is KEY to invite a good range of people with different tastes in clothes and different sizes! There is no point inviting one size 16 person to a clothes swap where everyone else is size 10, because they will go home empty-handed (and probably annoyed at your thoughtlessness!) And no, it isn't the same in reverse..because lower sized people can always wear clothes don't fit them, or adjust the clothes, but the same isn't true in reverse - if something is too small- it's just too small!
::When they arrive, ply your guests with lots of nice drinks and supper to get a happy mood going.
::Only take to the clothes swap clothes, accessories, shoes etc THAT YOU ARE TOTALLY OVER and are happy to donate, and don't care who gets them and what they might do to them. e.g. when you hear that your 7th form ball dress is going to be cut up for craft projects by someone - you need to be OK with this, otherwise you are not ready to get rid of it!
::Once you're all ready for some swap-action - it is most fun and also most efficient, if each person briefly 'showcases' what they have, so that people can see everything and also hear the often funny stories behind the clothes e.g. "this is a botched sewing project blah blah" or "I can't wear this dress anymore because it reminds me of my ex" etc.
You can either throw the clothes to the person who expresses interest at this stage, or do the big swaparama after all the showing off stuff. It's up to you. On Sunday, we distributed as we went.
:: Although it is called a 'swap' don't be anal as in "what will you give me for it?" sorta thing. I think it is generally accepted that you bring stuff, you'll go with stuff so there is no need to make direct one-to-one swaps for everything - it just makes the whole thing a little stressful and too much like being a normal consumer type of thing. Like karma, give well and you will receive in abundance! :)
:: If you are hosting, make sure that there is a room away from the swapping room where people can try stuff on if they want to, with a mirror. By the same token, if people want to take things without having tried them on first, that is their business! (Unless multiple people want the same thing, then maybe it would be fair for it to go to the person it fits best?)
:: Another optional thing to consider, if you have a car or whatever, is that you can say to people that they can leave the stuff they bought but didn't get rid of with you, and then you can do one big dump to the clothes bin to save your friends from letting things they should really be chucking out creep back into their wardrobes!
:: You don't have to stop at clothes - books, accessories, shoes and craft materials were also swapped on Sunday night.
:: At the end of the night, express gratitude to all of you fellow clothes swapees about all of the fabulousness you scored - and then amuse each other in the weeks to come seeing what your friends do with your pink bell-sleeved top or the blue sparkly frock etc.
P.S - If you stay in one place long enough - you will see the same things get swapped and re-swapped, and sometimes you might even take your old things home with you after a break of a year or two! Strange how good that old polyester shirt can look after you haven' worn it for a year and you've seen your mate 'work it' in ten different cool combinations. Heh.
Mostly importantly, have a lot of fun and SWAP OFTEN!
Posted on 31 May, 2006 | 11:38am | 7 comments |
everything you love
Monday 29 May, 2006
Willo presented me with this picture this morning. I was honoured because lately he is obsessed with dinosaurs and that's all he draws!
He said "this is a heart filled with everything you love, Mum" and explained that there were cups of tea and coffee, hand-sewing, flowers, stripy socks and butterflies.
I swooned with the cuteness of it.
Willoughby is often worried about me being the only female in our family. He makes me necklaces and picks flowers for me. Whenever we walk past the extremely girly 'Sugar Plum Fairy' shop in our neighbourhood he says, "That's a girl's shop, Mum, you should go in and buy yourself something."
I hope he holds onto that sweet and compassionate side of his personality all his life!
Posted on 29 May, 2006 | 12:26pm | 9 comments |
where is my 'In Real Life' life?
Thursday 25 May, 2006
Well, my site fell over because of the crappy hosts we are with and then Flickr got a bug and my photos couldn't be accessed and so I spent about 24 hours without my usual computer distractions...
Conclusion #1?
I am seriously seriously deeply badly addicted to the internet, to my blog, to Flickr, to email...
Conclusion #2?
Whatever happened to my IRL life?
Heh.
Ah well, all fixed now.
Whew.
Posted on 25 May, 2006 | 9:17am | 6 comments |
Remembering how to stop and look...
Monday 22 May, 2006
Yesterday Willoughby picked this marigold for me. I grow them around the rim of my vege garden to stop bugs (and because they look pretty!)
When the weather starts to get cold, flowers like this look all the more miraculous. Such intense colour, such an extravagance of petals.
It makes me happy that having a garden means access to beauty...in your own backyard...and for so little money!
As Emma Goldman said: "I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds around my neck."
Posted on 22 May, 2006 | 7:47am | 6 comments |
Wild passion!
Sunday 21 May, 2006
Artist and blog-star Keri Smith often makes art from stuff she finds on the street. Inspired by her, I always walk around with my eyes peeled. I've found some cool stuff on the ground, like a old fold-out copy of the Lord's Prayer, illustrated in bright 1950s style...a kid's drawing of a zebra that had an elaborate and very funny code message on it....once I even found a little knitted Steiner doll!
Anyway, I found this lolly wrapper on the weekend. Wild Passion - how lovely! Don't the very words make you feel like bursting out and doing something fabulous?
I also read this quotation in a magazine - a woman in her 50s offering advice to young people:
"With the benefit of age and hindsight you realise that it's only you running your race and it's really no-one else's business. Don't worry about what people think about you. Do things to please yourself, not to please some idea that you have about what you "should' be. You don't have to justify your-self to other people."
Hell yeah! Here's to wild passion and heartfelt, authentic lives! I don't think I'm there yet, but I'm continuing to strive towards it...what more can you do?
Posted on 21 May, 2006 | 10:32am | 4 comments |
the habit of the hermit
Friday 19 May, 2006
After a long few weeks of kids with chickenpox, and Magnus teething and then all of us having those early winter colds, I emerge feeling like I've been a bit of a hermit. If I didn't have one day a week where I have a standing lunch date with my friend Rachael after she watches Magnus for me while I'm at yoga...I could go a whole week without seeing anyone or going anywhere except walking Willoughby to school and back . This might sound nutso to those of you without small kids, but when you don't have a whole lot of money and not a huge circle of friends...where is there to go except for the library and the park?
I went and had coffee with a couple of friends yesterday and found it hard to make conversation - not because my friends aren't fabulous and interesting, I hasten to add - but I just spend so much time in the company of a one-year old boy...I'm losing my social skills, it seems!
Being an at-home Mama can be an isolating business. Especially if you're a bit of a freak. Especially if traditional "mother's coffee groups" make your blood run cold and your knees turn to jelly. Especially if the bulk of your best friends live in Welllington. PAH.
This week I resolve to try to "get out more"! It's going to be a looooonnng winter and getting out of the house and visiting real live people (instead of the cyber-people who make up most of my social contact at the moment) is good for me AND Magnus!
Postscript :: Coming back to this post, I realise it makes me sound like a bit of a loser. Ah well, I'm just telling it as it looks from this computer chair. Heh! (I'm very tempted to edit and change the above entry, but I'm gritting my teeth and doggedly sticking to my "no-editing, no censoring worst of self" rule!)
Posted on 19 May, 2006 | 7:24am | 7 comments |
making stuff is good for you
Wednesday 17 May, 2006
(Not the best photo, today, too dark!)
I used to always always make my own greeting cards from the time I was a kid until...hmmm...probably once Willoughby came along. My stash of cards was getting low, so I resolved to not buy cards again and to get into making my own.
Last night I wanted to listen to a play on National Radio, so I sat with a pile of card and paper scraps and made 15 greeting cards! It was fun - there is a challenge in getting such a tiny space to look like a cohesive 'design'.
It is such a little thing, to sit for an hour with some card and paper...but it is the little projects like this that make me go off to bed with a smile on my face - I made something! I love that feeling.
Posted on 17 May, 2006 | 10:58am | 6 comments |
it feels like winter is here
Tuesday 16 May, 2006
Cold hands at the computer, fogged up windows, yearning for comfort food like casseroles and hot fruit, wearing at least six layers on top when I venture outside...
winter is here! (I know it's still officially autumn, but it feels pretty wintery to me!)
Luckily for me - I have some exciting snail mail on the way - me and Melissa of Tiny Happy decided back in mid-summer that we would post each other a 'care-package' with the theme of "cold weather pick-me-up" in late May! Wheee! So yesterday I spent a bit of the morning wrapping up little random bits of goodness to be mailed to Nelson. Mail swaps are the best - it's like you can make anyday your birthday and get a present in the mail. :) I'm hyped because Melissa does a good care-package!
Anyway, hope those of you on this side of the world are keeping warm, chugging vitamin C, wearing a layer of wool next to your skin, and having good cold weather fun! xxxx
Posted on 16 May, 2006 | 8:17am | 3 comments |
I am 100% geek (and proud!)
Monday 15 May, 2006
**warning** this entry is ludicrously trivial! :)
Both friends who stayed over at my place recently left their glasses! What are the odds? (I'll get them in the mail to you both, pronto!) So this morning I amused myself whilst waiting for the washing to do it's final spin by taking photos of myself in their glasses.
Maria's are vintage 1960s ones and I've always loved them on her. On me, well...I looked at the photo and it just looked so normal. They are a lot like the specs Morrissey used to wear in the 80s. I like how sort of brainy and fierce they look.
Then I tried on Lisa's very trendy sunglasses with my fake-fur jacket! Tee hee! I can't wear sunglasses because I'm so so short-sighted so it was weird to see myself in sunnies. This photo makes me feel really dorky - I just can't do the "cool" thing.
I surmise from this little experiment, that I am therefore 100% geek. It was fun - I wanna do dress-ups more often.
Posted on 15 May, 2006 | 10:30am | 2 comments |
step right up!
Sunday 14 May, 2006
We took W and M to the circus on Saturday. (I hasten to add that there were no exotic or caged animals and the only animal act was some dogs.)
It was just like I remembered from my own childhood, the smell of pee, sawdust and musty canvas. The clowns and trapeze artists wearing tracksuits over their costumes peddling candy floss and popcorn out the front before the show. The loud music and the dry ice.
The 'traditional' circus acts, like the trapeze, the contortionists and the tightrope walkers were amazing! I love the glitzy costumes and the dramatic lighting!
I hate hate hate clowns - the totally give me the creeps! And dogs playing rugby and the naff story-telling in a desperate attempt to link the acts and give the show a sense of cohesion were cringy.
Circuses fascinate me - they are 30% glamour and 70% quiet desperation. The performers all looked very cold and slightly shabby and a bit sad.
Don't get me wrong, I love that kinda thing. 'Dishevelled glamour' is my middle name. I had a ball with my camera trying to get photos of all the sparkle and daring.
Oh yeah, and the boys liked it, too. Hah!
Posted on 14 May, 2006 | 11:41am | 6 comments |
bowl
Thursday 11 May, 2006
This week I'm in love with the poem 'Bowl' by NZ poet Bernadette Hall, from the book 'The Merino Princess'.
The whole poem is about an artist making a bowl from wood, and it is also about love and chance and fate (in that wonderful way that poetry can be about so much with just a few carefully chosen words.) I especially love the idea that "grace is a routine" which kinda encompasses yesterdays post about positivity and gratitude having to be something that is worked at. Anyway, it is a long poem and I know attention spans on the internet are very brief, so I'll just offer you the lovely final stanza here:
iii.
Miracles are a matter
of timing, grace is a routine.
Run your fingers on the lip
of the bowl, round & round
without end.
Gradually
you will come to the place
where you know what you are doing.
Posted on 11 May, 2006 | 10:40am | 4 comments |
half empty or half full?
Wednesday 10 May, 2006
We went to see Woody Allen's latest film 'Match Point' the other night. I liked it a lot. Early in the movie poor, bitter boy with a Dostoevsky obsession is being gloomy at dinner. Rich, priveleged boy gets cross with him and says, "C'mon old chap, I've always thought that despair is the path of least resistance".
Dostoevsky boy snaps back, "Well, I've always thought that faith is the path of least resistance."
So - is it easier to be optimistic or pessimistic? I kinda think that positivity takes work, that it is like a muscle that needs constant flexing so that it doesn't atrophy...but maybe it is more to do with the personality you were born with than any environmental factors.
What do you think?
Posted on 10 May, 2006 | 7:47am | 4 comments |
bastards!
Tuesday 9 May, 2006
Is it normal to grieve for a tree?
I dunno, but I'm so mad right now. When I moved in here, I did my bit to beautify our very ugly street by planting two ornamental cherry trees on our grass verge. When I planted them, they were about two feet high...after two years, they had grown to about seven feet high and were looking so good.
Yesterday, during the day (e.g. not even late at night after drugs or drink) some bastard snapped one of my trees off at the trunk! It wasn't the sort of thing where a little kid might bang into the tree on their bike and damage it a bit - it was calculated, determined vandalism. They had to pull out the stake, unwrap the binding and use brute force to snap the trunk in half. WHY? WHY?
I understand tagging and grafitti and street art (leaving your mark on something), I understand theft (I want something I don't have but you do) , I understand littering (screw you, society!) but I really don't understand the wilful destruction of nature like this.
I feel very sad when I walk past the wrenched off stump that was my baby cherry tree. On the weekend, we'll dig out the stump and plant another tiny tree. I'll keep on with it a few more times but if it continues to happen, I don't think I can deal with the sense of violation. And that, my dear friends, is why shitty neighbourhoods stay shitty - because the people who DO try to make a difference get worn down. Hmmmm...can you tell I'm still mightily pissed about it?
Posted on 09 May, 2006 | 7:53am | 7 comments |
fair trade fortnight
Monday 8 May, 2006
*sermon begins*
This drawing is called "All day I think about my next cup!" which is kinda how my day goes...coffee, gumboot tea, herbal tea...another coffee...
It's Fair Trade Fortnight at the moment - a good time to think about sourcing your tea, coffee and chocolate from fair trade sources!
Coffee keeps me awake, inspired and on the go...so I feel like it is important that the farmers who grew it are happy too! (Or at least, earn enough money to live off.)
Fair trade doesn't just mean from the Trade Aid shop anymore either - we buy our Fair Trade Organic coffee off the internet from Global Coffee and lots of supermarkets carry Fair Trade brands now, like Scarborough Fair tea.
*end of preaching* (wink!)
Posted on 08 May, 2006 | 10:59am | 1 comments |
shoe shopping
Sunday 7 May, 2006
I am in need of winter shoes.
Can anyone explain to me how it is that every pair of shoes that I gravitate to, going "Ooh! There it is, there is my most perfect and beautiful winter shoe" is always the shoe with the $250 + price tag on the bottom?
And then, after holding the $250 shoes, have you noticed how the $100 shoes then look shoddy and cheap?
I can wear the skeggiest, rattiest old clothes - 1920s petticoats, 70s polyesters frocks with frayed edges, cardigans so loved the elbows have holes...but I am fussy, fussy, fussy about shoes - I have to LOVE them to wear them. And the ones I love seem to be the expensive ones.
Ah well, perhaps my old Rangers could do another winter?
Posted on 07 May, 2006 | 1:34pm | 5 comments |
honeysuckle
Wednesday 3 May, 2006
All that week men in orange jackets
pulled weeds and clutter from the creek
behind our house, stirring up months of rot.
The smell hard to avoid. In the end, I took
to my bed like a Victorian aunt. The mail delivered
to my bedroom. A package from Maria. "How to make
felt flowers" and a tumble of her efforts on to my duvet.
Orange and red. "I made them red, with you in mind."
Red, red, red when I was so pale. Red on grey duvet.
The men left. Mud trails followed their tyres. I was
horrible. My children loved me anyway. I got out of bed
and walked away from the stink. I found a scented
honeysuckle vine. Leaned into the hedge, breathing.
Ripped some blooms to take home. Home - that plain house
over there, khaki green with dark blue trim.
There, the windows were open.
There, the air had cleared.
I put the honeysuckle in a crystal jug. Made the bed.
Tidied up. Looked up. Inhaled.
Got up into my life.
Posted on 03 May, 2006 | 1:04pm | 1 comments |
flower bowl
Wednesday 3 May, 2006
Little boys are so sweet. Willoughby (aged 5) had family friend Sage (aged 8) over to play. Sage popped into the kitchen and asked for a bowl. I presumed they were picking lemons and strawberries so I gave him a stainless steel bowl, and he scowled and said "A PRETTY bowl, please!" Tee hee! So cute! So I gave him my grandma's blue bowl and he ran off. A while later they returned to the kitchen with this! (see photo) for the dinner table. Is that not heartbreakingly cute?
There is this assumption that little girls are sweet and thoughtful and little boys are 'rough and tumble', but in my experience, little boys are sweet and delightful. Willoughby tells me "I love you, Mum" at least five times a day and is always writing me little notes and drawing me pictures. Bless them!
I took Magnus for a long walk this morning and of course, we had to do a quick once-round the opshop. The opshop goddess was grinning her head off today! I got a recent copy of the Donna Hay magazine for 20 cents, and that is pretty cool, but PHENOMENALLY weird and cool and strange and wonderful is that for $2 I got A CD INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY MARR FROM THE SMITHS FROM 1986 STILL IN IT'S WRAPPER! gARGghh!
What are the odds of THAT? I nearly fainted.
Haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure it will be wonderful. I never cease to be amazed at the things I find in op shops! :) It's such a good hobby.
Posted on 03 May, 2006 | 11:20am | 3 comments |
family portrait
Tuesday 2 May, 2006
Here is my family on Paekakariki Beach.
I look so tired in this photo, but I love it anyway - I think it will always remind me of how it was to have little kids. They are running around playing with their Dad and I'm fiddling with the camera - I'm sure this will seem like a typical scene in their childhood when they reflect back. I like the way it's a family portrait, but not a typical one. It took me many goes to get us all in - coz they were running around like lightening!
This motherhood thing is a funny old journey. I think this photo sums up my view of it, so happy to have created a wee family, and always self-questioning and trying to work out who I am in its midst.
Posted on 02 May, 2006 | 1:14pm | 4 comments |
all sewn up
Monday 1 May, 2006
I've been thinking lately about how when things are uncertain in your life, you long for security and certainty. Then when you have certainty and security, you can start to long for change and surprise.
Like the term, "all sewn up". It kinda means 'sorted', 'completed' and 'solved' - but it also suggests enclosure, the closing of openings...
When you are pregnant you look towards the birth, then when you have a newborn, you just do your darnedest to keep the baby alive and healthy, then once the baby starts to turn into a toddler and becomes fully integrated into the family, then...what then?
I think I'm at that stage of things where I'm starting to look around and go "where next?" with my life...we've decided two children is our family complete. Magnus and I are in a good routine, but it is starting to feel like a loooong stretch from now (he's 16 months) until Kindergarten starts at three years old.
With my oldest child, I put him into full time creche for two years from 18 months so that we could save money to buy a house. I didn't like having him in full time care - in fact it broke my heart - but we decided it was better in the long term for our family to have our own property, than to full-time parent and be 'stuck' in rentals for the forseeable. I'm glad we did it, because it is lovely to be able to provide my children with the security of a family home.
I don't want to put Magnus in creche. But I am realising that I do need something on the horizon between now and his third birthday. Life feels very 'all sewn up' and it is making it hard for me to feel excited about my day to day.
A friend suggested that I put him into childcare one morning a week so I can write. I love the idea of this, but we are struggling financially (when you are on one income it only takes a broken major appliance, a tax bill, a rates bill and some dental work to put you in financial dire straits!) so this seems like an 'unecessary luxury'.
It is time for that once-in-a-while life reassess, where I take stock, make lists and plans and changes. First, I think, a walk to the shops for a new inky pen for writing all those 'to-do' lists! :)
Posted on 01 May, 2006 | 10:38am | 5 comments |
more fun with feijoas
Sunday 30 April, 2006
I know, I know - I go on and on about feijoas...but they give me such delight that I spend April in raptures!
Here is a recipe I developed for that stage in late April when you've had enough feijoa crumble, shortcake and muffins! It is a quick, zesty and extremely easy dessert, and it takes the taste of feijoas from the delicious to the sublime.
::HELEN'S FEIJOA MAGIC::
two to three cups of scooped feijoas
one heaped tbsp maple syrup
juice of two juicy oranges
one tbsp butter
Stir the orange juice through the feijoas.
Melt the butter on a low heat, then stir in the maple syrup until well mixed.
Tip feijoa/orange mixture into the pot with maple/butter mixture. Warm through on a medium heat, stirring often and taking care not to let them catch.
When you see the first bubbles in the juice, they are ready to eat. Serve warm. That's it!
(You could serve with yoghurt or cream or ice cream, but honestly, this is so yummy I don't think it needs anything else.)
The maple adds sweetness, the orange juice complements the zestiness of the feijoas, the butter gives it a slight saltiness and makes the sauce velvety.
Enjoy!
(Be sure to tell me what you think of the recipe, if you try it too! )
Posted on 30 April, 2006 | 12:20pm | 5 comments |