It's raining, it's pouring

Wow. The skies have opened up tonight. I love weather like this.

Will we get weather like this down south? I hope so.

I'm so nervous about the move now. We leave on Monday at lunchtime. I know I'm running out of time to say goodbye to the city but I have no clue how I want to do it. Maybe this is one of those times I just slip away without a goodbye?

You know... a post about stuff

With the packing and the breaking of things and the screetching at things, it's been a busy few weeks. Jules and I needed to take a break from it all this weekend so we headed out to Petone to visit the wonderful Martha at her shop.

And how we were rewarded when we got there - soda pop for me and Jules, and Remy got a fabulous Babylicious tee-shirt. Thanks Martha!

Another lovely surprise was seeing one of my jackets in the shop window.

But now we're back into the packing and the breaking of things and the screetching at things. The movers haven't got back to me, the landlord has held 3 open homes but still hasn't found a tennant so wants to hold a fourth, we've already run out of boxes, and Remy bless him has been 'helping' which has resulted in a favourite tea pot getting broken.

Oh the joys of moving. I'm just going to keep reminding myself that now there is less than a week to go, we're in the final countdown and it will only be a mere moment until we're living the dream!

This is what I'm talking 'bout

If you'd like a sneak peak what I'll be wearing in the country, have a look at this:

Remy in Blue

 

 

 

A new vintage book

My darling Jules is, well, such a darling to me. He gave up his Eleven for Ten Unity Books card so I could get Shopping for Vintage: The definitive guide to vintage fashion by Funmi Odulate.

What a pretty, pretty book. Even if the pages only had the text 'All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy', I'd still love this book because it's so pretty.

And so ends my first ever book review.

P.S I especially like that the author points out that all old clothing is not 'vintage'; I get so cross when people call secondhand tat 'vintage', when clearly it's just dirty old secondhand tat. The basic rule is that clothing needs to be more than 25 years old to be called vintage. But if you want to be fussy - and by goodness I do - antique clothing is anything earlier than about 1920, vintage clothing is from about 1920 to about the early 80s, and the term retro usually refers to casual ready to wear from the 60s and 70s.

It also has some fantastic hints on how to identify what period clothing is from and super sections on identifying particularly influential designers' clothes. Fashion is broken down by decade, starting in 1890, and while the blurb on each designer is quite short, enough information is provided for the reader to go and find out more about what they're interested in.

Almost half of the book is taken up with a world-wide directory of vintage shops and markets. When I flicked through the book, this actually put me off. I thought that there was little point me buying a book that was half-consumed by content that wasn't useful to me, but at $25, I was prepared to risk it; surely the overwhelming prettiness of the book would make up for more than this?

And I was right to do so. In the directory is a list of online vintage stores, plus some of the other vintage stores and markets also have websites and/or email addresses. Brilliant!

This is a useful book for the fledgling vintage maven, a handy resource for us anoraks, and a delight to have on the bookshelf.

Gah!

I have the most horrid tummy bug. The kind that makes me want to curl up and die.

There is a silver lining however - those cupcakes were delicious and now they're practically calorie-free.

Notes to self

Having gained some confidence after Martha started stocking my clothes, I want to get my clothes into a shop in central Wellington before we head down south.

I was walking along Lambton Quay tonight and spotted a brand-new baby clothes store had opened in the Old Bank Building, so I popped in to check them out.

They had loads of pretty things and good trade considering they've only been going 2 weeks.

I started to chat to the owner and mentioned that I make kids' clothes, and before I knew it, I was sounding like a complete tosser. I was all 'couture' this, and 'handcrafted' that. Gah! And I was wearing my full-on vintage leather coat and vintage fur collar*, so god only knows what sort of snob/wierdo she thought I was.

Having had my sense of shame (mostly) removed when I had a baby, I'm probably still going to go back in there with my clothes.

I'm happy to say that this episode of 'Megan talks herself out of an income' was preceeded by a coffee with my darling friend Judith, and followed by noodles and a drink with the fabulous Phil. A great, baby-free evening.

*don't bother sending me hate mail about wearing fur please; the animal this particular fur is from died in the early 20th century, and, anyway, I was vegetarian for about 12 years so I've done my time.

Babies, babies everywhere, as far as the eye can see

 

 

 

I'm going to desperately miss my antenatal group. Just look at these little cherubs - and their parents are just as lovely.

Young Me - Now Me

If I had more time and enthusiasm, I'd totally be playing Young Me - Now Me.

(via Hyena in Petticoats).

I get 0/10 for marketing nouse.

Crikey, I'm such a fool sometimes. I should have been pimping my garage sale on this blog.

Oh well. Next time I move to the other end of the country, I'll be sure to talk up the resulting garage sale well in advance.

Saturday really felt like the first day of winter in Wellington. There was rain and biting cold winds that pushed the clouds quickly overhead. It wasn't ideal garage sale weather...

We started taking stuff outside at about 7.30am, and started bringing it all back it at about 7.45am when the rain came tumbling down. Eventually we figured the best thing was to shove everything in my sewing room and put up a notice on the fence telling everyone to pop around the back for the sale.

A surprising number of people showed up and we made enough money to cover our airfares down south. We also got rid of a whole lot of stuff that we would have had to pay to shift, so it feels like we've won twice.

There's still a pile of good books material and baby gear so I'm thinking we should try again this coming weekend, and just hope for better weather. Jules thinks differently... I'll keep working on him!

The cupcakes I made were a real hit. Unfortunately there were about 10 left over. I resisted for a very long time. A very, very long time. But they were too alluring. I devoured 5 for breakfast this morning and still haven't come down from the food colouring hit.

I used a cupcake recipe I found over at Hop Skip Jump - I really recommend you try it too.

2 tablespoons butter
0.75 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1.5 cups self raising flour
0.5 cups milk

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add sifted flour and milk alternatively. Beat into a nice fine batter consistency, adding a few drops of vanilla extract. Bake in cupcake cases for about 10 minutes at 175 deg. C. Ice or fill with whipped cream when cold.

Buuuuuuuut, we all know that cupcakes are just a conduit to get icing to our mouths, so here is the AMAZING recipe I found in the depths of the net and just can't recommend highly enough:

5 oz (150g) softened butter (I use unsalted)
8 oz (250g) confectioners (icing) sugar
1 tsp vanilla (I use pure vanilla extract - the great taste makes the price forgettable)
2 tbsp hot water
Few drops of food colouring too if you fancy it

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric beater. Once well combined, add the vanilla, water and food colouring (if you're using it). Beat until smooth and creamy.

Happiness is a cupcake with canary yellow icing

I made cupcakes for our garage sale today (and they sold well; note for next time), and this is the very special cupcake that had Jules's name on it.

I confuse me too

Am I engaged? No.

Even thinking of getting married? Nah.

Do I have thousands of dollars to spend on a ring? No sir-ee.

Can I stop looking at this website? Nope.

Remy and Sidney: how one dog was too good natured for his own good

 

On our holiday down south Remy and Sidney, the farm dog, fell totally in love with each other. Remy would pull Sidney's lips up almost over his eyes, yank his ears, chew his fur, and Sidney would give him a goofy look as if to say 'I don't know what you are or why you're doing this, but I want more'.

 

30 is a bunch of roses

 

I got back to Wellington on my birthday. My 30th to be exact. Yesterday I was filling out a survey and, at the end, they asked me to tick the age bracket I belonged to. Sweet jesus it took some effort to tear myself away from 25-29 and into 30-34.

I also had a most alarming dream about needing botox because, like the doctor in the dream explained, that's what I have to do now I'm 30. Blerdy botox won't be visiting these shores anytime soon.

My darling, darling boy Jules invited friends around for a spot of afternoon tea and bubbles and it was dandy. I was in bed by 8.30. Obviously all the excitement was just a bit too much.

Remy and my holiday down south was good fun once again. There was lots of sleeping and eating and a little thrifting. I picked up an amazing Liberty print shirt dress with a gored skirt and a self-fabric belt. I also scored myself a wee something that still makes my heart race when I see it - a full-length, dark chocolate coloured leather jacket, circa 1940 in mint condition for $10. Yep, 10 bucks. As you'd expect of the 40s, it has the most wonderful shaping at the waist, and lovely panels at the back that make the whole jacket fit perfectly. Ahhhh, so good.

Parenthetically, I'm watching The Way We Were (you know, Barbara Striesand and Robert Redford, oh and that song "MEMORIES, lalaLAlalalalala, something something something, of the way we were") and while the story so far isn't grabbing me, those frocks are. So pretty.

In no time at all we'll be living in South Canterbury. The list of things I have to do and the people I want to see before we go is so long that my nerves are getting jangled. I'm not quite sure why, but I find it too hard to write about the move. Maybe I'll just stay quiet about it for a while, just until I'm more comfortable writing about it.

I'm baaaAAAAAaaack!

Hullo fullas! I'm back in Wellington and I'm back online. I'm ALIVE again.

Having said that, I'm just popping in for a moment. We're moving in just a couple of weeks and there is so much to do. You know, blah, blah, blah.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll post about our time down south and the upcoming move.