Knit skirt

This skirt was supposed to be the one that I found in the book Knitting it old school, full of great, tongue-in-cheek re-interpretations of old fashions. (Actually, the best thing in it was the crochet mini dress made out of multi-coloured granny squares, but I'm about 20 years too old and missing about 20 cm in leg length for that one!)

The original pattern was in pumpkin orange, with a big border of diamond shapes along the hem.
But it wasn't to be, because I ended up completely redesigning the thing to get it to fit me properly. Also, I had a hell of a time knitting those shapes without getting any puckering.
Here's a shot of my third and final attempt before giving up -

It was when I was reading Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting without tears (so apt!), that I realised what the problem was. The pattern had three different colours on the same row, with strands being carried across up to 11 stitches. My last attempt was using a stranded knitting/intarsia combination but it didn't work.
So instead, I picked a number of more traditional Fair Isle patterns to do instead - 

And here's a shot of the whole garment (pardon the weird colour effect - my iPhoto did it and I don't know how to undo it. So the above photo is a more accurate depiction of the colours.

It's a very respectable knee-length, which is another departure from the original. I might even wear it to work on Monday if it's cold enough.

Mug shots of the aforementioned new winter coat

 Here they are at last, photos of the coat which stole my heart and my wallet.

As you can see, the voluminousness of the body of the coat is rather awesome (as in, really big). Though that is nicely balanced by the narrow sleeves (which, strangely, are exactly the right length and size for my arms).

 And here is the back of the coat. The tag calls this coat a cape, and I guess it is - it's a cape with sleeves.

There's no way I would, on paper, wear a cape. But a swing coat  - which this is to my eyes -  I would wear.

Here's a shot of the lining. Can you see that the inside of this rather posh garment is covered in burlesque dancers?



True, it's not the coat that Gok Wan (or any other TV stylist) would have chosen for me me. But it's pretty special and keeps me cosy.

If colds could be exciting

I have the cold that TLM had last weekend, and it's a cold like no other I've ever had.
Like, for instance, the fact that my shoulders and knee joints hurt.
And my teeth hurt!
I got it on Wednesday and now, on Sunday, my teeth don't hurt any more so I can put off visiting the dentist for another few months (or years).

I'm glad that I took this week off so I could hang out with TLM during the second week of her school holidays. I'll be out of action for at least the next few days,  but it'll be nice not to have to stress about using up my sick leave when the real winter has only just set in.

Also I'm getting lots of knitting (and un-knitting) done during this time.

Thank goodness the boy is so good at looking after us!

My new winter coat

I know that, as a short and stockily built woman, the last thing I should be wearing is a massive swing jacket of thick, nubby wool which is topped off with a luxuriant faux-fur collar.

When I saw it hanging in the World shop, I loved the black and red wool fabric and oversized red and gold buttons - but the fur collar wasn't detachable and the cape-like silhouette was going to make me look like the dwarf in Don't Look Back (old movie starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, if you're under 35).

So I tried on a different coat, which was similarly floaty but too long and had giant heart-shaped pockets that didn't open at the top (they unzipped at the sides). And then, because I had nothing to lose I decided to try on the gorgeous red coat with the neck-shortening faux-fur collar and the widening cape shape.

World is not a shop I enter frequently, it being a designer shop where a skirt at 50% discount will still cost over $200 (though it will be beautiful and look like nothing else on the street). So I was unprepared for the sweetly attentive saleswoman, an older woman who knew how to talk me into buying it. She told me how much the original price was.

Suddenly the fur collar was not at all irritating, the voluminous folds "draped beautifully". I lusted after it.

Dear reader, I bought the coat.
I had to - it was, like, 60% off and a World garment.

Of course, by the time I had got it home and tried it on again, I didn't look quite as classy in it as I'd remembered.  But it is still a beautiful coat which looks really special and is wonderfully warm. I don't care that it's not completely flattering, because if I only ever wore what was flattering my wardrobe would be full of black scoopneck long-sleeve t-shirts, black tunic dresses, black tights, black shoes and a black princess-line coat (which, even though a common item, would be expensive because I'd have to have it altered to fit me). Actually, that does describe most of my wardrobe - except for the coat.

When I wear my new coat I am reminded of when I was a teenager accompanying my mother to a shop in town that specialised in real fur, leather and suede coats and jackets. We went more than once and at one point she probably had about four coats of different styles, from that one shop (she always managed to bargain the retailer down to get a good price). While most of her coats have been passed on to others, she still has one coat which gets lots of wear now that she's elderly and feels the cold.  I'm just glad no-one has tried to throw paint on her.

teeny geek

TLM has her own iPad2.

The season of the lurgy

first TLM was sick. Then the boy got what she had, and languished at home for a week (yet still able to produce an impressive amount of work, considering he seemed to be near death). Now I've got what TLM and the boy had. I think. Though fingers crossed it's just going to turn out to be a short-term bout of yucky coughing.

I'm taking the day off work, but not because I'm sick. It's because TLM is sick - again. A mere fortnight after she sneezed and coughed away a wallet-full of money in unused after-school care, the poor creature is now laying about restlessly on the sofa having already vomited twice today and once yesterday.

Such is winter in our household...

The tattoo jumper

Here we go. The boy is proudly wearing his new jumper for the third time in four days! Even though it is still about 10cm too short! Mind you, he's not likely to wear it without a t-shirt underneath, so he doesn't risk any hairy-belly exposure...you can't easily tell from this picture, but the design is a bit bulgy and that's probably because when I floated the black yarn behind the patterned bits, I didn't do so loosely enough. Maybe it will all sort itself out in the wash...

This is the left sleeve, pretty much identical to the right sleeve....

 

 

I knitted it. He wore it.

There's a myth/old wives tale/cautionary tale, that if you knit your boyfriend a jumper (sweater) you will eventually break up. I think it's okay to knit for your husband though, because they're supposedly a bit more committed.
But that's not why I haven't bothered to knit much for the boy - mainly because it takes such a long time to make something that fits a man who's more than six foot tall and has a chest that makes gay tailors swoon.
Well, I did make him that Slytherin scarf. It took about the same amount of merino yarn as two me-sized jumpers. But he wore it, and stayed.

Today, I finally finished the Tribal Sweater (or, in Kiwi, the Tattoo Jumper), the one from the Knitting with balls book.

It was too short all over so I picked up the stitches at all the hems and added a couple of inches. I can do that because the hems are in stocking stitch not rib, and they curl up anyway. Apart from that, and many attempts at knitting the big octopus-thing on the front, it went pretty well. In fact, he's wearing it right now. And he's still here.

I'll post a photo at some stage, I just have to wait for a time when he's wearing it and it's not evening and we're not in a hurry to do something or go somewhere.

the personal politics of caged pork

Ever since I realised that Kiwi pig farmers like to jam their animals into tiny cages, just as much as pig farmers do in the UK (and no doubt a few other parts of the world too), I have refused to eat caged pork.

Even though I miss pork sausages terribly, I don't miss them enough to condone what I think is a cruel practice.
But my mum is a big pork fan, and has only just given up on trying to deceive me into thinking that the stuff she bought at Pak n Save and roasted so deliciously ( going by the smell) is free range.
On the other hand, if I accidentally (really!) buy a sandwich which has pork or ham in in, then I'd rather eat it because to throw it away means that a pig has lived and died in misery for nothing.

Which means I have to be a hypocrite - I'll refuse to buy the stuff or eat my mother's offerings, but if it ends up in my fridge somehow then I'd rather eat it than throw it out.

I still feel a bit guilty though.

As soft as a baby's bottom

Gawd, is this what it's like to have normal, healthy skin?

I finally got myself an appointment with the dermatologist, months after being plagued by horribly anti-social itchiness and the complications that followed.

The day after I started on two types of antihistimines (one for day and one for night) and a steroid lotion (to replace two ineffective ointments), I felt my belly and it was soft and smooth.

In fact, my whole body is soft and smooth. I'm almost in lust with myself - several times a day I catch myself standing in the middle of the lounge feeling my tummy skin.

Okay, so I'm a bit dopey in the mornings because of the antihistamines, but it's a small price to pay to be (relatively) beautiful.

I also found a nice moisturiser that was both effective and completely non-irritating. It's a product which is custom-made for me by the lady who owns the Earth 174 shop in town; she mixed it up from almond oil, vitamin E and manuka honey, and will keep adding stuff to the recipe to see what my skin will handle.

Knitting for the boy

I offered to knit the boy a sweater, to make up for the fact that I seem to spend every free moment knitting (instead of wrapped around the boy or making him cups of tea or getting him a beer). At the library I found exactly three books of knit patterns for men.

The boy liked only one of the sweaters - not the one with cables all over, not the one with Ernie stripes, not the argyle vest... the only one he liked was a plain stocking stocking stitch crew neck with no ribbing at any of the hems, and a giant octopus-like symbol on the chest (plus baby ones on the sleeves).
(I think it was in Knitting with Balls). It was called the Tribal Sweater, although we call it The Tattoo Jumper (because we call sweaters jumpers around here).

So I started with the front, because the back is just boring old stocking stitch all the way up. And man, it is driving me crazy! First time trying to knit from a chart, and you can tell. I've been knitting the octopus back to front and with the leggy bits all pointing in the wrong directions. And then I've knit gaps into the graphic  and the strands are either too tight (causing weird puffines) or too loose (so I get a holey effect). And the tangles!

I've unravelled the thing 3 times now, before turning it into the plain ole back piece. I think I'll have to leave that front to last, when I'm a bit more practiced.

Cables are way easier - and I've only just started learning how to do those.

Happy Mother's Day

I had this idea that we'd be doing something special today, to mark Mother's Day.
But when the boy got up this morning moaning and groaning about dizziness and stomach pain, I knew that wasn't going to happen.
On the other hand, just having a day of full rest seems to have helped him get mostly better (though not well enough to risk eating my cooking). Maybe it was just a bad tv dinner.

And I can't complain that I didn't get a lovely card and a nice present (Gok Wan's Work your Wardrobe). The boy was as sweet as he could manage and TLM, as always, was a delight.
It's quite nice being a mum.

A knitted dress for TLM

I used the free knitting pattern called Oriental Lily, on the Ravelry site. The main part of the dress is made from an acrylic yarn called Robin Paintbox, and the lilac bands are from a single ball of cotton/acrylic Wendy yarn. The acrylic stuff was a bit on the plasticky side, but it was the only one with the right kind of variegated colouring, which I could be sure wouldn't cause any irritation.

holiday snaps

Here's a view of Mt Ruapehu from one of the walks we went on

 I didn't take many photos, and even fewer are sufficiently anonymous to post up on the Internet...

And this is the rather flashy glass basin in the flashy bathroom of our motel unit

Post-vacationette

What a lovely time we had! Who'd have thought that a long weekend in a town known for carrot-farming would be so much fun?

The best bits:

• stopping off at the adventure playground in Levin, a great place that ought to be a tourist destination
• hanging out with our friends
• walks in the fern-y rainforest at the foot of Mt Ruapehu
• TLM being really excited before, during and after our stay
• TLM finding a new best friend in DOTH
• the Easter egg hunt, in which the long-legged boy took on the dual roles as "hare" and Easter bunny, TLM and DOTH kept up with him most impressively, and I impressively kept up with them
• watching Ricky Gervais on Sesame Street singing a "N is for..." lullaby (you had to be there)
• the gorgeous golden-leaved deciduous trees that graced the land on either side of the bridge just before Taihape (on the other side of the big gumboot)

The bits that were less good, to balance out the universe:

• having to come home on Monday
• the rain on Monday, which prevented us from re-visiting Levin's adventure playground
• lunch at McDonalds (again, on Monday) - I used to wonder whether I was just being a food snob; but actually I really hate the food and feel almost ill knowing that I'm completely wasting my calorie allowance by ingesting that stuff
• none of the outlet shops in Otaki were open when we drove by, due to it being ANZAC Day, which was really disappointing because we were in the mood for a bargain-hunting spree and I wanted to check out the Kumfs sale

Technically, TLM and I are still on holiday as I've taken this half of the school holidays off work. So I have another 4 days of blissfully work-free days!

Vacationette

We are going away for the long Easter weekend!

Even better, we are going with Make Tea Not War , Gamester at Large and DOTH (no blog as far as I know) who is similar in age to TLM.

We're not sharing accommodation so we'll get the best of both worlds - company when we desire it, but not when we're itching to go to bed and everyone else wants to stay up late and drink pear cider. Or something.

Yay...

Like taking candy from a stranger

Today, TLM lost some of her childhood innocence.

Some strange guy apparently stood outside the school gate and tried to befriend TLM and her friend by giving them each a chocolate bar.

Having seen the statistics showing that "stranger danger" is a bit of a myth because most assaults on children are by someone known to them, I had not thought to impress on TLM that she should not accept anything from a stranger. How to be wary of strange dogs, yes. How to be wary of strange men...no.

So in that time squeezed in between getting home from work and after-school care, and her bedtime, the boy and I hurriedly tried to catch up on that aspect of parenting.

And TLM would ask things like, 'what if it's a bad man pretending to be a nice man?" and "what if it's a man who's a zookeeper?". In retrospect I think she was trying to find a situation in which it would have been okay to do what she did, which was to accept the chocolate (but it had peanuts in it, so she'd taken a bite and thrown it away). I think she got tired of me repeating the mantra, "if you don't him and we don't know him, run away from him".

She's sad and scared because her world has changed. And so am I.

Humpty Dumpty was a cannon

I've been reading a fascinating book about the meanings of nursery rhythms, Pop goes the Weasel by Albert Jack.
Although I haven't yet gotten to the history behind the eponymous rhyme (hope I used that big word correctly), I can tell you that yes, Humpty was indeed a cannon.

He was deployed in a famous battle between King Whathisname and The Other Guy and located at the top of the tower. As long as it was firing off great balls of lead from there, the home team was unbeatable. But the attacking army managed to do enough damage to the tower to make it fall from its perch and into the swamp below. As you'll have guessed, the King's men weren't able to repair it, and they lost the battle.

Humpty didn't become an egg until he was featured in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, by the way.

This book has been great for introducing (or re-introducing) me to many interesting snippets of English history, and there have been many a-ha moments where nonsensical-seeming rhymes suddenly made an awful lot of sense (and were likely to be about really awful events).

It's actually a lot like a good Bill Bryson book. And that might be the most effective description of this work I can come up with.

In the black

Woo hoo!
Sad as it is to have to squeeze family time into the weekends because we're wage slaves during the week, it's damn good to see there's actually money in my bank account. And that's after I've paid the bills.
Gosh, we can get our porch fixed...

a fairly bad day

Although this is the second consecutive blog post from me that is not upbeat, let me defend myself by telling you that we had a very nice weekend (there was a kids' party on Saturday and a trip to Otari Plant Museum on Sunday - and the weather was fabulous).

But I can't deny that, yes, I had a bad day today.
Firstly, I was feeling a bit down about having a nasty coldsore attack, and the promising tablets that I paid over $30 for did nothing to speed up their recovery (as far as I can tell).
Then, I pulled a muscle in my neck/shoulder region when I got out of the shower.
And I was still recovering from yesterday afternoon's marathon wait at the hospital, where my mother had an appointment at the eye clinic (1.5 hours wait! For a 5 minute consultation!).

But the thing that really made my day stink was when the boss called me into her office to put the kibosh on those "flexible" days (where I leave early one or 2 days per week to pick up TLM, and make up the time at home in the evening) she had agreed to on a temporary basis back in November.


It was as I'd feared 18 months ago when I first offered to increase my work hours due to the boy being out of work - it was easy to go from part time to full time, but possibly impossible to go back the other way again later.

My ideal would be to do short days twice a week and take the pay cut.
The boy's ideal would be for us to keep doing what we are doing for at least another few months.
The bosses ideal would (in my view) be for me to be commit as fully as the full time staff who don't have school age kids.


But then, I never did think we had similar brains.

Long lonely walks by the beach (LLWBTB)

There are beach walks which you do with kids - the public toilet is not improbably far away, the water is shallow, the surfaces are sandy, and the shore is littered with interesting bits of seaweed and shells.

There are beach walks which you do with friends - a bit like the above, but with plenty of potential bonfire locations and enough towel space for everyone.

There are beach walks which you do with a lover - a bit more remote and less family-friendly, no surf to speak of and preferably free of distracting nudists (which, come to think of it, applies to the kids' beach walk but not so much the friends' beach walk).

And then there are the beach walks you do when loneliness weighs heavily on you and you desperately need to be soothed by the sound of waves lapping against the shore. It doesn't have to be remote (my own LLWBTB is next to 4 lanes of traffic speeding to or from the airport), but it can't be very popular. Because all those people and their chatter get in the way between you and the water sounds. If it's lined by magnificent pieces of public art, then all the better to give you an alternative subject of contemplation.

Even though we might wish we didn't need a good LLWBTB, we should be glad to have one.

cardigan number 3

It was winter yesterday and today. Although I'm fully expecting it to warm up again towards the end of the week, I've been given a sharp reminder of just how much I dislike being cold.

So, while I started making a linen tunic a week ago, I've also started to make this cardigan - and hopefully this time I'll complete it and want to wear it outside the house (the first attempt has a ripply button band and desperately needs shaping, the second didn't even get that far because I used a non-shrinking yarn and a pattern designed for yarn that shrinks 10% in the wash).

I probably won't be quite as staunch about ripping out and re-doing - like, I'll do that if I drop a stitch but not if the stitches differ in size by a few nano metres.  I'm using a cotton/acrylic blend by Panda, in bright red. Quite possibly I've chose a colour that will look far better on TLM...

Weekend fun - live animals and sleepover essentials

Yesterday we went out to Staglands, which is a wildlife-ish park about an hour or so's drive away. I've been wanting to take TLM there since she was a toddler, but wanted to wait until she was too old for daytime naps. Then we forgot about it for a couple of years...

Anyway I think I enjoyed it at least as much as TLM did - we oohed over the baby kune kune pigs, I was followed by vibrantly-coloured birds that made me think of flying fabric swatches, TLM got her photo taken with her head stuck in the stocks (that wooden thing that imprisons you by the neck and wrists), and I was butted by the head of a friendly retired Clydesdale horse.

The only negative thing about the whole trip was the wasp that kept buzzing around us while we lunched at the cafe. I was most annoyed at having to leave without finishing my nachos...

And today we went shopping for a new booster car seat for TLM, plus a bunk bed (so she can have a friend over for a sleepover). We ended up getting a metal-framed child's bed with a trundler instead, to allay my fears that whoever is in the top bunk might fall down the ladder during a midnight trip to the toilet and break her neck...

TLM was mightily distracted by the super-girly bed linen, but I promised we'd get her some of that if she'd only focus on the blimmin' beds.

Of course, now we'll have to get whole new sets of bedlinen and duvets etc, since the current stuff is only big enough for an American-sized cot (which I think actually means Texas-sized).

Planned weekend fun - it's the woman's job

We seemed to be in a bit of a rut at the weekends. The boy would sleep in until 9.30 or 10; TLM and I would either go out in the morning and be back with lunch by the time he was up and about; half of the afternoon was spent waiting for TLM to have her quiet time (usually a DVD on the sofa); and by then we'd have only an hour or two to do something together before it was time for TLM's dinner-bath-bedtime.

I'd often suggest to the boy that we do something fun. Sometimes I even suggested a specific activity, like going to Staglands (a wildlife park/farm park). Then I'd be disappointed when the weekend came and went, with no mention of it from the boy.

Then I found out that he'd been waiting for me to organise these things.

So last weekend we all went to a gallery out of town and marveled at an exhibition of fantasy art (after which the boy went home while TLM and I stayed in town to watch some Chinese New Year performances).

This weekend we'd intended to go for a bush walk up the hill and take a proper picnic (by 'proper' I mean with fresh rolls and nice sandwich fillings, rather the usual box of biscuits and two bottles of tap water).

But it turned out to be my nephew's birthday (I'm a bad auntie), so instead we went shopping for his present and went to their house to give it to him. Tomorrow I'll probably take TLM to the watch the CNY parade, but the boy is not a parade sorta guy so he'll probably be at home working.

Maybe next week maybe we'll go to Staglands.

Reasons for cheer

I was brought up to look at the dark and scary side of life (and there's probably a bit of genetics in there too). Although this should have been an advantage if I were a blues singer or maker of indie movies - well I'm neither.
So I have been researching how to be cheerful on the 'Net and the first five minutes have actually been quite fruitful.

Out of the 11 reasons to be cheerful listed on the lifehack webpage, I actually score pretty well. I guess I just need to see this more often:

1. I'm alive
2. my health - I wouldn't be the ideal human specimen that every alien probe dreams of, but then I don't have any life threatening diseases and, no matter how much I've moaned about my various health complaints, at least I can pass for normal most of the time. 
3. I'm in a relationship with someone I love and who loves me
4. I have family - a child, a parent (apparently a plus even if she knows how to push all my insanity buttons), a sibling, an in-law who is amazing, and a great nephew and niece
5. I am in full time employment (a plus just 'cos I can't afford not to be)
6. I'm doing something that adds value to society (by working for a non-profit)
7. I can look back on my life and be proud of certain achievements (my travels, my efforts at painting, writing and sewing)
8. I have something to look forward to (the day the boy is secure enough in his employment that I can go part-time, a trip to the UK to visit the boy's family - whenever they may be)
9. a plan for the future - not really
10. financial security - only just
11. friends - I have been sadly slack in keeping in touch with my friends, but have been working on that. I managed to call two friends last month which is better that I've done in the previous 6 months.

That's about 7/11 and nothing to be sneezed at.
None of the above are especially glamorous or exciting, but I read somewhere that it's the little stuff that keeps us glad to be alive. I'm all for that.

If I could have just one belated new year's resolution...

it would be to go part time again this year.

I've become far to precious with my time as I've gotten older and busier, jealousy portioning out my non-working, non-chore-doing, non-sleeping hours like a lost mountaineer trying to survive on half a peanut slab last until the rescuers arrive.

Because there's not much point being stingy with the stuff if it's not enough to give you pleasure.

On the other hand, I don't want to give up any of my interests, nor deprive myself of time with the people I like to be with.

Something has got to give. I hope it can be my work hours.

pedestrians who don't look when crossing the street

There's been a bit of kerfuffle over the number of pedestrians who've been hit by buses since Manners St was changed from a one-way to a two-way street.

The street is well-served by traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and buses aren't exactly hard to see.

So my conclusion is this - it's the gods' way of punishing jay-walkers.

Germ warfare

My brother won his battle with the horrible S. aureous bacteria. Though he was only allowed to go home yesterday, so he was in hospital for maybe three weeks. And he still isn't walking normally because his' back is stuffed from him being laid out flat for days and days.

My own battle, though far less serious, is ongoing. Only a week or so after recovering from the pimple-from-hell on my back, I now have one on my right arm. I tried bathing it in anti-bacterial solution every night this week, but Mr and Mrs S. aureous merely laughed in my face and turned up the heater.

Now, I'm no conspiracy-theorist - but I reckon there may be some kind of outbreak going on here. My brother, when he was in ICU, shared with several other patients with similar afflictions to his own. And when I tried to buy a new bottle of the anti-bacterial solution at the pharmacy, I was told they'd had a run on the stuff.

Someone is trying to kill the 10% of us who have vulnerable body bits.

A day in the tropics

You'd think it was spring rather than mid-Summer - one day it's cool enough to need a jacket, the next day it's warm enough to briefly consider going to work in shorts and a singlet.

It was apparently 29 degrees Celsius today, which is extreme in itself ('round these parts, if it's more than 25 degrees it's a heatwave). But it was super-muggy all day and then we got torrential rain.

It's just like being in Bangkok, except that you aren't on holiday, there aren't any tuk-tuks and the locals aren't smiling as much.

It's been a long week

The first full working week since Christmas (which for me started in mid-December when school finished for the year) has been long and hard.

First, I've had to spend most of each working day answering supports calls emails about really basic technical things that those people should know how to do already.

Then, I notice a pimple on my back that just keeps getting bigger and more painful until I have to admit that I be getting another visit from the cellulitus fairy (last time was about 4 years ago).

But the worse thing that's happened this week is that my brother has been really sick with a bacterial infection he picked up, supposedly through a big cut in his hand while working on his house. He was in ICU for the better part of the week (since Sunday), while the doctors operated on him to drain unmentionable fluids from various parts of his body.

We were only allowed to see him for the first time last night. Of course, my mum insisted on taking along some home-cooked food to supplement the hospital meals. But then later one of the nurses told us off because apparently it's taking up too much space in the staff fridge (there being no fridge for hospital patients). Not that my bro has had much of an appetite anyway, but you know mothers worry about their kids not eating enough...

Anyway, we were told he'd probably still be in hospital for several more days at least. So I guess next week will be another long one.

Another denim reconstruction

So here is the tunic I made from two pairs of old jeans plus some scrap denim. I used a Simplicity 'Project Runway' sewing pattern, but don't ask me what the number of it is because my sister-out-law like the tunic so much she's borrowed the pattern and taken it away... Did you notice that I've only worn it one day and there are already wrinkles at the midsection? Well, it just so happens that those wrinkles used to be the backs of the boy's knees.

The front piece is from the boy's old jeans; the back is from one of my own old pairs; and the dark side panels and pockets are from some stretch denim scraps left over from my last attempt at trousers. Sorry if you noticed the glimpse of crepe-y armpit in this picture...

The feature of this design is really the rounded neck band, the button used to fasten it (it's actually sewn down - there's no buttonhole), and the resulting keyhole at the upper chest which I presume is supposed to be sexy without being revealing. The button is a spare that I had from when I was making my spring coat. I didn't do a great job of making the ends of the band perfectly rounded, but it'll have to do. I spent so much time top-stitching, taking in the torso (then re-topstitching) and putting in the zip only to rip it out again, that after a while I just wanted to finish it and move on with my life.

I used this lovely printed voile to line the pockets and the neck band. The hem also has a facing, but for that I used a lime green bit of quilting cotton (which I forgot to take a photo of).

Apart from the slightly Jetsons-look due to the overly-thick shoulder parts of the neck band, I'm really happy with the garment. I've already bought two more pieces of fabric (in bright violet and bright turquoise - Arthur Toye's was having a sale) to make long-sleeved versions of this - that is, when I get my pattern back. One thing to note, if you are a rectangular shape, is that by the time you've accommodated for the wider waist you won't need a zip to get in and out of it!

home made grease

One of my Christmas presents was the book, 'Grow your own drugs: A year with James Wong', which is based on his television series.

Contrary to initial expectations, the television series is not a course for people who wish to cultivate their own marijuana and opium supplies. It's all about using commonly found plants (commonly found in the UK anyway - not sure about New Zealand) to make medicines, skincare and cosmetics.

I found it quite fascinating. My one gripe is that James Wong - boyishly handsome as he is - always seems to be talking to someone over the camera man's shoulder rather than to the camera, which I find really distracting (though not spooky, which is how I find those people with that particular type of blue eyes who look as they are staring right through you).

Anyway, the book I have is the sequel to the book of the series. It's got a number of recipes for a variety of skin ailments and allergies, as well as for moisturisers and hair conditioners. It's even got one for furniture polish!

So one day I plan to get myself some basic equipment and ingredients, and mix myself up some home made moisturiser (to start with anyway). Though that might have to wait until I've finished my sewing projects. Possibly after it's become too cold to sew, but before it's cold enough to want to knit. Well, some time....

...and that's what I did in my holidays

I think anyone who has ever been in a Western school must have had to write at least one 'What I did in the holidays' essay.

The only such essay of mine which attracted praise, was a 'What I did in the weekend' variation, which went a bit like "It was really boring. There was nothing to do." Go figure.

Well, today was the last day of my Christmas/New Year holiday, and it was not spectacularly eventful. But I had fun, the boy had fun and TLM definitely had fun (her holiday goes on for another month though, so it'll be interesting to see whether it goes downhill when she has to attend her school holiday programme):

• We went to the zoo 4 times in about a week and a half.
• We went to the beach the same number of times.
• I got to start and finish a tunic in a voile fabric of a mesmerising navy shot with gold, as well as start and nearly finish a sleeveless tunic made from 2 pairs of old jeans plus miscellaneous denim remnants (photos coming at some stage).
• We played new games on the Wii, including TLM's and my current favourite (because we win a lot) which is a sword-slashing test of reflexes and doesn't require much button-pushing (great for non-gamers like me).
• And that doesn't include Christmas itself, nor New Year's dinner at my mum's.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Happy New Year!

Christmas in a pagan/agnostic/Santa-ist household

I hope you've all had an enjoyable Christmas (or other appropriate holiday).

It was never a big-deal time of the year for me, growing up. Maybe it's because our mum didn't bother with presents or Christmas decorations, and I always had to spend hours writing polite cards to rellies in Hong Kong (or anyone else who sent us one - once we got a card from a 'relative' up the coast and to this day none of us know who on earth this person is).

'It's probably because your family isn't Christian', you might say. Well, that argument does have weight. Except my mum was reborn about ten years ago and the only thing that changed was that she started saying grace before meals.

Also, the boy is very big on Christmas and he's a pagan. Although, as a pagan he is at least highly aware of the various ancient religions whose festivals were usurped by the Christian one.

So ever since the boy has been in my life, Christmas has been a big deal. And ever since TLM was born Christmas has been a very big deal. In fact, TLM began searching for signs of Christmas months ago, and was the first to spot any pine tree, shiny bauble or red/green colour combo in any shop we visited.

TLM spent all Christmas morning unwrapping presents and trying them out. So far (partly due to crappy weather curtailing scooter practice) the one with the most play-time is the Harumika fashion design set. She got the starter set consisting of a mannequin, 3 pieces of punk-esque fabric, and a range of tiny accessories. I added a bunch of offcuts from my past dressmaking efforts.
Actually, I think I have probably played with it as much as she has...

...though the photos are of TLM's designs.
I just went to their website and there's a version with legs. I'll ask the boy to get me that one for my birthday.

Breaking a lifetime habit

For years now, I have been intrigued by the possibility of going shampoo-free. At first, I couldn't believe you could simply stop washing your hair, and it would eventually become self-cleaning. And then I thought, what a big con those drug and cosmetic companies have on us all, producing unnecessary smellies that we supposedly need. (Of course, if you use a lot of styling products, maybe you do need to shampoo often - but then it's still a big con and a massive money-maker for those companies!)

Finally, after a lifetime of daily shampooing, and just as my holidays have started, I just stopped.
Well, in actual fact I went three days without a hair wash, and the next time around I am going to wait 4 days (that brings me up to Christmas Day - I should probably try to be fresh for Christmas Day). And after that I am going to try going a whole week without a shampoo.

After that I'm back at work, so it'll be interesting whether I can keep it up under the pressure to still look presentable.

The weird thing is, I was expecting to get the major greasies - but I haven't at all. I reckon my scalp has probably gotten increasingly drier as I've gotten older (thereby producing less sebum) and I just haven't noticed!
It's so cool that I can now save money on shampoo, and not have to worry about adding hair products to my skincare quest.

You know your kid has been watching too much Ben 10...

...when the plumber arrives to fix a leaky pipe under the house, and you have to explain, "No, TLM, not that kind of plumber"*.



*For those without young kids, in Ben 10 plumbers are people with special powers whose responsibilities including protecting the Earth from hostile aliens

Keeping it Simple for now (Actually a review of REN sensitive skin products)

I trialled two products from the REN skincare range - the Ultra Calm Global Protection Day Cream and Ultra Calm Cleansing Milk.
REN is from the UK - I was attracted to them because they don't test on animals, and avoid using all those bad-rep chemicals that makers of organic cosmetics love to hate - parabens, petrochemicals etc - for the sake of  skin-friendliness. They might be organic too, but that wasn't my focus.

I was quite astonished when, after emailing them to ask whether REN is available in New Zealand, the customer services person offered to ship me some samples - all the way to the other end of the Earth. When they arrived I was astounded that such small containers existed. But I can't complain.

Both products came in tiny plasticky tubes. They shared a herby smell that made me suspicious, but it wasn't a perfume-y smell so I'll forgive them.

Now, if I'd gotten larger amounts, I would have been able to test them on my face properly. As it was, there was enough to either patch test, or to smear sparingly. So sparing smearing was what I opted for.

The cleanser was lovely to use. It left my skin feeling completely un-assaulted.
The moisturiser was just as gentle, but unfortunately was not emollient enough. I could have gone through a couple of those tubelets just in one application, and would have needed a top-up soon after.

So I will stick with my Simple Regeneration Age-resisting day cream with spf, which is similar in gentleness and emollience, but costs $27.50 for 50ml. The REN moisturiser, on the other hand, costs a whopping $111 for a bottle of indeterminate size which couldn't possibly be 200ml. Actually, the REN website displays a 50ml bottle, so if we assume that it only comes in one size, it's, like, 4 times the cost of the Simple product.

Maybe one day, when I am a millionaire, I will shell out for the REN bottle to try over several days, and maybe I will realise that the stuff is actually better than I thought. Until then, I will stick with the thing that is affordable and is good-enough-for-now.

Man's shirt, feminised. Somewhat.

After the fiasco of the last time I tried to refashion a men's dress shirt, it was a very long time before I set to on the other shirt that the boy gave me. This time around, I used a tunic sewing pattern (New Look 6808) to feminise this shirt. I sewed the front down so that it's now a pullover rather than a button-down, omitted the back and front darts (but left in the bust darts) for a loose fit, and used a contrast fabric for the sleeve and neck facings. The  contrast fabric was cut from a piece of skirt material that used to belong to the boy's lovely mum, which I never used because the print is too big for my body size. From the front, I'd say it was a success.

From the side, it's okay - not fab, not hideous.

But from the back I look like man...

Child development by DVD

The Little Madam has thankfully gotten over her obsession with Barbie DVDs - at least for the time being.

The boy has been diverting her with Dungeons and Dragons - the animated series from the 80's(?) - and Star Wars - Clone Wars (ew yuck!).

Then he got her into the first Harry Potter movie, which she loved. She likes the second one too, but gets freaked out at the scene when Harry and Ron drink polyjuice potion and morph into Goyle and Crabb (Draco Malfoy's brain-shy sidekicks).

For a coupla days, all she wanted to watch was my recording of the televised World of Wearable Arts show. It shouldn't be surprising, because it's full of fantastic, whimsical costumes.

And now she's a fan of The Princess Bride. My only criticism of this movie is that there's only one main female character, and she's utterly passive. But it's witty and got scary bits as well as the occasional kissing, so I'll let it go - as long as TLM also watches something with strong female characters in it.

Unaccustomed social activity

It's been quite a busy weekend.
Friday, my workplace had an all-day Christmas do, which entailed a train ride up north to a lovely hotel/park complex where we frolicked in the sun and then had an amazing lunch before napping on the ride home. We had terrific weather, and I only slightly regretted not bringing my togs with me (I still got wet - the naughty swimmers made sure of that).

Saturday morning TLM and I went shopping for a birthday present, to take to a party that afternoon. While there I managed to sneakily also buy a cute tooth-box for TLM's Christmas present for Sunday's party (see below). We also spent a good hour painting a large sheet of paper to wrap our friend's present it. I had at least as much fun as she did. By the time we got home we had just enough time to vacuum the house before my niece showed up for a sleepover. (But it turned out that this was her first sleepover away from her mum, and she ended up going home at about ten. Which meant that TLM was 3 hours late to bed...)

Sunday, TLM and I attended a Christmas party for her Chinese language school. And then I was ready for another nap.

Uh huh honey honey

And tonight I resumed my Googling for skincare and eczema remedies.It's funny that, although I've always been regarded as a somewhat analytical person, I've never tried very hard to research more about my condition. Perhaps I should blame it on my authority-fearing nice-Cantonese-girl upbringing, but I pretty much have always just relied on whatever my doctor suggested. I suppose it's never too late to search and explore the variety of snake oils out there, looking for something that will work until it stops working.

Tonight, I tried smearing some honey on an irritated area of my hand. Right away, it started stinging. But then it stopped stinging, and stopped itching too. And this wasn't even the famous Manuka honey.

I can't exactly smear this stuff on like moisturizer - I'd be covered in insects and stuff as soon as I stepped out the door. But it does give me a new avenue of active skincare ingredients to try out.

Business travel

Today I had to fly up-country to take a training session. It was organised by someone based up there, and presumably all I had to do was turn up with new knowledge to impart.

But because I'm a training-away virgin, I didn't think to check carefully exactly what facilities would be available - computers, yes; broadband connections,yes; lunch and snacks, yes; whiteboard, yes. Whiteboard pens, data show projector, dunno. Would everyone bring their manual, dunno.

She said something about an overhead projector, but I wasn't interested in creating a bunch of transparencies because I was going to distribute a load of printed handouts instead.

"Just you wait - they'll spend half an hour just trying to log in!" one of my colleagues (a seasoned trainer) said.
"Better take some whiteboard pens and duster", advised the training manager, "because you don't know for sure there'll be any up there".
"You should take a laptop and a data show projector", suggested the boy, "so you can subtley show them how to log in without making obvious your low opinion of their technical abilities".

So I packed a laptop, a data show projector, a wad of printed handouts about the size of an Auckland phone book, a couple of whiteboard pens and the office's only whiteboard duster, and packed it into two bags. Then I had to practice walking around with them as though they were really light, so I wouldn't be forced to check them in at the airport.

I reckon the airlines must gotten into trouble with how they show passengers the safety rules or something. Because in the old days no-one seemed to care if you you could look out the window or napped while they showed you where the exits were.
But on my flight out, the flight attendant actually scolded one passenger like a naughty schoolboy, for talking instead of paying attention. Times sure have changed.

Then I got to my destination, got a lift to the training venue, and found out that there was already a data show projector in the room, already connected up to the computer I'd be using. I needn't have packed the laptop and projector after all - I could have swanned about with just my handbag, saving my shoulder muscles much trauma and strain. There were also pens and dusters a-plenty, and no overhead projector to be seen.

p.s. I think the session went well - no one went to sleep, and everyone managed to finish the practice exercises. But they nearly fell over each other trying to leave when I finished half an hour early.

Whiffy and scratchy

Lately, because it is Spring I suppose, I've been really itchy all the time. Well, I am an eczema-sufferer so that's to be expected. But at the moment it's kinda out of control, in a way that makes a burqa seem like a really practical clothing choice.

I've tried taking antihistamines but most of them don't work - some of them make me dopey and drowsy, but none of them stops me from wanting to rip my skin off at inconvenient times of the day.

Tonight, after dinner, I took a tepid bath with a dose of Pinetarsol. On the bottle it says that it will calm and soothe irritated, inflamed skin. What it doesn't say is that it turns your bathwater the colour of stewed tea, and really, really stinks.

In fact, as soon as I lay down in it I started to feel ever-so-slightly ill. After I got out, I developed a headache.
And I'm still a bit itchy (though at least I don't feel like setting myself on fire so that's probably a plus).

So far, the most effective anti-itching thing I've tried is knitting. I just have to work out how to do that in my sleep.

School holiday heck

Coming up is our first experience of trying to work out how we are going to manage both of us working full time with school holidays. It's only 5 weeks away!

It would be so simple (and actually really nice) if I could just take holidays when TLM has them. But TLM's summer holidays is about 5-6 weeks long. Even if I took a whole year's worth at once, it would not cover her summer holiday. And that's ignoring the upcoming 2011 holidays - Easter (1 week, I think) and three term holidays (2 weeks each).

Of course, we haven't got around to organising anything before now (and when I say "we" I mean "me", because somehow now that the boy is not a house husband, all child-related issues are my issues). The boy says he is going to be ultra busy, and beside he doesn't even get paid leave as he's a contractor, and he just wants to get paid.

Somehow I just assumed that the after school care company did school holiday programmes too, but as far as I can tell they don't have this service in our part of town - though their website is 3 months out of date so I am still waiting to hear back from them. But even if they did, I'd be very reluctant to send her off for whole days away, even for just a few days per week.

Good grief - how do other families do it?!

A working man Part II

It's been maybe three weeks since the boy started his new job. He seems to be enjoying the challenge of doing something almost-but-not-really like what he used to do i.e. project managing the update of state schools' computer networks rather than managing a team of super-geeks in a super geeky IT shop.

TLM is enjoying going to after school care three times a week. To her, it's just like the good ole days at daycare when all she had to do was play.

And even though I stressed horribly about asking my boss to let me leave work early to pick up TLM from school on the other two days per week, and even though I hate having to work at home to make up for leaving the office early - I do enjoy having that extra time with TLM.  She is reading on her own (sometimes - other times she just makes up new stories), inventing crazy dances and teaching herself yoga from a children's DVD.

The one thing we haven't been able to enjoy is the extra income. The boy only gets paid after a big slab of work is completed and it's quite possible he won't expect anything incoming for a few more weeks. Which is hard on our already-meagre finances, because our expenses have suddenly shot up (mainly petrol and TLM's after school care).

Though the boy had a quiet chat with his boss yesterday and it looks like we can afford to have a reasonably fun Christmas after all. Which means I won't have to give hand-knitted acrylic blue face cloths to the rellies for Christmas presents.

well-fitting trousers a moving target

I finished my test trousers (Burda Nov 2009, #124). They are made from a light-to-medium weight stretch denim which looks a bit like grey flannel from a distance.

I wore them to work - they were really comfortable, and slightly better fitting than most of the shop-bought trousers I have.

But the next time I went to put them on, they were baggy and yucky - big flaps of fabric around the thighs and far two much fabric at the crotch. And I had to yank them up every time I moved, so I didn't end up wearing them to work.

I put it down to the fact that stretch denim has a tendency to stretche half a size to a size after just one wearing. So I took them in at the sides.

Now I don't have to yank them up all the time, but somehow I've ended up with a fit much worse than I had originally. And here's where a coupla pictures is worth a coupla thousand words...

What the heck is causing that almost-camel toe?

Is it because the metal jeans zip iss weighing the fabric down?
Have I just got a fat pubis?
Or do I need to let it out at the inside leg?
Whatever it is, it's definitely a familiar problem I've had with some shop-bought trousers (only not as obvious as here).

Anyway, if you know the answer, please tell me - because otherwise it'll be back to the rip 'n' sew, trial and error method.

A cardigan, kind of

 It's been several weeks since I finished the knitting portion of this cardigan, and I'm still no closer to getting around to adding buttons and blocking the thing.

So here are some pictures of how it looks so far.

The first photo shows you approximately how it will look buttoned up.

The second one is a close-up of the horizontal ribbing on one of the three-quarter length sleeves.

And the third one is how it looks  worn open. As you can see this garment is absolutely gagging for a blocking (and that's not being crude - it really does need a spray and a pinning out i.e. reshaping).

Also, it' much chunkier and less shaped than I expected. If you have a look at the picture that came with the pattern you'll see what I mean. I dunno what happened, I'm sure I was knitting at the right gauge and had picked the correct size to make. Maybe it's the yarn, because I think it was meant for droopier designs.

Anyway, it's good enough to wear and just the right weight for Spring (around these parts anyway).

Disproportionately nice

Since the last skincare post I have tested:

Natio gentle day moisturiser - it was pretty runny, but I would have put up with that if it didn't irritate. Because then I could either find the night cream version or else used an oil underneath it. I had high hopes for this one because their "normal" skin moisturiser was almost, but not quite, non-irritating. Unfortunately the "gentle" one was not gentle enough.


Clarins Gentle Day Cream - it's expensive, but I hoped that would mean it would be genuinely gentle. Plus, I've used their foundation for years with no problem.  The tiny sample pot they gave me to take home was probably worth about $20 (the full size bottle - 60ml maybe? - cost $88)! Alas, I was surprised and disappointed that paying big bucks is no guarantee of skin comfort.


Tigerlily's Itch-be-gone - they sent me a miniscule sample of this after I emailed them, asking for samples suitable for my troublesome skin. I don't think this is meant to be used on the face, but there's not enough to properly test out on my body. Though what I did use, did feel nice enough. It's a locally made product by some guy who started out making soaps for his wife or something!

Skin Food - Another New Zealand product, and one that's found in all New World supermarkets at a super-affordable price. Which is why I've avoided it all this time. I found it extremely hard to believe that something costing only $11 for a nice big tube, could be a good one. I picked up this tube when I went to do the grocery shopping (the boy gets a bottle of wine, I get an experimental face grease...) and tried it when I got home today. I was a little perturbed by the lemony perfume (as I am by all perfumes). But 3 hours and 3 re-applications later (my skin drinks the stuff up like a fish in the desert), there is no sting, no flushing, no itchiness. If it was a little more moisturising, it'd be perfect. Still, it could all change tomorrow. So I shall wait and see...

The latest skincare quest report

It's a hard road finding the right face moisturiser when you've got extremely sensitive skin, a low budget and want to avoid products tested on animals.

I tried Avene (called Redness-correcting light Daytime Moisturiser, or something similar), but that was no good. Plus, I suspect they do test on animals.

I tried Natio daytime moisturiser with SPF15, and while it did a good job of moisturising, it still irritated a little. They do have a sensitive skin product though, so I could go back and get a squirt of it to try out.

I also tried apricot kernel oil, because clevergirl uses it (albeit an organic version). That stuff was fine on my body but not on my face.

By now I was ready to give up and go back to Shiseido Benefience, which was perfect for me until I decided I couldn't afford it any more. Unfortunately, while checking out online beauty retailers to see if I could buy some at discount, I found out that Shiseido does test on animals. So boo hoo, even if we won the Lotto I would still have to continue my quest.

So the next products on my list to try are:

• Skinfood - it's a New Zealand product which has had good reviews but it's quite cheap and I can't believe that something so affordable can be good
• Dermalogica - they have a 30 day money back guarantee, but then it is really expensive and something that may have to wait until the boy gets paid
• Natio's sensitive skin range
• Ren - something I read about on the 'Net. I emailed them in the UK to find out whether it's sold in New Zealand, and they offered to send me some free samples!

A working man

The boy has a job!!

Actually, it's a contract. But it's a well-paid one, with plenty of potential for permanent employment later. Plus...it's a job!!

On the other hand, he has to start right away - literally, next Tuesday. So we'd had next to no time at all to sort out after school care for TLM. And he's going to be away sometimes because he'll be at sites all over the place.

But then...he's got a job!!

He already has a list of things he's going to spend his pay on, hopefully one of those is a trip to the UK to visit his family because I've never actually met them in person. And taking time off for holidays is way harder when you're a contractor.

But at least he's got a job!!

not tonsillitis

When I got to the doctor's and showed her the left side of my head, she seemed very excited and fascinated by my condition. Obviously it's not something she's come across before. It was the ear that did it really. It was huge, florid and almost pulsating with not-quite-right-ness. She wanted to know all about it (maybe she'd been bored with a morning full of sniffles and sprained ankles - I dunno).

Anyway, a little TMI, so I'll gloss over the details. Suffice it so say that tonsils were examined and deemed healthy, so the infection was therefore of some other sort.

I got my prescription for a big bottle of antiobiotics, a note for my employers confirming I need another day off, and hope that some time tomorrow I will look and feel like myself again.

Actually, today I forgot I was sick on several occasions - I just have trouble turning my head, and my body temperature still goes a bit up and down. I even managed a couple of hours of work - checking and reply to emails and anything else I could manage from home.

And when I get back to work I shall be sure to clean my telephone very, very thoroughly.

tonsillitus

Overnight, just like that, I developed a tender lump on one side of my neck. The first morning, all my joints ached as well so I knew I was genuinely ill and I hadn't sleepwalked to a bar and got into a fight with the bouncer.

I spent most of that day huddled on the sofa with a duvet, a high temperature and Season 4 of the Gilmore girls.

Today I've been more conscious and my joints aren't aching any more. But my head still hurts and my neck still looks and feels like it's trying to hatch an avocado. Not only that, but it seems to be spreading further around my head - not the face, thank gawd, but if my left ear gets any more swollen it's going to explode. It already looks like it was transplanted from a larger animal - perhaps a rugby-playing elf with a lifelong alchol problem.

The boy's mum is a retired nurse, and she reckons it's tonsillitus. I always thought my tonsils were down the back of my throat, but then, I've always associated tonsils with ice cream so what do I know?

Best. Birthday. Ever.

For my birthday yesterday, the boy got me Season 1 of 30 Rock, which I love but keep missing on TV, and a copy of Steig Larsson's The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. For some reason he thought I was a Larsson fan, though in fact I've only ever watched the movie that was made from his first novel.

TLM picked out a very pretty Oriental-flavoured birthday card, and decorated the wrapping paper too, with some nice domestic scenes (am I worried that she's demonstrating such girlie behaviour? No, because it's balanced by her love for Ben 10 and Clone Wars).

The boy made me my favourite meal, butter lamb, which was followed by a very yummy berry-topped cake from Floridita's.

I was supposed to get the day off work, but as we've a plethora of Librans in the office I offered to work on my birthday and take today off instead.

And what a good choice! The weather was absolutely fantastic, compared to the exfoliating winds and bracing wintry throwback of yesterday. Needless to say, I had a load of washing up on the line as soon as my toast was in my belly.

While TLM was at school, the boy and I went into town and bimbled (apparently an English colloquialism for strolling around town with no particular aim in mind). We bought magazines and read them over lunch at Astoria. Just like the old days.

Also, I bought myself Bill Bryson's At Home. That guy could take a parliamentary transcript and turn it into something funny, informative and clever.

Then, just before we headed back home, we stopped off at Atticus, the boy's favourite shoe shop where I very nearly bought me some cherry Doc Martins.

Yes, I did wear Docs back in the 90's when they were last the hottest of the hot.
And I wonder whether they are the second most predictable fashion statement for 40-something women, after dyed red hair.
But I will wait until next Autumn before getting them anyway, because it's almost sandal season.

un-idle hands

Isn't it always the way - at least with me - that, when I have time to blog I tend to have little to blog about. But when I have stuff to blog about, I'm too busy doing that stuff to blog about it!

I have mostly finished my green cardigan that was knit, unravelled and knit again (in a different pattern). I might even get around to posting a photo. There is still the buttons to choose and sew on, but that may not happen until next autumn now.

Not only that, but I have already knitted the back, front and about a quarter of the sleeves of another cardigan, this time a denim-y look originally designed to be knit in Rowan denim
(from a book called Denim People - much cooler than it sounds). Only I'm using an indigo acrylic because I can't afford to order couple of hundred bucks worth of cotton yarn just for what is, in effect, knit-doodling.

And, I'm about halfway through sewing a pair of trousers! Because, as we get into warmer weather, I have to forsake my skirt-or-dress + opaque tights combos, and instead rely on breezy yet leg-covering trousers for work. I'm making a test pair out of some dark stretch denim (and a Burda magazine 4-in-1 pattern) and I reckon they are going to be okay too.

Again, no pictures. Probably because I don't have a flash and my mirror still needs cleaning

short term memory loss

Maybe it's just a sub-conscious act of denial or something, but - in the last few years I keep forgetting how old I am.

And the reason why this topic comes up today is because in just a few days I will be 46 (I think...or will I be 47...45?)

I will be only a hop, skip and a jump from the big 5 -0.
Quite scary really, because I am heading right into breastscreening, wrinkle-checking, saggy-baggy territory.

The boy is a few years behind me though.

They do say that you're only as old as the one you feel...

Premature price rises

So I'd been pussyfooting around about replenishing my supply of face moisturiser because I still haven't found the perfect one, but I need something because I'm running out.

So after much Libran indecision I went into Farmers (where there is almost always a sale on - but not today).

Only it's a few dollars more than it was a couple of weeks ago.
And at the pharmacy up the road, it was priced even more expensively.

So what I reckon is this - even though there's a GST (that's VAT or sales tax) increase scheduled for the 1st of October, some retailers are marking up their prices early.

The cheek of it!

The search goes on after all

Around the time my Trilogy moisturiser started to run out, I noticed that sometimes after I used it on my face my skin started to heat up. So I guess it must have developed a sensitivity to one or more of the ingredients. The Xma-Ease was till fine, but it's not a moisturiser so I can't use that on its own.

So...it was time to go back on the search for something to use on my (how inconvenient!) dry and irritable complexion.

One problem I had with experimenting was that if I squirt something from the tester bottle at the shop and put it on my hand, wrist or even behind my ear, it might feel perfectly comfortable. But it might be quite irritating on my face. And there's no way I'll put something new on my face unless I'm at home - in case the new product turns out to be a burn-y, sting-y thing from dermatology hell.

Then I had a Eureka! moment and realised all I had to do was to carry a small, clean pot around with me so I can squirt an untried moisturiser into and take it home for testing.

If I'd only thought of that earlier, I'd have save myself 20 bucks on a tube of The Honey Company sensitive skin cream.
It did save me from wasting money on a tub of Olive moisturiser though. And both of these felt perfectly nice on my hands.

The latest hopeful was Lush's Celestial, of which I was given a free sample to try. By all accounts it's fabulous for dry and sensitive skin, and it's been raved about on the Internet. On day one, I was converted. On day two, I thought I detected a slight, worrying tingle that came and went after I put it on my face. On day three, the boy took a look at my glowing cheeks and said I looked like I'd been over-enthusiastic with the exfoliation (which I daren't do).

Apparently Olay is quite safe. Does anyone know whether it's tested on animals?

So much for that

I'm talking about the book by Lionel Shriver. I finished it ages ago - had to, because the library only lets you borrow a book for 4 weeks and won't let you renew.

Anyway.

The premise of the book is this. What do you do if you are finally - after decades of dreaming, planning, earning and saving - ready to take the plunge and retire to a life of relative luxury on a beautiful-but-cheap third world country...only to find out that your spouse has cancer and needs the not-quite-adequate health insurance that comes with your hated job?

I was prepared for the book to be depressing, but it wasn't all that. The guy whose life dream was so rudely crushed, whose savings are now destined to be flushed down the black hole that is the cost of American healthcare, doesn't sink into a pit of despair. He rises to the challenge of looking after his wife, who is bitter and angry at her fate; stays in his thankless job under a useless jerk of a boss; and staunchly deals with it. Then he wins.
 
When Shriver (through her characters) talks about the American healthcare system, it's like she did all her research from the Mike Moore movie. Actually, if you're quite cynical about the American way of life and the way it seems to be controlled by the rich and the corporate, you'll be nodding and going "hell yeah!" and "bastards!".

But our hero, the little guy who plays by the rules, well you could say he wakes up.
There's even a happy ending.

Big score and little op shop

It's not actually snowing.

It's just that the dressing table mirror is horribly dirty and if I'd realised just how dirty it was, I would have given it a once-over with some Spray 'n' Wipe or something.

Probably.

So anyway, just when I was considering whether it was worth cutting up 3 pairs of old jeans left to me by the boy, and trying to turn it into some kind of denim jacket that doesn't look like a denim jacket - I found this lovely specimen at an op shop 'round the corner from work.

It's a dark denim and in a non-classic style, which I love. And it only cost $7!

I did have to spend a few hours shortening the sleeves (it took so long because I kept putting the cuffs in the wrong way around). But now I have a lovely jacket for those not-so-warm late-Spring/early-Summer days.

Though it does mean I have to find more non-denim bottoms, because I do not like the double-d look...

shrinkage

The good news is -  the Calvin Klein bootleg jeans that I bought two years ago and hardly wore because they were uncomfortably tight around my generous middle, are now comfortable. I just have to get through the first day right after they've been washed and dried, to allow for normal expansion.

The bad new is - bootlegs don't suit me. (Yeah I know I can just take them in at the sides, but these days even minor sewing projects take weeks to get to).

Cheap and cheerful

With our current financial situation, it'd be silly to be a retail snob. While I love the idea of choosing quality over quantity (or just something that lasts over something you'll be cleaning the sink with after 5 washings), what it comes down to is what can we afford.

Which is why I now love the Two Dollar Shop. It's like a miniature department store, which cheap versions of just about anything. Some would say the stuff in there is cheap and nasty, I beg to differ.

For example - when you are looking for paper to wrap up children's birthday presents, doesn't it make more sense to get the pretty stuff that rips easily, than the expensive stuff that's going to be ripped?

And when it comes to knitting, I do love to see and feel the gorgeous yarns at the specialty yarn shops. But hey - I'm not trying to create an heirloom, I just want to feed my addiction and have something wearable at the end of it.  So when I found some el cheapo acrylic at Spotlight that was exactly the right shade of denim blue, I weighed it up against the nearest thing (but the wrong blue and three times the cost), I knew it was okay to go for the cheap one.

That place is also excellent for 5 year old girls who like sparkly stuff.

The late show

Apparently TLM's school is putting on a show, and her class is in it.
The show has a space theme and TLM is...the moon!
I definitely plan to see her first live performance since starting school (not least because the boy had a hand in the props-making).

But there's one thing worrying me. It runs for two consecutive evenings between 7pm and 8pm.

Now that's a great starting time for people like me who can longer stay up late. And it's a great show length for people who are only there to see their own kid anyway. But I think it's a terrible time for a performer whose normal bedtime is 6.45pm...

Left is left and right is right and never the twain shall match up

Since I re-started my cardigan project, using the latest knitting pattern, I have re-knitted the right front piece twice and the left front piece 2 1/5 times. I never could have predicted that I would have this much problem getting the two front pieces to match.

I mean, when it happened with the first cardigan knitting pattern I thought it was because I was knitting it sideways. But this one is more traditional i.e. one back piece, 2 front pieces and 2 sleeve pieces.  Meditative as knitting is, I lost my cool when I realised that I was in for yet another round of unravelling (thank the gods that the yarn seems to be very forgiving).

If I were to do it all again (and that's not out of the question), I would do both front pieces at the same time. It would require lots more concentration to make sure I increase, decrease, bind off and make buttonholes when they are due, but it would be the best way to ensure they end up the same size and shape (it worked when I tried this for the sleeves).

Maybe I should have stuck to knitting squares and rectangles for a bit longer...

She's been summoned

Dear Ministry of Justice
Thank you for inviting my mother to attend jury service. She was flattered by this belated gesture recognising her status as a New Zealand citizen who is neither insane nor criminally minded.

However there are several reasons why she is unable to attend:
1. my mother does not speak English well unless she is trying to get a good price
2. she is very deaf and would require every witness to speak at their highest volume - possibly with the addition of a microphone
3. her eyesight is poor, and will probably have trouble distinguishing the defendant from the judge
4. at the advanced aged of 85, I wonder whether my mother is in fact within an acceptable age range for jury duty
5. she won't get a bus to court each day so you'd have to call her up a (taxpayer-funded) taxi every day

Yours faithfully
V

Men who stare at goats

It was Saturday evening and there wasn't anything promising on telly. So I wandered down to the new-ish local DVD rental shop.

It came down to a choice between two overnights - Date Night or The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Date Night starred Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, both very funny actors (and I am in love with Fey's 30 Rock).

Goats starred George Clooney (among others) and sounded a bit intellectual - just the sort of thing I went for in my film festival-going days.

I was tempted to get both, but we wouldn't have time to watch both before they were due back. Plus, it would cost less to rent just one.

So I deferred to the guy behind the counter.

"Well..." he said, "Date Night's pretty funny, but it's pretty light. The other one's kinda anti-American, and really funny. I liked it a lot".

So even though I've been tending to go for the funny+ lite, this time I went for the funny + arthouse. I didn't know how the boy would take it, but I didn't care. He made me walk all the way down to the DVD rental and if he didn't like it he could lump it.

We both loved it. It's hard to believe it's based on fact - the fact that, during the Reagan years, the US military trained a team of "super soldiers" with mystical powers (you know, fork bending and such like). Actually I really liked the vision, because it was included the belief that we are all part of the universe and everything in it. It also had the idea that you could win a war without actually killing people.
It was also very funny. Not in that laugh out loud, slapstick kind of way. More in a "I can't believe they did this!" kind of way. I wouldn't say it was anti-American as just making fun of the American government of the time.

Oh yeah, and if you think Clooney's yummy, then you'll like that aspect of it too because you get to see him looking alternately older and distinguished, and young and spunky.