I am going....

I'm going to Melbourne for 10 days. To work, to spend some time with the Australian, to hang out with AOF. She's written a beautiful 'I am from...' post. I'm going to lead her astray from her no-alcohol month with a good NZ sav blanc. I reckon she'll forgive me. She thinks it's very funny that I want to go to Ikea. Ha!
Oh yeah, I'm going to work mostly, did I mention that?
I love my job :-)

and when I come back, there's going to be sewing.....really there is.

I am from...

I am from coal, from beech trees, mountains, and the rain that thunders on a tin roof.
I am from the roaring Tasman, the untamed coast, damp, verdant.
I am from the blooming rata, dripping ferns, gorse, the vegetable garden, the plot of carnations and irises.
From the widows, Bertha and Nellie, and from Ella.
I am from toil and sacrifice, from hardship fled, from adventure.
I am from those who have no time for religion, from the weekend half G’s of beer and a wee sip of sherry, from weekly trips to the library, from the silent reading books by the fierce heat of the open fire.
I am from Yorkshire and Glasgow, from fresh dug spuds and beans and strawberries eaten straight from the vines before we got caught, from cake tins groaning with baking, from home made jam and preserved fruit lined up in jars on shelves. I am from knitting, knitting, knitting, and beautifully embroidered everyday linen.
I am from the coal mines and gold dredges, from letters and treasures from ‘home’, from far away relatives never seen.
I am from wild beaches, silent lakes, babbling rivers. I am from long backyard cricket games in the magic dusk, from bicycle rides all over the place, from regular excursions over the hill to the big city. I am from long car-sick journeys that end in picnics and cold water swims in lakes and lagoons under endless blue skies.

I am, I am.

I am grateful to the brave Grandfathers that foresaw a better life and crossed the globe to untimely early deaths.

I think they'd be proud.

another go see....

Saturday:

• swam 2k as usual
• poached eggs and long black for breakfast. perfect.
• cricket. We lost. Again. It was exciting, the last 6 runs. One of my most favourite things to do, watch my boy play cricket.
• contemplated the school camp list. blah blah blah.
• helped friend prepare her house for open home tomorrow. cleaned. I laid vinyl flooring tiles in the kitchen. It was a good use of my patchwork skills. Looks good!
• boy free night subverted with her son round here to watch tv. There's only so much house tidying and cleaning a boy can stand after all. And a mother can move a lot faster without a boy around.
• have strong soppy feeling that this is what love is. Putting things down, plans aside, working hard with friend to help her, and knowing it's appreciated.
• what goes around comes around.

Go see Kirsty . She's been writing an I Am. Go visit, follow the links. There's a template/guidline in there. I'm thinking about mine.

Stirring stuff.

Wanna play?

Go see .....

go read this, the funniest Valentines Day post I've read.
http://missceliespants.blogspot.com/

I'm busy trying to (or not to) play the game myself. I'm also reassessing why so many people I know and love simply opt out of the game.

sigh

They said sorry

The Australian Prime Minister apologised today...

"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

Good job. That's powerful, history-making stuff.
About bloody time huh.

The lounge pic

Here it is, Sunny in the lounge. Yes the floor needs cleaning, don't be rude. The blue vase came out of a skip. It's been broken at the narrowest part and glued back together, but the colour is so good, you have to forgive it for that. That chair is going to be beautiful one day, when it has new fabric, maybe a cheery cherry red. Oh and the floors will be polished, and there'll be a fire roaring in the fireplace. Sunny is going to keep me warm in the winter!

Music

I need some music.
I didn't get the cd collection in the property settlement. But that's okay. I got a few cd's which he obviously doesn't like or are clearly mine. If I bought an ipod or something he'd copy anything I wanted for me. But after living for such a long time with someone who loves 'new' music, who reads about it and talks about it, well, my own music loves got kinda subdued. I came to love silence.

funny that.

Now, what I really love is jazz and blues and wild stirring orchestral stuff. But I don't know how to find it any more. The boys and I play beatles and crowded house and U2 and that's all good, but I need something that's mine. and I'm bloody sick of Norah Jones (sorry Norah no offence, make us some new music).

I love Gershwin, and Ray Charles and Tom Waits. but I like cold play too. Could you ever get sick of Louis Armstrong singing "what a wonderful world". and Frank Sinatra, loud and clear, singing "I get a kick out of you" which has always struck me as the sweetest compliment. Oh and Van Morrison. I need some Van Morrison for sure. and Sting. even though I didn't see him in concert when he came to town.

Anyway, the point of this post is to ask you what you're listening to. What do you recommend? I need some music, and I need it now!

this post brought to you without capital letters in most places they oughta be. Ahhh, don't be fussy!

Weta

See, a fine specimen. The question is, if I'm busy destroying the flax bushes they live in, where are they going to go? There are a couple of bushes left, and so far they've all been rehoused.

I'm losing weight, simply by unconciously undertaking all this extra activity. Gardening and throwing things away, and stripping walls and floors and shifting furniture and stuff. I can't eat enough. Youngest keeps telling me "you need to eat". Guess I get grumpy when the blood sugar runs low. My neighbour keeps making me cups of tea and tells me I don't have to do everything at once. I guess she's right. But I simply cannot stand it the way it is.

Someone came here for the first time a couple of days ago, and said some things, not in a negative way, but enough to make me realise this house wasn't saying much about me, or saying the things I'd like it to anyway. So I hung up Sunny today, and I think it looks great. Then I shifted my sewing out of the lounge and into my bedroom. Out of public and into a private space. Then I spent the day wondering why I felt that was so important.

I've always been a bit of a closet quilter. I've worked in male dominated fields, and I wouldn't have been seen dead with a needle or a quilt book in a work situation, especially in the 90s when my skirts were shorter and my hair was longer and blonder. I've rarely shown other people my quilts unless they were quilters too. While my CV quietly notes I am an award winning quilt maker, I've never celebrated those awards beyond my quilting community. Why don't I have more confidence in sharing my work?

Come see my lounge now, and you will notice there is art on the walls.

I made it, and it's beautiful.

I'd show you a lounge picture, but the camera battery is low. It's full of pictures for a stop motion animation production. The lego guys are reading the news now. Then Beckham, Elton John and a famous chef stop by to be interviewed. There's art all over the place in this house!

Me and Flibbertygibbet

Flibbertygibbet is so disappointed not to see my friends the wetas, I think you should go visit her, and commiserate.

Flibberty and I got single about the same time. It was tough times, but baby, just look at the pair of us now. 12 months on. We both have our own homes, she is spoilt for choice with jobs, she writes, she's still sewing, and wonder of wonders, she knits too.
Well done Flib, from someone who knows.

nothing happened

Today was significant in that something I kinda hoped would happen, did not.
probably significantly did not.
damn.

I did however change the answerphone message. This is no longer the number for ex, and me and offspring. It now says, "Hi, this is Pixie, we're not here.......blah blah blah".
Would be burglars should note however, that I am likely to be here and not answering, becos I'm doing something more interesting.

Or plotting how I might be.

Or just being.

Youngest reckons the camera cable is at his father's house. So still no wetas.
Shame.

Playing with Wetas

I've been playing with wetas today. You may also call it gardening. It's gardening of the "what can I chop down next" variety. Quite satisfying, but tends to result in large amounts of debris which must be got rid of. Bugger. More work.

I quite like wetas, they're quite beautiful in their weta way. Amazing what having two sons does to a woman. I'd show you a weta, but I've lost the camera cable. Not happy. Actually, youngest son has lost the camera cable. But he isn't here to be interrogated. Guess I'll go to bed then. Oughta sleep well, all that weta wrangling, and swimming too.

Happy Waitangi Day.

list

• 10032 visits. Number 10000 was probably Ben or the Sagittarian which is nice, cos they're both friends from pre-blogging days
• I've written 204 posts
• a hedgehog came to visit, we watched him through the window
• tomorrow is a holiday, and I don't have to be anywhere until 10am. This is unusual
• thank goodness for the treaty of waitangi. It is the reason I can be a New Zealander
• there are 66 pictures of a lego concert on my digital camera. apparently I MUST not delete them
• It's February, and I've sewn not even one stitch in 2008. Also unusual
• There must be only about 1000 carpet tacks left to pull out
• I'm spending too much time here, but so are 69,000 other people, right now. Madness.
• there are 15 sleeps until I go to Melbourne for 10 days

I gave up dairy

I gave up eating dairy products.
Only I forgot.

I bought beautiful marinated cows milk feta, for making lunches to take to work. I always take my lunch. It's part frugality and part diet control. So I buy beautiful things, like expensive marinated feta, to put in salads, which taste like a treat, and still cost much less than buying lunch.

And I bought ice-cream (for the kids you understand). It was cheaper to buy a 2 litre tub than it was to buy them icecreams. So I served up 3 bowls, and about half way through, I remembered. I don't eat dairy any more.

Can I tell the difference? Ask my colleagues. I'm coughing again. Dairy really doesn't go with one of the drugs I take. Medicinal, prescribed drugs that is, of course, every bloomin' day!

So, guess I'll start again. I've given up dairy products. I don't eat them any more, from now on. Well, maybe when the feta is all gone. It's raining and gloomy today, so giving up the icecream doesn't seem so bad.

9977

There have been 9977 visits to the Pixie Post.
No, not all of them are from me.
Blogging is ..... is.....well, it's more bloody use than Tim's list by the looks of things.

wow. 2 picture-less posts. wonder where the camera and the cable are?

wardrobe essentials

Happy New Year! Yes, I'm a bit late, the New Year is 1/12th over already. That sure went fast. The Pixie Post was closed during January. Thanks for coming back.

I'm thinking about clothes. I got rid of heaps while I was moving, so my wardrobe is pretty much pared down to things I actually wear. That's a bit scary. I'm gonna have to stop procrastinating and do something about it soon, cos I'm rapidly running out of decent things to wear. I'm planning to sew. I used to sew clothes, and then I started making quilts. So my plan this year is to get my clothes sewing mojo back.

Today I've searched out Tim Gunn's 10 essential items every woman needs. Do you have them? (Well you know, assuming you're a woman of course...)

• Basic black dress (yep, but it's probably a bit fancy/low cut to be 'basic'. I've only worn it a couple of times, but I love it)
• Trench coat (nope)
• Classic dress pants (well, yes, but they're a bit shabby)
• Classic white shirt (I don't usually wear shirts, do I have to try to find one?)
• Skirt (now skirt I can do, quadruple skirts, easy. I like skirts)
• Blazer (Oh Tim, style icon, you don't really use that word do you? I got jackets, but not a perfect jacket. Just that's-not-too-expensive-and-it-kinda-almost-fits-me jackets)
• Day dress (yep, and it's lovely, really it is!)
• Cashmere sweater (no. could we maybe settle for mohair? Oh that's right, I had one, it was beautiful, but it got washed and you wouldn't believe how that stuff can felt and shrink. sigh)
• Jeans (well, yes, but they're a bit shabby too)
• A comfortable alternative to a sweatsuit (what? there's an alternative to track pants and hoodies? Oh. I'll have to find out what that is)

What do you think? Just one shirt with the pants and the skirt makes a wardrobe? I dunno if that would get me through the working week. It's not a bad list to start with though, is it?

How did you do?