Happy New Year

....and merry christmas too!

It's been very quiet here, just me and the boys. Some other families to visit, but mostly just me at home doing things, and them not getting out of bed til the afternoon.
I've been tiling....or trying to, it isn't going well, tiles are much harder to cut than fabric. The bathroom is close to being finished. So much painting has been going on, but it's lovely. So fresh and clean and bright! There are handles to hang and towel rails and things.....and a couple of coats of paint on the scotia, but it will be finished next week. I'll show you then, promise!

I've been sewing, my entry for the Wellington Quilt Symposium. It's due on 14 January. It wasn't going well either, made two rejects, but I'm onto a good thing now....I'm in love with it, the top is 3/4 done. I'll show you that next week too.
and go and see Helen and cheer her on! Go H, we can do it, we can enter at least!

I'm going to Christchurch today for some quality time with the Handyman. I'm taking some tiles for him to cut. He sure knows the way to my heart!!

I'm looking forward to announcements from Wanda and from Kirsty (who has the best blog name!).

Then it's off the plane and back to work on the 5th. It's going to be a huge work year, and I'm excited!

2009 will see me still painting! The boys rooms first, and as soon as I can, my bedroom will be plastered so I can paint it. Then maybe the kitchen. Only I think I probably need a break from painting, so maybe it will just get a good spring clean.

I'm going to sew more clothes in 2009. Lots more clothes. becos I'd rather spend my money on paint of course! (yeah, right!)

I'm going to be swimming more, back to my dedicated 3-4 times a week, and I'm going to beat that 1 hour barrier for the 2.8k ocean swim. (Though the next race is 24 Jan, so I'm not sure how I'm going to fit that training in......might have to try early mornings or something!). I'm going to take my (heart) medication, religiously. Raising my glass each morning to a friend who has had a minor, but scary, bleed in her brain. (She's going to be fine). and I'm going to eat better. Toast is not dinner.

2009 will be the year of the garden. It's a large wilderness at the moment, and the summer growth is threatening to overwhelm me. It will be conquered this year. When I'm not painting that is........

What you got planned?

Choices made without you!

The paint shall be Resene 'Haystack', a little richer than it looks on my monitor, but it sits happily between the probably-going-to-be-polished floors and the dark chocolate of the vanity, and it makes the whites sparkle.

The tiles shall be enormous rectangular glossy white things, and I shall have to cut each and every one of them so they fit in the desired manner, and they shall look fabulous of course. I'm going to lay them (do you lay tiles on a wall...guess not!) in a brick pattern, or subway style as they would say in New York.

The tiles go on the front of the bath (the apron...ha ha) and above the vanity.

The beer is just lovely, and I've earned it! It is a difficult thing to paint a bathroom. A very time consuming and difficult thing.

It's also helping me chill out, cos I was going to show you a picture of New York subway tiles, but I can't find the disc they're stored on. Shan't panic, shan't panic.

Stuff...

I'm filling in time (can you tell?) waiting for the plasterer to turn up. He said he'd be back this morning to sand back his fine work. Rather him than me, but I can't paint til he's done that.

The big news that I haven't blogged about so far is that I have a new job.

No more road/rail safety for me. Did you guess that was what I did? Well I don't anymore. So make sure you bloody well drive safely, don't speed, do up your seatbelt, don't drink and drive, rest when you're tired, put the cell phone down, and STOP at level crossings. All right?

I left that world with a heavy heart, but the new job is a great opportunity. So off I went to save the world from something else. There were heartfelt farewells that moved me to tears (but I'm a soppy kinda girl I guess), a gorgeous clock and photo frames, very nice letters of thanks from important people, and then a welcoming ceremony (a mihi whakatau) at my new place which was beautiful and humbling (me? they're talking about me?).

It was weird being the newbie, going from being the expert surrounded by friends, to knowing sod all, surrounded by strangers. So after 5 weeks of getting settled, sorting out my chair and the printer drivers, reading everything ever written about the subject in question, and getting to enjoy the company of some great new people....they seconded me to another job.....for 18 months. Which is a long time.

So now I've been at new job no. 2 for two weeks. And again, dealing with figuring out where to get off the bus, what to wear, who to have coffee with, plus how to deal with two email addresses, and two diaries. I thought scoring new job no. 1 was pretty stunning, but new job no. 2 is going to be fabulous. I have a gorgeous office with a great view. There are high profile movers and shakers filling my days (and turning out to be just lovely to be hanging out with) and best of all there are deeply philosophical and academic questions to be researched and debated and written about. I am, quite frankly, pinching myself, this is a dream job for a policy adviser in this little city. It's a bit of a bugger that I can't tell you what it is, but we don't blog about work, no we don't.

Is it any wonder I'm feeling a tad worn out and weepy today! I should've gone swimming, but I was saving my energy for painting, which will be an all day/evening effort. I shouldn't talk with that handy man into the wee small hours either.

Bloomin plasterer still isn't here, so I'm going shopping for tiles and test pots. You may be called upon to decide the paint colour.

found it!

I found the fabric that I talked about in this post.
It's by Anna Maria Horner.

Lookee!It's from her 'drawing room' range. The whole range is gorgous, but that one at the bottom right, that's the one I've seen skirts made of. I could make me one of those (if I wasn't too busy painting of course!).

and look what the designer herself does with it...

It's called the cookbook apron, and like she says "you would look so good in it! Really! Totally your colors and would look great in your kitchen". ha!

Do you wear aprons, dear cookists out there? You'd think your sewist buddy would stitch you one up sometime, wouldn't you? (AOF, Sagittarian, Flea Girl I'm talking to you, I'm just too lazy to link).

Here is Anna Maria's blog.
and here is her website with fabfabric (that was a typo, but I like it!).
Santa can bring me one of her rugs, any one will do just fine. I'll base my bedroom decorating on it.

I'm going tile shopping now. The ones I love the most so far are only $20 each. So yeah, I'm still shopping.

Friday bathroom

Friday

Loving the shiny taps, shiny shower walls, dark chocolate vanity...

Not happy about the scratch on the brand new bath, a few holes in the floor, a stray nail sticking out of the window framing (looks like I hammered the nail in, not a builder). Sigh. I'm getting to be 'had-enough' of this process. I have got painting to do all weekend. Lucky I can start with sealer coat and undercoat, and take some time with choosing the colour. Buying the test pots tomorrow. The tiles will be white. But what size?

That vanity is great though, isn't it? It's got drawers, not cupboards, and look at all that storage!
Yay!

more bathroom

Thursday

The plasterer came today. He talked with me about my bedroom too.
That's a whole other job. Sigh.

Wednesday

It didn't look like much happened, but the electrician came, and they also relined and plumbed the laundry.
Lovely.

The bathroom

You should read this post from the bottom up!!

Tuesday

New walls, new toilet, new bath.
They made sure we always had a toilet. Most thoughtful. We went to the pool for showers today.
I have to choose paint and tiles.

Monday

The house is full of men. They cleaned up as best they could and took lots of rubbish away.

Sunday

Really, the bathroom was much worse than this picture shows!

The stairs

How did I do it? Did I do it myself?
Did I ever!!

I pulled up the carpet. It was hard, I had to do 2 or 3 steps a day to look after my hands.
I removed the carpet tacks as I went.
I sanded the stairs. 3 times. 3 different grades of sandpaper.
I put four coats of polyurethane on them.
I sanded the skirting boards.
I painted them, 1 undercoat and two top coats. They need another. I'll get to that.
The black and white wallpaper came from Resene (who have a great website and even better sales!).
Because the wallpaper isn't as wide as the stairs, I had to cut the strips from the length rather than the width. There wasn't enough repeats in one roll to make them all exactly the same so I cut two different versions and alternated them. I like how that made a new pattern. I used it all up though, so I think I might buy another roll, in case I need to make repairs.
I pasted the strips to the stairs, and I'm thinking I might seal them somehow to make them more hardy.
I still have skirting boards and a couple of hall walls to finish ....

The handyman came to visit for the weekend and he said I'd done a good job. He said it more than once. He's incredibly fussy, so that's high praise from him. I think he meant it!

The house is full of men this week. Builders, plumber, electrician......I told them they had to look after my stairs.

and you wonder why I'm not posting...

I have the prettiest stairs in town!

Procrastinating

If I actually did some sewing, instead of wandering through blogs full of wonderful sewing ideas, I could make me one of these......a very pretty dress by Andrea Moore

With this gorgeous fabric by Amy Butler

or this one, which Ms Moore has also used for the dress (or something very similar anyhoo).

The Miriam Gibson store has some skirts by another designer who's name I don't remember,in some fabric that I've also seen on the net someplace...but I can't find it to show you......so you'll just have to take my word for it. They're really nice.

Ms Gibson does however have this covetable dress in her collection, which I could whip up in a weekend, with this pattern...

Kwik Sew 3575

The most noteworthy thing about this post is, of course, that I have ventured into not one, but two of Wellingtons finest designer stores, the kind of places where an article of clothing sells for the kind of money that equals two weeks grocery budget in my house.

and I liked them.
a lot.
but I didn't buy anything.

More ohh!

One was nice

But two....now two is a collection isn't it?

Let me know if you find any more.

Ohhh

Loving these.....made of timber.....free shipping til Christmas!!

They're by Bride and Wolfe

Found via Paisley .... a new discovery

An Aussie based blog that's similar to Oh Joy ..... an old favourite

Inspiration in bucketloads.

A Quilt

Yes, another speedy quilt. Whipped up in a ridiculously short time, for a very special boy (and kindof for his parents too....). There was a naming ceremoney today for the new owner of this quilt. It was very sweet. Parents and Grandparents (from polar opposite ends of the cultural spectrum) pledged to care for J, and so did his Godparents and all us friends and family gathered to celebrate him and his little life. Nice.

I thought he needed a quilt.

Cut 12,8, 4 and 6 inch squares on Wednesday.
Pieced the top and made the binding on Thursday.
Quilted on Friday.
Bound on Saturday morning, finished in time for the midday party!
That must be my fastest quilt ever. It's kindof cot quilt size. I delivered it with instructions that it should be dragged around and used well, and chucked in the washing machine without a second thought. I'm sure it's up to that kindof treatment.

More warm polar fleece on the back. Some of those fabrics tugged at my heartstrings. Eddie and I bought the penguins somewhere after we'd seen....oh what's it called, that penguin movie with Morgan Freeman narrating. Eddie loved it and I was amazed at his capacity to watch such a full-on documentary. It's a good movie though huh? The cow fabric probably technically belongs to someone else (err, sorry), the chickens are from the back of Margs housewarming quilt......ahh, and the last time I used that coffee cup fabric was for A's quilt. She loved her quilt so much, it kept her warm while she was so desperately ill (sniff). The cats were in the first quilt I made for my Mum, and there's my last scrap of Harry Potter fabric. There's apple fabric too, that was some of the oldest fabric in my stash. Most of the others were probably bought to placate a toddler in a fabric store. The 'girls' at Nancy's embroidery shop were good at selling fabric to my boys...I'd buy 25cm for them....choosing it kept them busy while I browsed. Those were the days!!

Oh, and Kitty helped of course.

What do you think?

Would I? Could I? Should I?

These are by Shawna in Dublin.

These stairs from Sunset Magazine, with wallpaper by Ferm Living
(alas, that plumeting $$)



and these, by the extraordinarily clever Melissa at Sugar City Journal.
Can I have the painting too? Check out her uber cool dresses for little girls, they're amazing.

Ya know what? I think I just might......

Never again

First, thanks for all the sweet comments and emails about Eddie. We've known for a long time the boy is talented, but when I mention it, you can see people's eyes glaze over, and they're thinking I'm just a proud Mum. But I really think there's some magic there. You can say you knew him before he was famous. There's more on YouTube.

One of our mutual favourite songs is Split Enz "Charlie" and Ed and I have been laughing about how inappropriate it is for him to sing...we figure it's about heroin after all...but he plays it so well!

Now, if you ever hear me say 'I'm going to rip up the carpet' it is your duty to physically restrain me. And if you hear me complain that my hands ache, I can't stop sneezing, and I'm exhausted, then you must say 'I told you so'. And failing that, if you'd like to join me in hunting down the guy (of course it's a guy) that invented carpet tacks so I can drag him back here and make him remove every sodding, broken, sharp, stubborn, little sliver of metal, sticking relentlessly out of my floor.....you'd be very welcome.

The stair rail looks good though huh? I'm going to get the supports chromed. One day.

Details details...

I'm into some fine detail work in the ever-improving hallway. It now has two coats of paint, and I'm onto sanding the skirting boards. Tonite I'm sanding and polyurethaning the stair rail and the ballustrade every couple of hours. The rail looks like a ballet barre. It was black with probably 50 years of grime, but it sure is going to be beautiful. I think I should have been a woodworker, I love the detail of the timber so much.

I've been thinking about what to hang in my beautiful hallway. I dug this out. It was stitched for a challenge, I think the challenge fabric was the big bold Jane Sassaman print. I fussy cut the flowers and machine embroidered and beaded it. It's square, really it is!

I think I will cut it up and stretch bits of it over artist canvas blocks, and hang them in a row.



Oh, and Kitty has been helping, of course.

Proud? Me?

Lookee here.
He's 11.
I'm amazed to see this boy who has figured out so much about who he is and what he's passionate about.

He's made 5 clips, including one original song. This one is his favourite. His parents know about them now. But he insisted on leaving the room while I checked them out. He's pretty buzzed that Liam Finn (son of Neil of Crowded House) has left him a comment. Well, he's pretty sure it's really Liam.

WOW

It's back!! The World of Wearable Arts. Youngest son went, with school, lucky bugger, and he's still buzzing.

Thanks Dom Post, and internets, for the great pix.
I wasn't planning to go this year....but seeing these......ahh well, come check it out with me.

here
and here, and here too.

goings on...

Well, there's plenty going on....

• I've painted a sealer coat in the hall. It sucked up 4 litres of sealer, and showed me where the holes and dings are that need further filling. Of course it all needs sanding again, but it looks like this weekend is available for that, and then....PAINT, finally! I can't wait.
• I spent the weekend in Christchurch, hanging out with the handyman. Christchurch is so beautiful in spring...much time was spent admiring magnolias and rhododendrons and blossoms and daffodils.....just beautiful. It was hard to leave.
  
• I did a little walking....
• I'm reading my Quilt Wellington Symposium 2009 registration booklet.
  

Preparation is everything

I'm still working in the hall. I hung a sheet in the bedroom doorway to try to keep the dust out.

But you can't keep plaster dust out of anything at all really.