Turn yourself around

Happy 2010.

I saw the new year in at Chicks Hotel in Port Chalmers dancing to Die!Die!Die! like a weirdo. I think i have seen them play at least four times now and they are always brilliant. The evening ended in drinking wine under someone's homemade fort made from draping sheets.

I don't usually have new year's resolutions but this year i am going to try it out.

One: Become a Pescatarian. This won't be hard for me. This resolution is rather weak (i should really give it ALL up) but i can't give up fresh fish and prawns. Sorry sea creatures!

Two: Learn to be a little more crafty, perhaps i can steal the book i gave my sister for Christmas and get started:

(meetmeatmikes)

Three: Calm down with the floral thing

(only a tiny part of my collection)

Four: Take lots of photos

Five: Read more books

And lastly. . . Six: the most deep and meaningful of the lot:

STOP ruining photos by doing the peace sign.

Let's see how it goes.

Sprout & The Bean

Wow New Zealand, you are hosting some marvellous shows. Perhaps all these musicians head to New Zealand to experience our (often) pretty summertime. I feel like there is so much to choose from. Usually it is the opposite case. Next week Animal Collective are playing in Auckland. Devendra is coming. Laneway Festival has finally stretched to our shores. The 3Ds are playing. They are glorious. The XX! (I wasn't expecting to like them, but they are brilliant) and..... you probably already know the line-up. There are so many shows that i can't attend, including all of the above. Fortunately i will be able to make this one:

Source
Wilco

(Do i choose Wellington or Auckland?)

Source

Joanna Newsom

In January my sister will be lounging in the ocean in Fiji, so i have to work her hours during the weekend of Joanna's show. Her show is 6 hours out of town. I may still
attend!

Regardless, I can't wait to hear Jeff Tweedy again.

Gifts Of The Gab

Hello.

I am trying hard to save my coins but these little gems are distracting me.

John Patterson from the very scatty band 'The Grates' has his own little label called Sniffle Co which is where this brilliant Woody Allen brooch comes from.

I also wish i could find a faux leopard print coat just like the one Tennessee is wearing here. Harder than you would think!

My new little job involves being surrounded by lots of lovely little gems and knick knacks in a little design store. We have LoveHate , this genius and generally far too much temptation.

I have started planning my overseas adventure for mid 2010 and i should be gone for months on end. Now that i am working most of the time (for all of December it will be 6 days a week) I will find it hard to get any vintage shopping done for my little online shop. Thankfully i still have a whole bunch of things waiting to be sold.

I am still waiting to see if i can get time away for a trip to a very lovely music festival. Boy are my fingers are crossed.

Bicycle, Bicycle.

♥

Oh how i want a bicycle to ride throughout the summertime. I'm not sure when summer will arrive. I've been sleeping with two feather duvets and a quilt, yet i still wake up freezing.

I've recently been offered the chance to work in a little shop, in Auckland, that sells vintage clothing. Both the job and the slight change in climate would be lovely, but i am thinking of giving it a miss. I am leaving the country in May, and i think i would end up penniless living in Auckland. There would be so many gigs to go to, lots of vintage goodies to buy and all sorts of distractions from saving. It's really hard to know what to do. But, if i do stay here, i think i will find myself the perfect bicycle. . . . with a basket of course.

I wish i could keep you. . .

♥

Hello, again. I stopped using this blog a few month's ago. Now i want to keep it.
I have another blog for my little online vintage clothing shop, but i feel i can't just put whatever i want on it. So now i am lucky and have two blogs!

Here are some pictures that are making me smile. .

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If you know me, you will be smiling wittingly (or rolling your eyes) at the presence of floral prints in the first two. It's a lifelong addiction and i cannot stop.

I will be talking again soon!

Ginger Beer & Ringing Ears

I would like to tell you that Camp a Low Hum '09 was plain lovely.

It included: hot weather, a swimming lagoon, lagoon parties, singing cicadas (everywhere), grass to lounge on, wine, daisy chains, the kinds of feelings that happen on summer beaches, fizzy beer, dancing, making new friends, goody gum drops ice-cream, hedonism, being silly and meeting some polite boys (this is not common in the city I come from)

The best band? The Crayon Fields.

I may have come to this decision pre-camp. But, they really were my favourite. Many were great. However, The Crayon Fields make such dreamy, demure music. It's the sort of music that can put you into a trance and maybe even keep you there forever. If I were feeling bold enough, I would have told them how brilliant they are. I take it that they were probably equally as shy, if not more. Perhaps the conversation would have gone nowhere.

I purchased their 7" of 'Mirror Ball' It's been warming up the living room a lot.

My favourite lines?

'Would it flatter you to know that mostly it's you who makes me so slow? You say I look so calm. Really I'm not, I'm not. But I think I want to be from now on'

'I look at you and suddenly I'm a virgin in a dancehall'

Also, if you wish to become addicted to dreamy folk . . . www.myspace.com/sethfrightening

I can't get sick of these songs. I've even tried. It's been months now. The Pictures and The Posers is especially nice. These songs are entertaining me whilst I am sitting around in uncertainty about everything.

Nostalgic Treasures

I've started selling vintage and thrifted items online again, just for awhile.

I spent the day hunting for treasures and will be putting some up on Trademe.

1. Vintage Floral Garden Navy Dress. 2. Navy and Gold Quilted Chain Bag 3. Ahoy! Sailor Girl Batwing Tee.

There will be more items, including vintage t-bar shoes, some costume jewellery, jelly shoes and a polka dot dress.

Cinnamon Girl

I saw Neil.

We spent the day wandering, wondering and waiting. We were beginning to feel suffocated by the disposable bands and the giant cage we were forced to drink our wine in. The heat never died down, but it felt nice.

By the time it became dark, it was time for Mr Young. We managed to get close to the front. I was stuck in front of a thirty-something year old man. He had a giant protruding stomach, which kept pushing into the arch of my back. It would get worse every time he would thrust around proclaiming 'No one here even knows who Neil is, I am the only one in this crowd who likes his music'.

Neil drowned all the idiocy out.

He provided over ninety minutes of bliss. He began with 'Love and Only Love'. 'The Needle and the Damage Done' was perfect. His wispy long grey hair blew in the wind. However, if you closed your eyes you would truly believe he was still in his twenties or early thirties. He ended the show with a cover of 'A Day in the Life' which conjured an overall beautiful set.

Everyone took off to catch The Prodigy, but my cheeks hurt from smiling and how could you possibly enjoy them after that?

Floral Grunge

I want to be a floral bogan, via these Doc Martens!

They would be my perfect weapon for fulfilling one of my life goals: entering Wayne's World and winning the heart of Garth Algar. I wouldn't even have to do the special dance to Jimi Hendrix or wear a plaid shirt.