katie at Casa Nova

ha! Casanova. (one of my FAVOURITE movies: see it. love it.) cos i'm sure she's heard of SuperNova. maybe she's heard Casa Nova too:
i mean Casa Nova as in "Nova's Place", not the literal translation "new house"..
blah blah.

*slaps forehead* uhhh, i'm the guest bloggeur there today, chatting about promises but nope, soz, i couldn't play by the rules.

cos i am in *that* It's All About Me week, so.. if you can stand it, click here.

oh, and get your *BOOM BOOM KCHCHCHHCH* on, cos it's a hiphopopotamus warp rwap wrap rap... YEAH...

how to make a veggie lasagne for the birthday boy

1. welcome gorgeous boy at beginning of two week stay
2. *gasp!* at shorn curls and missing eyebrow (and glasses)
3. make Birthday veggie lasagne while drinking glass of pinot noir:
onions, leeks, mushrooms, three colours of capsicums, lentils, grated parsnip-and-carrot, tinned tomatoes, basil pesto, swish of said pinot. (respell pinot after spelling it "pinto" twice), lasagne nootles, delish cheesey sauce (made from s-c-r-a-t-c-h 0f course)
4. whang it in the oven...
5. oversee J12 making Birthday deee-iiii-sert of ambrosia:
frozen berries, yoghurt, whipped cream, marshmallows, cookies-and-cream-ice-cream
6. go off in search of another glass of pinot noir,
all while listening to all da fab lads playing guitars and piano... and watching nigella 'splain how to make croissants aux chocolats... and fixing eleventy billion typos.... and feeling ecstatic that katie has her first evah BONA FIDE GYM SUBSCRIPTION... Sydney Bristow, here i come!!

nuh nuh nuh NINETEEN!!!

WOAH! you're now the age i was
when we made you.
i dug up these photos the other day.
it's you and Daddy.
well, you called him "Daddy" then.
now you're peers,
and you're still peas
in a pod.

fabriKATE

there really is so much *love* in the world. i've known Gyl for about two years, from Sarah's. a month ago Gyl was offering a celebratory pattern for a bag at her blog... of course, being The Bag Lady, i signed up... but guess what arrived? not only the FABULOUS DESTRUCTIONS (which have PICTURES!! *phew!* "How can you read this? There's no pictures! Well, some people use their imagination." guess the movie line) but SOME GORGEOUS FABRIC THAT GYL HAND-PICKED SPESHALLY 4 MEEEEE!!!!!

so i made her a *sparkly*
avec un petit sac
to remember the occasion.

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EGADS!!! two days ago i *remembered* the fabric swap at Sarah's. thankfully i remembered it two days ago, cos the postal deadline is in two days time! my swap-ee is another Sarah, and the brief i got is:
Likes: flowers, tattered, shades of white, ivory, light pinks, light blues
Dislikes: psychedelic 60's-70's prints
Makes: aprons, bags, altered clothing, lamp shades
i thought: *easy peasy*... but wouldn't ya know it, every time i walk into a fabric shop, i am immediately drawn to the psychedelic 60's - 70's prints! *ack!*

so i settled on a broderie anglaise and a tattered pinky-cottagey-flowery-tutu-skirty-fabric and a couple of sweetie bits of lace and... *drum roll*... a *sparkle*!! GO MISTAH POSTMAN!!!!!

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the other thing that's been fabriKATEd at my sunny place this week is... *drum roll* (oh i am so predictable)
AN APRON!!! for my sunshine-sista-clare, who is turning the big four-OH this week and whom i adore. she's the first one to drop everything and meet us at the beach: so we have flowers and daisies and waves... because clare is a hippie-happy-hippie too.

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extraKATE

that's a pun, as in it's been nearly a whole week since i wrote here, and i need to "extricate" stuff from my head... and also as in "extra, extra, read all about it..." cos it's not just the editorial we're getting today, it's the whole front page of the newpaper.

(oh i know i have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - OCD - with this "KATE" syllable in the titles thing, but hey, it keeps me happy... oh and didja know that if you *really* have OCD, you call it "CDO" because you have an irresistible urge to arrange the letters in alphabetical order? lol. love that.)

so a-n-y-w-a-y, make yourself a latte in a large bowl and get ready for angels, carpet, birthdays, sparkles, aprons, dancing, and cherry chapstick...

send me an angel
so how does it feel when you're supposed to be doing The Big Clean and instead keep being wooed by all things *sparkly* and you try to ignore them, but let's face it, it's rather more alluring... and so you're chilling at home with the lads when an angel comes to the door (on the pretext of borrowing a leather jacket and boots for a party) and insists on helping you find the floor of your bedroom? it feels incredibly fabulous, that's what!!! and so you make her a glass of apple-and-nectarine-juice with limes and frozen berries floating in it, and you stand by and oooh and ahhh as she gently uncovers all manner of things without even raising an eyebrow. which means that there are only three places that need a fairy wand now: the nefarious bottom drawer, the linen cupboard and the Black Hole garage...

and so, completely guilt-free, you light a succession of candles and pop on some français sounds and start stringing... and stringing... and stringing...

#1 a reciproKATEd necklace for sharonnz, inspired by sharon's love for "1950's retro housewife"

i've called her "les jolies fleurs" (pretty flowers). she's an everyday necklace but loves speshal treatment...

like going out dancing... or to the cinema... or bubbly with the girls!!!

#2 remembrance necklace, for a friend of a friend, who has sadly lost rather a few babies and so this necklace has them all strung together,

holding hands with freshwater pearls - it's an angel necklace.

#3 mother of pearl necklace for my mum:
which is a beautiful stash of paua, pearls and sparkles,

representing the shores of NZ. this one is travelling with Mum to Europe shortly. and i also made her a bracelet to match.

i think this bracelet is really cool - it encircles the wrist in "surfy waves"!! so then i made one for Princess Em *and* one for me, cos we're the sisters, and i'm thinking if we all wear them for the next three months it'll be like i am actually *there* too...
PS: many, many thanks to my resident model who happily posed for endless photos, because i promised *he* would remain anonymous!

i know a girl, a girl called "party"
we travelled to The Big Smoke on Friday and rendezvous-ed with the family. awesome. Bulldog and i dressed up circa 1968 (i think Bulldog thinks he's Ozzy at his very own twentieth)

for an evening of *surprise* hilarity

(by the way, that's the *fake* cherry chapstick photo, if ya wanna peep at the *real* one, you'll have to go on my facebook lol) to celebrate our friend kate's birthday:

and she was wonderfully *surprised*!!!

the Birthday Girl and Blackie Dammett aka Wedding Planner Event Organiser Extraordinaire

oh hello phil (and my tidy-up-angel)
ya gorgy hippies!!!

uh, so what did kate get for a pressie?

her very own intriKATEly handmade retro apron, of course: 1968 red/black/charcoal paisley for you and daisies for me, and red rick-rack, because i'm a rick-rack addict... happy birthday, partygirl

(woohoo, katiegirl... you dance like me!!!)

not so weighty keighty
while we were in The Big Smoke, i hopped on Mum's scales and AM DELIGHTED that all my pie-avoidance this Winter (i can say that word now, cos it's all over, Rover) has resulted in NOT ONE SKERRICK OF A KILO attaching itself to my person: oh yessiree, i'm still nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen!!!!!!!!! and to celebrate Spring, i'm back in the gym with my Personal Trainer aka Bulldog.

PHEW!! i'm all extraKATEd out... so, how was that coffee? i'm off in search of my own... mwah X

close your eyes and i'll kiss you

one of the best pieces of advice i got when i was growing up was from my parents. they insisted that it's of imperative importance that as well as juggling their own worlds, partners pour energy into each other - sharing one or two interests - that if mum and dad are happy and connected, so are the kids.

i remember my parents getting involved in a swimming club together, playing bridge together, tasting wine together. Bulldog and i've had one or two connected interests over the twenty years we've been together (i know you're now thinking of k-i-s-s-i-n-g tree jokes lol).

last year we went ballroom dancing every week - that was so much fun. this year we seem to have fallen into a cinema groove - every fortnight we've picked a movie and dragged any unsuspecting friends along.

last night we found ourselves in the little Encore Theatre watching a very art-house flick: Across the Universe. this review from the New York Times says,

From its first moments, when a solitary dreamer on a beach turns to the camera and sings, unaccompanied, the opening lines of the Beatles' song "Girl", Julie Taymor's 60's musical fantasia "Across the Universe" reveals its intention to use the Beatles' catalog to tell two stories at once, one personal, the other generational. That young man, Jude (Jim Sturgess), is a cheeky Liverpool dockworker with a twinkle in his eye. he quickly emerges as a winsome vocal composite of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with a personal touch.

From here the movie only gets better. Somewhere around its midpoint, "Across the Universe" captured my heart, and I realised that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person. Imperfections, however glaring, become endearing quirks once you've tumbled.

oh... EDIT:
PS Bulldog has written a review too!!!

I loved it!

Great movie and this is one soundtrack that I am DEFINITELY going to get hold of.

While the movie got a little disconnected in the middle, the sheer magnificence of the music and the choreography caught you and held you captive. If you have a romantic hankering for the nostalgic then this movie will fit the bill.

Visually the movie was a chimeric blend of music video and big screen movie.

A little dark and brooding (what movie set against the backdrop of Vietnam and acid-fuelled protest wouldn’t be?). With the clever juxtaposing of love and jealousy, peace and war, freedom of expression and government oppression, the film explores the thematic Yin-yang of a generation.

For a lad whose earliest memories are played out to the sounds of the Beatles, this movie had resonance that left me hankering for “Yesterday”.

BD (wearing the movie critic hat)

my sentiments exactly.

poetic licence

i used to get all my grades at skool from prettying things up, and it's only recently that i've been falling in love with words. well, i think i've always loved words, just not my own so much. this is a little tricksy i've seen around town lately, it's the most-used words on my blog... from the last month or so...
made especially for moi at a little place called wordle. that's a cute word, isn't it? if you'd like a wee *Word Play* (oh i crack myself up) too, pop over here.
oh PS. the very tricksy part is that the frequency of the word affects the size of the font... so it appears that i *really* like a "little moment at home with my lads"... oh... and i "just love a sunshine day lol..."

intoxiKATEd

well - yes - we're high as kites after hearing the news that Bulldog has indeed received a scholarship to finish his degree next year!!!!! so blimmin' exciting!!!!!

what better way to celebrate than dancing the night away at the school ball:
i wore mum's vintage petticoat as a dress! (well, the theme was *moulin rouge*) and a black feather boa and some dark red glossy "dorothy" heels, and i found this fabulous shirt for BD at the local op shop for $2 and made him a black satin tie at the eleventh hour:
rather cheesy, but what a fabulous moment!!

woozie was helping in the cloakroom,
but her daddy swept her off her feet once or twice too.

reciproKATE

my virtual friend jacinta likes her coffee strong and hot, just like me. she's incredibly creative, and has a wonderful baltic amber necklace threading groove going on. she also makes beautifully handcrafted silver jewellery, in the sunshine,

in her chookmook studio

at the bottom of the south island.

i've had my eye on jacinta's stuff for rather a while, and a couple of weeks ago she generously agreed to a swapsie. would you believe it, jacinta's favourite colour is *red*... and mine is *sunshine yellow*... so my half of the swap is *surprise!* a blurry apron (which is actually rather gorgeous IRL, if i say so myself. yep, nothing's denting katie's self esteem lol)

with a chookmook pocket:

and oh. my. freaking. giddy. aunt.
lookit what the courier just delivered:

unbelievably exquisite. but wait. there's more:

which came with our very own poem:

Katie and Bulldog
up a tree
KISS
ING
lol... must have been some kissing tree,
with five beautiful talented kiddos

*love* it. love both the necklaces so *sunshine*ly much that i can't decide which one to wear, so i'm wearing them *both*. how's THAT for a *sparkly* day?
PS if ya luffs them as much as i do and wanna snag your very own, jacinta has an etsy shop.