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