My Place and Yours: My Collection

Thank goodness for memes - they save a boring stretch of nothing to blog about! This week the theme over at Meet Me At Mike's "My Place and Yours" is My Collection, chosen by Kate at Fox's Lane. The brief is:

I want to see a photo or photos of what it is that you collect.
Then if you feel like it you could let us know what your collection rules are;
Does it have to be green? Does it have to be from another country? Does it have to be second hand or a gift? Does it have to be old or complete?...
What constitutes a collection for you? Is it more than three of the same thing? Is it rare things?
Is your collection ongoing or is it complete?
...what's your story?

Since I'm in the middle of marking these final exams and rediscovering all over again for the nth time that people who don't answer the question fully are doing themselves a serious disservice, I'll do my best with this one!

Although I have had various collections in the past, and also collected Poole with my huband Mat, my own personal collections are white vases and random pretty trios. I'll do the white vases this time around because I have more of them and they're very photogenic! A collection definitely has to be more than 2 items, and you have to mean to get more - unless you have everything (or run out of money or space) and then you have completed your collection. I haven't done either of those so it's still a work in progress, although slower these days.



I have no idea if there is a technical name for white-glazed earthenware but I generally think of it as "the white stuff". I started collecting it about 10 years ago before it got popular. I'd like to emphasise that last point because firstly it's true, and secondly it explains why I have trouble paying some of the prices asked for it now, and thirdly it makes me sound all cool and ahead of the pack. :P I don't have any hard and fast rules on what I'll get, except that it has to be white, I have to really like the shape and it has to be in reasonable condition. I don't mind a bit of staining or crazing but too much ruins the aesthetic effect, if not its functionality. I don't care who the maker is, although the two main companies by far are Crown Lyn and Sylvac.



As for why these particular vases I can't really say for sure. I think its tied up in a feeling of gentile tranquility they give me, of thoughtful flower arrangements and house-proud women showing off their gardening skills. It's afternoon tea, ladies a plate, frocks and men with hats. I also like the sculptural effect that some of them have and the way the light plays across the designs. They're like a living black and white photograph.

I'm definitely still collecting but I'm more picky now I think and as I said, they're much more collectible and expensive now so harder to come across in dusty old antique shops. Not that there are many of those around any more, Trade Me and Ebay have taken care of that. :( I can see from this photo that I need a couple taller vases, and maybe a few smaller ones as well. Time to start haunting Trade Me again perhaps!

I do use them as often as I can, although most of them are really too big for our little house and I have no idea how to arrange flowers in them! The most-used ones are the small squareish ones, the faux-bamboo one, and the urn. I don't like the urn so much anymore as it's somewhat funereal, but it's a good size for roses. I also try and use the waterlily one (Crown Lyn knock off of a Suzie Cooper design. Or some famous woman potter anyways) but it's big and takes a lot of flowers! I need to go out and pick some of our beautiful spring roses and fill some up, that would be worth a photo!

My Place and Yours: Through The Front Door

This week's theme for My Place and Yours over at Meet Me At Mike's is 'Through The Front Door', set by Femme de Montmartre. The brief is "What is it you see when you enter your home? And how do you feel? Whatever happens when you walk through your front door, we want to know about it!"

The first thing I should mention is that we rarely use our front door, everyone comes and goes through the back door, so it's always a bit novel to come in my own front door! I do love it though, it sums up what attracted us to the house in the first place - except better because we've done it up since then.



Our house was built in the late '40s most likely, and was moved onto the section in the late '80s - you can see the line in the floor boards where it was cut in half. The wood is all native rimu, essentially untouched except for being stained/varnished slightly darker, which we removed. I think in decorating terms the skirting boards and doorways would benefit from being painted white as it's very dark altogether, but I can't face it, especially considering it's escaped that fate for all these years! We stripped the floor boards and polyurethaned them all ourselves, I highly, highly recommend NEVER doing that, get a professional in to do it!

The other view you get when you come in the door is our sideboard of knicknacks. I think they pretty much sum up our interests in total - except for books. And Hazel. And the cat maybe. But otherwise it's all there! I've tagged it over at Flickr if anyone's interested in a rundown of what all that crap is.

My Place and Yours: Secret Weapon

This week's theme over at Meet Me At Mike's, courtesy of My Bricole, is 'Your Secret Weapon'. Oooo tricky! I thought long and hard about this, as the description specified it should something that you know you can go to in a pinch and it will never let you down. I thought about chocolate, but sometimes it doesn't do the trick. I thought about Mat and Hazel and other people in my life and I thought that perhaps it was unfair to put that kind of label on them because so often being let down by people is more about you than them. I thought about makeup, but that definitely lets me down sometimes! Then I remembered my red merino dress. That never lets me down, it always makes me feel good when I wear it, and it's the perfect shade of red.



It's by a NZ outfit called Stitch Ministry and if that name isn't perfect then I don't know what is! The story of my dress is this: One day I was down in Wellington visiting my Aunt and I was browsing through a Saturday magazine from the Dominion Post. I came across an ad for Stitch Ministry and the dress . I fell in love. I memorised the name and checked it out online when I got home, pretty sure that I couldn't afford it. But as luck would have it, it was on sale and they had one in my size! I felt it was destined to be, so I bought it online along with another top. An hour later I had a call from a very nice girl at the shop saying that unfortunately their website was playing up and they didn't have the red in that size, perhaps I'd like it in black instead? I said no, the red was the object of my desire. She said they'd refund the money and get the top in the post asap. So I was disappointed, but as a pessimist I sort of expect these things in life! A couple days later the package lands on my doorstep and it feels a little heavy (you know where this is going of course) and inside, much to my astonishment, was the dress! They had it after all. So it really WAS meant to be, and I love my dress all the more for it.

ETA: Deb asked for a photo of me in said dress - the only one I could find is this very blurry self-portrait from just over a year ago. Check the sassy hand-on-hip pose!

What's Hot + What's Not

It's the What's Hot + What's Not meme from Loobylu!

Hot

1. The temperature today. Meant to be going up to 21 and I can believe it - do we have a hot summer coming our way this year? Nooooo I don't handle heat and humidity well. It makes me whiny and, well, whiny. I suffer and I like others around me to suffer. Maybe this should be down below under 'What's not hot' but since it IS technically hot, I'll leave it up here.
   
   
2. These gorgeous tea cosies from My Baboo on Flickr. I found them while looking for things with felt dots on them - as you do.
   
   
   
   
3. A pile of jewel-toned felt pieces, hence #2
   
   
4. The fish pie Mat made from Jamie at Home, seriously just about the best thing I've tasted in yonks!
   
   
5. The start of neighbourhood athletics last night, with Hazel in the 4-5 year old group and having the time of her life (phew!). Watching the littlies run around like chooks with their heads cut off was gorgeous.
   
   
6. The gorgeous high-res Charley Harper images you can download from the Contemporary Arts Centre. Woo!
   
   
   

What's Not

1. Getting the submission date for something really important wrong - by about 2 weeks.
   
   
2. Hazel home with a cold means no work for me today, nor am I in the mood to be doting mummy due to #1
   
   
3. People letting off fireworks for a week before Guy Fawkes, including some home-made ones. Some people are too stupid to be allowed near fireworks and they make life difficult for the rest of us normal folks. One mum on the way to athletics last night got turned around a few blocks away by the police because there was "a large unexploded bomb on the corner over there", no doubt one of the neighbourhood wanna-be terrorists was still perfecting his trade. :P And this at 6pm on a weeknight?
   
   
4. Sore back from something I did and my stomach muscles aren't up to the task of holding it all together so it can repair itself! Must. Get. Swiss. Ball.
   
   
5. Writing out a list of embroidery floss colours I need, going all the way to Spotlight to get them along with sewing machine needles and some felt - and then forgetting to get the floss.
   

My Place and Yours: Blog HQ

I missed last week, but I'm back on the wagon for this one. The theme this week over at Meet Me At Mike's is "Blog HQ" so here it be:



I like how people are using the tag feature over at Flickr for their photos so I've done that and it's annotated all to hell :) The desk is in the spare room and also does double duty with the sewing machine; and no, it's not usually so tidy! The whole room was cleaned up last week in anticipation of the Hallowe'en party we had yesterday so I'm quite pleased I was able to keep it relatively tidy until this meme came along.

ETA: I'm amazed how many people doing this meme have Macs! Are we some sort of self-selecting population or something? Does that old adage of 'arty' people using them more really still hold true? Or are we just a really discerning bunch? ;)

For Hallowe'en I carved my first jackolantern for getting on for 15 years! The pumpkins here aren't so well-suited for them as the larger and thinner-walled N.American versions are, but it turned out fine even so. Hazel was entranced, she'd never seen one before!



I also managed a few Hallowe'en-themed treats for the party. These little cupcake ghosts were from somewhere but do you think I can find the link? No I can't. They're fondant draped over those sugared jelly lollies, on top of chocolate cupcakes.



And these marshmallow ones at Martha Stewart


(shouldn't have used buttercream icing in retrospect, too yellow! But they looked better than they do in this photo)

I had a bunch of other ideas for food but either ran out of time or couldn't figure out how to do them with ingredients available in NZ. That was more of an issue than I'd expected, the sheer range of junk food available in the States puts our meagre selection to shame (which is a good thing I know!).

What's hot? Memes that's what.

I seem to be all about the memes this week - yeah they're fillers while I get back on my feet after that essay marking. Great to have them out of the house and I await the final exams mid-November. I also got offered some teaching at Uni next year so I'm pretty pleased about that!

Today's meme is What’s Hot + What’s Not Wednesday from Loobylu It'll probably be short, I've got a kitchen full of dishes awaiting (or maybe it'll be long long long - we'll see!).

Hot

1. This arrived from Amazon this morning and I've essentially been carrying it around the house with me trying to decide which project to start with. Gorgeous clothes and I'll try and take some photos of some of them for a post tomorrow.
Twinkle Sews: 25 Handmade Fashions from the Runway to Your Wardrobe



2. Creating fabric with an inkjet printer. I've done a label for Baby Amy's quilt, two Kokeshi dolls and two different patterns from Parasol Craft 2, and then redid the label because I screwed up the first one plus added some trial 'Hazelnuts' labels in case I feel the need to sew one into something I make. Still can't get over how crisp the edges are and how well the Epson ink sets.

3. making cute fabric-covered buttons.

4. Pavlova with lashings of whipped cream and strawberries. And also because it's been proved to be a New Zealand dessert, despite the typical attempts of Australia to steal the honours.

5. Hazel saving her pocket money to buy a 'My Little Pony'. I might think they're awful but she's been saving for 5 weeks now and she's only just 4.

Not Hot

1. Marking 71 essays in a week instead of two because I put off doing them until it was almost too late.

2. National's move to privatise ACC. Or ACT's, talk about the tail wagging the dog. One of the problems of MMP is whacko fringe parties actually getting a taste of power. Acronyms much?

3. Trying to make dinner and bathe the child at the same time due to poor time management and ending up with a late dinner and a tired child. Three nights in a row.

4. Having the 'flu, then a cold right on the heels of that, then Hazel getting chicken pox (late nights for me), and cold symptoms that just won't go away. I feel like I've been sick for a month. Geez that sounds whiney but it gets you down after awhile.

5. The messy spare room. I hate how it attracts all the junk in the house and that I can't keep it clean no matter how good my intentions. It makes it hard to think when it's so messy.

What's on my shelf

I'm woefully late with this - I've been debating taking the time to do it all weekend, but the essays are looming large. Still am, so here I am blogging instead! Yay procrastination! You know I'll be regretting this stolen hour when it's 2am and I'm totting up marks.

This little meme called 'My Place & Yours'is from Pip over at Meet Me At Mike's. This week's theme is what's on the shelf.

I've spent the whole weekend sitting at my desk marking essays - when I'm not being pestered by a small spotty child that is. On the windowsill is a small stone and I've been watching the light change across it as I struggle with misused semi-colons and free-form grammar. Its roundness contrasts so perfectly with the straight white lines of the windowsill.

Just one word

I'm meant to be marking essays on the development of bipedalism, language or tool-use so this little meme snaffled from Petalplum fits the blogging bill nicely:

Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s quite tricky to use only one-word answers.

1. Where is your cell / mobile phone? Bag

2. Your hair? longer

3. Your mother? warmth

4. Your father? smart

5. Your favourite food? potatoes

6. Your dream last night? vivid

7. Your favourite drink? water

8. Your dream/goal? happy

9. What room are you in? spare_room

10. Your hobby? sewing

11. Your fear? failure

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? university

13. Where were you last night? kitchen

14. Something that you aren’t? tidy

15. Muffins? yes

16. Wish list item? fabric

17. Where did you grow up? Edmonton

18. Last thing you did? essays

19. What are you wearing? jeans

20. Your TV? Fringe

21. Your pet? furry

22. Friends? yay

23. Your life? good

24. Your mood? bioanthropological

25. Missing someone? family

26. Vehicle? Golf

27. Something you’re not wearing? makeup

28. Your favorite store? Anthropologie

29. Your favorite color? red

30. When was the last time you laughed? morning

31. Last time you cried? month

32. Your best friend? Jess/Sarah

33. One place that I go to over and over? bed

34. One person who emails me regularly? Shelly

35. Favorite place to eat? table