Thursday 29 April 2010

Hello Goodbye Hello Goodbye!


My friend has "Hello" tattooed on one wrist and "Goodbye" on the other. Quite gorgeous! I'm really just dropping in, to say "Hello, Goodbye" to you because I'm ALMOST on a week's leave from my day job and I reckon I'll be doing some sewing soon.

Evidently, I have been working a lot, and not blogging, so apols for my tardiness in posting. My day job will be evolving soon, so I shall be in a position to gasbag to you about it in a few weeks I reckon, but for now I best be off to sleepsville (Yes, it's a weeknight and I'm in bed before 7pm, nothing wrong with that at all.) so I hope you like this photo that Husbie took last weekend in a hotel we stayed at in Melbsie. How cool and creepy is it? It's the hipstermatic app on his iphone (as mentioned previously) but he stuck it into a polaroid frame he'd scanned in (clever!) and of course doctored up a little photoshoppe as well. It's my darling dress sent to me by Emy at Crafternoon Delight (who should probably have had a baby by now too) from San Fransisco!

CUTE

See you soon, xoxo

Monday 19 April 2010

Husbie needs some tees

Every so often my Husband has a fashion tangent in mind.

Usually we wear vintage, we aren't authentic vintage hipsters, just the mix and match variety (as explained by Franca at Oranges and Apples, a fantastic post on vintage wearing ones) and share a love of op shopping and older things. I'm the keen thrifty type though, as you may have guessed by now. I shudder about wasting things, and especially that clothes are so frivolous in our modern world and it hurts me so much that people buy clothes and stuff, take them home and don't even take the items out of the shop bags.

But every now and again Husbie decides he wants to change his look, and occasionally talks about saving up $3000 and just buying a whole new wardrobe. Sometimes this wardrobe is entirely made up of Nudie Jeans and Tshirts. Sometimes it's made up of custom made suits from Thailand. Sometimes it's just a load of secondhand things from the markets. Usually, to solve the look problem, he just goes up the road and buys a couple of tshirts from a chain store, and then forgets about the grand wardrobe plan.

But last night, I heard him muttering "A whole bunch of tshirts and then it'll be better" and I said LOOK ON ETSY this time. And so, I've done a little 'heart' loving for him!

Here's what I love:





Also from Jessalinb - in fact all the stuff in the shop is AWESOME.

 And then there's some ace screening printing from Locomotive:



And the above pirate ship (so cute) is from Partybots on etsy.

Awwwww, cute men in tshirts. I hope Husbie has a look through my faves for him on etsy.

I've only done a bit of mending this week so nothing remarkable to show you, but I'm SUPER excited because Husbie's business has bought a tripod for their cameras which means I might be able to borrow it for outfit shots!

YAY!

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Puppy dreaming

Yay! Home now and so happy to be here.

Whilst there's still a bit of major catch up here at work (I didn't even have time to check my voicemail today, eep!), I took some time at the hair salon for my 'update' and took Doggie Darling! I have *the* best hairdressers, the darling owner of the salon has 4 dogs (or is it 5?) so is totally fine for me to bring my Doggie Darling in. Cuteness! But as you can see she got so tired!


And, my hopes to do some sewing have been dashed as I'm so freaking tired, I've just been on the couch. I opened the sewing room door, and could only see mess, so who knows what I have to do to get it in working over. EEP!

Talk to you later, Veronica Darling

Monday 12 April 2010

Last stop: QANNO

My friends and I (one friend in particular, but I make all the other friends get involved) have recently signed up for Qantas Club and scream "QANNNNNOOO" at any opportunity to each other when talking about it. I, in no way, like that you have to sign up to a club and be part of an elite area at the airport... but I love comradeship and free stuff. Now, I know paying money to join a club, then using all the facilities in that club, is not 'free' ... but it SO feels that way, and I'm a big pretender from way back, so free stuff it is in my mind!

For example, I'm using FREE INTERNETZ RIGHT NOW TO TALK TO YOU! Yay!

I also am doing work, so hence the joining up as well. My other work colleage will join me soon too and probably be my 'guest' so he'll get the free stuff too.

Anyways! I wanted to share with you my first stop over:


Alice Springs!

It was our first destination for work, and now I'm at Melbsie Airport in the Qantas Club blogging to you at the end of my tour for work duty. Yay! It went really quickly though, but whilst Melbs is adorable, I just wanna be at home and not have all my life in a stupid big suitcase.

Some quick thoughts:

COMEDY FTW*: Pajama Men (USA theatre comics), Sam Simmons & David Quirk (Australian guys) and gorgeous Aussie Celia Pacquola were excellent. And, of course my darling friend Tom Ballard (Melbs peeps, I would totally go and see him, he's a very funny young man indeed) was tremendously funny and totally FTW LOL style too)

CROCHET HOOKS: Are NOT allowed on planes. A while back I thought the laws had changed, but I think it was an article about them going to change. No Granny Squares on the plane for me. SAD FACE

SEWING ROOM ANXIETY: I cannot WAIT to make some clothes again! It's been too long! Not sure what I'll make first, but think it'll have to be something from Amanda's Vintage Pattern collection!

DOGGIE DARLING: Husbie came down to Melbs for our friends' wedding (which was just gorgeous btw!) so I got to gush with him, but I miss Doggie Darling heaps and heaps!

Have a lovely rest of Monday, and hopefully tomorrow I'll have some sewing news!





*FTW = "for the win" xoxo

Thursday 8 April 2010

Two more Granny Squares!

Oh yeah! I'm addicted!


They are so easy to do when you have 10 minutes to kill waiting for a friend to arrive for a drink, or before a massage in Melbourne Central. LOL, that was me today!

Just a quick post, as the internet will run out soon, and I'm still in the hotel on my working tour of Melbourne/Australia. I saw some COMEDY tonight (what's new, really) and enjoyed it. One comedian talked about Bejewelled Blitz which is my new fave game on Facebook, so I was WELL pleased about that.

I'm around in Melbs til Monday, but luckily Husbie Darling will arrive on Saturday and thank goodness! Talk soon!

Wednesday 7 April 2010

My first Granny Square! Gush!

Ok, I'm so very pleased to present my first ever freaking Granny Square:


Love it love it love it love it!

As, I mentioned on the weekend, Mum bought me a crochet book (a very expensive $6) and I wanted to try it out over the Long Weekend, but there was no wool at my parents house! Gosh! I got back to the city late Monday night, went to work, then spent the afternoon (well, like 5 mins before Clegs closed) choosing the right (and cheapest) yarn. It's 'Washed Haze Aran' (I have no idea what this means) by a company called Patons and is very soft! The colours I chose are black, red and purple (although having just read the label for you, I realised the purps is actually magenta. Colour FAIL)

I thought I'd start these 'on the road' type things, as it feels like I'm forever away from returning to my darling sewing machine etc (but hopefully on Tuesday I'll be there and give them all a hug!). I have so many great new babies to hang with these days, so thought Granny Squares can turn into a magnificent rug or blankie.

As for the square itself, I'm astonished with how quick and square like the thing is (it's 3 double stitches - Australian style) and I really like how soft the yarn is too (look at me, calling it yarn - professional!) as it's 60 percent cotton. Love that!

Everytime I hone my skillz like this I wanna scream "I have found my calling" but we all know that after a few months I'll just go back to sewing my things!

Hope you're having a great week, whatever you're up to! Oh, and I'm still collecting your thoughts on my 'About Me' Page... I've got a few topics from you already:

Where did Veronica Darling come from?

Favourite Fabrics

Favourite Patterns

How much sewing?

Sewing Machines?

How long sewing?

Any tips for starting out?

If you think of some more, just let me know!

Sunday 4 April 2010

Being a busy bee, but need your help!

I'm still in the country with my parents for the Long Weekend, and lovely darling Mum gave me a crochet book that had some 'granny squares' and I thought 'Yippee, I'll finally get some peace to learn these little things'! We searched the whole house and couldn't find any wool, SAD FACE. Mum thought there was some cutie little baby balls of wool that I could have used (leftover from Granny's old stash) but we couldn't find it.

Oh well!

Instead I've been playing heaps of online games. JOY! And re-arranging and updating my blog (following heaps of you guys!) but I think I've stalled and need your help!

I found the 'pages' section in blogger, and am building up an 'About Me' part... it's currently living on the left hand side of the main page, but you can click through and see what I've currently chucked up there. LOLZ

Sometimes I see this on other peeps site, and I don't really know what to write... so, could you please help me? What's a QUESTION that you want to know about me, Veronica Darling, and I'll collate and write it up tomorrow! Please email me direct if you want to be discrete (veronicadarling@gmail.com) or just leave a comment here... but I'll build up the About Me with a FAQ as well. I don't *really* think I'm that important for all this, but I am totally bored, and love the peace and quiet of the country and would love to do something here online, but I have absolutely nothing to make things with. I have crochet hooks, but no wool... my mum has a darling sewing machine, but no material and threads.


Yawn! This is pin up girl that my Husbie sent me the other day, and said it looks like me. I love her cutie little hair!

Thank you in advance, and I do appreciate you stopping by when I have no crafty adventures at all to speak of. Hope you're enjoying your time this Long Weekend, happy chocolate day to you or happy Jesus Zombie Day (as I heard on the radio today!) if you so prefer!

Saturday 3 April 2010

Touring Outfit #3: Pincurls Saturday

Hey darling, I'm still on the working holiday adventure, but today report to you from my parents house in Gippsland, regional Victoria. *sigh* it is SO peaceful and nice to be with Mum and Dad and since I'm a *little* hungover today, it's wonderful having someone make cuppa teas for me. YAY. Mum also gave me a crochet book, that I might try out while I'm down here too. YAYZIES.


There's my dad in the background! (And my red wine)

I did really big pin curls today, and check out how short my hair becomes after I took them out? They do drop through the week, but I honestly can't recommend doing them enough. I tell everyone! I do know there's some hair kinds that won't take the curl, but you should all try the pin curl (youtube pincurls and there's heaps of lovely ladies doing How To vids on them) and see!

I'm all snuggly today in my work hoodie and it's probably one of the most cooler days we've had here in Victoria. I've been surprised with how warm the night times have been, so that's kinda great! Workwise, the two big events I've been working on have happened, so that's a big PHEW and now we're working still in Melbs for another week and then it's hometime. I've been hanging on skype with Husbie a bit, and it's so much better to see him there, but I miss him and Doggie Darling heaps.

Hope you're enjoying the long weekend if you get some time off!

Dongmen Lu Fabric Market

Happy Wednesday! Time to get some fabric inspiration from the Dongmen Lu Fabric Market here in Shanghai! Can't believe how quickly 201...