It is decided... October shall forth be knownth as...

FROCKTOBER AND OCSOBER

Ok, two things, firstly; I didn't invent these fabulous word things, they were invented already and I have stolen them for my own interests. Secondly, I'm going to be making clothes and concentrating on my own health, and not following through on the actual fundraising efforts, but YOU can if have time to fundraise.

Ocsober is about cutting out alcohol for a month for our kids and raising funds for Life Education (that educates Aussie children about drugs and alcohol) and Frocktober is about wearing dresses and raising dosh for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation in Australia.

In my case, I'm good at promoting and talking and sewing, so here is my plug (and I'll donate some dosh to you if you sign up - let me know) for both monthly events. And I'll blog my efforts in sewing a dress a day (this time a REAL dress not just tshirts and skirts) and staying off the booze for the month of October.

(I'm cringing here, as a wine really really really helps you sew better - let's just hope I can still sew without the Sav Blonk!)

But it's part of my bigger picture (by Christmas not be blubby, by Christmas to actually have a clear and gorgeous voice, by Christmas to have loads of garments sewn, and to be in good spirits always) plan and I'm reckoning that I did so well in July for a garment a day then, that I'll be very proud and in uber spirits by the time November comes around.

If you'd like to join in on Frocktober (Veronica Darling style) let me know, I know it's a mean feat for some you darlings (espech if you have kidlets) but if you fancy sewing a dress a day in October I'll make a special button and link to you from my page or whatever.

Ok, gotta dash cause a friend is talking about cool stuff at an art gallery, and gotta get back early so I can work more on this green bombshell wiggle dress.

xoxo

All the dishes I didn't eat in Melbs (but now need to go back to eat)

Just reading The Age online, and really really really needed to jot down these 'Wish List' dishes via the article '50 Best Dishes' as they look delicious!!!!!!!!

Saganaki, $11.50, at Hellenic Republic 9381 1222
It arrives piping hot on an iron plate with tiny sweet figs tempered by a balsamic reduction. The usual rubbery incarnations of this oft-abused standard should hang their heads in shame.

Stuffed zucchini flowers with hot yoghurt sauce, $24, at MoMo 9650 0660
Almond and barberry-stuffed zucchini flowers keep their crunch under the tangy sauce.

Seared momen tofu and eggplant, $8, at En Izakaya 9525 8886
Imagine a Crown croupier with miso‑stained dunked fingers shuffling thick cards of creamy cooked eggplant and slippery tofu and you have this beer-friendly cavort of texture and warm flavours.

Pea salad with ricotta and mint, $10, at Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons 9694 7400
Yes, cold peas. But beautifully swaddled in a tumble of shallots, mint, basil and shredded air-dried ricotta.

Smoked Potato, $20, at Attica 9530 0111
Sublime and simple, this dish illustrates three Ben Shewry fundamentals: reverence for produce (spud was never so heroic), gobsmacking technique (Maori hangi meets lab coat) and narrative (the dish is a poem to Shewry's native New Zealand). Oh, and it's delicious.

Tomato salad, $17, at Embrasse 9347 3312
Everything owner-chef Nicolas Poelaert prepares is a paean to produce,
but none sings so harmoniously as his tomato salad, a showcase for pure flavour that tastes like 10 types of sunshine.

Goat's cheese tart, $6, at La Parisienne Pates 9349 1852
Soft and pungent Soignon goat's cheese and feta folded into soft egg in a buttery pastry husk, topped with chives.

Salad roll, $6, at La Paloma 9380 8520
A two-hander, springy stone-ground bun with avocado mashed with lemon, thick slices of cucumber, basil, house-made mayo, Austrian cheese and crunchy cos lettuce. Prime summertime food.

YUM!

If you're from Melbs, have you eaten at any of these places? I NEED TO GO BACK RIGHT NOW!

Outfit #98 - OMFG It's almost 100

I haven't posted a Numbered Outfit in AGES! Sozza! Been working interstate AND my parents stayed before that, and it was my birthday before that and ... before that... I can't remember! Thanks to you all for 'hanging in there' til I got my shizz together and finally completed another garment.

It's a vintage spring frock!



I tried to make it a little Mad Men esque, using a 'sub-teens' pattern from 1959, and perhaps if I make the jacket that goes with it, it'll look the part.

Once again, everything you see is thrifted from the op shop! Buttons down the back, and side zipper (can't remember doing one of those before!) and of course the darling fabric. I think it may have been a tablecloth that someone made.

My goodness, with just 2 garments of 100 Outfit Challenge, what should I do next? Is it too soon to do another dress a day, but this time for October? I'm HONESTLY considering not drinking for a month because I'm just way too fat (hence me not wearing that pretty dress above) and stonkered-drunk after Melbs.

Speaking of Melbs, a HUGE cheerio goes to Rachel, who happened to be dining at Gills Diner the same night as I (last week), and who also happens to be the first person who's said to me 'Are you Veronica Darling? I read your blog'. EVER. And sorry Rachel, I was not only looking a mess, I'd not prepared anything to say in response. My plan in the future is to say 'THANKS FOR READING' (which I can't remember if I said to you Rachel, since I was a little EMBARRO about someone in real life reading my blog) and 'YAY for SEWING'... So if I meet you again Rachel, or perhaps YOU dear reader, in the future, I honestly will say 'YAY for Sewing'.

Oh dear I'm a goose sometimes!

Home at last - PHEW!

3 weeks is a long time away from home. In my books anyways. 2 weeks is kinda fine, and feels like a holiday, but 3 has made me a little bit crazy, a little bit gushy for my home and a little bit forgetful.

As I'd forgotten that our attic was getting renovated by my brother's friend, who's deadset adorable, but doing our place when he has time. So there luckily was no red dust anywhere at my house (All you Sydney people tricked me with orange photoshopped images of that dust storm while I was in Melbourne), but there were loads and loads of sawdust, extra pieces of wood and other carpentry attic type things around my house.

AND I'D ALSO FORGOTTEN THAT MOST OF OUR JUNK IS IN OUR LOUNGEROOM. As whilst the attic is being reno-ed our lounge must serve as storage area, and I really honestly can't believe how much stuff we have kept. I may even destash before my Husbie gets home (he's in Melbs for a few more days).

Now, as there's no electricity upstairs, I tried to take a photo on the every trusty blackberry. BUT, they all looked totally shithouse. So for the purpose of having a photo in my blog (where are all the cameras in my house gone?) post, just for the moment, can you please pretend my attic looks like this:



Care of this random blog, of course, but OMFG, that is a big attic! Obvs doesn't live in Newtown.

Anyways, I'm home, I've knitted in front of the telly, ate my fave laksa and sewn up a bit more of this girlie dress (Peggy style) I was making for the Sew Retro blog for the Mad Men September Comp thing. I may be too late, but will try and get it finished tomorrow.

One more week in darling Melbs (AKA YAYSIE/NAYSIE)

Yep, it's been busy city once again, all working, socialising and generally getting fatter and fatter from all the delish wine and foodz!

YUM!

But darling young Anna Laura has got something going on, it's a bit Hot or Not, Hit or Shit, Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down and as I've really got NO crafty stuff to blog about (only more of this lovely red knitting thing I'm slowly doing down here) I'm JOINING IN!

So! As Anna says 'YAY or NAY' (or should it be Yaysie or Naysie, hmmm?)

YAY

I love food and wine and friends, especially in Melbs! Some of my fave stopovers for socialising at the moment are Mr Wilkinson, Rrose Bar, The Vegie Bar, The Turtle Cafe, Jerry's, Misuzu's Albert Park, Script Bar & Bistro, Riverland, Diggiddy Doggy Daycare (for my Dog of course!) and The Clarendon. All GREAT!

NAY

Getting DRUNK too much and feeling shithouse the next day because of my fun times of socialising, drinking and eating! EEP!

YAY

I went to the Rose Street Market on Sunday after a massive lunch with my darling friend at the Vegie Bar! What a great market! I didn't buy anything, just walked around dreaming up my fashion line! Ha ha!

NAY

At the Rose Street Market I looked for Anna Laura, but didn't see her and got too shy to introduce myself to her boyf who was manning their card stall. NAY for ME

YAY

We went and saw the film UP in 3D and it was freaking hilarious and awesome for a animation/kids flick/3D thing! It was really funny and sweet and the 3D wasn't in your face like seeing Harry Potter in IMAX (luckily only in the first 15 mins) and you should totally go see it! Now I could be wrong, but we stayed for the whole credits, and I think they listed all the names of babies who were born during the making of the film... cause you know those Pixar films often take AT LEAST 3 years to make... CUTE but I need a shorter deadline in my line of work!

NAY

HAYFEVER! For being so annoying in the face for my Husbie! Ick!

See you later! (Only one more week here, so crafting from next week! YAY)

ACHOO!

It's springtime, in Melbourne, and all I hear around the place is ACHOO! And it's mostly my husband sneezing CONSTANTLY!

My poor darling has got it really bad, luckily only ONE eye is red and blood shot (not too bad, but he does look weird) but he's just sneezing outta control. I've never really been affected by hayfever, so I always forget what he's going through when it comes on. Yesterday I was all like, oh now, you're tired, come and have fun with me, and seeing him get grumpier and grumpier and then ACHOO ACHOO ACHOO over 20 times in a row. Oops. It was the wrong time of night to be on the wrong side of the city when the Collingwood Footy game finished, that's for sure. TRAFFIC x a million, us in a cab and the grumpiest, sneeziest, hay fever riddled man in the world. Not very pretty. At least only ONE eye is red, he's still handsome a little bit!

So I've been googling, and I quite like the word 'Rhinitis' now, and there's some Chinese medicine herbs called Ephedra that we may have to go check out for Husbie. There's also thoughts about how global warming and pollution is causing MORE hayfever, and some facts that 1 in 4 peeps suffer from it, and sad news that we don't know why people get it. AND THERE'S NOT A CURE that I have found yet anyways. POOR HUSBIE! And proving that there's a blog for everything, here's the Allergy Relief Blog. OH NOES.

xoxo

As you can see, NO crafting, NO shopping for fabrics in the city, and certainly NO knitting, well can't show you any finished things yet. I'm just too busy hanging out and drinking with friends! I HAVE, however, made a goal with myself, that I suppose I can share with you. From tomorrow til Christmas, I've written out some goals/challenges/ideals that I'd like to keep up. Not too hard, and certainly quite easy goals (if you ask me) like 'By Christmas I'll be going to yoga at least three times a week' and 'By Christmas my Doggie Darling will be bigger and need at least a 30 minute walk each day' ... you see, I've been eating and drinking and laughing so much, that I've quite forgotten about exercise, and darlings ... I HAVE AN EXTRA TIRE AROUND MY MIDDLE... *embarrassment* It may not be a thick tire, and it's actually only noticeable to me... but hey, my plan is to be healthy and a tire around my middle can't be healthy.

Talk to you soon, xoxo

Shopping, REAL shopping

Oh boy, when I'm not near a sewing machine I start to turn into a very girly girl!

I'll get my shopping experience outta the way first, because how cute are these gorgie photos:



The dog is Doggie Darling, the shoes are from Monk House Design on Lygs in Brunners (and they blog their new arrivals, thank you darling shop assistant for my darling DARLING Melissa shoes) and the backyard is my new abode in Melbs.

I've wanted another pair of Melissa shoes for a while (plastic, not leather, but mind you NOT biodegradable*, but I plan on passing these shoes on to my grandchildren, so they will NEVER die - or end up in landfill) so these delightful red ones were on special and I totally did that thing when you walk passed a window, think 'Oh that's nice, that's nice, that's nice, onto next shop HANG ON WAS THAT A GORGEOUS SHOE IN THE WINDOW!' And freeze and then slow mo yourself back to check!

Before I spotted the Melissa shoes, I was browsing in a secondhand store and actually considered this Western type shirt for my Husbie, it was checked, cowboy, from vintage Myer, and I thought about it and then he called as I was deciding about getting it and convinced me not to in case it was the wrong size. I am shopping for shoes AND shopping for my Husbie. I am a TOTAL girly girl without my sewing machine!

But totally the best thing today was meeting a lovely LITTLE girl, my darling friend had her only 2 months ago (not even) and she's SO freaking cute! She was wearing the darling red/blue spotted dress I made her too (during my Dress a Day in July challenge) and she was just cute as a button. LOVE GIRL BABIES!

xoxo




* I've just done a bit of googling, before I published this post, because I thought 'I think PVC can't be broken down' but then thought 'I just assumed this because I'm bossy and never check facts'. So Google has told me:

A product review website says:
The designers include Edson Matsuo, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Campana Brothers, Triton,
Isabella Capeto. The shoes are made in Brazil, and employees have high wages and extended benefits. All of the shoes are made from MELFLEX plastic, a patented, hypo-allergenic, recyclable, and
extremely flexible PVC. The shoes are also cruelty free, so they are made with no animal products. Melissa shoes also recycle 99.9% of factory water and waste, and overstock styles are recycled into new styles (only the darker color shoes have recycled material).

and Emily (and a few others have left this comment on this big post on Melissa shoes over at StyleFrizz):
Emily on 02.23.08 at 3:57 pm
"I just bought a pair of Melissa shoes. They are 100% biodegradable, can be recycled, and are made from recycled materials. They are extremely comfortable, stain proof, water resistant, and smell like bubble gum. The company also recycles much of their waste and pays their employees well above the minimum wage in Brazil. It’s a happy time on my feet with brand new silver shoes."

Nostalgia, Memory Lanes and just great food

*** Beware - Crush/Gush/Nostalgic Post Alert ***

Well, I usually live in Sydders right? That's my darling nickname for my darling current hometown of Sydney. I love it 'cause it's warm all the time and my work is there (which I love) and all those lovely bunny friends of mine. My husbie and I have lived there for almost 4 years... and before that we lived in MELBS!

I have so many great memories of Melbs, and being here for only a few days has totally spun me out! It's like we've never left! I guess it's changed a lot, but not in a really 'I don't know how to get around' kinda way, and it's just so fun seeing friends, drinking out and eating out!

Last night we went to Misuzu's in Albert Park (right around the corner from where we're staying, in fact) and it was delish!



Photo care of this review site and it's a gorgeous Japanese place that's lit really well (huge problem in Sydney, and my Husbie's pet hate) with darling big lanterns out the front for outside dining, but lovely warm lights inside. And the food was UNREAL. We mostly stick to vegetarian diets, at home, but when we go out we do dabble with seafood... so we had a bit of crispy salmon and whitebait tempura. UNREAL!

What I love about Melbs is that you can go to a random place and it's just so delightful in all areas.

I'm cooking our tea now (corn on the cob!) and I'm totally going to do some knitting asap. I'm planning a city shopping day on Friday, and googling Tessuti as I type! Yay Nichola! The sad thing will be if I buy some fabric, I can't sew it for yonkers! (Unless I buy a travel machine? Ebay anyone?)

xoxo

Yay! In Melbourne and it smells like Melbourne

We got to Melbs alrighty, and already it's just like we're living here again. It rained only a little bit and it smelt so familiar! Then I ate a sundried tomato yesterday, and it tasted just like how I love sundried tomatoes to taste like. WEIRD, I wonder what's wrong with all the sundried tomatoes in NSW?

Anyways, I'm in our little new home (well for the next month) and I have my Darling Doggie on my lap, curled up asleep, and thinking of all the work I have to do (not that much, so not too bad, but still I have to do a bit of work) and who I'd like to call to catch up with. I might try my Darling Amy June first, and then even walk past the Op Shop here in the suburb we're staying. CUTE!

But thought I'd post a picture, of me actually doing some craft, and yes, I think this is the WEIRDEST and FUNNIEST photo I have ever seen:


I'm knitting a baby's bonnet. I have some cool patterns that I'm trying out, as I have no sewing machine down here, I'll have to knit like crazy. It's a really cool pattern of diamonds, and heaven's above it's actually working out ok. I'm even using CABLE needles as I'm a professional!

ARGH

Talk to you soon, as I'll be posting my crafty adventures from the far off familiar land of Melbourne again I reckon!

Overwhelmed in life, and underwhelming online

Jeepers, I'm so sorry peeps! My day to day life has become MAD! I just realised I haven't taken a photo of my darling knitted rag bath mat, I haven't spoken to you in ages, and I've hardly made a THING in the past 2 weeks due to uncontrollable workie type things and over emotional life happenings!

Nothing terrible or life threatening though, so I shouldn't be overly dramatic. Sozza!

BUT, between you and me, I shall be posting from the fine city of Melbourne, Victoria, over the next few weeks. Delightful! Can't wait to see you my darling friends, AND check out your market stall AND pop by your fabric shop AND drink in your darling bars (of course!). So be prepared to see me somewhere soon!

If there is something happening (anytime in September!) please let me know, otherwise I'll seek you out myself! AND I'll be terribly drab, because I've been too busy to make any new clothes to swish around in whilst in town. SAD FACE! I'll have to take my knitting down with me (luckily we're driving down - loads of knitting in the car!) just to keep my crafty fingers happy.

xoxo