Wonderful wonderful wonderful Melbs

And so it begins dear friends. Falling in love with Melbs is so easy, so quick!

Today was a great real normal day for us. A Saturday of doing things, and I just loved being 'normal' in this town. I got my hair done at Corrin's Hair Lounge and these photos will never make it look right, especially since I mucked around with them in lightroom:

It's a more white-white, than yellow-white, and at first I thought it came across a little silver, but that appazza will fade. I LOVED my hair style though, my darling hairdresser set it like 60s Brigitte Bardot. NICE!

Then I went next door and bought the best shoes in the world, as a present for getting my new job.

Yay for me!

They're Melissa shoes (AGAIN) and are the 'Troupe' variety and totally dreamy! I'll have to actually do a separate gush post about Emina's shoppe, but OK OK is the place, and my new fave store in Melbs. Emina has Melissa shoes, AND the best tights and hosiery (LOL, what a cute word!) you'll ever see in the whole of the land. PLUS SHE DESIGNS ALL THE CLOTHES HERSELF AND THEY'RE MADE IN MELBOURNE. I am absolutely stoked and amazed at her skillz!

Be sure to be sure, I shall visit again, and might even bring my awesome Husbie:

Yay!

80s Breakfast Club Style

Oh boy, I've been a little mad without my Husbie and my STUFF around me.

Everything is still half in boxes, all over the house, and today I picked up my clothes and realised I'd spread them around to 5 rooms. I am a grot! (As my mum might say)

But, here's a GREAT tablecloth I got at the cheap department store up the road, a closing down sale. Very kitsch to go with the rest of the house!

I'm absolutely beside myself because Husbie is flying to Melbs as I type, and will officially be a Melbournian in half an hour to an hour, as he comes home for good. I've had to survive as a single mother for the past week and a half, and I've been a little bit bad... drinking red wine til LATE last night, watching live music and freaking working... bad mummy. Doggie Darling has hardly noticed; I came home today with a gorgeous neighbourly note from a household who share our back fence, and they adore her! I bet she's been spoilt all through the day! No wonder she's tired when I get home!

So! I'm heaps keen to get the rest of the house unpacked and finally finally finally get my life back in order. I had to dag it up today, 80s Breakfast Club Style. My hair was even bigger at the start of the day, and my skirt way shorter, and my knitwear was way baggier.

I even rolled up the sleeves. Oh yeah! My mum actually knitted this big jumper for me, it's really soft pinky wool, and I think I may have been 8 years old when I got it. Either she knitted it way too big or I just never grew... and because of the 4 foot 11 height that I reached today, I'm thinking a bit of both.

Well done to you if you've already seen my Blog Giveaway, where you do lots of stuff like follow/like/befriend all for the gush of fashion n stuff! There's still time because I'm no where near setting up the sewing room. I found some fabric unpacking and then realised the boxes the removalists had labelled 'Linen' actually meant fabric, and I had wondered why there were so many freaking boxes with towels and bedsheets in them. I have a little too much 'Linen' and lets hope I get to unpacking those boxes this weekend, and not Husbie. Whoops! More STASHBUSTIN' to do!

Talk soon! So the giveaway is open until that Sewing Room is set up, perhaps this Sunday?

xoxo

Unpacking + Giveaway

I'm ballsdeep in wretched moving boxes, but thankfully they're getting emptied rather than filled up. We have moved to a wonderful neighbourhood, with darling friendly people everywhere! I've found my favourite coffee shop, and my local markets. Doggie Darling and I have explored the doggie parks in the 'hood too!

BUT! Sitting around here at my new home, I thought how wonderful would it be to have 200 followers on this blog, so what about a GIVEAWAY?! But how should I do the giveaway, I wonder?

I'm just hanging in my 1970s kitchen. Getting ready to amp up the kitsch. Kitch VS Kitsch!

Pincurls work in Melbourne - Yay! (For some reason, I worried the water would be different and it'd be the wrong kind of water for pincurls! Worry Wart anyone?) Um, I did say 1970s kitsch right? Wood panelling everywhere! And wooden beams as well, in case you didn't have enough wood.

This is my 1970s dining room/mini lounge room, brickwork for you Oonaballoona! FUNNY, but at least the brick breaks up the wood right?

Cannot WAIT to show you a real photo of the carpet, and yes, they are the same blue as my tights. (I'm leaning down here, I'm not really that short. Pint sized yes, not pot sized! MELBOURNE REFERENCE!)

Doggie Darling says hi! So perhaps perhaps perhaps... Perhaps, I'll run my giveaway suchly:

I'll make a garment for you. Yep, I'll make a garment, of your choosing, for you, if you are the winner of my 'Yay for Melbourne' Giveaway! 'Yay for Melbourne' because I'm happy to be moved, happy to be in M-Town, and will be able to show you how great Melbourne is now that I'm here! So you'll be also saying 'Yay for Melbourne' soon too!

So, if you leave a post here saying what kind of garment you'd be keen on... and remembering that I do make a lot of things from vintage patterns or stretch tshirt tops (not trying to hinder your garment choices, but perhaps play to my strengths!)... BUT, leave a post here and then I'll do a random 'drawn out of the hat' type thing. Timewise, you've got until my sewing room is set up, which at this stage could be 2 weeks. Your prize will also be the first thing I'll sew in the new sewing room too! Yayz!

So get your thinking cap on, or search my archives, and leave your comment about your desired garment below. AND, if you like facebook or twitter, you can become my friend IRL, or 'like' my veronica darling page, or hashtag #yayformelbourne and follow me on twitter (or here on the blog) and each thing counts as an extra entry to the giveaway. So if you leave a comment, follow me on twitter, become my friend on facey, and 'like' my fanpage, that's FOUR freaking entries friends! Sounds great if you love a wiggle dress! Or perhaps a great versatile tshirt dress?

 Talk soon! xoxo

*** And YEP, this is open to international peeps as well, I don't mind where you live, I love everywhere!

Beep Beep!

Imagine if I was actually writing you this, saying 'This is my New Car':

Woo hoo!

My friend emailed this to me with the subject 'Your Hot New Wheels' and I would be hot (as in toasty) inside this little beauty. I'm doing heaps of crochet at the moment (making a scarf for Husbie) and finding it SO easy to do on the train!

Yep, I've started my new job here in Melbourne. It's a little different because I'm not working on a daily radio show anymore, so I get to listen to the radio and plan ahead about a whole lot of projects instead. It's great so far, and because I've been waking up normally for 9 to 5 hours, I've been going out heaps! Yay! Saw Dan Kelly play last night (He's a gorgeous musician, nephew of famous Aussie songman Paul Kelly) and then Adam Hills do a comedy gig. TWO nights out this week!

Anyways, I'll have the internet on by tonight hopefully, so I'll blog you about my house over the weekend! I can't WAIT to set up my sewing room and show you my hopefully finished crochet scarf!

Last day before the First day...

I *promise* I'll find more interesting photos soon! I'm at a cafe right by my house, having brunch and gathering my thoughts and notes for the day ahead tomorrow. My First Day at my new job in Melbz!

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in the West is Best suburb of Yarraville! The sun is streaming through the cafe, and it's a darling blue sky day. I'm all like WTF, thanks Melbs! Thank you for your lovely wishes yesterday, and thank you also for sticking with my little posts on NON-crafty things!

BUT, I started thinking about fashion and history and style recently, as I just finished watching Project Runway Season 5. Luckily I've had the season on my computer, and as we've been without the internet and without tv and possessions this past week, I've caught up on Dexter and now Project Runway. I'm sure there's still a few more seasons that I have to catch up on, for the PR fans out there, is there currently 7? Or is in up to 8 already?

Anyways, this year I was happy with the winner Leanne:

I liked a lot of her stuff through the show, and loved (of course) the sustainability and future-style she was keen on. Yay for Leanne! And how brilliant that 3 women were in the top to show for the fashion week thing. But what I started thinking about, was the history/trend of fashion, especially since there was a few comments made to Kenley that her creations were similar to some really famous designs and designers.

I was really happy she made the finals, because I totes loved her frocks but I can't really comment on her attitude and personality (as I wasn't there at the filming of the series, and frankly reality tv is *not* reality)... but I am curious about that collective conscience and that if Kenley's designs were similar to these bigger, more famous designers, and she didn't know about them, or their designs. Now, I'm a little like that at times. Some people I know are all like "blah blah [insert designer name here] and your skirt, blah blah [insert designer name here] and you could try the same" to me, and it's great they think I know about these fashion designers... but most of the time I'm like 'Yeah yeah,' but I have no idea. AND, I don't read fash mags or look at runway collections and stuff, so I really have no idea if what I ever make is already being made.

It made me think that if I go further into fashion and designing for realsa, I should really know who these people are. Tim Gunn was all like, if you come this far and you don't know who these people are... then people (like media/fashion peeps) will tell you ... and you don't want to be called copycat. When I searched for Kenley's photo before: "Project Runway Kenley" and then copycat was the first thing that came up... so the most popular search terms together.

What do you think? Do you know a fashion designer's creation, just by seeing a photo? Or are you a little bewildered like me? I probably could only could spot a Jean Paul Gaultier design because he's quite largely into some 'signature things'. (LOLZ!) But, I don't know where to start really, I love my vintage patterns and pattern making books, so I am understanding form and structure and togetherness at the moment... but to get into high fashion and know what's already *been* and *being* designed is a HUGE commitment.

I know I've got my career hands full as it is, and it would honestly be a HUGE commitment to change industries, but it's very interesting already as a Holly Hobby Seamstress. Perhaps I'll never make the change, but I *love* thinking about all this stuff! Maybe I'll do a 'Getting to know Fashion Design' posts here and we can all chip in with what we know about Fash and Peeps and the like.

Thoughtfully, Veronica Darling xoxo

Hello Melbourne!

I am brimming with thoughts, gossip, stories, adventures, crafting (a little, OMG!) but most of all love!

Yay!

We're in our darling new house in the west of Melbourne, and loving the area completely! I can walk easily to Yarraville village, Seddon village, and freaking Footscray (my fave!) with the best multicultural shopping strips and restaurants I've ever seen! I'm going to eat myself silly!

Hooray! It's great to finally make it to Sunday night though, beause after I left Wagga Wagga things got a little crazy. Doggie Darling and I got cabin fever big time (but we love each other again now), I got crazy overtired because I became a worry wart about the move. Our stuff *still* hasn't arrived from Sydney. I have no idea where it is, but it's in a shipping container somewhere even though the 'relocation' company initially guaranteed three days and no more of transit. During my initial discussions with them, I believe the words 'Next Day Delivery' was even mentioned.

But, it's Sunday now, and I'm sitting on our new Ikea guest room bed (we were going to buy one eventually, so at least we have something to sleep on now) and we've spent a whole lot of money but we've also got some amazing little pieces of furniture and a fantastic house with fabulous neighbours!

And I braided my hair today:

Double Yay! AND, whilst we've been watching Dexter (season 4, wtf omg etc etc etc!) I've been crocheting a bit of this scarf crossed with this scarf (who is SO gorgeous btw) for my Husbie. It's a different kind of cold here in Melbs, but not utterly as freezing as I thought it would be! I have had to get some extra singlets from the oppie and tights from 'Forges' in Footscray to prepare from that 8am commute!

As for Dexter, Husbie wanted me to tell you that when we were walking through Seddon village today, we spotted a vintage carving knife with the brand name called 'Dexter' and we thought that interesting at the time. Especially since Dexter uses a lot of knives to cut people up with. And you were totally right Oona about the 30/70 good/bad part... the twists in the last 2 episodes. OMG ick!

Talk soon, I hope!

Via Wagga Wagga

If you're Australian, you know Wagga right? So good, they named it twice? If you're one of my overseas friends, then perhaps you've never heard of Wagga Wagga? Well, today I drove 6 hours south west of Sydney and now I'm here. Tomorrow I'll drive another 6 hours directly south, and then I'll be in Melbourne. Yay Australia is big and fun and we have boundless highways to share.

Doggie Darling and I are travel companions, roadtrip buddies and sick to death of each other's stories by now. But not sick enough for a little cuddle before bedtime. I'm staying at my friends' mum's house and it's been sooooo good. As I'm a country girl myself, as soon as I got to town I drove the main street, spotted Target Country and bought 3 pairs of woolie black tights. Love Target Country.

Wagga Wagga is a bigger town than the one I grew up in, so really spread out and heaps of suburbs. Sadly I missed the op shop hours though. It closed at 4 and I got there at 4.02pm. Give an outta towner a break!

I'm a little overtired so will head to bed now, goodnighty night. And well done on finding my green bag jackets on facey Anon! You legend! I'd saved my high res photos of the boys on my work computer, and then remembered that I'm not at that work desk now. EEP! Will have the phots for you here soon enough!

Moving/Packing/Sorting

It's countdown time!

It's my first day on my moving leave and I slept in til 6.30am. WOW! Yesterday was my last early wake up call, so from now on I'll be a 9 to 5-er. Yay!

There's a bit to do, so I thought I'd let you know that the camera is packed so unfortunately, I'll be friends with Photo Booth for the next few weeks. But now that I have Lightroom, it doesn't look all that bad:

Well, better compared to the other photos I've taken with Photo Booth! I'm really keen to keep in touch, reading your blogs and writing here, because I will be needing a little continuity without my Husbie, and through the move, so I thought at least you and my blog are good online friends. Let's keep each other company... *cries*... it has been a bit emotional! I stood in my courtyard today at 11am and thought, 'This is the last time I'll be here at this time'. EEP.

My plan today is to get rid of stuff, get the house keys cut, take Doggie Darling out in the sunshine (might go right now actually) and then go for some dins with some darling friends. Tomorrow I'm driving to Melbs!

EEP x 100000.

Goodbye Old Sewing Room

Wowsers. What's the saying, people would prefer to break an arm than do public speaking and moving house? Did I make that up? Yes, perhaps. I'd prefer to do the public speaking and do the moving of the house, if that was a true saying. Because a broken arm would totally hurt and then you'd be out of whack for 6 weeks, and moving house is just like a week out of your busy schedule. Plus you get to drink loads with your friends for Going Away Party Funtimes. For those of you just 'joining in' to my blog, I'm moving from Sydney to Melbs next week!

We've had a really productive weekend though! Party times on Friday, and then Hangover times yesterday. Husbie finished painting the attic and we've taken everything out of storage up there... but sadly ... it was also time for me to finish my green bag projects and then pack up my sewing room:

And bon voyage to my machines:

Bye bye darlings! I think one of my first Melbourne projects is to make a proper case for my overlocker... the plastic one is fine, but just so dorky. The straight stitch Brother however, knows how to travel with that gorgeous sleek hardcover case.

Oh well. I've only just realised (with three days to go) that I'm doing all the 'last time' things in Sydney. ARGH. It's such a great city, full of amazing friends and totally baffling for me that we've lived here for almost 5 years, bought a house, got a darling dog AND got married during that time. So many life changes. I feel completely happy that I'm a person who loves both Sydney and Melbs and can live in both cities, as there's always silly talk about the two towns and people over compare them with differing comments. I think I just love adventure, and can make my home wherever my Husbie and I live.

We've been watching Dexter Season 4 as well, and I can't work out if I'm totally totally totally over it, or if it is in fact good. I really like Michael C Hall, and hope the season gets better (we're halfway through now, and could be going along ok now that John Lithgow has more than just a serial killer angle). Anyways! And how about True Blood guys! I love Eric so much! LOLZIE.

But lastly, what the HELL is with ISPs these days? Last year we set up the internerds with iinet, and it took 10 days to set up, they have a great service, and it's a great plan for the dosh we pay. BUT! Yesterday I spoke to a really bad operator (and usually iinet is pretty good at communication) for pretty much an hour (she had to call me back twice to just put me on hold) and then she told me the service in our new place will take 10 to TWENTY working days to set up. What is with that? I thought 5 to 10 working days was apt, but 20 working days? That's a whole freaking month!

Sorry to end on a FREAK OUT, go back to think about Eric and his cutie to bootie-ness as a vampire. And Pam! I LOVE Pam! xoxo

I LOVE MY HAIR, I LOVE MY HAIRCUTS

Don't you just love the internetz? Here I am typie-type-type-typing this out to you on the internetz while you then read it at your place on the other side of the freaking world. Love the internet!

Once in a while there is just complete greatness, great little things that reach up out of the screen to me and just makes my entire year. I only watched 'Charlie Bit Me' for the first time this year, but generally my place of work and my finger to the pulse friends find all the good stuff for me (Auto tune the news, anyone? Peter Russell Clarke's career comeback). BUT thank you Oonaballoona, you posted this darling video recently for me:

And then my friend found another little video of the same girl, meeting her little sister:

I've watched the Affirmation one at least 3 times every day, and it's my great LOL with friends. Both little vids encapsulate my entire life, to the max. I love seeing all the positivity and love and gush out loud! It's been a perfect week of really busy work times here in my part of the world, and it's almost moving time. Thursday was just the best day ever, for so many reasons, and I'll ! I hope your week has been just as good, wherever you are!

I LOVE MY HUSBAND, I LOVE MY DOG, I LOVE MY NEW PRIME MINISTER, I LOVE MY FRIENDS, I LOVE MY RADIO, ... I LOVE MY WHOLE HOUSE!

I've got one final thing to do in the sewing room tomorrow, then it's packing time! Talk to you soon, xoxo

MORE QUESTIONS (plus going green)

I love all these questions! I don't know who started it, but I like that you get different questions all the time and that you learn about bloggers you love! Today's 8 Questions come from Zoe, of 'So, Zo...' fame and are accompanied with what I've been doing today: 'A Sunday - photo essay by Veronica Darling....

"Doggie Darling"

1. If you had to choose a famous person to be your new best friend, who would it be and why?

I'd choose Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and then Lucille Ball, around the start of I Love Lucy. I'd hang with Karen O in NYC and generally be cool. We'd probably make clothes together and get our photos taken by Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. On the other hand Lucille and I would make 'funny faces' in the mirror and practice our comedic timing. I'd choose them because they'd be quite different and are thoroughly amazing personalities and inspiring women.

2. What proportion of your wardrobe is handmade?

Considering I've been sewing my own clothes rather vigorously for over 5 years I would say (not including undies, bras and stockings) that 80 per cent of my wardrobe is handmade. I would wear my own clothes 6 days a week, and probably 1 day a week vintage/thrifted stuff. I am sitting here today wearing a purple knit dress I made last year, and tights my friend gave me, and an orange cardigan I got when I was 16 before I went to see my favourite band, Custard. So pretty much 95 percent of my entire wardrobe is handmade OR thrifted, and the other things are clothes I've had for ages, and a couple of store bought tshirts from my mum.

"Green Bag in the Hallway"

3. Where would you live, if money, jobs and responsibilities were taken out of the equation?

I would live in New York with Karen O and Lucille Ball, and my Husbie and Doggie Darling too. I would probably still work in radio, and have no money, but it would be fun and there would be bagels. (My mum used to buy us bagels when we were little, FROM AMERICA children! This is what they eat in America!)


4. Describe the weirdest or most horrendous place you’ve worked.

I've worked at McDonalds, that actually wasn't that horrendous apart from a few bullying/harassment things from a fellow employee. Of course I couldn't just take being called a dumb blonde, or shortarse, or bigtits, so reported him continuously. I can't remember what happened to him actually, but I recall feeling so in control as my workers rights at the time. Yay, that was before I even was a member of the union. LOLZ. The most horrendous place might have been a temp job that I wasn't there long. The lowest of the low tasks I had as a boarding mistress, in Oxford in the UK, was when I had to top up all the toilet paper in the girls dorms' bathrooms. All the toilets were freezing cold, and there was so much yuk High School girl rubbish, that I remember thinking 'This is the worst job you'll ever have, just get on with it and then it'll be over'. And it's true, I've never had to do anything as disgusting since.

"Green Bag Cut Offs"

5. What is your favourite sewing technique or part of a garment to sew (eg, collars, piping, etc.)?

I love zippers, it's completely daggy/square but they're the easiest part. I feel bad, becaue I know it can be agonising stuff putting a zip in, but you just have to do heaps of them and then you'll get them right. I get bored by button holes and sewing buttons because zips are just so quick!

6. Which sewer out there do you envy the most?

I love Gertie (because she sews so much - or so it seems!), Oonaballoona (because she's adventurous with her fabrics), Kat (she's so positive with her blogging and has great sewing skills), New Dress A Day (SO thrifty and such great stories and poses!) and of course Zoe because I feel kinda the same as her! I'm not into envy as such, just loving/crushing/gushing towards people!

7. Do you collect anything?

Apart from material and vintage patterns, I used to collect lots of metcards (from the trams in Melbourne) and my Husbie thinks I collect scarves and shoes.

8. What’s your personal motto? (I stole that one from the Burdastyle featured members questions because it’s my favourite) 

'Be positive', and maybe 'you can do anything, so long as you put your mind to it' (says my mum, and now it's my saying) and Husbie says I say 'turn that frown upside down' a lot, but I can't remember when I've ever said that. I go through phazes, at the moment I say 'Big Smiles' a LOT at work, to help my radio friends. I change around, but generally it's all about being positive, because everything always works out for me, and falls into place, because I'm positive. But I think when I was younger, I decided that by lowering your expectations/anticipations you were always surprised and delighted (because you weren't expecting anything), so I like that too.

And speaking of my radio friends, here's what I'm working on for them! It's a long running joke, and it's almost finished!

 More updates on this soon!

Hope you had a great weekend!