Politics and me

Since the Hand Mirror started up in March (hat tip Art & My Life) I’ve been slowly (and happily) pulled into online politics. It’s not that I wasn’t political before, on the contrary, I have a Women’s Studies degree (among other qualifications) it’s just that I seem to have missed emerging political sites online. Deborah’s post at In a Strange Land lead me to read a very long thread starting from this post at Public Address, which in turn had me thinking – why don’t I hang out here and comment? Actually a couple of pages into the thread I knew already but I woke up about 5.30 this morning and thought about it some more.

Read the rest here.

Does this count?

So if I tidy up all my writing papers and poems and put them in folders and open a fresh exercise book and look at my thesis idea then come and blog it… does that count as writing? Maybe I could major in procrastination next year?

Birthday pants

As you can see  by the lighting in this picture this morning is dark and grey but I still forced poor MrC to model one of his new pairs of pants. I sewed up 5 pairs of pants for Mr almost 7 for his birthday. These ones are thrifted wool lined with calico. The patchpockets have details with Japanese cotton. I adapted a PJ pattern (also thrifted). I also made 2 pairs in a soft green cauderoy, 1 pair in denim and up-cycled a pair of my pants to fit him (poor boy!). Why so many? Because he puts holes in the knees so quickly I’m hoping many pairs will delay the holes, hmmm, we’ll see…

Thanks Liz!

I’ve been meaning to blog this for a while - Liz aka Betty Jo fixed up a brooch she made for me and it’s even better than the first one, I’m so thrilled!
It’s made from vintage lino and buttons

Taggity tag tag

this-a-way, originally uploaded by jek in the box.

I’ve bin tagged by a couple of new buddies, isn’t the internet great for meeting new friends?

Bricolage Life tagged me to reveal 6 random oddities about myself and Drewzel tagged me to:

1. Write your own six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog (and include a visual illustration if you’d like).
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.

So here I go! My six word memoir:

“Keep going no matter what happens”

I guess this sums up most of my teens and twenties. My mother died when I was 20 after being sick for several years and I had a series of bad relationships around the same time. I’ve suffered from depression but I’m pretty stuborn I guess and I just put my head down and bulldoze on. The phrase also applies to my writing, most writers are compelled to keep writing despite rejection slips to get through to the acceptance slips. Lucky for me life is pretty sweet right now.

My 6 oddities:

1. I whistle crooked, no matter how hard I try I can only whistle out the side of my mouth.
2. The number 6 is one of my favourite numbers ( also 2 and 12) and I’m slightly obessive about it.
3. I had to go cold turkey to quit eating so much sugar ( I can eat a whole tub of ice cream or a box chocs or packet of biscuits in one sitting).
4. I used to run cross country and track but I damaged my knee (I also used to throw discus).
5. I used to play the trumpet but quit in my teens when it wasn’t cool, which I regret now.
6. I get obsessed by new projects so they take over my life until I master/mistress them and then I’m on to the next thing (fickle aye?)

So I tag Green Kitchen, Tiny Happy, So Tread Softly, Stripy Sock Studio, and Kimberlee , feel free to play along or not - as you like :).

Thanks to Jek for the pic!

Did ya miss me?

Finally I return to blogland, a little worse for wear post school hols but in one piece. I feel like I should write a “wot oi did in me skool holidays” post, we packed a lot in. One of the most satisfying things I did last week was to whip up some of this Autumn jelly, yum! It’s made with home grown crabapples, quinces and feijoas. It was really good to just focus on the kids and home life last week but I was also forced off-line by a bung ‘puter if the truth be told ;).

When the kids were smaller (preschool) I used to dread the holidays but every term it gets easier and the kids fight a little less and I go less insane. We even managed to do some paper craft together with Shelly and her kids for hours one day.

I’m stoking up the fire, I hope it keeps going while I’m in town. I’m off to hear Michael Palmer speak.

The legendary San Francisco poet Michael Palmer will be giving one public presentation on a brief visit to Wellington.

Michael Palmer is associated with a generation of poets which includes Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, and Clark Coolidge – “poets working in the dark, and at the margins” – and with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets. Even more, he is celebrated for his own expressive lyrics. His poems are among the most beautiful written in the last 50 years – both resisting meaning and finding new ways to bring it into being.

I’m feeling pretty good about my writing. I haven’t got much new but I’ve had a sort through last year’s stuff and I’ve got an idea for a thesis of sorts to tie it all together and kick start some new work. The best thing so far about having both kids at school is that I have found time to really read again.

ETA - Shall I post the recipe?

Anzac day

It’s a holiday in here today, we are remembering those Australian and New Zealand soldiers killed in battle.

I don’t march or attend services on ANZAC day for the same reasons that In a Strange Land has written about so well. What I did do is tell my children why I think all war is such a terrible thing and how we all (including George W Bush) need to learn from the past.

Happy Birthday Carmen!

For Carmen’s birthday I hosted a Tea Party! Carmen made a fabbo Pavlova, Shelly made Chocolate Eclairs and I made scones, pikelets and club sandwiches. I say!! We all wore aprons from my vintage apron collection and drank tea from Great Aunty Nora’s vintage tea service. Extreme girly fun was had by all! (full set on flickr)

Bitch, Bust and Wanderlust

It’s the school holidays so my posts my be erratic over the next two weeks.

Okay, disclaimer over. We had a day in the big smoke yesterday. Oh the joys of escalators and lifts for my poor deprived children! We started off at the Public Library, where I finally got an “out of towner” card. I checked out a copy each of Bitch and Bust magazines and a copy of Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit. I’ve heard a lot about both Bitch and Bust and wanted to have a good look and compare the two. Bust is nice and glossy and it’s latest issue has Flight of the Concords on the cover (gotta be good!) but Bitch does seem to have a lot more substance. Ah well, why can’t a feminist have her cake and eat it too?

I came across Solnit through an article she wrote called “Men explain things to Me”, which really struck a chord with me. I don’t know why I hadn’t heard of her before but I’m looking forward to reading Wanderlust.

Here’s an extract from the blurb:

“What does it mean to be out walking in the world, whether in a landscape or a metropolis, on a pilgrimage or a protest march? In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit draws together many histories - of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores - to create a portrait of the range of possibilities for this most basic act… Solnit’s book finds a profound relationship between walking and thinking, walking and culture, and argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in an ever more automobile-dependant and accelerated world.”

We might all have to do a lot more walking when the oil crash comes!

In a lovely piece of synchronicity, a small square of paper fell out of the Bust magazine as I flicked through it. It had a web address on it. Go on, have a look, you know you want to!

Tag, you’re it!

Drewzel kindly sent me a little thank you award for comments on her site and now it’s time to pass it on to a few folks I know for blog lurve:

Helen
Shelly
Carmen
Pauline
Melissa
Helen R

As Drewzel said:

If you’re named, please put my wee button on your site in a post and if you know of other good souls out there, tag them with it too, because spreading the bloggy lurve is a good thing, and your kindness is very appreciated! As me old mate Morrissey said “It’s so easy to laugh it’s so easy to hate, it take guts to be gentle and kind”…

Thanks everyone!