When the rest of you are going to dress me? (some days, I am completely incapable of doing it myself).

Remember back when I was feeling all blue, and a bit pathetic, and was trying to snap myself out of it, without resorting to any kind of chemicals? And I decided I was going to let my friends look after me? Well, by God they are good.

In the past couple of months, I have been a completely different person. I first realised it when I developed a completely inappropriate crush. On a completely inappropriate person i have known for some time, and never felt anything for before. And after a while I realised it wasn’t even really about this person. It was that I finally felt OK again, and felt like I could have feelings again. Like I wasn’t using all my energy holding the pieces of my heart together, and could let someone else do that for a while.

Remember this mammonth thread of Emma’s? And how angry and riled up I got about it? I told this story, and talked about how embarrassed and ashamed I was, and how had I been wearing lipstick and heels instead of jeans and a hoodie, I might have been confident enough to say something back. On Wednesday, I was walking past a building site, and got whistled and hollered at. So I gave them the fingers. Because that was the appropriate response, and because I had lip gloss and pretty shoes and a dress on, and I felt confident.

Which is to say, I’m back. My friends are awesome, there’s been some closure on some things, I am over the completely ridiculous crush (and have moved on to a much more appropriate and fun one).

So it’s not surprise that this weekend was absolutely awesome. In the discussion of that post of Emma’s I mentioned before, we decided (and if you are a member of my family reading this, I apologise) to get our tits out and behave badly. Because we can and are allowed to.

And look how pretty I was.

(Thanks to the wonderful and talented Mike for his photos)

Oh, and the pink lippy – awesome.

Emma’s book launch was smashing, as is her book. There were fun people, and interesting and engaging and smart people, and lovely people, and even people who were all of that combined. Saturday was a work function, and Sunday, I walked in the sun from Hataitiai to visit Jo in hospital and then into town for drinks with old friends. It was a lovely weekend, and reminded me that as the weather is getting sunnier, so am I. And that pleases me. And the best part is, this week is going to be even better.

Oh, and if you were wondering just how awesome my friends are? Well, how many girls do you know who you can sit on a couch with, eating, drinking, gossiping, and watching music videos with? Lots? Yay for you. But, on seeing said videos, would they then give themselves 80s hairdoes and pose for you?

If the answer is yes, then you are lucky as I am. And after last week, I am feeling very lucky.

Alright, here’s this week’s Friday Frock challenge. Cupcakes to the winner (Yes, I still owe Meg hers. This will give me an excuse to make them.)

I have bought this dress for a wedding.

It’s cute, and floaty, and appropriately cleavagey (although ‘appropriately’ is relative, I suspect). It’s also summery, and suitable for a wedding in Queensland in late December.

So, ladies and gentlemen, dress me. I pretty much know what I am going to wear, but I need a wrap of some kind, a bag, shoes and jewels.

Cupcakes!

How I got to be so busy?

With the exception of tonight, I am out every night this week, and for a good portion of the weekend. Seriously. Did everyone decide to do things early this year, to get them out of the way of Christmas?

Anyway, because I miss her, and…well, actually, that’s all, here’s a treat for the lovely Caroline that I discovered this morning:

Aside from being a very cute moment in a very lovely movie, this video features 2 dresses I want.

The two girls directly behind Joseph Gordon Levitt, in the group number. The tealy dress, and the pale blue shirt dress. Want both. Now please.

…Other than the general awesomeness.

Gilly and Thom returned from their honeymoon to this:

A pathway of lovehearts, leading to…

Another pathway, leading to their wedding present from me (you can just see it, a lamp, behind the TV), and:

A big stack of photos, everyone I could track down, adding new friends on Facebook to get their photos, and printed out. Tied, incidentally, with the ribbon from my bridesmaid flowers. I did feel a little bad about sprinkling 2 packets of glitter hearts all over a very well vacuumed floor, I will admit.

I also left a rather stalkerish message:

Is there anything more fun than writing on a mirror with lipstick?

In the kitchen, the trail of hearts led to this:

A lovely bunch of flowers, and a card with a particularly naff message inside.

And then, the trail headed to the fridge, where there was a bottle of bubbly, and these.

Because, I am a giant big nerd, and i love my friends.

Inspired by this, and the Reality Bites and Say Anything comments therein, I was set off on a 90s journey this morning. And it was AWESOME.

(If nothing else, revel in the flannel shirt glory that is Reality Bites. That outfit Winona is wearing at the end, with the sleeveless shirt? Yeah, I so had that. But I would have accessorised it with a scarf tied around my neck. Cos that’s what I wore. And brown lipstick.)

(ah, Lisa Loeb. How we loved her, and wanted to look like her. In part, my dark framed glasses now are due to this video)

(Creepy bitches)

(Aside from being written by Prince, this song wins points for using text speak before we owned cellphones, surely? I got my first cellphone in 98 or 99, I think. Crap I am old!)

(I could have been to see the Cranberries live in Berlin in 1994. Instead we were made to go to the Berlin Philharmonic. I’m still bitter about that.)

(This song apparently came out in 1990. I remember sitting on the bench in the kitchen of my parents’ house in Ashburton, wearing shorts, that summer.  Those shorts were fluorescent green, and OH MY GOD I loved them dearly. I would go to high school with those shorts and a mullet. And how I now have ANY friends is a little beyond me, to be honest.)

So i mentioned a couple of days that I did some sewing for Gillian and Thom’s wedding. I sewed wraps for Clare and I, which was really just pinning and hemming and quite a lot of ironing. I also made a flower which went on the cake knife, and clutches for Clare and I.

The clutches weren’t particularly expert, because I’m not, but I thought I’d show you them anyway.

They’re made out of the chocolate charmeuse satin of the dress, the organza of the wrap, and the champagne colour of the bangles we wore that the lovely Emily made.This is how I explained it to Gilly:

I used this pattern (PDF), but without the faffing about with embroidery, and with more flexible interfacing – I would actually have liked a stiffer interfacing, but had to work with what I could get.

The flower I got from here, and the one on my bag is slightly bigger. The one on the cake knife is bigger again.

They weren’t perfect, they didn’t feel quite strong enough, but they did look quite cute.

There is a photo in the official photos, which I have yet to see, but got a sneak peek of on the day, in which my friend Gilly looks like a bridal magazine model. I can not wait to see those photos, but in the mean time, you will have to put up with my awfully amateurish ones.

Gilly is my friend, that I always say I forget how pretty she is. I will go to her house, and she’ll open the door, and I think “oh, that’s right, you’re quite lovely.” Not that when I’m not with her I’m thinking, ‘gosh my friend Gilly is unfortunate’, but she always takes me by surprise.

I said something like this in my speech on the day, but the one thing I could wish for my friends Gillian and Thom is that they always take each other by surprise like that.

When the three of us were leaving the hotel, in all our finery, ready to head to the church, Gillian looked at her two maids, and said “Why am I not more nervous?” To which we replied, “well, it’s great that you are not, etc etc.”

And she said “I’m just really excited to see Thom.”

I mean really? Could you ask for anything more than that?

So for the pst couple of months, I’ve been involved in this thing. There are many more photos to come (including, no doubt, a Friday Frock), but here is my utterly beautiful friend Gillian and her lovely new husband Thom.

I also don’t scrub up too badly (and nor do my friends)

After the wedding, in addition to feeling more than a little hungover and very, very tired, I was a little bereft. With all the shopping, the sewing, the crafting, and the chatting and giggling, I had a lot of stuff to do. I was busy. And yeah, some of it was stressful (oh, the pressure of getting that wrap right!) but it was fun, and important, and I wouldn’t ahve had it any other way. And now, I have a little of the “post-event” blues.

I’m always like this, so I saw it coming. And yet, there’s not much I can do about it. I’m not very good at endings. Even when this particular ending comes on the back of a very lovely beginning.

So, in order to perk myself up, a list of the fun things I do actually have coming up, and projects I have to do.

• A trip to Christchurch, including my cousin’s eighth birthday and a craft project involving that.
• Christmas craft begins next week. I have a bunch of sewign to do, mostly using my fabric stash.
• Finishing Caza’s hat, and getting it into the post to her.
• Emma’s book launch, and just having her in Welly.
• The TAWA’s.
• The NZ Pakistan test here in Wellington.
• Five weeks off over Christmas.
• A wedding in Byron Bay.
• A day, after Christmas and the aforementioned wedding, all about me. I’m gonna have a massage, a facial, and buy myself pretty things.
• A derby bout.
• Birthday week, involving a trip out of Wellington. A trip I may be the only one on, at this point, but still…fun!
• Hosting Emma and Megan for a BBQ before Xmas. At which I plan to serve this, and maybe this.