365 in 2011

Sunday
The rain fell and fell and fell. We flooded, just a little. It was a weatherbomb.
Yet, by the time I went to rehearsal, it was sunny.


Monday
Headed out to The Royal to meet up with a former coworker for a lot of talking and a little bit of wine.


Tuesday
I headed out to rehearsal. A little glad I had not planned to fish or swim.


Wednesday
We left Wellington promptly and, for the first in what felt like a long time, I was home before it was even a little bit dark.
(I also really like this photo)


Thursday
We took 10 minutes out from Budget Day to go and see a coworker parade past in his cap and gown.


Friday
The lights are on and it's after 5 on a Friday.


Saturday
I helped out the ICW Productions boys with their V48HRS Film. Possibly called Dirty Laundry, possibly Sock-erpunch, it is a surreal kind of funny.
I played a neighbour.


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Last night, in Wellington

view larger, on black.

Talking about what I cannot talk about

I have said it time and time and time again on this darling little site, I know, but I am going to say it again: I do not talk about my work on my website.
So I've been kind of silent lately.
Work has been busy and hard and stressful. But I have been supported by coworkers (former and current), by friends, and by family. By people I barely know on the internet. My support has been less a safety net (full of holes) and more a giant cushion (this is a complicated metaphor and I don't like it very much. BUT IT STAYS, a half glass of wine has spoken). Which is lovely.

And yesterday I signed a brand new contract for a role I am excited about and which I pretty much helped write. So I'm set for a while. I hope. Unless it all gets weird again. Oh lord.

In summary: it sucked, I cried, people were lovely, I cried, I have a new (but also not-new) job, I didn't cry.
Wine all around!

Oh and the photo up there? completely and utterly unrelated. It's just my new necklace.
I stalked this necklace around Wellington. My darling sister told me about one that she loved (cream ceramic bones and gold chain) and I loved the idea (but not the colours. We may both be brown-haired and brown-eyed but I am a winter and she is a ... not winter. Autumn? perhaps).
The very next day I saw a girl in a completely different part of the city wearing one. Then the following weekend I saw a girl wearing one with pink bones and silver chain and I was smitten. THE UNIVERSE WANTED ME TO HAVE THIS NECKLACE.

I googled and googled and googled and good LORD but there are a LOT of ceramic bone necklaces in the internet universe.
Twitter told me the designer was a New Zealander called Penny Foggo. I emailed the store and begged them to order one for me. And just last week? the horrible week? it arrived. I love it.

365 in 2011

Sunday
I do quite enjoy the art on the rubbish bins around in Eastbourne.


Monday
This wall is one of my least favourite parts of Park Place but every so often, when the light falls just right, it works.


Tuesday
My office has an amazing view but sometimes I only get to see it at dawn and dusk.


Wednesday
Another dawn. This time with added mist.


Thursday
A hard week at work. Leaving the office late and waiting for public transport.


Friday
I managed to eat dinner on Friday night. For only the third time this week. I was terrible at being a grown up.


Saturday
Additions to my wall of necklaces: dolomite pendant from my lovely family, and pink ceramic bones by Penny Foggo.
I love them both.


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Exhausted.

365 in 2011

Sunday
Headed round to the hamlet-esque Eastbourne for rehearsals.


Monday
The harbour was as calm as my nerves were jangly on the walk to my tattoo appointment.


Tuesday
Everything was shaken at work. It was a long draining day.


Wednesday
I didn't need to go to the supermarket but I couldn't face heading straight to the office.


Thursday
I stayed late on what was possibly my last day working at Parliament.
I wish I could elaborate but I don't talk about my work online.


Friday
A macro shot of the beautiful hot-pink daisy a coworker bought me on what was possibly my last day. So sweet.


Saturday
I love the colours of guacamole all lined up in a row. It's one of the few times that the primary green of our bench top doesn't make me cringe.


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Straight hair and nerves before my tattoo appointment.

Tattoo Number Seven - St Paul's Cathedral

When I've been asked what I planned for my seventh tattoo my answer was ... generally longer than a tweet. I eventually whittled it down to: a traditional style reinterpretation of "St Paul's during the blitz" inside an ornate gold frame with traditional roses underneath. Which is only 130 characters long. But kind of confusing.



The idea for this tattoo came to me fully formed last November ...

It's no secret that I adore London. It was London which made me believe in the ridiculous Carrie-Bradshaw-esque notion of falling in love with a city. St Paul's Cathedral is at the centre of my London.

It was crossing the Millennium Bridge with my hands clasped round a coffee and that Dome in my sights when I couldn't keep from breaking into a wide wide smile.


St Paul's during the Blitz - photo by Herbert Mason

I've loved the photo of St Paul's during the Blitz by Herbert Mason for ... as long as I can remember.

It was used as symbol of resilience, to show that - even as late as 1940 - London could not be brought low by destruction. What was not then well known was that St Paul's was assiduously protected by local forces and citizens alike.

It's a beautiful image and a beautiful sentiment. But I digress (SHOCKING, I KNOW).



I chose a frame to anchor the image, to make it stand alone as a tattoo. The roses link it from my right arm to my right side to my left thigh. And just because I love traditional tattoo style roses.



Jeremy Gill from Tattoo Machine did all the work and he was amazing. I loved the drawing and when he freehanded the smoke? It was kind of terrifying. He really was moving the machine like he was using a coloured pencil. Blech.
I ended up bleeding quite a lot.
And despite all of that? it wasn't really all that painful.







Twelve days from now he's going to add the colour. I can't wait.


And so, Saint Paul joins my other darling tattoos:
1. Cupcake
2. Crown
3. Rose
4. Sugarskull
5. Jitterbug Perfume
6. In Omnia Paratus

365 in 2011

Sunday
Easter Sunday - the shops were shut and the heavens opened so Craig and I cloistered ourselves inside Park Place.
I never like being inside for 24 full hours so I stepped outside between showers to take this photo.


Monday
Another holiday - I spent a good portion of it listing clothes on Trade Me.


Tuesday
A recent (June 2007) magazine at the Chippie.


Wednesday
After work I made my way across town to see what Gill, my tattoo artist, had come up with.
I love love love what he's done.


Thursday
Rain soaked wreaths from ANZAC day.


Friday
Catching the penultimate train home in the middle of the royal wedding.


Saturday
Life was all a bit too much so while Craig was out doing his own thing I stayed home and painted my nails and luxuriated in the quiet.


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When life is all a bit too much

Sometimes when life just seems a bit too too much? 
I buy hair dye and strange nail polish and spend Saturday night all alone just being quiet. Shhhh. It'd be silent here at Park Place except the heater is humming and my fingers are taptaptapping against this iPad.

I watched just the littlest bit of the Royal Wedding last night. It was on but silent and I was hanging out with a coworker. That was much much more fun than listening to the inane commentary. 

35 hours from now I will be climbing the stairs to my garret tattoo studio (it is attic-like but not wretched) for my new tattoo. I am ridiculously, goosebump-ily excited. 

Sometimes you just have to focus on the small things - feeling pretty, people who make you laugh, adding to my personal art gallery.

 

365 in 2011

Sunday
I padded around the house and Craig watched the V8s.


Monday
A rainy afternoon bled into an eerie pink/orange dusk.


Tuesday
I made my own way home and had a little wander around the rain-fresh gardens of Park Place.


Wednesday
Cotton candy dawn stained the bay.


Thursday
We had an Easter morning-tea at work. I took the opportunity to make little easter basket cupcakes.
They were freaking adorable, if I do say so myself.


Friday
A lazy good Friday. All I managed was reading half of book 2 and half of book 3 of the Hunger Games trilogy.
And working out how to make my plait stand out all professional-like.


Saturday
I helped out at the door of Craft 2.0, a modern craft fair.
This is the stall for Plucky Sheila, Kate Sheppard features prominently.


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Reason 7468245 why I love my Husband

He is the only person I know who actually, seriously, unironically twiddles his thumbs.



He also has no idea I took this video. He can watch a screen with unwavering intensity.