a song for friday

This is really just a place-holder to say I'll be back. My Mum was admitted to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning and has been there ever since.

It's funny how quickly you settle into a new routine, even if that routine changes every day. Every day we get a little slicker, and we feel less like we're waiting for something, and more like this is life, and we'll do it as well as we can.

I don't really know what to tell you; we hope she'll be able to come home next week sometime, but she's up and down, so we really don't know. It's scary, but it's not as bad as you might think; we are all together, ray of sunshine nieces included. Every night this week, some blessed soul has cooked us dinner (and there are 8 of us, most on the greedy side). Even the dogs have settled down a bit; they know that everyone will come home eventually. Everybody has a part, and we're all crucial to keeping each other afloat. That knowledge, and knowing that everything that can be done for her is being done, means that even though things aren't exactly right, there's still right in there.

friday round-up

1. More cabin love. It's from here, but I found it on my friend Huni's blog (which is one of my favourites on the whole wide internet). Among other things, she makes jewellery (which I someday hope to have in the shop), and is also one of the most stylish people I know.

2. Celine Kim (of my last post, although probably of about a million things before that) has a blog, and on that blog posted pictures of a wedding she photographed recently, and that wedding included the MOST BEAUTIFUL WEDDING DRESS THESE EYES HAVE EVER SEEN. In case the capitals didn't convey it: I want to go to there. And the bride's perfect hair! Celine's photos are beautiful; see the rest of them here. Do these photos make me wish I'd worn a bra on my wedding day? Yes, they do. Hindsight = 20/20.

3. I have to mention Lorde and Valerie Adams, making NZ, and particularly NZ women, look awesome this week. So nice to be in international news for something other than our regrettable PM's gaffes, or the messes happening in parliament...

4. Springsteen is coming. March 1, Mt Smart Stadium. I should be elated, but I'm not, because the timing is terrible. TERRIBLE!

5. Do you remember what real punk sounds like? As well as being righteously angry, it's the most joyful sounding music I can think of; the nearest anything comes is two tone (which is partly derived from punk anyway). I thought punk, and the joy of punk, was dead, and then Jimmy showed me this video of Diarrhea Planet covering Springsteen's ode to life and youth, Born To Run, and I believe again. Play it loud, and don't let the vocals put you off; by the end you will think they're perfect.

This is barely a speaking of which, but I never get to show off about this, so: Speaking of punk, did you know I've actually seen Mick Jones and Paul Simonon in concert? (If you whippersnappers are thinking duh, The Clash, may I inform you that Mick was fired a couple of months after I was born, the band disintegrated when I was three, and when you get to thirty you will realise that it is not that old, so this story IS a big deal for me. Would that I had seen them play live with Joe and Topper!) Well, that was a disappointing brag. Okay, how about this: Speaking of two tone, Jimmy and I saw The Specials (minus Jerry Dammers) last year, and they were AWESOME. That's better.

Celine and Eloise

These pictures of Celine Kim and her beautiful daughter Eloise were featured on Boots and Pine a while ago. I've looked at them a dozen times and just don't get sick of them, so I've decided to share them here. 

My favourite thing about them is the completely natural trust Eloise has in Celine; like she knows, without having to know, that every time she reaches for Celine's hand, it will be there.

I also love the clothes. I feel as if most of the features I see with women and their babies are totally unnatural (woman made-up and coiffed within an inch of her life, baby in brand-new adult-inspired get-up looking at woman with expression of who the hell are you?); a fantasy, obviously, but one that doesn't make me feel anything except a desire to go into the yard and wash my face with the hose. Celine's clothes are obviously hers, and tell me a lot about her. I love how light they are, and how I imagine they would move, and how effortlessly cool their effect is.

a song for a grey tuesday

There's something so satisfying about having weather to match your mood. Not that you can't feel energetic on a cold and cloudy afternoon, but it seems almost unnatural in its contrast to the dull colours, and the wind that chases you in, not out. (I feel very differently about storms, though, which breathe life I forget I have into me. I always felt some sympathy for Lady Macbeth; if I was going to do something really evil, I'd do it during a wicked storm, too, and more power to me if the horses went crazy.)

Anyway, we've printed out our agreement to lease, and I feel as if I should be smoking a cigar in my shirtsleeves while I sign it, smiling wryly at a camera. And then, with things really and truly underway, I should then be making lists, and sorting clothes, and filling in the cash-book I downloaded months ago, and generally being excited. But the weather! The weather says no! The weather says stay in bed, and while away the afternoon staring through the sky, and thinking about how beautiful grey can be. Am I bigger than the weather?!

Even if I was, I'm not bigger than the love between John Lennon and Yoko Ono. No cigars today. Just this song, and musings, and more chocolate than is good for me. (When you don't bother putting on pants, you stop worrying about being able to fit them; it's a win-win.)

All images from here.

homebody

We've been home a week now, and as much as I miss my family and our friends in Auckland, I love being back in our house, surrounded by all of my bits and pieces. I love waking up to see the flowers I got for my birthday that somehow survived the intrepid trip home, and lying in bed in the late afternoon (hmm) and watching the sky darken over the harbour, and seeing Joe's little hoodie-clad body on the couch in the middle of the night. Coming home after a break away has renewed my vigour for planning, and decorating, and rearranging, and doing menial little things like wiping the condensation off the windows in the morning, so I've been very interested in all of the posts around the place featuring other people's houses. Interest in interiors (and exteriors) has been a notable point in my journey to grown-upness (sorry; adulthood was just too weird), and I don't think I'll ever get over the novelty of really caring where the table goes, and what stays on the coffee table. One of these days I'll take some new pictures of my house; I was given some beautiful, beautiful curtains in this fabric as a leaving/birthday present when we were in Auckland (ie leaving my old job, not leaving the city; I can be a pain, but I'm not that bad) that will go up this weekend. My ever-diminishing memory means I keep missing trademe auctions for new lamps and chairs for the shop... and has led me completely off track. The photos. Do excuse me.

Old Chum / A Beautiful Mess / Cabin Porn / Closet Visit / The Brick House / Cabin Porn

this just in!

This wasn't meant to be today's post but life happens, you guys. Guess what? TELEVISION is coming to New Zealand!!! Unfortunately, by "New Zealand" I mean "The Powerstation, Auckland" only, but considering I didn't even know they were still together (let alone touring), picking our biggest city makes sense, and The Powerstation is one of my favourite venues. October 24. I should reconcile myself now to the fact that we probably won't be able to swing it. I guess that's okay. They cared enough about us to come! That's enough for me! (Okay, not really - in fact, not even close, but if it's an amazing show I'm going to be really, really resentful. Fake it till you make it. Is a phrase I've never really made my mind up about.)

Also just in, an update on the shop premises; they hope to have all of the work done by September 1st, so if we learn from history and give them two weeks after that, we should be able to move in halfway through next month! Depending on how long we take to paint... hopefully I've sped up since I painted my bedroom bottle-green in fourth form. I spent most of the time sitting at the top of the ladder wearing my fairy wings listening to Radiohead, and gave up after one coat. God, that green was oppressive. Anyway, yuss and yuss! Let us bask in the Marquee Moon-light.

yesterday's news

Oh, hai guys!!!

Yes, I'm still alive, and so is this blog, in spite of the lying very still and looking like we weren't breathing for the last week. We're both very sorry; things have been ten kinds of CRAZY. Birthdays, family members in hospital, travel (okay, inter-island, barely two hours travel, but still - travel), sleep-deprivation, and a new project I can't share with you yet but is taking a lot of time and energy. CRAZY.

There have been so many things that have happened that I've wanted to post here but just haven't been able to make it, so no more time making oblique excuses. Let's catch up!

1. Return of BIG DAY OUT!!! Damn straight, I'm excited! I was one of those people who blamed fickle hipster youths (yeah, I'm thirty now; I say "youths") and Laneway for BDO's demise, and this past summer, Auckland was the poorer for it. Now not only is it back, Arcade Fire are headlining(!!!) AND it's (kind-of) walking distance from my parents' house. LIFE IS GOOD! The last BDO we went to was one of the best days I can remember in my entire life - IT WAS THAT GOOD. Blueberry daiquiris in the train. Painful carnival rides. Wolfmother killing Baba O'Reilly. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros playing Home, in the rain while the small crowd all danced together like we were leftovers from Monterey (nb this was before Home blew up and the hipster youths got hold of it). Sia, resplendent in a portable picture frame, talking about the "brown note". And Iggy Pop. Vive la Big Day Out!

2. I didn't make it to the California exhibition, or any of my favourite op shops while I was in Auckland - things were THAT CRAZY. But don't cry for me.

3. There's a new Closet Visit! I'm not sure how new because it had been a while since I checked in, but anyway - Jeana's back! This time she visits Sophie Buhai, who has a very tidy house and wears pants beautifully. I really love a woman who wears pants beautifully.

4. The film festival hits Dunedin in a few days. If you feel like I've been talking about the festival forever, imagine how I feel - I didn't get to even one while we were in Auckland! Our programme is like the Auckland programme's half-eaten twin, but if we look at it in a glass half full kind of way, it includes two of our must-sees... Nah, I didn't convince myself either. We have worse weather! We need more movies!

5. I have completely forgotten any other news I might have had (the last point wasn't even news), so here's a song. Jimmy's been working on music for a new restaurant opening in Auckland soon, so there's been a lot of Southern blues, early rock, and Orleans jazz playing in the house. It's cacophonic, a bit messy, pretty dark at times, and just the best reflection of life I can think of. This is song you might recognise from Treme (which has the best music): the Rebirth Brass Band's Feel Like Funkin' It Up.