The Outing - Farm Labour

So not long ago we had a long weekend for Labour Day. Although technically this is supposed to be a day off for "labourers", we ended up doing some labour at Luke's parents' house, helping them work on their patio. I tell you what, at the end of that day I was mighty glad that my normal job is behind a desk and the heaviest thing I have to pick up is a pen.

I'm pretty sure the family dog Broc has now come to think of me as "The Girl Who is Always Up For Playing Soccer With Me" - or perhaps "Soccer Girl" for short.

Look at the attentiveness.

Rebekah was also there, and outdid herself in the kitchen. Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water!

Then it was time for the hard work. Bonnie was eager to help.

The next day we went to a local church in Otaki. It was such a lovely community-focused congregation, with so many cute kids. I also learnt the bass part to the song "Heart and Soul" with this girl, although I'm not sure if I'd still be able to remember it now.

Sheep!

Also managed to get some flute practice in, which I haven't done in forever (that is not an exaggeration).

And like all good weekends, we also managed to squeeze in a game of Catan, the best board game in the universe. Who won, you ask? Me!!! I am the Queen of Catan. 

Until next time :)

The Verse - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Okay, so this week has been super-duper-duper busy and it's only Tuesday! O.o! So just to prove that I haven't completely fallen off the edge of the blogosphere, here's a wee post with the lyrics of my current favourite hymn.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;

The Dress - Saturday Disney

Do you remember the Saturday morning TV show "Saturday Disney"? My sister and I used to watch it religiously as children. They always had the best cartoons. We'd watch Aladdin, Chip & Dale - so many good shows. I can't believe we'd wake up at 7 AM just to watch them. But you know, as a kid you have different priorities. Actually, I'm pretty sure that if Aladdin was on Saturday morning TV now, I would still get up to watch it. Big kid at heart - who me?

Anyway, this dress post is to prove that occasionally I can also do casual. Casual Disney style. :)

T-shirt: Disneyland

I bought this T-shirt when Laura and I went to Disneyland last year, and it's probably my favourite shirt. I love the faded vintage look, and it's super-duper comfy, which of course is essentially what makes casual clothing, well, casual. 

Cardigan: agent ninety-nine

I bought this cardigan about 5 years ago and have almost thrown it out a couple of times, as I don't really wear it that often. I don't think light grey is the most flattering shade on me. Plus it's a bit too long to wear with my high-waisted skirts. The abnormally sized buttons give it a more casual feel, as do the pockets. 

So I um and ah and put it back in the closet, but when I get in a kind of mooching mood I'm very grateful  that I haven't thrown it away. It's very well made, surprisingly warm and snuggly. Just the thing for an afternoon watching old movies.

I'm also pretty sure the reason I bought it was the name of the brand: agent ninety-nine. Have I ever mentioned I'm a huge Get Smart fan? Love it! I practically grew up on it, so I'm pretty sure that was the selling point for me. Is it bad to admit that you've bought an item of clothing because the label name appeals to your 1960s TV show nostalgia?

Jeans: Just Jeans

Shoes: Thrifted 

So I wanted to buy some good quality, reasonably priced leather books for when I go to Europe. Oh, did I mention I'm going to Europe? Well I am. Anyway, I'll explain more later. However, it seems that good quality, reasonably priced shoes no longer exist. Have you seen the utter crap they are selling for outrageous prices? I mean, $200 for a pair with leather upper! It's not even real leather and the shoes will hardly get through one season before you have to throw them out; because they're so poorly made and literally glued together the shoe shop can't even fix it! It's ridiculous! People actually buying stuff in the name of fashion. Come on consumer, educate yourself. If you're going to buy poorly made shoes, at least go to Number 1 Shoe Warehouse and pay a price that is representative of what the shoe is worth!

Sorry, slight ranting. Anyway, I ended up deciding the only way to buy a decent pair of ankle boots at  a reasonable price was to go back in time to when companies actually cared about the quality of their product. I went to a number of vintage stores before I found this pair. Real leather, well made, well looked-after (already worn in... bonus!), and my size all for just $70! Yes please!

Until next time :)

The Song - Kissing the Lipless

A short review tonight, because I have just discovered that Luke has never watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and I must rectify this immediately. This is like a movie emergency.

Many of you have probably heard of The Shins. My oh-so-awesome friend Romney, who always knows what is hot in the music area, introduced me to them in high school and I have loved them ever since. However, I must admit most of the time I have no idea what they're singing about.

For those of you who don't know, The Shins are an American indie rock band formed in 1996 from Alburquerque (man that word is fun to type), New Mexico. I guess the best way to figure out if you like them is to have a listen. Here's one of my favourite tracks, Kissing the Lipless. 

PS: I have no idea why there's an ice skater in the video.

Until next time :)

The Inspiration - Judy Garland

So I thought I would try a different kind of blog entry. As you may have noticed, I am fascinated by old movies, especially the musical movies made in the 1940s-1950s. They just made movies so different back then - they had so much heart and soul, colour and life. I've often wanted to read up about the actors and actresses that appear in these movies. What was their real life like away from the cameras? How did they become famous?

So I thought I'd start with one of my favourites: Judy Garland. I love her, mainly because The Wizard of Oz is my absolute favourite childhood movie, and also the reason for my love of shoes.  So here's some information about Judy that you might not know. 

Judy Garland, an American actress, singer and vaudevillian, was born on June 10, 1922. Despite her professional triumphs, Garland struggled immensely in her personal life, starting from when she was a child.  Her original name was Frances Gumm, but she was called "Baby" by her parents and sisters,
Mary Jane and Dorothy Virginia. Judy's two sisters shared her talent for singing and dancing, and while still young they performed as the "The Gumm Sisters" for a number of years.

 The Gumm Sisters

After being erroneously billed as the "The Glum Sisters" in Chicago, they changed their name to the Garland Sisters in 1934. Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon afterwards, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.

Busby Berkeley was asked by Louis B. Mayer to go downtown to the Orpheum Theater, to watch the Gumm Sisters vaudeville act, and to report back to him. Afterwards, Judy and her mother were brought into the studio for an interview with Mayer and Berkeley. In 1935, at the age of 13, Garland signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At only 4 feet 11.5 inches (151.1 cm), her "cute" or "girl next door" looks did not exemplify the more glamorous persona required of leading ladies at the time. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. She felt unattractive, the "ugly duckling" of the studio. Apparently Mayer referred to her as his "little hunchback".

Judy Garland worked for nearly forty-five of her forty-seven years and made 32 feature films. The Wizard of Oz is undoubtedly Garland's most famous movie. It was bought with the intention of having Judy Garland play Dorothy, but then executives switched it to Shirley Temple after Judy had already been given the role. Fox would not release Shirley Temple from her contract, nor could she hit the notes in the songs. 

 
Garland was 17 years old when she played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

She was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy award for the movie A Star is Born.

She married 5 times: David Rose (married 1941), Vincente Minnelli (married 1945), Sid Luft (married 1952), Mark Herron (married 1965), and Mickey Deans (married 1969). Her first four marriages ended in divorce. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She also had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to her death at the age of 47.

“Over the Rainbow”, the song which Garland is most famous for, was almost cut from the movie. Some executives from MGM thought the film was too long and wanted this removed. They thought it slowed down the action too early in the movie.

 

"(MGM) had us working days and nights on end. They`d give us pep-up pills to keep us on our feet long after we were exhausted. Then they`d take us to the studio hospital and knock us cold with sleeping pills... Then after four hours they`d wake us up and give us the pep-up pills again so we could work another seventy-two hours in a row."

"In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people."

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

"I wanted to believe and I tried my damnedest to believe in the rainbow that I tried to get over and couldn`t. So what? Lots of people can`t..."

 

  "If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?"

Until next time :)

The Review - The Hedgehog

The Hedgehog is a 2009 French film directed by Mona Achache, loosely based on the novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The storyline is somewhat bizarre, but it is really a very sweet movie.

Paloma is a young 11-year-old girl who is extremely intelligent but also suicidal. She decides that she will commit suicide on her 12^th birthday and prove the wisdom of her decision by filming her life. She is disgusted by the mediocrity of her parents and the mundane dullness of her world. This, she thinks, is not what I signed up for.

In Paloma's building lives Mrs Michel, the 54-year-old rough and reclusive concierge. Mrs Michel has a tremendous amount of books and an extensive literary knowledge which she uses to hide from the world, especially her bourgeois employers who see her as just a caretaker with no intelligence or talent. She is “the Hedgehog”, who looks deceptively prickly from the outside but is really sweet and very tenderhearted once she lets her guard down.

Things change when a Japanese man moves in and the three form an unlikely friendship.

The film is well shot, and there is a dramatic contrast between Mrs Michel's downstairs hideaway and the deluxe penthouse-style apartments. The story proves that you can find kindred spirits in the most unexpected people. Paloma’s insights and observations on her world are articulate and often highly amusing. However, it is the relationship between Mrs Michel and the new Japanese neighbour, Kakuro Ozu, that keeps you watching.

 Paloma: Planning to die doesn't mean I let myself go like a rotten vegetable. What matters isn't the fact of dying or when you die. It's what you're doing at that precise moment.

 Interesting Fact: Togo Igawa (Kakuro Ozu) learned his French lines in the movie phonetically. He does not speak French in real life.

Trailer: 

Until next time :)

The Celebration - Carolyn's Birthday

The weekend before last it was my very, very dear friend Carolyn's birthday. And so we helped her celebrate. You might have noticed that Carolyn features fairly regularly in my blog, because she is awesome! One of the most delightful, fun and caring people I know - she's really like family. I imagine that when Luke and I have kids she will be Aunty Carolyn, and it won't be until they're much older that they'll realise we're actually not related.

However, the other reason I wanted to write this blog was to share this with you... 

Isn't it the most amazing cake you've ever seen?! What bakers did we buy it from? How much did it cost? Well the answer is that it was made by my everso talented sister Bex and her equally talented flatmate Anna. I know - talk about talented!

 Oh, it was the birthday cake, in case you didn't figure that out. And here's the birthday girl.

 I am lost for words. Sorry about all the cake photos, but if any cake deserves to be photographed multiple times at multiple angles, it's this one.

 They spent hours putting it together and handcrafted each of the roses.

 This was actually kind of sad to watch, but what everyone was thinking was... will it taste as good as it looks?

 The answer: Yes indeed! Oh my goodness, it was delicious. White chocolate flavour - scrumptious!

 Here is one of the bakers. 

As Marie Antoinette didn't say: "Let them eat cake."

 We then went for a stroll down Oriental Parade.

 Luke also managed to snap this postcard-worthy photo of a tui. I actually really like tuis. The call they make is so unique. 

 Back to birthday celebrations. No birthday would be complete without a birthday dance!

Fun time!

Love you Carolyn!

Until next time :)