Pauper's midwinter Christmas Party

This was held last night at my house - and indeed, everyone turned up in rags with smudges of ash and patches to enjoy a feast of slow-cooked pork and trifle.
My first trifle - from out of Annabelle Langbein's book.
The party group
Enjoying first course.
And then we opened our mystery one dollar gifts - Cathy with her false eyelashes
Gordon and his Thai meal in a cup
Helen with her Sudoku cube
Dave and his elephant mug
John with his Bamboo King of world place mats
Me with my sole massagers
Naomi with her folded paper vase with swans.

Cirque de Soleil last night

A good evening had by all at the dress rehearsal for Dralion last night. Bought my souvenir mug in happy remembrance of the contortions and twistings of those tiny bodies on stage last night. Amazing.
Front of the paper full of some of the spectacle. Wasn't I a lucky girl to get a free ticket?

One of those quirky days

Work has been pouring in - what a thrill! Just when you think the recession is taking a big bite of your own business, three jobs came in today. The local council love my little drawings of neighbourhood scenarios and have asked for more. Yay! Love doing them too, so it's a win/win.
And though this may seem a small thing, we finally got a new loo today - pristine white one, to replace the old original stained pink. Thrilling. Nuff said.
This bag of old spuds found by me and belonging to flatmate wandered down the hall and waited outside his door for his return. Yes, those truly are root systems.
And I must trim back the bleak and window tapping vegetation outside my studio before it becomes impossible to see people going past and wave at them.

A long week

. . . it started on Monday June 22, when my old flatmate from 1986 on the left of this photo chose to end her life here. My thoughts have been filled with Linda and what might have driven her to such drastic action. She's with the Lord now - uninvited but welcomed home I'm sure.
I did a spot more sewing on Saturday, which was a rainy, foggy sort of day. Made the top you see me wearing, which has four buttons from my mother's button jar of olden times on it.

And the fog made for some interesting shots of our front lawn late at night with the flash off.

Working from home

Okay, it's REALLY winter now! See how black it is behind Jan and I on our early morning walk this morning! Yep, that's after 7am, around 7.15, down by the harbour side, along the walkway there. Who'd know it.
And this is my quick click of the view toward Auckland. . . just glimpsable through the bushes. You can tell I didn't want to stand too long in the cold to take the shot.
And a record of the seasonal fruit can be seen in my daily breakfast. This is my homemade muesli, covered in kiwifruit and golden kiwifruit, mandarins, and homemade yoghurt, with blueberries from a can sprinkled on top. Mmmmmm.

Button garment continued

Great big dead leaves filling the pavement at GreyLynn when Jan, Helen and I went there this morning. Had a wonderful coffee at Jafa's cafe further down the road, and then checked out Moa for the latest in Kiwi fashion. Mouth watering, we left and wandered across to the bookshop, where we had to navigate past this huge river of dried leaves.
Winter has thrown off her garments indeed!
And I have thrown some on. . .
This is my latest creation - out of musky pink velvet and a pile of buttons I got from Spotlight.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I saw this at a bookshop in GreyLynn this morning and fell about the place laughing - it was so unexpected! The catchlines in it are very funny, and all the more so if you've read the book.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains"

"So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read."

"A few of the guests, who had the misfortune of being too near the windows, were seized and feasted on at once".

"The classic regency romance - now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem"

Frosty fascination

This is what greeted me this morning when I looked out my bedroom window. Needless to say I dragged my walking shoes on and camera and headed out.
Mmmmmm
Poor sods heading in to the city in the fog on the Nth Western Motorway in the distance
A delightful patch up icy grass on top of the other grass
Golden light - almost like candlelight for softening the features.
Auckland can just be seen through the fog - the Sky Tower particularly