PIF

{Melbourne graffiti that caught my eye}

I love this idea and how the whole blogging land creates a tidal wave of sweet crafty love.

So here is my pledge:

“I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

I found this via tummy-ache , I'm not really sure where it started but I think Camilla and Bibbi may have been some of the early crafters... Sweet. Oh, and like Amy, I endeavour to send my gifts out before Christmas.

I'm home

{business card from Hail Mary I'm Home - Sydney}

Jo and I had a blast in Melbourne.
We shopped, shopped, ate and shopped some more. Fabulous.
And now our weary feet have bought us back home. As much as I love going on holiday, it's always nice to be home.
Here are some trip highlights:
- Visiting the Queen Victoria market. The food market was amazing. Prosciutto for $1 a slice. As cheap as chips and yum, yum, yummy. We fell instantly in love with the delicatessan rows
- Going to the Klaxons gig. Brilliant and bonkers at the same time. This was quite possibly the longest day ever. It felt like it was 3 days long. We arrived in Melbourne at 7am after getting less than than 4 hours sleep. The band didn't come on until almost 11pm! I know, I sound like a Granny. A lot of the young folk were wearing shiny nylon lycra leggings and fluro baggy tee shirts. It felt like 1984 all over again. And not in a good way.
- Lovely gelato from my most favourite of favourites gelato stores, Trampoline. Check out their website. They are very cool people.
- Taking Jo to see Once. Which was twice for me. I can't wait to see it for the third, fourth, fifth time and more.
- The hot hot heat. And equally as welcoming was the cool showery rain.
- Exploring Brunswick Street. The new Meet Me at Mikes store looks great.
- Discovering stationery paradise at Zetta Florence. Heaven!
- Catching a tram going the wrong direction just for shits and giggles. Ok, so it was a mistake but we eventually did end up at our destination which was St Kilda.
- Stocking up on more Moroccan tea glasses from Husk.
- Shopping at IKEA. Yay! And buying the most ridiculous things to cart all the way home. What?! The water jug was only $4 and will be the perfect vessel for those lovely summer Pimms drinks. See, totally justified.
- Making eyeshadow purchases from Mecca Cosmetica. Stila, I love you. Mecca, I love you too. The word on the street is that Mecca is coming to Auckland. I hope so. Thanks for keeping your ear to the ground for good news like this Miss Maria.

And thank you to my sis Jo for a fabulous week!

{Queen Victoria food market}

{lovely Koko Black thank you chocolate from Mecca Cosmetica}

{Brunswick Street}

{the finest gelato of them all}

{Trampoline - mmm, good}

{Flinders Street station}

It's holiday time!

{image by flickr member Woodyatt}

Righto, I'm outta here to Melbourne for a week.
I have been busy, unorganised and slack because I owe you a cd bonanza post (for all the wonderful cds I have received in the mail) and a 'contents of my bag' post via Alyson.
I will try to be more on to it when I get back.
But for the next week, I will be exploring and 'getting lost' in Melbourne.
And right now I need to finish packing and have to get up in 5 hours. Yikes.
Catch you all soon x

Food from Friends

On Saturday morning there was an article in the newspaper about Matthew Fraser whose life has been turned upside down by Motor Nuerone Disease.

I know Matthew's mother Kate. I first met Kate (who is the Editor of Zest - food and fashion section of The Press) when I was a student at fashion school. Even though, I am no longer actively designing, Kate has always been a supportive and loyal mentor.

Matthew is only 37. He has a loving wife. 3 young adorable children. And he will die from this degenerative disease.

Kate has called in support from local & international chefs to create this cookbook. This will make a perfect (and very reasonably priced) Christmas present. Please click here to purchase and help this family.

Keep up with Matthew by reading his blog here.

Thanks guys. x

A letter of love to my Postie

Dear Postie

Even though I was annoyed at you when you bent my Fifi Lapin 'Fifi loves Chanel' print to get it through the mail slot instead of putting it in the parcel section, today you came through by delivering some good mail.

1. A wedding invite. Hurrah! I am super excited to go to the wedding of my good school friend Louise.

2. Some mini Moo* cards. It says on the pack 'How very exciting'. And it totally is.

3. Oh you also bought me a bill for my cell phone. I have to admit, I wasn't totally overjoyed to receive this. But I talk, I text, I have to pay. I'm ok with it.

Thank you Postie. You did good today.

Love love love Sarah xx

* anyone want to do a Moo card swap?

The pink morning tea

Today is the official fundraiser day for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

My workplace got into the spirit of things with a Pink morning tea. Of course there are not many (if any) pink savoury treats you can get so we had a sugar explosion! But it was a lot of fun and we raised a great amount of money for a cause that is close to my heart.

Mmm, I am craving something savoury now....

Brighten the corner where you are!

This little autograph book was found in an old shop in Hong Kong in December 2005. The owner is unknown. This little book is full of photos, quotes and entries in English but mostly Chinese. You can find it here to peruse and translate if you are able!

I like little gems like this.

Music Tuesday - on a Wednesday

I forgot that I was going to a play at The Court Theatre last night so I couldn't do a Music Tuesday post.
And I know last week I said I was going to post about the wonderful cds that have arrived in the mail but I am not at all organised so that will now happen next week.

Remember this sad iPod post? Well it turns out that my beloved iPod was unrepairable. Sad! But the extended warranty came through and it got replaced by a brand new one. Happy! Oh so happy.

I'm loving having my tunes with me all the time and am ecstatic that I can now view videos, photos and everything is in colour. My old iPod was monochromatic! It's literally music to my ears and eyes.

I was just downloading in rainbows when I saw this post from Alyson. Alyson is tech savvy and I am not as the download didn't seem to work (or probably I am not doing something right) and I have had to email the helpdesk. Boo.

Weekend happenings

I'm a little grumpy today. I had to part with $300 of my holiday money to pay for my car insurance excess for an accident that wasn't my fault! Grrr. It's just bad timing with going away next week.

Anyhoo, I had a lovely weekend so am grateful for good things.

Went for a drive to Oxford and had this yummy hot chocolate from Seager's. Mmm, it tasted good.

And the scenery was lovely too. It's good to explore your surroundings now and then.

Short and sweet today. I'm dead tired and need an early night.

Hope you had a fabulous weekend too. x

Good Moo mail is a comin'

{image by blancucha}

I ordered some more Moo cards over the weekend. This time I ordered some Blanca Gomez ones. I adore her illustrations. I can't wait for them to arrive.

I had to get some petrol today and was inside paying when a young guy drove off with the pump hose still in his car. It ripped straight out of the pump. He obviously forgot and was mortified. I felt bad for him. I also felt bad that I found it a teensy bit funny.

Music Tuesday - Snow Patrol gig review

{image from flickr member Fizzy Fizah}

While I was away from my blog I went to a Snow Patrol gig.
I knew I liked their sound but to be honest I hadn't listened to them excessively. Until now. Oh my. They were A M A Z I N G!
Every second, every song was fantastic. It was worth every cent.

What makes a gig for me is not only the music, of course that's a big part of it, but the band has to be enjoying it you know? There is nothing worse than going to a gig where the band seem to not want to be there. It's as dull as dishwater. Snow Patrol was the polar opposite. They were so passionate and it really got the crowd going.
Especially when Gary said 'we warmed the cockles of his heart'. He had me at 'Hello'.

I believe the band is taking some time off from touring to write and record some new material so when you next get the chance to see them live, don't even think twice. You won't regret it.

Next week: I will be sharing pieces of all the great mix cds I have received in the mail. You can hardly wait can you?

By the way - thank you for your sweet words on my return. It is heart warming to have blogging friends like you!

And to Sarah & Lacey - no I didn't make Mr Frog iPod cover. Sadly I cannot crochet whatsoever! My sister Jo got him for me from Spitalfields market in London. He sure is pretty.

I'm doing the iPod shuffle

Here's a fun little game from Lacey.

Put your iPod in shuffle mode and name the first 10 songs that play. Even if some you would prefer to keep secret!

Mine played like this:

1. Miracle Drug by U2 - a perfect way to start. I love this song. It's true, I am a big U2 fan but this song didn't have that much impact on me until I saw the movie 7 Days. Love it. The part when Bono sings the word 'sweetheart'? Well that just makes me weak at the knees. Are you hearing me Maria?

2. Viva Forever by the Spice Girls - ok you got me. There goes all my music cred out the speaker! Well I like this song so get over it!

3. Cry Me A River by Justin Timberlake - ha ha am I digging myself into a hole here? At least you can tell I'm not cheating. It's true, I like this song too! JT is coming to NZ for 3 sold out concerts in November and whilst I don't love him enough to pay for flights and accommodation in Auckland, if he came to Christchurch I would be there.

4. Road to Joy by Bright Eyes - love pretty much everything that comes out of Conor Oberst's mouth. I love how angst ridden he sounds in this song.

5. California by Phantom Planet - will always remind me of The OC but it's a good song in it's own right. A nice summer tune.

6. First Day of my Life by Bright Eyes - Again, I LOVE his voice! This came up on Lacey's shuffle mix too. Nice coincidence. But as Bright Eyes has already featured in my shuffle mode, does anyone else notice that once your iPod has selected an artist they play more frequently in shuffle mode. I'm tired, did that setence even make sense?

7. What's Left Of Me by Nick Lachey - oh my god, can my reputation recover? Yep, I love it. Honestly, this is a good sing along in the car song. Trust me!

8. Too Lost in You by the Sugababes - lovely. Will always remind me of Love Actually.

9. Numb (live) by Linken Park - I love Chester. Enough said.

10. Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks - LOVE The Kinks! Love Ray Davies. Love Muswell Hill in London because of him. I love to sing along to this. You can't help to tap your toes to this little tune either.

There you go. I may have to do this again, to make up for the cheesy hits that embarassingly made it onto my list. I need to redeem some kind of cool. Have a go yourself and no cheating!

Night night x

And I'm back

Meet Mary-Jane. The cute little reason I have been away for one month. Today Mary-Jane's Ma & Pa arrived back from their jaunt to Europe and thus, I am back here. I had a lovely time away. My own little holiday. It's good to be back though. I missed you!

Needless to say I have missed out on ALOT of blogging posts, so it may take me a while to catch up on all that you have been doing.

I had a busy time so will have to back track a little over the next week to fill you in on all the goss but it goes a little like this:

- I missed some birthdays. I know, unforgivable!

- I ate some good Japanese food. And some equally as good Thai food.

- I fell in love with Gary Lightbody.

- I received a plethora of good music in the mail. And some lovely other surprise goodies.

- I revelled in the glorious sunshine of Spring.

- I bought fresh tulips for the house. And daffodils. And more tulips.

- I started my Christmas present shopping list. Does that make up for forgetting birthdays?

- I laughed. And laughed some more.

- And then a silly man cut the corner and crashed into my car and I cried. I'm fine. My car is being repaired at the panel beater's so I have a loan car from them which is automatic and quite zippy and has power steering! My car doesn't, so it is quite a treat for me.

And I'm still bloody reading Harry Potter!

More soon...