Life

So, I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. Mainly on car rides to melbourne and also while sewing. I have been super busy lately as we renovate our kitchen at home. It's exhausting work and often leaves our house in a mess. Most of us ponder from time to time. I guess that a natural process we all go through. Sometimes I find myself thinking about the things I still want to achieve.

 Now don't get me wrong. I am completely content with my life right now. I am more content than I have ever been. But, sometimes I find myself reading a blog or an article and I think to myself - maybe I should have followed my writing career a lot more seriously when I was young. Not quite the delusional fantasies of writing for Rolling stone magazine - but more to the point of trying to get a cadetship and following that passion.

 However by fate (or something, or maybe my inquisitive nature and persistent) I have started to write for a couple of lil mag's/zines. It's not the big time but it is something that I am throughly enjoying right now. I will post more about this as time ticks on. I really do appreciate having this outlet too - writing on my blog (when I get the chance!) elevates the sense of having filled that void to put pen to paper, or perhaps fingers to the keyboard.

 I am hoping this post doesn't quite come across as a higgly piggly mess. I like to share my thoughts I think its important on the odd chance there might be some one else out there going through the same thing as I am. For now though I plan to keep up the writing and try and process things a little clearer and more concise.

Life - its a funny thing.

1 Year

It's been 1 year since we moved to Castlemaine and I can't honestly believe that the time has gone so fast. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were selling our house in Hurstbridge and busily preparing storage for furniture and hiring removal vans. It goes to show that things that we can spend hours pondering over and planning are over and done with quicker than we think.

It was a decision that we had toyed with for years. Catlemaine had a familiar feeling and homely feel to it whenever we stayed as visitors. I am not sure why we took so long to make the transition up here. I guess looking back on it - it wasn't the right time for us. For most of us we over think things too much as well, that may have had something to do with it. We are here now and thats the main thing.

It has been a busy time for us in the last 12 months: we got married last October and the lead up to that was all about introducing our family to our new town, we opened our lil pop up shop 'the reclaimed room' and also completed the NEIS course.

So, much has happened and on top of that we are currently renovating our small 1940's weatherboard house. It is a big change living in this house compared to the large mudbrick house we used to live in. Although we thought that the earthly walls of the past house were what we wanted, it slowly became a mecca of high maintenance issues that stopped that house from being as homely as this one. But, in saying that I do not regret buying that house and living there for two and a half years. A lot happened in that house and a lot changed for us.

Most of us live with the learnings of our past and take that into our future. I am proud to say I am happy with most things in my life. Although we can't choose how we are brought up and where we live as children, I think it is important when you get older to respect what you had and improve on it throughout your life. I hope this isn't sounding cryptic right now. It's a case of making sure you are at some point in your life happy with your surroundings.

My kids and hubby have flourished from living in this beautiful town. We have all become more aware of ourselves and our capabilities. Castlemaine has given us the ability to take a breath and evaluate what we want to be. Unassuming as they may be I think some locals aren't too sure of the people moving up here. I am lucky enough to have met many lovely people through the school and kindergarten and of course through our shop.

I would never move back to Melbourne, not even if you paid me. You could say the Castlemaine lifestyle has got me. My etended family don't quite understand it - I think they wonder how I can live far away from them. But, its nothing personal about them - its more about getting out there and living a different life. Sometimes we need to cut the apron strings to truly know who we are. No one is too far away for a visit and we do go to Melbourne for day trips a fair bit. My heart will tell you that I miss my house when we are away, my head will tell you that I am being silly and should visit more often. But we are here now and that is where we will stay. I love my life now and even though some days I still battle with getting out of bed, I know that this is where we belong right here in this town.

Bright things to beat the gloomy day blues.

The weather has been bitter the last few days. Gusts of wind have woken me up at night and kept me awake most of the night. Not to mention made bad hair days even worse.

 Its weather to snuggle up to your loved one and drink red wine and eat chocolate and I'm going to do just that. 

x

Five things

Vintage clothing: skirts, dresses, pants, blouses and jackets. I love it all. Particularly the 1950's. There is a real trend at the moment for vintage clothing. My first ever purchase of a vintage clothing item was when I was 14 = from the 'flea market' underground on Swanston street in Melbourne. Since then I have loved nothing more than finding treasures in op shops and vintage stores.

Elk Accessories - One of my favourite jewellery lines. I have several pieces of their range. We have visited the Preston store many times and love the boutique feel of the place.

Coffee - skinny latte to be exact. At least one a day when I am at work. It has to be good coffee at exactly the right temperature. If it's not coffee then it has to be really nice strong tea.

Bright, funky fabrics, all are amazing and fun to work with when you are making toys and dolls for little ones. I would love to go on a fabric buying trip one day. I also love beautiful upholstery fabrics.

Funky hair - if you have hair then why not be creative with it, I say. When I get the chance I try to style my hair in my favourite pin curl fringe and victory rolls. It was a lot easier when my hair was long, but now I pop a bandana on and curl my fringe up to create a bit of a funky 50's style hair style.

x

Love Vintage Show Melbourne

Last friday I drove down to melbourne to visit the 'Love Vintage show' in Melbourne - I wasn't sure what to expect but armed with an armful of vintage clothes to wear I got ready with my sister. While Kate channelled the rockabilly era I was channeling the 1940's. The day started early for me with an application of pincurls in my hair. I love styling my hair in a vintage way - I did this great day course a while ago which was very informative on what techniques to use. My outfit was a bit of an accident - I had bought a blouse to mums but it didn't fit so I had to raid mums wardrobe - at the back I found a vintage Katie's jacket and blouse - just right for the skirt I was wearing. Thanks to mum my wardrobe crisis was averted and I also dug out a few more items of vintage gold such as a purple capelet...awesome.

After a crazy drive to Carlton (crazy because I had to do a u-turn across tram tracks and into on coming traffic to turn into the parking space) we arrived at the Carlton exhibition building. The building itself oozes culture and heritage of a time gone by. I found myself staring up at the ceiling - which can be quite hazardous when you are in a room full of people all zipping in and out of the crowd. The colours and pictures painted onto the archways and ceilings have a very elegant look to them which I imagine was the back drop to many balls and celebrations over the years.

They had a fashion show on the friday night which was wonderful because it showed the many different mediums to vintage: rockabilly, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, Miss Fisher inspired, Opera inspired, Mod and so on. The women who were game enough to take to the catwalk all looked fabulous and most won prizes for their efforts - I think next year I might give this a go.

Amongst all the beautiful stalls of clothing, accessories and nick nacks was 'Patturn' which is a lovely lampshade company creatively made by Rachel Burke. We currently stock two of her lamps in 'the reclaimed room.' Rach actually gave me the tickets to the love vintage show (for that I am more than grateful - such a nice thing to do) and after only liaising over the internet Rach and I finally met in person. Her stall looked awesome and I am sure that she had a very successful weekend. Oh, and the dress she was wearing was gorgeous!

So, it really was a lovely evening - I got to catch up with my sister, meet Rach and have a ogle at many vintage treats - what more could a girl ask for. Next year I am going to take my man along - he looks good in his 1940's suit don't you think?
x

5 things

I have chosen 5 photos today to talk about. The first - one of my tattoos - I got this for my 30th birthday. It represents to me one of my favourite things to do - sew. I was amazed at tis design as all I had seen were a few pencil marks on a piece of paper before I had it done. I love the shadow lines of the thread and the detail of the cotton reel. Sometimes I forget I have this and then I turn around while standing in front of the mirror in our bathroom and say 'oh, yeah - thats right.'

I love making dolls. When I get a chance I come up with a quirky lil lady or man who has its own personality. The doll pretty much comes alive as I make the clothing and add the hair. This is what started 'the reclaimed room' and inspires me to keep going.

My desk. My own lil part of our house.

Fresh eggs from our chickens - at times really big eggs from our chickens!

The forest at the back of our lil town. A large pine plantation where small creatures frolic and tiny fungi grow with amazing colours. I wonder are there fairy's in this forest? Maybe so. 

The vintage fair.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon setting up a stall for the vintage fair in Maryborough. It was something that they contacted me about and something I got very excited about straight away! It was a bit of a challenge fitting all of my vintage pieces and sample of the shops great range.

Sunday was also mothers day, so after having a beautiful breakfast in bed - thanks to hubby and the kids - I drove over to Maryborough. It was a great way to spend mothers day - dressing up in 1950's style and speaking to people about my passion for vintage pieces and whimsical jewellery.

The day was great I was visited by many vintage enthusiasts and even a couple of girls dressed in the cutest rockabilly clothing. It was a day of varied ages and interests. It was such a wonderful day for meeting people and hearing about their passions and reason for choosing vintage wares.

I am off to the 'I love vintage' fair in melbourne on friday night with my lil sister for a night of dressing up and shopping.

X

5 things.

Five things about me.

My middle name is Sara (pronounced Sarah) after my great grandmother – she was one of those women who worked really hard to look after her family, she collected gum leaves and sold them to the eucalyptus oil factory to make money while her husband worked away.

I have a soft spot for kitsch style ornaments – currently in my collection I have several Bambi style pieces.

My puppy is named after Gotye – well, his real name Wally. It came about after a chirpy song he released last year called I feel better.

I’m scared of birds! I love the look of birds but if one flies near my head I scream and go-to-ground. When visiting friends who had cockatiels free ranging in their house I would ask them to put them back in the cage because I couldn’t concentrate on our conversation.

At some stage I would like to learn to knit. So I can make funky scarves for the wintertime. Long, bright, pure wool kind of ones.

Groovin the moo - my take.

It’s been a while since I have been to a music festival. The last one I went to was ‘A day on the green’ a few years back. So I was delighted when I saw the line up for Bendigo Groovin The Moo this year. I didn’t know what to expect and all I had to compare it to was Melbourne’s Big Day Out. It was much the same set as Big Day Out – 2 main stages and one large circus tent adorned the Bendigo showgrounds. It had an over 18 area with a bar and several strips of food venders and a market stall space, oh and lets not forget the merch stand!

We started the day watching several local acts one in which was Goldfields they were amazing. So much so, I couldn’t believe they were from Ballarat. They had the crowd pumped – people dancing and singing along. It really set the bar for the rest of the day. We also caught the end of Mutemath who crowd surfed on an air mattress complete with disco lighting around the outside. He also got the crowd to hold his drum kit up while he played it sitting on a crowd member’s shoulders. We only stumbled across Mutemath because we left Matt Corby’s set. Although Mr Corby has much respect from us, we found his music to be a bit boring and not really festival orientated – he would be much better in an intimate venue. We spent our time between bands queuing for drinks, food and the toilet - literally at least an hour and a half of our day was taken up by this. That I suppose was the point where I began to feel old. By this time there were lots of drunk young girls and boys running amuck. Most of which (girls) were throwing themselves at Matt Corby.

By far one of the most entertaining people we saw that day was 360. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand. We danced, we sang and had a great time. He is a true entertainer and someone who is going to go really far. I would go see 360 again in a heartbeat. The other stand out ‘dance my arse off’ band was definitely Hermitude. They had me entranced by their addictive beats and reverberation of bass through my chest – oh and of course their song Speak of the Devil.

While bands such as Parkwaydrive, San Cisco, Big Scary, Ball Park Music and The Getaway Plan catered for the teen pop generation and acted as fillers the band we really came to see was City and Colour. While we waited for them to come on we were inundated by young girls who had no idea who the band was and persisted on trying to get past us by crawling between our legs – needless to say they didn’t get far and ended up with very sore fingers. Yes, I still have my ‘live music demeanour’ after all this time. City and Colour didn’t disappoint, playing a range of their old stuff and their new stuff. By far the best song they played was Grand Optimist. While the young girls behind us pushed and danced as if they were listening to completely different music than us, we drowned them out with our singing and admiration for Canada’s best export.

Let us not forget Public Enemy who sound tested their set the whole way through City and colours acoustic pieces – but no one was game enough to tell them to shut up. The band of twenty five years service to their fans brought it! They entertained the crowd with Americana rap at its best. Flava Flave got down and shook the crowds hand’s all the while his over sized clock dangling between his ribs – dressed completely in red while his bouncers wore their signature army camouflage get up. I can’t say I was  ever a fan of their music but I can proudly say I was witness to some amazing rap that night.

Of course my favourite by far - Kimbra - she was amazing! I don’t think I can honestly say I have ever seen another entertainer with her amount of energy. She sang with the most amazing improvisation in some parts of her songs. She also wore the cutest outfit – a rara skirt, sequined top and little red riding hoodesque cape.

Our night ended with a fun set from Australia’s favourite hip hop band Hilltop Hoods. They demanded crowd participation which saw everyone take of one item of clothing and wave it in the air in unison. They know how to work a crowd all right. Everyone sang and danced along to their old and new stuff. It was a great way to end the night.

We had a ball. But, ask me if I would go again and I may screw my nose up at you. It was a fun time but there were ridiculous lines for everything and no bins to put rubbish in which meant by night time lighting was minimal I twisted my ankle several times on discarded bottles – not to mention the people I nearly stepped on. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention was that Andrew WK one man party tour was unsettling and disturbing. Imagine a guy from New York getting on stage drunk playing a little bit of keyboard to a backing track and yelling and screaming into the mike. Imagine people booing him and him reacting by telling them to f'off and saying he is from New York and they are nothing. Imagine the crowd throwing bottles at him, and him encouraging it! It was disgusting. In fact I was embarrassed - why didn't someone pull the pin? Why didn't anyone take the mike off the guy? For further info on it all check out the Bendigo advertiser - he made the papers!

 By all means it’s a worthwhile experience but next time I will stick to smaller gigs. x