Oh yes.

There's a give away on my blog - and I want you to win :) Smith Hotels has given Code For Something a copy of their lush new Global Shortlist book to give away. The Global Shortlist “takes you beyond the bedroom doors of the world’s most stylish boutique hotels, steering you toward the best places to wine, dine and unwind at destinations around the globe”.

Enter here!

Everything is linked. Life is all a bit odd like that, so this little list might not make sense but it is all connected!

My sobo:



Yummy juicy vegetable goodness. I'm totally feeling lighter and brighter all round. 3 weeks down, 4 to go of the Misobo introduction. I am so juice obsessed now days that I bought a new juicer (after my old one melted in the dishwasher, boo!) and it is AMAZING. I just want to buy red cabbages and carrots and destroy them in it! Yeah. So food... I've stopped eating meat. That's about it. I'm not going to label myself or anything but I just can't do it anymore. Yay! I look forward to cooking a billion new recipes. Um and the Vegetarian Cafe's "BBQ Pork Buns". Also on the juice note... it creates a ton of green waste materials. Seriously, there's a whole lot of it. So I have started a compost heap using old tires, stacked 4 high. This is the site that I've been suing to guide me - www.compostguide.com - reading it, I think I need more brown material, so last night I was out collecting leaf matter in the courtyard! This composting spree has been possible by recent housing developments....

House. Part one, France announces his departure to the South Island. The the landlord informs us our lease was not going to be renewed. We look for someone to fill the room for 7 weeks. Then we are told they changed their mind and we can have to house for summer, brilliant! Then there was two weeks of finding someone but we have a down to earth sounding boy moving in on the 1st of August. Now we're nesting - Jon, Roz & I went shopping for notice boards and bins and appliances and plates. And we're going to do the garden up nicely.

Apart from all of that it's just been working, and the occasional outing - I went to Leon & Jules' going away party-hi-jack on Friday night which was pretty brilliant and sad all at the same time. Laza's gone now... lucky little duck. Makes me dream of overseas but I really need to save some cash first.

Oh... also writing like a madwoman at http://www.codeforsomething.com if you care to take a look. I've been getting up early each morning and scribbling!

Three newly added fantastic vintage dresses to covet! Check out the store at www.catchandcovet.com for the dresses and more fabulous vintage clothing & accessories.

Just a wee note that finally the time has come for a bit of privacy... Friends only for now.

Today, I am Mademoiselle Scabby. My rampant excitement has not subsided, even though my shoulders feel like they've been sun burnt and my itchy woolen jersey is toying with my patience.

The weekend was pretty great, two crazy parties, including a pirate soirée. I also went to the museum with Roz for work, worked on Catch & Covet (update coming up tonight!), had ice cream with my parents and floated about with friends. Not drinking is still going well, apart from I have realised how often alcohol is offered/appears in both social and work situations. I can't say I'm feeling better for it but that's probably due to very little rest over the last wee while. I'm thinking next month I will resume drinking but abstain from meat.

Nothing else is new. The world is very consistent and quiet at the moment. Guess that's a good thing, I should appreciate it.

2 hours and 200 dollars later...


Plastic ahoy
Originally uploaded by amber catch.

I had a very social/busy day on Tuesday.  Caught up with Will for lunch, worked a bit, worked a bit more, went to the post office and hung out in the queue (got a cheque in the mail for $45, my tax return sum total). Last night I first went to Nishiki, a Rolbata-yaki bar in Freeman's Bay, with Leon for food. It was pretty good, but a really chaotic place, full of hustling waiters & people waiting for tables. On a Tuesday night too! We then went to the Academy and watched Adam's Apples - a relatively funny Danish movie about neo-nazis and brain tumours. For real.

Yesterday was WORK centric, and apart from getting my hair cut short and round (I now look like an ambiguously gendered indie kid) at Blaze, the day was uneventful. I took a few pictures of my undressed shoulder, the blank canvasses and collapsed into bed.

Today is the day. I've done a little work, sent a few too many personal emails... and I'm getting ready to leave! Tattoos ahoy! *Squeal*
Finally after way too much talking, I'm actually doing. And it feels good.
Do more, muse less. New life philosophy.
Wish me luck and not too much pain!

codeforsomething.com

I don't think I mentioned it here yet but I started a blog. Code For Something is a place for my thoughts regarding style, cloth, pixels, cells & notes. Yes, it's a fancy way of saying FASHION x MUSIC x ART x CULTURE, but I like it when things are broken down into fragments. It reminds me of this Eames video actually; The Power of 10 a pretty cool look at matter, distance and time.

I'm feeling rather happy right now. Life is good and I have projects!

I had my tattoo consultation! Finally! I had complete butterflies but it went well. The girl Sam is really nice, and she seemed to like the ideas/colours. It's going to be $120 an hour and I have my first session on Thursday afternoon. This morning I bought some blue hydrangeas wrapped in white paper and delivered them to her. Can you guess what I may be getting... I am overjoyed that she wants to draw from real flowers - definitely an artist background - have a peep at her myspace for some fantastic work.

Oh and yesterday I caught a bus back to work from Newton.. one of those southern lines. Sat in the front. Everyone else got off at uni and then it twas just me. So yeah, small talk whether I was going right down to town etc. Weather. I was being nice. Then he came up with "Where do you stay" - that classic line. It's so telling - socioeconomic blahblahblah. I said Ponsonby with my family (anticipating that it wasn't in my best interests to share real information). Then he started telling me all about how he has his place of his own and so on. Mildly creepy.. until he asked me what I was doing this weekend, did I want to come to a party with him tonight? It changed gears to mega creepy. Hilarious nonetheless, I laughed all the way off the bus and back to work.

The weather today has been amazing. It was so foggy & sunny when we drove over the harbour bridge this morning, weather-contrast maxium visual impact, just like I imagine San Francisco to be.

May is being fucking amazing.

I've been experimenting a lot with clothes, mixing, matching, patching up old holes to rescue favourite garments. Ironically though, the few photographs I have managed to take for wardrobe remix were on very average days, stylistically. Today I'm wearing oxford style heels, black jeans and a 3/4 sleeve blouse with a shirred waist (printed with stars!) that ties up at the front (over a modest singlet but it is still quite 'booby-flaunting').

Next week, after pay day, I will be getting my fringe refined at Blaze in Newmarket. It's a new salon and mostly I want to check out the interior, which was designed by Katie Lockhart - stylist for the Karen Walker & Swandri stores. I still seem to be bouncing around hair salons, looking for someone I can relate to. The cuts are fine but there's nothing worse than sitting in silence for an hour while someone touches your head.

On another personal style note, I finally have an appointment with a tattoo artist about finally getting some work done, after all my musing and thinking. I'm ready! So tomorrow at 1 pm I will be wandering up the road with my reference materials and so forth. I'm super excited because I have been gathering inspirational images for months and now I have a really cohesive idea around placement  & imagery. Can you tell I come from a design research background?

I complain about work a lot, true. But today is different! I am going to work on the most top secret exciting project ever - seriously unbelievable stuff... but a wee non disclosure agreement prevents me from saying anything. So yeah. Boring for you - but oh so thrilling for me. All I can say is the flight leaves at 12.30 today...

<Fatty fat speaks about food...>

I feel like I was in the kitchen all day long. Well not quite. Started the day off at the Takapuna markets where I bought "free-range" cherry tomatoes (hehe), a bag of organic feijoas and some macadamia pieces. And a garlic prawn kebab and a crepe to eat there!
Then it was home to finally whip me up some kiwifruit chutney (goddamn this took a long time, proving I'm totally lazy) - which came out totally awesome. I made labels for the canning jars with gold pen and a star shaped hole punch. Inspiration hit after that and I made a chocolate cake! Finally I walked to my mum's house (a fed mother is a happy mother) and cooked pizza for dinner. Used the tomatoes I bought earlier, fresh home grown basil, mozzarella and pine nuts. NOM NOM NOM.

Yesterday also involved food at the French Market, which was amazing! I tried so many cheeses and morsels. Bought olives, almond croissants and some green tea. Ceylon green tea has less bitterness than the Japanese variety - it's really good & apparently has the same benefits. Happy times. Especially cos I'm still off the coffee (and the booze), yay 12 days in and I am still strong as a tiger with my willpower.

</...End food rant>

Speaking of tigers I went to the zoo yesterday afternoon (and saw one there). It was loads of fun, we watched the penguins get fed and met a charming wee shag called Austin. He was more dog than birdlike... Other things happened like watching dvds, shooting vintage pictures and going for walks, amongst other things*. All in all, a very busy weekend! Sleepy time now... I love how the weekend completely shatters you for the working week ahead. Ironic!


*Also decided to sell my apartment. Mixed feelings. Sad cos I will miss my little nest, it's been a big part of my 'adult' life. In fact the majority of my independence has been spent there. But things must change, markets must move and capital gain must be realised. Sniffle, I am so attached, but seeing a posiitve balance in my bank account might make me feel better.

I've been messing about with my facebook (deleting, streamling) & wanted to save my 'about me' for posterity:

Interests: Drinking. Dancing. Adventures. Lollipops. ZMOGS. Owls. People that age into pirate ships. Goon. Goon Boxes. Camping. Stomping. Lumberjack fashions.

That said, it is probably archived a  million other places by now, thanks governmental departments! When I'm 36 and a half will it come back and bite me on the ass that once in my mispent youth I liked flannel shirts and making music with singing bowls at desolate West Coast beaches? Possibly.

Day 4 of not drinking coffee or liquor. It's okay so far but I really did have a dilemma at the bar last night. I was having a great time and a beer would have been a cherry on top! So I had an internal argument for a while (it's especially hard to stay true when other people want to buy you drinks), but in the end self-will pulled through! And it did feel much better when the barman gave me my lemonade for free.

The trick however is to not replace the two with other vices. Fine, have some herbal tea but don’t crank and abuse the tea supply! Fine don’t drink, but don’t seek out other handy alternatives! Aye, moderation child.

Everything has been a bit rough the last few weeks but it seems to be looking up. Apart from the never ending rain, but a little bit of water never hurt anyone.

Things to do in May ('cos May is going to be awesome!):

Write a film treatment
Launch Catch & Covet weeklies
Make kiwifruit chutney
Make kiwifruit sorbet
No alcohol for a month*
No coffee for a month**
Bake some bread at home
Organise my travel photos
Sell as much “stuff” as possible
Get tax return done a year early
Read 3 x books. With at least 1 novel in the mix.
Try 4 new dinner recipes

I'm excited, while these may not be the most thrilling activites, May is about kicking ass, getting organised ann grounded. For if I am organised, the awesomeness will flow & I can get a lot more done. Sounds simple right? I also want to flesh out my goals for the next 2 years and sort some budgets. Yeah, fun! OK! Might add more to the list later.

*Dear lord, a challenge.
** Who knows how this will go. One must reach for the extremes!

I totally love backpackit.com. It's revolutionising my organisation. How geeky. That is all...!

So. much. stuff. Life is busy, but not poetic. Tursday night was interesting, socialising in Grey Lynn then going to a private house party with some very interesting people in media/film/radio. Good networking, I woke up on Friday with business cards stuffed in my pocket.... I was sick most of the weekend, thanks to an asthma attack Saturday morning which meant I had to trundle myself off to the A&E, which is luckily at the top of my street. Yeah. Not cool. The cold of winter is not really my friend....

Current interests:

Ratatat - hopefully I'll be seeing them this week!
Economic turmoil and food prices... I am eagerly reading all articles related to this. I'm very conscious of my food consumption & changes I want to make.
Hyperblasting my vintage store. Sold a purse to a woman last night who picked up, happy making.
Cooking & baking with my flatmates - related to above. Skills must level up!
Mark Ronson's Versions
Kowhais - imagery
Kicking autumnal leaves & wearing scarves
Pub quiz
Trying to find conferences to go on/professional development courses. I need to man up upskill.

I'm already planning dinner for tonight. I'm thinking an orzo salad, with roasted vegetables (potatoes, kumara, red onion), radish, spring onion and salmon. How fooding! Roslyn (my flatmate) has suggested she will make banana nut loaf as well. I'm hungry now....!

The flat's going well. We had our flatwarming on Saturday night which was a rather grand affair. Lots of laughter, rampaging and breaking in of couches. And hula hooping! I do miss the apartment but with economic turmoil blah blah blah it's good to downsize, plus it is ace to have so much room and people to go to the pub with and make hot chocolates for. And cats to pet. Here's our family portrait (minus Sparticus):