My brother Manu and his girlfriend Cathleen have been here since Tuesday. They now have sore legs from climbing a mountain (Mount Taranaki - New Plymouth is basically right next to it). I knitted a blueish purpleish cat with googly eyes. It's brilliant. Have also been spending time with Nana before I go back to tech, and we ate hot cross buns and criticised the presenters on morning television. Oh what great days these are..

OMG I am SO all about Jester's Pies..

Today it was like 28℃ and all the shops were totally sold out of beach umbrellas!* Aaaaarrghhh!!!! So even though I'd promised J I'd take him out to the beach all day I couldn't, because he'd come home as red as a.. really red thing. So instead I spent the day doing not a hell of a lot - seriously, I have no idea where the time went. Although I did eat hokey-pokey ice-cream for lunch.. Oh, and my car battery died, so it cost $109 for a new one (but it's a good one apparently, and comes with a 24 month warranty, and I got it on the spot from the road-assistance guy). Fantastic timing - right when my car needs a new Warrant of Fitness, Vehicle License, and insurance is due..dammit..

*Most shops also had signs saying something like Sorry - sold out of fans". And this isn't exactly a tiny country town with two shops..

Hahaha, I saw three funny things today:

Right across the road from McDonalds there is a GIANT sign for an award-winning competitor, Burger Fuel, which you can clearly see for miles around, and even inside McDonalds while your eating your plastic burger;
A man was out for his evening jog and had seagulls attacking him, so he was running while waving his arms about (it was terribly funny);
And a really bright pink 80's Suzuki that belongs to a mechanic (he isn't the type of guy you'd think would like a car like that).

It's days like these that make life worth living.

My God its been hot these last few days! Temps up around 30 degrees celcius.. Certainly beach weather.

So anyway I finally got my full drivers licence. My testing officer was the same ass that failed me on my restricted licence the first time. I think they rig it so that a certain percentage fail, because you have to pay the test fee again if you fail. Can you believe that because of the graduated driver licensing system in New Zealand that, overall, it takes minumum 1.5 years and about $300 to get your full licence?! What a rip-off! Meh..at least I can drive after 10pm now, and carry passengers.

On a lighter note though I scored a bunch of awesome hats, and clothes I can operate on, from Nana. :-)

Woohoo! So I finally finished my first knitting project (knitting was on my list of things to learn properly). It's only small, but I'm proud that I actually finished it. It's a blueish purple Knitty Kitty. :-D I plan on adjusting the pattern to make other cute animals too, also in ridiculous colours.

So the local craft/fabric/everything-remotely-crafty store has become a favourite shop of mine lately. The only problem is that it's kinda huge, and with so much variety and selection in fabrics and other craft-related bits and bobs, I tend to spend a LOT of time in there. Seriously, I could be in there all day if I had nothing to do (and if my son would let me). It's getting ridiculous.. I think next time I go in there I'll take a strict shopping list, buy that stuff, and nothing else. Here's hoping it will work..

So I totally have heaps of stuff I want to do. So far the list is as follows:

-Finish the dress I'm making from a giant fat lady skirt I picked up at a thrift store
-Build my son a blackboard/whiteboard/easel
-Make new bedlinen
-Buy a cheap, comfy lounge suite and reupholster it myself
-Learn to knit
-Make pants that actually fit my son
-Rollerskate properly
-Create a logo and merchandise for a particular hobby/business venture
-Make funky bags
-Start up a zine
-Read more
-Screenprint shirts
-Make beanbags
-Learn Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress Pro
-Develop website for my portfolio, and one for my son
-Learn a foreign language (learnt basic French years ago, but forgot. Started Portuguese recently.)
-Learn an instrument
-Do more photography

The list is actually a whole lot more extensive, but I could be here all night just writing a stupid list when I could be doing that stuff..

I should really be sorting out things like finances, but lately I've been getting back into the whole DIY thing. So I've been on the net non-stop, hunting for tutorials on mostly anything - from furniture reupholstering to screen printing. I used to be really crafty as a youngster, but through high school it wasn't cool to be into crafts, and I kind of lost the drive to create. I guess there was really no way I could supress it forever though, because it snuck up on me around Christmas time, and hell am I glad it did!

Hello World!