Captain Apricot

one of these is not my baby.

2012-01-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

see my small yawny baby? she's not so small or yawny anymore. gone are the days when she would sleep in her stroller or carrier whenever she needed to nap. now my days revolve around her two daytime sleeps that each last for1.5-2 hrs. lucky me right? a baby that sleeps regularly and for reasonable lengths of time, i should be thanking the gods or whomever you would thank in a situation like that for the quiet that those naps bring and the happy baby that they result in. and i really do appreciate how easy her day naps are (her nights are a different story, but i'll tell that one later) but i do miss that tiny thing that could go everywhere (parties, gigs, demos, cafes, restaurants, roller derby, supermarket shopping, other places that sound cool and interesting) at any hour and just sleep through it. jay was pretty portable in this way. he would sleep in his stroller pretty much anywhere. edie? not so much.

you're right; i am a selfish person who wants everything to work in my favour and be exactly how i want it. i am. and i want a baby who sleeps in places other than her cot at home but maybe it is too much to ask.

today we spent the afternoon at the beach. it was lovely, i swam while a friend played with edie and i got to jump around in the waves with jay which was super fun. we sat around and i breastfed edie when she got a little grumpy (it was naptime) and we decided to go for a walk. i wore her for the walk and she fed more and grumbled her way through it. jay found some exciting cave action in a clay wall down the beach and he had fun playing while i tried to keep the once-was-yawny baby happy in her carrier. eventually it got too much and we turned around for home. we were about 3 minutes walk from the car and she finally fell asleep. not. fair.

so of course i was unable to transfer her into her car seat without waking her so she was a bit grumpy on the drive home too. we thought about heading to a cafe for hot beverages and a little more sunshine but the bebe was too moody for that so we just headed home where she proceeded to be unhappyish for the rest of the evening until bed time.

don't get me wrong. i felt awful for her, poor little sunshine-face. it was my fault she wasn't her usual self. i could have stayed home this afternoon and let her nap. but then my big kid wouldn't had adventures exploring the beach. he wouldn't have had one-on-one time with his manda in the waves and i wouldn't have gotten the very valuable and much appreciated time in the water, the very first this summer without edie. before i gave birth to edie i wrote about my fears associated with parenting two kids. 9 months in and i struggle to find the balance between older sibling and baby every day. i know that we don't have to leave the house to have quality time together but there is only so much lego play i can stand before it becomes soul-destroyingly boring.

ok, whinging over. i need solutions. do any of you have amazing ideas to help babies nap when out and about? or would you like to babysit my small child so i can spend time with my big one? or perhaps you can tell me how you balance your time and energy between your kids, your work, your partner and somehow yourself too?

p.s. the baby edie picture was taken by me and altered by russell. he's good like that.

making

2011-08-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

the pdf pattern for my button-up armwarmers! available here

makes a very good point methinks

2011-08-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

this tumblr puts a different spin on news articles, pointing the blatant and inappropriate way that trans people are represented in the media. one of my favourite quotes:

"Rebekah Brooks - as she started to call herself following a second marriage - courted power but avoided publicity. She started receiving female hormones via her ovaries during her first puberty, and intends to continue with them."

cisgendernews discovered via bitch

carrots!

2011-08-09T22:10:00.001-07:00

from the veggie garden. now to find amazing gluten-free, vegan recipes to put them into.

that time my baby pooped all the poop in all the world

2011-08-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

oh wait, that was today. this morning to be specific.

so first let me remind you about the breastfed baby's poop. mustard yellow liquidy poop. that's the kind my baby has. still reading? great. so edie pooped this morning and upon investigation i discovered (by discovered i mean i got it all over me and had to change before i could proceed any further) that she had pooped big. really big. so big it went all the way up her back to her armpits. all the way up her spine, and from shoulder blade to shoulder blade she was covered in poop.

i took all the poopy clothes off edie and washed all the poopiness away ('twas a bigger messier job than regular baby wipes could handle), put a clean nappy on and wrapped her in a blanket while i went in search of clean clothes. i came back and picked her up. she was a bit grumpy by this point so i decided to dress her while she sat in my lap. sounds good in theory right? uh no. i had just put a nice fresh onesie over her head when she puked all over it and me. i threw the onesie on the floor with all the poopy clothes and went to get more clean clothes for her and changed my top. after that i got her dressed and clean and poop free and we lived happily ever after. the end.

and then he said...

2011-08-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

"manda, i should be in the genius* world record book!"

"really? how come?"

"i can make three of my fingers look all the same length!"

"oh. wow. that is genius"

*pretty sure he means guinness world record book.

look! it's me!

2011-06-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

tadaaaaa! i'm the featured seller on felt at the moment. it feels very strange to answer interview questions that are all about me, but go have a look anyway!

baby, kid, slutwalk and roller derby

2011-06-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

this weekend we attended the wellington slutwalk:

jayzien decided to slutskate:

the turnout was great. that line of people snaking around the waterfront only shows half of the total people that were there:
after that we headed to aunty mena's for greasy noodles and laksa before heading to the richter city roller derby final.

it was a blur of pink and blue as the 2 teams battled for the spot in the grand final next month:

roller derby baby:

roller derby kid (spent half the time asking questions and trying to understand the game and te other half making paper darts):

in the end new wellington team comic slams took out the brutal pageant team winning by a landslide. end score was 176 - 85:

a little fat phoboa for your friday (thanks j. k. rowling)

2011-06-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

so the other day i'm getting changed and jay says to me "manda, have you lost any weight since you were pregnant?"

emphasis on the any. yuck.

my first response (other than complete flabberghastedness) was "don't know, don't care". of course i wanted to know where this came from and why it was something he felt compelled to ask me so i started talking about fatness. i explained that fatness was like eye colour, everyone's different but we are all marvellous and amazing and wonderful. i said i think that fatness isn't a bad thing, just that people come in many shapes.

"but manda, dudley is fat and he's not marvellous or amazing. he's mean and greedy."

aaaaand the penny dropped. russell and i have tried to edit and censor when we read to jay, often changing racist, homophobic, misogynist, hetro-centric and fat-phobic children's story's as we read them in hope that he can continue to enjoy books without all the conditioning and yuck that goes with many of them. the thing is, the child can read alone now (which is super amazing for the most part!) and he picked up the first harry potter book a week ago and started reading. no editing.

for people that haven't read the harry potter books, they are incredibly fat-phobic. jo rowling paints the 'baddies' like dudley as fat, disgusting greedy creatures that are mean and horrible and makes it clear that this meanness is wrapped up with their greediness and fatness. the worst part is that we encouraged jay's interest in the harry potter series. i thought that they would be a much more bearable alternative to most of the crap that is written for children (don't get me wrong, i don't believe the hp books are well written or high quality fiction, i just like the fantasy aspect and i think hermione is awesome) and that it was something we could read to him without being completely bored to tears. not such a good choice, it turns out.

don't get me wrong, i know that his ideas on weight gain and fatness didn't come from harry potter books alone and that's what scared me the most. i can't put him in a bubble to prevent this stuff from entering his world and affecting the way he sees people. so what do we do? as parents we want to raise a respectful, gentle, thoughtful, sensitive child that will question and challenge these ways of thinking.

the question is; how?

all consuming

2011-06-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

hi my lovelies! my apologies for the lack of posts here of late. but really, would you sit in front of your computer if you could be snuggling with this:

these cheeks are far more appealing than blogging right now, which i'm sure you can understand. they're actually more appealing than almost everything else at the moment and i keep finding myself overwhelmed with how much i adore this little pie, at how much i adore both my kids (weird huh? kids plural), at how much i am enjoying mamahood at the moment. even when she cries, even when i haven't had enough sleep (= all the time) and even when i really need to pee but i can't use the bathroom cos edie will starve to death if i don't feed her first.

so many people told me how different it feels with the second child but i never imagined it to be like this. i feel so relaxed with none of the anxiety i felt the first time and i just can't get over how much easier edie seems to be. sure she gets sore tummies, colic, cries when she's overtired, wakes 3+ times a night and does all those baby things that babies do but i don't know if it's the hormones, the fact edie doesn't have reflux (jay did, poor little dude), due to the fact that i had the birth i wanted, because i have a supportive loving partner this time around or all of these things combined but this time it just feels easy. and i'm so overwhelmingly in love with this little girl that all the hard stuff seems to just disappear when i look into those blue eyes and she smiles up at me.

'tis all consuming this is and i'm loving every minute.

making

2011-06-08T02:45:00.000-07:00

these were ordered from me by a customer wanting something to keep her little boy's hands warm on cold mornings at the same time as keeping his fingers free. i love the result and while they were a bit finicky to make being so little, i definitely want to make more styles available for toddlers and children. cute!

listening

2011-06-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

it doesn't have to be beautiful - slow club

i just discovered this duo and i'm loving their folky rocky sound. word is they are from sheffield, england. this song is from the album "yeah so". also; how cool is this video?

so. much. fun.

2011-06-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

wellington regional aquatic centre - spray pools

being a monster at lyall bay playground

sliding

wearing the baby

bug with the cutest messy face (she had a face like this pretty much the whole time she was here) holding edie.

me and my sister are best friends. seriously. and we were lucky enough to have her, her hilarious, talented husband and her tornado of a daughter come to visit for the week. turns out all i needed to do to get family to come visit was have a baby. simple!

it was really really good to see her and we had heaps of fun exploring the city and showing her all our favourite places. jay and his cousin were really happy to see each other and would walk down the street together hand in hand. i love that despite the age gap ( is 2 years old) they get on really well and find fun things to do that suit them both.

still rollin

2011-05-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

featuring none other than my baby brother and my bigger brother. you can see where jayzien gets his skating inspiration with all of these wicked people in his life. eeeeep!

listening

2011-05-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

love is a chain store - the ropes
perhaps my new favourites. they have a very metric-y sound.

6 weeks

2011-05-30T15:13:00.001-07:00

queer the night

2011-05-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

our little family will be layering up against the cold to march against homophobia and transphobia on june 9. you should too! for more info, check out the facebook page, here.

big brother

2011-05-28T01:48:00.001-07:00

a child besotted with his sister. so far, so good. i don't mean that the transition from a family of 3 to 4 has been without any challenges for jayzien but he has far exceeded my expectations. he is so loving and gentle with edie. he goes to her if she cries out when i'm not in the room. he talks to her when she's having awake time, he shows her off to his school friends, pushes the stroller whenever he is given the opportunity and has changed a few nappies. the other morning i came back from the bathroom to find him rocking her while eating his morning toast, still in his pajamas and slippers, with peanut butter across his cheeks (are most 7 year olds messy eaters? i feel like he will never grow out of leaving the table after a meal with part of his lunch on his face). just like russell and i, he can't hear her cry without feeling compelled to make it better, to comfort, to ease.

and the singing. lets just say that jayzien's talents lie in other areas, not music and definitely not singing. but he has the greatest ability to make up songs on the spot, with lyrics coming from nowhere and everywhere and often suprising me with their thoughtfulness. so this boy, with his sweet, high never-ever-in-tune-voice-only-a-mother-could-love (and i do, i really do) sings to his baby sister about her birth, about our plans for the day, about people, things and places. and she stares up at him with wide blue eyes and listens, totally silent and still.

the image of my 2 children and the closeness that is beginning between them is breathtaking. we are still facing the challenge of adjusting, it is an ongoing process where some days just feel so easy and natural and others are interrupted with conflict, emotion and resolution. but now we are 4 and it is just so right.

4 weeks

2011-05-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

so this is nearly a week and a half late but i've got a newborn baby to take care of so whatever. my beautiful sleeping child that well, sleeps. it took us a few weeks (and a few tears) to get there but she is sleeping really well. she takes regular naps during the day and sleeps for longer periods at night. booyah!

mother of 2

2011-05-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

ms edie kira audrey vela
born 18-4-2011, 1.37 pm at home

turning corners

2011-04-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

note: this was originally written a few days before i gave birth and i never got the chance to post it in the ensuing chaos but still wanted to share. :)

so. i am officially 9 months pregnant. any hour now my body could start doing its labour thing and bam! i'm a mother of 2. exciting and marvellous and beautiful and all kinds of wonderful. except for one little thing. how will this exciting, marvellous, beautiful, wonderful change affect the relationship i have with my first-born? my completely-ridiculous-in-the-most-amazing-kind-of-way child who i have spent the last 7.5 years with. from attempting to make a family with his dad, to accepting that it wasn't going to happen, to learning how to be a family with just the 2 of us and totally kicking ass at it, to meeting dbr and integrating his awesomeness into our lives, falling in love with him and how we work as a family, to now, where we have decided to bring another life into our bubble. from 2 to 3 and now to 4.

i have spent the last 4 months not working or studying. a first for me in quite a long time and this has let me be one of those parents. the parents that drop their kids off at school every day and are waiting for them outside the classroom at the end of it. the parents that take their kids on regular trips to the library and the swimming pool and the park. the parents who have time and energy to invite other kids into their homes for after school hangouts. and it has been awesome. i still think that to be a good mama i need to satisfy my own needs, professionally, socially and mentally but this time that we have been able to be wrapped up in each other before this second child arrives has been precious.

i have known all along that the decision to make another baby would change my relationship with j and as this change gets undeniably close i find myself wanting more and more time for 'just us'. i guess the hormones and the hugeness of what is about to happen in our little family is really hitting me now. but there is another side to this. while the dynamics between j, r and i will all change, there is an excitement to seeing j in his new role as brother, leader, helper, mentor to this little child. lately he has been taking the initiative and doing more for himself saying "when the baby comes it will be better if i can make my own lunch for school" and acknowledging when he can do more for himself and just getting stuff done. in a way this makes me sad. to say good-bye to this phase of his childhood, but it also means welcoming a new, more mature and independent version of him. it will be interesting to see how this new maturity combined with big-brother-hood will evolve, change and enrich him.

and i can't wait.

weird, strange, unique, marvellous, beautiful child

2011-04-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

the other night i found an old mix cd from years ago. among the bands featured were bad religion, choking victim, sonic youth, the distillers and the ramones. so of course we had to put it on, turn it up and dance all over the kitchen. as a parent i believe i have a responsibility to ensure my son's musical education is complete. i'm not quite sure why, but for some reason this inspired j to borrow a hat from my room and dance like michael jackson. anyway he asked me to take a video and to show family and friends his smooth moves. here it is.

listening...

2011-03-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

i was very recently introduced to angus and julia stone by a lovely friend residing in melbourne (hello lovely, miss you!) and really like them. loving both of their voices and their cutesy folky style. this song struck me in particular because of the lyrics in the chorus. see (or listen) for yourself.

She never would have made it to shore,
the little mermaid. He would have married a whore
from a wealthy family, after all he was royalty.

word.

so that's what a kick in the cervix feels like...

2011-03-26T14:15:00.001-07:00

me at 36 weeks. my sister commented that i looked particularly annoyed in this photo. i think it's actually just my i'm-concentrating-kinda-hard-on-this-face. i'm not the worlds most coordinated person and trying to angle my body so you can see the size of the bump and hold the camera to get a good shot without covering my face did actually require concentration. especially when you add to that the imbalance that i feel in my body with my centre of gravity thrown off and all that. so yeah,. serious face.

all is progressing well so far and i look forward to meeting as a friend put it "the luscious squishy face" that is growing in there. my feet and bellybutton have become somewhat unrecognisable but considering i can't really see them, who cares?

making...

2011-03-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

oh look! more baby stuff! i really am sorry about the overload of things made for tiny humans but i have now admitted defeat. i can't help doing it and showing off is just part of who i am. these bibs were made from fabric found in my stash, some old flannel sheets and metal snap buttons.

i'm not 100% sure about how i feel about camo in any form, being that it represents military, but to be honest i'm pretty anti pink too. i think when it comes to wiping up baby puke, it'll do just fine.

the metal snaps in all their glory. i may never sew a button hole again.

and what they look like complete and finished. i think the little white robot is by far the cutest in this print. but i don't mind if you disagree.

listening...

2011-03-07T14:30:00.000-08:00

another one for the birth playlist.

making...

2011-03-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

i made these pinboards for our bedroom (dbr's and mine) after suffering for nearly 3 months from a serious lack of colour. why we put up with it for so long i'll never know.

most of our furniture is very 70's retro and is actually from the 70's so i used this loverly floral fabric that is also super old skool. i made two, one protrait and one landscape using old carpet underlay, some stiff cardboard that i layered up, a staple gun and a few nails. i needed to keep them light (hence the cardboard) so they would stay up with 3m hooks as that is pretty much our only option for decorating our walls in this house.

a close up of that pretty vintage fabric:

the landscape version that ended up above dbr's drawers:

and the portrait pinboard that fitted in nicely to this corner of the room:

this project wouldn't have been possible without dbr's hoarding habit and his staplegun. fun.

saying a tearful goodbye to my belly button

2011-02-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

the belly at 30 weeks. and yes, i can no longer boast the existance of my belly button. the skin over my stomach is stretched to the point that it has all but disppeared. if you see it anywhere please get in touch. i would rather like to be reunited with it at some point.

growing... cooking... eating

2011-02-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

from this;
to this;

to this.

green bean and chickpea salad with sesame dressing. from this book here

i'll be back

2011-02-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

our pc is sick... i'll come back when things are back to normal. xx

making...

2011-02-09T01:17:00.000-08:00

introducing my first ever completed knitting project that involved more than one stitch: teeny tiny boots.

i recently went to visit family and whilst there, i made use of the time to make these. having my mama's expertise and knowledge was paramount in making these happen. i know that they are not particularly amazing and some might be blinded by the brightness of the green but i made them! by myself! with knitting needles! and i didn't even swear much.

thanks mama, for your help and patience. now to finish off the teeny tiny child who will wear the teeny tiny boots. 10 weeks to go til my official due date, the countdown has begun.

listening...

2011-02-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

death by electro by marvelous folky singer/songwriter rae spoon. i know this isn't the best quality but i couldn't help myself. this song is stunning. even better, this performance was part of an anti-valentines day party. this song is totally going on my birth playlist.

chop!

2011-02-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

the boy has been hassling me for a haircut for a while now. while in theory i believe that he should be able to make his own decisions about these things, in practice i felt really reluctant about getting him an appointment for the big chop.

and my reasons were completely selfish. i love the way jay looks with longer hair. i love how blonde it goes in the sun. i love how he totally looks like an indie hipster when he pushes across his face to keep it out of his eyes and i love the scruffy beach-kid vibe his longer hair has. see, all about me and what i love. so today i gave in to the will of a 7 year old who has the right to choose how to wear his hair. he chose what he wanted from one of the stylists books, communicated his vision to her and and while i still prefer scruffy messy mop-haired cuts, it turned out pretty damn good.

b to the elly, 25 weeks and 5 days

2011-01-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

i have a feeling that this little bean is something of an over achiever. at my last midwife visit it was no longer measuring 1 week big for my dates, it was measuring 3 weeks larger than it should be. if it keeps this up i'll be ready to pop in another 2 weeks!

looking back at the first belly shot i took made me realise how much my body has changed and how much the robot-bean has grown in just 5 short weeks. that's some speedy expanding that is!
21 weeks:

and here we are now at 25 weeks and a few days:

best. present. ever.

2011-01-07T00:23:00.001-08:00

so this year dbr (darling beautiful russell) and i were given cash-money from both sets of parents as christmas gifts. we didn't take long to decide that this generosity should become all the supplies, seeds and plants we needed to create our vege garden. i haven't had a vegetable garden in sooo long and i really love the idea of growing our own food. because this house has a crazy large amount of yard space, there was nothing stopping us once we got what we needed to make it happen and so here it is, about 2 weeks after its initial beginning! after planning, we dug, composted and fed the soil, built a windbreak fence, dug some more, planted, dug, planted, dug, planted... we decided to plant peas, tomatoes, brocolli, cauliflower, dwarf beans, spinach, lettuces, capsicum, zuchinni, corn, basil, and cucmber. some of these are still at the baby seedling stage and, as you can see, the rest are already in the ground and doing some serious growing.

then there was the making it pretty part and the introduction of our garden hippo, who watches over our lettuces. she is not yet named, so if you have any suggestions feel free to make them heard. we plan on bringing her some friends next we time find any suitable candidates whilst op-shopping so she should soon be having a massive lettuce party in our back yard.

just one more shot for you to appreciate all the digging. did i mention how much digging there was? i'm the first to admit that i am a pregnant weakling who 'doesn't want to overdo it' but really, that was some digging that was.

ok so i know this is technically an advert...

2011-01-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

but robots! and lego! and cuteness!

in our house youtube couldn't get more exciting than robot dancing and lego. just ignore the branding stuff at the end and enjoy it...

new years in the city

2011-01-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

this year was the first time that instead of getting a babysitter and partying to celebrate new years (or staying home and having an early night like i did when j was 3 weeks old) that we went out with the kid and introduced him to the weird world of 'ringing in the new year'. we didn't actually stay out until midnight, we were home by 11.30 but j was kinda amazed by it all and had a great time. he went home happy and exhausted and funnily enough, we did too. it was kinda strange and wonderful to realise that the kid friendly, home before the party really starts, cheesy and clean fun night was totally perfect. i wouldn't have had it any other way.

see; totally amazed. he didn't want to leave, despite the crowds and being tired and hungry.

a street performer doing fancy things with fire. i had actually seen this guy on the streets of wellington a few times before so his routine was kinda old to me, but he was definitely the best of the performers we saw and j thought he was super impressive.

the countdown clock that was projected onto the outside of te papa museum. i thought this was pretty damn cool but it turns out that no one could actually tell when the countdown was happening by watching this clock so the actual 10, 9, 8... was kinda lame and haphazard. either way we had loads of fun and j was totally blown away by the whole thing. he kept asking questions like "but why do people make all of this happen, what's it for?" and "how come those loud people are walking funny?" awesome. he now understands all about celebrating the beginning of a new year and also drunkenness. kids just never stop learning.

perhaps slightly more articulate than i...

2011-01-01T01:22:00.000-08:00

found this quote in a book about birthing and parenting. the book wasn't so great but this struck me.

spontaneous labor in a normal womean is an event marked by a number of

processes so complicated and so perfectly attuned to each other that any

interference will only detract from the optimal character. The only thing re-

-quired from the bystanders is that they show respect for this awe-inspiring

process by complying with the first rule of medicine- nil nocere [do no harm]

word. i think i would have probably yelled something along the lines of "get outta my face, i wanna do this myself" to anyone who tried to mess with my birth but this works too.

from a dutch professor of obstetrics, g. kloosterman. yes, i wrote kloosterman. awesome no?

december 25, 2010

2010-12-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

so we're not so traditional when it comes to christmas but we do have a few regular happenings for the holiday. my favourite is pancakes for breakfast with maple syrup, strawberries and banana. they take forever to make but so, so, so worth it. another is jayzien's invention; chocolate in the bathtub. you know, just 'cause. this one didn't actually happen this year but i'm sure we can resurrect it for 2011. sorry family, i forgot the camera so no photos of our adventures this time. the photos here are shamelessly stolen from the black sheep sanctuary website.

being away from my home town and only having just moved we decided that it was too stressful and expensive (like serious face expensive) to travel home for christmas this year which marked the very first time in all my 26 years that i didn't spend the santa party with my family (i know, whinge whinge, whinge). so instead we ventured out after midday to the black sheep animal sanctuary where we spent the night with marvelous lovely friends including this marvelous and lovely pair who are very unique and individual, i promise.

as well as swimming in the coldest river there ever was, eating, playing games, eating, making new friends and eating, we got to meet the sanctuary's newest additions which includes 4 calves (!), a trio of goats, 2 rescued kittens and a whole lotta roosters. so so so cute.

our stay was lovely and relaxing. we were surrounded by beautiful country, good friends and amazing vegan treats so i barely had chance to feel sad about not being with my loud, crazy, chaotic, huge, but marvellous family. so to sum up; awesomness sprinkled with deliciousness.

besides, how many cows can you boast about meeting on christmas that were not part of your dinner?

making...

2010-12-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

as my 2 year old niece would say; ta da! my first ever serious cross stitch attempt. cute no?

i made this little piece of robot love for my lovely robot obsessed partner as a christmas gift. while we don't really celebrate christmas in a traditional way (no santa, jesus, hyperconsumerism if we can help it), we still give each other thoughtful, practical gifts and make each other stuff from other stuff. more on the marvellous december 25 we had with friends later.

i inherited all the thread from my awesome dirty joke telling grandmother who passed away in 2009. she was so supportive of my interest in traditional crafts and gave my books and yarn and other useful things when she was still here. i think she would have been super proud of my slightly wobbly, uneven and unpracticed finished project.

but! the cross stitch itself! i was seriously inspired by the work of rayna at radicalcrossstitch and i made the pattern from this image i found and altered it to make it what i wanted.

then i used this super easy tutorial to make the image into a cross stitch pattern. i had no real idea what i was doing the whole way through and so the finished project came out larger than i thought it would. the robot obsessed boy has yet to decide how it will be used, whether it will end up on a hoodie, bag or in a frame but he adores it either way!

and look! at my cross stitch! that i made! and it worked!

23 weeks

2010-12-26T23:28:00.000-08:00

just like the title says... and yes my pants are totally undone in this picture. shameless. i have actually completely given up buttoning my jeans now. the comfort is totally worth all the weird looks i get.

if anyone has any more thoughts about the size of my 23 week belly (along with all the people who deem it appropriate to make comments, even if we've just met, or never actually met at all) i would just like to say pfffffftt. whether or not my stomach lives up to your expectations of what it should look like at this stage of pregnancy isn't of any importance to me and at my last midwife check i was measuring 1 week bigger than expected. so yeah, vegans do it better.

my apologies for the crap photo quality. i took this myself in front of my not-so-clean mirror.

listening...

2010-12-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

the do. on my shoulders.

love this song. love this band. i'm just all about the love.

m to the inge

2010-12-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

so last week we (my lovely robot obsessed partner and i) went out of the house. at night. without the kid. it was a rather momentous occasion and the reason was primarily to see the show 'minge' at bats theatre here in wellington. the other reason we went was to be all romantic and disgusting and do things like hold hands in public. fyi, the hand holding? it was awesome. we'll probably totally do it again sometime.

minge is a great name for a show, is it not? i would however, prefer cunt, it has such strong connotations but that has kinda already been done in the vagina monologue entitled cunt. for more cunt love go here.

the show itself was freakin hilarious and far, far more radical than i had expected. so that was a nice surprise. the other nice surprise was when they handed out cookies to the audience. nom nom nom. with a couple of little exceptions the characters were well developed and well acted and like i said already, freakin hilarious. the m.c was amazing and the show touched on some relevant and challenging issues while still being entertaining and fun. all the characters were white, educated, young and able bodied womyn, but they began the show by acknowledging their lack of diversity and the narrowness of the group they represented. nice save.

my most favouritist bit was when the m.c said a spiel about how to avoid rape, entirely directed at men and would-be rapists. it included recommendations like "if you think you might want to assault or rape someone when you go out, ask a caring friend to lock in your room for the evening" and other lovely gems like that. damn straight.

my only disappointment was the way the show addressed fatness and fat phobia. there was a strong vibe of fat acceptance and self love, regardless of size which was great. but unfortunately the message got weakened when they brought the 'health' thing into it. i'm sorry but fatness has nothing to do with health and the idea that it is totally ok to be fat, but only if you are healthy/eat lots of vegetables/have 'fat' genes is ridiculous.

along a similar vein, when one character was reflecting on abortion. she said something along the lines of "when you are having an abortion, you can eat all the mcdonald's you want". uh huh. because pregnant womyn who are carrying their fetuses (is that a word? should i say feti perhaps?) to term should not eat mcdonald's. or anything greasy or fatty or sweet or delicious or 'bad'. i don't believe in good or bad foods and i certainly don't think that there are any rules as to what womyn should be eating. pregnant or not, food should be satisfying and tasty, not guilt inducing.

those things aside, it was terribly, fabulously exciting to be able to see a show, made up of an entirely laydee cast talking about sexuality, fatness, rape, consent, expectations, queerness in a funny and entertaining way while still challenging the way we think about these things.

in a word; minge-tastic.

awesome

2010-12-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

i live by the beach...

...and it kicks serious ass.

making

2010-12-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

ha! thought it was going to be me showing off another crafty project didn't you? nope, this time i'm showing off something of a different nature entirely. this is me, this week at 21 weeks pregnant with the second human i have decided to make. this one doesn't have an in-utero name yet, but is sometimes referred to as robot-fetus. pretty much cos we like robots and we quite like this wriggly little fetus.

this one's for you mama, now i'm sharing the baby love, maybe you'll feel less sad about us moving to the other end of the island? xx

making

2010-12-04T23:51:00.001-08:00

while i still maintain that crochet is by far the superior craft form, i have managed finally to not only starting a knitting project but finish it too. this hat is for greedy greedy me but i think i will make some for my etsy shop seeing as how i love it so damn much.

and sew to bed... a radical stitching opportunity

2010-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

the craftivist collective, based in the uk is calling for quilt patches for a radical collectively made quilt to commemorate john lennons birthday and raise awareness on global and local issues of inequality.

from the craftivist collective blog:

"we think that ‘all you need is love’ but unless you make an effort to share it out equally some people get more love than others. We want to demonstrate something of our love for the community we live in, the city we have been brought up with and the world that embraces us. We believe that that only way we can do this is to demand equality, justice and peace."

read the original article and learn how you can take part. photo from the craftivist collective blog.

the day the raids came

2010-10-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

read this book. these accounts of the events of october 15, 2007 are powerful and honest and have the capacity to help people living in aotearoa to understand what really happened on that day, and the ongoing after-effects of the raids for the arrestees and their communities.

the book is available for purchase for just $25 + postage here
or you can read it online for free here

read this. now..

2010-10-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

a breakdown of the paul henry mess by mellowyellow-aotearoa.

making...

2010-10-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

this little bird brooch out of leftover upholstery vinyl from a school project.

sale...

2010-08-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

on here

if you're in new zealand and want to purchase from my etsy site, you can pay by bank deposit. just email me: captainapricot@gmail.com

role reversal

2010-07-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

me: "hey jayzien bum, how's it going?"
(yes, i often talk like this, because i'm immature like that)

jayzien: "manda, if you said that at school you would get in so much trouble"
(yes, he often talks like this, because he's mature like that)

i want to make

2010-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

a 1920s style crocheted cloche hat. image found here

Defining the world through regurgitated, updated, mediocre, mainstream media information

2010-06-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

love this song

making

2010-06-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

now that school is finished for the holidays, i can finally start working on new crochety goodness for my etsy and felt stores. here's what i've got so far. i'll be adding heaps to both stores in the next few weeks so check back to see what i come up with!

ps. i'm offering shipping deals to my australian customers via captain apricot on etsy

robot vs cat

2010-06-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

these stencilled cats started popping up in my neighbourhood a while ago. cute right? more recently another stencil artist joined the party with this robot attack and the third picture shows yet another addition to the mix. whether it was done by the original cat artist or someone else, i love the idea of street art being an ongoing collaboration by people who may have never met.

for the kids? or for me?

2010-04-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

my love for karen o has been further fuelled by the soundtrack for where the wild things are. i know the movie was released ages ago but i can't help but share this video from the album. it's one of very few kids albums that i can stand (apart from kimya dawson and david rovics), given that most, well, are kinda painful for grown-ups. and so without further rambling*; a song from the cd that sits in our car stereo on repeat when j is along for the ride:

*ok so there was a little more rambling :)

check it

2010-04-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

my armwarmers were featured in the april/may issue of good magazine:

amongst the likes of kate sylvester and starfish clothing. excuse me while my head explodes a little.

nom*d favourites

2010-04-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

another school project drew my attention to nom*d's latest collection, entitled 'turncoats'. here are a few of my favourite looks.

check out the long fringed bag in this image:

and the hoodie scarf in this outfit:

and in this look i think i'm in love with oh, everything.

all images from www.nomd.co.nz

love her

2010-04-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

this acoustic song, by karen elson (model, singer and wife of jack white) is so beautiful. rumour has it that she is releasing an album soon.

making...

2010-04-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

a few new things i've been working on. three button armwarmers now available in red, children's newsboy style cap and another version for toddlers. all three designs are available in loads of colors and are in my etsy shop. they will make it to my felt store soon, but if you're impatient, and would have prefered to get one yesterday, send me a message and i'll make you one special.

please note j's very serious face in the middle image. we did our best not to have any fun while taking pictures but unfortunately we failed miserably when we spotted robots and bunnies in the clouds. oh well, maybe next time.

nothing to do with craft

2010-04-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

this time of year inevitably brings up discussion about easter, what it means to you and how we celebrate it (i tend to celebrate religious holidays by ignoring them) and since becoming a parent it has become more and more apparent that i must talk openly and honestly about easter. but how to explain?

j has enough christians in his life to know about jesus and that for some people easter commemorates the ressurrection. as a parent who considers christianity to be terribly oppressive and also potentially traumatic for children who are introduced to ideas that are beyond their understanding and comprehension i tend to leave it at that. that some people believe these things, that i do not and he can make up his mind about it himself if he is ever compelled to do so.

which brings me to solstice, the change of seasons, celebrating new life and new growth. seems like a gentle alternative and a logical explaination that a 6 year old would be satisfied with, right?
except we live in the southern hemisphere, and right now we are on the edge of autumn, with leaves falling from the trees, the days getting shorter and summer's vege plants are beginning to die down for the winter.

i'd be interested in finding out if anyone has any alternative ideas about the easter holiday or different ways of celebrating/explaining it to your children. if you want to share yours, i'd appreciate the perspective.

oh anna

2010-03-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

i've been meaning to mention anna sui's fall 2010 collection for a few weeks now. i discovered it at the perfect time, while working on an assignment for school that was themed around art nouveau style architecture in fashion. i love the colours, the prints and patterns and the hats are amazing. needless to say, images of her work featured heavily in my workbook for that assessment

.

stitching

2010-02-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

a simple yet effective way to customise a gift. mostly inspired by this post at madebyjoel about hand embroidered t-shirts. i decided find a faster, simpler way to personalise a baby tee and this was it. i do plan on exploring the exciting world of embroidery at some stage, if i can find the time and manage to work my way down my ever-growing list of things to make, learn and do.

with a teensy heart for the centre back neckline too.

drawing. before and after

2010-02-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

yesterday morning j and i were hanging out at home together. i was sketching a poppy to familiarise myself with the flower's shape and proportions, using an image on my computer screen as a guide.

when i was done i put my sketchbook down and began making paper templates of the petals (for a different project) and cutting out fabric pieces. when j saw my drawing and the one on my screen, he was a little concerned.
he exclaimed "you forgot to do the rest of the picture!"

i replied that i didn't want to draw the leaves and flower buds, but if he wanted to 'finish' the drawing he was welcome to. so he did.

i think i like his contributions much more than i like my own.

making

2010-01-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

images from my portfolio, as part of my application to design school.

new stuff

2010-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

just some things i recently added to my etsy store. made while drinking tea and listening to johnny cash.

crafting on the edge...

2010-01-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

i discovered these beautiful crocheted stones over at knitting alot designer/knitter tora's blog last week and via her site, found more from the stones' creator here at resurrection fern as well. i did think about attempting these myself but maybe need to consider the risk before i begin. apparently they hurt to make! extreme fibre crafts indeed.

photo from margie @ resurrection fern. you can see more and read about them here and here

Captain Apricot image!

2010-01-01T17:35:00.000-08:00