The Emerald City

Finally got around to the Duro dress!

Posted by DeVille |

Finally I've had the chance to make something for myself! We just had our work Christmas party, which was lawn bowls with a 70's theme and after 'umm'ing and 'ahh'ing for a few days I came across this fantastic chocolate coloured sun hat which I thought would look great with the Duro dress, so what better excuse to put this together! I rummaged through my old sheet and duvet stash and found this fantastic retro floral pattern and a chocolate brown duvet which matched nicely.

Other than the contrast at the neck and back waist line being a little dodgy (the result of sewing this on the same night as decorating the house, baking ridiculous amounts of cup cakes for the party, making a t-shirt for secret santa and in general not cutting the notches or even bothering to follow the pattern) I was extremely happy with the outcome and I got so many compliments on it the next day when I wore it.

Some time in the next couple of weeks I plan to pick it apart a little and fix the bits I didn't quite do right, until then I'll consider it a wearable muslin :)

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The Brace Faced Kiwi

Posted by DeVille |

Yes, I've finally decided to get em! I'm in for the long haul, so I've decided to create a new blog to track my progress, aptly named The Brace Faced Kiwi! That way I don't have to post revolting teeth pictures here :)

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So Long Ricky. Finally.

Posted by DeVille |

Let's face it, Ricky should have been auf weeks ago - a couple of flukes does not a great designer make, and you cannot trust someone who cries that much. It was bad enough when Kevin lost out to him, but it was unforgivable when he made it over Kit. Oh well. At last the weeping willow is gone. Maybe he could create a range of designer tissues for all your crying needs?

Anyway. My three favourites are still in the running (Jillian, Christian and Sweet P)... I'm a complete Jillian freak. I think she's not only a talented designer and has the most incredible imagination and style, but she's also so darned nice and too darned cute! Christian is also in my top three. Wow - that guy is good, even if he is a bit immature at times. Sweet P is the last of my Designer Trilogy. I actually don't think she's that good - she's never shown any real strengths or strong ideas, but I think she's adorable and honorable and that's enough for me.

I'm hoping for a final three of Jillian, Christian and Sweet P. Even better would be a final four like last year with Jillian, Christian, Chris and Sweet P. Based on previous seasons I can just tell that Rami will sneak in and I'll lose a favourite in exchange, but I personally think he is too much of a one hit wonder and a right cock to boot, so I can only hope.

It's interesting how much I love this show. I don't usually watch any form of reality TV (Oh - I watched survivor a few years ago when Rupert was in it - I liked Rupert) and I can't understand the point of them. Project Runway is different because it's not about lying around on a beach in a bikini for a month and flirting your way through or exploiting personal relationships. You actually need skill and talent to make it in this show (weeeell - generally at least) and once you're on, you really need to work to survive. I'm floored every week by the incredible designs these guys come up with and I can only wish I had a fifth of their talent.

Face update: I still have one! I think it's actually starting to heal now, although I had to move my dentists appointment back a week as I can barely open my mouth wide enough to eat toast!

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I'm Going Slightly Mad.

Posted by DeVille |

Is Vista actually compatible with anything? I've had nothing but trouble with this new laptop, and I'm pretty certain it's the OS and not the laptop itself. So far it hates Firefox, Photoshop, my wireless modem, my camera's memory card, Download Manager, anything involving links, the interweb, my wacom and pretty much everything else, including blogger.

Third time lucky with this post then...

Sooooooooo. Day 4 of my new face and I really don't know what's going on. Apparently I should now be able to wear make up to cover the 'redness'. Somehow I don't really think it's appropriate to cover this thing with anything at all yet as it's still more puffy and yellow than red.

It finally stopped bleeding after day 2 and even up to today I've been dab dab dabbing the Vaseline on. Yesterday it started getting redder around the edges and puffier in the middle and because I'm terrified of it becoming infected, I self medicated with a bit of antibiotic gel. I know, I know, I really shouldn't have, but it made me feel better! It certainly seems less puffy now, although I think that's just because it's finally starting to heal and not from the gel.

Strangely, the giant patch on my forehead which I expected to be worse than the lip looks like nothing more than a small patch of sunburn - all the skin has grown back already. Which makes the other one more frustrating! My forehead was covered for 3 days though so that does have a lot to do with it. I tried covering my lip to encourage some healing, but the plaster hurt and then fell off within an hour, so that kinda didn't work.

Other exciting things to look forward to are:
My Garrison caps which should be arriving next week! Yep, getting this year's costumes sorted already. It was impossible to find a pattern so I had to order a couple of caps simply to pull one apart.

My Ewok DVDs (Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor) should be arriving this week. I don't care how dweeby people think these movies are, I grew up on them (I still keep my Ewok on my bed) and love them to bits.

The Dark Horse cast of Inara's Shuttle I pre-ordered in November should be arriving either this week or next. YAY! Collection Complete!

Highlights of the week: Resident Evil Evening and National Treasure 1st equal
Lowlights of the week: The Golden Compass (might have been OK without Nicole Plasticface), missing all the beautiful weather because I can't go out in the sun and passing the virus I had onto mum. Sorry :(

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Going, going... GONE

Posted by DeVille |

After years of wanting my 'beauty spot' removed, its finally gone! It hurts like a biotch, but it's gone!! So much for painless and bloodless though... Shall we just say I won't be leaving the house for a couple of days. Mum's reaction should be a good indicator, as she won't even come within 2 metres of me right now. Once she comes within a couple of feet I'll know it's not quite so bad to look at! The Vaseline I have to keep it covered in doesn't help the look of it much either.

It's taken about 4 hours for the anesthetic to wear off, and I can't believe that only 2 hours ago I was wishing it would hurry up. Strangely, the sun damage on my forehead which was also treated doesn't hurt at all and it's about an inch around. That one is covered up however so maybe that's something to do with it.

I have to admit I'm a little worried how it's going to heal - there seem to be some deeper 'cuts' which look to me as if they will leave deeper marks on my skin. I'm hoping at this point that it only looks so bad as it's quite swollen and raw and that when the skin heals over it won't be so visible. Not that I expected no scarring at all, but I didn't expect these odd deep cut like marks.

Anyhoo, lucky for me I've got plenty of great DVDs to watch tonight, including Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction (see a pattern?) but sadly - no Supernatural yet!! Whoops - take that, rewind it back, just found it! Ahhhhh, a nearly perfect evening ahead - 4 hours of Milla Jovovich kicking Zombie Butt and brand new Winchester boys. MMMM. Winchester boys.

OK - I really must go take something for this terrible stinging, watch Sell This House and then start my ghoulie fest! I'll keep you posted on the healing process, cause I know y'all really want to know :P

Ciao bella

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It's Nearly Christmas & Supernatural is Back in Jan!

Posted by DeVille |

So, it's been an odd few weeks that should have been fun, but ended up becoming depressing somewhere along the line. It started with the VF Christmas Party; usually an awesome event, but this year it just totally bombed. This was my 7th Vodafone Christmas, and by far the worst I've ever been to.

To get in, I had to queue for 3/4 of an hour and we were divided up into queues based on surname. Luckily I had Ems to keep me company or it would have been the most boring wait of my life. Our queue was about 3 times longer than all the others, so everyone else was inside for about half an hour before we got in... And thanks to the layout - we only ever saw the rest of our group twice that night!

The party was set out over 6 floors, with two flights of stairs per floor, and no working lift. There were two rooms on each floor, and a few more outside, which you had to risk your life to get to as you had to go down more flights of stairs in the dark! Within an hour of getting in, an ambulance arrived as (surprise, surprise) some poor girl broke her leg falling down the stairs. Honestly - considering the state Voda-Staff are well known to get into, I cannot believe they chose that venue! To top everything off, they didn't have any water to drink (alcohol and coke only) and the food, while plentiful, left a lot to be desired.

There were some small highlights though - the Tacky TV Room was awesome, you got to watch 10 minutes of great old 80's shows, then were sent into a locked room where you had 5 minutes to eat all the lollies and chocolate you could get your hands on. If you didn't eat - the 'chef' would chase after you and force food into your mouth all the while surrounded by dancing pigs! And the Bingo room was hilarious - complete with prizes, and wonderful 80's style costuming. Other than that, I have to say I really didn't enjoy the evening and we ended up leaving before 11pm.

Next came our team Christmas Function which really was AWESOME!! One of the VF training team organised an Amazing Race for us, which filled in the first half of the day. The point was to travel between Auckland CBD, Kingsland and NewMarket and on the way take photos with your team of various items, for example horses, Vodafone Customers, bus stops, flower shops, the Black Caps, and dozens of other things. Our team returned a whopping 20 minutes before the rest of the groups, though unfortunately we didn't win the whole race itself. All in all, a very fun morning!

The afternoon was spent BBQing at a team mates place. My Secret Santa Gift went down a treat - Paul wore the lovely knickers I gave him all afternoon (if you look to the left, you'll see a photo of him wearing the "I heart SCLUB7" pair and right at the top, Nige with the "I heart sheep "pair in his back pocket). They got soaked with the Super Soaker more than once and survived, which was great, considering I made the logos out of left over iron on stuff, but I can only imagine the state they're in now!

Also, there are three exciting things happening.. 1) CHRISTMAS!!!! 2) Supernatural is back in January 3) I'm getting SKY for Christmas!!!

That's it for now - I'll be back on/ around Christmas to show off all the awesome presents I bought people (cocky I know, but I am an awesome present buyer). Until then, Merry Christmas, take care and my love to you all!

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WARNING: Post Contains Gratuitous Supernatural Worship

Posted by DeVille |

I plan to cover two areas in this post - Supernatural, and my job. I plan to cover these two topics in full, however with a picture of Jensen and Jarred glaring at me (almost obscenely) as I type, the Supernatural bug just might win out. Of course, once I've typed enough they'll no longer appear on screen. That is until I add additional gratuitous images of the boys. Because after the week I've had, I freakin' deserve it. Alternatively I might hijack my own post with various accounts of how work is controlling my life at the moment. Let's see how it goes, huh?

On to Supernatural...

Friday night is quite possibly my favourite night of the week. Not only is it the night I watch the latest Heroes episode, but I also 'record' Supernatural while I'm watching it. This is so that as soon as Hiro's, I mean Heroes finishes, I can watch the latest antics of Sam and Dean Winchester.

These two TV shows cover most of my current television requirements - ghosties, ghoulies, blood suckers and superheroes, slow dancing aliens, cutie little cheerleaders and, especially in the case of Supernatural, attractive manly men.

Here comes the point: Last night as I sat down to begin my recording, something absolutely awful happened. Yes, you guessed it. IT WASN'T THERE. Three hours later with no luck, I began a frantic google search to find out just what the heck was going on. Finally, after an hour of searching - I find that the next episode will not air until.... MID DECEMBER!!! EH?!?!?!? What am I going to do?? How will I get through the next 3 weeks?? This is unfair! And just because it's a Supernatural Christmas Special, does not make it any better!! OK, actually it does. But still!

So for the next few weeks, it appears that I'll need to get my Supernatural hit by watching least two episodes a night, starting right from the beginning. It's an ultra bold statement considering all the Christmas stuff I've got coming up, but I will do it! Projects Perm Mum's Hair and Cut it, Skim, Wallpaper, Decorate Paint and Blinds are going to be taking up all the spare time I have left. Just as well I have no life right now.

Well, what do you know, I've warm fuzzyed my way out of wanting to complain about my job! Sigh. Now, where's that season 1 dvd?

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The Strawberry that would be a bottom

Posted by DeVille |

MMM, strawberry. I've started my Dragonboating supporting with a bang by spending $5 on a punnet of strawberries and some chocolate dipping sauce to go with it. And what's the first thing I find? That's right, The Strawberry That Would Be a Bottom. Score! And for only $5!

Also - it's Guy Fawkes! Oh yay for me. All I can hope is that it keeps on raining so that I can at least get a small amount of sleep tonight. Or perhaps I'll just have a Supernatural Season 3 fest! Double Yuss.

On the not so positive side, I've just been reading about King Tut's tomb being opened for viewing and King Tut himself being put on view ... Why oh why did I not get picked to go to Egypt with the rest of the guys? Is it because I'm just too damned pretty? Am I just too shiny to be allowed? My heart's broken all over again at the thought of everyone trampling through the Cairo Museum, and not to mention the impending weekend trip to Luxor, where the above mentioned can be viewed. Woe is me. Still, I have the Strawberry That Would Be a Bottom, this is at least some compensation.

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Flash Back to when everything was choice!

Posted by DeVille |

It was a beautiful day yesterday and thanks to an awesome afternoon out in the sun, eating Jelly Tips, being blinded by the surf and talking Sport Drinks and Mello Yello with my workmates, I've been reminiscing non stop about being Kiwi Kid in the 70s and 80s. Everything was "choice", summers never ended and you could entertain yourself for hours, roller skating around the school grounds with your Mellow Yellow in your hand, playing elastics in the front yard in your blue towelling stubbies with white piping and generally and hanging out for Christmas and the exciting pile of presents under the wooden Christmas tree, then Easter so you could go to the Easter show and buy candy floss and sno cones and later, buy a Cadbury Creme Egg, and try to get goo all down your chin like the girl in the ad. And when your crate of Sport drink arrived each month, you'd always drink your favourites first, and give the ones you didn't like to your friends!

I vividly remember taking our first video player out of the box (it was bigger than me) and the first video I watched on it (Bed knobs and Broomsticks - it's lovely bobbing along, bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briney sea), followed by The Gnome Mobile (the gnome mobile, the gnome mobile, bobbing along in the gnome mobile!) and the Witch Mountain movies (I looked like Tia - so I was choice)!

Then, there was the longest drink in town, which for me was always a vanilla or lime milkshake (never was a chocolate gal) which my mum used to get for me at a little cafeteria in Takapuna beach. There was the ferry building in downtown Auckland which had a fireman's pole and a slide, Grundy's in Surfer's Paradise (where I excelled at bopping things on the head), holidays at Waingaro Hot Springs (balancing on the log) or Awakeri Hot Springs (to this day I swear I saw a UFO there, and not the sewing kind_! Then surprise weekends away in Rotorua, where my parents would pick me up from school early on Friday and we'd drive down in the mini or the ford, and let's not forget the Footrot Flats theme park with the world's dodgiest roller coaster.

I was a geek even back then and knew the words to Star Wars off by heart, had all the Star Wars read alongs (and many others, I could read from 3) and an ewok on my bed at all times. As I got older I expanded my movie horizons to include anything with Chevy Chase in it (my absolute favourites being Foul Play and Caddy Shack) and probably too many movies with Bill Murray. Han was always my first love though.

I've searched youTube and managed to find an old Mello Yello ad, some footage of Telethon '88 (check out Lisa Gibbons and Thingy!), and my absolute favourite ever NZ song, Sweet Lovers, by the Holiday Makers. There's also a bit of calssic Billy T and Patea Maori Club, some Mockers, some Dave & Herbs and even - a room that echoes (around and around and around with its own sound...)! The L&P ads are fairly recent, but they describe exactly what life was like... I'm trying to track down the rest of them and will post them as soon as I do!

OK, the Cadbury ad shown here is not really from my childhood (more like early 20s), but I love this particular ad (watch out for the bum wiggle and you'll know why)...

Some L&P ads

Mello Yello Ad (the girl in the black bikini)

Just Juice vs. Coconut

Cadbury Ad

Peking Man - Room That Echoes

Dave Dobbyn & Herbs - Slice of Heaven (Footrot Flats! Yusss)

The Mockers - Forever Tuesday Morning

Netherworld Dancing Toys - For Today

Patea Maori Club - Poi E

Holiday Makers - Sweet Lovers

Telethon '88 Higlights (set to Sweet Lovers!)

Billy T James - Te News

Billy T James - Where'd I get my bag? (Lands for Bags of course!)

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Today is the first day of the rest of my blog...

Posted by DeVille |

One minute it's a beautiful sunny day, the next... Well, the picture says it all. At least I managed to keep my camera dry. But hey! It's stopped raining now! Just in time for everyone to start setting off their fireworks (oh yay) and keep me awake all night again. Yep, go ahead and call me the Grinch who stole Guy Fawkes!

Anyway, on to the positive stuff...

First of all, I am now the proud owner of a transforming Transformers DVD! In fact, I managed to buy the last one on the Shore, which pleased me no end.

Secondly, I now have a new addiction, having watched Ghost Rider for the third time this weekend! I can't remember what originally put me off Nic Cage (I think it was when he married some young asian girl - was that him?) but I'm back off the wagon, and devouring his movies with a vengeance. It started with Next (awesome, awesome, awesome!) now Ghost Rider... And National Treasure is the next on my list. I haven't even watched this week's Supernatural yet GASP!

Of course, this weekend should have been spent making my costume for our Christmas party in a couple of weeks - a Goth-Loli dress does not make itself. Every day I promise myself I'll at least start on the accessories, but I never seem to get around to it.

Until the next time I remember I have a Blog... Auf Weidersehn.

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