walking away from new purchases…

It’s a good time of year to go shopping. Actually, it’s a very bad time of year to go shopping – because the weather is beautiful and demands new sartorial choices, but it’s been long enough since last summer that I can’t remember what clothes I own. I know I own a lot of beautiful clothes… so why am I not wearing them? Why I am wasting my time going into stores and looking at clothes I don’t even really like?

So I’ve been trying very hard not to buy new clothes, and to instead unpack properly and organise the clothes I do have. Blessed is the time when you are alone in your beautiful house and have the space and peace to mooch around doing just this. Last night I went through lots of boxes and suitcases and piles, and found lots of old favourite clothes that I just adore… even if some are starting to look a little shabby. I also went through boxes of fabric and sewing patterns… thinking about what I can make myself. I’m thinking that some of my things need updating or altering… but that’s probably preferrable to just buying new clothes… and aesthetically, peacefully and utilitarianly satisfying as well.

This cardigan revamp by Kristena Derrick at thimbly things is my number one inspiration at present. I have some beautiful scraps of Liberty Tana Lawn that I think would make lovely birds… and lots of fine merino knits that are developing little holes. I’ve been thinking about reinforcing beautiful fabrics to make patches for a couple of years now, ever since shim + sons did it on some childrens’ tshirts… but could never work out how to make it sophisticated and minimalist, rather than cutesy. But Kristena has nailed it. Sew covetous.

girl in the wind

This image has haunted me for years… I saw it once in a book in Dunedin Public Library, and it has been part of me ever since, but I never knew who drew it or where to find it.

I just love her red coat and the largesse of the tree, and the fact that it looks like it might be a windy day. I like that she is alone.

For years now I’ve trawled through children’s illustration websites trying to work out who the artist was. I remembered that the woman who drew it had a triple barrel name, but couldn’t remember anything else, except that I found the picture in a book collecting that artist’s work. Eventually I worked out that it might be by Nancy Ekholm Burkert… the name just sounded and felt right, but the rest of her artwork is different from this – less bold, more soft and pastel, and I was still dubious. But I ordered her collected art, opened the book at random, flicked through a few pages and there she was – my red girl and her tree… found.

some live music moments this year (in near chronological order)

I usually make a top five gigs list as the year winds up, but tonight I am thinking about those amazing, stupendously heartbreaking moments that you get sometimes with live music, the ones that you go to concert after concert searching for… and it seems like a nice gesture to list some of this year’s here.

Jon Rauhouse’s lap steel solo in the middle of Deep Red Bells, Neko Case at the Clarenden Hotel, Katoomba. You could have heard a pin drop in the nano-moment it ended.

Neko Case singing Middle Cyclone, thrice over. I never noticed this song until I heard it live, and now it haunts me (‘to ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love’).

Andrew Bird’s Table and Chairs, Sydney Opera House. I was so happy I cried, goddammit.

El Gatillo, Calexico. Metro Theatre. Four guitars, and it just builds and builds. So evocative. It was just at the Metro, but it felt like the open road. It felt like everywhere (but mostly Arizona…. but also… everywhere). And that whistling…

There’s this song that Catherine Traicos sings, a cover of a song written by her friend Marcus. It kills me every time…

Emily Lubitz’s covers of Famous Blue Raincoat, Suzanne and Hallelujah at Monsieur Camembert’s Leonard Cohen Birthday Bash at Notes last night. That girl has such an amazing voice. I will never have those moments back. I wish I could hear her sing each song again.

And every time I went to a gig with Dave this year and caught him smiling. Queuing with him at late, free Spiegeltent shows. Seeing him so happy at The Royal Crown Review and Qwirz. Him helping me buy my beloved Andrew Bird tshirt (my one and only concert tee). Watching him, poised and pensive, whenever he photographed. The times his arms were around me. And every time I saw him smile. And those smiles. Those smiles.

a room of one’s own…

Is it wrong to take a picture and use it as a place holder for your longing? Sometimes I see photographs like this and feel like… this… this is what I would like my life to be like.

But the really nice thing is that this is pretty much how I feel about my life at the moment. I am loving having a nice place to live and such good company. So much laughter and ease and peace. Everything is good.

(the photo is by Jessica Williams and is from a new book curated by Lena Corwin, Brooklyn Diary)

ch-ch-ch-changes

So, a month ago I gave up my beautiful, sunny, upstairs room in an awesome Newtown sharehouse. It was nice living with caring people for a year, but I felt the increasing need for my own space and started hunting for a new home.

I looked at a couple of places, and became rather despondent rather quickly when faced with the lack of nice one bedroom places available at a reasonable price… but finally I found a place in nearby Dulwich Hill. I found the house on gumtree and am renting directly from the owner.

It was a pretty crazy move, because I was gearing up to write a conference paper and attend a conference in Melbourne at around the same time…. but I managed to move myself, Milla, and all my stuff. Well, most of my stuff. Dave helped me a lot, and I was incredibly greatful for all his assistance, practical advice and easy temperament. I couldn’t have asked for a better moving buddy.

And I am now the proud inhabitant of the ground floor of a wee little victorian terrace in Dulwich Hill (in Sydney’s inner west). Just me and my cat, (and often times Dave), and friends dropping by, and all my books and little projects. It’s so nice to be able to spread out! I have my own living room with a bay window and a fireplace, and a beautiful little bedroom that is just begging for nice bedlinen. My kitchen is lovely, and has a little skylight built into the old oven chimney – where my cat just sits in the sunshine and watches the sky go by.

Sorry for being too busy to blog about the move. I always find moving posts so interesting… it would have been fun to document all the excitement. I guess, instead, that I’ll have to settle for documenting getting the place all spruced up. There are curtains to make, and pillow cases. There are pictures to take down and new artworks to hang. There is much baking and cooking to be done, and I am very excited about being able to start a little kitchen garden out the back.

Herein lies the end of a very strange and uprooted time in my life. You can expect much nesting and general at-homery from me for the next little while.

<3