What I scored at the clothing swap

1 purple skirt, made of felt -- it's muppetastic! I love it:

1 black & white striped shirt, with cute detailing/tailoring:

I know, I know, I take awful photos. The clothes are cute; you'll just have to take my word for it.

The Five-Dollar Kimono

No, really. There's a little place tucked away in the eastern suburbs called the Asia Gallery (23 Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington) that has a table stacked high with vintage kimono for five dollars each. (The Dreamstress has done an excellent review over at her blog; check it out.)

I have to set myself a five-dollar limit every time I go there and dive into the stack; "you're only allowed to buy one" I tell myself.

Yeah, so the last time I was there I bought two. Still, that's a pair of kimono for ten dollars. Awesome.

Squeak?

Cats. If they're not sitting on my lap, then they're sitting on my laptop. Which means there's not much posting going on. Also, they keep bringing me mice. Which is sweet of them, and I admire their mad hunting skills, but really. Mice belong outside, and not inside. And definitely not in my shoes.

Please stand by

Cat on lap; can't get up. Blog post delayed; try again later.

Ti Kouka rocks my world

I ran some errands in town today, so I stopped in at Ti Kouka café (upstairs @ 76 Willis Street, Wellington) for lunch. The wait staff are friendly and perky, and the food and coffee are always good. The waitress recommended the chef's special which was fresh figs (from his auntie's garden in Nelson), walnuts glazed with brown sugar, on a rocket and red onion salad with balsamic reduction and goat's cheese cream. Yes, I started to drool at the description too. So I ordered it and it was Magically Delicious. Seriously. The phrase "it melts in your mouth" may get overused something wicked but it was true here; and I made the right call in sitting at one of the booths so that I didn't fall out of my chair when I swooned. It was that good.

... I need to plant a fig tree in the garden now.

Good Score is outstanding

This is my new skirt -- custom made for me by Nell @ Good Score (311 Willis Street, Wellington) --

It's dark red and awesome ...

It also looks good inside-out ...

See the pinstriped lining at the waistband! So cute ...

Nell is wonderful; not only did she make this lovely skirt for me, but she also repaired the seam on the vintage dress I was wearing when I came in to pick it up. She's a rock star -- local area friends, plz go check out her store and get a Good Score :-)

Putting my house in order -- the hall closet

In light of recent events the top priority this week is a clean-out and re-org for the Cupboard of Doom. This is the hall closet which (in theory) houses the emergency supplies. In practice (as you can see) it is a festival of clothes that won't fit in the bedroom closet and other random objects.

Finding anything in an emergency would be ... a challenge. Right now I can barely find a place to stand while I sort through all of this shit, I mean, stuff. That's tomorrow's mission: to locate and secure the floor area. Tonight's "drive-by cleaning" will consist of me, a plastic bag and an emptying out of the shoe tidy. You may all amuse yourselves by guessing how many (or few) pairs of shoes will actually be in there.