The turtleneck matches his eyes

This week I began recording the album- whooop!

The first step was drum tracking. Logan used this AMAZING record as his drumming inspiration:

As you can imagine, it really added extra intensity and passion.

 This is Olly Harmer, he is our recording engineer at The Lab:

 He won Best Engineer at the NZ Music awards last year. But it is very strange, the 'technical' awards (Best Engineer, Producer, and Album Art) are actually HIGHLY creative, but they are held on a different night to the main awards- like they don't even matter!

As if shaping the sound of an album is of no importance.
Insane.

Anyway, he won. Hurrah. Working with Olly was wonderful, and we are just getting started. When the live song frenzy came upon me, he was there, getting creative with vintage room microphones to capture the song 'Lazarus' in one solid take.

What you cant see here are the boys stomping and clapping till their hands bled, and one very talented bass player.

Album Art

Creating an album is a bit of a logistical challenge, so I've been neglecting blog duties somewhat.

The album is a crazy amount of work. Something else that has taken me by surprise is the amount of work that goes into orchestrating a magnificent photoshoot.

The lovely and talented Brooke Tyson is on board to style the shoot, providing her beautiful feminine and dramatic clothing, which is a thrill. I can't wait for my first fitting. I love playing dress-ups. I was also planning to diet, but my compulsive relationship with Tahini has ruined those plans somewhat.

On Sunday I even had  a papercraft party with some of my girlfriends so that we could make the props for the shoot, which is loosely based on Erica Lack's paper art. 

Who knew making things out of paper took such a bloody long time!! (I'm sure plenty of you do.) We worked for 5 hours, and are only about half-way there- if I am generous.

Erica is also doing the album artwork, which will be spectacular. I am so excited. The artwork is in production at the moment. I have only seen the sketches, but they are amazing.

I can't wait till I can show you. 

Sweet Caravans

Lately, I have been thinking that I would very much like to buy a wee run-down caravan and fix it up to live in.... much like these pics (uncredited, sorry! I can't remember where I found them):

Which makes me wonder: do I have the general craftiness needed to embark on a project like this? Yes, probably.
Do I have the attention span? Doubtful.
How about the attention to detail that would ensure I did a good job? Um.....errrrr....

But can you imagine how delightful it would be to live in? Small, but delightful. 

Snow in Auckland!!

Many of you will wonder what the big deal is. Snow. And about two minutes of it, at that. Pa-thetic.

The thing is, in Auckland, New Zealand it doesn't snow. Well it hasn't for 80 years.

So, yup, it may seem a little lame to get so excited, but growing up in Auckland it was the kind of thing us kids dreamed about. A magical idea that still seemed magical into my adulthood.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED! And, even better, I didn't read about it in the paper, enviously wishing that I had seen it (I do this with water-spouts and tornadoes), but for the two minutes that it snowed, I was right there at the window.

Well, that, and running around like a maniac yelling "COME AND LOOK! IT'S SNOWING!"

First snowflakes in upstate NY

To be honest, I'd only ever seen snow flakes once before, when I was visiting a good friend in upstate New York. I was so excited that I locked myself out of the house in my pajamas (see diagram.)

So, Auckland snow day was an excellent day...

Despite the fact that due to our un-insulated home with no central heating, I slept in 1x thermal pants, 1x thermal top, 1x pair socks, 1 x t-shirt, 1x full set of pajamas, with 1x hot water bottle, under 1x synthetic duvet/comforter, 1x feather duvet/comforter, 1x wool duvet/comforter and a fluffy blanket.

mmmm love!

I love a sewing win.

Anyhoo, self drafted skirt with piping. Based on this skirt at the Sew Weekly for "peer review" week!

I'm pretty much in love with this skirt.

Sunrise

The best view would have been right outside my flatmates room- but lurking outside their window with a camera at 6.30am might have seemed a little creepy.

This morning

Even powerful wizards buy into Apple branding

Last night, I had a dream that I was a wizard- I could make fireballs with my hands!

Despite this, I was sobbing because someone had stolen my Macbook Pro.

The ruffle dress

I love this dress. Unfortunately, my awkward mid-dance stylings may detract from its awesomeness.
Lordy, how painful can a photograph be? Very.

The fabric is silk. It took a crazy-long time to sew because I don't have an overlocker/serger, and those ruffles are bastards.

Since I discovered the wonders of patterns (I used to just invent my own, with varied results), I have totally embraced the pattern world. This one was Simplicity 2360, which instantly got me with the ruffles. I am such a girly-girl that the mere suggestion of a ruffle sets my heart a-flutter.

Next time I take photos (I would have taken them on the dress-form, but it just didn't look right), I will maybe style the outfit better, instead of just running outside (for the natural light) as fast as I can to avoid freezing to death.

And maybe, just maybe, I will do my hair. If Nanna was alive, she would probably tell me that I'm "letting myself go"- which never seemed like a dreadful prospect.

It is hard, actually- I keep wanting to call her for sewing tips, and I can't.

But regardless, I sure am loving this sewing lark at the moment.

The sweet taste of spider.

I live with hippies.

Not of the rainbow-jersey wearing variety, but urban hippies. They eat organics, do yoga, and look nice.

I have not been a hippie, but do like assimilating into my social groups.

Therefore, when I was told that carob rice cakes were a delicious treat- I bought one. So sincere was my flatmate when she extolled their virtues.

I couldn't even eat the whole thing.
"You'll be back," she told me.
And I was.

I finished my rice cake. Bought another. I complained without conviction as I ate it.

By the third carob rice cake I was hooked. I love them. I am obsessed with them. A turn of events that I did not expect.

This was marvellous! There was something to this healthy-eating thing.

Then, having been advised twice in one week to try raw cacao, I bought some raw cacao beans that another friend recommended. (She eats them instead of sweets.)

Having had such outrageous success with carob, I couldn't wait.

When I bit into my first bean, the intense flavour was overwhelming.

The flavour of a spider cocoon. Filled with eggs and wrapped in tree bark.


Surely that was a dud one! (I hoped).

Nope. They all taste like that.

I am praying that this bag of expensive spider treats soon turns into a glorious taste surprise.

Spider treats