All posts filed under: Miscellenia

Island maid, or what I learned this week

I guess this is the week for quirky confessions. Yesterday I told you about my ignorance regarding the Prisoner of Zenda, today I’m going to tell you about my geographical ignorance. You see, I have never in my life been more than two hours drive from the ocean. Really. Never, ever. I am an island girl. I was born and grew up on Moloka’i, Hawaii, an island so small that you could drive from end to end in less than an hour. And then, all you could do was turn around and drive back. Then I went to school in the SF Bay Area, where I was never more than a few minutes from the ocean. Once we drove inland towards Sacramento as part of a birdwatching excursion for an Ornithology class, and that was as far as I ever got from the sea. After university, I briefly worked in New York City, and that’s just another island. And, of course, now I live in New Zealand, which is also an island, albeit a much …

Friday Reads: The Prisoner of Zenda

Published by The Dreamstress

OK, first off, I need to start this post with a confession. I found out about the Prisoner of Zenda from a comment on this blog. Yes, up until a few months ago I had never heard of it. I don’t know how I (historical literature obsessed freak that I am) managed to miss it. It’s had eight film adaptions after all, launched an entire literary genre (the Ruritanian romance) and added the term ‘Ruritanian’ to our language! Once I realised the dreadful gap in my literary knowledge, I was determined to fix it. No luck at the Wellington Public Library, no luck in any bookstore I popped in to in NZ. And then, in a secondhand bookstore just down the street from ThreadDen in Melbourne – success! And, best of all, it was the only book in the shop that wasn’t Au$20 (really, I thought that books were exorbitantly expensive in NZ, but Oz is even worse!). So, here is my copy of The Prisoner of Zenda, read from cover to cover …

The corset class in Melbourne

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m sure you have all been waiting to hear about the corset class in Melbourne and how it went. Well, it was amazing, fantastic, wonderful. Not because of me, but because all the people who came and took it were amazing, fantastic, wonderful. Just the loveliest group of people you could ever hope to spend the day with. There were 10 fascinating women, each totally different and unique, but all kindred spirits in their love of creation and sewing. I had the best time meeting them, seeing what fabrics they picked for their corset (so many delicious options!), and getting to know them as we worked through the corsets. And Thread Den was such a fabulous space to work, and so helpful. I wish I lived down the block from it! If you are in Melbourne I definitely recommend paying it a visit (and doing a course there if you are really lucky) – and it’s just down the road from the Fabric Store Melbourne. So the day itself: I was a little …