End of September - but here's the playlist

I know it's late but here's what I've been up to in September.


WEARING: My dungarees! I know - I look like I'm off to the munitions factory! 

But I can't stop wearing these Freddies of Pinewood reproduction dungarees which I bought second hand for a bargain! Thanks to the kids for taking my photo...hmmm...not sure about that low angle!!!

MAKING: A quilt from recycled jumpers in blues and greens...will show you all when I finish it....

READING:

It's been a good/great/interesting month for reading...The James Lee Burke book had me mesmerised and the Benjamin Black certainly had me in it's grip too. "Moral Hazard" was a sharp short read that packed a huge punch, "Steal My Sunshine" was a teen fiction set in Melbourne which was dense with emotion, history and relationships and "Gilgamesh" drove me nuts as I argued with it all the way through and ultimately was annoyed with myself for reading it!  

WATCHING:

Just started watching "The Honorable Woman" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. Only one episode in but I'm fascinated. It's a very polished BBC television miniseries - a spy thriller.

LISTENING TO: Good old Johnny Bush - he's pulling my heart strings as always.

 
and thinking about? doing Frocktober...lord knows I have enough frocks for it!

june playlist

making:
pom poms in the shape of a number five....

wearing:
last month is was big skirts, this month it's big beehives, big flowers, big earrings, big eyes and very big pussy bows...

watching:
Fargo on TV. Gosh! Golly! It's good!

listening to:
Lindi Ortega (Canadian country singer) Saw her play live earlier this year at the Toff in Town...she's pretty good....some compare her to Dolly...but she's not that good....

reading:
For book club I re-read "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. A second reading is well worthwhile. What an ambitious and wonderful book it is.

Also reading two books of short stories.  "Friend of my Youth" by Alice Munro and "This is How you Lose Her" by Junot Diaz

May playlist

Wearing: Beehive and plait with Big ( with a capital "B") skirt, hoop petticoat and a shawl wrapped around my hips for extra warmth.

Making: little girl's crochet dress from a vintage pattern. I've changed the stripe because I had several balls of 5 ply wool and thought stripey would be fun. The dress is made from the top down so I can add rows as the girls get  taller!

Watching: "Matewan" a 1987 film by John Sayles - in fact I'm having a John Sayles retrospective festival at my house. I love his films! Next up is "Lone Star" with Chris Cooper , Matthew McConaughey and

Kris Kristofferson.

Which brings me to...

Listening: bbc documentary about Kris Kristofferson, narrated by Steve Earle. I had the privilege of seeing Kris Kristofferson play live last month in Melbourne and a damn right privilege it was. At 77 years old he may not be as nimble on the finger picking or as melodic on the vocals but his songs break your heart. And he sang those songs one after another without barely a word in between  - he stopped to blow his nose at one stage and said "I bet you're all glad you paid so much money to see an old fart blow his nose".
It was like being told a generous bedtime story in song. And he came all this way to sing it to us. Amazing. He was just a beautiful man to see and to listen to.

March playlist

 A new month has dawned!
Here's what I'm up to, in general, some of the time, this month...

Making: Many things for our school fete!* Every scrap of fabric is being whipped up into peasant dresses and tops!

Reading:  "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville  - for my new book club! I've joined a little book club comprising of a few mothers from the school. Kate Grenville is an acclaimed Australian author and this should be a cracker of a book to kick things off with and one I have wanted to read for some time.




Listening to: Latest Mavis Staples album

Watching : True Detective (isn't everyone??)

Wearing: tennis dresses...

 

....on the court - for ladies tennis!


*there will be more posts on the school fete making in due course!!!

Playlist

Making - this crochet dress

Free pattern here.

Reading - Restoration by Rose Tremain.

Have enjoyed other Rose Tremain books, especially "Music and Silence" and "The Colour". 




Watching - Broadchurch on ABC iview. It's a fine English production which relies heavily on the high quality performances of Olivia Colman and David Tennant. Despite an overuse of focus pulls and fancy arty-farty camera tricks (as a former film student it kind of drives me batty!), I'm enjoying the emotional pull of this story.

Listening - Hardcore History podcasts 
These are terrific history lessons that are in no way boring!
'In "Hardcore History" the very unconventional Dan Carlin takes his "Martian", outside-the-box way of thinking and applies it to the past.'

Wearing - bobby socks and t-bars.

What's on your playlist this week???

this week's playlist

making....little and big crochet beads - using embroidery cotton and a tiny needle.

wearing...fake flowers in my lilac hair

Me and Mrs Slocombe...they say everyone has a double!

listening to....Canadian singer-songwriter-visual artist Daniel Romano 

With his Porter Wagoner inspired suits, lovely voice and good old fashioned heart breaking country tunes -  what's not to like??

watching - the doco "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me" which is screening at ACMI at the moment about the band Big Star...


Reading - my signed copy of the WONDERFUL "Life after Life" by Kate Atkinson
The book is shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I feel I could almost read this book forever! It's premise is a life lived over and over again, each time the main character, Ursula, has a strong sense of dejavu and instinct that means she can avert the disasters of the previous life - she can live her life over and over again and get it right. She lives through both world wars, has an eccentric English family and the story is just full to the brim with wit, insight, philosophy and evocative historical detail. I'm loving it.

inspired by - all the lovely comments from the last blog. Thanks ladies!

this week's playlist:

making: easter things....
 

listening to: Dolly and Porter... of course.

 
discovering: artist Melanie Bilenker brooches. These images are made with hair!  

"The Victorians kept lockets of hair and miniature portraits painted with ground hair and pigment to secure the memory of a lost love. In much the same way, I secure my memories through photographic images rendered in lines of my own hair, the physical remnants. I do not reproduce events, but quiet minutes, the mundane, the domestic, the ordinary moments."

reading: "Specimen Days" by Michael Cunningham
He wrote "The Hours" which was brilliant.

wearing: these cat's eye sunglasses from etsy shop American Deadstock 
because it's still so very hot and very sunny.