This is what St Kilda pier looks like at night when it’s cold and rainy. We night people will take any chance we can get to smell the beach, you see. I have to say it was quite lovely — quiet and still.

There were hardly any people around except for fishermen. I don’t think I saw any women. Unlike the summertime, of course, when practically all you can see is underage boobage.

 
This is an accidental photo, but my favourite of the batch. It started raining heavily so we sought cover. I was wearing gloves and my finger slipped. Thanks camera!

We ventured out last night, too, to the new St Jude’s Cellars on Brunswick Street and then to the Night Cat. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, as I used to go to the Night Cat all the time when I was a university student living in a share house nearby. I forgot how much fun it was. And I went nuts when I realised St Jude’s used to be the Hide-Out, the very same garishly colourful diner where my housemates and I used to eat huge plates of nachos. It’s now swanky and gorgeous — even the menus are lovely to look at.

The food was very good — a bit pricey, but worth it, I think. My only gripe is that they didn’t have enough vegetarian main dishes. There were options, but not enough to keep me coming back regularly. I don’t want to have to keep eating the same things. But definitely 1000% better than the Hide-Out.

There’s also a new IGA supermarket across the road. Small but decent and well organised, and a stone’s throw from my home. Brunswick Street is definitely changing. I hope, as someone said in The Age recently, that this is a sign of things to come.

It’s definitely autumn.

 
I drove home from Sparky’s today and, upon exiting Bernard the trusty VW, noticed the pile of fallen leaves had gone from big to ginormous. Almost the entire parking space is full.

Almost enough to jump in.

For the first time in, well, ever as far as my memory is concerned, I am really enjoying the cooler weather and changing light. I’m normally a sunshine lover and adore spring because it only gets warmer. That’s positive thinking, eh?

But now it’s different. I’m not sure if it’s the Marshall Protocol or getting older, or the new Sun Kil Moon album April on repeat, but everything seems so lovely right now. I love the colder weather, I’m loving rugging up and keeping cosy.

And I’m savouring all the household rituals that come with the change of seasons. I’ve swapped the fan for the heater. I’ve stored my summer clothes under the bed and pulled out my polarfleece-lined chinos. I’ve made the bed with my favourite periwinkle-coloured flannel sheets.

And today I’ve put away my blow dryer, brush, bobby pins, hair bands and assorted hair products because I’ve had all my hair chopped off. After three years of longer hair, I’ve gone for the Halle Berry special.

The hairdressers were all delighted. One said she had been waiting three years for me to go short again. “I think the hair was a security thing for you,” she said. To which I replied, “No, actually, it was Divorce Hair.”

I blame Natalie Portman. I saw her in The Darjeeling Limited recently and thought she looked amazing with super-short hair. Then I saw some pictures of her in Vogue magazine with shoulder-length hair and thought she looked like everybody else. Pretty, but nothing special. Same with Halle Berry, and Michelle Williams and Janine Turner (Maggie from Northern Exposure). All so much better with short hair, in my opinion.

But hey, growing hair is a thing to do, I guess. Sometimes you get bored. And sometimes you want to reinvent yourself because you feel different. I can’t say I won’t do it again.

—–
For a far more uplifting, useful thing to do, Pip is organising another Softies for Mirabel campaign. Remember Arturo? Well I’m enlisting the help of my mom this year to help me make more Arturos (I’ll be in the States for my sister’s nuptials just before the softies deadline).

If you’re feeling crafty and want to make a softie too, that would be awesome. Or if you have some cool old socks that have seen better days (I love stripes and socks with individual toes), you can save them for me (if I know you) or send them to me to be turned into more Arturos.

I’d never made a softie before Arturo, so don’t be intimidated. [edit: I lied, I forgot about Geronimo. Arturo was second, but the first made without a pattern.] It’s fun, it’s for a good cause, and the softie goes to someone you will never meet but who will love it very much. That’s some pretty selfless goodness.

Bendigo’s famous fountain

 
I spent Easter weekend in Bendigo. Yeah, that was ages ago, I know, but I’ve only just now found the time to tell you about it.

 

Bendigo is full of churchy opportunities.

 
It was fantastic for a few reasons, but the main one being free (dark) accommodation with friends. We were able to go away to somewhere that’s not Melbourne, and I didn’t have to worry about sunshine or going further into debt. I was able to just sit inside during the day and knit and eat and read magazines. Awesome.

 

My best op shop find: $1.20 for the set.

I did manage to slip outside for a few daylight hours, however, lured by the promise of country op shops and Bendigo Woollen Mills. I found tons of useful, cheap bits and pieces: teaspoons, plates, fabric, velvet ribbon, etc. But I went absolutely nutso when I found the buttons at the RSPCA shop.

 

Free coconut shell buttons!

 
I couldn’t help myself. I love it when op shops label their craft supplies, and all the buttons here were in Tupperware bins, assorted by colour and in individual bags. They had been painstakingly sorted and labelled, some bags for as little as 10 cents. I learned some of the buttons had been picked off unuseable clothing, and sorted by volunteers. And sold for only 10 cents!

I only made it through the brown bin, and that took up a good half-hour or so of my time. I love wooden buttons and anything made from natural materials. I couldn’t believe it when I found the coconut shell buttons, because I had just paid $2 each for similar buttons at a specialty button shop not that long ago.

I went a bit overboard and bought 33 little bags — mostly of the coconut shell variety. But I can’t possibly use even half of what I bought. So I have decided to have a giveaway. It’s simple, really. If you want some of my brown button bounty, just leave a comment letting me know:
* how many buttons you want (the sets range in number from 3 to 10, with lots of 4s and 6s)
* what you plan to do with them, whether for clothing, or sock monkey eyes, or whatever

Make sure to leave your e-mail address, too, and I will contact you to get your snail mail address. I don’t care where in the world you live — I’ll post you a set for free, as long as I’ve got extra buttons to get rid of.

So stop lurking already and help me get rid of my awesome button stash. Yeah you.

Kristy tries out her “new” couch. (I didn’t pose her, honest.)

 
When I asked Kristy what she wanted for her birthday, she gave me a list of things as a joke: a house, a new couch, etc. A joke not because she didn’t truly want them, but because they were only slightly out of my (and her) price range.

The apartment she shares with Mr T has fun, brightly coloured walls — red, lime green, turquoise — and her couch was “prison beige”, as I like to call it, sitting in the only cream-coloured room. Yuck. And she complained that when she wore summer clothes, her legs stuck to the cracking vinyl. But it was a free couch, so she and Mr T made do.

 

This is what the couch used to look like. Ew.

 
I decided to grant her wish, sort of, by making her a couch cover. Had I ever made one before? No, but since when has that ever stopped me? Neither had I ever made pillow covers, but that didn’t stop me from thinking I could. Ho ho ho.

I first tried to use a secondhand queen-sized sheet, but it wasn’t big enough, and the colour wasn’t very exciting. Then I found a single-bed sheet set in Kristy-friendly blue (we have been friends for awhile so I knew) on sale at Spotlight. It fit all of my requirements: the colour was good, in a poly-cotton blend (no ironing) and the fabric smooth enough that it wouldn’t attract cat fur. And there were only two sets left, so I bought them both, just in case.

I used the flat sheet to cover the main section from back to front (it was the perfect length, miraculously) and split the fitted sheet in half, using the fitted corners to cover the arms and top corners on each side of the couch. (Lazy or genius: you decide.) But first I cut off the elastic edges to make the sheet easier to work with.

 

Kristy models the discarded elastic.

 
I had to visit Kristy’s apartment a few times for fittings late at night (to avoid the sun), and the project proved to be more difficult than I thought. I can sew, but tailoring is not my area of expertise. I think a modular couch with straight edges would have been much easier.

I sewed everything together and tried it out, but it just didn’t look right. And let’s just say I cut a bit more in certain areas than I should have. I love cutting! Whoops. So less than a week before her actual birthday, I decided to give up on the first attempt, wash the second just-in-case sheet set and try again.

 

Ta da!

 
This time it worked a treat.

The second time I camped at her apartment for five hours, with my trusty sewing machine, so I could get it done mostly in one sitting. And I kept the elastic casings on and just removed the elastic itself. This made it easier to sew and also meant I didn’t have to finish the edges on the inside. Everything was already neat and tidy.

I also went for a less fitted structure the second time around. The first time I tried to pin everything to fit, with the couch cover inside-out, but that only made it worse because the couch is not actually symmetrical. When you flipped the couch cover right-side-out, it didn’t fit the same as before. So this time I just followed the sheet hems, rather than try to pin tightly around the structure. I smooshed the extra fabric into the folds and added ties to the front and the back to tidy up the loose ends. A much smarter idea, and Kristy loved them.

The fabric on the pillows is Bulokku by Lara Cameron, a super-cool local designer. I love her stuff but it is not usually within my budget, so this was the perfect special project to use up just a small amount of fabric.

The edges and backing are from the pillowcase that came with the sheet set. It looks like I did it intentionally, but I didn’t have enough Bulokku fabric to cover the fronts of the pillows entirely, so I used the pillowcase bits to compensate. And I hate sewing zippers and buttonholes, so I overlapped fabric in the back like an envelope, which worked great. The pillows are extra squishy, and Kristy and I liked these the best. I’ll have to make more now that I know how easy they are.

Beetroot Island

 
I have been roasting up a storm lately. The ingredients depend on the contents of my weekly mystery box: potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin (squash), corn, garlic, pinenuts, beetroot, parsnips, and/or my favourite discovery — apples. Just cut everything up into chunks, add a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, whack into a 200C/400F oven and go do other fun stuff for at least an hour while the oven takes care of everything for you. So easy, and so delicious. Even the next day, hot or cold, with ketchup or hummus.

I couldn’t resist saving the top off last week’s beetroot. With its little shoot I think it looks like a small island, adorned by a palm tree of some sort. It’s an affordable island holiday, and I don’t even have to worry about the sunshine. Well, it makes me giggle anyway.

—–

Speaking of sunshine, I’m going to Bendigo for Easter weekend and have been promised an op-shop (thrift store) spree on Saturday the 22nd. I love op shops, but I adore country op shops because their contents are usually cheaper and less picked over. In country op shops you can still find things with 5- or 10-cent price tags.

But because of my sun issues (and store opening times), I can probably only handle an hour or two of op-shopping in one hit. So if anyone has recommendations for op shops I shouldn’t miss, or a particular street or area that has a few clustered together, please let me know!

Late-night Bendigo fun-time recommendations are also welcome. Everything’s safe after about 8pm.