Arohanui

It's been very quiet around here lately. Have you noticed? I've been squirreled away working and then obsessively watching the first series of Underbelly with Shannon at night. And also knitting a wee bit.

Also, it's pay week, which means that I can make a bunch of payments, which means that I'm paying off my debts, which I love! So I'm going to start off my list of things I'm loving with my debt repayment unicorn.

I've divided him up so you can see how I'm getting on and how much I have to go. Please note that the pink indicates how much I've paid off so far. It's down quite low so far. But never mind! I'm getting there. Baby unicorn steps.

Other things I am loving on in no particular order:

♥ Being spoiled by my Boy ♥ yoga anticipation ♥ discovering Hashigo Zake Cult Beer Bar finally ♥ six month birthday scheming ♥ nailing my to-do list ♥ Facebook purge ♥ new flatmate! ♥ plans for summer wardrobe overhaul ♥ endless episodes of Underbelly ♥ peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (FOR LIFE, dudes) ♥ resolutions resolutions resolutions ♥

Investigative Blogging Time: The Cup

[Lady Blood Disclaimer! Also, I get a little more explicit in this one]

As far as I can tell, menstrual cups are all much the same. They're marketed under different names: Diva Cup, Moon Cup, Femme Cup et al. I used the one named "Femme Cup". It was about $40 dollars and I ordered it online from a New Zealand based shopping site called (gag) Babycuddles after much research. Despite their heinous name and use of Comic Sans they were really good to deal with: delivery and communication were prompt.

CONSTRUCTION/STRUCTURE
Essentially, the Femme Cup is a small - uh - cup, with a stem. It's made of medical grade silicon. My one is a clear silicon, but by the look of it you can buy some of the brands in different colours (if I could get a pink glitter menstrual cup I'd be in there like a flash). There is a lip that is designed to create a seal, and my Femme Cup has millilitres marked on the side. Not sure how I feel about this, or what use it would be - I guess if the doctor asked what my flow is like I'd be able to answer authoritatively?

Most brands seem to have two size options - one for younger women and one for older women and women who have had children. The Femme Cup is apparently made of a softer silicon and thus is a "one size only" version.


Menstrual cups are supposed to last for quite along time too - I've seen 10 years quoted before. That has to be a good thing for my budgeting attempts! And it definitely rationalises the cost.

EASE OF APPLICATION
Basically, you fold the cup in half and then half again, and insert. You should probably wash it with a little soap and water as well as it's easier to get it inside while wet. This is a little more awkward than it sounds - I kept finding that mine popped out of it's folded configuration before I could pop it in, so it took a couple of goes to get it fitted correctly.

Also, I had a difficult experience on my first wear which certainly constitutes a Cautionary Cup Tale. The cups have a little stem on them and the back of the packet notes that menstrual cups sit a lot lower than tampons and most women will need to shorten the stem to just about nothing. Following the instructions, I happily hacked off about half the stem with my nail scissors forgetting that unlike "most women" I have a freakishly long *ahem* passage, as witnessed by many unhappy and awkward cervical smear experiences, some of which have included the phrase "oh! your cervix is hiding from me!" and "I'll have to use a longer speculum!". Thus, I almost LOST the damn thing the first morning that I used it. It was awkward to find it and get it out and I'm just glad I didn't dislocate my shoulder during the removal process.
Subsequent experimentation has revealed that this first experience was due to operator error. But let my experience be a lesson to you all - don't trim the stem until you're sure, and don't put the thing too far up inside you, because you will never see it again.


CLEANING UP
Gently pour off into the loo, rinse and wash with soap, reinsert. So easy and stress free!

The manufacturers suggest boiling in salt water to sterilise if that's the kind of thing that you worry about. I've heard some stories about people finding their flatmate's menstrual cup boiling on the stove and being a little taken aback, so you might want to time this properly.


CONCLUSION
I LOVE MY MENSTRUAL CUP. I don't really want to try cloth pads now because the Femme Cup is the alpha and omega of my ladyblood world. I cannot recommend the menstrual cup highly enough. Go out there and get yourself one if you haven't already!

Upcoming adventures in Lady-blood: The Cloth Pad.


See also:

• Introduction
• The Crocheted Tampon
• The Knitted Tampon

Sunday Awesome: how could this cat not rock your world?

Waffle

he weather has been beyond appalling lately, my dears. Right now I'm listening to the rain thrash away at the roof and it is loud and obnoxious. I am out of laundry again despite the ministrations of Shannon; I really must try and make a better effort with my laundry. I've reached a kind of tipping point where I've decluttered my clothing enough that it's become increasingly imperative to keep on top of my laundry, yet not pressing enough to actually force me into doing it. The problem is: too much underwear. Most of it is pretty gross, i.e. full of holes and a size too small and five years old. I should purge my knicker drawer for sure. It's a wonder that I have a boyfriend who is at all sexually interested in me when my knicker drawer is considered. Maybe he loves skanky knickers?

The biggest issue at the moment with my laundry is: TOWELS. I read that really nobody needs more than two towels (one for using and one in the wash). However, I've discovered that I certainly need more than two towels because I wash whites so infrequently. Unfortunately I discovered this after cutting up most of my towels for rags. I need to wash my towels tonight or else I am going to be in Dire Peril tomorrow morning when I want to take a shower.

Have you had a go at that "I write like" writing analysis thing? I've tried it something like five times now, and I get a different result each time. However the first three were: Dan Brown, Stephen King and Ian Fleming, none of who are exactly "literary". Call me a snob but - DAN BROWN??? Death. Absolute Death. This leads me to conclude that I Must Try Harder with my writing because I cannot live with this hanging over my head. Until the writing analysis tool tells me I'm DH Lawrence or Margaret Atwood I am going to be deeply unhappy.

The main result then is: cutting out the worst of my lazy internet speak from my blog. Who am I fooling? There is nothing nice about the use of a cutesy turn of phrase! In fact, sometimes I read over what I've written and feel a little ill because of the saccharine way I write at times. I SPIT ON YOU SACCHARINE WRITING. DEATH TO CUTESY WRITING!

I've finally got together all my papers to send off for my course application, and it's freaking me out a little. Study has been my holy grail of Options for so long that I've stopped thinking about the reality of it and just idolised the concept. But it's struck me that it means: no money and lots of work. Also, I've developed a fear that I'm going to end up getting myself into yet more student loan debt without achieving very much - that is, I'll still be unemployable in the area that I want to get into. Also also, what if the area I think I want to get into isn't the area I actually want to get into at all? And then I begin the Anxiety spiral, which I haven't missed at all.

Maybe I shouldn't study if it will reduce me to anxiety?

This morning in the shower (pre-coffee but still one of the places where I do my best work) I got to thinking about myself in the light of internet feminism (and I specifically link to the reblog post, as I haven't read the actual post yet. It was the comment that started the thinking).

Sometime ago, the Hand Mirror linked to my blog which was pretty flattering (although I guess that unless you're posting angry-anti feminist rants in their comments this is pretty much guaranteed).  And I do read some feminist blogs and have a generally feminist take on life I believe. But I can't be angry all the time; it simply exhausts me. I worry that internet feminism closes out a lot of people through it's rhetoric - Sady Doyle writes pretty much the same thing above (or at least - that's how I interpreted it, as quoted by Emily Gould).

Finally: where does my craftiness place me in light of internet feminism? I believe that it's a Fore Mothers-type thing (as in, I am taking part in Women's Work, but not out of necessity. Reclaiming what has been written out of histories and discarded and now rendered obsolete by mechanisation/male driven commercialisation of fabric production). I am aware, however, that Making is somewhat ambiguous, and am reminded of this every time I read recipes in cooking communities like Recipezaar or Tasty Kitchen - there is so much emphasis on cooking for the husband and children. Not that I'm angry about nurturing or giving a shit about one's family in general. It's the assumption that is the issue.

Dudes, it's a minefield out there.

Last thing: thanks for lovely comments lovely people. I love comments. And lately I've had lovely ones, what a lucky girl am I!

A week of Making for Ms Ginger Jane

I am acquiring my middle name for my blogging name. It feels grrrreat.

Since leaving the derby, I have had infinitely more time to be domesticated and otherwise get my craft on. This week was particularly awesome as I managed to make so many things.

T-Shirt Knickers
Making my own underwear from upcycled t-shirts is one of those things that I've intended to do for ages and have never had the time to do. I've been collecting information about it for ages - and these undies are the product of all that research. I've also been learning through doing - I'm a bit of a slap-dash sewer, but I've gone to the trouble of drafting a pattern and have been trying to be terribly patient while sewing. This is also the first time that I've sewed elastic without using the standard casing method.

There is no way that anyone is going to mistake these for fabulously made items of beautiful lingerie any time soon, but I am proud of the work that I've put in and I'm really looking forward to developing my pattern and trying out some new ideas. As soon as I recover from the experience of sewing elastic on my crotchety old sewing machine.

Pound Cake

via The Pioneer Woman

This is the second time I've tried this Pioneer Woman recipe; it has 12oz of butter in it, which is about 340 grams. This is most of a block of butter. However, the recipe also calls for butter flavouring, which is one of those bizarre American ingredients that bewilders and confuses me. What ARE you butter flavouring? And what is your purpose?

I didn't use butter flavouring and replaced the lemon flavouring with a little grated lemon peel. It was crazy delicious.

Aslan Socks

These are possibly the slowest knitted pair of socks in existence. Also, I'm scared they won't fit me properly now. Also, I have a few holes in the second sock where I didn't pick up enough stitches along the gusset. I knew that they easy solution would have been to pick up some extra stitches and knit them in while I was reducing the stitches anyhow, but I decided to flake out instead. The wool is beyond beautiful though, and is so soft. Lovely to knit with.

Crocheted produce bags
I made these after a trip to the vege markets when I became annoyed that none of my little pink mesh netting produce bags were the right size or shape for potatoes or kumara. They're crocheted out of some yarn that Shannon brought back from Nepal, a blend of cotton, nettle and hemp,* and are crocheted in the round using double treble stitch and a 12mm hook.** I grazed my knuckles crocheting with this. If you're at all inspired by my commitment to sustainability and my awesome knuckle grazing story, I think you can pick up yarn similar to this at Trade Aid.

So far, the bags haven't seen any potato action, but Shannon has discovered that they're the perfect size for holding a rigger of beer.

Tiffany neckwarmer

This is the second time I've used this pattern; the first time I used a mohair sample I received in my Knitty Sampler box (the one above)***. I gave it to Bex. My new one is knitted from a scrap of possum merino that I bought with a voucher. This is the most beautiful soft yarn that I've ever been lucky enough to use. The scarf took me something like and hour and a half to knit, and I've worn it all this week. Cute and warm? Sign me up.

Patchwork winter scarf
What is the best thing about having an obsessively craftish girlfriend? Eventually she will dress you entirely in knitwear! This is the second scarf I have knitted for Shannon. I frogged the other one when he revealed that he actually hated the colour grey.

This one is emphatically not grey. It may be every other colour but.

Spinning
This week I have finally done the little bit of maintenance I needed to do on my wheel, and have picked up a spare bobbin to make my life easier. Shannon is a Spinning Enabler, and has polyurethaned the bobbin and supplied me with all the fibre that I'm spinning with at the moment - four different colours of Nepalese yak and some beautifully soft grey/brown fleece (NZ) that is carded and scoured but is still in the grease. This means: it smells of sheep and there is lanolin on the fleece that makes my hands soft while I spin.

Since oiling et al, my spinning has improved heaps, which leads me to believe that proper maintenance of your tools is important after all (who would have guessed?). The thread is a lot more consistent which I was finding especially hard to achieve with the yak roving as it is made up of very short fibres. What I'm looking forward to doing now is spinning some kind of novelty yarn, or deliberately introducing "slubs". Or even learning how to ply properly on a spinning wheel would be good, actually.

AND THIS WEEKEND... I am planning to bake some biscuits, and work on S's scarf some more, and finally finish those GODDAMN SOCKS. And then start finishing the second sock for another pair that have been languishing for the last six months. Oh, oh, and maybe I could knit some booties for my new baby cousin?

*Yes these were declared at customs
** I had one lying around. I am as surprised as you are.
*** After having all the best intentions in the world of taking some photographs for this post I flaked out, and just used what ever I had at hand. Must try harder.

Arohanui on Thursday when I'm loving on stuff

(L-R) Claire Scully via Supersonic Electronic; via Audrey Hepburn Complex; Judith Braun via Supersonic Electronic; Maedchen in Uniform via All Things Amazing.

sing up some of my enormous stash of yarn. I think it's almost more exciting crafting out of the resources I have than going out and buying new yarn for each project. There is an element of challenge to finding the perfect project for all this yarn I have. In some cases the challenge is mostly in matching the yarns to make something multicoloured and non-hideous. At the moment I'm making a patchwork scarf for S (more about this tomorrow) and it's pretty much the perfect project for clearing a space in my stash drawers.

♥ Having my little brother Tom around for dinner. I feel as though I haven't seen him forever, and also I'm looking forward to pillaging his hard drive for episodes of Time Team that I haven't seen yet.

♥ Also in the family vein: hooray for a new baby cousin! 

♥ Rediscovering the Joy of Blogging. I've been having the most enormous blog cravings - to write enormous posts and to start new projects and to investigate everything I have tagged for blogging in my reader. Hence, the beautiful Drop Capital which comes via Jessica Hische. I'm intending to start taking some better photographs of my projects too - I've read an awesome article about photographing your Stuff on Craft.com recently, and it made me so excited. More photographs for the blog!

♥ Having heaps of food stashed away at work. Yesterday I nominated a "spend nothing" day and succeeded - I drank coffee and tea in the office and nibbled on the supplies I have in my desk. Toasted sandwiches were my special lunchtime friends. The initial plan in having all this food at work was to save some money but given that I do most of my food shopping for the office at expensive delicious Moore Wilsons I don't know how much this is working - though it is exciting having such a variety of food to hoe down on without having to venture into the freezing outside.

♥ Feeling in control of my spending. For the first time in an incredibly long time I feel as though I am in control of money, or at the very least, I know where it is all going. Dude it's totes empowering, and when I'm drooling over something I have no need for, the adrenaline rush that I get from keeping on top of things neutralises the Want also.

♥ Drooling over travel. I'm definitely feeling the itch and the debt repayments and savings I'm managing to do while living well makes me realise that travel IS a possibility. The next issue then is: WHERE TO GO? So many possibilities! So much excitement!

Wednesday List: Ten Things in 2010

1A: Increase fabulosity through reading newspapers while wearing monocles. Via All Things Amazing.

We're over halfway through the year already! I should make some hackneyed comment here about how quickly the year has passed. Or perhaps some snide self-referential comment instead?

1. Pay back credit card debt. I am doing infinitely better with this - as witnessed by my new found enthusiasm for getting out of debt. I just need to keep up my enthusiasm for this - it's the lulls in enthusiasm (and subsequent urge to spend a crapload of money) that will work against me here. Self control, be mine.

2. Learn to hula hoop. 

3. Learn to spin. 

4. Make a decision about returning to study and prepare myself to start in 2011. I am filling out and posting away enrollment forms this week - and I'm beginning to feel really excited about getting back to study. I can't wait to learn things and be challenged. I am less excited about the poverty, but hey-ho.

5. Learn how to wear contact lenses. I'm choosing to strike this, as this was important for derby but is in no way a necessity otherwise - merely, an expense. I'll put it down as something to look into again when I'm in better control of my finances.

6. Go to Camp a Low Hum and have a really super fab time. 

7. Go to Blood and Thunder Camp and learn heaps and use my awesome and newly found skating skills to score twenty points for my team in the next bout. 

8. Make a budget and stick to it. I've made the budget, and it's only been a fortnight but I'm stoked with how I've done so far! There is no doubt that this is an ongoing project, but one that I'm happy to have ongoing.

9. Get the tattoo I've been talking about getting for five years. 

10. Unclutter my life and maintain a clutterless environment. The last few weeks I've had a kind of breakthrough regarding this concept. I had an idea about what this meant when I drafted it out, but I seem to have vagued on the precise meaning I ascribed to it six months ago. Lately circumstances have brought about situations where I've needed to do some mental as well as some physical uncluttering, and I'm stoked to see that I didn't even second guess myself - the uncluttering happened without a second thought. There is nothing like the feeling of being on top of things, and choosing what and who you have in your life. Control, darlings. It's awesome.

So to conclude: I have three items on this list that are ongoing projects, and three items that I've struck through as no longer a priority or possible given my financial situation. I'm thinking I shall draft up new list of ten... A project for next month?

Investigative Blogging: money money money money

This is where I was going to embed a youtube video clip of "Money" from Cabaret, but all the clips had embedding disabled! You can watch it here though.

Money and I have a historically fraught relationship. As a rule, this is because I don't have any, ever, and I want to spend it.The term "Money Burns a Hole in the Pocket" seems to have been coined especially for me; I spend anything that comes my way in the blink of an eye and ever since I've worked I've lived pay day to pay day. I am also notoriously debt prone - as in, I'm constantly getting myself into debt. I justify my unnecessary buys with the thought that I can easily pay up and get myself out of debt again, however I usually flake out and ignore what's going on until the bank letters have red writing on them. The moment I start spending on a credit card I become like a money obsessed harridan, thus:

It's amazing how I've just trundled along like this for so long, taking for granted the fact that I don't have any money. Lately, the debt situation has become worse and also horribly tedious. My debts are greater, have become more pressing AND super depressing. The IRD have been on my back - I owe them lots after my misadventure in self employment taxation, and I can feel my credit card bills eyeing me reproachfully before I even open them. Also, my boyfriend wants to go on holiday with me AND I CAN NEVER AFFORD TO GO ON HOLIDAY. There is nothing like watching someone you love flying away to exotic locales to make one feel like a loser-debt-infected-lady-cad.

It is time to end this rubbish. It is time to feel in control of my bank balance again. And because I am a blogger and thus, convinced that you all find my life as fascinating as I do, I want you to share my journey. COME ALONG FOR THE DEBT CANCELLING, MONEY SAVING RIDE! THERE WILL BE UNICORNS!

I know that the first step is budgeting. I had to be honest with myself, and although this was incredibly hard, I also knew from many years of experience that debts rarely disappear if you ignore them. Thus I bit the bullet, worked it all out, and I took a long hard look at that figure. This was rather painful, and I wanted to look away because my eyeballs were burning (shame, humiliation, horror). But, I know that the first step in getting rid of that debt is to OWN IT.

Having suitably horrified myself with my money situation, I had a little cry and then sat down and nutted out a budget. This was based on what I was committed to paying for (bills, rent, food and *ahem* coffee), how much I wanted to pay off my debts at each week, and how much I wanted to put aside for emergencies (unexpected doctor's bills and such like). While I was working this out, I took a long hard look at my financial commitments, and purged those that were not entirely necessary. There were a couple of subscriptions that I was paying for that were not vitally important by any stretch of the imagination and I gave them the flick - I cancelled my Audible subscription despite my amazing deep love of audiobooks, and the ongoing costs of hall rental etc became a deciding factor in my decision to leave derby. This was the first thing that I had done in a long time that made me feel truly empowered in my money situation - I had decluttered and made some mature and responsible decisions.

It's been a fortnight since I've been doing this seriously, and so far so good. I know that the absolute hardest thing for me to do will be to keep motivated and retain that feeling of financial empowerment - and I've decided that one of the best things that I can do is to keep blogging about my adventure.* I want to share what I've found helps me keep inspired with the arduous task of living within my means, and I would dearly dearly love suggestions from other people.

What have you got? Suggestions to help me out?

*Yes I am trying to make myself feel more enthusiastic.

Sunday Awesome

Via designboom

This clock is by designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen. It knits one stitch each second, the idea being that a garment is created over a period of time, ideally a year. Dude, that is so cool. Click through to the site to read a much more explanatory explanation. Also there are some images of balls of wool for the next year labelled "more time". I squee.

Arohanui on Thursday when I am thinking about Toasted Sandwiches

Just a quicky:

♥ Making style guides at work and sending them around for praise ♥ Spending hours looking at pretty pictures on the internet ♥ Wardrobe purges and then feeling more in love with my wardrobe for the first time in forever ♥ Intensely patterned stockings ♥ Feeling more in control of my finances ♥ Long distance besties and their support ♥ Sleeping with the Boy during the Freeze ♥ "We Treat it Like a Home But it Feels Like a Fridge!" ♥ Craft plans - knickers, spinning, knitting knitting knitting ♥ Derby girls ♥ Socialising on Friday nights ♥ Consuming a book in one mouthful ♥ Tamari almonds in my bag ♥ Bag and and wallet organisation ♥ Soft Garlic Cheese Spread from Moore Wilsons *drool* ♥ Cyclops yoghurt ♥ Seeing the sunshine! ♥ My mum's super cute (and kind of silly) puppy ♥ Clean tidy house ♥ Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oh, and this woman:

via All Things Amazing

and
Madelene's Apartment (look at the pictures!)

Today is Wednesday. And I have a dehydration headache.

Evening dress, 1912-1914 via Edwardian Era. The velvet rose is gorgeous. It's hard not to love the drape of these Edwardian evening dresses.

♥Looking like: [I like to think] Quite Fabulous. I dug out a pair of leopardskin print tights that were originally destined for skating and I'm wearing them with the hand knit giant cardigan wrap, a black skirt, a black top and a vintage gold stretch belt that the Boy picked up for me in Melbourne. I'm feeling surprisingly put together. And I like feeling put together

♥Listening to: I've had a terrible pop-revival. Did I already note this? The person who used to use my computer has a whole bunch of music loaded up by Beyonce and Kelis and Kanye and Justin and I have been indulging myself. Yea verily, I have been indulging myself.

♥Fad a la Mode: Tamari Almonds. O my God yes. I love smoked almonds also but they're almost impossible to get in NZ. When I looked for a recipe I discovered that the smoky flavour was a result of something strange called 'smoked flavouring' and I was a little turned off by this mysterious substance. Tamari though, I'm totes down with that. It's real and stuff.

♥Watched this Week: I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Shannon and I have to say that I wasn't in love with it at all. I liked the short story at the beginning about the blind dude and the clock running backwards much more than the interminably long main story with it's overtones of Forest Gump.

♥Reading: I have too many things on the go to list them all with any degree of conciseness, but I've not long finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer. It was nominated by Katherine for book club, and I really super enjoyed it. Lite, but lovely.

♥Webreading: So, from the Tumblr files (so less webreading, more webbrowsing fitfully) - comes a bunch of historical clothing sites: What They Wore, 18th Century, My Vintage Vogue, Edwardian Era. There is bound to be a million more of these in the Tumblrsphere as well. Mm, pretty.

♥Anticipation: GETTING OUT OF DEBT. It's a long term anticipation (for realz, man) but an anticipation nonetheless. Awesome. I think I'm going to write some more about this, an investigative blogging type thing, but I don't want to jinx my good progress just yet.

Did I mention...

Bex and I have been scheming. I've mentioned it a couple of times but I am yet to reveal it in all it's glory so... Here it is:

It's more of the same. That is, if you enjoy my endless twittering here, why not also enjoy it over there with my darling bestie's additional twittering? Bex has described it thus:

Paper Tiger is an open series of postcards between Rebecca and Sarah Jane. Rebecca is travelling in North America and Sarah Jane lives in New Zealand, where she spends much of her time knitting and spinning. This is their home for mutual scheming. 

You should totes go over there. And I shall stop double posting.

Party Day.

Jean Harlow says "Woo!" via Vintage Photographs.

So my biggest (most life-changingest) news is that I've handed in my resignation to the derby league I have been part of for the last two and a half years. This may seem super surprising to those of you that don't know that I made a decision a while ago now to leave out as much negativity as I possibly can on this blog - I've been relentless in writing only what I love about the league and the sport and my team.

Leaving derby was a difficult decision, because I have loved it so much over the years. Ultimately, thought, it was the best decision that I could have possibly made, because I just wasn't having fun anymore. RCRD is coming up to the new season, and all the work involved in skating in and being part of the organisation of a bout had increased. And all I felt was resentment, for something that I was voluntarily a part of! Leaving seemed like a no-brainer, however the emotional ties were pretty strong. Dude, in some ways I felt the thing was my BABY. 

The night I made the decision and sent out my emails (Tuesday) I felt weepy and had a stiff drink; however by last night I was reflecting on what a fabulous decision it had been. There is no shame in choosing not to be part of something that you don't want to do anymore, especially if your involvement is purely voluntary.

So onwards and upwards! I have big plans for spinning and I've almost completed the second of a pair of socks that I started a long time ago. I have been somewhat obsessive with the baking and the cooking and I'm determined to get out of the crappy food rut I've been stuck in. I bought a leopard print snuggie. My Boy has come back early from his trip (due to illness, but heyho) and, most excitingly, I've made plans to have drinks on Friday night without a hint of guilt.

When will the grumpiness end?

And this is how I feel today. But without the cats or the bed. Because I have no cats (and am indeed, horriby allergic to them, as it has been well recorded in this blog).

By Yasmine at A Print A Day.

Does anyone want to tell me something fun and exciting? I would love you forever if you did.

The inside of my head this Monday

Photo via Vintage Photos.

I'm feeling grumpy like this grumpy man. Grump grump grump, eating worms etc.

The Boy was here in the weekend on a break from his epic around the country trip looking at radio transmitters. It was awfully nice to see him because I am rather fond of him. We drank and gossiped and had a bit of a dance off on Friday night, and then went to the vege markets on Sunday morning. It was all terribly domesticated and rather cosy and lovely. These are the things that living together is good for!

I now have a little less than a fortnight to wait until he is back for good, and I’m so stoked. The flat dynamics are all wrong without him around too, and it makes it kind of horrible to live there. Flat dynamics are a subtle balance indeed, especially given my apparent intolerance for almost everyone in the world. The dynamics need to be perfect or else I find myself raging about and re-organising what has recently be re-organised by someone else. ("I CAN'T BELIEVE HE MOVED MY TOASTED SANDWICH MAKER" *basilisk glare*).

I scrimmaged in the weekend for the first time in weeks and weeks and weeks. I forgot how much I love hitting people. I’m still a bit overly cautious and appear to have become afraid of falling over, but still - it’s just a matter of working through these head things. It’s been a drag trying to convince myself that I still have the abilities that I had last year, and to keep motivated to train when I know that I won’t be skating in the first bout. Also, admin stuff is making me hell grumpy at present, and so despite my little bit of joy in skating again, I am piking this evening to be quiet and far away.

My flat has been pretty much abandoned - Shannon and Dave are away, and my third flatmate, James, is pretty much always busy and is never there. It's fair to assume that I'm going to have the place to myself until next Thursday - quelle excitement! I'm planning my perfect evening for tonight in an effort to make myself feel better in my grumpiness. Thus, I am planning to make Italian Meatball Soup, hula hoop in the lounge to Beyonce, MIA and Missy Elliot for the hour or so it should take to cook this, then oil my spinning wheel and spin for an hour while watching an episode of Rome. Does that sound some kind of awesome or what? Wish me luck!

Sunday Awesome: WARNING: Prince may make you pregnant

Investigative Blogging Time: The Knitted Tampon

[LADY BLOOD SIREN]
I've been very quite about this for some time, but trust me the research is ongoing. To update yourself on the saga, you should read this post, and this post.

CONSTRUCTION/STRUCTURE
In essence, the knitted tampon is constructed on the same basis as the crocheted tampon. That is, a knitted/crocheted shell and an inner core made of towelling. Given that I am an infinitely better knitter than crocheter, I found it a lot quicker to knit up a couple of these - they’re knitted from the open end up on round needles. Easy as pie for an obsessive sock knitter.

I tried using an old towel cut up into small strips as a core for these knitted tampons, as oppose to the weird stretch towelling that I used in the crochet set. As a result of the thickness of the fabric I wasn’t able to put as much stuffing in the shell, but I figure that the weight of the fabric would on balance work out absorbency wise.

Oh hey there little guys! The pattern for these is at Fern and Faerie.

EASE OF APPLICATION
As with the crocheted tampon, they’re not super tiny. In fact, the knitted tampon came up a bit bigger (I think mostly because my crocheting is so horrible that the crocheted version ended up all cramped and twisted). I felt that the knitted tampon was quite a lot softer and was a bit nicer to use as a result.

I found these to be super absorbent and not as long lasting as the crocheted tampon - that is, they soaked up more blood more quickly. I think this is because the weave is comparatively quite loose, and the shell a bit thinner than the crochet. Either that or my period has suddenly become quite a lot heavier.

CLEANING UP
As with the crochet: a quick rinse with a mild soap is recommended. I found using regular bathroom soap fine - nothing too perfumed, obviously. The towelling inner pulls out and washes quite easily. I then sterilised the whole thing by boiling it in some water on the stove. At the end of my period I put the whole shebang in a laundry bag and put it through the washing machine.

CONCLUSION
I found these much faster to make, but I think that’s just because of my superior knitting skills (superior to my crochet skills, that is). Really, the biggest issues remain with changing them while in public loos - it’s kind of horrible carrying around a wet (rinsed) tampon in your bag. I felt terribly self-conscious during the time I did, like maybe the people around me were using their x-ray vision to judge my hippiness/grossness. In other news, I’m over feeling paro about hanging the things out on the line, but the boiling-in-the-kitchen-issues are still pertinent. I think it’s fair to say that at the moment I’m well over the humble knitted/crocheted tampon, because I too darned lazy to keep on top of everything. It’s not easy having a green lady-time!

Upcoming adventures in Lady-blood: THE CUP

Arohanui: On Friday, where I list a bunch of stuff that I ♥

via Married To The Sea. I have all of these symptoms excerpt the insomnia, but that's only because of the laudanum

♥ My Boy is here this weekend! He’s taking a break from the epic work trip around the North Island, and I plan to scheme with him about trips and budgets in between teacups of whiskey and kisses.


♥ Discovering a cache of cheesy pop songs on my computer at work. The computer I use still has the previous owners iTunes library loaded up on it and imagine my joy to discover a bunch of Beyonce, Destiny’s Child and Kelis music that I would never confess to wanting to own. I am on a permanent ‘Single Ladies’ loop now, and it makes me happy.

♥ Surprises! My Boy sent me a parcel of sliver and a super sweet note, and I also received the first letter in Mister Black’s letter sending project. So a good week for exciting stuff in the mail, indeed.

♥ Coffee coffee coffee always and forever. You’re my number one, Coffee.

♥ The women I skate with. I confess, skating often puts me at my wits end, but I can’t dispute that I have met some seriously awesome women through derby. My Smash Malice buddy Rocket Queen is rocking my world at the moment - super supportive.

♥ Seeing peeps during lunch breaks, still a novelty after the dread Hutt experience that was my previous job. I’ve caught up with Mon who I haven’t really seen since my Ricochet days, I saw Jessica and her husband and brand new baby earlier this week, and have plans in the works to see Bella and Sarah and Matthew.

Honourable mentions:

♥ Wearing homemade clothes ♥ toasted sandwiches♥ IM with Bex ♥ mixtape CDs ♥ Milk Crate ♥ pre-pay coffee cards ♥ enormous bottles of whiskey ♥ my terrabyte drive (geek) ♥ rediscovering the power of conditioner ♥ knitting tattoo plans ♥

Bonus extra awesomeness, because it never gets old: