SUGAR COMAS FOR EVERYONE!

Kia ora tatou,

This week I was meant to do this HUGE post on this thing I really like, but life kicked my butt.... again. So instead I have decided to review a place I have discovered that helps me deal with what a massive ^&*$ life is. And that place is Sweet Release Cakes and Treats

And how cute is that lettering??

Real talk here, when the entire world is fucking with me, I don't wanna eat a salad. That's for when I'm on top of my life and when I'm kidding myself that eating that salad is going to make me a better person (it's not). When I feel like the worlds doormat I want a milkshake.... and a brownie.... and a.... doof doof? SRCAT have created the 'doughnut muffin' (or doof doof) which is a perfectly sized, cinnamon sugar coated morsel filled with either salted caramel, snickers or lemon ganache... and they drizzle them with dessert sauces as well! They also cater for a wide range of dietary requirements (vegan, gluten free, dairy free) so there's something for everyone (unless you're paleo... but theres a bush outside just chew on a twig, I don't know, what do you even eat???).

They also make some great flavoured thickshakes (that are INSANELY big, we had one between two and still couldn't finish it). We had a jellytip and oreo one, but they also had cookies and cream, chocolate and peanut butter, and orange and chocolate chip to name a few. And for everything treat you buy, you get a stamp with your tenth treat being free!

A kiwi icon

These guys have been in the media recently with their community work offering free baking lessons to people with life long / life long illnesses, be that mental or physical. You can read all about that here.

So yes, that's the tahi next week. Seeya next time!

Ruby xx

GURL, GET YO HAIR DID

Kia ora team,

How are you??? Are your exams over??? Are you on Holiday??? Is it good???
I've finished regular school and have just started summer school so I still have 0 time to do cool stuff... but who needs sleep, right? (*insert maniacal, sleep-deprived laughter here*)
I decided to chop all my locks off to save me time, and as an almost ritualistic thing to get rid of my second year of uni, so I am now sporting a 1920s bob and I AM IN LOVE.

Low maintenance? CHECK
Easy to style? CHECK
Makes me look like a small doll? CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK

Since I've entered the kingdom of short hair (or "statement haircuts" as my hairdresser said) I've had to re-do my hair washing / care routine as I no longer have a mop of ridiculously thick and wiry fluff.  After a bit of research (*cough cough* actually just seeing something at the supermarket and going "yeh that looks cool, that'll do") I now use 'Lime Cream & Glycerine' by Perfection Brand Hairdressing to perfect my Bob. So yes, that is this weeks tahi.

Aka, non edible lemon meringue pie in a tub

Firstly, an apology..... apparently (according to Ben) I always review food / body products and I'M SORRY. I JUST REALLY LIKE BOTH OF THOSE THINGS. But I also review community based stuff and am always looking to broaden my horizons, so if you think there's something amazing I should check out, chuck us a comment! I'm especially interested in sites, apps and community based stuff at the moment as I want to add some variety.

AND TANGENT OVER. It's very hard to find any information on Lime Cream & Glycerine, but apparently 'Perfection Brand Hairdressing' started making the stuff in the 1940s, in little ole' Zealand. The cream comes in a HUGE tub (Warning: will rip through a countdown shopping bag with it's sheer weight) and smells EXACTLY like a freshly baked lemon meringue pie. A small glob ( about the size of a coin for me) warmed in the hands then rubbed over the hair gives enough hold for most hair-dos, smells amaze-balls, and has a light shine that doesn't look oily. If you have a bob, prepare to look like a silent movie starlit (yes, goals).

Self portrait

BUT, this cream has MORE THAN ONE USE! Apparently glycerine is actually really good for the skin. Especially in winter and for general dry skin / aging skin. So for research (and because I wanted to smell like Lemon Meringue) I tried it and it works! It gives the skin a soft glow as well which is pretty groovy, and the smell lingers on your skin for ages! So boom, hair gel, moisturiser AND perfume in one $10 purchase! And it'll last you forever.

So yes, that's the tahi this week. I have a really cool one planned for next week (it was meant to be this week but life kicked my butt) so stay tuned.

Aroha,

Ruby xx

COMMUNITY RESOURCE FREAK YEAH!

Hey team,
I just finished jazz school for the year ( still can't believe I finished second year, geeeeezzz what a rocky and steep uphill climb) so now I have lots of time to do fun stuff like researching the best places and things for 'TTT' (that's the tahi). To celebrate finishing jazz school, Daniela and I had a snickers milkshake from Midnight Espresso and then went to the Wellington City Library for a WHOLE AFTERNOON. I was as happy as a pig in mud surrounded by piles of crafty books, literary journals, string player magazines and..... zines from Wellington library's zine collection, this weeks tahi!

This is only one quarter of their collection!

For those of you who are currently unaware, zines are self published books / magazines / booklets / other forms of mostly paper media (here's some more info if you need more clarification). Zines are great because you can publish whatever you like without a big publishing company pushing and pulling you and you don't have the fear of rejecting from big publishing dogs. AND, to top it all off, the zine community is a really supportive and cool bunch with a wide rage of talents and interests, so getting involved with zines gives you a whole new community, woo!

Thanks for the info, Miss cliche 1960s semi-sexy librarian!

When I was in early highschool, I started up a zine publisher / distro called 'Little Caravan Publications' and wrote zines on all sorts of things. I made interactive paper doll zines, poetry zines, interview zines and did lots of per-zines (personal zines) which focused on me having yarns about various the weird unfortunate shit that happens in my life (like last week when someone randomly cupped my bum in public and I turned around to a lady telling me my skirt was too short and that she was doing me a favour... ummmm ok? maybe just a shoulder tap and a "your skirt has ridden up" would suffice? But anyway, I digress...  ). I was participating in various zine fests around the country and would occasionally receive visits from ambassadors from various NZ libraries who were starting to branch out into collecting this type of media. There were dudes from Auckland city libraries, some from the national library, but most of them were from Wellington City Libraries. Which makes sense because they now have a HUGE collection.

There are zines about everything! No matter HOW fucked up it is!

Having a zine collection is great because the topics are so varied. Yesterday I managed to read a zine with recipes for home cleaning products, a poetry zine by a collection of young queer folk, a vegan 'cookbook' zine, various art zines, a zine on pinup hair and makeup, and some great fiction zines! And they're all quick fun reads, straight from the horses mouth (so to speak). No extreme editing, and writers have the freedom to write about really niche topics as they don't have to worry about not having a wide audience.

The Wellington City Library (which in itself is the freaking best, free movies, heaps of great magazines, A HUGE ADULT GRAPHIC NOVEL SECTION, decent cafe, HUGE lot of CDs WITH LISTENING POSTS) has zines in various categories including poetry, art, personal, DIY (my fave) and miscellaneous (aka "lucky dip" zines). They even have these cute little zine bags that you can put your zines in so they don't get bumped around in your backpack!

Ngawwww

They seem to have a big focus on New Zealand based zines which is FANTASTIC because New Zealand zines have a really rich and quirky history. Like Bryce Galloway's 'Incredibly Hot Sex With Hideous People' which is one of the countriest longest running zines. Or the numerous titles from the great David Merrit (you should read about him if you haven't come across him yet) who publishes poems inside the covers of old Reader's Digests.

One of David's early works

One by Bryce Galloway

My best find of the day would have to be this amazing art zine called 'Untotal Eclipse' ( I can't read who it's by as the library has put the bar code over the name... why??????). The zine is comprised of a series of interactive drawings that allow you to mix two things together. Many of the drawings make a comment on something on society, like this one about transgenderism

I also managed to find one of my own zines from yonks ago, which was quite a thrill! 

This zine is a really simple little booklet of playlists with illustrations, and it ws made with just one sheet of paper! I thought I'd place a link to a tutorial on how to make a zine like this because it's a great place to start and as I have previously mentioned zines are freaking great. So click here and create cool stuff!

Oh yeah, and I got all my hair cut off

So that's the tahi this week! Tune in next week for another episode! Booya!

Aroha (as always),

Ruby xx

The tahi this week is a bit cute...

Ok, so this weeks tahi is not as accessible or publicised as all the others have been. But it's a huge and super amazing thing in my life and now is an exceedingly appropriate time to write about it.

My girlfriend of two years (who I've known for three years and kind of dated for that whole time, I think? Kids these days... ) is moving in with me and Ben TOMORROW! She's finally leaving Hamilhole ("The Tron" "City of the Future" "Chlamydilton") and moving into the strawberry shortcake flat with us.

So, you guessed it, the tahi this week is my girlfriend Daniela.
JUST LOOK AT THIS PHOTO OF MY CUMAN (cuman = cute human)

I actually can't say no to this face... or this pose... or this hat

Daniela told me that when her step dad moved in when she was little, she drew a picture of him with her Mum and brother that said "Welcome to Our Family". So I decided I'd make her one to celebrate her joining our family (me and Ben, two useless siblings with no parents and too much money to buy take aways with but not enough to cook proper meals) to bring things full circle. So that's the painting of the week! And for the first time I've drawn a picture that actually looks like me, and not a female Rowan Atkinson.

Ben looks a bit creepy, sorry Ben!

And I'm about to make a heart shaped cake so that we can celebrate tomorrow with traditional celebration food.

So yes, that is the number one thing in my life at the moment.

BUT I know some people will be like "HEY, RUBY. I CAME HERE FOR SOME DANK CONTENT THAT WILL IMPROVE MY LIFE / GIVE ME SOMETHING COOL TO DO???" so here's the rua for this week... Thieve. Thieve is a website that features artists and creatives curated collections of the best things they've got from the great AliExpress, which is a website that allows you to buy straight from factories, cutting out the middle man and saving you a ridiculous amount of money (is it legal????? kinda?????). Everyone's mate, Ali, is about to have her big 11:11 sale so a lot of the cool stuff that Thieve has on offer (hello, art socks) are about to be reduced even further. 

So yes, that's it for this week! Next week I'll be doing a feature on something based in Wellington and have lots of photos and drawings but you'll have to come back next Friday to see what it is. Happy 11:11 from me and mine. 

Arohanui,

Ruby