Belle of the Ball

After a few sneaky peeks on instagram, and my creative space, I can't believe that it's taken me this long to do the big reveal.

Carly asked me to keep it a secret until after the ball...

I've totally fallen in love with diamante trim. I'd like to hand stitch it onto all my garments from now on....and the merino was a dream to sew with (fabric and trim both from Clegs)

Carly had very particular needs for this garment.

It needed to be warm (hence the merino), the underside had to be soft against her delicate skin (we chose a soft cotton flannelette), and it had to be hands free and easy to take on and off at the ball depending upon the temperature.

I was a bit scared cutting into the $80 per metre fabric so I made a couple of calico mock ups first just to check the fitment etc.

Here's the finished outfit just before the ball. Carly bought her dress at Macy's in NY. It's totally gorgeous!

I love this photo of Carly, Layne and Carly's mum at the ball

And..... there was much excitement about INXS at my place again last week.

Before Carly headed to Sydney, I gave her one of my INXS DVD's to take to the ball just in case Kirk happened to be there (thinking I could get his signature).

Well, Carly told Layne about me being such a huge fan, so she took the DVD and gave it to Kirk and they ALL SIGNED IT!!! (well except for Garry Gary Beers but that's OK).

I didn't know any of this until it landed in my letterbox last Wednesday. Second best surprise ever!!! (because the Kirk phonecall was first). Phew!

The night that Kirk Pengilly called

 Photo from 1991

So anyway, I don't quite even know where to begin with this story!

Lastnight, I was sitting on a stool at my kitchen bench having a cuppa with my dad when the home phone rang. Nobody has my home phone number (except the Alfred), and so the only calls I ever receive are from those pesky telemarketers who ignore the Do Not Call Register.

Dad looked at me wondering why I wasn't answering, and so of course I told him it was just another telemarketer that would hang up when they got the answering machine message.

Except, this time, the phone didn't hang up, and the person who was calling started talking.

I quickly picked up the phone and answered, and the voice at the end said 'Hi this is Kirk Pengilly'. Oh my goodness, I could've fallen off my stool with shock!

I may have gushed about how I was a massive fan, and that INXS Kick was the first album that I ever bought and that I still had my LP collection... and by that point I was probably blubbering and I don't quite know what else I said.

Surprise!

If you want a real blast from the past, I devoted an entire post to INXS was back in 2008... (and yes I still have my ticket stubs and my concert tee from 1991).

Carly and Kirk

I have to thank my amazing friend Carly for taking time out from her wonderful night at the Layne Beachley Aim For The Stars Foundation Ball to organise something so special just for me. I was hoping that she might be able to get a signature if it wasn't to embarrassing to ask. I never would have dreamed that she could surprise me with a phonecall!

I woke up thismorning and it all seemed totally surreal and I wondered if it was just a dream..... but thank goodness for the answering machine. How am I ever going to be able to delete those few recorded words?

Brown Owls Badgemaking

Lastnight was a fun night of badgemaking at the Brown Owls clubhouse. Gemma was the badge machine protector and queen, which was lucky because I just couldn't remember the correct sequence for all the little badgey bits and pieces!

Special guest star Anna Laura showed us how to make these cute little stuffed felt badges.

I borrowed Steph's Lolcats book because it just makes me laugh out loud....and Steph also bought along a themed pressie just for me.... a Smash Hits INXS badge from the 80's...how's that for cool!

I also started a cute little house badge that Pip had created but didn't get time to finish it just yet. I might keep stitching that one on the couch tonight.

Thanks again Kirsty and Pip for a lovely crafty night out.

This is....the filmclip

Ok so I really should have included this is my earlier post....thanks Sel!

Simple Minds were the back up for my favourite band INXS at The Palais a couple of years ago and when they played this song, the entire crowd sang along word for word...it was MAGIC!

Blogtoberfest Fave Friday

Steph aka Drewzel aka Shabby Chicken aka Stitchy Britches has decreed that today shall be Blogtoberfest Fave Friday, and so it is my duty to post my fave song of all time!



This is one of my all time favourite songs by my all time favourite band. I just love the film clip...fantastic Aussie 80's simplicity

and the perfect accompaniment to this one....



a bit of classic Midnight Oil... you'll just have to ignore the fact that Peter Garrett is wearing an extremely ugly shirt.

Play along Blogtoberfesters!

This is.......my mixtape

This is....my favourite band of all time.

Oh where to begin.... we could be here for a while!

So I will begin at the very first memory....... it was 1987 and I was in Year 8. My best friends older brother had a licence, and was allowed to drive his mum's mission brown station wagon to pick us up after school. Each and every day, he had the same tape playing in the tape deck.... INXS KICK.

At that stage, I was actually infatuated with Bros (does anyone actually remember them), but it didn't take long before I headed down to the local record shop (before cd's were invented for any youngens reading along), and bought my first ever album with my own money....

So that's when my secret infatuation with Michael Hutchence began, although Jon Farris was (and still is) also a hottie.

Above photo is me with my albums in 1991

In 1990, INXS realeased X (which I also bought on record) and that was probably about the time when I decided to go backwards and collect all of their earlier albums too. It probably took me a year (mainly because I lived in a country hick town miles away from anywhere) so it was only when I was in big towns like Bendigo or Melbourne that I could search the record shops for old albums. I eventually found all of them except for Dekadance.

I also bought anything else I could find relating to members of INXS like the MaxQ album, Dogs in Space movie, video specials, books etc.....

Photos of my bedroom wall in 1991 or 1992 when they were covered in INXS posters.

But of course, the best thing about an obsession with a band is the very first concert. My first ever concert was Jimmy Barnes at the Glasshouse (that's if you don't count Humphrey B Bear back in the 70's) and my second was INXS at The Tennis Centre just after my 17th birthday.

I had to make a deal with my best friend at the time who hated INXS. She would only come to the concert with me, if I agreed to go to see AC/DC with her. We lived in a country hick town with no way of even buying tickets for the concert, so luckily my auntie who lived in Melbourne agreed to buy the tickets for us. We had to catch the V-Line train to Melbourne (about a 4 hour trip) and we stayed at my aunties house.

Original 1991 tickets are still in the photo album..... Looking at the tickets now, I'm just realising what crappy seats we had for INXS (upper KK) when compared to AC/DC (lower E). I was so excited about the concert that I never even realised.

My second INXS concert was 3 years later....Mr CurlyPops and I went to see them at Festival Hall in 1994 (obviously ticket sales had dropped quite a bit to go from selling out 4 shows at the Tennis Centre in 1991 back to 2 shows at Festival Hall in 1994) .

We were planning to buy tickets for the 1997 concert but never got around to it.... then of course, the tour was cancelled a week before it started .

What came next was Rockstar INXS in 2005 and the band chose JD as their new frontman. We went to the concert at the Palais in September 2006 (can't find my tickets) and then again in March 2007.

Of course it's not the same without Michael, but JD is still a great frontman.

I even managed to find my old concert t-shirts (with paint splatters on them). The one on the left (1991) is now 17 years old and the one on the right (1994) is now 14 years old.

I've moved over 20 times and de-cluttered every time but the only collection that I've ever kept are my INXS goodies.

Thankyou to Sharon for filling in for Angela and letting me choose this weeks theme....it was a lovely wander down memory lane for me. I'm heading off to check whether I'm the only obsessed music fan in blogland!