A clean sweep

I didn't get to see the finished Catwalk Art entry as it appeared on the stage.  I know the results, though.  My daughter-in-law, Heather and her friend Pam made a clean sweep of the prizes.  They won the Open Section, the Supreme Award and Peoples' Choice.  I'm not at all surprised.  This is the top and skirt put together but the skirt, made from dried and dyed New Zealand Flax (phormium tenax) is still rolled up.  When the pegs are removed the flax curls bounce and dance to resemble ocean waves. 

On her arms Heather has a nearly completed boat.

 and Pam works on a way to secure the sides at the back.
 

When she opens her arms she is transformed into a glorious bird.  I can't imagine how her arms and shoulders must have ached after holding her arms out like that for hours.  Once those arms were in place she was inside the wings/boat until the end of the show.  For three shows. 

And, of course, to crown it off, there is a crown.  It's nearly finished in the photo below.
 

I hope to see some catwalk photos soon.

The creatives

Yesterday, quite unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to see my creative daughter-in-law, Heather and her equally creative friend, Pam at work finalising their entry into a Wearable Arts Competition.  These two blow my mind.  The ideas just flow from them, they feed off each others.  One suggests something, the other comes up with how to do it.  Some aspects of their costumes are very structural, all aspects require a lot of work.  Not to mention inspiration and adaptation.

I have to keep details of this competitions entry to myself until after the event, of course.  But here are a few shots I got yesterday.

 Bits and pieces on the work table

To give you an idea of the attention to detail and thought that goes into their costumes, this is the headgear from an earlier entry into a Wearable Arts Competition.

 The shoes.  I immediately thought, "Cinderella shall go to the ball."

And before the ball, there are hours with hair in rollers.

Good luck, girls.  I know the hours of work that have gone into your entry and luck will have little to do with it.  

Kids on parade

The best part of any parade, for me, is the children. I love seeing their delighted faces as they pass by.

As they grow older it doesn't seem to be quite as much fun. Or do boys reach a certain age and feel the need to be 'cool'?

The Wearable Arts Parade was one of the attractions. Krystal waits pensively for the music to start, obviously not very comfortable about being the first to take the stage.

Georgia had to overcome her shyness to step on to the stage in front of all those people by herself. She went very quiet while they waited for the show to begin, a sure sign she was bothered. But she did it, quite an achievement for a six year old, I think. I was so proud of her!

Archer, Georgia's 'best friend ever' greets her after the show - "So where did you get that dress from?"

There was a parade!

There was a parade in the village today. No big brass drum. Just a lone Scottish piper standing on a farm trailer, pulled by an ancient farm vehicle that could loosely be called a tractor.

Maungakaramea is celebrating 150 years of settlement. And the local folk have worked extremely hard to put together a weekend of celebrations.

I want to show you my highlights from the parade. I was surprised there were so many spectators - where on earth did they all come from?

We hear the bagpipes. It's coming! All heads turn to the right, including my neighbour, this little angel with a front to back crown.

Isn't she delightful?

Here's the lone piper leading the parade, playing Scotland the Brave, a tribute to the early Scottish settlers of the district.

A shortage of reindeer in these parts...

But plenty of trucks...

Look, there's two of my grand-daughters on that one. Krystal in silver and green and little Georgia in red and black, wearing their costumes from the Wearable Arts Show earlier this year.

and tractors...

Lots of old guys proudly driving their sparkling clean tractors:

and my favourite tractor:

sheep...

and a milkmaid...

vintage cars...

All the service and sports clubs were represented including, for that Hebridean in New Zealand, the Croquet Club...

Truly, it was a grand parade for a great little village.

I will post the photos of the kids tomorrow. This lot above was taking so long to upload I started to mow the lawn and came in to check after finishing the front yard.....still going! Hopefully tomorrow I will have a better connection with the rest of the world.

Wearable Arts

Thursday night was Wearable Arts night at the local school. Our school is what is known as an Area School. There aren't many of them around but I think they are a wonderful concept. They are a "one stop education shop". Children start there at age five and continue until they graduate from secondary school and go off to university or whatever they have chosen to do next. Grand total of students from the youngest to the oldest is 600.

My granddaughters go to and from school in a little mini-bus. Georgia and her friend Archer are the youngest on the bus and they are mothered by the older girls.

The Wearable Arts competition was split into three sections with all three girls being in the Junior Section, where there were 19 entrants.

The most notable feature of our area is the Tangihua Forest that we look at from our farm. The theme for this year's Wearable Arts competition was The Enchanted Forest.

Mystical Creature, Shayde, Highly Commended

And guess what!! The ten year old twins came away with two Highly Commendeds and Georgia was placed third. My photos are shockers, I can never take a photo inside and inside at night is totally beyond me.

Georgia was the youngest entrant and was overcome by shyness when it was her turn to walk out on stage and her special friend/carer on the school bus, an entrant in the senior section, took her hand and lead her out.

Krystal (in the middle), The Leaf Princess, Highly Commended, beside Georgia and her helper.

I love how the older students always help and support the younger kids. They are so fortunate to attend a school where they can feel so safe and secure. When it came time for all the entrants to parade on stage for the judging, Georgia was confident enough to do it unattended.

Georgia, The Feather Fairy, Third Place

The girls really put the time in working on their costumes, even little Georgia glued on all her own feathers. I blogged about our Sunday a couple of weeks ago where we turned my home into a creative (and very messy) studio to help them make their visions reality.

It was a wonderful night for the girls and I think they have learned a valuable lesson along the way.