Warning! Photo-Heavy blog ahead!! I've put everything in spoilers, for anyone on a slow connection.

You know, it's been ages since I looked at any of the sets on this site. I tend to go straight for the groups and boards these days.

In honour of staying home sick in my pyjamas, here's a list of some of the latest hopefuls sets in member review which caught my eye:

I'm going to be kind of scarce around here until the new year, since I'm down in CHCH visiting family and friends. It's been an awesome trip.

I just got finished with a mammoth 6 1/2 hour tattoo session, which has resulted in an absolutely stunning piece of work on my leg/hip. I'll post pictures later. I'm totally in love.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday so far.

Edit: Here they are!




Designed and inked by Fiona Skipper of Absolution in Christchurch.

Aw, thanks so much to everyone who left birthday wishes on my blog. It was such a sweet surprise to see them! I had a great day, even though I had to go to work. My boss brought me flowers, and I baked some cookies to take in for everyone. I decided I didn't really want to go out in the rain for dinner, so we just got thai take-aways and watched movies. Oh man, Lilo & Stitch makes me cry like a baby every time I see it. Also, Tekkon Kinreet is the coolest, weirdest, loveliest thing I have ever seen.

I started my new job on Monday. I am now the official Wellington Barista Trainer for Coffee Supreme, one of the largest and most prestigious roasting companies in New Zealand. It's kind of a big deal for me. I basically just geek out on coffee all day long, which pretty much makes it my dream job. I'll be starting to train and plan for the Barista Championships pretty soon, too.

I cut all my hair off, and dyed it. Pictures!






and... yeah...

From a recent photoshoot with Kaveh Kardan.

Photographer- Daniel Minson
Hair/MakeUp/Styling- Gracie Hart (me!)
Photo editing- Gracie Hart

Incidentally, these are the mystery shoes that turned up on my doorstep...

This is quite strange but... did anyone on here happen to buy me some shoes from my wishlist? A mystery package arrived on my doorstep with a PO box return address and some shoes in my size inside. They're really sexy- I'll add some pics later- but I have no idea where they came from. I don't even think I've ever posted my wishlist on here (I tend to think it's kind of tacky, unless it's your birthday), but I just can't think where they might have come from.

I started writing a comment on James Hoffman’s blog on a post in which he shares a video of Gwilym Davies, dressed as a woman, speaking of the lack of women “beyond the shop”, or higher up in the coffee ladder than just working in a local cafe. He speaks of the fact that there has never been a female World Barista Championship winner, and that the lack of women even competing is startling. He asks why, and how we can fix this problem. The comment got so long that I eventually realized I would need my own blog to contain it, and here we are.

For those of you who don’t know already, I’ve been a barista for a while now. I love coffee. Intensely. I love my craft, and I’m passionate about it. I talk about it to the point of boring and frustrating my friends, and even some of my co-workers. Sometimes I accidentally scare customers away by answering their innocent questions with much more detail and enthusiasm than they had expected. To steal a phrase from my old boss, I’m a coffee nut.

Since leaving, and then re-entering into barista work, I’ve noticed a lot of things about the industry that make me uncomfortable, that I hadn’t ever picked up on when I was younger. The incredible lack of famous female baristas, female WBC winners, female roasters, and female cafe owners and managers is something I’ve only just started to think about.

The blog post is truly massive, but for anyone with the fortitude to get through it, I would greatly appreciate feedback and discussion.

It's snowing! Snowing snowing snowing snowing snowing!!!!!!!

I haven't seen snow this heavy since I was back in the States. I've missed it so much. I doesn't usually last long in New Zealand, and everyone gets all grumpy about it because everything shuts and no one has tire chains, but I secretly hope it lasts all week.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months:






I'm working for Peoples Coffee now, even though I swore I would never go back to hospitality. It actually kind of great, though. I'd forgotten how much I love making coffee, and I like all the people I work with.

I just had an audition for Carousel Cabaret, and they said they would love to have me perform, probably in October. I've got some shows booked in Auckland in September, too. I'm really looking forward to getting back into performing.

I'm on my way out the door for snow-time romping and pizza!

A long awaited update!

I truly, deeply appreciate all the amazing and wonderful offers of help and support I've had from friends on this site. It is so good to be able to read them, and know that people are thinking of me. I feel really blessed.

I'm living in Wellington now. The last few weeks I've been down in Christchurch packing up the stuff I was able to salvage from the wreckage of my house, and sorting out any loose ends. Moving up here was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, and I'm still not sure I made the right one, but there was no work for me down there. I still haven't found a job up here yet, but there's a whole lot more chance that I will. The apartment I'm in is kind of crappy, and I'm missing my beautiful character villa, but it's warm, and my flatmates are awesome and don't seem to mind me singing at the top of my lungs in the shower or covering the kitchen in flour every day.

I've become a crazed baker. Today I made two loaves of yeasted cornbread, which is my new favourite, and is super easy and delicious. I don't really use recipes all that often, but it's roughly:

2C cornmeal
3C strong flour
salt
3tsp dried yeast
water

I make a super wet dough at first, more like a stiff batter, and knead it for about a minute, then leave it for half an hour or so. Come back to it and add enough flour to make it workable but still slack, and knead it for another minute or two. Leave it for as long as you possibly can, but at least two hours, and then prove and bake it like normal. You can add all kinds of things to it. Corn kernals, a tablespoon or two of honey, chili powder, cheese... I like just plain old bread, but it's pretty versatile.

I think tomorrow I'll make a milk loaf, or maybe something sweet. I have heaps of apples, so a pie would be good. Baking has become the world's best and tastiest coping mechanism.

I shot a set down in CHCH. It was really nice to make a safe and well-lit little haven amongst the chaos, and just have fun getting naked for a few hours. It's still being edited, but here are some out takes:

I've put burlesque on the back burner for a while, until I can get some costumes together. It's tricky, because I did most of my performances to live music down in Christchurch, but I don't know any musicians up here. I'm determined to start a swing/big band eventually, and hopefully I can convince some of the members to play while I take my clothes off. Here's a video I've been loving. I did a routine to a slowed down, more Jessica Rabbit version of this for a while, and I managed to save most of the costume, although it's covered in dust.

I'm not really sure what's going on with The Eastern. They're playing plenty of shows, but most of them are free ones, and I don't know how much longer they can sustain it. It's a rough time for Christchurch musicians.

Again, I really appreciate all the love people have shown me recently. It's been tough, but I feel good about the way things are going. xo

p.s. My sister wrote this super cute song. Check it out!