A bit deco, a bit mid century, a bit retro.

A happy, happy weekend.  On Friday, I walked into the first opshop for the day and saw an adorable coffee table, needing minimal work.  A bit deco, a bit mid century, a bit retro.  Needs to lose the ghastly brittle varnish, and a gentle resurrection of the surface in a couple of spots, but a Nice Item.

Saturday's garage sales took us to a builder who was selling up excess stock, and among the plasterboard and other stuff we discovered some seriously good, but seriously BIG bits of timber. Some looked ex-railway (still with metal fittings), some would seem to be ex-jetty - is it wrong of me to pick something I'll need a forklift to move?  It's on till next weekend so I'm considering some mid-sized pieces. I know a man with a forklift.

Although I'm sad that Cull's House, on Middleton Road here in Albany has been sold, I'm happy that the contents sale was handled by a friend of mine, who knew what he was doing, and that I got some interesting little bits.  This is one of the oldest and probably most original house in Albany.  Many of the contents were original  and there were some great old quirky bits and pieces for sale.

I hope that someone thought to photograph the interior of the house before the contents were moved out.  It's so important to document this stuff. The house was built by Matthew Cull in 1872, and occupied by the family for 117 years.

For those who want to read more here is a link to the entry for the house on the State Heritage Register.

 

 

 Also gathered was a really nice box full of old PMG canvas post bags. (PMG was the Post Master General -  the post office or what we now call Australia Post) There is even a bag of sealing wax, used to seal the lock on the bag, and some of the little stamps and holders.  If anyone wants vintage sealing wax, I would appear to have cornered the market.

   I found a whole lot of old Public Works Department (PWD) maps of Albany, which make for interesting reading.  I love those old maps, some of these have annotations in pencil with the lot prices  and other little notations.  There's so much texture and feeling to these old documents, so much more soul than a computer generated map.

 

 

There were also some old galvanised  jugs, and old blue enamel pot, and a very old indeed religious picture in a sweet old frame, with the back of old boards held in with handmade nails.  

 

Not to mention a dear little handmade box, looks to have been made from a crate, with a glass top and a black velvet and lace cushion within.  Looks to be depression era or earlier, meant for display because the back was nailed on with the same very old handmade nails.  I don't know why I wanted it but I just did.

There was some confusion about a bench for a wringer - wet clothes on one side, eventually slightly less wet clothes on the other.  No wringer attached but a nice rustic piece.  I may have run out of money. And space.

Skulls, skellingtons, clockwork dragonflies and tipshops

It's been an event packed week.  Some close friends have been in New York and I am insanely jealous, not least of the snow. The weather here has been hot hot hot until today, and I needed the break.  Today was just windy, windy, windy but much cooler.  There's a cyclone lurking down the west coast so who knows what we'll have this week.

We were out and about today, an early visit to the local tipshop.  My friend picked up a nice little writing desk, and we decided to call on another friend for a cup of tea and to examine a new power tool in her possession.  While we were kicking about in the leaves in her back yard and drinking our tea, she pointed out a not-so-recently departed bird, a gift from a local cat.  Not a parrot, but definitely an ex-bird.

Knowing my strange habits, she presented me with a plastic bag and retreated, making gagging noises.  Unfortunately the skull was not to be found, but I did get a nicely mummified wing, and one little skeletal bird leg.  I'd include a photo here but I don't want to offend the super-sensitive.  Earlier in the week my friend had found a lovely little bird skull, which she gave me (without visibly gagging).

I used it in a little collection:   

I have the feeling this will be the start of a little series.  I'm working on a clockwork dragonfly.

We finished off refurbishing a cabinet from the last verge collection this week, it required the manufacture and replacement of the two back legs and it was a long and time consuming process, but ultimately the cabinet looks fabulous and unless you know just where to look, the repairs aren't obvious.  I was going to give it to another under-furnished friend but in the meantime it's slotted into the front room.

Also from the tipshop today, a gorgeous vintage cane basket, a towrope (long story, involves a landcruiser, a range rover and a lot of mud), a metal gasket, and a shifting spanner.  Not bad for one dollar, but then I did help to unload the ute.

I also repaired, rebuilt and refurbished a cute little mirror during the week.  Pretty chintzy but nice in the right setting.

Next week, I need to japan some tabletops for occasional tables...and maybe buy one of those power tools.

a tale of two brownies

T'was the week before...etc etc, you know how it goes.

I really like this little helper, I think he's rather sweet.

With only 4 working days between me and some serious rec leave, cheeriness levels are on the up.  Ho, Ho, Ho, in fact.


  I'm planning a re-organisation of the home front in the hols, and have started on the back and front verandas.  I found an extremely ugly but practical rack which I've drafted into service for fishing rod storage.  Each millimetre of space is hard won.  I keep thinking I'll have a garage sale but I haven't really identified all that much to get rid of. Yet.

 



 I have decided to part with this vintage Kodak Brownie Starlet camera, there are only so many cameras and so much shelf space.

Strangely, the term 'Brownie' seems to be almost unreasonably popular, and this week  another Brownie which came into my life via a cake stall outside Bankwest.  I bought a plate of brownies on the way to work from the nice ladies at the stall, thinking that given the season I would share them with my workmates.  Bad luck, people.

I shared one with someone - in celebration of one of those tiny smidgens of happiness which occasionally drop into the pit of despair (and can so easily roll unnoticed behind the couch, where they hide with the minuscule remnants of our self-actualisation) - but everyone else was out of luck. Call me Grinch.  Best Brownies ever.  Congratulations, ladies with headscarves.  You are the queens of Brownie.



There are only a very few framed fish drawings remaining, I am pleased and slightly relieved that others liked them as much as I do.  These are the only ones left apart from some of the smaller ones. I can see the floor in the loungeroom.


 
 

       















            
                            
                  









 




















Quote of the week:
'The day they discover that yoga mats are carcinogenic will be the happiest day in my life.'
Tim Minchin


Status of the week from Facebook:
'Mum goes to personal training at 8am this morning and comes home drunk in a taxi.'
(anonymous, for their own protection - and no, not one of my kids!)  Gotta love the Xmas season....

next stop, Xmas!!!

Wow, another Summer Street Fair has been and gone.  I have that aching footed, stiff kneed exhaustion which comes from 3 big days of craft and people.  We had a great time, sold heaps of our work, and met lots of new people.  I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

There are lots of great photos on the Facebook page, if you missed out this year, look out for us next year.  You can catch up with the exhibitors through the page too.

                                   Lots of my fish drawings, jewellery, and other vintage frippery found new homes, enabling me to see the floor in the lounge room for the first time in ages.  Most has been tucked away but I will be listing on Etsy again when I've had a little rest.

In the packing away I did notice that the suitcase stack in the sitting room is now so tall that I can't lift a suitcase over my head to the top without serious health and safety risk.  

To celebrate our success, a couple of us hit the garage sales, car boot sale and Boatshed Markets. To celebrate, I had the freshest of oysters for lunch, and I have some baby asparagus, picked this morning, for tomorrow.  And the cherries - oh, the cherries.  Spectacular! 

One of the highlights of the time was our dinner at Joop Thai in Albany on Thursday after opening night.  Its brilliant to go into a local restaurant without a reservation at 9 pm and be welcomed with a smile and reassured that the kitchen is still open!! Thanks guys, and the food and service were, as always, great.

Aunt Sadie, Alice and the Easter Bunny

Last week, I picked up a copy of one -well, two- of my favourite books for 50c.  Today, I picked it up and re-read what is one of my very favourite opening passages ever:

"There is a photograph in existence of Aunt Sadie and her six children sitting round the tea-table at Alconleigh. The table is situated, as it was, is now, and ever shall be, in the hall, in front of a huge open fire of logs.  Over the chimney piece plainly visible in the photograph hangs an entrenching tool, with which, in 1915, Uncle Matthew had whacked to death eight Germans one by one as they crawled out of a dugout.It is still covered with blood and hairs, an object of fascination to us as children....There they are, held like flies in the amber of that moment - click goes the camera and on goes life... " Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

I love all things Mitford - fiction, biography, autobiography. I love them individually and as a group. I can read and re-read them and see them and hear them and forgive them their foibles.  I have been sorting out some old photos of my own family, and the opening passage of the book goes on to talk about the qualities of those frozen moments in time and their sepia-ness. 

My own old photos reminded me of the smells and the textures of my own childhood with surprising clarity.  I found an old teacup in the opshop last week, a sad reminder of what was my favourite Auntie's best teaset: the one used for Sunday afternoon tea, birthdays and get-togethers.  This teacup is well past its finest but just seeing it I can almost taste the scones and the sponge cake with icing sugar on top. I bought it and brought it home just to keep that feeling.


I have other bits and pieces, nothing valuable, but little fragments of lives.  Another Auntie's brooch - I can't really remember her face, although I know what she looked like; but I can remember the sense of her, and being given the brooch by my Uncle when she died.  It's not a valuable brooch, but there was a sense of being grown up when he gave it to me when I was about 8.

That one diamonte brooch is probably why I love vintage jewellery as I do. It reminds me of the Aunts, and great-aunts, of being taken to CWA meetings, of hanging with the cousins, and picking raspberries and real gooseberries and dress-ups. 

I remember the Uncles, too, of course; the cardigans and the sheds and the pigeons and dogs. But they seemed somehow not to be the centre of things: the women were constant motion, food and talk and movement and kids.


In my case, the colour is not so much sepia but rather that strange intense colour of slides and photos from the late 50's and early 60's, drifting into the yellowish tones and uncertain focus of the 70's snapshot.

I have continued my fascination with all things Alice and clockwork with some new pendants featuring Alice and some vintage pocketwatch faces, some Alice brooches, and I am working on some drawings of Alice, and some nursery rhymes. Given the time of year there are also some bunnies in the bathtub. I'm having some trouble with loading images, so haven't spent too much time on images which may disappear.  When I have some better photos and a more reliable way of leaving them up I will add some more.

Judy is on a break right now. We hope you enjoy this episode from the library - nah, just kidding.

I am on a break, though. I hadn't realised that it had been so long since my last post, guess that December goes more quickly than other months.

Festivities, nice new neighbours, perhaps a nice new handbag - so far, so good for 2011.

The Xmas/ NY break officially concluding at midnight tonight, I must observe that one of the few things better than the Sunday evening of a long weekend must be the Monday evening of a long weekend when you are still on leave. Oh, happy, happy day (or night). There will be that deeply satisfying time tomorrow morning when I take my breakfast and a book back to bed, just coz I can.

For the record, any smug self satisfaction will evaporate Monday next week - as I contemplate returning to work on the Tuesday.

I have spent several days sewing - cheesecloth beach pants for the beach baby, and I modified a couple of linen dresses which have been stashed for upcycling/recycling/reconfiguration/deconstruction. The sorting of the clothing stash is a whole 'nother post, let me tell you.

The reconstructed articles work really well over a plain Tee.

While I was sorting stashes, I also deconstructed a slide projector from the verge delectation, they have such fascinating components (and of course they take up less space this way). The lenses give you the best magnifying lenses.



I've had a Dremel tool for ages but it seems that every time I take it out of the box a man appears and wants to try it out ( malespeak for play with it and make random marks on wood and metal). Yesterday I spent some serious quality time modifying a small and very ugly thing - it was supposed to be a bird - with reasonable success and no major injuries. So far.

Before

After:

Next, the metal cutting....bits. (insert sound of evil laughter here)

Most of the op-shops were closed for the Xmas break but a quick look last week yielded a couple of treasures.

We took a trainee with us, as part of our renowned op-shop with the stars tour program. I have to say that she took to it like the proverbial fish. The three of us carried her bags from the boot of the car for transfer to the spousal conveyance.

Useful tip : fold gleanings in a clothes basket and leave them in plain sight. What, these old things? Had them forever.

How safe is this?

OK, bad pun intended, but I love love love my new bedside table, formerly a meatsafe. Strictly speaking, of course, it's still a meatsafe. It is just lovely and fits the spot perfectly. I also have a new modem, but may have to enlist a teenager - I'm not really feeling strong enough at the moment to do battle with installation. It was so hard to resist the fantastic oak desk...the Ici et La deck chairs...but this was all later in the morning.

Today started with a premium event on the garage sale calendar - the St Vincent de Paul depot garage sale. Each time we attend we vow solemnly that NO furniture will be purchased. We promise. Houses full. No space. Definitely not. Fortified by a friend's somewhat harsh (but fair) comment that my house is at risk of taking on a Steptoe-esque theme, my resolve was strong.

Books, 20c a bag - irresistible. Some toys. OK, not too many. Handbags - 50c a bag - that's a bag full of handbags. Only 3 smallish ones. Not even a lot of bric-a-brac - perhaps we were running a tad late, but it didn't seem as overflowing with irresistible rubbishy goodness as previous sales.

The 1960s china cabinet - oooh - boxy, sleek, all mirrored inside, glass shelves, front and sides - all intact and - but no. $20? Price coming down - $18? Must be strong.

I could use it to display jewellery and vintage goodness - but frankly, it just wouldn't fit. Perfect for a funky little retail venture but no room at the inn today.

Congratulating myself on my (unusual)reticence to snap up an impractical but desirable bargain, I discovered that my saling partner had purchased an old washstand while I had been busy displaying strength of character. So much for resolve. Oh, well. AND, without so much as a towel, we managed to insert it into a very small car. And get it out again later.

A note to those who may think that painting things mission brown is somehow a good thing - stop thinking. Now. Put down the paintbrush and quietly move away from the piece of furniture. Further. You are still too close. You are obviously not qualified to make this sort of decision. Take up a sport. Read a paper about horseracing. Undergo hypnosis to remove the words 'paint', 'mission' and 'brown' from your consciousness. Please. Retire to a quiet place and contemplate the question 'Whose bright idea was that, then?'

Luckily, it comes off. With a bit of work. Eventually.

Summer Street 2010

Phew, big day, start of a biiig weekend. Here are some early photos of stuff:

O sweet sweet Saturday

Somedays, garage saling is as good as it gets. Due to a somewhat tight fiscal situation I left the house with exactly $18.40 in my hot little hand. My trusty companion in these adventures was somewhat better off, possible due to the exercise of some spending restraint - or having to work yesterday while I op shopped.

I came home owing her 30 cents, which really isn't too bad. For my investment I got:
A patchwork quilt for a big bed
2 bookshelves, one for $1 and the other for $2, one jarrah, one pine
A cute vintage suitcase, to balance on the top of the others
A vintage AWA transistor radio - working, needs batteries
A large frame in really good condition, inluding a mat
A bicycle pump ( the wheel on the wheelbarrow is flat)
Some bits of costume jewellery
A vintage butter knife
A plethora of wooden spoons
Some homemade biscuits and a bunch of broccolini picked this morning
A Star Wars cube thing with Luke and Darth Vader's heads - weird but strangely compelling.

My partner in crime, setting an example in restraint, picked up a heavy based oval fish pan, a thingy to weigh fish, 2 chrome accoutrements in the outline of a reclining woman, and fresh fruit and veg including a bag of cumquats.

We left at 9, home at 11. Some days, I love my life.