Bitchin' and whinin' about bangs

You may have read here that I have been known to spend an idle hour browsing Pinterest, one of the most wonderful timewasters known to woman.  I was idly scrolling through the 'history' section, when I noticed a picture of Maggie Thatcher. Apart from her usual cat's bum look, bad hair and frightening fashion sense, it was uninspiringly dull. I was set to scroll on, when I noticed the caption - which said 'Maggie Thatcher - controversial policies but her background and the fact that she still remains the only female Prime Minister makes her inspirational to all women, regardless of political opinion.'

Now those of you who know me would be aware that I am not a big fan of the lately departed Maggie. I remember her in power, and the harm she caused to so many, including close friends and their families. When I read that caption, the bit that stuck in my mind was 'inspirational to all women'. I don't know any women who are inspired by that wicked old woman. I know there must be some. Somewhere.

In the spirit of sisterly education, I thought that I'd share a brief note with the pinner, since she had obviously made a huge error of judgement. The exchange went like this.  (The name has been changed for reasons which will become blindingly obvious.)

Me: Not ALL women, there are a huge number of women who deplore her policies, her actions, and the economic disaster which she brought down on a large number of people in the United Kingdom, not to mention the deaths she caused in an avoidable war. She is by no means an inspiration to those who lived through her era. 

Her: You can't find one thing to learn from her? Lol, you must be a liberal.

Me:  You must not know much about English politics, economics, history or social history! She decimated the economy of her country, caused huge civil unrest, caused needless deaths, and left a lasting social legacy of poverty, unemployment, and economic downturn. Your point was that she was inspirational to all women. Mine is that she is not inspirational at all, even the Conservative party in the UK tries to forget.

Her: I'm sure she's to blame for global warming and cow flatulence too. Are you going to blame her for your bad haircut? Lol  

Me:  It's interesting that you haven't actually countered with any facts, and that you have taken the slippery path to personal insult, rather than attempt any sort of discussion about the points I've raised. 

Her: All you have done is insult me. If I find Thatcher inspiring, you just assume I'm stupid. I don't agree with any of your boring babble about her! I bet you are one of the scum that celebrated her death. Well over a hundred people have pinned this pin...but you're the only one who had to bitch and whine about it. I'm so sick of bitches and whiners! 

Me: All I have done is provided information regarding a figure in history, I note that you have offered no facts to disprove what I've said, only stooped to puerile and not even creative personal insults. Apparently facts are 'boring babble'. So much for world history. At least we are agreed that not so many find her inspirational, since only a handful of Pinteresters have repinned, perhaps because they agreed with my comments, and yes, the people she oppressed celebrated her death - hardly all women finding her inspirational. If you had written simply that you found her inspirational, that is one thing. But to say she inspires all women patently incorrect.  I find it telling that you consider anyone who doesn't agree with you a' bitcher and whiner', rather than simply offering a factual argument. In simple grammatical terms, 'all women' are not inspired by Thatcher, by simple definition of the term.

Her: I never once asked you for your opinion...and yet you're still bitching and whining. You are boring and predictable. Just because you hate Thatcher so much, makes me admire her even more. Stop taking your anger out on your bangs...unless you're going for the Harry Potter look. 

Me: So... you don't like Harry Potter either? Possibly because J.K. Rowling wasn't a Thatcher fan either. Now J.K. Rowling IS a woman who is admired by a lot of women. I don't 'hate' anyone, I merely pointed out that Thatcher is no role model for thinking women and that her policies did lasting harm to her country. It is, of course, amusing that you will now forever have a little niggling thought in the back of your mind whenever her name is mentioned, reminding you of the bad things she did. So at least you are absorbing information and learning, although it appears a slow process. You keep trying to insult me, because you know that I'm right and you still don't understand that ALL women do not find Thatcher an inspiration. You will no doubt be thrilled to know that Thatcher did not change the comprehensive British public health care system, whereby everybody, including the poor, the homeless and the uneducated, are entitled to free health care there. Why are you so fascinated by my hair? You are beginning to obsess on it. 

Her: You're clearly a mental case. I don't care what you think. Please find something better to do with your life, and leave me alone. Thanks!  

Me: Unfortunately, your skills in psychological diagnosis are as lacking as those in political argument. Nevertheless, I am not the one with an unhealthy obsession on someone else's hair. Provided you can control your urges in that direction we shall say no more on the matter. 

Her: Thank God. I thought you'd never shut up. Creepy! 

Me: Still with the insults? Now you've moved to simple child like name calling, which although puerile, at least shows that you've moved on from your hair obsession. Did no-one ever tell you that if you have nothing nice to say it's better to say nothing at all? Or have you simply no inner monologue? Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, given your previous outbursts. Manners maketh the woman, and all that.

Her: I don't go around leaving ugly comments on other people's pins. I didn't even write the caption on this picture...but I completely agree with it. Funny though, Thatcher has been re-pinned with the same words, 13 times today. That must make you upset! Lol...better go grab the scissors. Please spare me any more of your psycho babble. Leave me alone!

Me:  Ugly comments? I simply made some factual comments on a public pin. You were the one who leapt to immediate vilification and hair obsession. You haven't worked out that people may be pinning it to view your growing (and apparently unstoppable) obsession with my hair. Your daily counting of repins is beginning to become somewhat obsessive also, I would only be upset because your obsessional behaviour seems to be growing. Your are a slave to your baser hair urges and your self control appears lacking, as I had thought you had agreed to try to move on with your life, perhaps to someone else's hair. I wonder is there some sort of self help group you could join? I shall see if I can find you one. Although the repeated use of the term 'psycho babble' does indicate some resistance, still, I am hopeful that you will eventually be able to move on.

At that stage, a third pinner recognised the humorous content in the exchange, something I suspect came as something of a surprise to the hair obsessed and grammatically challenged.  It certainly stopped the conversation.  

Ah, the interweb, it's an educational tool. For some. Lol (sic).

after the before

Befores and afters, this week.

I could show you the befores and afters of my hands, but you probably don't want to see happy snaps of broken fingernails, blisters, and other wounds.  Ouch.

I've also been working on some new fish, I have 3 commissions to complete before I depart on my Big Adventure.  More of that next week.













Before:

I got this stool a while ago, I like these wind up stools, and this one has a wooden mechanism.  The seat was, as we say, gestumphened - an ex-seat - but I found a handmade lazy susan at a garage sale to replace it. It had been very thoroughly and meticulously made by an older gentleman, which means that demolition took a long time and caused most of the aforementioned injuries.  It took a chisel, some bandaids and a lot of patience, but I'm happy with the result.

After:



(As an unrelated aside, the repurposed dishwasher drawer makes the best underbed storage.)



I've been thinking about garden art for a while now, I've been gathering the bits and struck out this weekend to make some prototypes.  


On the recurrent Alice theme, I like the old enamel teapot.  It's quite small, but I like the colour.  I'm working on some teacups to go with it.

And on the more ethereal front, I like these glass ones, they are upcycled light shades and the light makes them almost glow.

Inglourious tipshop trawlers, unite!

The election came. The election went.  The sun still shone - well, OK, it rained, but it was the first rain for ages and most enjoyable.  But the world continued to turn.

As previously reported, the domestic archaeological recovery team went on a road trip, like Thelma and Louise, without the headscarves and the convertible, but with a 4 wheel drive and a trailer.  No sign of Brad Pitt, except in a viewing of Inglourious Basterds on Sunday night.We found a new tipshop (new for us - it's been there a while).  We found the Armadale Tipshop. It was so good, we went twice, and took friends.

The City of Armadale shows a real commitment to recycling, with the full range of items for sale, from building materials to homewares to furniture to electricals to clothing. It's well set out, the prices are very reasonable, the staff are helpful and friendly. There seems to be a common link in good tipshops - the staff are committed to what they do and the managing council is prepared to provide some proper resourcing.

We found some very cool things - including an old metal milk crate, and yes, another suitcase.  We didn't see a snake.














It was a very professional operation and a new must-see destination for tipshop trawlers. They're open Thursday 10 -2, Friday and Saturday 8.30 - 4.30 and Sundays 8.30-4.

City of Armadale - a sign or two from the highway would be really helpful. 

We called in at Kojonup in the hopes of catching the opshop open but, as has been the case every time for the past 24 years for me, it was closed.   One day, I'll get there. Tragic as I am, we took photos through the windows.


They don't have a tipshop.

We revisited the Mindarie tip (as reviewed here)again.  This time (a weekend) there was less to choose from, probably because of the larger numbers of shoppers. I got a bag of books for a good price, but didn't really see much else I just had to have.

The Balcatta tipshop ( also reviewed here) was, as always, a happy afternoon's trawling.  Having learned to sneak straight into the carpark, it was quicker to get to the good stuff.  An excellent selection of everything from the rusty to the ridiculous.  The staff were a little more - ahem - laid back that at the previous two establishments but the through traffic was positively hectic.  It took ages to find someone to pay or answer questions, which was a bit disappointing, but then there was heaps of stuff coming in all the time too.  The prices were considerably higher than last time but then it seems that the pricing policy is dependant upon the individual on the day. It remains less organised but way more fun and is still highly recommended.

We haven't unloaded the trailer yet, so there will be more pics next week.

We also found 2 good salvage yards, a pile of timber and firewood, and collected some other interesting bits and pieces.

Head of bone and heart of stone

Sun, rain, wind...the Mitfords ...opshops, garage sales, tipshops...sick girlchild...suicidal cat next door...it's all go here. There's a cyclone in the north, and a long weekend coming - they may even arrive at the same time. 

We've had some rain,which was really welcome.  The cat next door has taken to laying in front of approaching vehicles.
  It won't end well. 

I'm re-reading The House of Mitford, by Jonathon Guinness with Catherine Guinness.  Nancy wrote to her sister Unity, starting 'Darling Head of Bone and Heart of Stone...' They were a family entirely of contrast but their use of language was magical and fabulously far from today's text-speak.  Text speak is slowly but surely sucking the poetry and wit from communication. I shall continue to rant against it.  

I also read Honk If You Are Jesus by Peter Goldsworthy. I finished it this afternoon, waiting in Accident and Emergency at the hospital for my daughter to see someone about the brain splitting earache she's contracted.  Apparently she's going to live to work again but is spending some quality time with various pain reducing potions.   The medical bent of the novel fitted my surrounds.  

Fantastic pickings at the oppies and garage sales this weekend.  A friend brought me two new very old suitcases; one garage sale had not only a pine box, but enough lovely old crockery to fill it.  I found a wonderful tin trunk, it's a bit rusty on the outside but the inside is still very tidy. There was a watercolour in a beautiful old frame, and a heap of framing stuff like hooks. A very nice English-made navy leather jacket. Brilliant yellow rusty tin numbers.  Very exciting.

As things occur in runs, this weekend was CD's, DVD's, crockery.  One lady had lots and lots of the same kitchenalia that my mother had, it was uncanny to see it all together in one place, so far from her kitchen.  I bought some pieces in good condition, to use and some in chipped and cracked condition, to misuse and abuse.

Elementary, my dear Travis

I think I could get used to only working 3 days a week, the whole 4 day week thing is getting old. How long is it till the next long weekend?

I'm watching the first episode of Elementary, the newest and much-promoted Americanised Sherlock Holmes.  I don't believe that my Sunday nights will continue to be devoted to it.  So far it's cheesy, tedious, and unoriginal.  The transformation of Watson into Lucy Liu is such a stretch I'm waiting for the snap...ping [ricochet, ricochet] as the suspension of disbelief caves and crumbles under ridiculous stress.  I'm a televisual optimist but even I can't commit to this one. I would have channel skipped by now but I'm busy typing. Rating: an hour of my life I'll never get back.

my first crop of potatoes - yum!

The hound and I had a quiet and uneventful weekend, working on a few projects, pottering about. My new old Travis McGee books arrived (finally) and so I've been travelling back and forwards to Florida in the early 70's during tea breaks. I think there are only 2 or three books in the series I haven't tracked down yet but I suspect I'll be on the hunt for those next week.
The link even has a collection of quotes and recipes for drinks and food. 

I demolished the telescope tripod (just me and a can of CRC, pliers, a vice, a hammer and a hacksaw) and rubbed back the wooden bits and re-polished them without the ghastly cheap varnish.  I'm currently contemplating whether to replace the (hacksawed) bolts with brass or steel, and leaning towards steel.  It will end up as an industrial-style lamp, I have the other lamp bits stashed somewhere.

I took the top off the wooden stool from a week or so ago, rubbed it all back and refinished it in readiness for a new (not broken and warped) top.  I'm contemplating the size and type of the top. I think it should also do double service as a table, so slightly larger, methinks.  There are a couple of options in the wings, some from an old lazy susan.  

I finished a little mixed media project to match one I made last year.  These frames are hard to come by but they turn up every now and then. They look as thought they were handmade.

I also made a wire ball.(Because I could, OK?) I used a roll of rusty wire I've had for ages, and I really like the way it's come out.  I ended up covered head to foot (literally) in rust but seem to have avoided tetanus, so that's a win.

I broke 3 fingernails, stained my fingers, glued, sanded, oiled. I finished the usual gazillion baskets of washing. I read 2 books. I spent far too much time on Pinterest.  All in all, a good weekend.




I forgot this one last weekend, I love it, 40's plaster model, won at a rural show.  I know it's a bit on the worn side but still magnificent.

Pinterest, ideas and addiction

I have a confession to make.

I was googling about the interweb, as one does, and I weakened and had a good long look around on Pinterest.  Oops.  Now I'm addicted. (I institutionalise easily.  Who knew?) 

So now I have boards to which I can pin all sorts of interesting things, and other people can look at them, and I've been sort of surprised that others have similar interests and tastes and like or re-pin my pins.  And I can look at other people's stuff too. I can highly recommend it as a way to find and exchange cool new ideas, and avoid doing housework.

I was explaining this to a non-Pinterest friend, which led us to a really interesting discussion about creativity as we hurtled about the burg looking for garage sales and tip shop bargains in this week's hideous heat and humidity.

People say to me that I'm really creative, but I think mine is just a visual creativity, in that I make things which people can see.  I think that others are just as creative, but express it in different ways, and don't give themselves the credit they deserve.  There's creativity in making a home, whether it's minimalist or eclective, like mine.  There's certainly creativity in raising children, cooking, and gardening, let alone doing all that and working 9-5 at the same time. Clever people are creative in whatever work they do, because of the way they approach it. If you let yourself accept that whatever you're doing is in it's own way creative, because you're expressing yourself, you can perhaps look at yourself differently and give yourself the credit you deserve.

If you aren't being creative on some level, then you're just going through the motions of living.

That's not to say that creating isn't difficult. Art is hard.  I spend lots of time (and I do mean LOTS) looking, researching, planning, and recording ideas, themes, thoughts, and inklings.  

Brainpickings (a truly excellent source of interesting things)quoted artist Chuck Close: "Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”   


Maybe some people think that ideas show up fully formed, and because they wait for that to happen, they don't start?  If you wait for something to inspire you, you'll just keep waiting. Go out and inspire yourself.  Look, experience, experiment, feel, touch, think. Write. Work out how it's done. Find things that make you smile.

My fave quote is from Einstein:  "Creativity is the residue of time wasted."  Certainly, for me, the time I 'waste' looking around, reading, combing through other peoples' junk, informs what I do when I try to make or draw something.  I keep scrapbooks and photos and notebooks (and now virtual pinboards) as memory joggers, planners, idea generators - I suppose I immerse myself fairly constantly in the 'creative process'.   Someone asked me what an item was when I bought it at the tip shop.  My response was that I didn't know - I didn't - but I could see what it was going to be.  I said it without really thinking but having said it I thought some more about it. Sometimes I pick things up because I have a plan.  Sometimes, the plan comes later, but it's informed by something I have. Sometimes, I knock things over and they fall in a way I could never have planned.

Which is why I love my books - and magazines and bits of paper and ribbon and string and fishing lures and all the other stuff that I have about me.  The colours in a magazine's photo shoot can be the inspiration for something completely unrelated to fashion or travel. Stuff is stuck on the fridge (no, not the dust)because it's an interesting shape or there's something interesting in the colour or the composition.  I would die in a minimalist environment, I'm a visual person.

So much as I'm loving Pinterest, I'm not giving up on my visual diaries, corkboards, and things affixed with clothes pegs to other things about me. The Pinterest stuff is accessible and tidy, and very very neat, but I need my stuff about me so that I can waste time being residually creative.