Dinosaurs, silk and ostrich feathers

Hands up who DIDN'T make a dinosaur suit for their daughter's dog today?  So many hands....

I had the sewing machine out, for routine wardrobe maintenance and alterations, possibly too much time on my hands, and I came across some scraps I had put aside for the oft-requested outfit.  I considered for a moment something in silk and ostrich feathers, but the dinosaur won.  She looks quite cute, in a bewildered sort of way. But my daughter is happy, and as she often says, that's the important thing. 

I've been having a bit of a de-clutter, but when it comes to the stash, one can only go so far.  I saw a post on Facebook for a garage sale, where someone commented that they had never seen so much junk.  I was stunned, the garage in the post looked positively minimalist.  My latent fear of featuring on one of those shows about hoarders surfaced, briefly.

I don't so much have junk, as a stash.  A BIG stash.  Of lots of things.  All of which can be re-used for something, although not necessarily their original purpose.  I don't mind sharing things, when someone needs something, but I have to draw the line at tossing things away in a willy-nilly manner.  

Over the past few weeks I've had some visitors who appreciated my stash.  It's nice, and reassuring, not to be viewed as the upcycling equivalent of a mad old cat woman, and I enjoyed sharing some gems with them. In return, I saw my stuff through their eyes, which gave me some new ideas.  We agreed that  you can't be creative without a stash.

Although it's technically winter, the weather's been sunny and still.  I spent a morning sitting on the front steps with a cup of tea, watching a whale slothing about in the harbour.  You could tell it was cold this morning, when I awoke to one paw visible against the white sheet.  My little friend emerged later, so that he could have a tummy rub while I worked my way through another Dresden File. It's a busy job, being a security dog. You don't want to peak too early.

Kangaroos, emus, and cute little baby pigs

Easter.  

Chocolate. Waffles with blueberries, icecream and maple syrup.













Sculpture in the water and on the hills.

Kangaroos, emus, and cute little baby pigs.

Markets, hippies, music, sunshine.  Laughing, looking, forgetting to sleep. Ridiculously early mornings and late nights.

Scavenging, swapping, finding, planning. 

Maps, suitcases, thermal underwear. 

And a whole 'nother day to go.

Thelma, Louise, and little boy Blue

On Friday afternoon, we scheduled a roadtrip.  Sort of like Thelma and Louise, but in a 4 wheel drive with a trailer.  We had an earlybird look at a friend's garage sale, the Denmark tipshop, and a visit to the fabulous South Coast Woodworking Gallery to complete, plus a visit to a friend's farm, to pick up some old fenceposts.

A fellow salvage fiend was home from his swing on the rigs and was coming with us, he had been trying to get to the tipshop for ages but never quite had the time.  Let's call him "Blue". 

Our babies are well grown up, but we decided that it was like taking our little boy out for a drive in the country.  He curled up in the back and went to sleep like a good little boy, virtually as soon as we got on the road.  At the tip shop, his eyes were like a kid in a toyshop. 

That tipshop is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it was a positively seething mass of people dropping off and scanning the goods which had come in through the week. We picked up a solid pine single bed (for the timber - $5 instead of $100's at Bunnings), a slab of timber for cutting boards,  a metal frame, a galvanised thingy for making cement slabs (NOT for making cement slabs), and a bunch of other bits and pieces. 

My friend came out $2 up because a guy had bought a door, but didn't have a roof rack on his sedan. He got some pillows from the tipshop and my friend sold him some old rope (we travel prepared)and he tied it on the roof. Tying the doors closed caused some delay.


We filled the trailer with fenceposts on the way home, although we were disappointed that the lichen encrustation wasn't quite as hoped.  I suspect our friend the farmer took a dim view of my suggestion that he give the posts a quarter of a turn a day (each) to even them up.

On Saturday, we went to the local Albany tip shop,as always behind the play.  The game has been lifted somewhat of late, and more stuff is getting recycled, I suspect after a lot of ratepayer complaint.  The thinking, however, remains steadfastly inside the box, and a small box at that.

While we were there, someone came in with one of those pine folding cots with the canvas base.  He was told that they couldn't take it due to 'toddler issues'.  Unfortunately, no-one bothered to think that it could be turned upside down without the base and used as a puppy pen; or that the dowel and wood in it could be re-used.  Rather than sending it to landfill, my friend had a quiet word, it was transferred from car to car, and it will be repurposed for non-toddler applications. It was, for the record, absolutely mint.

While we were there, someone brought in a sail from a sailboard.  The functionary told someone that he was supposed to check e-bay and Gumtree to check current prices, but then straightaway sold it for $10 without checking.  It turned out that the person didn't even have $10 so he 'put it aside' till the man came back - in spite of the sign saying it isn't to happen.

The main problem at the Albany tipshop is that there is no real commitment to recycling. They just don't get it.  By 'they' I mean primarily Cleanaway, who run the shop and make the policies, but some of the staff they hire really just aren't interested. (Some are great.) The terms 'repurpose' and 'upcycle' do not seem to be in the vocabulary.  

The tipshop is under-resourced and some of the rules are silly.  If they can't accept upholstered furniture, what about the shoes?  What if I get a blister?  Why does vintage wooden furniture get sent to landfill, but damaged chipboard get put aside for sale?  We got some jarrah beams from the firewood pile.  They turned out to be the posts from the jarrah beds we got a couple of weeks ago.  About $150 worth of old, dressed, (nail free) jarrah.  For firewood. I hope I don't get a splinter.

Timber, dressed or otherwise, is considered not saleable and sent straight to landfill.  A tiny percentage is set aside for firewood.

The Denmark tip, for all the disorganisation, at least has the right idea and the support of the community. We rarely walk away empty handed at Denmark, whereas at Albany we frequently do.

Perhaps Greenskills should tender for the contract for the Albany tip.  There are art projects. Community education. They walk the talk on tipshop recycling. 

And I would hazard a guess that the stock, as well as the cash turnover at Denmark well outstrips that at Albany.

Dr Who, Mummies and how Lucy took over.

The arrival of little Lucy in our midst has caused all about her to go 'ooooh'.  She's my daughter's first puppy, she has attitude and is very, very cute.  Even Obie seems quite taken with her and is teaching her how to play puppy-style.  Lots of growling and chasing and batting.  Lucy's busy re-arranging everyone around her and will be running things with an iron paw before very long.  We made her new bed from a re-used wrought iron something - it's been here for ages without it's origin being clear.  Now it's a puppy bed.

 

This weekend I found one of the things I have been looking for forever, just hanging there on a hook at a garage sale.  As someone at the sale said, "Are you my Mummy?"  For non-Dr Who tragics, a vintage gas mask.  I turned it over expecting to see an outrageously high price, and was so excited to find it not only within my price range but an absolute steal.

Some other little treasures, all in a lovely old pine crate.

 

Some Saturdays it's worth turning up in the cold and the drizzle.

With Mothers' Day coming up I've been finishing off some little projects, and getting ready for the Market at the Vancouver Arts Centre.    As always, more than is needed, I've packed up some more brooches and pins, and I'll do the pendants and necklaces this week.  This Toybox is finally complete.

  And I almost forgot - new power tools, new table.  Once a tatty bit of wood on the verge, now a coffee table with vintage iron legs.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to make it to the local tip shop, and a quick visit this weekend was less than productive.  But a short and unexpected outbreak of sunshine and a spare minute to record the graveyard of gas bottles let me record something I've meant to for ages.  I'll come back to them sometime, I'm sure.