As I have often said, there is nothing so sweet as the Sunday of a long weekend.  And when the Sunday dawns clear and cloudless and most importantly, windless, it is to be appreciated even more.

I'd no sooner crawled from the nest and had some breakfast, when the girlchild arrived, bright of eye and requesting scrambled eggs.  After she had demolished her breakfast, we re-upholstered the seats of two dining chairs, and I repaired two sun lounges.

For, it has been announced, she entertains a lot and needs to upgrade the furniture component of her soirees.  Luckily, as in most things, I try to be prepared.

Last year I got two wooden sunlounges from the boutique d'verge - they were each missing one bolt, but otherwise just fine.  One had been given one (bad)coat of white paint,but I anticipate that a couple of spraycans and the judicious use of some sandpaper will have them looking very smart indeed.  There's a red deckchair kicking around from the same collection, and some red and white cushions will tie the whole lot together.

I also have a 60's white metal lounger which I scavenged in Perth about 10 years ago, but I don't know that I want to let go of that permanently, yet. It's California-funky and a sentimental favourite, being that I was on foot at the time and nearly killed myself carrying it across a very busy road. 

Yesterday, the first real day of verge trawling for this year, turned up 2 dining chairs in need of TLC which met with the girlchild's particular specifications.  Get me the staple gun!  It literally took about half an hour to cover the seats and screw them back on.  Total cost was $zero - I used some fabric from the stash, my staple gun, and some long screws from a jar of screws, assorted, from the tipshop last week.

The annual verge collection of rubbish, furniture, etc has started, despite the late or non-delivery of flyers.  As a result, things have been a bit slow, but I expect it will pick up gradually.  There have been a number of finds so far, but I haven't had time to sort them or photograph them, due to getting home after dark. 

Those of you who have read past posts will know that this is my favourite time of year.  The sun is shining (mostly), the streets are full  of discarded items... what more could a girl want? It's like Christmas, without the cooking and the angst.

We filled the back of the 4WD yesterday (although the packing was a bit random) so today we unloaded halfway through, but managed to fill it up again.  The big item today was a stack of jarrah boards, perfect condition, assembled into -well, I'm not sure, lets call them panels - but my verging friend needed same for her daughter's back yard and there they were, already assembled and pre-painted. 

Some more of the enticing finds included a retro desk fan, mint condition; vintage binoculars; tools, various; a container for growing potatoes; a wooden rocking horse; a garden bench; brass drawer handles, 5 matching; glass louvres; fishing accoutrements; a quilt rack, wooden; wooden tables, various; a starburst clock, mint condition; and a small friction driven ride-on motorcycle, which has been claimed by a very excited small boy(his daddy asked us to pick him up a Harley).

Thumbs up to those who mark items as 'still works well' or 'please take this', but thumbs definitely down to those few individuals who deliberately smash everything into little pieces.  Apart from wantonly increasing their contribution to landfill, the broken glass and metal is dangerous for local pedestrians and kids and pets, and will lurk in the grass forever.
 

the early verge gets the worm

The annual socialist redistribution of shite, better known as the verge collection of hard rubbish,  starts in about a week, but the first piles are slowly starting to appear.  We spotted the first one yesterday and gathered a solid vintage crate and some parts of a dismembered lawn mower.  In answer to the unasked question, I don't know yet.

We thought we should make a preliminary reccy today, but the sun and lack of wind obviously had people doing other things than cleaning up their sheds.  As long as we were out that way we checked out the fishing at the King River bridge.    This chap was fishing for Mulloway.  Bream  was being caught on the other side of the road.

In preparation for both the distraction of the forthcoming verge collection and the Xmas Summer Street market - held in November - I've been making jewellery and framing drawings and generally ignoring the housework.  I did get time to plant some english spinach, and basil and have been generally getting organised for the warmer weather.

The weather obviously affected the garage sales, as the only things of interest I picked up were a 1920's PG Wodehouse book in MINT condition for $1 (yippee, I love Wodehouse) and a very sad little table for free.  The St Vincent de Paul depot sale - usually a mecca for treasure was sadly and unusually bereft and I only grabbed a couple of paperbacks. Likewise, the Opshops weren't ringing any special bells on Friday.  The table is sturdy underneath and the top will be easily replaced from stock on hand.

The lawnmower man is missing in action, I was worried I had somehow offended him but I note that his other customers in the street are also going with the kikuyu jungle look (rain and warmer weather = knee deep grass) so I'm guessing holiday. I hope he gets back while the dog can still navigate without a map.

Here are some sort of moody shots of some of the pieces I made this week. There were a lot more than this but loading photos is so slow tonight, I'll save them for a time when things are moving more quickly.

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.

ships

I found these little cuties on Saturday morning.
What a week it was. I have spent most of the weekend trying to sort out acquisitions and make some space to work on things. I took some before and after pics of some of the things I finished.

Yes - another suitcase - but note the little stool.

Its very sweet, isn't it?

Nice, eh?

How could someone throw this away? As a friend commented, "damn Generation X-ers".

I finally put this bird together. It has no clear purpose.

Lots of other things have been tucked away and will surface here no doubt as I dig my way down to them.

The cave of residence has been returned to pre-craft fair normality, with a modicum of furniture rearrangement and the re-stacking of the suitcases and trunks. Life, as we know it, is returning to normal. The dog has been bathed, the wardrobe reconfigured from winter to spring/summer, and gaps therein identified. Rhubarb has been planted.

I have somehow managed to accumulate quite a lot of new books. Oh dear. Never mind. They range from a volume of Ted Hughes poetry through thrillers to a volume on Norman Rockwell and various tomes on history, biography, and a small early 20th century introduction to German grammar.

I accept that I may have a bit of a book issue. I intend to continue to have said issue. I shall probably be the mad old woman in the house with books stacked in all the rooms and hallways. There are some who may say that is the case now - less of the old, people!

Verging on the ridiculous

At a time when I should be slaving away on the actual Summer Street Fair, I am distracted by the desperate need to go out and trawl the verges. Tragic, I know, but I remain obsessed by stuff piled on the verge.

I was almost traumatised earlier in the week by this post on my friend Adele's blog.

The thought of all that stuff out there. Me, trapped at work. People telling me about the fabulous stuff seen but not picked up...AAAARGH.

This week we explored Lower King (due to be collected) where amongst many treasures, we stopped for a break to soak up the serenity while pondering Albany's systematic disenfranchisement of non-boat-owners.

Disenfranchised, perhaps, but still able to spot something interesting in a pile of random rubbish. Great excitement when we worked out how to fold the Pajero seats completely out of the way.

We did spend considerable time considering the small boat/canoe that was looking for a new home. It just wouldn't fit in the car. But we did collect some treasure...

A metal flower garden fripperie.

No, I don't know what it is. But I like it.


The veggie garden is going well, by the way.

A suitcase, some strange plaster feet. A huge insulator.


Yes. A hat box. A genuine made in WA hatbox. The catch was a bit rusty, a drop of oil and inside....

a bunch of 50's and 60's hats.

From a skip, a vintage microphone, still in it's original box, a charge book from a police station (not completed and set up for pre-computer days), a lovely old book of pipe music.

But its back to getting ready for the Summer Street market - somewhere under all this stuff is a house.

questionable....

Due to the need to get some work done for the upcoming Summer Street indie-market-fair-shopping-extravaganza (November 18-20, Albany Town Hall) there was limited travel and excitement for me over the past few weeks.

Obie and I spent the weekends making, making, sorting, making. Which gave me some time to ponder the really BIG questions, like why do the people in aisle seats on planes rush on before the ones in the window seats? If everyone has checked their baggage on the plane and done the whole seat allocation thing, where do those last two people go? "This is desperately late airlines paging the following passengers: your flight is fully boarded and awaiting immediate departure blah blah blah..." Is there some mysterious black hole just outside the boarding lounge? Have they forgotten why they were at the airport? How hard is it to just wait to get on the plane?

But I digress...

As spring has well and truly sprung people are clearing out and getting ready for Bring Out Your Dead - the annual verge collection which here in Albany brings joy to a girl's heart.

And, it must be admitted, junk to her home. One persons trash, etc etc.

Today's garage sales had doubled in number and it looks as though everyone is preparing for the great chuckout.

Some early birds are already bringing out their treasures , and some urban archaeologists are browsing.

As the police chief said in Jaws "I think we need a bigger [car]."

But on a more serious bent, the great trash exchange is a fabulous illustration of recycling at work. If it still has some use, use it!

I almost put something out today, luckily my 'lots in zero out' policy was preserved by a friend who happily took my stuff, plus two dear old suitcases, back to her house for some craftivity.

Amongst today's gems, a lovely old metal table base, and a brand new tent for $5.














Now somewhere I have a table top to fit that table, just gotta find it.....



I have finally managed to get around to scanning some more drawings, I will make some cards (if I get the time!) The whole working-for-a-living thing really cramps one's productivity.






They are really just bits of silliness but they make me smile....






























This character specialises in extreme housework. She is fearless. Sometimes she turns up in outlandish places, and sometimes things don't go quite as well as could be expected. Sometimes, the suit isn't as flattering as it could be.

I may include some of her adventures in future posts.

Next - finishing some models. Perhaps for next post.