Sun. Rain. Wind. Thunder. Cherry blossoms. Winter. Spring. Little blonde puppies. Grumpy jealous older boydogs.

And that was only this weekend.

Believe me, I know how she feels.

courtesy http://www.retronaut.co

Although the garage sales doldrums are upon us, the pre-summer wardrobe season has given us bounty most plentiful.  And as we receive, so shall we give back (to the opshops), that we may be able, once again, to walk into the bedroom without danger of death from clothes avalanche.

I hate it when you lose a new item of black clothing in a poorly lit room with a gazillion other pieces of black clothing.

After last week's coatfest, I was being a little cautious this week, but was excited about the new season's burgundy/red pants I found - right till the Girl-child claimed them as her own.  She grabbed a heap of clothes from Friday's op-shop round.

I've clawed back a little floorspace in the lounge by re-stacking and sorting my framed drawings and prints, and making new piles of the vintage frames waiting to be used.  I've decided to have a Fathers' Day sale to make some room for new works.  I shall post here when I have details.

In the meantime, here are a couple of things I've been playing with today.

Dear Lucy,

I know you're just a little dog but it's an old and hackneyed device to address a letter to someone when you aren't feeling very creative. I've had a big day and I'm pooped.

It's Mothers' Day and all is quiet.  Been a big two weeks and the pace doesn't seem to be slowing at all.  Only 12 working days to holidays, that's got to be a good thing.  Today was really nice and sunny, right up till it wasn't.  Then it was lightningy and thundery and haily, but by then the washing was dry so it was all good.

The white stuff on the grass is called hail.

There was reduced opshopping this week, but I managed to turn up a few bargains, including a new dress, some nice warm jumpers, and a very nice winter tee.  Did I mention the Spencer and Rutherford handbag?  How remiss of me.

 

It was a pretty uninspiring list of garage sales this week, possibly due to coinciding with Mothers' Day.  I did pick up a dear old silver teapot, a kero pump, and an old rolling pin.  I have cunning plans for all.  There was also a shop mannequin for just $5, and I just can't leave them behind. And one of those shelfy things you put across the bath, which fitted my bath perfectly.  I hope my use of technical terms isn't too off-putting for you.

I've been keen to get the sewing machine out - winter = sewing and knitting = love. (I read that in a magazine so it must be true.) I had to wait till I'd done with the jewellery and fishes and the girls for the market, but the machine is out and operational.  I have a pile (literally) of mending, alterations, and new projects to work through.

I don't as a general rule  read junk mail but a coupon on the Spotlight catalogue caught my eye.  It offered $40 off if you spend $100, and on the next page, 1000 threadcount sheets for $80. (They SAY $79.99 but we all know it's $80.)  Long story short, they had the sheets but none of the other fabric I wanted, but I did find some union jack panels which have made some amusing cushions.  And I got everything for $61, which is cheering.  We had a great fabric shop in town before Spotlight loomed over the horizon.  Now, we have seconds, faulty and end of run summer fabric when I'm shopping for winter.  

Hopefully the handmade revival will see a resurgence in the sale of good fabric, because its one of those things you really need to see and touch before you buy.

 I've taken a heap of pics of my jewellery and drawings, but at the moment this is loading photos at the speed of the common or garden snail dragging a pebble in long wet grass, so I'll put those up during the week.

So Lucy, it's probably your bedtime, and by next week I'll be ready to write something original and creative. You, of course, will still be a cute but small dog.

the swan and the jackalope, a tale of Xmas present(s)

It must be close, the girl-child and a friend arrived and, in a whirl of activity, put the Christmas tree up and decorated it.  We also scattered some other decorations about.  She's placed some presents under it already.  There was considerable disappointment that I didn't have to go to work today, I suspect she had planned on a grid search to see if I have gotten her presents yet.  She may have been disappointed, I sure wasn't.

 (We'll call this one Silent Night, shall we?)

My Xmas present to myself this year was a small sound system. (OK, the first of my presents to myself!)  I've spent almost three years in happy silence - you can hear the serenity - after years of living in a house with at least two televisions on at all times (different stations, of course) as well as various other computer games, music, and portable noise making devices.  I've reached the point where I don't mind a little background music.  My avoidance of the I-empire means that I got a small CD player, although I note that instruments of the empire can be plugged into it also. 



We journeyed to Hardly Normal to make the purchase, having spied something in the catalogue which fit the bill.  Amusingly, having been assured by the salesman that they had nothing at all to match my requirements - although he didn't seem to want to show us anything at all - we were on our way to the door when we crashed into a huge pile of the very item I was looking for. (He must have had a man look.)  We made haste to the checkout, where we were asked the name of the salesperson - "what is this term?" we asked.  At least you couldn't say he tried the hard sell.


Say hello to my little friend the Jackalope.  I got him this week and he fits perfectly in the glass case, although he doesn't photograph so well in it.  He makes me smile.









I seem to be acquiring a small swan collection - this one was made in England and is delightfully vintage. Amongst other treasures this weekend, a small suitcase full to the brim with vintage Enid Gilchrist magazines with patterns for children's clothes, part of a 1934 West Australian newspaper, and lots of beautiful 1918 - 1940 crotchet and dressmaking magazines.  The illustrations are beautiful and some of the patterns are glorious.  The ads, of course, have their own special appeal and when I get some time I'll include some for you to look at.


Back to the present plotting.....