Gotta love these 3 day long weekends! Although my Friday opshopping was off, I spent the weekend feeling it was Easter, and the garage sales were less than thrilling.  

Today, we took the remnants of the wheelbarrow collection to give to someone who creatively re-uses all sorts of things in her garden.  I took a few photos while I was there.  Who thought geraniums in washing machines would work?

I decided that having a teeny walkway through the veranda to the back door was becoming tiresome, so I went into a fixing sorting moving frenzy (apart from the bits where I drank tea and ate passionfruit sponge cake while reading the new Terry Pratchett).

I decided to finish one simple project - a small table from an old metal stool base and the top of a jarrah lazy susan.  I hate varnish.  It goes cloudy and chips and behaves badly but takes ages to get the bits off which haven't flaked off.  I was very pleased with the result though, the Danish oil gives the wood a much richer look.  

In order to actually get to the bits and the tools I needed, I had to move the old pine meatsafe in the way.  And that meant stabilising the dodgy back leg.  It wasn't all that big a job and I haven't done the cosmetic surgery yet but a bit of a wipedown and some fairly rudimentary archeological carpentry and it is out of the way and being useful.  I think I'll schedule the cosmetic surgery for Xmas holidays, when I have more time.  In the meantime, a friend scored the cute chest of drawers formerly occupying that spot.  See, I do give stuff away.

I also used some of the containers gleaned over the past four weeks for planting, and after watering this evening I snapped some pics in the evening light.  Very gardeny.

 Really, my small Canon camera is still doing OK.  Yesterday, I went with a friend to the Harvey Norman camera sale.  There's two hours of my life I'll never get back.  Still, we met a nice lady in the queue ( I kid you not).  They offered us coffee after waiting for an hour, but were greeted with a cry of damn the coffee, gin and tonic or nothing!  What was frightening was that we, and the nice lady, were the queue.  Still not quite sure why we had to wait 2 hours... and then, the woman at the till didn't want to walk from her till to the other one to accept my friend's (considerable) outlay of cash.  Since I had time to spare, I had time to notice that most of the prices were in fact higher than the local Dick Smith store, where I had been in the morning.  AND got served immediately.

I'm glad the Queen had a nice holiday.  She's had some bad years, and I'm sure she's a nice old lady, she's obviously quite fit and works hard.  Old (German) family, done a lot for the hat industry, and so on and so forth and I think her father was a good man doing a very hard job at a difficult time.

I think that in 2011, however, it's a bit of a stretch to think that anyone would actually expect a woman to curtsy, and the whole bowing and scraping thing really needs some thought.  If we accept that someone is born to be better than just about everyone else, then we accept that all people are not equal and that they don't have the right to be treated equally.  It's a short step in stilettos over the lawn to the bad old days. We can be dignified and respectful without making asses of ourselves.

bright shiny things

This baby came from a garage sale last year for $1. Seems very very happy on the front verandah and loves a soak in a bucket of water about once a month.

Spent quite a lot of time veging on the front verandah last week, consuming George VI (see previous posts) and a cracking good read it was too. A summer breeze, a sunny day, a tidy garden.
Oh, the serenity!

The bench from last week has been popped under the twisty willow and looks rather nice I think. There is a new side fence which changes the micro climate - ie, stops the sandblasting effect of the wind, at least in part. The agapanthus are blooming, new groundcovers various are starting to do their thing and all is good.

I like the way the ancient bedhead is settling into the garden too. Love that twisty willow!

The girlchild returned from her beachside idyll, suntanned and pretty darned happy. Seems like a continuous party was enjoyed by all. The boy/manchild returned to his cave clutching newly painted Warhammer and I now know far more about painting Space Marines than the average mother.

Next stop, the new school year. Last one!

I spent the weekend among the bright and shiny - the next market is not till Easter but one needs to make a start somewhere.

EEEEK it's November....

Next stop, Xmas?

The weather for the weekend was glorious, after a dodgy few wintery wet days. Although I do think I detected the hint of a 'black Easterly', the prevailing Summer scourge here.It was however, nowhere near enough to stop two intrepid seekers of treasure. Equipped with a much bigger car - thank you Col's Mum and Dad - and a map of the garage sales we had to check first the for sale, then the unwanted and tossed out. Although the BOYD (bring out your dead- see last post)doesn't really start till next week, the early birds get the goodies.

Several excellent bargains - a brilliant late model sewing machine for my textillian daughter, because every girl needs to sew. A snip at $35, including case and original instruction books. I probably could have done the beating them down thing but sometimes it's just rude. From the same place, a new garden spade, and a small travelling alarm clock. My travelling companion snapped up a lovely old solid wood side table.

In the back of a dark shed in an unadvertised garage sale ( you have to look out for the signs) I found the most amazing and lovely old garden bench. See, I said we'd need a bigger car.

There was also a strange brass thing, which may have been a clock. I liked it anyway. Perhaps it will be a clock again, or maybe something else.

We eventually found our way to the last for the day, a very nice chap called Peter who was moving house. He has lived for a long time in the cutest little cottage at Middleton Beach and he has the most glorious retro, vintage and antique stuff. Apparently leaving wads of cash home so you don't spend it is not a winning strategy. My trusty travelling companion loaned me some cash, leaving herself enough for some lovely antique books on her religion of choice.

So I scampered (OK, tottered)away with a cute little apprentice cupboard. There were bigger things, also fabulous, but I am squeezed for space. Peter is going to open a shop, I will include some photos when he does.

Down to 35c, we struck out for some verge trawling (the nice sort). We did grab 3 HUGE rolls of wire - chicken and other - mainly new.


Now, where did I put those samples of laminexy stuff? I have a cunning plan for them....