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.

Aunt Sadie, Alice and the Easter Bunny

Last week, I picked up a copy of one -well, two- of my favourite books for 50c.  Today, I picked it up and re-read what is one of my very favourite opening passages ever:

"There is a photograph in existence of Aunt Sadie and her six children sitting round the tea-table at Alconleigh. The table is situated, as it was, is now, and ever shall be, in the hall, in front of a huge open fire of logs.  Over the chimney piece plainly visible in the photograph hangs an entrenching tool, with which, in 1915, Uncle Matthew had whacked to death eight Germans one by one as they crawled out of a dugout.It is still covered with blood and hairs, an object of fascination to us as children....There they are, held like flies in the amber of that moment - click goes the camera and on goes life... " Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

I love all things Mitford - fiction, biography, autobiography. I love them individually and as a group. I can read and re-read them and see them and hear them and forgive them their foibles.  I have been sorting out some old photos of my own family, and the opening passage of the book goes on to talk about the qualities of those frozen moments in time and their sepia-ness. 

My own old photos reminded me of the smells and the textures of my own childhood with surprising clarity.  I found an old teacup in the opshop last week, a sad reminder of what was my favourite Auntie's best teaset: the one used for Sunday afternoon tea, birthdays and get-togethers.  This teacup is well past its finest but just seeing it I can almost taste the scones and the sponge cake with icing sugar on top. I bought it and brought it home just to keep that feeling.


I have other bits and pieces, nothing valuable, but little fragments of lives.  Another Auntie's brooch - I can't really remember her face, although I know what she looked like; but I can remember the sense of her, and being given the brooch by my Uncle when she died.  It's not a valuable brooch, but there was a sense of being grown up when he gave it to me when I was about 8.

That one diamonte brooch is probably why I love vintage jewellery as I do. It reminds me of the Aunts, and great-aunts, of being taken to CWA meetings, of hanging with the cousins, and picking raspberries and real gooseberries and dress-ups. 

I remember the Uncles, too, of course; the cardigans and the sheds and the pigeons and dogs. But they seemed somehow not to be the centre of things: the women were constant motion, food and talk and movement and kids.


In my case, the colour is not so much sepia but rather that strange intense colour of slides and photos from the late 50's and early 60's, drifting into the yellowish tones and uncertain focus of the 70's snapshot.

I have continued my fascination with all things Alice and clockwork with some new pendants featuring Alice and some vintage pocketwatch faces, some Alice brooches, and I am working on some drawings of Alice, and some nursery rhymes. Given the time of year there are also some bunnies in the bathtub. I'm having some trouble with loading images, so haven't spent too much time on images which may disappear.  When I have some better photos and a more reliable way of leaving them up I will add some more.

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.