Op Shop Opportunities

Some days I am in the mood to op shop and other days I just can't be asked to poke my head in. And similarly, sometimes my visits are rewarded and sometimes they are a complete waste of time - like a lot of other things in my life (crochet anybody?)

In the last few weeks I've found these couple of bargains:

I've been hunting and stalking Ebay for some vintage tapestries and I really wanted some vintage rose tapestries. Well, what did I spy in my local cancer support Oppy. These 2 beauties - just sitting on the wall waiting for me to grab them. $10 each. Bill later remarked he wouldn't have paid 10 cents for the two of them. But that's a different matter. He kindly put them on the bedroom wall for me. And ohhhh I do love them.

In the next op shop along the way, I found this gem of a book - full of everything a young girl needs to know - if she was living in 1972 which I very happily was thank you. What a trip down memory lane.

And in the same oppy, this vintage eiderdown. It had a few suspicious looking stains but I took a gamble and parted with a whole $5 to own it. Napisaned it overnight and there you go. More vintage loveliness for the little persons room.

And finally I have worked out the cause of my almost constant headaches. At the age of almost 42 my eyes are failing me. Although goodness knows how many books these poor eyes have had to read over the years. I guess it was high time that they had a little help. And the up side is that Bill thinks I look like a librarian and he's very attracted to librarians. So my glasses are a success in more ways than one.

Have a great week.

Fete Nights and Fabric Love

I'm finding it really hard to keep up my challenge of posting every day. I find that as the weather gets cooler I get more energetic. That means I get out and about a bit more and less time sitting on the lounge blogging away. The house has also been quite neglected of late and I have had to start doing some "in depth" housework. Let's just say that if Halloween was tomorrow I wouldn't need any fake cobwebbing to decorate.

Last Friday night it was my turn to host the fete stall craft night. You might recall that earlier in the year I put my hand up to organise the craft stall at our school fete. Unfortunately not many parents from the school have donated craft items at this time so we are busy making our own.

Once a month one of the "crafty" mums hosts the craft evening and we all get together for some laughs and crafts. Hey, that rhymes!

It was my turn on Friday night and as I have a small ( I like to call it cute) house it was quite a feat to fit us all in but we managed. Here is one of the tables of ladies fueled up on wine and water and ready to go.

Here are 2 examples of what we managed to create. They are the cardstock notepads that I have shown you earlier in the year. They are like a portfolio and open up to reveal a notepad, calendar and some sticky notes.

Some more samples. We all love the one on the left made by the lovely Julie Johnson. Has such a retro feel. I think that one might get purchased before it gets to the craft stall.

I also received some lovely new fabric last week from Ebay. It is an Alexander Henry fabric called "Children of the World". I just fell in love with it. It has rows of children holding hands in a variety of traditional customs and dress.

I covered the large canvas above Rhianna's desk with the fabric and rehung it. It was time for some new fabric anyway. Such a cheap and easy way to add some joy to a little person's room don't you think? Have a great week everybody.

Donating Books

As most people who read this blog know Bill and I are bookaholics. One of our favourite things to do is wander around dusty old bookshops looking for that elusive "gem" that we don't own and haven't read yet. We are so book addicted we have a bookcase in our bedroom for those midnight fixes. And yes, we do read books in the early hours of the morning if we can't sleep.

Which is why the following statistics stunned me:

61% of low income families have no books in their homes.

43% of adults with a low literacy level live in poverty. In contrast, only 4% of adults with strong literacy skills live in poverty.

Children who grow up with a large variety of books in their home have been shown to be more creative, imaginative and proficient in reading.

We have so many books they even get their own chair to sit on. These are current bedtime reads.

I encourage you to go through your bookcase this weekend and pick out 10 books you know you are never going to read again. Deliver them to the local school, preschool or womens shelter.It's something good you can do for the environment and your local community that is low on effort and high on feel good factor.

Oops, more books in the bedroom waiting for a home

The hard part for me (as you can see) is physically separating myself from what I consider to be my very close friends. I mean, Pride and Prejudice has been my very close chum through about 8 boyfriend breakups now. So of course, there are books that must stay with you for life.

But I'm sure like myself you have lots of books that are just filling up space on the bookshelf. Just see if you can give away 10 this week - especially childrens books which are so desperately important in the development of literacy skills in our young.

Dinner Parties versus Discos

One of my favourite things to do as grown up is to attend dinner parties. I quite happily made the change from spending Saturday nights on a noisy dancefloor to sitting sedately round a dinner table many years ago. I especially like to attend other people's dinner parties because you get all the fun with none of the work (until it's your turn of course).

My friend Natalie has the best dinner parties. We cancel almost any other event to attend a "do" at her place. Natalie aways has lashings of great food, the most divine wine and desserts that would make you cry with happiness. An added bonus is that most people attending chose to have their children at the same time we did and therefore the party also supplies endless entertainment for our 6 year old.

Autumn and Winter are prime dinner party seasons as it's just so nice to spend the evening around the table chatting with friends while the kids run amok in their jammies around the house. I'm almost inspired to host one myself soon.

I also love a dinner party where you're invited to stay for the night. So do the kids, who never seem to tire of each others company no matter how many hours they've been together.

These 2 girls (and their mothers) have known each other for many years now. Natalie and I even have the same taste in childrens clothes we discovered the next morning when the our girls went to get dressed.

If you have some good friends living nearby I highly recommend having a dinner party over the Winter months. It's a very nice way to pass a Saturday evening. (Thanks Natalie and Russell).

A Quiet Week (so far)

I've been a bit quiet on the blog this week as there really is not a lot to tell. I've had to catch up on a lot of household tasks that had sort of gotten behind with all the creative stuff we've been doing and the not so creative stuff like sitting on our bums watching telly when I should be ironing.

But its lovely to have the fire on now. Not during the day yet but around 4pm when that sun starts to drop, on goes the fire. It's not a real fire. Its one of those gas ones that looks like it has actual logs in it. All the heat without the mess. And I like to call it the fire as it makes me feel all English countryside.

When not watching the TV, I've been curled up on the sofa or better still off to my bed with some delicious reading and even more delicious chocolate. I'll worry about the calorie fallout from this activity in spring.

Our craft stall for the school fete is coming along nicely. We've had one craft night already where a bunch of us Year One Mums got together to make some stock for the stall.

Meanwhile another crafty Mum - Emma, has been busy making these - bookmarks. I've already snapped up 2, for Miss R and myself. And I've put it into my new book purchase. It's a second hand book - and has some great articles in it. A lot of them were written in the 1950's. So much has changed since the 1950's but not the fundamental things that make up feel happy and content so this book still feels relevant.

Bill has bought me home 2 bunches of flowers already this week. I don't know whether I should be elated or suspicious. Hmmm.......

Love the colour of these

And last weekend Rhianna asked for a blog of her own. Broc was kind enough to set one up for her.

I don't suspect she'll have many followers. l mean how many people want to know what's happening in the local school playground. But I figure the writing and typing is all good literacy experience.

Here she is busily blogging away before school this morning.

Hope your week is a little more exciting than mine.

Coughs, Colds and Craft

It's an absolute cough and cold fest in this house at the moment. I'm still as sick as a dog, Bill is on the improve and Rhianna, whilst sick, refuses to acknowledge the discomfort and phlegm in case she should have to miss anything - like parties or trips to the playground.

The only two not suffering are my two lovely boys below.

Nothing like a bit of pottering and a bit of craft to lift your spirits (or send you mad) when you are down. I had planned these activities for Rhianna anyway. They just took a bit longer to do with one hand making paper flowers and the other hand stuck inside a tissue box.

We used magazines and odd craft papers to cut out and assemble petals which we then stuck onto pencils rolled in greeny paper to represent stems. I admit its not brain surgery but i's all I could manage craft wise when I am this sick.

I'd bought these doilies a while back, for what purpose I did not know. Sometimes I just buy things for the shape or colour or cuteness factor and I figure I'll think of something to do with them eventually. Today we dyed them using food colouring - very messy business that was.

Then strung them up garland style in the dining room

I've been looking at a few blogs lately with various ladies talking about their "creative" spaces.
They are all visions of loveliness and organisation. Unfortunately my house has no room for a seperate creative space, believe me I've tried numerous times to create one. But short of the children leaving home there is no room left at the inn for such selfish ideals as "one's own space".


But then I realised that my dining room and my kitchen are my creative space. I live in my creative space every day. I blog on the lounge, I cook in the kitchen, we eat that creation of food in the dining room. And then we clear the table to craft.

The whole area is a creative space. And for some reason that little thought cheered me up immensely. I am a simple soul.

A Tale of Two Afghans

Hooray I have finally finished my first knitting project. For those who did not know, I was knitting a little lap rug (or afghan) for my daughter Rhianna. And here it is, in all its very homemade glory.

There are so many hours of my time lying there on that floor. Luckily Rhianna said that she loved in when she got in from school (lucky for her).

I backed the afghan with some multi -coloured polka dot flannelette. It gives it a bit more weight and hides all the errors on the other side.


And I was in sheer ecstasy today when my afghan from Marsha in the US of A turned up. The guy delivering the package thought I was delusional as I started screaming when I saw the US postage marks on the box. And here she is.....


Now that I have Marsha's wonderful work lying next to mine, I think I'll leave the yarn and wool projects to those who obviously know what they're doing. I have a lot of talents but knitting and crochet are not amongst them. And honestly, with wool being so expensive I can save the money and put it towards somebody else's creative genius.

My next project, which I am starting next week is a kaiserkraft recipe box. I have to say I do enjoy creative projects that can be knocked over in a day. Patience has never been my strong point. And to spend so much time on a blanket that looks pretty average has depressed me a little.

I know many of you are thinking that I just need to practice, practice, practice but quite honestly I'd rather do other things with my limited time. We have such a finite amount of time on this earth that I'm happy to let others be the yarn queens and move onto other things - like double chocolate mousse which I'm about to attempt now.

Have a good weekend everybody.