a tale of two brownies

T'was the week before...etc etc, you know how it goes.

I really like this little helper, I think he's rather sweet.

With only 4 working days between me and some serious rec leave, cheeriness levels are on the up.  Ho, Ho, Ho, in fact.


  I'm planning a re-organisation of the home front in the hols, and have started on the back and front verandas.  I found an extremely ugly but practical rack which I've drafted into service for fishing rod storage.  Each millimetre of space is hard won.  I keep thinking I'll have a garage sale but I haven't really identified all that much to get rid of. Yet.

 



 I have decided to part with this vintage Kodak Brownie Starlet camera, there are only so many cameras and so much shelf space.

Strangely, the term 'Brownie' seems to be almost unreasonably popular, and this week  another Brownie which came into my life via a cake stall outside Bankwest.  I bought a plate of brownies on the way to work from the nice ladies at the stall, thinking that given the season I would share them with my workmates.  Bad luck, people.

I shared one with someone - in celebration of one of those tiny smidgens of happiness which occasionally drop into the pit of despair (and can so easily roll unnoticed behind the couch, where they hide with the minuscule remnants of our self-actualisation) - but everyone else was out of luck. Call me Grinch.  Best Brownies ever.  Congratulations, ladies with headscarves.  You are the queens of Brownie.



There are only a very few framed fish drawings remaining, I am pleased and slightly relieved that others liked them as much as I do.  These are the only ones left apart from some of the smaller ones. I can see the floor in the loungeroom.


 
 

       















            
                            
                  









 




















Quote of the week:
'The day they discover that yoga mats are carcinogenic will be the happiest day in my life.'
Tim Minchin


Status of the week from Facebook:
'Mum goes to personal training at 8am this morning and comes home drunk in a taxi.'
(anonymous, for their own protection - and no, not one of my kids!)  Gotta love the Xmas season....

Ephemera, ephemera, ephemera - a plethora of ephemera

I finally got around to taking and uploading the pics of the fantastic vintage and antique magazines I found in an old suitcase.  Ah, happy days.....
 









 

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.....

Digital TV, fish and finishing off projects

Summer is here!  In a display of hysterical optimism, I've taken the electric blanket off the bed, washed the accompanying snugly lambie, and packed them away.  I've also packed away the winter hat collection, gloves, coats and boots and lashed out on a new pair of Trippen summer sandals.   I hope it doesn't snow. Frankly, the sandals are so nice I'll risk the frostbite.

           Well ho.ho.ho. Digital TV has come to Albany and the streets are quiet as everyone is glued to their set.  Regular readers may know that I got a 32 inch LCD TV from the recent socialist redistribution of belongings.  Faced with so many coloured wires and plugs a lesser woman may have quit, but I decided to unplug everything and follow the labels.  I am the Queen of TV tuning.  Gee, so many episodes of CSI and Law and Order. Sigh.

We got some good fishing reels at a garage sale on Saturday, I picked up some interesting fishing rods from the verge and they now have reels.  There were some lovely vintage frames to replace the many which were sold with my fish, and a little 50's table.  The table is largely unremarkable and will probably end up as part of a suitcase or hatbox table. I also grabbed some fantasy books for number one son. 

It was lovely to have a weekend where I wasn't focused on the Summer Street deadline, and I was able to start sorting and clearing up all the stuff on the back veranda.  I also got to finish restoring a lovely mirror a friend brought back from England for me and I was pleased with the result.

While I was finishing off, I also stabilised a lovely little vintage papier mache tray, and a vintage stepladder shelf.  I like the tatty old look and haven't sanded  or oiled it.

I'm very pleased with this coffee table, I found the metal frame on the verge and we sourced the huge jarrah slab at the local salvage yard.  I've left some of the saw marks on the top and oiled it, its due to be waxed then it's all done. Its very tactile. The frame was sanded and treated and rubbed back with steel wool and treated and then lacquered.  I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

A bit more sorting and I'll almost be able to get to my work bench!