On a crafty mission...

I've been feeling crafty lately, and, it being No-Buy July and all, of course I'm itching to start new projects. Which all invariably involve some sort of purchase. So first I pout, then make a cup of tea, and then have a think about the projects I currently have in the pipeline and that need finishing. And being the kind of person who tends to start things with vigour and then never finish them, I have plenty of half-finished little enterprises lying around.


Like this embroidery! My grandmother, who claims that she never would've gotten around to finishing it herself, gave me this tablecloth to finish. True to form, I started diligently back in January, as a way to pass the long, hot days while I waited for the imminent arrival of our little Baboushka. And as soon as she popped out, so did my motivation for anything arts and crafts.

Until now :-)

Ode to op-shopped furniture..

This is my lounge room. Well, half of it. Or maybe just a corner...anyway:

The sideboard was from my favourite op-shop, and at $120 I think it is the most I've ever paid for a piece of furniture. I saw it, decided to think about it for a day, and that night I had nightmares about other people buying it. I raced to the shop at 9am and almost peed with relief that it was still there.

The lamp...well, that's a nice little story, maybe I'll leave it for another post. The armchair was a side-of-the-road find (there are actually two of them). While I was lugging them home on my back, heavily pregnant and in the middle of summer (not a good idea), a carload of young males drove past, stopped to drop a friend off, and drove away. And they say chivalry is dead!!

My photos don't even come close to showing just how lovely the dark wood is, nor the pretty bakelite handles. The Ladurée bag came home from Paris with my mum, complete with a box of delectable macaroons, and is a daily reminder that I should..erm, eat more macaroons..

On top of the dresser live some of my favourite botanical and marine curiosities. The triangular thing is a piece of coral my brother The Yeti brought back from Thailand, and I drew the crayfish myself!

And my little collection of butterflies. I had found all three of them, already dead, and so my mum got me this box to keep them in. Behind is a bowlful of Pat's origami.

This is the first 'proper' artwork I ever owned, created by one of my outrageously talented aunts.

The Parker coffee table *sigh*. I fell in love with it's Danish good looks and $30 price tag (same op-shop as the sideboard). Only when we got it home did we discover the Parker stamp, which, brand-snob that I am, made me love it more.

(a close up of the strip of rad-patterned barkcloth on the coffee table.)

Maybe one day I'll get around to tidying the other half of the room..

PS: How hot is our carpet?!

Thriftin'

My blog has been feeling decidedly uninspired lately and I've decided it's due to my over-zealous pilfering of images from Google. Blogs are so much better to read when their 'personal' content is higher. Say I (although this could be a hard fact, too).

Without further ado, my new regular installment featuring magnificently cheap finds:

I got this multicoloured afghan blanket last week for $7.50. I've just started making one for Baboushka (pictured hanging out with her Unkie T-Bone), but I'm not one to pass up the thrill of instant gratification. And my own attempt will probably be a bit sucky.


I'm probably more fond of my bedside tables than I should be. I found them on the side of the road one morning (I woke up in the back of my van after a large-ish night and there they were) - the price was definitely right! And the lampshade was about $3 from Salvo's - a happy find as I'd recently torn the almost-identical-but-red shade for that lamp. I'm now wondering if I should be acquiring more orange household items to match my burgeoning collection of Penguin Classics..


(In case anyone wants to know what I'm reading. Sadly, I'm not Japanese-literate - I read Paumes books for their pictures. This one is 'Children's Rooms "London"', which I was hoping would inspire me to make Baboushka's room all lovely. It has yet to happen.)

Purple scarf

I finally finished the purple scarf I've been knitting (for what seems like years) a few weeks ago, and last week we finally had a day cold enough to wear it!

Here's a closeup (including a sweet little pin I found at Husky op-shop many years ago, before the Great Op-shop Drought. It lives on my black satchel - Pat has the same and we need something to tell them apart). One day, I'll branch out and knit something more involved than a scarf. Although I probably need the skills to do that first.