fiveandtwo

Tip Shop Score

Headed off today to put the most recently removed stumps (too big for the green waste bin), plus all the kikuyu, at the local "Landfill and Recycling Facility" aka the tip. The Tip Shop was open so of course we cast our eyes over the merchandise. This beauty wasn't there when I walked in, but there as I went out.

 
It's nothing antiquey or anything but I love the lines and angles. This photo is post a clean up. Thick dust, spiderwebs and bird poop have been removed. I guess it'd been sitting in someone's shed for a long while.

A bonus was some fabric that I retrieved from a basket under a table. I wasn't sure of the composition , but at $1 a piece I was willing to take the risk.

After the fibre burn test (I have a chart that I googled) it was silk and it was wool.

 
Since I don't do cream, these fabrics will be dyed. The silk is three metres! It's beautiful, luxurious. The wools are 1.5m each and, once dyed, destined for toy making and patch working. The silk may line the patched scarves I have in mind.

In addition to that largesse I came upon a bag of fabric left on deck steps yesterday. I know it was from Marta, a Latvian lady who volunteers at the local Ambulance Oppy. She collared me at the Salvos, "I've been wanting to run into you". Marta is great, she's treated me to many stories from her life: when she came to Australia with her mother and sisters, Marta was fourteen. Her experiences once here, at Bonegilla, and, no, it's not hot all the time. Marta froze in her first winter in Australia, like my grandmother, she'd given away what winter clothing she had because Australia is hot always. Anyway, Marta is moving and needs to downsize. She is sorting her fabric stash, hence the big bag on my doorstep.

Some stuff I will use, some I will not. Marta had included some lengths of fabric used for lining and interlining, tailoring and stuff like that. I looked at these fabrics, looked them up in books from my "reference library". I will use them in my experiments with tailoring.

I've kept two lenths of what I think is a silk dupion and a kind of Thai silk (this may have some synthetic content).

 
I am one lucky woman.

 

Easter Wrap-Up, Sort Of.

I like school holidays generally, throw in some public holidays = even better.

On Saturday and today I caught up with mates from Melbourne and St. Andrews that I haven't seen for ages. A couple of years I think. Very good. Clare and Ally re-aquainted themselves with the offspring these lovely women. The friend who came on Saturday originally came from Bairnsdale (hasn't lived here for about 30 years) and was visiting her elderly mother and even older Nan. I met her on the train to Melbourne! About three years ago. Clare and Al struck up a friendship with her daughter and she and I talked about stuff & etc, then kept in contact. My today visitors lived in Bairnsdale for a couple of years mid-2000's. We met at a Steiner Playgroup. Rachel introduced me to the making of little felt animals. We have kept in contact. Rachel was the "two" part of fiveandtwo. Her two children and my five children made up the name. We had a little craft business going for a while, before her return to St Andrews.

I worked on Leah's Deb. dress.

 

I made a little prototype owl, while I was waiting for Leah to finish work so I could do the dress-try-on thing.

 
Just a little fellow, about ten centimetres tall. Owly is lying on some wool patching I've been fiddling around with this weekend. Bags? Scarves? Probably both.

I set up the pots and did some dyeing. I scored two lengths of wool jersey at the oppy last week, in the off-white "spencer" colour. So, I dyed these,and the recycled fabrics waiting to be dyed.

 
All these fabrics were off-white/cream coloured originally.

L-R: dismantled silk blouse, felted wool jumper, wool jersey, wool scarf (probably a mix as it didn't take the dye fully) and wool jersey.

I gardened. Quite a bit of hauling out the kikuyu grass, and I dug out two more tree stumps.

 
One from that dirt area, top right of picture.

 
The other the remaining tree stump next to Sammy-cat's grave. Grave marker made by Clare, Al and Leah.

And I "did something" with the last cucumbers instead of having them rot in the fridge. One lonely jar of Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish from D.I.Y. Delicious by Vanessa Barrington.

 
 
(Photo happened when I was checking the battery status of the camera) I like it.

Children enjoyed their chocolate fix. This year they all got a big Lindt rabbit. The single rabbit choccie is a result of all the whinging last year. It used to be a little (op-shop) basket of choccie stuff, eggs and what have you. Last year the four at home moaned and complained that Linsey had a "nice rabbit" and they didn't have a "nice rabbit". Huh, discounting the basket of choccies that they did have.

So...this year all have a "nice rabbit". Complaints were heard and ignored.

Easter = all good. No camping, no traffic wrangling. The best: I caught up with Linsey (eldest daughter). Very good...so loved.

Hope you had a splendid Easter too.

Shell Poultry

From the Book of Creative Crafts 1978.

 
 

I find these extraordinary. Someone made them, for a start, and then they were featured in a craft book. I want some to put in the garden, down near the chook run. True love.

Ally has these beauties on her bookshelf.

 
We had a sailing ship once but it got broken.

Secret kitsch lover.

Broke the eggs for an omelette tonight and this happened.

 
Happy Easter? For sure!

I called the two youngsters in to look and Clare says, "I'm going to take a photo. You can put it on your blog if you want". So I did.

 

Home Alone

 
The last time I was home alone was back in the mists of time.

The twins and their Dad have gone to Omeo fishing for the weekend, to beat the Easter crowds. Giles is at his girlfriend's house and Leah at her boyfriend's house.

Hmm, I think I could get used to this. It's blissfully quiet, the house is relatively tidy, I am having soup for tea and no-one will whinge about what the soup has, or hasn't, got in it, I put a CD on earlier and had the novelty of being able to listen to it properly. I sort of feel I should be doing something but I'm enjoying the luxury of having the computer all to myself, without someone saying, "Are you finished yet?I want to go on". No-one has requested that I drive them somewhere. Not that I always do, but Leah isn't working today, so no transport duties there.

The best thing of all? The TV is not on, it is silent. I know good programs are occasionally shown, sometimes I watch them. A vast proportion of what is shown is utter, mindless crap.  Mostly I find it intrusive and I would really like not to have a TV. The rest of the family, however, seem completely addicted to it.

Here is a totally unrelated photo:

 
The dog's legs. They are long and gangly.

 

Home Dec. 1975

From the Golden Hands Fashion Handicrafts book. Again.

 
I hope the ventilation is good in this bathroom. But then, the pattern and colour of the decor would hide any mould growing. Imagine what that fluffy carpet, or is it a rug, holds in the festy mould department. I am wary of mould for some reason.

I like this pattern, just not the colours. I sort of fancy one of those very ornamental soap holders. It would look totally out of whack in my bathroom, which would be a bit interesting.

 
Do you find this very homogenous? All same same? I did see a bedroom like this once, in the taxi driver's attached residence in Charters Towers. He was immensely proud of this room. Even at the tender age of 15 I did not like it, but had the wherewithal to admire this fancy bedroom that opened straight off the taxi phone office! You could leap out of bed to answer a call. Truly.

More From The Resource Library

These images , and yesterday's, come from the Golden Hands Fashion Handicrafts book, published in 1975. It's a gem, but I'm sending it back from whence it came (the oppy).

Some more pictures for all you crafty types:

 
This is called Pretty Party Pinny in the book. Before orthodontics became mainstream I'm guessing. I had braces on my teeth 1978-1980 and I'm very grateful that my parents forked out those $$$. I was a real "Bugs Bunny" with my prominent buck teeth.

 
Minus the "blouse", as it's called in the book - I really like the word "blouse". I actually really like this look. I would wear a long-sleeved T shirt and a scarf, maybe a jacket (denim or otherwise) if it was cold. Gosh, I'm such a fashionista. I think the hairstyle and the clogs have made a big comeback. Love the bias cut skirt and the vest.

 
I'm really not sure about this one. The child looks really "over it", the man and the woman have partaken in mind altering substances I reckon. The woman looks quite peaceful . The man looks like he wants to have sex. With the spaced out woman. This is a picture displaying family knitwear and all. Hmmm.

 
No comment. Really, what could I say?

 
One for the crocheters. Your next project Eleanor?

 
Hmm, I see clogs all over the place right now. I remember desperately wanting some as a kid (it was probably 1975). The girl next door had clogs and I loved it when she let me wear them. She had no trouble manipulating me: letting me wear her clogs...or not.

 The crocheted outfits are weirdly modern too. I've seen a good few current interpretations of this 1970's aesthetic - all good.

Maybe some home decorating next?

 

Sorting The Resource Library

Also known as the ideas bank. All my craft and sewing books. I want to contain them in the bookcases in the back hallway.

I've a lot of 1970's books. Selected for the quiltmakers:

 
New project! You can wear your doona! With Matisse-style applique. Start one now.

If crochet is your choice:

 
You know you want to.

 
This is something called Afghan crochet. I think it's gorgeous. I wish I'd worn it as my wedding dress in 1985. Much better than the foofy 80's dress I wore. I was thin enough then, to wear such a thing.

For the knitters:

 
 
A bit of a contrast. All those wild stripes and the parted legs versus the Dutch girl hair style and fluffy pastel.

Expect more from the ideas bank slim down. Over time.

Mulch

This monstrous chewing and chopping of vegetation machine was hired on the weekend (yes, the Sleepover weekend) to mulch all the bits of the removed trees. You know those big chomping machines that the commercial tree loppers have? It was one of them.

 
It looked in the kitchen window at me. I could have imagined taunting but that would be silly.

The giraffe machine made this large pile of shredded trees.

 
S**tloads of mulch.

I was able to finish the sculpture in a way that I'm not unhappy with. Some other ideas I had would have, perhaps, been more successful. I went in today for assessment only to find it was yesterday. However, I was able to talk with Catherine, my sculpture teacher, about the work, and hand in my journal which has a photographic record of the process and completed work. Hoping for a pass.

 
The sculpture emerging from the mulch of the same trees. Fitting, I think. Over the past weeks the lovely variation of colours of the fruit wood has faded. The freshly sawn timber was much more beautiful.

 

Eleven

It's been  the usual loong birthday. The family celebration: tea of request, marinated chicken wings in this case, plus cakes. Two cakes of course.

 

Then there's the birthday bash with friends. A sleepover this time.

 
The "sleeping" place. Not much sleeping happened.

 
Pizza for tea, homemade for economy. Fizzy drink and lollies.

 
Followed by ice-cream in cones.

The next day, for morning tea, there was cake, again.

 
 

My hardest sleepover party to date. One guest managed to "feed" the goldfish by emptying the whole container of fish food into the tank, then she tried to sticky tape toilet paper around the house as "decoration", she tried to play Ally's violin, first time she was told to, "Stop playing the violin if you haven't played one before". "Stop playing that violin, it doesn't belong to us", ( it's borrowed from friends), then, "PUT THE VIOLIN BACK RIGHT NOW. DON'T TOUCH IT AGAIN!". This gal ate all the coveted Gummy Bear lollies and all the favourite "light and tangy" chips. Then she threw lollies around. She's a bright, snappy  lass. She's been over lots of times to play, so I'm not sure about it all. Not catastrophic by any means. Too much excitement probably.

I "slept" (more like lay down) in the spare bed in Ally's room (in case of emergency). I don't sleep well in the best of times...this night was a doozy. Even Clare retreated to Ally's room for relief. I was up numerous times. "Time to turn the DVD off", then, "Time to turn the computer off", then, "Time To Go To Sleep". A couple of times: "Stop talking, go to sleep".

Next morning, even with the change of Daylight Saving, I was shattered. But it was wind the clock back (ie. sleep in)? Still wasted. Gah, must be Old Age.

I had to have a sleep in the afternoon. I didn't get done what I wanted to: spread the mulch and work on Leah's debutante dress.

DH wants us all to go to Melbourne next weekend. Part of me wants to...but so much to work on at home. The "dress" first of all.