Where did October go?

The end of October seems to have dissappeared and now November has too. I really need to pay much better attention to the calendar, I am sure birthdays were missed and oops just as I am writing this I have realised that my 9 year anniversary with Mr. D was forgotten. Better try harder next year for number 10.

For the last week of October not much went out or came in.

IN
2 dressed (Ebay bargains)
2 magazines (British Country Homes and Interiors, Real Living)

Thats it!
So for the entire month the tally is
IN- 33
OUT- 88!!!!

I originally thought I would continue through November but I have come down with a nasty case of Christmas decorationitis. It has been a rather nasty case so far and threatens to undo all of my efforts thus far at clean up. The trip to IKEA tomorrow won't help any either. Maybe January would be a good time to restart as December will be a write off too.

Don't sit still!!

That's right, if you are at my place and you sit still long enough you just might find yourself on a shelf at Vinnies a little tag hanging off you that says $2.50. For the last 3 Mondays I have taken huge bags of stuff to the op shop, this week the lady there actually said to me, "Having a clean up are you love?". Yep that would be right op shoplady!!


So to this weeks arrivals and departures (and a "shake it all about" aka recycling.)

In - 1 book Wool Pets, pig index cards, silver necklace, piece of Kokka Trefle fabric with little apples(not for immediate use), 3 mts fabric (for immediate use). 4 books "rescued" from work, 1 Homestyle magazine.

The pig index cards are so cute. They are very thin and they slide in between books on the shelf so it looks like they are going into and coming out from between the titles. The book I had to have because I have a very similar on in Japanese so I figured it would help with the instructions in that one so how could I not buy it, it's practically a translation aid. Really, I NEEDED it was not just a want.

And the "rescued" books? Well I work in a library and sometimes I just cannot bring myself to dispose of books that I have though of as precious just because they are the worse for wear. My house is like a nursing home for old books, they come here to rest for a few years, with nice gentle page turning and clean shelves before moving onto the big library in the sky.

Now for the Outs- 1 soft toy pig, 1 Piglet toy, 1 western style belt buckle, 1 small basket, 7 Hobbytex tubes from the 70's, vintage doll clothes, dolls bedding, 1 mermaid cushion, 1 shirt, 1 Minnie Mouse toy and they all went in 1 big mesh spotlight bag to the oppy.

1 pink jumper to a friend

and to the bin went 1 pillow, 4 dolls missing various limbs and eyes.

2 stopped watches went to a friend who uses the faces to make jewellery.

And finally a shake it all about. 1 mens shirt box now houses my Barbie clothes.

Out total this week 25

In -10

Boy this feels good.

Quack, quack

This weekend was a big one for the out pile. I had to make room for these gorgeous antique decoy duck heads. (Mr.D should be thankful that I pulled the heads off the ducks and didn't bring them home too. They smelt icky)

IN - 8 duck heads, 1 2009 IKEA catalogue, set of little Russian rubber stamps from here

OUT - 4 headbands 1 pair thongs, 3 pairs shoes, 3 pairs bathers 1 piece green fabric, 1 cap, 10 scarves, 4 pairs pants, 3 shirts, 3 t-shirts, 1 black wool scarf, 1 pair jeans, 2 makeup cases, 1 bra, 1 purse, 1 Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge t-shirt(never worn), 1 jumper. All went to Vinnies.

1 peasant top, 1 pair bead earrings, 1 shirt (donated to friend)

1 Madison magazine minus the free Napolen mascara (tearoom table)

And they all went out in 3 free magazine bags

assorted undies, socks, tights and bras too old, holey and shameful for anywhere but the bin.

Total OUT 44 !!! (plus the undies etc.. that I am not counting becasue they should have gone many moons ago)

My first quilt

This quilt is one I made for Mr. D for Christmas 2003. I finally finished it and gave it to him in March of this year! He's very patient.

It is the maritime signal flages because he is a yachtie (the quilt is draped over his little boat).It is the first proper quilt I have finished. I made couple of the shaggy types but realised pretty quickly when I stared this one that they aren't really patchwork quilting at all. No corners to match up, no binding, no quilting decisions etc...

As I had basically no idea what I was doing I jumped in at the deep end and made up my own pattern. Wow, how silly was I? The only request I had was that it be big enough to have a nap under! It is almost queen size and backed in chenille.The flags are outline quilted in dark blue and each piece in each flag is stitched too, the red side strips are quilted with yellow parallel lines.

After a couple of lengthy stalls, when I thought the flags were all different sizes, I did get there, and I must say that I am very proud of it. It does just the job at nap time!

In's and out's

IN- 1 pair of shoes
IN- 1 Real Living magazine
IN- 2 pieces of Japanese fabric
IN- 1 pair of jeans (ebay)

I'm in credit!!

Saturday

OUT- 3 Disney Wnnie the Pooh toys (donated to a friends little niece)
OUT - set of Winnie fridge magnets

IN - 1 vintage hand embroidered table cloth

Yay for me, it's day four and I've exited more that I've entered.

Monday

OUT- 6 pairs of shoes
OUT- 1 pair of novelty pig slippers
OUT- 1 box of paperbacks that have been waiting for 6 months to go to opshop
OUT- 1 Oscar the Grouch stuffed toy
OUT- 1 pile of old quilting magazines. All went to Vinnies

IN- 1 small etched ruby glass vase

INPUT MUST EQUAL OUTPUT

After reading the Shopping Sherpa's blog I have been inspired to follow her lead and have a Spring clean. The rules are simple- for every item that I bring into the home for the month of October, something has to exit. The best form of disposal is to donate them to a willing taker. Opshop donations are good too. What is not good is just throwing stuff away. (where is "away"?
Sounds simple yes, but I am a horder of the first order. I am sure the steady stream of "in" will be no problem. It's the "out" I'm worried about.
So here is my first day.

October 1
IN - 1 book (Printing by hand)
IN- 1 Paris stamp set.

OUT- 5 tops (donated to a friend)

Invasion of the giant cat

I think Lil has been reading this blog and took my last post literally and is squatting in my dolls house.

At least she has floors now. Cork in the kitchen, floorboards in the lounge and hall and white carpet in the upstairs bedroom. There's even some furniture been moved in, kitchen setting and hutch in the kitchen and a bed head and wardrobe in the wallpapered bedroom. The whole place stillnes a like of paint. I think white, all white, everywhere with a red roof.

This whole dolls house caper is harder than I thought it would be. After my initial obsession settled down (by obsession I mean borrowing EVERY book on miniatures from the library and looking at everything and thinking"can i use this in the house?") I realised that making things that are so small is tricky and dangerous for the fingers.

I've also started hanging out in $2 shops. they have a treasure trove of fab things, especially in the scrapbooking areas. (eeew scrapbooking). Perfect little metal picture frames, the window frames in the photo above, even cute papers for wallpaper etc... I'm already planning the next reno because there's so many things I want to do.

Decisions, decisions

A few more decisions have been made about the house and its occupant, out of necessity. I was getting awfully confused as to what to try to put into, what style to do and what was just being ridiculous so I've set myself some guidelines.
The owner of the house is a stylish, environmentally conscious girl in her early thirties. She lives alone but has a boyfriend (who leaves traces of himself around the house). She has travelled a little and has collected trinkets along her travels. She loves textiles of all sorts and collects them. She likes to cook and entertain with good friends and good wine. She grows her own veg and fruit in her garden and loves animals.

I may have to tweak these as a go along but just getting them sorted has helped me heaps already. I was wanting to try to make some little toys, but why? This girl has no kids so they would look silly in her house.

I think I want to be this girl.

My next BIG project.

I have decided that my next crafty project will be a major reno on my derelict dolls house. At the moment only tiny stray cats and tiny homeless people would use it as a squat.

When I was a little girl a friend of my Dad's made if for me and it was just magnificent. It had a bright red roof (just visible on the fascia of the eaves)which will be returning, and the inside was beautifully decorated. My Mum wallpapered the rooms with offcuts, carpeted it and hung beautiful little broderie anglaise curtains in the upstairs bedrooms. She even hung tiny pictures on the walls. I had beautiful small scale furniture for all of the rooms

So how did it end up looking like the before shot on a home renovation show?..................Well it was loaned to a family member for her young daughter as I was beyond playing with it and she loved it too. Years later I asked for it to be returned ( as it was only ever a loan) and this is how it was returned to me. Mission brown roof and an all white interior.
So the time has came to revive it to its former glory. Well, sort of. Mum did originally decorate it in the seventies but a face lift is well over due.

The upsairs left room is going to be my starting point, it will be the bedroom. I've decided on a Japanese look in there. The back wall be "wallpapered" with the same beautiful Japanese paper the I used on the 2 Geisha girls on the right in my last post. The bed linen will be a pink silk that perfectly matches the pale shade in the background of the paper. And the drapes will be black silk. (the colours look terrible in the photo because I couldn't find good light).

Don't know what to do in the rest of the rooms yet but I have pretty much settled on a layout. The middle section upstairs will be a small bathrooom, the bottom right will be the kitchen and the bottom left will the the lounge. I'm still undecided as to the fate of upper right. Library/office? another bed room? Any suggestions?

I want to try to make everthing out of recycled materials as this is going to be a "green house" where possible. (I've already decided that it will have a water tank made out of corrugated cardboard) Any suggestions on this front will be greatly appreciated too.

I will update with photos as I finish each room. Maybe it will make it onto Absolutely Beautiful Things one day.

Geisha girls.

I have just finished making these little geisha fridge magnets and I am rather pleased with myself.

I found the pattern for them in a book called Wonder ways with washi by UHL, Robertta.

They were very quick and easy to do once all of the cutting was done.

I think many more will be joining them for tea very soon.

It's a cats life

I'm coming back in my next life as a cat. More specifically, a cat that lives with me. This is Lil. Not only does she get to spent her day sleeping she gets to sleep in the ironing rather than doing it.