silver firemans trousers bag

Yesterday I happened to be passing close to a newly opened op-shop and I couldn't resist popping in for a fossick.  I found four beautiful green bowls.  One of them had a Crown Lynn sticker on it so I am guessing they are all the same.  they are very pretty and I am pleased as bowls are hard to come by in op-shops generally.  This is probably as like us people break their bowls more than any other crockery and there isn't much of it left to send to the op-shop.

 There was also this rather interesting pair of silver trousers.  Further investigation revealed them to be, not a pair of fabulous disco pants, but a pair of firemans trousers.  There are internal warnings/reminders not to wear them without structural trousers, whatever they may be?!  

 They are quite large.  I didn't buy them to start with as they were $10 and I am too mean to spend that much on one item in a charity shop.   But I went back later and got them, I just couldn't resist.  I had a vague image in my head of a nice canvas back-pack that I can wear while on my bike, that isn't just sporty.  I have one that fits a water bladder and straw, for those endurance activities, but not much else... like a bottle of wine or a tub of ice-cream, certainly not both together.  I googled silver bags but they were all very 2007 and Prada.  Then I looked up these bags, which are a bit more like it.

Rugged little satchel by J Crew

This is so cool, by swift-industries.  I love all those satchel-type buckles and straps

leather bags store

Of course if I make a bag it will look nothing like these, and it will be silver.  Am I living in a early 2000's time warp?  Will a fire-proof aluminium bag have any serious health implications?  Is a silver bag a good idea in a sunny climate?

beds and bedrooms I would like

 So gorgeous and it looks nice and sturdy too!

 Makes me think of convents, it's quite austere, but I wouldn't say no to it.

 This has curly-wurly over-the-top-ness which I like.

 The mirrors, the fire, the soft bed and the fairy frock all add up well.

 This room is about the size of my house.  And the headboard is sublime.

Beautiful and colourful turquoise headboard.  And the feather wall decoration is gorgeous.

 Not sure if I would like to sleep in here or not, but the over-all effect is so pretty.

The rest of this fairytale castle at desire to inspire makes me want to cry.  It is just so amazing, I would have to have a cleaner and a chef if I lived here though, I would be too busy sipping champagne in beautiful dresses to do much else.

10 minute sketch no.4

This is one of my cats, her name is Wanda and she and her sister Pixie came form the SPCA.  She is very fat and has a very furry stomach, can't meow and spends a lot of time sleeping.

 I tried to draw her tonight and amazingly she didn't move the minute I put pencil to paper.  I had a bit of trouble with the shading, and I will blame it on her tortoishell markings.

And here she is showing off her stomach in its full glory, in a large nest that my younger daughter and I made out of wisteria cuttings last year.

Inky frocks

"WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter."

by Jenny Joseph

I try to avoid wearing black.  Having worn mostly black through-out my teens and early twenties I then decided it was an easy option and I really needed to brighten up.  A bit of colour is essential, but then I have found all these nice black pieces of clothing on the web...

Very pretty black embroidered dress

I love the styling on this picture from need supply and the model has cool tattoos.

the funky black jacket is obviously not a dress, but it is black and very tomboy chic.

 grey layer dress is grey not black but is also not colour so I think it fits.  

 Miss Selfridge dress has frills and buttons and pretty flowery material and also long sleeves to keep your arms warm and hide your bingo-wings

How fabulous is this frock by designer Leila Sham?  Its just quite rockin'

And I want this dress from Madewell.  Their site is full of lovely, easy-cool dresses, tops, pants etc.  Those boots are great too. 

10 minute sketch no.3

 Tonight it was a portrait of my older daughter.  Playing chess on the computer.

And then my younger daughter wanted to draw her dad.

He does not have hair like this I would like to point out, this was the comedy hair version. but the profile was so good, she is only eight.

10 minute sketch no.2

 In the summer we had a wild bee swarm in the garden for a night or two and they flew away leaving us with this beautiful little papery bees nest on a twisty corokia branch.  It has been sitting around the sitting room decoratively for a while now.  

I did my best, which is quite frankly not good enough today, what was I thinking with the honey-comb? but as the idea is merely to draw and excercise those braincells then I feel I have achieved something today, even if its not  good.  I did prefer the blackbird.

10 minute sketch. no.1

I decided that I would do a 10 minute sketch every day.  10 minutes is not too long to take out of my day . so on the walk to school with my little one this morning we found a dead blackbird, perfect material for a quick sketch (or two) so I picked it up and we walked to school with blackbird dangling, I think it had a broken neck, and it made the other kids go "oo yuk" when we got to school which is always good.   

 It was so pretty with its little feathers and its orange beak, I was rather sad to throw it away and would have liked to draw some more, but 10 mins is 10 mins, we have to have some rules ( although I did do two 10 minute sketches in the end and had to stop from doing some more).

The idea is that they will improve as the days go on.  But I did enjoy the brief experience.

And I found this cute little number from Leila Sham over at Charity and Bees blog, which is now sadly finished.

nice boots

I found a good site for shoes and boots, lulus has some really cool footwear, well I like it.  These are just some favourites I picked out from the boots, but there are lots of different styles and types. 

 You would need some cool strides to wear with these, or maybe a pretty girly frock, silver mini skirt or a fab hat.

 Seems to be I have a riding/rugged outdoor theme going on here.

These ones above made me think of the Muppets.  Animal the drummer comes to mind and the blond hippy lady.  A bit like Beatle crushers with heels and fringes.

paper garlands

I have had some productive days in the garden recently, and it is almost, almost, not such a mess any more.  I have weeded and mulched, weeded and mulched and moved a few grasses around. Today more weeding and mulching and also managed to get some making done, of paper garlands, which was quite satisfying.  The creative urges must be satisfied occasionally.  These were made from magazine pages cut out with my new circle cutting gadget which is just splendid.  The idea was taken from a magazine Christmas issue maybe Inside Out.  It was a few years ago now so I'm not entirely sure.

 (above) Bunting made from magazine pages now decorating my daughters bedroom.  The photos from magazines make such lovely decorations with all their variations in colours.

 r and g cut out and stitched together tons of circles. A table full of circles.

 I love how they get on with these things all by themselves quite happily.  It's very satisfactory.

It came out very long and very pretty.

(above) I cut out not so many and stitched them together slightly differently,  a circle on both sides with a layer of tissue paper in the middle 

I chose pretty pink, red, green, blue, yellow, black and some neutral  colours  It looks so pretty in its little 3D way.  It is a present for a friend so I hope she likes it as much as I do.