my week in pictures.

and by pictures i mean, you can imagine pictures in your mind. it's been a pretty big week :D

a tea party last sunday, with some of my cousins, lots of baked goodies (like this and these and these of course, but with champagne again and no sugar) and some delicious teas.

another rushed gift, a scarf in less than a week, am i crazy? maybe, but i ended up getting it done... and the birthday boy seemed to like it (phew!)

30+ hours of work, great for the credit card debt, not so great for the blogging.

visits from my mum :D and another tea party on tuesday. lots of tea, lots of goodies.

and 4 delicious home cooked meals for the week. hoping to get 5 in for next week.

unfortunately, no time for thrifting this week so no flea market finds for me.
and i'm back off to work in about an hour for the joys of stocktake. do we really need to know how much stock we have? can't i guess? i guess 3289. yup, that'll do.

hope you've had a great weekend!
xo

flea market finds.

on my day off on thursday, as well as doing all that cleaning (and a little bit of rippling)... i managed to get along to the opening of the mill park savers store. it was my first savers shopping experience and while i found the clothes sections a little over whelming...



i managed to get my thrift on in the shoes and kitchenwares sections... bargain demin style flats and a lovely vintage pair of salad tongs (my soon to be neighbour got a pair that were almost identical. matching salad tongs!)


aaaaaaaaaaaaaand in the suitcase section. i am SO in love with this little gem and i'm SO glad i didn't put it back (it came VERY close)




and as you can see, it's playing along nicely with my other vintage travel type cases and prettying up my loungeroom :D

hope your weekend has been terrific and if you've want to play along with flea market finds, pop over and visit sophie.

my creative space.

will hopefully happen eventually... it's my first day off in a little while so i'm desperately trying to catch up on all the housework that needs doing (ironing, dishes, washing, tidying, folding, wiping, sweeping, the list goes on), as well as hopefully getting to a yoga class AND a new savers store.
pretty packed day really.



but all the while, i've got a basket of goodness, waiting patiently.
i've got my eye on you ripple and you'll be finished before you even know it! i'm basically champing at the bit to get this puppy all complete, it's been tooooooooo long and it'll be an incredibly big tick off my to-do list.

pop over and visit kirsty for more creative spaces

done and done!

it feels so good to get a project finished!



46 granny squares with all their ends sewn in, sitting neatly in piles, waiting to be sent off to sarah. i'll be sending them off as soon as i know where to send them :D



oh and look at the big pile of snipped off ends! ridiculous!

happy hump day all teehee! (i've never been able to utter that sentence without giggling. i'm 8 years old on the inside)

aphids be gone!

i have a peppermint plant. it sits on my windowsill in the kitchen. i bought it at a uni market last year. when i was on the way home from uni that day i realised that this poor little peppermint plant was COVERED in aphids. completely.
i've probably had it for 6 months and it has remained COVERED in aphids as i'm lazy and not so good at following through with any kind of treatment regime. also there was the small fact that i may one day want to ingest some of the peppermint and therefore did not want to fill the little plant with chemical nasties and insecticides.




about a week ago i decided on a way to get rid of the aphids and i even followed through. once a day, i popped the little potted peppermint into my sink, filled up a spray bottle with water and sprayed the absolute bejeezus out of the stalks, undersides of the leaves and any little cheeky flying bugs that emerged too. i've been doing this every day (perhaps i'm learning to follow through?) and i think it's actually starting to have an affect on the aphid population! maybe home made peppermint tea isn't too far around the corner :D

do you have an aphid problem? how do you deal with the little devils?

be mine valentine.

happy valentine's day to you all! are you celebrating today?
the boy and i are just going to have a nice dinner together (made by me, well when i figure out what to make, suggestions?), well and i bought him a can of pepsi. for us it's all about the simple pleasures.




but i thought i'd play along with some frivolity too!
even though i was horribly unprepared and yes, that is sticky tape holding the hearts together, apparently glue stick fails to hold two pieces of paper together these days. should've just got the hot glue gun out...

hope you have a good valentine's day, whatever your plans!
xo

shoes galore!

remember how before i said i was cleaning out my wardrobe, starting with my shoes? well i mayyyyyy have not gotten too far past them. i culled a good half of them, and decided to pop them on ebay (credit card debt is getting to me!)
i quickly rigged up a little photo shoot area with a vintage sheet and a couple of props and started snapping away. i thought i'd share the pictures with you, in case anyone's interested... (and a size 5/6/7!). i'll edit back and put the listing addresses in when i list them on ebay!



metallic bronze coloured heels with ankle strap. size 6. unknown brand. now on ebay.


black and purple heel with pearl and diamante feature buckle. size 6 (us). "zoom" brand.
SOLD!


bottle green heels with ankle strap. size 5 (us). "zoom" brand. now on ebay.



dark silver, webbed ballet flats with black ruffled bow feature. size 37. "blowfish" brand. now on ebay.


leopard print ballet flats. size 37. "delirium" brand.
SOLD!


red satin heels. size 6B. "gucci" brand. now on ebay.


strappy gold/bronze heels with frill feature on toe and ankle. size 36. "imagination" brand. now on ebay.


blue and black heel with bow feature and star pattern cutout pattern. size 36. "unique" brand. now on ebay.

ok so in truth, maybe i'm only getting rid of less than half, but i need the rest! i swear!

playing catch up.

oops. it's been a few days since i played along with the february scarf challenge so bear with me while i play a bit of catch ups!
days 8, 9 and 10 of the retro chart look a little like this....



my attempt at day 8 sees the return of one of my furniture decorating scarves.

i'm not looking into an unorganized wardrobe today but out the window at my parent's house. watching the calves do silly things and chase one another.

for the idea for day 9, i've rescued another scarf from furniture decorating services.



and finally for day 10's idea, i'm showing off a scarf that i only bought on wednesday, when brianna and i went opping.


i quite like this idea. it's ridiculously cute and would look amazing with an open collared shirt i think.

to play along with the february scarf challenge (even if you only want to play for one day), visit sophie and sign up!

shall be back later in the day with today's scarf idiom....

my creative space.

yesterday brianna and i went for a little bit of an opshop and as well as finding a new scarf (which i'll reveal later ha ha), i picked up a bag of granny squares ( well i picked them up, brianna paid for them as i had no cash!).



46 in total.
so today in my creative space, i'm sewing in the ends on allllllllll of these granny squares. not so much creative as mind-numbingly dull. luckily i'm down at my parents house so my mum and brother and poor old ancient kitty can keep me entertained.



i'm intending to donate all of these little squares to the lovely sarah london for her crochet a rainbow project. definitely have a look if you are handy with a hook, it's a fairly quick and easy way to help out some people in need, AND you can use up any wool scraps! i've got a few made up sitting at home that i'll send out when i get all of these ends sewn in!

for less mind-numbingly dull, more creative spaces, pop over and visit kirsty.

2 years.

on this day 2 years ago, i thought to myself, you should start writing a blog. so i did.
i'd been reading other peoples blogs for a little while (thanks to brianna, who introduced me to blog-reading) and thought i had some thoughts to share with the world too.
and boy i'm glad i did. i've met some wonderful people and had some great times and oh the crafty and arty inspiration!!!



so here's to the last 2 years!
oh and in case you were wondering, i'm not cracking a bottle of (very classy) sparkling before lunch for drinking purposes... i'm making scones with it! a work friend professed an idea to me a while ago about using sparkling wine in scones instead of lemonade and today i'm going to give it a try!



they're nestled away in the oven at the moment. can't wait to try them!
i'm taking them over to the magnificent heidi's where we are going to spend the afternoon drinking tea and eating scones and painting to our heart's content! can't wait!

a very happy blogiversary to the lovely pink patent mary janes as well!

hope softies away!

this morning i went for a little walk down to the post office to post my hope softies. yes softies, purposefully used a plural there. you see yesterday when i was taking photos to show you the teddy bear i'd made, my neighbour was taking her bin out and wanted to know what i was doing. i showed her my teddy bear and explained to her steph's hope softies. she then revealed to me that she does a LOT of blog reading herself and later popped around to give me a softie to send onto steph with my teddy bear. isn't that lovely?



here he is. he's a bit cute! and now he's keeping my little teddy bear company on their way up to queensland to steph and then onto a new home! how very exciting!
i also popped in a delicious looking present for steph, to say thanks for all the organisational work she's putting into this project :D

and now for today's scarf challenge idea!


this is one of my very favourite scarves. i opped it a little while ago and it's just so damn PRETTY!!!


notice i'm still in front of my wardrobe. i didn't get too far past my shoes yesterday... so there's still much or my wardrobe to be organised. maybe i'll get another shelf sorted before work. oh and make some risotto. very busy monday still ahead!

if you want to join in with the scarf challenge you can sign up with sophie right here!

suddenly sunday.

these weeks seem to be flying by and it's sunday already! can't believe it!
i guess there's been a bit of productivity though. my teddy bear for steph's hope softies project is finally done!


he's not exactly perfect, but i don't think he'll ever be if i'm making him... his eyes are a bit wonky, and well so are his ears and royal blue is never a good thread choice for a purple bear. i have tested him though, he's perfectly cuddlable! even snugglable!

and now for day 6 of sophie's february scarf challenge (i can't believe how many scarves i've still got to show you all!)


this is lovely stripy number is one i opped i think. i spotted it and knew it had to be mine!
you might notice as well, i'm in front of my wardrobe, pondering where to start the organisation process. may as well start at the top i guess, with the shoes! EEEEEP! anyone a size 6? i might have some to get rid of (i may have in excess of 30 pairs...)

hope your week is lovely and productive!

grateful for...

this saturday i'm grateful for my big work boots. they kept my feet warm and dry all day at work (and the very wet getting to work part).
i'm also grateful for my lovely little car that works reliably and even in the inclement conditions we've been experiencing recently (horribly hot days at the start of the week, floods this morning). i work about a half hour drive from where i actually live so i'd be pretty much stuffed without it!

today i'm rocking this day 5 look.


only my way, with ridiculous pig tails. 22 isn't too old for pig tails right?

if you're grateful too, play along with maxabella!

hope any victorians are safe and dry after this stupid weather and well actually that everyone is safe and dry actually! being in danger and wet wouldn't be too much fun at all!

february scarf challenge: day 4

today's scarf idea is this one... finally a wearable one!


and i've got just the perfect scarf for it! this one was actually giftwrapping from a present i received for my 21st birthday from my lovely cousin. she makes amazing herbal teas, i highly recommend you take a peek!



my hair's a bit curly as i washed it this morning and could definitely not be bothered with blowing it straight and such. much better things to do today!
i've got to get that teddy bear i've been talking about so much done and dusted, i've got a magnificent dinner idea for tonight and i'm meeting some lovely friends for a lunch of delicious dumplings!
what are your plans for this fabulous friday?

my creative space.

creatively sewing and stuffing a teddy bear today.



i'm kind of excited to get it finished and even more excited to get it to steph so it can get to a new home!

perhaps afterwards i'll get to some organising. the top of our wardrobe is a right mess and i need somewhere to put our christmas tree and decorations!

if you're creating today or would like to see some other creative spaces, pop in and visit .

february scarf challenge: day 2 and 3.

due to having to work all day yesterday and being completely and utterly pooped when i got home, i didn't quite get around to posting my scarf challenge yesterday.
so without further ado, here it is. my take on this...

is this...


which again, is pretty dull. and without wanting to spoil any of the other days, i added it to the decor once again...


doesn't it make my pot plant pretty?

and now for today's scarf idea...


once again, not particularly wearable without spoiling any of the next days...



but perfect to decorate a lamp with! (i know this decoration won't last as this lamp resides in the "man lair")



if you'd like to join in, visit sophie and sign up!

february? already?

now, i can't speak for everyone, but it seems that the general consensus is, 'wait? january is over?'
i'm definitely feeling the same!
so do you have any grand february plans?
i do! i do!
i've got grand organising intentions, and look, i even started this morning!
the teaspoon section of my drawer was er, a little hard to find a teaspoon in...


after a bit of a throw out of old takeaway implements, a reorganize of some of the cooking tools in there, and a good wipe out with a cloth (it was full of crumbs for some reason, no idea why...) you can now find a teaspoon! huzzah!


i've also got plans to finish off my coffee table revamp, perhaps start revamping the poor stool i found in hard rubbish yesterday and hopefully buy a new bed!

on top of those things, hopefully i'll be sharing with you my scarf collection as i play along with sophie in her february scarf challenge!
this is the first box on the retro scarf chart.


so yes, er, that's done...


that's not particularly wearable though is it? after having a look over the rest of the chart, i don't really want to do anything twice, so how about this?


an adorned door handle! this is actually how i keep most of my scarves, they're all tied around door/drawer/cupboard handles/knobs. they make the place look a bit more colourful :D

at my house...

today at my house...
i'm not really spending much time at home at all!



i'm at the gym.


and at the hair salon. do you like my new 'do?



and then to work.



i did manage to pick up a little something from someones hard rubbish pile on the way to work too... it's broken and horrid looking but not for long!



maybe when i'm done i'll come home and knit :D
my teddy bear is nearly finished! soon it'll just need some sewing stitches and stuffing then it'll be flying up to queensland for a quick visit to steph and then onto a new home.
what did you get up to at your house on monday?