Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I'm In Lust


Last night I was doing a bit of blog-hopping, and came across a blog talking about some very cute items on Etsy. I hadn’t looked on Etsy for quite some time, so decided to just have a quick look before I went to bed. Two hours later and I was convinced that I’d found some items that I MUST OWN. My life would be severely lacking without them.

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These badges from beanforest appeal to my inner nerd. And make it giggle.

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Comic headbands from Janine Basil. Do I even need to tell you how cool this is? And how many times I would say "Zap!" and pull superhero poses if I was wearing it?

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These cards from Vixen's Empire are awesome. I love that they're pretty much pointless, but I still really want to buy one to give to... somebody. Also, check out Vixen's shop for the rest of her range. There are some naughty cards in there that made me laugh so hard that I snorted. Although, if you are one of my family members reading this blog post - the things I saw on that site were not amusing. In fact, I didn't even understand what they were referring to. There's just no accounting for taste *tsk, tsk*. To everybody else - check them out. I think I want one of everything on there.

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More badges! These are by Button Empire. I don't normally have this sort of attraction to badges, but I just kept coming across things that made me lol. Yes, I went there - I lol'd in public. Anyway, now that I know where to buy these cool badges, where can I buy a nerdy husband?

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I've been lusting over this Old Lady Swearwords poster from sianuska for some time now. One of my friends has it hanging in their lounge room, and it's just so damned cool. One day I might get it. Oh, by the way, my birthday is coming up in February...

Monday, December 27, 2010

Where’s My Disco Ball?


Three blog posts in three days. It’s madness, just madness. However, I got my little self down to a bit of crafting today after a short hiatus. I was a tad worn out from the onslaught of the markets, but now I’m ready to get some stuff done. I’ve already started a list of things to do and EVERYTHING!

Today I made a little cosy for my new fancy pants mobile phone. It’s not actually that fancy, but hopefully it will be able to hold a phone call without dropping out. And perhaps will even send a message without turning itself off. The possibilities are endless. I'm a tad worried about the screen on it getting scratched (I keep it in the same pocket in my handbag as my keys), and seeing as it isn't a piece of crap I'd like to take care of it. Thus, the mobile cosy *drum roll*.

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The only down-side to making this is that I had disco songs stuck in my head whilst doing the embroidery. A few bad disco dance moves may have also been involved. Nobody needs to be subjected to that.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Bonza

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Image from weheartit

Inspired by Michelle’s Dead Wood blog post, I was thinking I’d say a few words on the year that’s just passed. A while ago I’d been wanting to write a post along the lines of Thanksgiving, but Australia-style (called She’ll be Right, Mate).

I know that this last year has been pretty uncool for quite a few people. Things have happened, and a lot of change has occurred. Change is hard to get used to, especially when you aren’t expecting it. I find it hard to adapt to a new phone, let alone life changes. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress and trauma that occurs, but it’s also important to always think of the nice things in your life, and be grateful for the things that you do have.

I had a particularly traumatic week in April where about 5 things happened that absolutely knocked me down.  It’s hard to see past these events when they happen. But I’ve learnt lessons along the way, and I’m in a much better head-space than I was 6 months ago.

I was getting depressed about the fact that I had nothing tying me to where I lived. I had no career, no significant other, hated the area I was living in, had lost my pets earlier in the year, and just wasn’t sure what it was that I wanted out of life. After an epiphany type moment, I realised that the flip side of this was that I was free. I had NOTHING tying me down, and was able to just up sticks and move. Start again. So I did. I made the decision, and about a month and a half later, found myself in Tassie. I remember driving up to my cousin’s house the day that I’d made my decision to move, and I stood in her kitchen hyperactively telling her about it while she cooked dinner. “And I’ll move…. Ummm…. Next month! What’s the worst that could happen?!? You could TOTALLY visit! I’ll do stuff down there… What’s the place like that I’m going to move to? – I have no idea… Apparently there’s an ocean nearby….Is that a quesadilla?”

And here it is, a list of the fun, inspiring, and occasionally scary things that I’ve done this year (inspired by the “The Year That Was” article in the latest issue of Frankie magazine. I really must stop stealing people’s ideas). These are the things that I want to remember this year for, and am so happy to have done.

  1. Quit my job.
  2. Got back into sewing – in a way that I never have before.
  3. Packed my car full of my belongings, and moved state.
  4. Let off fireworks in a suburban area with some mates, and then legged it.
  5. Started doing volunteer work for an animal shelter.
  6. Held my first market stall.
  7. Met some incredible people.
  8. Started the turning trixie blog.
  9. Had tequila shots off the top of a samurai sword.
  10. Dressed up as Bettie Page. And a sailor. And a goth. And a fifties housewife.
  11. Went to a gig by myself for the first time.
  12. Saw two of my beautiful friends (one I met in primary school, and one from high school) start their own lovely families.
  13. Really started appreciating the simple pleasures.
  14. Got my tattoo finished after a long time of procrastination.
  15. Had my first full year free of chronic pain for the first time since I was 18. No physio, no cortisone injections, very few pain killers. Plus, I can climb stairs without whinging.
  16. Had numerous late night drives to Krispy Kreme.
  17. Got to play a very special part in a blessing ceremony for my friends and their baby.
  18. Experienced being a ferret owner for a week.
  19. Had a clubful of people (including some lovely drag queens) sing happy birthday to me.
  20. Learnt that some bonds transcend the trivial. And some don’t. But that’s ok.
 So, how about you? Do you have a list for 2010? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Lengthy Journal Of A Person With A Friend


For a few days before Christmas I was lucky enough to look like I had a friend, and do a bit of travelling with a mate who was visiting our fair shores from Canberra. Jake and I have been mates since school, have done a few road trips together, incessantly quote bad jokes, and just generally bug the shit out of each other after a few hours together. It’s a match made in some kind of post-modern ironic heaven. Or something.

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He arrived on a Saturday, and the lovely Susie drove me into Launceston to meet him at the airport. I think I must have been having delusions of grandeur, or ideas above my station, or some such other nonsense, because I’d been thinking about the airport at Sydney and the general chaos that occurs there. As we reached the somewhat marginally smaller, more rural, and clean airport at Launceston, I realised… Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more.

Due to Jake’s plane being delayed, I got to stand at the window and watch… hills. And stuff. His plane finally arrived after a good half-hour of quality hill-watching, and I peered through the window, excitedly trying to find him amongst the other tourists. The amount of old people on the plane surprised me (although in hindsight I realise that it probably shouldn’t have been surprising) and I gave up trying to find Jake’s head amongst the purple-rinsed hair-dos and golf hats.

We spent our first night out at a pub in Burnie, drinking ourselves silly on Mother energy drink and vodka. We made a new bestie while we were there – a drunk miner called Glen who kept forgetting our names, grabbed my ass, repeatedly told us about his recent split with his wife, and thought it was “jus’ sooooooo awesome that you’s guys can just be mates…. You’rrrre not even like together, or ANYTHING.” With that, he rubbed our heads, and stumbled away. Exit, stage left.

On the walk back to Jake’s hotel room, it started raining so we donned our hooded clothing, and marched in quite a determined manner through Burnie.

BAD IDEA #1: Just before we reached the hotel room, we came across a car that’s the same make as Jake’s new car. We stood beside it as Jake pointed to parts and told me what he’d done to customise his own wheels. A man was sitting just outside the hotel, and it soon became apparent that he was the owner of said car, and was not keen for us hooded individuals to be casing his car in preparation for theft. We quickly removed ourselves from the scene.

BAD IDEA #2: Even though we were both exhausted from a long day, we’d imbibed more energy drink than recommended, and were too wired to sleep, but too tired to, you know, move. 

STIMULANT + DEPRESSANT x(FATIGUE AND OVER-EATING) = BAD CHOICE

We whiled away the hours of consciousness by punching each other, thinking of words that rhymed with “sure”, watching internet cartoons, and listening to an ambient music app on the I-Phone, and trying to figure out where the track had been looped. We know how to have a good time.

On Sunday we went out for a lovely breakfast, chased some pademelons down a bush track, and returned to my humble abode to… sit. We went out that night to see the lacklustre movie, Devil. I’m all for having the pants scared off me, but Devil wasn’t scary. It was like a wannabe Paranormal Activity (Loved that movie. Couldn’t walk down a dark hallway by myself for weeks afterwards) in a different setting, with a lamer back story. I was just waiting for everybody to die, and they really took their time doing it.

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On Monday we took ourselves on a drive out to Tasmazia. For those not in the know, Tasmazia is awesome, and if you haven’t been then you are deprived. Get yourself in the car, and get there NOW! It’s a complex full of mazes (apparently the largest maze complex in the world), and is just fun for all ages. Jake kept running away from me in the hedge mazes, so that all I could hear were his thudding feet and giggling. I wandered aimlessly, but seeing as I have a terrible sense of direction, there was never much chance of me finding the centre without some serious assistance. So I sat under a tree until Jake wore himself out.

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When we finally decided to head home, it was such a lovely day that we thought we’d take our chances and head to the beach. 

BAD IDEA #3: Going to a beach in Tasmania in December and anticipating that you might swim. I still haven’t got complete feeling in my right foot. I also thought I’d do something really super funny, and wrestle Jake in the water, with my logic being that even if I went down, I’d take him down with me. Logic fail. Jake -1, Sarah - -15.

When we got home and regained some semblance of warmth, we watched a plethora of internet videos and quoted them for the rest of the holiday. This stuff never gets old.

Tuesday saw us heading out west. We first landed in the lovely Stanley to check out The Nut.

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BAD IDEA #4: Not preparing for different weather conditions. It was freaking FREEZING. And windy. Veeeery windy.

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We had a bit of a walk around, with me complaining about… everything, and Jake telling me that he’d never choose me as his partner if he did the Amazing Race. He would choose someone who is actually good at stuff. Jake kept spotting “goats” perched upon the hillside, which upon closer examination were bags of fertiliser. Nothing wrong with that kid.

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After freezing out little butts off on the Nut, we continued our trip west and ended up at Dismal Swamp. I hadn’t cared what was here, I just really wanted to visit because of the name. Plus they have a massive slide there, which was a great bonus. It’s 110 metres long, goes from the tree canopy to the ground, and takes about 15 seconds to go down.  While I’d been planning our activities for Jake’s visit, and had come across this slide, I’d thought, yeah cool. Big slide. I can do that. Once I was standing at the top it was a bit of a different story. But I kept all of the girlish squealing on the inside.

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The lady at the top of the slide saw Jake down safely, and then got me ready to go. She assured me that it was ok to scream. Which got me wondering, why didn’t she tell Jake the same thing? Do I come across as some pansy-ass girly girl? I got myself down the slide, without a scream in sight. Mainly because I forgot to breathe.

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It turned out that Jake hadn’t even opened his eyes while he went down. On our trek back to the top, I insisted that Jake should keep his eyes open the next time we went down. This maneuver led to Jake being the one that screamed. I just spent the 15 seconds reminding myself to breathe.

After our two adrenaline pumped slides, we took a stroll around the forest, ate some lunch, left the forest and took a wrong turn leading us to the far west coast of Tassie, then turned around and drove home. 

Wednesday was Jake’s last day here, and we had a pretty cruisy time of it. We made our way out to Launceston in a leisurely manner, stopping for a spot of go-karting on the way. Jake lapped me twice, and then I actually figured what I was doing, stopping him from lapping me any further.

We got to the airport, he called me fat (or rather, sang it at me. It was my own stupid fault – I taught him the words to the “Too Fat Polka”), and parted ways. I still haven’t quite caught up on my sleep…

Monday, December 13, 2010

Making Love (Crafty-Style)


Saturday saw our second Made With Love Bazaar, another pretty cool day. A few of us decided to get our 50’s on, and the week previous was spent planning clothes, gloves, hair-do’s and general 50’s fabulousness. Those who didn’t dress up still got into the spirit with some lovely aprons adorning their person.

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The weather, again, was dicey. But hey, Tasmania – what more can you expect? This time, as well as our crafty stalls from last time, we also had a couple of extras including a coffee van, and Allana in the kitchen serving tea and coffee and cupcakes. Delicious cupcakes.

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Early in the day Claire and I walked down to the RSL to put our sandwich board outside. We got a few glances from people driving past (I can only imagine how impressed they were with our outfits), and we made the most of it by singing Sandra Dee and dancing a little bit.

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We had a couple of minor crises during the day, one of which was the collapsing of our *awesome* hanging system in the Green Room. I legged it into the room (no mean feat in high heels), made sure nobody was hurt, then acquired Claire’s toolbox and got my 50’s housewife handyman thing on.

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I didn’t manage to get as many photos this time… I think I got distracted by doing 50’s poses. And Michelle’s feather duster. Some of the following pics are nicked from Michelle’s blog (in between dusting people, she managed to get some good shots).

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The next market will be coming up in January sometime. A date hasn’t been decided on, but we’ll keep you posted. I think a few of us need a sewing breather. Our poor little fingers can only produce so much. I'm looking forward to it though - sewing pain can only make us stronger! *insert evil laugh*

Monday, December 6, 2010

A Day By The Seaside


On the weekend Claire and I had a market stall at the Burnie Sea Party down on the foreshore. The weather was… erratic, but thankfully sunny for most of the day. I even managed to not get burnt – hurrah! We arrived at about 9am to unpack and all of that good stuff, and stayed until about 6pm. 9 hours, and we managed to make two sales. Not as successful as one would hope, but a great day for a chat and chill out session, with an awesome view. There were also delicious berry ice creams involved, so I really can’t complain.

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The weather went from this…

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To this…

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And back to this…

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Our lovely stall.

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The upside of not selling much is that we now have plentiful stock for the SECOND Made With Love Bazaar in Wynyard this Saturday 11th December. It is going to be an awesome day out, so if you’re around make sure you come and see us. We’ll be nice to you! I’m actually a little bit lost now that I don’t have to frantically sew things. I have plans for a new turning trixie item though, so keep an eye out. It’s something that may just work…

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Mummy's Girl


Today Susie and I went op-shopping in an attempt to restock my diminished craft supplies from the markets, and I happened upon what appeared to be a very cool old beauty case in good nick. Upon further inspection, my opinion changed from very cool to unbelievably freaking awesome. Inside the case is an old Sunbeam hair-dryer, complete with rollers and little hair cap that the dryer plugs into. I enquired about the price of said item, and once I heard that it was going for a whopping $5, I tried not to wet myself, controlled my hyperventilating, and told the nice lady behind the counter that I believed I would be buying it.

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When I got home I plugged it in for shits and giggles, half expecting it not to work. But of course – it’s perfect. It works like a beauty. I plan to be eventually sending this along to my darling mother to add to her eclectic collection of vintage and collectable goodies. My Mum collects pretty much everything, so it’s easy to pick up little bits and pieces for her on my little shopping ventures.

This blog post was inevitable at some point – I want to wax lyrical about my Mum. Everybody who knows me knows that I’m massively a Mummy’s girl, a fact which I am quite happy to admit. And the reason for this is quite simple – she’s the bombski. 

My Mum, among other things, is strong, smart, beautiful, protective of her kids, a good cook, and funny as hell. She’s always willing to listen, will laugh with you, cry with you, and will offer to take out a contract on anybody who hurts you. There’s still one guy I knew who will not be lucky if he crosses paths with her. Which I totally dig. My Mum may come across as softly spoken and kind of timid, but she’s got fire in her belly, and occasionally lets a swear word slip (which delights me no end). She talks to our pets, thinks that it makes perfect sense to collect old knitting needles, debates the pronunciation of the word “segue”, and likes to do a bit of crafting. She’s even picked up on some of the Gen Y lingo, and refers to people as tools.

She’s also very reliable. I know that I can rely on her in times of need. Like the time that I was studying full-time, and working part-time, and came down with the flu. She came over to my place with a food care package containing curried lentils, veggies, and all of my favourites. She even included some pastries for dessert.

I can rely on her to laugh – even at traumatic experiences, when the only thing you CAN do is laugh. Last year I went on a particularly horrific date with a professional snake handler (that’s actually not a euphemism). The date started off with Thai food, moved onto catching a brown snake in the bush (which was then captured in a hessian bag and sat behind my seat in the car), and ended with trying to find frogs in the dark, in another part of the bush. I was wearing thongs and a skirt, and not exactly well-attired for the whole intrepid explorer thing. Needless to say, it was not love at first sight (it was more like “Holy f*** that SNAKE’SBITINGYOURF******LEG!!!”). However, I knew that if nothing else it was a great story (rivaled only by the date that took me to a graveyard) and that my Mum would see the humour in it. She did. Most other people were absolutely horrified, looked at me strangely, then walked away. Mum, on other hand, had a good belly laugh with me. 

Moving has been hard for me with not being able to see my Mum. I miss our debriefings over coffee, showing off our latest op shop finds, and just being my mother’s daughter. We still catch up over the telephone every few days though, and there have been a few care packages sent between us. I like to think that one day she’ll move down here too, and we’ll wrought our own special kind of Mackey havoc on Tassie. But even if she doesn’t, she is still the bee’s knees, the cat’s meow, in my eyes an absolute rock star, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Sunday, November 28, 2010

We Heart Markets

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"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of bags--and softies--and fabric flowers--
Of necklaces--and bling--
And why the rain is pelting down--
And whether sock monkeys have wings."

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The very first Made With Love Bazaar/Markets took place yesterday and it was a complete success! The day had dismal weather with rain threatening the whole time, but we still managed to have a stream of people constantly wandering through. All throughout the building were the sounds of laughter and people just generally having a fan-snazzy time (it didn't hurt that there were mini-cupcakes being handed out). I also managed to get a fair chunk of Christmas shopping done by perusing the other girl's stalls and doing a swap with them. A little bit of turning trixie in exchange for something awesome for my friends. Hurrah!

I didn't manage to do a blog post about the markets before they actually came - the week was spent with me being a slightly frantic mess wielding a sewing needle. My fingers paid the price... However, we have ANOTHER Made With Love Bazaar coming up in 2 weeks, and it promises to be even bigger and better. If you're around the area, drop in and have a look - there's so many awesome items there that even if you intend to only do Christmas shopping, you'll still manage to find a few pretties for yourself. If you're NOT around the area, all I can say is that it sucks to be you.

Now I'm going to inundate you with some photos of our collective awesomeness.

The FIRST turning trixie stall.

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Some of Michelle's cool gear.

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Claire's ever so cute stall.

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Other incredible feats of craftiness.

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And last but certainly not least, our highly esteemed second-hand/vintage clothing room - complete with a questionable hanging system, and some very trendy threads.

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