Walls on our walk.

After a talk with a friend about how to photograph my next lot of Etsy photos, I have been taking extra notice of walls during our walks around the neighbourhood.

In particular, the old abandoned house up the street.
When I was at high school an little old man lived there, he was a fixer-upper of sorts.
He had his entire yard full to the brim of pieces of metal, half fixed cars, bikes, lawnmowers etc and pieces of wood, glass and other general well.. rubbish, to most people. So much so that I had never actually seen the house until they cleared it out.
He liked to stop and chat with whoever was walking by (perhaps part of the reason he never got round to actually fixing much..) and would be out pottering around no matter what the weather. A funny sort of a guy.

I wonder what ever happened to him, I think he moved into a home when they cleared out his house but it has been empty for years now. I hope that, wherever he is, he still has plenty of people to natter to and doesn't miss all of his clutter too much.
I have a sneaking feeling, everytime I walk past, that his tumble-down old house misses him though.

Looking down on us.

Sneaky peek #1.

So.. this whole blogging thing is just not happening for me at the moment. Tooo too too much on.
So I have decided that for the next two weeks I'll be posting mainly just pictures.

Today I present you with: Sneaky Peeks. A few of the things I have been making for Craft2.0.

What a crock!

Crockpot, of course.

When we got married we asked, on the invite, that guests please bring along a plate of food in place of a present ( being cheapskates there was no way that we could justify paying for catering and, frankly, we have a fair amount of 'stuff' already..) and most people followed that request. We had tables full of salads, meats, smoked fish, spring rolls, nibbly things.. a feast!
But you know what surprised me? A few of our guests decided to bring along gifts as well as food. I didn't expect to recieve anything and that made the gifts feel even more special.
We recieved some lovely serving plates, a digital photo frame, a vintage flour sifter, a (lovely) glass vase, a pasta maker, the most incredible hand potted (is that a term?) big fruit bowl and... a retro crockpot.
I think the crockpot was one of the most exciting gifts for me. I loved all of our presents, but the crockpot was something I had never thought about buying myself and had never tried using. I immediately imagined soups and stews and casseroles would be flowing in our house the next Winter.
Then I forgot all about it!
So this Winter I am on a mission. I have rediscovered my plans for Wintery soupy delights and I intend (providing it actually works, I haven't even turned it on yet!) to use it to the full for the next two months, or so.

Here's where you come in: Do any of you have tried-and-true crockpot recipes to share with me? I keen to try just about anything, vegie, meaty, curry-y.. it's all good.

Oh, and also..

Check out my new sunnies! I found these at the op shop on Saturday. Especially loving the second pair : )

Hope you've all had a good weekend and I hope to spend a bit more time with you this week.

Neglect!

Yes, I know, it has been TWO whole weeks since my last post. Naughty, naughty!
I promise it is all about how busy I am sewing for Craft2.0 and hanging out with my family and nothing to do with me not loving you all anymore. It's not you, it's me.
You know what is great though? I'm really loving getting so much crafting done. It's been really hard to try and re-find that balance of sewing/family/housework/exercise etc and the challenge continues a bit, but hopefully once this whole mad dash is over things will even out a little.
I'm down to only needing to sew 0.5 items a day to get to my minimum stock levels so it is looking like I'm even going to get some bonus sewing done! Hopefully this week the weather will be kinder to us and I'll get some photos of my stock so far.

On Friday I took as day off from garment sewing to make some business cards/ swingtags.
I had hmmed and haa-ed about getting some printed but I could neither a) justify spending the money to get them done or b) find anything that really summed up the 'feeling' of Toast. I was going to get a lass I know to design some for me but  really, by stitching some fabric scraps onto card, what I ended up with is perfect for me.
I can write the details of my stuff on them and pin them to the clothing but can also scrawl my number/ name on them and hand them out for a memorable business card.

Ahem..

I may or may not have bought some more buttons.
It appears the button-themed thirfting karma continues!

Gifts for (very) loved ones.

Abraham had a birthday recently.
Last years birthday was a bit of a let down, I think, so I decided that this birthday needed to be pretty awesome for him. How to make an awesome birthday with very little cash? Hmm..
In all my years of sewing I have never managed to get round to making Abraham a hoodie (something about mechanics always having run down cars etc?)  so I decided that that would be the perfect start.
He found an image online of one that he liked, I took a pattern from his favourite jumper and whipped one up. (Well actually I had a heap of trouble with broken needles, too many layers of fabric and zips that didn't match. But, you know, you get that ).
I also overcame my fear of double points and made him a hat! Once I figured it out it was fairly easy, and I really liked the pattern. Will be knitting that one again, for sure!
Those presents, combined with a huge, huge container of sour lollies from Aesop, some indian takeout and going to the movies to see 'Boy', meant it was deemed a successful birthday.

I also, finally, finished the wedding present for my sister-in-law and her new husband.
I used the leftover fabric from the bunting for the wedding and made a wee quilt for their future lil' 'uns.
(It's not wonky, I don't think. That's just the way it's laid out.).
I was pretty happy with how it turned out, and I hope they are too. Now I get to look forward to the day, whenever it may be, that I become an Aunty and get to see it in use! No pressure guys. Heh.

Thrift Karma.

Yesterday while perusing the op shops, as I do most days (hmm.. not always a good thing!), I saw two tins sitting on the counter. I thought (also as usual..) ' Hmm, those are pretty cool! Hmm NO Rhiannon you do NOT need tins! But they are quite old.. no, they have writing on them.. but the writing adds to the character...' and so fourth. While I was having my internal debate I happened to lift the lids of the tins..

Buttons! I had a little but of a poke through them, tried to keep a straight face and I didn't let the squeal pop out of my mouth despite how hard it was to keep in! I calmly and casually asked them if they were for sale as a single lot, and how much they might want for them. FIVE dollars. Ah, I offered them ten and almost ran to the money machine (this op shop is old skool, no EFTPOS here.) in case they changed their mind while I was gone. And then I bundled my my buttons and my baby into the car and sped home to start sortin'!

A button lovers dream.
Granted, there were a lot that were very old plastic and had cracked or half disintegrated, a few that had marks or paint on them etc, but all in all? These buttons are amazing. So many of them had pairs, or even large groups (I never seem to get that when I buy jars or lots of buttons!) and the majority of them were either really large or really interesting, not just boring old shirt buttons (which I always seem to get!).
I also found a gorgeous 70's dress, a belt, a woollen jumper to cut up and a hilarious old oven mitt to use as a puppet for Otto. What had I done to deserve this?
Then I remembered.. we just cleaned out the shed! And took 10 banana boxes of stuff to the Sallies! The thrift Gods really do work on a Karma type system. Hallelujah!