The mess in my bag!

Another week has flown by since my last post, about the meme, and as you can see I've not posted about any craft I've done! Have been trying to finish up my things for TCCT, so I haven't been completely slack. Just a little bit. But more about that later in another post.

For My Place & Yours meme, hosted by Vic, the Theme Queen for this week is The Textured Leaf, who wrote:
My close friend and I once went through each others handbags to see what we
carried around with us. Weve both never forgotten the hilarity and the
randomness of the conversation that ensued. Im going to suggest 'whats in your
handbag right now'?

Like a lot of us I'm sure, I was a little hesitant about revealing the contents of my handbag to the world at large! Between friends is not a problem, but in the end, as I am wont to do lately, I stepped outside my square to play along. (It's getting easier and easier to make that step these days. Which is a bonus surely! Yay me!)

So in my bag you have found:

my purse/wallet ~ a great op shop find
a very bedraggled envelope that holds the current shopping $$$ (note to self- get new envelope!)
loose coins that should be in that very bedraggled envelope
two sets of keys
a powder puff & tiny plastic container that holds some powder (cornflour)
another tiny plastic container for my chocolate that I add to cappucinos if the mochas are too exxie in coffee shops!! :)
a bottle of antibacterial hand gel
one tiny weeny diary that I scribble in notes and things to remember ~ dated 2000 would you believe?
an emery board
a fabric fan which is an absolute necessity in these days of hot flushes! Works so well!
a few bandaids for those blisters I will regularly get from some of my shoes
a few old receipts from atm and supermarkets
a biro
couple of toothpicks in wrappers that my sister threw at me during lunch at a seminar last weekend! I tend not use them while in sight of perfect strangers!
a heap of loyalty cards from various businesses ~ for coffee, food, clothes etc
and of course the obligatory dirty tissue! lol.

So there you are! Nothing exciting or too embarrassing after all. No idea why I was worried. :)

See you next week for another engaging meme theme.

Caio!!

***P.S. Following up from the meme about what I'm reading.....finished the book in about two days!! Oops! Had read a little of it the day before Australia Day, then decided I would take the day off working in my studio, cos it was a public holiday yes? and I am public no? Read all day!!!! Finished it on the 27th. Thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it definitely. Wasn't as good as Chocolat and very different to that one, but still loved it.***

Better late than never..........

and so here is my input for the meme theme for My Place & Yours. Theme Queen for this week is Gypsy.

"Again how you interpret this week’s theme is entirely up to you – show us your shoe collection, show us your favourite pair of shoes, show us your oldest pair of shoes, show us your young’uns first pair of shoes, your highest heels, your dirtiest sneakers, whatever you like!"

This is a pic of all the shoes I do wear, Summer and Winter which of course includes those daggy ole Ugg type boots at the back of the lot!
The shoes in the back row are my Winter only wear and the other two rows are my Summer wear which may also be donned during winter depending on the shoe.

Now I had a huge revelation while setting up for this meme. OMG! I hadn't realised just how many shoes were actually in my wardrobe! They had been building in numbers in there without me even noticing! ....and I don't even wear half of them. So I think a trip to the op shop is in order very soon. :)

This is the hill of shoes after I threw them out of the wardrobe. This is why this pic is second in the line up. I certainly didn't want this untidy mound to be the one that everyone sees in their blog list when this post goes to air!

These are my favourite pairs. I think mainly cos they're a bit quirky, different. That's the alter ego within that has never quite surfaced fully. One day she might actually break free, then look out world!!
When I wear any of these, they add a little "something" to my persona. Probably nothing I could really put my finger on.

These I don't even wear......but not for lack of trying mind you! lol. They are too tight. So these are in my lounge as an ornamental thing! They make me think Flappers or The Charleston. You get the gist?
I got them from Joolz who had bought them to use in a mixed media shoe challenge which didn't eventuate, and as I couldn't bear to see her get rid of them, I brought them home.
I swear, if they had fitted me I would be wearing them!
Ha! Talk about wacko! :)

If you'd like to visit other blogs participating in the meme this week just visit Vic's site here. You can even join in the fun and put your name up under the McLinky thingy that comes up on her blog each Saturday.


Ciao!! ;^)

It's back!

The meme thingy, My Place & Yours is back with a new host ~ Vic at Punky & Me!
Yay and congrats to you Vic. I'm sure you'll do a spiffing job.
So....the theme for this week is "What I'm Reading".
Vic said:
What are you reading right now…? Is it a book? A magazine? A blog? What do you wish you were reading? Where do you wish you were reading it? Is it a library book? Was it a gift? Are you enjoying it or persevering?

Your take on this theme can be whatever you want it to be, and I want to see it! You can take a quickie photo without getting up, you can draw a picture (…that gives me an idea… I’d love to see a diorama. Go on. Make a diorama!), you can trek to the library and take covert snaps, whatever, wherever, you’ve got time!

Right at this moment I'm getting a LOT of mileage out of these two mags below.
Anything published by Stampington is just brilliant in my little world! Oh my but these make my heart sing, as I'm so fond of saying. Only problem is the cost. It certainly adds up, but still it doesn't stop me buying them! :)

The book below is by the author of Chocolat (loved the movie and book) and Five Quarters of the Orange (don't remember a lot about this one, but I did enjoy the read).
I haven't actually started this yet, apart from the little bit inside the cover. Joolz and I bought it between us last year some time, and now that she's done with it, it's my turn.
I used to read quite a LOT, but decided one day, some years back, that I needed to stop reading for a while, cos when I started reading a good book there was no way I would put it down, and consequently nothing else got done!! So for the sake of the housework (yeah sure!) and my craft, it was goodbye to books (well big ones anyhoo) for a while until I could learn to discipline myself a tad! :)
When Joolz handed this book over to me, I thought I'd give it a go and see how much of a good girl I can be. Love, love the cover! So "me" don't you think? lolol. All that mixed media, so to speak. That's a good start, yes?
Stay tuned! Hope to start it in the next couple of days.




Books are not made for furniture,
but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Now that was fun!

I've just put these up on my site for sale, and I had a lovely time creating them! Seems I'm managing to do a lot more of "what makes my heart sing" lately. The more I play with this style of art/craft, the easier it's becoming for me. And that's a very fine thing! :)
They are built up on small canvas boards - 5x7", and I've labelled them Ladies in Waiting 1 & 2.
I'd like to do the next one a little bigger. I've actually come across a copyright free image of my Lady in Red that I use for my blog avatar! Very happy about that I am.

Also made another one of the bookmarks that I posted about last year and added them all to the site as well. They're rather fun to do, if not a little tedious with the cutting out of the little figures. All part of the passion, yes?
I hope to make them a category all of their own.

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. ~ Henry Van Dyke

Something new and different for my online store!

These first two pics are of small cushions that were part of an order for a good friend (thanks Chris), and the photos are of her gorgeous little neice. These were a lot of fun to make.

Tonight I finally put up a post on my little store advertising the fact that I can make these little cushions to order using the customer's personal photos.

Another big step outside my personal square!! :)

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And how lucky am I? This is a pic of all the goodies I won last week in a very generous giveaway by Cherie from Waste Not Do Want.

She has a lovely little blog over there. Thanks so much again Cherie.

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some lovely vintage images for you!

I love to look through vintage photos and postcards and thought I'd share a couple with you that I picked up a few weeks ago on one of my secondhand/op shop runs with Joolz.

This first one is a small photo taken by Richard Keene, 52 High Street, Burton-on-Trent. Sometimes the backs of these photos can be almost as interesting as the photo itself! I should have taken a shot of the back of this one too I suppose.

I'm so loving this young woman, with her "almost" smile lighting up her face, making her much more relaxed looking than they usually were in those days!

This one is a postcard written to Polly by Walter. Obviously they were an item, judging by the message on the back, which is below. He had to squeeze his goodbye and kisses in upside down on the top, to fit it all in!
Such a sweet loving message. Look at all those kisses! Lucky girl, don't you think? :) I've never had one, anything like that, sent to me! (((sigh)))

Well, if you can use these in your project, please feel free. As I picked them up in the "public domain", I understand there should be no problem with copyright? Hope not anyhoo.
Enjoy!!

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Remember a couple of posts ago I had a pic of our youngest cat sprawled along the top of the sofa?
Well, I've come to the conclusion that "weird" genes are definitely passed on in cats as well as other species of life on this planet!
I took this pic a day or two after the one of Kit. This is her mother, Puss, sprawled on the carpet in this way that is peculiar to both cats. Flat on the belly and both back legs straight out the back.
Our other older cat doesn't do this, but I have heard of others that do. Mother and daughter lie in this fashion quite a lot! So funny to see when they're both doing it, side by side.
We think it's amusing anyway! But doesn't take much to amuse us!

Love is the master Key that opens the gates of Happiness. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hearts and Cats. Oh yes, and a little bear.

Not long until the changeover for The Chocolate Crow again (on the 15th), and I've sent all our items in with a pinch of time to spare. This month's theme is Valentine's as well as general items.

As you can see I've followed the theme and put up a sweet romantic heart that I've sewn a heart shaped doiley to, along with other embellishments. The image hanging from it is a copy of a vintage photo of an ancestor of mine. She looks so pretty.

Joolz has made a very sweet little mohair bear and sat it in an old tin that she has added vintage sewing bits and bobs to,

......and Clare has made a lovely prim heart shaped cushion, to which she has added some of her Redwork stitchery to.




I've added these next pics to the post just because I thought they were so cute, and wanted to share them! :)

The first was taken by my husband after he walked into the loungeroom, spotted our youngest cat Kit and just couldn't resist. Talk about chilled out!! LOL. We've never seen her do this before and had a good giggle at her.

At the same time our oldest one Pushka was having a siesta out on the front verandah in a box of grass that I had planted up and put there just for her, would you believe?
Now they all sleep in it! What chance has the grass got??

For me, one of the pleasures of cats' company is their devotion to bodily comfort. ~ Compton Mackenzie