Not Second Hand Saturday

I'm usually out of town for Easter so it came as a bit of a shock to discover all my fave second hand haunts closed for the weekend. Eek!

Luckily I have one I prepared earlier (as they say). You know when you're off sick and by mid afternoon you're getting restless? Thursday was like that - too late to go to work for the rest of the day so what's a girl to do but return to the whiz-bang spreadsheet and decide to mark at least one new Op Shop (for me) off the list. And I chose one which was (apparently) only open during the week. Of course when I got there I saw a large sign on the door saying they were open Saturday mornings as well. Pah!

Meet The Smith Family, my charity of choice (this is where I donate the stuff I'm getting rid of and I also sponsor a Learning For Life child through them):
Not the most welcoming entrance but it looks like the space was originally supposed to be a garage. Inside they stock mainly clothing (with one of the best plus size ranges I've seen in an op shop yet), with a small area for bric a brac and another small area for manchester. Their wool was in two different areas (which I steered clear of) and they had a small bin of fabric (also ignored). That black and white sleeve directly below the Boyswear sign looked promising but it was a rugby style sweatshirt which is so not me. Pity.

I didn't leave empty handed though. Got these two beauties for 50c each and was tossing up about a white curtain with tiny black daisies on it but it was a) $10 and b) so obviously not destined for a window that I had to leave it in the end.While I was down south I popped into Vinnies in Phillip: Where I picked up two more winter tops for $6 each (do you see a theme emerging in my buying?)And a white plastic flour sifter for $1 (which I forgot to photograph as it is downstairs waiting to be washed). I completely ignored this area except to take a quick picture:Last stop before I headed home was Vinnies in Curtin (I forgot to take pictures there - next time, hopefully) which had 25% off all books. So I picked up the following for a total of $4.50:Single white email, The Queen and I and Girls' night out. And guess what? I already own them all so first person to leave a comment gets them! One book each, please...

This morning I did make it to Ross's Relic's in Yass (and, of course, the Vinnies there was closed). Yass is a small country town about 40 minutes away from Canberra and Ross's Relics is a massive place with a neverending warren of rooms groaning with stuff:

Unfortunately the prices had me groaningso I came away empty handed.

In the afternoon I met up with S for a very yummy lunch at Old Parliament House followed by a wander round the exhibition Mrs Prime Minister: Public Image, Private Lives . Another excellent and accessible introduction to important yet often overlooked women in Australia's history. Oh - and some great outfits and bags as well!

And since we weren't able to take photos inside here's a lovely typical Canberra tourist shot: Look! People!!

(Soundtrack: Massive Attack, Protection)

Another Finished Object

I don't think I can really call this a Use What You Have Month Finished Object as it was started last month. No matter, a Finished Object is a Finished Object and what a fine one this is especially as it was made with leftovers.

Friday "Frugal and Free" File

1. Free chocolate from my lovely Cuzzie C in Christchurch. Just what I needed to feed The Snot Monster on Tuesday. Yay Cuzzie C! Boo nasty me for not replying to her last letter! 2. Free chocolate from the agency I temp through.

I'm thinking I need to have an Easter egg hunt this year, Which will be challenging as a) I'm not sure when exactly you're supposed to have them over the Easter period and b) I live alone. So the plan is to get heniously drunk and hide the eggs. Next morning when I wake up I should have no memory of what I did the night before so the hunt will be fair and square.
3. Frugal. I found new terry black and white kitchen hand towels at the supermarket. They work out to be $2.50 each.

(Soundtrack: Lasgo, Some Things)

A little post

$2 at lunchtime. I worry that I'll never get to watch a new release video again...

(Soundtrack: Goldfrapp, Felt Mountain)

I god a cod id da doze...

Bother, and I thought I'd got away without succumbing with my colleagues falling to the left and the right of me over the past week. Any slight runnyness of the schnoz I'd decided was soley due to spending too much time around a certain mohair jumper.

But last night after a major sneezing fit it became abundantly clear The Snot Monster had come for its yearly visit. Right on schedule. Great, just what I need to celebrate being exactly one month out from my Big Adventure - to lose a day's pay. Blerk!

Anyway. I did my usual trick of trying to bore The Snot Monster into an early departure. I sorted through a pile of papers I've had sitting round for months. I pulled all my shoes out of my wardrobe, vacuumed it out and put back the winter ones and stored the summer ones away. I made my way through a jumbo sized pile of ironing. And it seems to have worked.

I'm feeling much chirpier and less snuffly and have even found the brain space to start the Fiona Walker I have out of the library - candyfloss for the brain which is about the level I can cope with today. I have to agree with the sole reviewer on Amazon that it does seem all a little, well, try hard. Which is a pity as I've always looked forward to reading her books as she has a wicked sense of humour and pun ability. If you've not read her before I suggest starting with Snap Happy.

Oh - and I accidentally went frugalling this afternoon. I didn't mean to but I walked over to the post office to check my post box and somehow my legs walked that extra block and a half without me really noticing until it was too late...Black and white stripy skivvy: $6. Perfect for work under my black shift dress. Or on the weekend with skinny jeans. Or with a black mini. Or... or.... or....
Laundry hamper to store my packing peanuts in: $5.

And to keep you amused here's my craft link for the day: Knitting for psychopaths (you've been warned!)

(Soundtrack: Eurythmics, Peace)

And then it was done....

I finally pulled finger last night and finished The Jumper Based On A True Pattern. I did mean to finish it last Monday at Craft Catch up but we held it at J's place and I forgot to take the wool to knit the neckline.

So before I made dinner I sat down and knitted the neckline ribbing and after dinner I sewed it up lickety split, just like that.

And just in time too - it's definately jumper weather. In fact I put the heater on for the first time while I was knitting.

I'm still getting used to actually wearing TJBOATP - in some pictures I look suspiciously like an albino bumble bee (I somehow forgot in the planning of the garment that in Vogue and Elle the Dior jumper is modelled by stick insects who are around 10 foot tall so they look elegant and gazelle-like in them. I, unfortunately am not 10 foot tall nor lithe and gangly)

I'm thinking a wash will sort it all out and we'll be laughing.

Eggstremely happy discovery!

I thought these were off the market as there had been no sign of them at Woolworths so far this Easter.

I even rang my mother in New Zealand to put in my order for an Easter care parcel of them but she said she'd not seen them over there either. Which provoked an "Oh my God Cadbury have stopped making them!" wailing and wringing hand reaction from me.

But this morning there they were looking oh so innocent when I went to the supermarket to pick up chook eggs. I was a happy shopper indeed and was very restrained and only picked up one packet. Any bets on how long it'll last?

Happy discoveries

As you can see The Australian Choreographic Centre did indeed still have red bubbles. Andrew Garrett, to be precise and only $4 a glass. Can life get much better than this?

The performance was mesmerising and the costume for Bluebird breathtaking in the first performance (although the pleb in me did start getting images of Eurovision* at one stage as she ripped the skirt off and had to refrain from bursting into a rousing rendition of "You've got to speed it up, and then you've got to slow it down..." )

Seriously, though I would have to rank this as one of my favorite Risky performances. The second piece, Radha, was a re-interpretation of a performance created by Ruth St Denis in 1906 and was introduced by a talk by Dr Garry Lester, a dance historian who explained some of the background of the piece.

Now I thought I had a passing interest in ballet and knew all the main historic figures but I'd never heard of Ruth St Denis. So I'm intrigued and know I have some serious reading and catching up to do.

There was no mention made of any talk afterwards and it was only that I cheekily said to one of the staff as I left "It just doesn't seem the same without the talk" that we discovered there was indeed a talk but they had forgotten to announce it. So more bubbly was bought and we trooped back into the (now almost empty) theatre to hear from Liz Lea about what she was trying to achieve with the pieces.

So there was my evening. And I'd consider it frugal: $15 for the ticket, $8 for the bubbles.

This morning I woke up obscenely early. I had money in my wallet. This meant only one thing - a trip to Jamison Trash and Treasure Markets at 7am.Where I found a woman selling off what looked like her entire craft stash very very cheaply. I explained that I wasn't allowed to buy anything as I was doing Use What You Have Month (at which point the woman scrabbling through a tub of threads next to me said "Divorce him!") and I scuttled quickly onwards.

You'll never guess what I did buy though. Did I hear you say books? My how clever you are!But just to mix things up a bit I also bought some videos and some CDs.

From top to bottom:

CDs
* Sophie Ellis Bextor, Read My Lips: $4
* Triple J Hottest 100 Vol 4 (double CD): $1
* The The, Infected:$1
* U2, Rattle and Hum: $1

Videos
* The Last Goon Show of All (for Dad): $6
* High Fidelity: $5
* Chicken Run: $3
* Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: $3

Books
* Madonna biography: $5
* Photoshop guide book $4
* Katharine Hepburn biography $2

And then, just as I was leaving I saw this:Acting very nonchalantly I asked the seller "How much for the old bike?" They said "What are you offering?" I pulled out my wallet, counted all my remaining money, looked up and said "$18.80?" expecting to be told to bugger off (especially as I'd seen another old push bike at an earlier stall and they wanted $40 plus I'd also seen one at the Jamison YMCA op shop a couple of weeks back for $45)

But the seller said OK! So I'm no longer the only person in Canberra who doesn't own a push bike. And look! It has a cute springy seat, very cute handles and cool shiny mudguards.

Now all I need (apart from the get it serviced, new tires and a helmet) is a little basket for the front with a daisy attached and then I can ride to work this saving $21.40 a week on bus tickets.

I wonder if I can be bothered painting it black with white spots?

(Soundtrack: Sophie Ellis Bextor, Read my lips)

(*speaking of Eurovision can someone in the USA tell me if it is televised there? Come on, it's a HUGE country with a kazillion TV channels - surely someone's broadcasting it? Or do I have to get my friends to tape it and watch it when I get home?)

You knew I wouldn't last, didn't you?

Go on, admit it. 1 month without frugalling? Yeah, right. All I can say is there were no craft supplies bought. I didn't even dare look in that area, just in case.

And I'm proud to say I saw a skirt for $5 which had fabulous fabric. Just perfect for a bag. Except it's Use What You Have Month. So I put it back on the rack and left the store very quickly. I can still here it calling "but you could take me iiinnnnn and weeeaaaar me until Maaaaaay...."

So here's the haul for today:
From left to right:

* Glass jar with metal lid $1. Perfect for keeping my braids and ric racs in.

* (In jar) Red Mickey Mouse braces for my Dad. $5. I had to call him in NZ on my mobile from Vinnies to see if he still wore braces...

* Embroidered tray cloth $1. Not sure what I'll do with this but it was in perfect condition and it seemed a pity to leave it there. If all else fails perhaps I can send it to Yarnstorm for her collection.

* Vintage milk bottle holder $1. I hummed and harred about this but then decided heck, it was only $1 so bought it. I recently got Amy Butler's Found Style out of the library and so have been inspired to look at things slightly differently. I want to find jars to fit in here and keep stuff in it. (Don't you like that vagueness? Stuff - not sure what just yet..)

* Books! (this is getting a bit too much like Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game and the Cuddly Toy! cry). Fresh Air: $2 (note: if you live in Canberra and like crime fiction Salvos in Belconnen has a huge range of good condition trade paperback books for $2 each - someone's obviously had a cleanout. I was tempted to buy the lot and head straight for Booklore but refrained). Loose Screws (another holiday read) and Staying Alive: first aid made easy $1 total from Vinnies Belconnen. I could have got a third book included for my $1 but couldn't find anything I really wanted.

* Small rectangular dish: $1. I thought I could use it to put my salt and pepper grinders and Parmesan bowl in on the dining table. Of course it was the only thing I dropped as I tried to unlock the car door so one corner is now a little scritched.

* In front, a vintage tupperware container: $4. Originally for nuts and olives I'm going to move the buttons in here as the daisy dish works really well but something with a good strong lid would be more useful in the long run.

Total cost: $16.

Tonight I'm off to the first Risky Manoeuvres of the year. I love Risky Manoeuvres.

Unfortunately it's not because of the cutting edge dance, the edgy choreography, or the element of surprise in each performance. No. I love Risky Manoeuvres because they sell red bubbles before the show. And (in a very civilised move) you can take your drink into the performance with you.

OK, I also like Risky Manoeuvres because after the show the choreographer and dancers come out and answer the audiences questions and explain what they were trying to achieve.

But the red bubbles win out over all. (I tried finding a link to the red bubbles but oddly there is no mention of the winery that sponsors said red bubbles on the Australian Choreographic Centre website. Now I'm worried that there will be no red bubbles this year...)

I told you it was cold the other day...

(Soundtrack: Carmel, Set me free)

Friday "Frugal and Free" File

This is going to be very short and sweet as the only thing to report this week is that J gave me some pumpkin. Yep. That's the total Frugal and Free report for the week.

Actually, I lie. I got bought a coffee by an ex colleague at the beginning of the week and since it wasn't my turn to bring afternoon tea to our weekly staff meeting on Wednesday I got to eat two free biscuits. Really scraping the bottom of the (ahem) barrel, aren't I?

I did get an offer to go see Casanova for free at the ANU Film Group on Thursday but it started at 8pm and I was too tired to stay up til it finished so turned it down.

I finally got my ABN this week. It was free. Does that count?

(Soundtrack: Ace of Base, Da Capo)

Oh My!

I just stumbled across this. Crikey! The National Museum of Australia links to me.

(I think I need to go away and have a Bex and a good lie down now...)

Corners of my Home: Week 9

The smallest room in my home. On the windowsill is a collection of rocks and shells picked up from various wanderings near and far. The vases at the end of the sill were both sale purchases - one from Bayswiss in Sydney and the other from Briscoes in Wellington.

On the wall are two cards I bought in New Zealand with tapa cloth backings framed in sale frames.

In other news we seem to have skipped straight from summer (see here) to winter in a matter of 7 days. There was snow on the Brindabellas this morning and the wind was biting at lunchtime. Temperatures have plummeted from 27 degrees a week ago to a low of 7 today. I wonder when autumn will finally show up or are we stuck in a Monty Python quote again?

(Soundtrack: Weekend Players, Pursuit of Happiness)

UWYHM project #3 completed

An easy one today but one which I've been meaning to do for ages. Miniature place mats made from clear flower stickers bought at the Post Office.

I think they go beautifully with my white Saarinen Tulip Table, orange Panton chairs, silver cutlery from Helsinki and Murano glass bottles from Venice. (If only I could afford to have this sort of furniture full sized...)

(Soundtrack: The The, Mind Bomb)

Second Library related post in two days...

I promise normal transmission will resume soon but I just had to share this link that A sent me late today. I'd rate it up there with this in my best silly songs discovered in the past year...

(Soundtrack: Strawpeople, No New Messages)

Team Library

A friend forwarded a copy of an email she's sent out to her borrowers declaring a library amnesty (otherwise known as bribing them with Easter eggs for return of overdue and missing books). At the bottom she signed herself Team Library.

I immediately pictured a pile of Librarians wearing knitted beanies a la Team Zissou (from The Life Aquatic for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about) and matching T shirts with Team Library on them. Forwarded the email to my colleagues who seemed slightly less excited about the idea.

And then my sleep depraved brain took off on a crazy tangent. I saw The Inaugural Library Olympics with many Team Libraries in different coloured T shirts and beanies.

Events would include competitions to see who could hold the most weight in library books and stagger the length of the field with them. We could have slalom races with library trolleys. And egg and spoon races with Librarians balanced on library trolleys. Indoor events could include Find the Book Based on Random User Specifications ("It's sort of cream coloured with a ladder and a panda on the cover...").

I think I need to get an early night, don't you?

(Soundtrack: Joss Stone, The soul sessions)

Bananas in Pyjamas (UWYHM project #2 completed)

Do excuse me - awfully sleepy as I've stayed up far too late for a school night.

I'm officially bananas as I really should have just gone to bed at a reasonable hour but I'm sure you know what it's like when creativity hits. And it was sorely needed when I realised my fabric was a lot narrower than I had assumed so I didn't have enough for a PJ top. Waaaah!

I toyed with the idea of putting the whole thing aside until next month when I would look for some similar black woven cotton to do clever things with. Maybe a stripe of black around the bottom of the pants and the top made in a mix of black and white.

Then I remembered that I don't wear the PJ top that came with my Jag PJs because I now wear my Erasure tour T shirt with the pants instead. And bingo! Problem solved. And very frugally, too, I may add.

Of course I had may plans for decorating the top - circles of fabric in various combinations. A big rectangle of fabric with groovy stitching. But the final idea stuck and I am now the proud owner of personalised PJs. Weehee!

Tomorrow I'm going to check the piece left over to see if I can manage to get a pair of PJ shorts out of it. And decorate a matching short sleeved T shirt to go with them for summer.

(Soundtrack: Royksopp: Melody A.M.)

UWYHM Project #1 completed

Ta da! After a creative frenzy yesterday afternoon and a final polish this morning I present my very first UWYHM (Use What You Have Month) project:Well, OK, there's more to it than this but I'm pretty stoked at how my shrinky dink pins turned out. I'm sure it had a lot to do with the toaster oven donated by T for the purpose.

Here's my daisy pin cushion. In the spirit of UWYHM, when I discovered my tailor's chalk had gone walkies (at some stage in the last 10 years, that is!) rather than running off to the supermarket to buy a new one I hunted round and decided my silver marker pen would do the job almost as well. The centre is stuffed with the last of my cotton wool balls but I figured they're not really a craft supply as I do use them primarily to take off nail polish so I'm OK to buy another bag. Phew! I have some miniature cushions in the pipeline and they'd be pretty sad without stuffing.

But wait! There's more! Under the pincushion there is a needle book. Very clever (if I say so myself). I borrowed T's spare pinking shears to cut the edges of the wool flannel and now I want a pair myself.Last night the clocks finally went back. Autumn arrived with a bang on the last day of March - almost like Mother Nature finally realised summer should be well over. It's rained twice in the last week (quite an amazing feat and also why it's suddenly got a lot colder), and on Friday morning I awoke to the first fog of the season: To celebrate I pulled the following out of their summer hiding places:(I'm thinking another UWYHM project might be a new hottie cover as that one is looking quite mangy. But first I should check the top cupboard as I probably have a spare new one up there somewhere. I love my top cupboard...)

(Soundtrack: Right On Vol 3: More break beats and grooves from the Atlantic and Warner Vaults)

A pinch and a punch...

Presenting the result of March's Self Portrait Tuesday theme. 31 pictures of me - the equivalent of one per day. All taken within 5 minutes of 7 o'clock.

Am I happy to no longer have to shove a camera in my face twice a day? (Do I need to answer that question?!)

And no sooner do I catch my breath from that I'm straight into Use what you have month. Sheesh!

Did I realise when I signed up that this would mean no frugalling for a whole month? Hell no!

Is this a good way to save money? Errr.... now you mention it.....

So what did I do with all this extra time I had today since I wasn't out and about ratting through various op shops?

First I cleaned up the study, including my noticeboard,

sorted out my buttons (I can't help it - it's the Librarian in me!) Cooked a spot of lunch (lentil, spinach and coriander soup and quick Mediterranean flat bread, if you're interested) Then I did the end of month accounts (won't bore you with a picture of that, or of the house cleaning) before starting a new project...

...and deciding that maybe I should have used a pattern for the Jumper Based on a True Pattern after all!

(Soundtrack: Once in a lifetime, 20 classic New Wave hits)

Friday "Frugal and Free" File

1. Finished! And fabulous! (Did I mention the other F word - frugal?)
Here's what I made out of about half the eyelash yarn Pink Rocket sent me in my swap. A cushion for the new Land of Spare Oom armchair: Total cost in this photo:
Chair: $15
Stain: (already had)
Fabric to cover chair: $4.20
Staple gun: borrowed off J & M
Cushion cover: front yarn, free. Back yarn $1.00 at Op shop
Buttons: $1.80
Cushion inner: $4.00 (I looked at getting one from an op shop but they were pretty disgusting)
Total spent: $26 (and if you're in The USA that's $US18.29) Wee hee! And here's the back. Pity that the two balls of wool that were sold together weren't actually the same. But it's the back of the cushion - who's going to notice?

2. In other frugalling news, my lip conditioner ran out this week. I thought about holding off getting a new one till I headed off but then thought even more frugally than buying duty free and decided to see if I could find something just as good for rather a lot less. And I found this which included a free tube of lip balm. At a saving of around, oh, let's not even go there. And if I discover in the next 6 weeks it's utter crap then I can just buy some more of the Mac stuff.

3. I blew out this year's clothing budget by buying this on Wednesday for a whopping $3. My total spend on clothes since January now stands at $5.50.

4. I got good mail (I'm not mentioning Kristin's package cause it got a rave all to itself)
Thursday's mail bought the latest Inside Out with free notebook (not my taste so if you want it leave a comment and it's yours) and (finally) the cheque for my free chocolate.

I'm rich! I'm rich! Oh OK, I can buy maybe four cups of coffee or two bottles of wine...

5. Free but WTF?! These came free with my bag of baby spinach but I'm still trying to work out why exactly you'd want to buy them. Aren't apples designed to be beautifully portable already? And if all else fails you can just knit an apple cover like this...

6. Frugal (for me) and free (for you). I'd planned yet another trip to Lincraft at lunchtime yesterday to buy all the stuff I need to finish projects in April (whose dumb idea was it for me to join Use what you have month anyway?) But somehow I ended up at Cash em in CDs instead and bought 5 CDs for $10. Total.

These three I already own and like a lot so I thought I could buy them and give them away.

So- first person to bags each title in comments gets it sent to them. Easy as that! Please don't bags all three. (Straight away anyway!)

First up is Erasure, Pop 20. (I love the Amazon quote: "the hits on Pop make the duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure sound like the Rodgers & Hammerstein of synth-pop disco") This is a wonderful intro to the band if you've not heard them before.

Second is Llorca, New Comer an excellent down tempo jazz CD. If you liked St Germain then this is well worth checking out.

Third is Sola Rosa, Solarized which is one of my favorite New Zealand CDs of recent years.

(In case you're wondering I got Black, Wonderful life and China Crisis, Working with fire and steel (Possible pop songs volume 2) both of which I have on vinyl but not CD. Buying the Black brings my versions of the track Wonderful Life up to three)

7. Frugal freaking. With only 9 hours left to buy craft supplies (but who's counting?) to tide me through the next month I did a final visit to Lincraft at lunchtime today and picked up the following:Rather restrained, really. Two metres of black fabric - one metre plain cotton to use with the various black and white bits I have to make... errr... something. One metre of black cotton drill in case I get the hankering to make a bag. One of those cool $2.99 mixed bags of buttons (cause you always need buttons). And a PJ pattern to use with this fabric which I've had since the beginning of the year: And look, four of my favorite things in one fabric (black & white, polka dots, daisies and paisley).

8. Free. I figured it was about time for another cute cat picture:Or, if you prefer, a nice action shot:9. Very very naughty (*blushes and shuffles feet*).

This is supposed to be tofu, parmesan cheese, cucumber, carrots and chickpeas:As you can see it is not tofu, parmesan cheese, cucumber, carrots and chickpeas. But it is beautiful and it is worth the sacrifice of eating rather more tuna and rice than I had planned in the next week to own such a lovely cake rack which I will have forever (as opposed to tofu, parmesan cheese, cucumber, carrots and chickpeas). Right?

(So do you think the "baking tray as magnetic memo board" idea might work? As long as I don't get the urge to make ginger crunch anytime soon... )(Soundtrack: Nice n'Urlich, Everything I do)