All figured out...

It's the last day of the year and in The Shopping Sherpa household that means only one thing: accounts!

This year is a real doozy. Not only do I have the usual personal end-of-month accounts for December (in 4 currencies, just to make things more challenging) I have the half-financial year budget update, the eBay December accounts for The Shopping Sherpa plus the TSS business accounts for November and December (as I was away for the end of November and haven't quite got round to doing that update)

Urgh! I think I need a stiff drink. Would that go under Medical, dental & hair or should I stick it in Food & alcohol?

For those of you who celebrate New Year's Eve, have a good (and safe) night. I'll see you all bright and fresh next year...

Seven Things Spring/ Summer Week 17: and so the year ends

In:

* Sophie Gray cookbook, black & white apron, pot holder & oven mitt, set of bird-shaped clothespegs, Flushed Away DVD (Christmas gift)

* New Zealand Home & Building souvenir edition from the Auckland City Art Gallery 1950s show, 2 Bro'town DVDs (Christmas gift)

* White handtowel (Christmas gift)

* 2 cards, 2 cutouts, 1 necklace, 3 dolls house miniatures (gift)

* 1 length of black denim, 4 video cases, 4 Maxwell Williams White Basics cereal bowls from Taph

* 1 frame for this picture.

Total In this week: 28

Out:

* 54 dolls house miniatures: donated to Janet

* 1 set placemats: gift

* 1 Groovy green bag: gift

Total Out this week: 56

Shake-it-all-about:

* Placemats

* Groovy green bag

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 242

Oh - and if you want to see some impressive numbers, pop over and see the results of Taph's week!

Dear Jesse

No I'm not ignoring your 7 things tag.

I've just spent the last three months trying to narrow down the list of things that make me happy in my home to a mere 7.

Today, as I did the big Christmas clean of the lounge, I realised what a thankless task that was and so decided to show why, using just one room of my home as an example.
See here, with notes.

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to tag 7 people. So if you're reading this and feel like it please share photos and explanations of 7 things you use every day or 7 things that make you happy and link back to this post!

Bowled over

The challenge is complete!

It took a whole 14 months, far too many visits to op shops to count, a grand total $19.20 and Taph (who found 4 cereal bowls on her frugalling rounds today) but I finally have a Maxwell Williams White Basics dinner set for 8 (plus some spares). For under $20 (I already said that, didn't I?)

Here's the final round up for The Great Maxwell Williams Dinner Set Challenge of 2006/2007:

Dinner plates: 8

Total cost: $6.10

Side plates: 9 (Oops!)

Total cost: $2.40

Cereal bowls: 9 (Double oops!)

Total cost: $1.00

Cups & saucers: 10 cups & saucers (Oh well..)

Total cost: $9.70

GRAND TOTAL: $19.20

Feeling kinda crafty

This afternoon in a manic Oh my God I'm so late with Christmas presents panic I finally had a brilliant idea and made J a set of placemats using this fabric from February last year (see, I knew I'd work out what to do with it!) backed with this green fabric bought 9 months later.

Phew! Perfect colours for J's house so she'll be happy and I'm happy because I have one less overdue present to stress about. Plus I used some stash, shook some stuff about and had an Out to count (but is it one set of placemats or six individual placements. Or do I count two bits of fabric removed from the stash?! Ahahahahaha!)

Wanted

I'm (finally) putting together my proposal to be included in the Canberra Museum and Gallery's Cabinets of Curiosities series late next year. One thing is bugging me - I don't have a Caroline's Home house as part of my collection:If you happen to have one or know of one which is looking for a good home please let me know!

Happy happy joy joy!

I need to do a little happy dance.

While you're waiting you might like to go see why.

(That spot has only been empty since April 2006 and it took Janet about 2 hours to fill it up for me. And she even beat my self imposed deadline by 6 days. What a star!)

and all through the flat

there was no chocolate to be found!
(Wonder who ate all that?)

Twas the day before Christmas

I've been getting me some culture and watching me some Tarantino.

(Muppet style, Bien sûr...)

Seven Things Spring/ Summer Week 16: back on track

In:

* 7 magazines
* 2 Homebake07 CDs (free from the newsagents - 1 to keep, 1 to give away)
* 3 pairs tortoiseshell knitting needles ($4 total)
* 1 pot plant (gift)
* 2 books ($3 total)
* 2 champagne top magnets, 3 embroidered vintage hankies, 1 picture frame (gift)
* 1 book (gift)

Total In this week: 22

Out:

* 1 dead bra: bin
* 1 dead pedicure toe separators: bin
* 2 knitted washcloths: gifts
* 2 old magazines: donated to Taph to pass down the chain after she's read them
* 1 old Plan magazine, 1 old Powerhouse Museum magazine: recycled
* 1 large bag no longer required bits of paper and stuff from the filing cabinet: recycled
* 2 plastic folders beyond redemption: bin
* 1 Royal Caribbean souvenir glass from my first cruise in 2002: posted to a cruise buddy who collects such things
* 1 bracelet: given to Taph to be upcycled
* 1 Groovy Green Bag: gift
* 2 Christmas postcards: given to Taph
* 4 coloured pillowcases I don't want that I got with doona covers I do want (for sewing), 1 tray mat, 1 set of Christmas window clings, 1 polycotton waffle weave bathrobe (for the spare room which hasn't existed for almost 2 years), 1 black and white "mod" dress (which has been waiting for over a year to be listed on eBay), 3 plastic black and white bangles to match, 1 brand new black hoodie bought off eBay which is polycotton and not cotton as listed and also just slightly too small (which is the whole reason I thought I'd banned myself from buying clothes on eBay!), 1 pair of Prudence Chastity d'sprett's glasses and 1 bag: Smith Family.
* 2 posters bought from The National Gallery Shop about 5 years ago and never framed: recycled.

Total Out this week: 30

Shake-it-all-about:

* Still working on that stole from last week
* 2 groovy green bags for gifts

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 214

Bucketing down

So much for summer. Since I've been back from holidays it seems like it's rained almost every day and today's storm was a doozy requiring the following* to be added to the decor in my office:It was the sort of day where you stay hunkered inside and make soup for lunch. Which I did. And Taph came round (once the weather cleared a little) to help eat it and share my yearly viewing of Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of fire and Robbie the Reindeer: Legend of the Lost Tribe (I'm very excited to see there's a third part, Close Encounters of the Herd Kind due out this year!)

Taph bought gifties including the most amazing vintage (antique?) hand embroidered silk handkerchief:and champagne fridge magnets made from Danny Seo's instructions:
All in all it was a very relaxing Saturday. Just what's needed at this time of the year.

( Happily when I called the real estate agent they had a roof fix it man round quick smart. I'm very impressed...)

Sorted.

Well not completely sorted but I'm pretty happy with what I managed to deal with today after I officially declared it the first day of the Christmas break (with a slight hiccough on Monday when I have to do some work):

* The To be filed tray is empty. The stuff is filed. The scary thing is I found things in there dated 2006 so I obviously didn't do any filing over Christmas last year... I also threw a lot of stuff into the recycling bin while I was sorting.

* I finally FINALLY managed (I think) to convert my Optus bill from paper-based to web-based after a saga covering many years.

* There is no longer a teetering pile of Lundby stock with damaged packaging in the corner of my office floor because they're now listed here and stacked neatly on my stock shelves.

It's a pity I still haven't finished making my Christmas presents but at least I've cut a couple of them out after making major inroads into refinding my workroom. (It was used as a general dumping ground for mess from the rest of the house before I went away so the place looked presentable for my house sitters...)

All is calm...

This is about as Christmassy as it's going to get round here.

A Christmas mince pie (lovingly handmade by an Elf at the Woolworths factory), some relevantly coloured knitting (Princess B's stole - up for the award of The World's Most Boring Knitting Project - which I worked on while I was away but didn't get finished) and a suitably festively coloured bottle of my favourite alcoholic ginger beer.

And since the weather is unseasonally cool and wet at the moment , this is about the perfect way to spend the evening...

First Law of Cats

If you place newspaper (or any other reading matter) on an otherwise empty floor, a cat will always choose to sit itself in the middle of it and not on the other (clear) floor.

Happy feet, I've got those Happy Feet...

I may have a lawn long enough to lose the cat in, a pile of washing to rival Everest and enough sorting out to last me to the New Year but at least I've got yummy tootsies - Princess B and I decided to treat ourselves yesterday and since I didn't have my usual red polish with me I opted for a more casual look to help me slide through the Christmas break...

Seven Things Spring/ Summer Weeks 12-15

In:

* Bags: 2
* Books: 5
* CDs: 2
* Dolls house minis: 7
* Fabric pieces: 3
* Gifts: 16
* Magazines: 9
* Monogrammed cutlery sets: 1
* Pears: 1
* Sheets: 2 sets plus 2 individual.
* Souvenirs: 14
* Stationery: 6

Total In for the period: 70

Out:

* 1 metal sugar bowl bought here: given to V as it matches her teapot and I've never used it.
* 1 yoghurt maker: Taph asked if she could borrow it while I'm away to experiment with making her own soy yoghurt. I'm buying my yoghurt these days so said she can keep it.
* September 2007 US Vogue: donated to Taph to read and pass on down the chain.
* Groovy green bag and washcloth: gift
* 1 2000 edition Singapore guidebook: donated to our waitress at The Schooner Bar on board Rhapsody of the Seas.
* 1 beautiful white vase: broken in transit home and put in the bin.

Total Out for the period: 7 (I could have got rid of more but I've been home a total of 4 days during the past 4 weeks!)

Shake-it-all-about:

* 1 moss stitch stole

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 206

Photos

I've just loaded my Lombok and Bali photos up to Flickr.

Australia and Singapore photos to follow but not til next week. I've just discovered my work Christmas party has moved from Friday night to tomorrow night so I have to leave for Sydney a day earlier than planned...

Shattered

One souvenir that didn't make it home:Unfortunately one that did was a stinking head cold that pretty much everyone on the ship was given as part of their holiday package. Lovely. Mine was the deluxe edition with added nosebleeds.

I'm also at that "back from holidays" stage where I wake up and have no idea where I am until it slowly dawns that perhaps I'm not at some weird hotel which supplies room service cats but rather at home and that the fluffy creature snuggled up beside me is my own.

Gotta love it.

Outta here

Oh - and if you want to watch me sail tomorrow night there's a webcam here that you can control. The Overseas Passenger Terminal is opposite the Opera House (but should be easy to spot because there'll be a hulking great ship there tomorrow!). There's only one little itty bitty problem which is we're not sure exactly when we're leaving...

Sydney Port Authority say we're off at 8pm, RCCL think we leave at 10pm. So maybe see if there's movement at around 8:05pm and come back in a couple of hours if there's not.

Toodles!

(World time converter here. Chose Australia/Sydney)

Snap!

Taph and I playing snap with the lovely Aesop free samples Janet at DJs Woden gave me last night for my trip.

"Mandarin Facial Hydrating Cream? Snap!

I made sure I shared my booty because I'm a nice girl...

A burning STS question

Transcript of an email conversation that occured last night:

TSS:
Are condoms consumables? :-P

Taph:
Dunno? Are they flavoured?

There's not much else one can do with a used one, so yes, they are consumables. Green As a Thistle had a post about greener condoms recently - in the last couple of weeks.

TSS:
Not flavoured. Very very over their use by date. Oddly enough.

Rats. That's what I thought. Which also probably means I can't count the samples of products I'm taking with me as Outs either....

I knew you'd be The Voice of Frugal Reason.

Taph:
Nothin sadder'n out of date condoms.

TSS:
And they say stash building is wishful thinking...

Taph:
Heh. At least yarn doesn't have a use-by date.

TSS:
And if you happen to have a ball of wool on you people don't call you fast

Taph:
Doesn't fit so discretely into a wallet, though.

Busy and bored

Many things to do. Still so long to go (or so it feels). I'm feeling rather frustrated - like I want to lean out the window and scream "HURRY UP ALREADY!" to Friday. Like that would help.

Instead I've been keeping busy with vitally important stuff like watching the entire first season of Ugly Betty on Saturday night and Sunday (and feverishly knitting cupcakes). Mowing the back lawn. Dosing my new vintage embroidered pillow cases with TLC (And bleach. And laundry whitener. And a good soak in a bucket of washing powder. And lemon juice. Resulting in pristine white pillowcases. Yay me!) Talking to Richard, the rhubarb plant that followed me home from one of Saturday's fetes. And cleaning bits of the bathroom that haven't had attention for a incy wincy bit too long and need to be sorted for the friends who are staying here while their bathroom is renovated.

Oh - and cleaning and arranging my new pear collection in place of honour. Vitally important stuff, as I said.

Seven Things Spring Week 11: no partridges, lots of pears

In:
(optional: to be sung to a strangulated version of The Twelve Days of Christmas)

* On the first day of the week Taph came to dinner and gave me 42 crafty goodies
* On the second day of the week I went to the DJs Christmas Preview Evening and bought 1 set of bath towels, 4 pairs of knickers and 3 pairs of pantyhose (all nicely discounted)
* On the third day of the week I picked up Sept 2007's Living Etc from the newsagents
* On the fourth day of the week the Golf fabric to make a Christmas gift arrived from eBay and I bought 2 pairs of black trousers for the cruise and 1 Actil First Line Queen sized sheet set - the last one in Canberra at 30% off and no payments til February.
* On the fifth day of the week I followed the frugalling fairy and came home with 5 items. I also bought 4 stitch markers.
* On the sixth day of the week Taph and I had a frugalling frenzy, hitting two fetes and 5 op shops and I came home with this:
(Brand new still with tag attached removable bike basket with carry handle: $1. Brand new still in packet pantihose: $2. Vintage white embroidered with daisies pillowcases (need a little TLC to bring them back to full working glory): $5. Book: $2. 5 metres of vintage white pom pom trim: $2. Small cute white jug-thingy: 50 cents. Ball of Cleckheaton 8 ply: $1. Container of knitting needles of which I took 2 and left the rest with Taph to distribute to various new homes:$5. And more pears for the collection: Large glass pear jar: $2.50, Wooden pear: $2, another cut glass pear like Friday's $3.00 and paper mache pear: $1.)
* On the seventh day of the week I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that I'd still meet my Seven Things goal for the week.

Total In this week: 78

Out:

* 2 handmade goodies heading off as Christmas presents
* 17 old UK marie claire magazines: donated to Lifeline Book Fair. That's it - the last of my UK marie claire collection assessed and purged. It's a bittersweet moment as I've been lugging this lot round since 1989. *sniff* But on a good note, the empty space these created under the stairs has now been filled with my travel bits and books which makes much more sense as that's where I store my suitcases. And the cupboard in the craft room where the travel stuff was now holds piles of neatly folded fabric. Which used to live on the floor.
* 15 Christmas decorations: donated to Salvos (don't panic, I still have the blow up Christmas trees, the hand knitted stocking and the button wreath!)
* 1 set of old towels: donated to The Smith Family
* 1 metal CD holder that I'd stupidly bought months ago thinking I'd send it to my mother in NZ (what was I thinking? Obviously not about postage costs!): donated to The Smith Family
* 9 books: sold to Booklore
* Spare motorcycle helmet: bin (while I was under the stairs pulling out suitcases for the trip and putting away travel stuff I came across my old helmet for the scooter (which I sold in January 2006 to pay for my 40th birthday trip to the USA) and the old old helmet I'd kept as a spare in case I needed to give someone a lift on my scooter. I really should throw away my old helmet as well since if I ever buy another scooter I'll need a new helmet but I just couldn't yet...)
* Also no longer under the stairs, 2 roman blinds I had up in my bedroom in New Zealand. That I shipped here in 1996 in case I moved into a place which needed window coverings. And have been sitting under the stairs since 1999 when I moved into this place. I figure if I ever move from here into a place that needs window coverings they'll probably not fit anyway: Salvos.
* Wooden dolls house shaped shelf thingy, spare copy of The Decorated Dolls House given to me by Taph and a broken (but easily fixable) miniature cot: gifted to Janet.
* 27 postcards, given to Taph to donate to her postcard-collecting friend.
* 1 mangy old laundry hand towel: bin. I got this towel for my 30th birthday. It had my initials monogrammed on it. I've held onto it for far too long for sentimental reasons but as I dried my hand the other day I realised it really did look disgusting, especially with all the stains from where I'd dried my hands after not quite washing all the stain off them when staining various wooden things.
* 25 bits and bobs of old broken and not resurrectable (is that a word?) dolls house accessories: bin.

Total Out this week: 104

Shake-it-all-about:

* 4 white wash cloths
* 1 "coconut ice" wash cloth
* 2 black wash cloths
* 18 cotton cupcakes
* 1 bunny wash cloth and a bunny pouch
* 1 pear doorstop requested by Princess B and not quite finished.
* 2 soft trees: only a year late and mainly because I wanted to use up these buttons (which have been sitting in a tray in the craft room ever since). I used Little Birds' soft tree pattern and leftover fabric from this project.

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 269 (or an average of 24 a week or 3 and a half things a day)

And that's me for the season. Although the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a change in the tag name for these posts and on the sidebar. Yes, Taph and I (and hopefully a few of you) have decided that STS also works rather well as Seven Things Summer and so we're continuing on through December, January and February. I'm still to decide if I'm counting while I'm away and we also need to discuss how to handle Christmas.

Friday frugalling finds

It all started innocently enough. I needed to go out to Mitchell and drop off the last load of UK marie claires to the Lifeline Bookfair bin and decided while I was there to drop some other stuff off at Salvos.

But then Miss Daisy hit autopilot and headed straight across the new Gunghalin Drive extension and parked herself in front of Vinnies Belconnen and sat there looking smug. Minx.

Here's what came home with me today from my op shop wanderings:* Spare Bloom oilburner: $1. I have one identical to this which I bought to replace my original one which eventually developed a leak. I guess the current one will eventually do the same so I was happy to find me a replacement for such a good price.

* Cut glass pear: $4. Bit exxy but I had to get it. I'm a Canberran therefore it's built into my DNA to like pear shaped things.

* Square jar to add to the craft room collection: 50 cents.

* Lovely pyrex bowl with funky 50s design in black and gold on the side: $4. There was a matching smaller one as well but the pattern had rubbed off in places so I left it behind. I'm finding it interesting seeing what pyrex is being priced at around the op shops. Some places don't seem to recognise it as collectible (Salvos Mitchell recently had two bowls for $1 each - a small one with an ivy design and a large one with a geometric orange design. Later the same day I saw a pyrex divided dish at Vinnies Phillip for $8...)

And then there's this:1 kilo of Bendigo Woollen Mills alpaca in geranium. Plus bamboo needles and a stitch holder (and a half-knitted project): $40.

Yes, I know, slightly more than I'd usually pay but it's so soft. And beautiful. And perfect for knitting a stoley wrappy thing I promised Princess B to replace one she has that's a bit worn out. I had to laugh though, the woman who took it out of the display case for me was trying to sell it to me by saying "the needles alone are worth $15". I looked at her. Blinked. Replied "Errr, no they're not. I get bamboos from you guys for $2 a pair." She looked a little taken aback.

Oh, and since I seemed to be on an utter "let's sabotage the figures for Sunday" bender I picked these up at the Newsagents (of all places!) this afternoon:

Cruise ship stitch markers. 50 cents each.

This time in exactly a week

my plane to Sydney will be taking off. (Actually I think I can hear this week's version as I type!)

I feel like I could happily recycle this post to mark the occassion (maybe with the addition of this photo from May 2006) as I'm busy at the moment doing 5 weeks worth of accounts at once and paying massive amounts of rent and stuff to tide me over til I get back. Scary stuff...

How cool is this?

the big knit: over the last few months in the UK, people have been busily knitting little hats for innocent smoothie bottles. "And these behatted bottles are now available in Sainsbury’s – for every one sold, innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 50p to Age Concern. If we hit our target of 400,000 hats, we’ll raise £200,000 to help keep older people warm this winter. Good eh?"

Go check out the gallery of hats of the week - some pretty cool designs in there...

Hopping some bunny will like this...

I finally got my Pay it Forward gifty finished and in the mail. One more thing marked off my things to get done before I go away list. Hurrah!

Magnificence in miniature

Head over here to hear m1k1 talk about how she knits her exquisite dolls house bedspreads. I'm in awe!

Cupcakes, cruising and champagne

Introducing my latest cupcake flavour - cotton!
Showing off my cruise documents which I picked up last night. Very happy to see that gratuities are included already - one less lot of money I need to budget for.

Making the yearly decision later in the night over a glass (or two, or three) of free champagne.

42

Would not be the answer to life, the universe and everything* but the number of Ins that stampeded through the front door with Taph last night. I'm not complaining (much) that I now have a huge challenge ahead of me meeting the final Seven Things Spring goal before I go away.

Because this is what arrived:

4 pairs of vintage cream knitting needles to add to the collection (or "kinetic sculpture" as Taph likes to call it):

Two lovely thick cotton vintage sheets for The Stash:

5 metres of Michael Miller Have a Seat fabric. (It's BLACK and WHITE and has CHAIRS on it and was only (wait for it) $2 a metre! I now own 5 metres and have an itching to do some PJ stitching...)

35 balls of cotton in various shades to feed the wash cloth obsession (with the promise (threat?) of more to come when I finish this lot):

Ahhh... I'm a lucky girl indeed...

(*actually maybe yarn, fabric and needles are the meaning of life?)

ARGH!

Look what finishes the day before I arrive in Singapore!

Sulking now.

Shop talk

The nine vintage fabric patches above have just been listed in my Made It store - just in time for Christmas present making! But be quick, there's only three of each design available (except for the butterfly which I only have two of as one has a small hole in it)

In other shop news there's a 20% off sale this week in my eBay Lundby store Runout Department - these are the last of these pieces available and will revert to full price on Friday.While you're there you might like to pick up a Lundby advent calender for the countdown to Christmas. From clothes for the Lundby family to accessories and Christmas decorations for the dolls house, there’s a treat for every day in December up to and including Christmas Eve. And I have two designs available.

Do you think I'll find a pot of gold under my stairs?

It's official. I live at the end of the rainbow. Actually, if you look closely there are two in the picture. Does that mean I get a second pot of gold?

Seven Things Spring: The power of (week) 10

In:

* 27 mobile phone keypads

* 10 white plastic bottle tops, 3 miniature giftwrapped boxes, 1 handmade card (cheers Janet!)

* 2 pieces of printed drill and 1 knitting pattern from Taph

* Urbis Design Annual 2007 (Newsagents)

* December 2007 Aust marie claire (subscription)

* November 2007 AMEA Tiny Times

* 3 sets of white taps.

* Second copy of Fall 2007 Knit.1 mag (I emailed them because my summer issue hadn't turned up by the time they announced they'd released the fall one. They sent me replacement copies of both. Silly (but nice) people!)

* Glass jar for keeping buttons in ($3 at Salvos - sorry forgot to photograph it!)

* 8 balls of white cotton.

* Length of very colourful fabric swapped with Janet (see below)

Total In this week: 61 (gulp!)

Out:

* 1 pump pack of sunscreen. When I was sorting out my bathroom cabinet to make room for last week's influx of skin stuff I did the yearly check of expiry dates. Obviously I missed last year's check as this had an expiry date of 2006 so out it goes. I doubt I'll replace it since I only use sunscreen once or twice a year and I have a couple of small sample packs in the cupboard: bin

* 1 dead white cotton sheet. (It's had a good life - I bought it on sale in 1992 for a whopping $7. I contemplated moving this into my craft room to cut up and repurpose but I already have at least one other in there waiting to be dealt with): given to mechanic friend to turn into rags.
* 1 broken Mary Quant travel umbrella. I really had to face the fact that no matter how long I kept it it wasn't going to magically mend itself. *sniff*: bin (even though, after seeing this I was sorely tempted to keep it just in case I ever needed to make a bat costume...)

* 1 little cupcake: given to Janet in return for a supply of bottle tops for the inside of future cupcakes

* 2 fashion magazines: given to Taph

* 7 books destined to be Book Crossed on the ship: sent to Sydney with Princess B's sister

* 8 Candyfloss for the brain books to be read and disposed of while on holiday: also sent to Sydney with Princess B's sister. Who knows I might get round to registering them for Book Crossing as well...

* 1 Christmas tablecloth and 1 Barbeque towel, the last of the stuff from my general swaps drawer: also sent to Sydney. Hopefully Princess B will want to keep them otherwise I'm sure they'll be passed on to a good home!

* 8 old summer T shirts of varying ages (up to 10 years) and stages of wear which I know I'll never ever wear again, 2 black plastic sellotape dispensers (a girl only needs so many), 1 op shopped cushion cover I was going to send to someone but changed my mind: donated to The Smith Family

* 14 wooden clothes pegs which I probably won't ever use but Janet will.

* Second copy of Fall 2007 Knit.1 mag: given to Taph

* Large length of this fabric, swapped with Janet for fabric above

* 20 old UK marie claire magazines: donated to Lifeline Book Fair

Total Out this week: 70 (phew!)

Shake-it-all-about:

* 1 little cupcake
* 1 tiny cupcake
* 1 teeny tiny cupcake
* 4 white cotton washcloths
* 1 Mama tote bag and 1 Groovy Green bag destined for gifts

Net items out so far during Seven Things Spring: 243

"Just"ing

Nothing much to report today. It was a late night last night so I had a slow start to the day and the trend continued.

There was a quick run to the supermarket when I realised there was no milk for tea, a visit from a mechanically minded friend who spent some time with me trying to work out why Miss Daisy's interior light isn't working (and in the process we buggered up the horn. Oops - I think Miss Daisy is off to the car doctor next week...) a little bag making (order finished and ready to pack so I can post it tomorrow. Yay!), some washing, food making, tidying, blog reading and wash cloth knitting, bed making and magazine sorting.

None of which is really blog-worthy let alone photograph-worthy.

Maybe I should share the song which started going through my head yesterday and I guess will be around for a while (which is a pity because I hate it hate it HATE IT!):

Spotted in traffic at lunchtime...

"Is something too pristine? Call Munters and we'll wreck it for you. Chose from water or fire damage. Or ask us about our special discount for a combined package. Remember, it's the messing up that counts!"

Dear Frugalling Fairy,

Has anyone ever told you you have a warped sense of humour?

Love
The Shopping Sherpa

(8 balls white cotton. $3 the lot. Salvos Phillip)

Doing a little tap dance

One of the problems with living in an old house with cheap rent is that things tend to fall apart. And not get fixed*. Whenever it rains, for instance, I get a wet bathroom floor. Which is a bit of a pain when I go to the loo half asleep in the middle of the night (luckily we're in drought so it doesn't rain very often!). There's been a leak in the cupboard under the basin for 8 years. I keep my stuff in a plastic box with a sponge on top to absorb the water.

And the hot tap on my bath shattered months ago, just after the plumber swapped my basin taps for the bath taps because "they're about to fall apart and you use the basin more". It really hasn't worried me as I don't have baths because of the water restrictions.

But yesterday I discovered these at Salvos: white taps almost the same as my dead brown taps. $2 the lot (and of course I forgot to pick up the matching bath set which was $5 so will have to go back for them today. Duh!..).

Now I have to Google how to change a tap. And have a bath to celebrate!

(* Fair's fair, some things do get fixed)

Special news bulletin

I'm off to see The Special Beat in Sydney on Jan 3rd next year!

How completely excited am I?!

Pity I no longer have a scooter to ride there on...

I just had to share

the beautiful work Janet McKinney (who just started blogging here) brought with her to show me yesterday when she delivered some white bottlecaps for my future little cupcake knitting escapades.

A beautiful miniature knitted layette,a miniature quilt with feather stitching embellishment (each of these squares is 1 cm across!) plus a clothespeg doll with a delicately crocheted dress and bonnet.And a knitted dress which perfectly complements this vintage German Ari rubber doll (she's about 3 inches high).
Thanks for sharing your stunning work with me, Janet!