Finish it of Friday: this week's challenge might stretch to more than one Friday...

It's been a crazy-busy week. I've been sorting out my tax, guest blogging, and helping with the first Pop Up Office Small Business Fair. 

My Sweet Alice was providing coffee at today's fair, out of a vintage caravan.

 Which made me think of the retro caravan kit I had in stash from Seaside Miniatures.

 And made me decide that I really needed to start building it, based on my love of caravans.

There were other minis on display today: one of the stall holders had this fairy garden on their stall:

 And the venue had a lovely pottery building on display (thankfully, for my budget, sold...)

Gascoigne at Goulburn Gallery was great!

In the Canberra Times art magazine a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that there was a Rosalie Gascoigne exhibition on at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, which is a mere hour up the road.

I love me some Rosalie Gascoigne about as much as I love me some Alex Asch, so of course I had to go. And since I have no job, I could go any time I wanted :-D

Today was the day, and friend Tina joined me for the trip. And, being such mature grown-up people, our first stop in town was a selfie in front of the bum of The Big Merino

(which I shared on Facebook with the title 'Yum yum, sheep's bum, road trips are great fun!'). Yep: completely adult.

Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition

 (especially as we'd drive past Lake George to get there. And had the place to ourselves...)

The day got better when I discovered the children's room at the end of the gallery, which invited us to 'create your own Rosalie Gascoigne inspired [sic] collage and add it to our group work'.

As we read, our plans to visit the local op shops before we had to return home faded away.

 I decided to photograph my pieces with the works that inspired them...

 And, finally, I just had to make a miniature-sized work

which I had to play with once I got home.

The first thing I spotted in the stash when I started looking for inspiration for the scene (because one more 'desk and stuff' or 'sofa and stuff' scene would probably put me to sleep) was this chair from Minisx2:

And, as sometimes happens, the whole story for the scene fell into place. It was a gallery shop, of course! (And what a long time since I've done a gallery...)

And, as happens, things seemed to just jump out of various storage spaces, demanding to join in the fun:

new things. Old things. And things that have been waiting in stash for a while for the perfect setting.

 They all suddenly working. Perfectly.

 If I had money, I'd shop here.

 Wouldn't you?

#Frugal15 Week seven

 It was a busy week, and my focus wasn't really on food. But I still made and ate a variety of healthy, colourful, frugal meals.

And, as usual, made time to catch up with friends. I took muffins from the freezer on a visit to see a friend's new flat, bought myself coffee when I arrived early for a meeting (and appreciated it so much more than I used to when it was a daily habit), had a Friday-night dinner and movie night with friends (they decided to order in pizza), and visited the National Gallery of Australia's Members' Lounge and was bought coffee and noms for the second week running.

Oh, and just to prove that leftovers can be fun...

Saturday scene

Last week a friend and I took her kids to Canberra Museum and Gallery to see INK REMIX: Contemporary art from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. As we were admiring one of the pieces I mentioned that the opening invite I'd received had an image of it on the front, and that I'd tossed the invite into my pile of things to use in a mini scene.

Since it was on the top of the pile, it was what I grabbed to start today's scene with... 

Finish it off Friday: bins and boxes

A day of old and new. The bins were bought when I lived in Sydney (so at least 16 years ago) and I'd somehow never got around to painting the wheels until today. While I was at it, I touched up some paint chips on the bins.

 I also finished some brooch commissions.

Also finished this week: the August issue of The tiny Times (yippee!)  and my tax. I'm feeling rather chuffed all round.

Almost there...

I may still be in my PJs at almost 4 pm. My kitchen may be a disaster zone as I dash in, make food, and run back to the computer before I clean up.

But the August issue of The tiny Times is looking pretty good right now. Or at least I think so.

No doubt my co-Editor will be able to point out all the mistakes when she starts to proofread it tomorrow.

For now, I think it's time to go and start the day before it's completely over...

A trying Tuesday

I'm at that stage with the latest issue of The tiny Times where I wonder why I ever thought this would be a fun thing to do and toy with the idea of quitting.

Luckily I know, from previous experience, that this will pass and I'll end up feeling very proud of the end result...

A little lovely from Lundby

Last week I received an email from Paula at Lundby Australia, who has just returned from a trip to Sweden to visit the Micki/ Lundby factory. She said she had picked me up a little something while she was there and would pop it in the post. It arrived today

 and contains lots

 to drool

 over...

(Speaking of drooling: I can't wait to try out the new Lundby Bluetooth stereo when it's released!)

#Frugal15 Week six

This week whizzed past in a blur and I find myself, between goodies delivered by friends (Camembert, smoked salmon and Oreos, plus Turkish pide!) and meals eaten out or at friends', with a good number of the groceries I bought at the beginning of the week still sitting uneaten. Which can only be a good thing for week seven's budget.

What did get made included my favourite breakfast burger (a bun with a stack of hollandaise, spinach, smoked salmon, grilled mushroom, feta cheese and a lightly fried egg), tuna and vegetable pasta (a store-cupboard staple), a haloumi salad idea shamelessly stolen from Lido Cafe in Wellington and a lovely fresh tomato soup. And hummus with vegetable sticks and rice crackers, when friends visited.

 Once again, I've been fortunate with being fed by various friends. One brought Turkish pide to a mid-week gathering. One bought me a delicious cake and coffee after we visited the National Gallery to see The story of Rama: Indian miniatures from the National Museum, New Delhi.I had lunch next to a friend's pool on Friday and lunch at another friend's farm yesterday.

The excitement of the week was a friend letting me use her spare comp ticket to see the most excellent Flying Fruit Fly Circus (and also buying me bubbles and popcorn to boot). This was excellent timing because I'd found out earlier in the day that I hadn't got a job I'd applied for.

I joined another friend and her daughters on a visit to Canberra Museum and Gallery, and attended the monthly #Frugal15 shared lunch at my old work (bringing my muffins for the week: Spinach and cheese polenta.)

Perhaps this week will be a little quieter?

Saturday scene

(Using yesterday's potting bench as a start. Because it's been far too long since I did a miniature miniaturist's scene...)

Finish it off Friday: going potty

This kit first followed me home from the Canberra Show in April 2013, and was used in a blu-tacked together state for one of my favourite scenes, in May that year.

 Today I finally put it together properly.

 (Which ended up being a very quick

 and easy

job.)

It's that time again...

...when I start work on the next issue of The tiny Times, and take the now ubiquitous photo of my laptop with the snack du jour.

This time it's turkish pide leftover from a friends' visit last night...

#Frugal15 July round-up: Haloumi love

One of the most important parts of eating in a frugal way is sticking to your budget: which is best achieved by making a menu plan and a list and only buying what's on that list when you visit the supermarket.

I try to stick to around $35-$45 a week for groceries, but last week my budget blew out to $65. Was I worried? No.

You see there was method in my madness. In her book 'destitute gourmet: Everyday smart food for the family' Sophie Gray talks about making a little bit of something luxurious go a long way: buying a little something special each shop that can be eked out over several weeks and add interest to a frugal meal plan.

The week before last, as I was doing my shop, I noticed that haloumi was on deep discount. Now I love haloumi but can't justify it at the moment at full price. I checked the tag* and saw that the special ran for another week so made a mental note to add it to the next menu plan and shopping list.

It was a good week for deep discounts on things I love but can't justify at the moment. So I made the decision to spend more on my groceries this week in order to stock up on little luxuries, while they were at a good price. Especially little luxuries that have a long use-by date.

This is what $25 extra bought:

(and this is what $25 extra saves: I ended up spending $65 on $90 worth of groceries).

(*I assumed everyone knew this trick but after talking to a couple of friends, it would appear that I may have been wrong. So: 

At the bottom of supermarket sale tags are two important and useful bits of information. On the left, as on all tags, is the price per kilo (ml, piece, whatever). It's always worth checking this against other sizes of the product that aren't on special as they may still work out cheaper per kilo than the 'special'. And on the right is the date that the special runs through to. This is useful so you can work out if you need to buy the unexpected bargain right now, or if you can hold off until next shop.)