Class tonight: Peachy keen

(Or should that be Peachy Green?)

Our teacher seemed to realise that the deep end was a tad too deep for most of us last week and so spent some of this class recapping. And since we knew most of the answers to the questions she asked (cause she told us last week) I think we all felt most chuffed and thus much more positive (or at least I did)

After bossy-guts Classmate Chris demanded I started mixing me some colour I tried making a green to match the colour wheel:But all I managed was Cacky green, Another cacky green, Baby diarrhoea green, Eucalyptus green, Is this the same as the first one? green, Mushy peas, Overboiled spinach, and (my favorite) Oh I give up green.

I think I have a future as a namer of paint colours (if not as a mixer of said colours). At least I now understand why my teacher tells us the best way to mix green (and orange. And purple) is to go buy a tube of the colour...

Changing the subject, I'm sure you'd like to hear about my latest mad scheme. It's my birthday in a couple of months. I have a tradition of not being here for my birthday (except for once when I accidentally was) Yes, I'm gainfully underemployed so should be a sensible-type lass but I'm plotting....

I could spend my birthday here. With a free return flight thanks to my Qantas points (and enough left over to get me to the dentist later in the year). Staying at the Youth Hostel should cost $AU61 a night for a private room. And I have cruise buddies from 18 months ago who will be turning up here for a day two days after my birthday so there's no chance of getting lonely (very drunk maybe, never lonely!).

I could practice my really bad French ("C'est ma fête s'il vous plaît donnez-moi un gros rabais"). Even better: "Donnez-moi le libre!"

But being the sensible (*snort*) mature (*double snort*) person I am I'm going with a 24 hour cooling down period before doing anything rash like booking tickets...

Running round like a mad thing

It's been one of those days. I'd planned to go to a book launch at 5:30pm this evening but all I want to do is crawl into my PJs and into bed with a pile of reading*. And it's only 4:30 pm!

I've been on the run all day: I went to see two printers to talk about producing greeting cards of my miniature pictures. It would seem I'll have to outlay the equivalent of two weeks living expenses (or almost one wodge of money from Kevin) to get them printed. Which is great if they sell, not so great if they don't. I have a few days to think about it...

The vet visited at lunchtime to do the yearly jab and deworm of the cat. Who wasn't happy.

I rang the CIT Hairdressing school and made an appointment for a $12 haircut next week. I think it's a small price to pay to not have to deal with the potential disaster that could be a second try with the scissors and sellotape at home...

The kitchen got cleaned (finally) and the last of the stock went out to the garage.

I took a boot load of plus-sized clothing across to The Women's Refuge and popped into Salvos Fyshwick and Vinnies Dickson on the way home.

And now I should be mixing blue and yellow paint for tomorrow night's class, finding "an object and image of personal significance" to take to class as well, and attending aforementioned book launch.

*Yaaaawn*

(* Top of the list will be the book I have less than 2 weeks to finish and review, plus Itten's colour theory book: hardly light reading, alas!)

Gaining some perspective

I finally pulled the paints out this afternoon after telling myself that my colour wheel really doesn't have to be perfect and that even though the teacher told us we'd be using it for the rest of our lives I can always make another, better, one later if I need it...I felt encouraged when I noticed that my mixed paint looked like a happy smiley old lady with buns on each side of her head:
Tonight's class was all about perspective. I first tried working with perspective when I was about four years old but couldn't quite get it (strangely enough!)

This time round I did much better:(Perhaps it was because the boxes were white?)Our final exercise was to draw the person opposite us with their hand outstretched. Here's Justin's sketch of me:and mine of him:And I was truly flattered to see a knock-off version of my art bag, created by Dani.Aren't all the best designers' work knocked off at some stage?

Sunday morning

Take one unexpected invite to an unknown free French film (courtesy of Cycling S)

Add some lovely French countryside and an gorgeous old house.

Which happens to be inhabited by a very artistic family.

And full of beautiful pieces of art, Art Nouveau furniture, and some Georg Jensen.

Toss the Musée d'Orsay into the storyline and you have Summer Hours, the perfect Sunday morning film for two Cert III Design Fundamentals students to sigh over...

A day in my life

Following Little Jenny Wren's example rather belatedly...

5:45 am: I can't sleep as someone's doing burnouts in the Dickson shops car park. It's almost time to get up anyway...

I get out of bed, turn on the computer, go to the loo, put the kettle on to make my morning cuppa, let the cat in and feed him. While I'm getting the cat food out of the fridge I also get the bread dough I put in there before I went to bed and put it on the bench to warm up.

6:00 am: Back upstairs with my tea. I have 28 new messages and 63 updated feeds in Bloglines. I read the emails and selected blog updates (the friends, the locals and the miniaturists. I drool over this Rietveld house on Call of the small's blog). I answer the eBay questions I'm able to answer immediately, make a note of the rest for when I go to the garage and also print out some sales I need to pack and post.

6:30 am: Listing new eBay stock while reading more local and op shopping blog updates plus Soule Mama (my morning treat)

7:00 am: Time for a break and to put some music on. Blues for Robin is on top of the pile. I'm pleased as it's a perfect first thing CD. I continue my eBay listing listing.

7:30 am: I put the bread on to bake and the chickpeas I soaked over night on to cook. I make breakfast (porridge with craisins, wheatgerm and brown sugar) and eat it while starting to read the Itten book on colour theory that's on our reading list for class. Once breakfast's finished I do the dishes and head back upstairs.

8:00 am: Vintage Indie sent me a list of questions last week for an article they want to write on my dolls house collection. I finally make time to sit down and answer them. By the time that's done it's time to get the bread out of the oven and put it aside to cool.

8:30 am: I list some items from my old Made It shop into my new Made It shop.

9:00 am: Time for a shower, hair wash, leg shave and nail clip. I get dressed into my usual uniform of black T, jeans and Converse one stars.

9:30 am: I empty the rubbish bins into the wheelie bin outside and the compost bucket into the compost bin behind the garage. While rinsing out the compost bucket I notice the cat's water bowl needs topping up and that the grapes look ready. I make a mental note to email The Old Flame and let him know as he wants them.

Then it's into the garage to pick the stock needed for the orders and postage quotes I have. I move some stock around and bring some of the last of the stock in the house out onto the new (from Salvos) shelves that arrived on Thursday. I add the fact that I haven't asked Taph if she still wants my mower fuel tin to my mental note list along with the fact I need to ask someone to come round with their power drill and screw the new bookcase onto the wall so it won't fall over on top of me.

10 am: Back inside. I check the chickpeas (which are done), answer the eBay questions and send out postage quotes after emailing Taph about the tin and the grapes.

10:30 am: Morning tea (leftover strawberries which Cycling S brought for dessert on Thursday and yoghurt) which I eat while drawing up my To Do list pages for the next fortnight. I remember I need to do some washing so put a load of black on. Then I do my Visa accounts.

11:00 am: My office is in dire need of a tidy up so I deal with the teetering piles of papers. I'd vacuum (there's still thread all over the floor from the art bags) but the cat's upstairs asleep so I'll have to leave that for later.

11:30 am: The washing's finished so I peg it out before heading across to Dickson shops where I return a library book, buy two lemons and pay my bill at the newsagents. Home again, I throw a load of jeans in the machine and then make hummus, smiling happily at my $32.50 "new" chefette the whole time...

12 noon: Lunch (fresh bread, freshly made hummus and cherry tomatoes from J & M's garden). I read today's Panorama (the arts section of The Canberra Times) while I eat.

12:30 pm: I peg the second load of washing out. Just as I finish the doorbell goes: it's Taph and The Old Flame dropping in for a visit. They're bearing gifts: an empty water bottle all the way from New Zealand, two cartons of packing peanuts, four empty cartons which they spotted at the recycling depot and thought I'd need and a tape of Torchwood Series 2. I make coffee. We sit and chat before heading into the back yard to harvest my grapes for The Old Flame.

2:20 pm: Taph and The Old Flame head off. I go upstairs to visit the cat on the bed for a while and find myself drifting off...

2:40 pm: Awake again. I file some CDs and tidy the lounge. The cat decides it's time to go out.

3:00 pm: I vacuum upstairs and dust the bedroom. Pull out clean sheets and pillowcases. Strip the bed and let it air.

3:30 pm: Catching up on some videos at Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog and playing with my poor neglected journal. I down a couple of chocolate chip biscuits.

4:00 pm: I'm meeting Cycling S at The National Gallery at 4:30 pm for the final late night opening of the season (or, to be more precise, the final wine tasting!). The weather's looking very overcast so before I go I bring the washing in and hang it on the drying rack in the lounge. Just as well: the heavens open just as I hit Civic and I end up swimming from the NGA carpark into the gallery.

Cycling S, C and I catch up, sample wine, eat cheese and crackers and I draw ideas for a possum costume on the paper tablecloth for C. Cycling S mentions she has free tickets for some French film tomorrow morning and asks if I'd like them. A free film? Yes please!

I arrange to meet C this evening at ANUFG and we all head off.

6:30 pm: Home again. I make the bed, cook dinner (fresh spinach and ricotta ravioli with browned butter, peas and parmesan) and call a friend to see if she wants to join me at the movies in the morning.

7:00 pm: Writing this blog post quickly before I leap in the car and off to ANU to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Caramel. Then it'll be bed time.

Soundtrack to the day:
Blues for Robin: Tom Ludvigson & Greg Johnson
Wendy Maharry: Wendy Maharry
Mezzanine: Massive Attack
Melbourne The sex, The city, The music
Republic: New Order
New Sound Theory Volume 1
I'll never forget whatshisname: Nice 'n' Urlich
Nordic lounge Volume 3
Pandora's Box: OMD

Re-Loved

I never thought I'd see the day when I was front row at a fashion show, but last night it finally happened. It was only a little fashion show but it was my kind of fashion show: Re-Loved, a fashion parade with sustainability in mind.

It was held in conjunction with Salvos and here's Ken giving a speech at the beginning of the night:Handbags by Hanny Dewar

And fashion made from up-cycled second hand finds:

Finally there were outfits created from a local clothes swap meet:in my excitement I forgot to take note of the name of the group: all I know is they're on Facebook which isn't much use for someone who's not on Facebook (me)... NinaRibena was two seats down from me, perhaps she'll know?The organisers looked well pleased at the end, and so they should.... Well done!

Crisis averted

It took:

1. The installation of my "FU" attitude in the spot where my "This is all too hard" attitude had somehow taken up residency last night.

2. An early morning run to the CIT Library to borrow a pile of books on colour theory (once I actually found the books: they have hidden them round the corner out of sight. Maybe they scare the young people?)

3. An iced coffee (and free olives) at Ha Ha with J (also a student, also dealing with similar new student-y issues)

4. A little light frugalling (to clear the soul).

5. Setting up a Yahoo group for my class.

6. An outing and takeaway with Cycling S, who provided a dessert which unintentionally made this whole colour theory stuff much more appetising:

And now I feel much better.

The most I've laughed for a long time

...Since The servant of two masters or The government inspector, anyway...

I can't find any footage of The 39 steps in Australia so you'll have to cope with the Broadway version, which seems to be almost identical:

The 39 steps is on til Saturday: if you get the chance I highly recommend going along...

Today was bags of fun

I don't know if it was ingesting copious quantities of House of Eliott or spending all yesterday asleep but I headed into the workroom this morning raring to go.(Possibly it was the soundtrack)Art bags were cut out. Art bags were sewn, Art supplies were bought for class tomorrow night (where the bags will be sold to pay for the supplies)

And now I'm off to see The 39 steps at Canberra Theatre. Being gainfully underemployed is so tough sometimes...

Continued on Monday...

H is for holiday. Which it was here in Canberra. Not that it means much to me as I work for myself on Mondays.

I is for indulgent. After staying up til 6am watching the final series of House of Eloitt I spent most of the rest of the day asleep...

Sunday alphabet

A is for award. Oese awarded me the Your blog is fabulous award. In German! Danke, Oese!

B is for birthday boy's birthday party. I gave him a book wrapped in a bag run up from fabric unearthed from Stash Mountain:(It's also for bounce, which is what we did on his new trampoline.)

C is for cooking. The freezer is looking woefully empty. And I know when that happens I end up buying very ordinary lunches at work for $10 a pop. So I've been stocking up with homemade insta-meals.

D is for DVD: I stayed up far too late and made it through to the end of House of Eliott...

E is for Eating between the lines: food and equality in Australia, a book I need to have finished and reviewed by the end of the month. Which is no hardship as I think it follows on quite nicely from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which I read late last year.

F is for Flora Cap (rav link) which is going much more slowly than I'd like (see D above)

G is for getting there. I have orders for 4 art bags and am making another as a very belated Christmas present. (It's also for Grosgrain ribbon. Which I'm out of so have to wait for my order to arrive before I can finish the last bag. Typical.)

I received a message from my Grandmother via my father

"I am going to report her to the Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Books.

First - has her journal (an ancient breed) been registered? Wormed? taken to the book dosing strip?
Is she carrying a pooper scooper bag in case her journal leaves something on the footpath? HAS IT BEEN MICROCHIPPED?

I don't know, young people these days."

Dear Grandparental Unit

I'm not sure if journals need to be registered in Australia. I did a google search and came up with nothing.

You'll be pleased to know it arrived fully wormed:and the leaves it deposited on the footpath were scooped up immediately and carried home in my visual diary.

I'll chip it tonight. Do I need to fish it as well?

Cheers
Your eldest Grand Daughter.

Knitting needles and op shops

I went out last night. To dinner and a gig with J & M and Cycling S.

They asked after my journal over dinner, wondering why he wasn't with us (it was suggested the meal would have been perfect for the document your dinner. Rub, smear, splatter your food. Use this page as a napkin pages) It was sweet but I did feel a little like Lars in Lars and the real girl... (Damn: maybe I should have made a movie: "The Shopping Sherpa and the wrecked journal"?)

After dinner we went to Tilleys to Frencham Smith's gig. There was mention of knitting (well, close enough, when Fred explained a dance move he was going to do during a song as "like being poked in the back with a knitting needle") and they played "The op shop song" aka Maryanne as an encore. I was happy.

But on the way home I got thinking. How many other songs are out there which are about, or mention, op shops?

Just in case the answer is none, I started creating my own, based on their track Find me a lover:

"Find me a knitting needle in an op shop
a nice little blouse with a polka dot..."

Walkies!

"Tie a string to the journal. Go for a walk & drag it."Sit... Stay... Good book!

Good night

and good morning... (FLICKR set here)

So how do you measure up in bed?

Some time back I bought a lovely thick vintage cotton double sheet for $5, planning to use it as a top sheet (I have a queen bed.) I've been kicking round the idea of edging both it and a couple of 50 cent vintage pillowcases to make a "matching" set (plus make it obvious this is a top sheet only)

Today, while at Hobbysew, I found the perfect solution (with benefits):Yep, my sheets can now not only be super stylish but also useful if I happen to be knitting in bed and realise I've left my tape measure downstairs (or I need to measure anything else while I'm in bed...)

My new obsession...

I spotted this is a blog post of someone's creative space recently and had that rare instant feeling of "my life is incomplete without this"A bit of googling, some online buying, and a trip to the Post Office later my life is complete (for now)

Wreck this journal instructs you to do just that. Perfect for someone like me who always wants to be neat and tidy, follow the rules and colour inside the lines:(Cover this page using only office supplies):This next one's got a rude word in it: you've been warned. Avert your eyes if swearing bothers you...I was bought a coffee today. Perfect for one of my pages!

Which when dried, cried out for some enhancement(I want to add some black coffee next to see what happens)

Ask and you shall receive

While I was lamenting my lack of camera in my last post Classmate Chris was emailing me some of his photos from last night:Speaking of cameras, and in what appears to be becoming a March tradition: I need a better camera for class later in the year (apparently 2.1 megapixels just doesn't cut the mustard these days). I've had a couple of offers to borrow friends' but don't feel comfortable in case I damage them (the cameras, not the friends!).

If you have (or know of someone who has) upgraded your digital camera and still have the old one hanging around (minimum 4 megapixel) I'd love to talk about giving it a new and loving home at Chateau TSS. It seems silly buying a brand new one when there are so many old ones out there...

(Yes, I'm wearing a black and white stripy shirt to class, something I swore I wouldn't do as it would make me a walking cliché)

For argument's sake

As promised, here's the other piece I did last night. First a bit of background: we all took it in turns posing for blind contour drawings. Then we had to cut the drawings out and arrange them on a larger piece of paper until we got a composition and story that worked for us. After we glued them down we then drew over them, linking them together.

It was quite amazing to see all the different end results we got: I should have had my camera with me (since remedied by the simple act of taking my spare camera and putting it in my work box. Duh!). There were a few party scenes and an art gallery scene I found particularly clever...

My plan for the piece was based around these head sketches of Jessica, Lee and Amanda, all of whom ended up looking quite peeved:I arranged the rest of the figures around the central group: interestingly enough I didn't realise at the time the arguers were all small head sketches and the bystanders mainly full length sketches...
I added layers of orange and red coloured pencil, felt tip pen and soft pastel in jagged and scrawling lines around the argument and sweeps of grey pastel around the edges to unify the group of bystanders. And finally I highlighted significant parts of the centre group in bright red.

I'm very pleased with the end result!

What a day...

I'm sure you know the sort. It starts off ordinarily enough but by the end of the day you feel like a train which suddenly finds itself on a track it wasn't quite expecting.

Oh don't panic: there's nothing earth shattering, but there are some weird symbioses...

In chronological order:

* I became an eBay Power Seller. I'm pretty chuffed.
* I might have finally succumbed and joined Ravelry. Shhh... don't tell anyone!
* I discovered one of my neighbourhood possums dead in the back yard. I suppose it's better than being dead in the ceiling above my bed. I wonder if his (her?) mate will disappear or I'll still hear him (her?) from time to time?
* On the subject of disappearances, I discovered that my Made It shop has disappeared off the face of the earth. And I'm very very grumpy that they didn't bother emailing us to let us know this was about to happen. I've left the link in my sidebar until I decide what I'm going to do...
* I finally got around to dealing with my TSS accounts. For July - September 2008 at least. Tomorrow I'll tackle the rest.
* I surprised myself by needing to buy a new visual diary as I've almost filled my first one. In just a month!
* I have orders from two of my classmates for art bags.
* And I finally sorted out the latest mixer saga (which I don't think I've shared here: yes, I broke it again and this time the repair man said the parts weren't available. I did check and it would appear he was correct as I'd killed the gears as well as the driver coupling. Tonight, while I was at class, I won thison eBay. It's identical to mine and also broken but it's just the driver coupling: still available as a spare part. Now I just have to face the fixit man who said, as I left last time, "We usually deal with repairs on items worth at least $500". Doesn't he understand that the Kenwood Chefette is a priceless piece of design?!)

Ah, yes, class... Want to see what I got up to tonight?

I can show you the second exercise now but the first will have to wait for morning as it's A3 size and thus too big for the scanner and needs to be photographed.

We made collages from pictures we cut out of magazines. (I think I struck it lucky...)

Let me practice my art wank: "Going places": a mix of influence from the House of Elliot DVDs I'm currently devouring plus the fact I'm very aware it's almost exactly a year since my internship in New Zealand. With the choices I've made for this year, the chances of getting away anywhere beyond the Dentist are pretty remote, even with the incredible cruise deals that keep popping up in my in box. Hence the Fairy Godmother in the corner! (If I'd had more time I would have cut the boots sticking out from under the car more closely as I find the pink quite jarring. I would have also centred the ship on the leg and moved the small red shoe left to exactly cover the strap of the red shoe on the legs)"Rhapsocookie in Blue" started when I spotted Cookie Monster next to the fairy godmother in the picture above. In another magazine I found the Cookie Monster dress and the ad for cookies. From there the whole blue theme just fell into place.My final collage (we were supposed to make 4 but I never made it past 3) is called "Ready cash".

I'm still wondering if I should lose the "A" and make it "Red-y cash" as a comment on consumer credit spending. And no, it's not a reflection of my current state of mind (although I am dealing with a pesky credit card debt) but of what I suspect others might be feeling in the current economic climate. I love the flow of colour. And the flying pig...

Anyway, once we'd finished our collages we had to sketch one of them quickly: the only proviso being it wasn't allowed to be a centred composition.Because I misjudged the edges I added in the sunbursts behind the car, the skirt of the Fairy Godmother and the legs of the sign. I'm not sure they work...

Modern Miniatures on Monday: Oh my!

How

brilliantly

perfect

is

this?(And how can I be part of it?!)

Flipping heck!

I achieved four things today:

1. I went to Trash and Treasure and picked up the missing bits for my "new" taps.
2. I got some groceries.
3. I did my end of month accounts.
4. I have a repeating scarf design I'm happy with for the first part of my design assignment*:
(* I may change my mind in the morning...)

Seven Things Spring/ Summer 2008 Week 26: and all over for another year (if not forever)

In:

* 3 House of Eliott DVDs (gift)
* 1 CD, 6 pairs knitting needles, 3 books, 1 Qantas Marc Newson container, 1 pot, 3 plastic containers and 2 shells (Tuesday's op shopping jaunt)
* 2 Caroline's Home windows, 10 other items of dolls' house furniture (gift)
* 5 items Lundby furniture (bought from myself)
* 1 jumper's worth of Cleckheaton Caprice (gift)
* 1 long metal ruler (gift)

Total In this week: 39

Out:

* 5 dead taps, finally!: bin
* 1 dead Caroline's Home window frame: bin
* 2 lawnmower tools for my dead lawnmower: bin
* 2 magazines: lunchroom at work
* 1 book: gift
* 3 glasses, 1 carafe, 3 Christmas ornaments, 1 jacket, 1 bag, 1 tin, 1 candle holder: op shop

Total Out this week: 22

Shake-it-all-about:

* Flora cap

Net items out during Seven Things Spring/ Summer 2008: 228 (or an average of just under 9 items a week)