Blogiversary giveaway #3

About a year ago I tried giving this apron away:

I was successful (sort of). And then, not.

So it's still banging round The Room of Shame somewhere (I hope, otherwise this could get embarrassing...)

If you want to (finally) give it a home, leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner next Friday morning (19 Feb). As usual, I'll post anywhere in the world...

But wait!

There's more!

I emailed HBMAG to let them know to expect an influx of orders for their catalogue from all corners of the world and received an email informing me

There is also an A4 sheet of cut out fridge magnets from that show too. It's 275 x 225mm and all comes apart except for the 3 little books. Retail for $(NZ) 22.00.

They sent a scan (the weird bits are reflections off the cellophane wrapping): If you'd like a set for yourself email the HBMAG shop with your details.

(Now why didn't I think of doing something like that?!)

Flat (ered)

On the way from work to the Craft ACT opening tonight I got my first flat tyre in Miss Daisy (much harder to spot than a flat tyre on a scooter, let me tell you!)

Being an utter girl, I pulled out my phone and my wallet and called NRMA.

While I waited for rescue, I pulled the spare tyre out from under the pile of stuff waiting for an empty op shop bin in the boot. And started reading the latest children's book I'd borrowed from the library:
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of cars which stopped to see if I needed help. "This is how to meet men in Canberra. What a lovely city." I idly thought as I waited for the NRMA van.

Once the van arrived, I shared my joy at the goodwill of Canberra drivers with the NRMA chap while he changed my tyre. He shared the knowledge that Limestone Liz used to also hang out on Southern Cross Drive (where I was) when she wasn't at the base of Mount Ainslie...

Oh.

What I spent last week's grocery money on

(aka: Giveaway #2)

Remember how I wanted to go to Napier to see the miniature exhibition on at The Hawkes Bay Museum and Gallery?

And remember how they kindly sent me pictures of the exhibition to share with you?

Well, there's more. I ordered the catalogue with some of last week's grocery money. And ordered an extra one for my blogiverary giveaway.

It's intricateand beautifuland fabulously designed.The story starts:

Just before dawn on Christmas Eve, 1940, while he lay on a rug on the library floor, Kevin found he could bend his tiny corded arms. Very shortly after that he discovered he could move his head, so that the view he had hitherto had up his sister's skirt to her maker's mark - MADE IN GERMANY - was eclipsed.

If you want to know the rest you have three options:

1. Visit HBMAG in person and read it yourself.

2. Email the HBMAG shop manager and arrange to buy your own copy ($NZ 8 + postage)

3. Leave a comment on this post and be in the running to win this copy. Entries close Wednesday morning next week (17 Feb) and, as usual, I'll post anywhere in the world.

What’s Hot + What’s Not Wednesday

What's hot:

* Book recommendations by favourite authors. Maggie Alderson recommended Fay Weldon's book Chalcot Crescent on her blog and I was immediately consumed by the need to read*:

"What if we all suddenly lost interest in the consumerist way of life that actually entirely underpins capitalism?

In her parallel universe people have suddenly and collectively realised that constantly acquiring more ‘stuff’ is not the route to happiness. No shopping means no ‘growth’ means no economy…

As a result, houses are worthless, credit doesn’t exist, the EU falls to bits, it’s every country for themselves, food is the most valuable commodity and after a couple of hung parliaments an unelected government takes control."

* Finding said book sitting on the shelf at the library I was working at that day so being able to start reading it straight away.

* Speaking of books, I have another book/paper artist for Call of the Small: after chatting at a CMAG opening declared he'd always wanted to try working in miniature. And we're also joined by a jeweller who uses op shopped treasures in her work.

* Ian Mowbray's miniature glass works, discovered while googling "miniature glass Canberra" in the hope I'd turn up a previously unknown to me artisan. I did indeed find what I was looking for but not, alas, based in Canberra.

* A job interview for a (casual) role in the performing arts area. Fingers crossed...

* New to me (and very funny) blogs: Unhappy Hipsters (thanks Kerry!) and A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette (via Taph)

* Also new to me (discovered this morning through a comment on my blog): Circles of Rain. Who wrote about the latest Rachel Whiteread exhibition:
(remember I blogged about her dolls house furniture chess set back in October 2007? No, I didn't either until today...)

And I thought I had a problem with dolls house storage. Although reading the article it looks like she got funding to buy them. Now why didn't I think of that?

What's not:

* Not finishing the ant fabric in time to enter the Spoonflower contest. I spent the evening visiting an 18 day old instead. I see Allsorts has also decided to also give Spoonflower a go. And actually finished her bug fabric...

* Discovering two of my favorite inner city houses have "I'm about to be turned into apartments" fences around them.
Hardly surprising as, in the 11 years I've been in Canberra, I haven't seen anyone living in 63 B...
* Feeling broke. Living on homemade bread and hummus, and cheap tinned tomatoes, tuna, beans and 50 cent bags of pasta from the store cupboard is starting to lose its appeal. Even when it's mixed with the cheering thought that I've been living a cash-only existence since I got back from Sturt (and do have an emergency fund I could plunder if necessary). I think I need to make some cinnamon pinwheel scones or chocolate fudge this evening and focus on the fact that it's only two days until I get paid again...

(*I've always had a thing for speculative fiction like The Postman)

Behind the scenes Two

(See One here)

It's changeover time in the Craft ACT gallery. Our next opening is Thursday night but for now the gallery is quiet and empty.
(Well, almost empty...)

Out in the back room it's a different story. This morning we received delivery of 21 cartons of glass from Jonathan Baskett for his exhibition, Stack:Di and Simon have to open every cartoninspect every piece

and document any breakagesbefore setting up the exhibition.

Meanwhile, back in the shop, this week I try not to be transfixed by the view of CMAG's new cafe from the back window...

I'm feeling much better now...

I was a bit grumpy when The Canberra Times article came out as I'd specifically requested that, if they took a photo of the dolls houses in the Room of Shame, they didn't include the boxes that I hadn't got around to shifting out of the room for their visit. I'd even mentioned that they were welcome to lift any photos they wanted from my blog (this one, perhaps?)Until this afternoon, that is. I was draped over my bed reading the latest (fabulous) issue of Home New Zealand and spotted this photo: Laughing uproariously, I imagined the owners of this 2007 Home of the Year: "Sure you can take photos of our garden for your feature on its Landscape Designer. Just no pictures of the inside, OK? We haven't had a chance to tidy up recently."

Either that or they were burgled just before the shoot...

The knitty gifty

There was a lot of knitting during my unexpected blogging break.

Some of what I made was also unexpected. This Strawberry Tea Cosy, for instance:I found the pattern in a book I was shelving on Friday. Had no intention of making it any time soon (if I was going to knit another tea cosy it was going to be the teabag shaped tea cosy I'd promised the team at Craft ACT for Christmas. After I'd designed the pattern for it, that is...)

But somehow I found myself justing: just checking the stash to see if I had the right coloured wool from my op shopped collection (I did). Just casting on to see how it knitted (fast). Just starting the other side as the first side was finished so quickly. Just knitting the leaves since I was so close to being finished. Then staying up just a little bit longer to sew it all together.

And guess what? I have absolutely no need for a 4-6 pot Strawberry Tea Cosy. If you do, leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner next Monday morning. As usual, I'll post anywhere in the world...

You don't get a chance to get your mitts on these though: Knitted from frugalled vintage Caressa for a friend's 21st (I have fond memories of this style ball band from my teenage knitting days)I had enough yardage to knit not only my usual lounge socks but also matching wrist warmers. (The planned a photo shoot involving wearing of the socks and wrist warmers, all artfully set up against a rug, reading a book, didn't happen light's crap today and it all seemed too hard.)

Finally, knitty gifties for me:
The biggest black knitting needles I've ever seen. Frugalled by proxy for my kinetic sculpture by the ever generous and thoughtful Taph.

For my Blogiversay* I got:

A bout of Blogger's block. Coupled with a very slow internet connection (I blame the student animation films I've been watching on YouTube this month) And a spread in today's Canberra Times Sunday magazine. (click images to see larger versions.)

If you're new here, hello and welcome.

If you'd like to see more of my home check out Canberra's Got Style's Behind the Curtains feature or my Corners of my home posts.

For more information on my dolls house collection, you'll find links to posts about each house down the left hand side bar. Or check out the behind the scenes photos from when The Collectors came to call.

Want to find out about what I do as part of my internship at Craft ACT? Click here. Or follow the progress of our Call of the Small exhibition.

And if you're an op shop addict, check out I op therefore I am - ACT.

(* 4 years. Yes there are giveaways: watch this space...)

Hitting the halfway mark

And the Craft ACT shop reopens after the summer break:I spend some time cleaning marks off the floor (you're not going to see that!) before I stuff some envelopes with invites to the opening of our touring exhibition Mamana Mamanta at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. I've been meaning to visit their gallery for years, so am very tempted to head there for the opening. I know I won't though...

Later in the morning I met with the new Craft ACT Curator (who looks a lot like our old Communications and Events Coordinator) to talk about the plans for Call of the Small.

Afterwards, Wendy and I visited the (currently empty) Crucible Space and sussed it out.After lunch I'm back in the shop, where I confirm the participants for Call of the Small (almost a hundred percent acceptance! I'm stoked!), drink yet another mug of tea (I've lost count of how many I've had today...) with a Freddo frog (which turned up courtesy of my team mates)while packing stock:I'm visited by our resident ghost (*cough*)and try not to be transfixed by the view of miniature Nara Park sculptures from the back window...

Top flight customer service

Do you remember how I ran away to New Zealand in the middle of the lead up to my final assessment last year? And how it cost me a total of $184.94 for the trip?

What I forgot to mention was that my special meal disappeared on both my flights. When I got home I contacted Qantas to let them know, mainly because I couldn't understand how Frequent Flyer flights, using my Frequent Flyer points, attached to my Frequent Flyer number could have not picked up the fact that in my Frequent Flyer profile lists me as wanting a special meal.

Which meant that they possibly had some sort of computer programming glitch that they needed to track down and sort out.

Yesterday, when I cleared my PO Box, I found a lovely letter from them. And this:A voucher for $200 worth of air travel "in recognition of your experience".

I'm most impressed that ovo lacto vegetarian meals (or lack thereof) are worth $100 each. And that my trip to New Zealand in November now nets me a $15.06 profit...

Now I just have to decide what to put it towards. A trip Here? Or maybe here?

Trial trails

I've been aware of Spoonflower since their early days and have always thought the possibility of printing fabric you've designed yourself was super-exciting.

Have I done anything about it apart from subscribe to their blog and emails?

Errr.... no. (Although printing this was a possibility that I haven't yet followed up.)

But this year I vowed things would be different. I was going to print something on Spoonflower, dammit!

Not being one to make life easy for myself I decided yesterday that entering one of their contests might be the push I need to actually do something. The only problem is the contest I've decided to enter (Bugs) closes on February 1st at 12 noon. Luckily that's USA EST 12 noon which gives me a bit longer, but not much.

I started trials of my design yesterday evening. This is as far as I got (very very rough):Notice something? Yep, a complete lack of bugs.

There will be ants, I promise. Once I've worked out the trails. And the trials. And why on earth I decided to try pattern matching gingham for my first foray...

Been busy...

Work on Friday. A last minute dinner party at my place on Friday night (where it ended up that my lovely friends bought most of the ingredients so all I had to do was whip up a pot of chickpea, tomato, spinach and potato curry , make rice and set the table. Which was pretty much all was capable after my day at work.)

Work on Saturday. A quick dash home to shower and change then I was off out to a 21st birthday dinner. During which my table mate and I compared ways of folding nappies using our napkins. All in the name of design: we were discussing the best folds to use on a baby shower invitation she's working on which she wants to wrap in a piece of fabric so it looks like a nappy.

And today she and I had our first Play Date. An idea we came up with over coffee at The National Portrait Gallery a couple of weeks ago: we wanted the chance to experiment and learn and, well, play with art supplies and ideas.

She was particularly keen to have a go at foam printing like I did at last year's CMAG class so that's where we started. First I showed her the basics I learnt in the class:(and discovered that: 1. A glass chopping board makes a good inking plate at a pinch. 2. A plastic one doesn't. 3. Especially when you're trying to use acrylic paint from the op shop instead of a second colour ink as you're too cheap to buy the real thing. 4. Speaking of too cheap, it doesn't pay buy the cheaper ink either,even if the girl in the shop says it works fine: it won't work like the good stuff does)

We sketched some ideas:and tried out various combinations. Reminding ourselves constantly that we were playing. It didn't matter if things didn't work according to plan as that was all part of the fun. And that we weren't setting out to create masterpieces.We learnt that my coffee cup mug rack makes a great drying rack in a pinch:and that sometimes you can take something just a bit too far and ruin it...Next time we're playing with collage.

A sisterly suggestion

I got an email from my sister while we were discussing the contents of an 80s/ 90s compilation CD she'd asked me to put together for her:

"You will be dismayed to know I can now sing and play New Order's "Blue Monday" Go-Betweens' "Love goes on" and Buzzcocks' "What do I get" on my ukelele :-o

Scary - poor poor neighbours :-]

Have you ever thought of tinkering on a ukelele - very easy - very fun."

Dear Sis

No. Oddly enough I haven't ever thought of taking up the ukelele. Maybe it's a New Zealand thing?

You may be pleased to hear, however, that I am able to play Depeche Mode's "Just can't get enough" on my recorder...

Thinking. And knitting. And feeling like I'm sinking.

Thinking: Still percolating ideas for the gallery space. The latest thought is to have studio spaces in the top display cabinet and only have a few people working. Which means I could just have a corridor with closed doors and name tags (and possibly notice boards with images of the artist's work) and a couple of doors open showing the studio interiors. Clever, huh?

Knitting: A present for a 21st birthday party this Saturday. Which is tomorrow. I'm doing the last minute dash to get it finished in time as usual. Good thing I'm not working late tonight and have no other plans...

That sinking feeling: Nothing major, just your usual learning curve in a new job. Even if the "job" is a voluntary one running an ezine and site it's still a lot to pick up in a short period of space. I'm paddling like mad and bailing like the blazes and I think it'll all work out just fine. It's only been three days, after all!

Floored

I'm pondering how to deal with 16 foot* ceilings in my gallery space

Two floors at 8 feet within each level each seems somehow mean for a space designed for display but two levels of 16 feet each will need some major thought to make sense.

I have to decide if the space is a reused industrial building which would make such high ceilings work, particularly if I insert beams across the ceiling space. Or if the space is a new build where the bottom level uses interesting changes of floor and ceiling height and inserts to carve the space up. And the top level could be divided into two levels of 8 feet each and include offices and studio spaces: and a lot more work to create...

At the same time I'm considering options for flooring (a slightly easier thing to think about). I could go polished concrete (or the contact paper approximation of it). Recycled floorboards. Cork.

After taking this photo on my cutting board (which reminded me of the last photo in this post) I found myself idly wondering if I could use a cutting mat as flooring....

And then I saw this photo of Dusk Bar in Melbourne in an old magazine I was trawling for inspiration:And I suddenly started thinking about playing with scale within the gallery. Including real sized objects to add a playful touch. Remember The Borrowers?
Wendy suggests that using old wooden cotton reels for seating in the cafe area might solve the problem of finding (or, more to the point, buying or creating) large numbers of identical seats. (Instructions for the tin are here, if you're interested)

In related news, I had lunch with Ampersand Duck yesterday and she told me about what she's working on for her submission to the gallery. Very exciting. She also agreed that I could visit later and do an In the studio post to share her work in progress!

(*Miniaturists using 1/12th scale (1 inch = 1 foot) tend to talk in feet when they're really measuring in inches, if that makes sense. The display cabinets are 16 inches high, not 16 feet!)

Back to the start

In the last ten days I've worked in 5 different places.

On Monday, my commute was 42 minutes each way.

Today I return to the branch where I was trained. And the 42 second commute.

Which is handy as J & M need to borrow Miss Daisy for the next few days while their car is in the shop.

Experimenting

...with ideas for the mini craft gallery(because every craft gallery needs a shop, right?)

... with a wholemeal version of my bread, since I'm out of plain flour(I'm pleased to report it's delicious. Especially with home made jam)

... with the back end of Dolls Houses Past & Present. Lots to learn!

... with photographing the images I see through my kaleidoscope

(just because I needed a break from tidying up) ... with the idea of an afternoon nap(since I have a clean, fresh, newly made bed enticing me. And you know how much I love fresh cotton sheets. Especially frugally fashioned one of a kind ones...)

And then life got a whole lot better...

I received a call from Taph to tell me the ANU Film Group draft programme for Semester One is up.

I guess they've fixed the other projector as it's a very exciting lineup. Whip it! Mao's Last Dancer! Ponyo! The September Issue! Julie & Julia! Where the Wild Things Are! The Lovely Bones! An Education! Fantastic Mr Fox!

And I've only perused the offerings through to March...

I have a date (sort of). And am simultaneously dumped.

News from The Collectors: they've tentatively scheduled the dolls houses for 4th April. And have decided they don't want me to sit on The Big Red Couch. So I guess that means there's not an op shopping junket to Tasmania in my future after all :-(

Actually, if that does turn out to be the final airing date it works out rather well, as that's Easter Sunday. And I've already promised that weekend to the Community Arts team at The National Folk Festival. In fact there's a rather good chance I might have to get someone to record the segment for me* to watch later, especially as I've just noticed Eddi Reader is returning to The Festival and will surely be playing Sunday night...

(*Oh hell, I'll just vodcast my segment to my ipod in true 21st century style!)