winter

It was cold this morning. Very cold.

Frosty.

And wet.


With bare trees and blue skies.

this is ... my best op shop find

Only six days late! Ah well, at least I guess it could be worse ...

I do love to op shop because it is a quick, easy excursion that gets us out of the house. And of course, no matter how much I spend, it's always a bargain! Best op shop find ever is a very tall order so I have instead focused on my best op shop find this year. My prime hunting target at the moment is vintage board books and this is my favourite so far.

What is it? is a golden book printed in Japan but I can only guess at the date. Intended as a picture dictionary, it is instead a sweet illustration of how much some things have changed.

These are a couple of my favourite pages.

Things for baby. Check out the chair!

Friendly animals. Puppies and kittens were insanely popular subjects.

Things to ride. I love the driving goggles!

And while I'm at it, why not take a look at some of the other books I have picked up?

Let's Talk

A bunny talking to a deer. As they do.

Baby Animals is another golden book but is more recent, with a 1980 copyright.

Little Kitten Mischief was printed in Tokyo in 1968. See what I mean about the puppies and kittens?

Puppies was printed in Holland in 1974. It is Olive's favourite because it is small and she is obsessed with dogs. I wonder where she gets her obsessive nature from? ;)

fencing patterns

Sorry about the unscheduled blog break. Quite simply, I wore myself out. I am just crawling back into action now.

Meanwhile, I have been nurturing a new obsession with pattern. It began with a book that my talented younger sister bought for me, Pattern Design by Lewis F. Day. (This link is highly recommended as it gives a very generous portion of the book in .pdf.)

First published in 1903, Pattern Design is almost worth reading for the language alone: "But in the very variety of demands made upon us there is some compensation for their unreasonableness."

So I started looking for patterns around me and found a lot that I like in fences, of all places.

But enough unnecessary chatter. It's time for some pictures!


1. PhoneCam Texture: Iron Fence Greek Design, 2. Curled up, 3. Follow, 4. iron fence, 5. fence 2, 6. patterned fence, 7. fence, 8. Fence, 9. Metal Grid 4, 10. Pattern, 11. Queensway fence, 12. Fenced in, 13. pattern, 14. Repeating Patterns, 15. red fence, 16. Don't fence me in, 17. Fence Patterns, 18. IMG_0331-800px.jpg, 19. Geometry, 20. fencepattern, 21. Fence Pattern, 22. Red fence, 23. Stockport-Mersey Fencing., 24. Chain Link Fence#1

Ah, Flickr. You never cease to make me happy.

stamp it

I know that I promised myself no more crafting until the homework is done but I have been seeing rubber stamp tutorials on the likes of Geninne's Art Blog and Creative Kismet. It looked so easy and I already had the tools required so how could I resist? Besides, it's such a portable activity that I could do it anywhere. So far I have tried in the car, at work, visiting relatives and on the train. I am addicted!

this is ... the space in which I create

I thought seriously about not participating in "this is ..." this week. I like Michelle's topic and will be doing the rounds to see how everyone else fared but when I looked into my craft room I was embarrassed, nay even ashamed of the mess that it has become. And I have promised myself that I will not sew or otherwise play in my craft room until all of my TAFE homework is done. Luckily the homework is reasonably fun (tapestry weaving and painting with gouache) and it is due in less than two weeks so I should survive. Just.

Anyway, rather than slinking quietly into a corner I thought I would expand the topic a little and show you some shots from my whole house. Because, after all (and much to my partner's frustration), my crafting rarely stays confined to its designated room. So here it is:

Double French doors (behind Beaker, who thinks it's all about him). We have three sets of French doors: two in the lounge room and one as the front door. They are beautiful but not very practical as they take up an awful lot of wall space and are probably not overly secure. But they're pretty.

Radiator on the bathroom wall. There are matching heaters in the kitchen and second bedroom. I'm not sure that they even work any more - I would never actually use them because they guzzle too much power. And yet I do like knowing that they're there.

Lino on the kitchen floor. We also have killer vintage lino in the second bedroom and the toilet.

I fell in love with our house from the moment I first saw it thanks to these features and more. It is a genuine 1940s time capsule with only one set of owners before us and almost no modifications. I didn't even show you the wood oven! The really sad thing is that it is sitting on a huge block so I know that when we sell it will get bulldozed to make way for two or three ugly new townhouses. There is even a proposal to turn our road into a six lane highway, which will spell forced acquisition of either the whole block or just the front yard, leaving trucks to whiz past just inches from our bedroom. We're not budging yet though. We must protect the picture rails, the ceiling roses and the extra-wide timber floorboards!

a mole's guide to making linen

We received a fantastic surprise in the mail this week. All the way from the Czech Republic, courtesy of my partner's chat friend most commonly known as "nice girl", came two board books for Olive. They were written by Zdenek Miler, illustrated by Eduard Petiska, and were also produced as a children's tv cartoon in the 1980s. The characters and pictures are really cute but it wasn't until I started reading the test of "how come little mole has trousers" that I seriously got excited. It's all about how to make linen!

First, you have to grow some flax plants.

When the flax is ripe, reap it and soak it in water. Once it is completely soaked, dry it.

Next, break the stems of the flax.

Comb the broken flax.

Spin the threads.

And weave the yarn into cloth.

Thank you, Barbara, for your insight and generosity. The books will be treasured for many years to come.

Mosaic meme

There's a fun meme doing the rounds that I thought I'd try. The rules are:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into flickr search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name


1. La Leona, 2. gingerbread in a jar + gingerbread softie, 3. Simply clouds, 4. Autumn walk, 5. Clara, 6. Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes, 7. Nocturnal hike into the bamboo forest, 8. Ice Cream Dressed in Red, 9. Noche de luna llena - Full moon night, 10. high rise urban hasselblad, 11. bianca7A, 12. Esmerelda Owl

Thanks to Lisa of Strickerin for introducing me to this fun meme.