While we’re on the subject

I have been meaning to blog this since before Christmas. Remember this box I got at a garage sale? I was going to do it up for my brother’s 21st birthday…

Here it is all done up to the nines’. 

I painted it a slate grey and attached new handles.

The outlines of the letters were lightly printed on to old pages of Shakespeare plays, then I cut them out and modge-podged them on to the box. I did several layers over top of the letters to make sure they wont come off.

I managed to get it to him only 6 months late… a record for me!

Who knows what he will put in it, boy stuff no doubt.

What should one do with these?

You’ll see what I’m doing soon, but I want to know what YOU would do with them?

This is what romance looks like… husbands take note

These flowers are a special gift for a lovely wife. A nice man from the US asked me to make them for her. That’s just nice in itself, but wait there’s more…

Every year for their anniversary this nice man gets his wife flowers made from the old traditional anniversary guide. So this means he has had made (or made himself) flowers from: paper, cotton, leather, linen, wood, iron, copper, bronze, pottery, tin, steel, silk and now lace.

I’m dying to see flowers made from rubies and sapphires and of course gold and diamonds! Perhaps that’s a few years down the track though.

I am told that the ladies she works with look forward to her anniversary more than their own!

 

So my husband has been told to take note. This is romance… saying ‘oh, did you want me to get you something?’ on the actual day of the anniversary isn’t. :)

If you want to make the flowers, you can use this tutorial

And the vase is also lace that I wrapped around a jar and coated several times with modge podge so it would stand up alone. If you do this remember to wrap cling film around the jar first… otherwise your attempts to remove it when dry wont end happily :) (yes I found that out the hard way)

So now that you’ve had a little romance, I hope you have a little smile too!

Ginormous weekend!

Yes I'm just getting around to writing about my weekend now... I'll admit it, I'm lazy. And it's hot. Like 41 degrees at 2pm hot! Gah! The house is starting to heat up despite my best efforts to cool it. 3 days of baking heat tends to do that I guess.

Anyway, last weekend was the most fun I've had shopping in ages. Not normal shopping though, I think the count ended at 6 garage sales and 4 op shops in the Bendigo area. We stayed at Jem's brother's house and I snuck off at 7am to visit the garage sales I mark on my iphone map! The first one I went to was AWESOME! It was at the fire station in Maiden Gully and all the profits were going to the local stations. There was so much stuff! These are what I took home with me...


The coolest retro 70s lamp ever!! I love this so much that every time I look at it I get all warm and fuzzy inside. $5 was beyond a bargain!!!


A Holly Hobby sewing machine for $2. I don't know what I'm going to do with it though, I was thinking of putting it on ebay but I think it looks nice just being in my studio!


And this wooden box sort of like a foot locker. I'm going to sand it right back and either paint it or give it a glossy coat.

I also managed to get a $15 black LEATHER lounge suit for my brother when he moves into the batchelor pad next year. It was in such good contidion and had a 3 seater, 2 x 1 seaters and an ottoman. Seriously it was worth so much more and my brother was pretty pleased :) (it's part of his christmas present)

Then it was off to the oppys, where I found this:



A pretty cake plate right? I thought that too but I was wondering if $7 was a little too much. Until I turned it over and saw that it had 'Royal Albert' written on the underside. My Mum taught me a bit about plates and which manufacturers are worth collecting. So I took it home and perused the Royal Albert website and eventually found it... you can still buy them for a neat $100. *Happy Face* So all I have to do now is hang onto it for another 20+ years and it might worth more :)

There were lots of other goodies that came home like toys and balls etc. which Aus has been having a lovely time playing with.

Then we came home and Sunday was a big day. After much hard work this is what my studio now looks like:







I made myself a new bench (with a little help from Hubby)! Oh the delights of having space!! Now all I need is new curtains and it will be the perfect space for my needs. Oh and I so have a few recent additions:


My new rock tumbler- don't worry, I'm not tumbling rocks. It's going to make my jewellery all shiny :)


And these little doo-dads are for my new dremel tool that my parents gave me for my birthday... hours of fun to be had with this stuff!

So there it is, a huge weekend, filled with shopping and building and creating!
Hope the next one is as exciting for you, seeing as how I'm off to an auction and a twilight market! Yay!

Vintage find, Bigamy- we could all be at risk!

I found these 2 magazines at a garage sale on Saturday. They were $2 each and are from 1958 and 1951 respectively. I've put them in frames because they are so cool but now I am kicking myself that I didn't buy more, there were at least 10 there! DOH!

Before they went behind frames I had a good old read. Some of the articles are gob-smackingly funny! Some make you cringe at the lack of ambition or women (I'll show you) and some and are just weird. Let's start with the headline article shall we? (if you can't read any click on them and it will take you to the flickr page where you can see them bigger)



Moods, tantrums and peculiar logic? AHEM!



Hmm... could it be you?!



According to this, it could!! Lol. I'd like to know where they got their statistics from!



This is what I meant about women. Numbers 1, 10 & 11 are cringe-worthy!



And just to prove how long the paparazzi have been around...





Look what is forecast for fashion in 1958!



Organ donation way back when, why not get your eyes cut out? Do you think many people signed up after reading that?





And here are some weird stories and funny headlines:



'Even Diana has gone all spiritual'- lol



Oh no! Not from the nurses panties!!



I just like how happy she looks about having those things stuck to her boobs!



'Hullo Murderer' lol



Really? In their sleep? Was quit smoking hypnosis around that far back?



Hubby will like this one...



There is more on my flickr page if you didn't get enough in this post. I'm so glad I got at least these 2, it's like a window back in time!