op shoppin' again

I have a day off, so naturally am about to embark on an op shop crawl. I thought I would visit my old stomping ground on Prospect Road. Since I moved it seems to have become quite a funky area. Sure the two things are not related. To get me in the mood, here are a few pretties I picked up the other day:

You can't have enough fake-retro print brown mugs, can you? A nice size for a hefty cup of tea.

I fancied this wicket basket, wasn't bad for six dollars, in reasonable condition. Thought I could upgrade the peculiar catches and maybe put some interesting fabric inside. But wait, there was already something hiding inside!

Genuine old plastic. Not sure if this thermos works but it's rocking the orange theme.

Certainly matches the orange plates and cups. Hang on, what's that little brown and fawn do-dad?

It says to pull apart slowly. Ah - that would be because there is genuine vintage salt and pepper still inside. Bonus!

More to come later I am sure.

#34 Make my own cards - linoprinting!

#19 make or rennovate piece of furniture

Activity ahoy! I've been tinkering away on this one in mum's garage.

Can you tell what this is? No? Clearly some old drawers, about to become a play kitchen for the kids. Naturally, when I say "about" I don't mean in the next few days.

Meanwhile, I tried my first painted calico doll.

Elliot loves him, although we have since had an argument about why Iron Man isn't smiling. I went for the genuine creepy static mask but he thinks the mask smiles when Tony smiles.

#31 WEA course

It was, as Elly would say, awesome.

Mung bean madness

I was planning a post reminiscing about things I've made the kids over the last few years, but have been distracted making new things. Today Elliot got excited about beanbags. This would have been a super-quick project without a four year old helping. He "helped" with most parts, but I did draw the line when he crawled under the table and pushed the sewing machine pedal with his hand. Yeah, while my foot was on it.

Here he is helping me measure.

At this point he got a little bored and started to crack open the mung beans (while I made jokes such as "making some dal over there, darl".) This would normally be hard work but he happens to have a fibreglass cast on his right arm, which proved effective. A little tip for the future there, should you lose your nut crackers and have an injured child nearby.

A bit of sewing later, and ta da!

This first game looks mighty civilised. Naturally it soon degenerated into a pretend snowball fight and the institution of two basic rules for beanbags:

1. Underarm only
2. No throwing at my face.

Outdoors, we had some fun last week in one of our dormant veggie patches. Elly's childcare centre installed a butterfly garden, so we decided to make one at home too. Builders hat apparently necessary because we were digging holes.