Dyed to the Bone

In Which Annie is Happy

OK.  Picture this.  You're sick as a dog.  Sinus hurting so much even your teeth hurt.  Itchy throat, dry, barking cough.

You're house looks seriously disgusting.

You go to look for an apple to eat and discover that not only has the fridge decided to par freeze said apples, but it has so much ice caked on the back of it that the food is starting to be squeezed out.

What's a girl to do?

Well, I started off with a crying jag at the whole overwhelmingness of the mess, the mess of my life, and the entropy of the looney universe we live in.

Then I got to work.

I dragged out the little CD player (trying to be good and save electricity).  Listened to 666 for about half an hour (until the politicians gave me the shits), then cranked up the volume and put in Mika's latest CD. 

Well, that had me grooving.  Rice porridge dispensed with and the second large mug of coffee under my belt, I started on the laundry.  Then, after 30 minutes of defrosting, I started on the fridge.  The neato thing about our fridge, is that it frosts up so spectacularly well that it all comes off in one big chunk.  Mostly.

Intrigued by the large sheet of ice, I suddenly wondered what it would look like if I tipped food colouring all over it...  Gosh darn, it looks something like this:

I wasn't happy with that, so I played some more until I noticed that the back side was doing interesting things. 

Possibly I should have raced off and got some cloth and tried dyeing it with this a la a relief painting, but I was just having too much fun (as well as other house wifely duties). But, I don't like the chances of getting light fastness outta food colouring, as much as it is good at staining clothes.

Besides, I figured if I could get enough good shots with the camera, it would make a good textural background for digital manipulation and other such fun:

 

OK, so the last picture is a bit crappy, but it sure as hell kept me entertained for a while, and made cleaning up a bit more worthwhile.

Sparta decided to do his ironing board barnacle again, after I'd ironed about 7 metres of hand dyed fabric.  I do not know what it is about this ironing board, but it's almost as attractive to him as my sewing machine...

He keeps moving every time I try to get a photo.  This was about the fifth attempt, which he's got that "Will you not just bugger off with that flashy thing???!!!!" look on his face.

He is loving the very tall kitty gym that his Grandad made for him.  I mean, DUDE!  Seriously.

Teh bigger teh post, teh closer to teh ceiling kitteh.

Love our cat!  He will be turning one on the 7th of November.  No more 'kitten' dry food.  He can have the big boy food now.

Rest time is over for now.  Back to fighting with the house from hell....

Well Hellooooooooooooooo

Isn't he the most beautiful boy?

A Very Nice Sunday

Well, except for the weather.  In Canberra yesterday, the weather did its best to pretend that it was still winter.  As in the dead of.

It rained.  It hailed.  It blew a gale.  In short - it SUCKED.  Mightily.

As the Darlinge had his volunteer explainer duties to perform at Tidbinbilla, the kids and I decided to make the best of a suck-hole day.

First up it was back to the LifeLine Book Fair.  Round Two for me, round one for the kidlets.  We trolled around the tables for a while, all the time, I'm like putting books back, because they were over $2. 

I was just casting another loving look at the vintage recipe pamphlets, when over the loudspeaker came the following:

"And now ladies, gentlemen and kids, comes the time that you've all been waiting for...  The $10 a eco shopping bag time.  Everything has to go.  Over in the middle of the floor, we're giving out shopping bags if you don't have any" (which we didn't).

Oh.My.God.

I sent Gracie off for three bags.  She and Matthew raced off to find all the cat books I'd made them put back.  I told Gracie she had free reign over the cookbook section.  I made for the vintage recipe pamphlets, followed by the ancient book section and the sheet music section.

Oh ho ho.  Did we end up with a fine haul or WHAT!!!!!  The Darlinge scored a really lovely vintage copy of Ring of Bright Water, which he loved as a child.  Gracie and Matthew got their fill of cat books.  Gracie got some very bizarre cookbooks, and I got a ton of books and sheet music for altering.

Or so I thought...

As we spent a happy hour or so going through the booty, most of the books that I'd got for their bindings were deemed too nice to destroy by the Darlinge.  The Darlinge also 'rescued' some really dodgy sheet music as well.

Sigh.

I must admit that I had got a children's book of about Handel which was in the perfect decrepit state for altering, when I actually started reading it.  I was totally charmed by it, as it was written for very young children a long time ago, much in the manner of Heidi. So, it too joined the other keepers.

The other great thing about yesterday was the fact that I had to go to Gold Creek Village to pick up my embossing folder that had arrived at Wrapped in Paper.  As we were chilled to the bone from the Book Fair, naturally, a communal bowl of chips at Cafe Injoy was called for.  Bloody yum scrum.

Then we visited Adore Tea at their new location.  Holy Crap, it was AWESOME!!!!  Nat and hubby have taken over the dingy old tavern, which last time I went totally reeked of cigarette smoke and stale beer, and gutted it.  About the only thing I could recognise was the open fire place, which was roaring away nicely. Wooden floors, lots of light (glass windows), white walls, light furniture and lots and lots and lots of lovely tea.

Heaven in a cup.  Go there.  Sit.  Drink tea.  Buy tea to take home.  I've said it before, but I'lll say it again, these people are good people.  They give you the same care and attention and service if you're dropping $8 or $80.  The love their tea and they love their customers.  Good people.

The kids shared a milkshake and caramel mudcake, while I had a cup of Strawberry and Cream tea, with dutch pancake thingies (poffertjies) (?) and mango sauce.  Yum.  Gracie and Matthew were entranced by the open fireplace, having never seen one before.  They spent the entire time, with their noses glued to the grill, trying to work out what part of the wood would catch on fire next.  Great fun.

Much hilarity and riot was had by all looking through the vintage cookbooks/pamphlets last night.  Wow. One took me straight back to a long forgotten memory, that of the 'test' or 'demonstration' kitchen.  I had forgotten that the (then) Newcastle County Council used to do cooking demonstrations, using the latest gas and electric cookers.  My babysitter Daphne, used to take me to them.  We'd catch the bus from Merriwether to Newcastle, and sit in this dark little theatre type thing and watch the cooks go for it.  I had completely forgotten this memory until I saw the 'McAlpin Test Kitchen' illustration.

This is why I love looking through these old things.  They bring back so much.  Mind you, HFSM, I cringe at the thought of some of the things our parents were forced to eat....

Mmmmmmm.  (Economical, As Illustrated). 

And what's with the bloody prunes?!?!? 

Looks like something you wipe off your shoes....  Dad said that everything had to have bloody prunes in it.  Mind you, eating that much stodge in the old days, they must have needed the prunes!

Another gemmy poo:

AAAAHHHHHH 

ZOMBIE FOOD!!!!!! 

Dear God!!!  Brain Canapes, FFS.  Mind you, the pineapple rice doesn't sound too bad...  Wow.  All I can say is wow.  I have to admit that I was once served up crumbed brains, and they were not too bad.  But I didn't know what they were.  There is no way on God's green earth that I would cook or eat the fuckers again...

Sparta on the other hand would probably like a change from hand...

Now, if I could just find Daphne's hedgehog recipe, I'd die a happy camper.....

How Awesome Is the Lifeline Book Fair?

Bloody awesome indeed! 

On Friday, as threatened, I went to the book fair.  Had my coffee, sat in the car.  Did some jewellry making in the car in the warm sun (although it was a bit of a brisk day).  Nearly dropped dead looking at the line up to get in.  Literally HUNDREDS of people. EEEEE!!!!

I discovered that I have three main phases of the Lifeline Book Fair.

The "I'm so happy and at peace" stage: This is where the sun is shining, people are friendly and chatting, I am amused and made very happy by the amount of kids and their parents bonding over the hunt for the books to come.  The magies are out busking for food.  It's magic.  The doors open and everyone pours into the building in an orderly manner.  I spend at least an hour doing the royal tour of the catagories.  I start collecting.

The "Crap my back is really starting to hurt and why the hell didn't I remember to bring a box on wheels?" stage:  This is where I start regretting having the coffees and Diet Coke, as I am now BUSTING but have an armful of books.... Small babies are starting to get fractious.  I drop the books, do a bolt to the loo, wash hands. pick up my books and go back to browsing.  Toddlers are now joining in the whinging.

The "Get me the fuck out of here!!!" stage:  The baby wailing Eurovision competition is now in earnest.  Bloody hell people, don't expect these poor wee ones to last more than an hour...  Go away.  Please remove your screaming under five year olds.  I am ferreting through my handbag for the emergency stash of Panadeine... There are two babies, one each side of me about five metres away, doing a synchronised scream session.  Then they start tasking turns, like some weird bloody bird call.  This is rapidly becoming hell.  I realise that I haven't cleaned the kitchen and the Darlinge is going to open the door in a few hours to the kitchen from hell...  There's a line up to pay for books that's at least sixty people long.  I drag two HUGE bags o booty to the nice lady waving the flag, because I can't lift them any more.  I pay.  I'm gone.

And I know that I'll do it all again before the weekend is over, as I promised to take the kids...

On the brighter side of all of this, I dropped off a whole bundle of "Walkabout" magazines from 1965 (a good year!) to Mum and Dad, as they have been feeling a bit depressed.  We spend a happy hour looking over these vintage treasures.  Everybody feels much better.  I leave Mum and Dad exclaiming over the remember whens.

There are fresh doobries waiting, and it's now 10:42pm.  More tomorrow, plus pics of my book fair booty.....  Avast.

A Very interesting Night

Dear God, Peter is showing Gracie that appalling movie Flash Gordon.  Ewww.  Only thing that saved it was Topol, Brian Blessed and Max.  Oh, and the Queen soundtrack.  The rest killed too many of my brain cells for me to be happy....

Just went to a small business networking thingie.  It was good, but I realised how out of practice I am in a work capacity.  And the fact that I swore twice.  Plus I felt so, so very out of place and totally inadequate.  I also feel that I failed to impress anybody, especially myself.

I hate this.

On the brighter side, it's the LIFELINE BOOKFAIR tomorrow.  After dropping the kids to school, I'm grabbing a coffee from Cafe Delish, and wending my way to EPIC.  There I shall sit, in breathless anticipation of the joy that is to come...  Old book smell.  Books I have read once in my long forgotten youth.  Wonderful old books, once loved now disgarded, ready to be altered and loved again.  You can actually touch books that are over 100 years old.  How fantastic is that?!?!?!?  I still to this day regret not buying a HUGE dictionary that was printed in 1899.  It was only $10.  Arse.  Never again!!!!!

I only have a budget of $14, which is all I have in my wallet.  But I figure that's good for about three hours at the book fair...

Annon d00ds.

A little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

And no, it's not the dread Mambo Number Five. So, what's it going to be?  It will make four of them...  Stay tuned.

When I added this:

to freezer paper cut on the KNK and a black T Shirt, I got this:

It looks better in real life, as the Lumiere is a tad more 'restrained'.  I found the image on Photobucket, and imported it into KNK Studio, vectorised it and asked it to cut.  Lo, it did.  I was very, very happy.  Of course, now the kidlets want one each.

I am combing through the rest of my KNK files, some of which I purchased for cardmaking from Paperthreads.  I love it when crafts cross over!  I have a lot of tired t-shirts that I cannot afford to replace just yet!

Some Days It's Hard to Sew...

Missing Michael Jackson

I am sitting here listening to Michael Jackson's 'Number Ones' cd, and still feeling very sad.  The first 'pop' song I can remember singing (besides the usual toddler standards) was Puppet on a String, and The Jackson 5's 'ABC' (I was about four/five).

Yes, I confess.  I love MJs music.  I didn't mind the poor bugger either, despite what people claimed that he did.  I have always thought of him as this strange but wildly talented being.  I have never really made up my mind about his 'guilt'.

How the hell does anyone know?  There are three sides to any story.  One persons' the other persons and what really happened.  I believe Michael Jackson was a serial hugger of children.  I also believe the poor man was seriously mentally unstable, thanks in large to an abusive childhood.  Therefore in his reality, there prolly was nothing with having sleepovers with children.  He was in essence, his own worst enemy.

I might be wrong.  He may have been a paedophile.  Who knows.  I want to separate that side and mourn the singer and dancer.  Man, the only ones he fell short of IMHO, was Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.

I wasn't a great fan of the crotch grab, or even the Moonwalk, clever as it was.  It was just the litheness, the grace and the power.  I never could believe that skinny frame could have so much power.  The muscle strength to bust those moves was enourmous.  A lot of people don't stop and think about that.

His music has always, always been in my life, whether I liked it or not (mostly I did).

My favourite (despite the once cringeworthy monologue in the middle, which is now just painfully sad) will always be "Will You Be There".  Earth Song, Black and White, Thriller, Rock With You, Ben etc etc etc.

A poor tortured soul, hopefully now at rest, out of the world he could never quite fit into.

Ouch!

That's the sound my credit card will be making tonight when it pays for the next order from ProChem for Annies Dye Pot.

At least the good news is that I will have a bazillion new colours to play with when the order comes in to land! Yay!

Golden Delicious, Soft Orange, Wedgewood, Old Rose, Kiwi, Iris, Lilac - just to name a few.  As well as a re-stocking of my bloody Raspberry, Mulberry, Grape etc.

Hopefully now that Dad's stopped the yo yo-ing between home and hospital I'll have some more time to devote to throwing dye at cloth.  I have missed it so bloody much.

Love working with paper, love working with fabric most of all!

On Nekkid Trees

Every April/May in Canberra, huge flocks of White Sulphur Crested Cockatoos give the grass of Canberra a bloody good going over.  I believe they are digging for native yams.  You can see well over one hundred birds on the ground at once.  Stunning sight!

The other foggy morning on the way to school, Matthew and I saw a huge nekkid (read it has shed its leaves) tree, with about one hundred cockies perched in it.

I said to Matthew "Quick, look at the cockatoo tree".  For a nano second he almost believed it 8-)

We roared laughing at this bizarre sight, that for all the world looked like it had a crop of cockies on it, and have been keeping our eyes (and my camera) peeled ever since.

Of particular hilarity and riot is when their crests are up.  This happens in moments of extreme emotion, and when they land.

This morning two of them were patrolling the median strip alone Adelaide Avenue.  One head down, digging and the other stalking very solemnly around.  Just as I noticed them, a Police car shot past at about 120 KPH, missing them by less than two feet.

I now know what a Cocky looks like when he's saying "WTF!!!!!!!!".  Tallest crests I ever did see...

Gotta love Canberra in the Autumn.