What can I say? I'm a Winner.

That's all there is to it. ;)

Hehehe... nah... I woke up to the VERY exciting news that I won an awesomely awesome 'Map 29' purse from Crafty Girl With Ruffle!!!

I said in my winning comment (mwahahaha) that I'd choose the distant streets of Sydney for my purse if I won - just in case the homesickness ever starts to wane, but decided this morning that that maybe wasn't such a great idea... a tad depressing if you will, so have opted for the closer, colder streets of Melbourne, specifically the map with the Queen Victoria Markets on it, for a couple of reasons;

a) They are one of my favourite things about Melbourne and

b) 'Queen Victoria' has a lovely ring to it... (for those who don't know, that's my name... well, without the 'Queen' bit... usually.)

So, this unexpected & exciting second-in-my-life win, will go with my unexpected & exciting first-in-my-life win, the skully tote! A perfect pair, me thinks.

Thank you Annmarie! :D

I cleaned the sink....

...and I know what you're thinking. Yes I do. You're thinking; "That's just great.", "Go you.", "What do I care?". Don't pretend that's not true. That's what I'd be thinking if I were you.

Anywho... I don't know if you WILL care, but it's sort of a big step for me. Now I'm not saying that this is the first time I've ever cleaned the sink, but it is certainly the first time I've taken a picture of it...! ;)

A thread over on the Crafty Mamas forum today lead me to FlyLady. I have heard of her before, but not paid any attention, after all, I hate cleaning, so why would I want to know how to do more of it? But today, for some reason, I actually had a bit more of a thorough look over there, and, as a result, I cleaned the sink.

I guess there comes a time, as much as I hate to admit it, and hate even more actually doing it, when a mamma just has to get on top of the things she's been letting slide, not only to set a good example to any young Punk that may be hanging around, but to also feel in control of the housework for a change, instead of it looming large eternally like an evil nemesis, and controlling her instead.

Even though I had committed to a bit of a longer look over at FlyLady, I almost clicked away after a brief read-through, thinking "Who am I kidding?". I'm just not that kind of girl. The competent, organised housefrou type of girl. But then I thought about how I spend my days, and what is the thing I dislike the most...? You got it. Cleaning. What do I enjoy the most? Hanging out with Le Punk & Crafting. What stops me from doing those two things...? Again with the cleaning. I just suck at it, and because I suck at it, it always ends up out of control & I spend a whole day cleaning just to end up with a moderately livable house that gets messed up again within a matter of milliseconds.

When I say it gets out of control... I wish I were over-exaggerating. We're talking dishes that don't get done until I am forced to wash them, usually before I can make dinner, or, even more likely, I look at the dirty dishes around 20 past 5 & think "What can I make for dinner that requires none of these dishes?!".

Why can't I be organised? Or, more precisely, why can't I learn to be organised? Why can't I just make the necessary cleaning a regular part of my routine, as opposed to a never-ending chore...?

No real reason, that I could come up with. So. I cleaned the sink. That's all I have to do today. Day 1. And all I have to do tomorrow is get dressed as soon as I get up & 'shine' the sink again. I'm pretty sure I can manage that.....

(Kitchen pretty - something to distract me while I do the dishes... when I do the dishes...)

DIY Make-Over. Sort Of.

In the spirit of handmade/DIY, last night, I cut & coloured my own hair.

I think that there may be a lot of advocates of DIY out there that would absolutely draw the line at this (the cutting, not necessarily the dying), but it kind of happened by accident, and turned out okay, so I'm happy.

I meant to just give my fringe a bit of a trim, as I have been doing, with a technique that I saw on tellie years & years & years ago on that bastion of respectable and informative television... Ricki Lake. The idea is you gather up your fringe so that the base, or roots of your fringe, form a triangle, then twist it around & CHOP! This results in a kind of choppy, layered look.

Well, I did this, kind of half arsed, not even bothering with the whole triangle thing, & ended up with an incredibly short fringe that just looked... wrong. So, I gathered up the rest of my hair & did the same sort of thing... a chop here, a snip there, until I ended up in a happier place.

Here I should probably let it be known that I am not a hairdresser, and have no experience or aspirations in the field... which I think you may agree is glaringly obvious...!

So there I was, with a sink full of hair & a completely new hairstyle, and, luckily, I kinda liked it, but I was kind of shocked by the colour of the hair languishing in the basin. It was dark. Really dark. Like, dark brown dark.

For someone that considers themselves to be a natural blonde, this can be quite distressing! I decided that I'd dye my hair too, while I was on a roll.

I've only ever dyed my hair with temporary colours, you know, like blue fudge or something else that is gone in 8 washes, and none of that since I was even in high school, so it is fair to say that I was pretty nervous hiding out in the bathroom with my disturbingly close to cat-urine smelling pack of hair 'solution', but, good girl that I am, I followed the directions to the letter & ended up with hair the colour I always thought it had been, nice & light, bright, and ready, oh-so-ready, for spring.

Crime & Retribution...

I got some lovely happy mail today, and it was even a bit of a surprise since my memory is so cruddy... the box had something like "Outdoor Cleaning Supplies" on it, which was confusing - thought The Boy had ordered something & had it shipped to my name, until I opened it.....

Ah! Pyrex! Beautiful, beautiful vintage Pyrex goodness. This was not just another frivolous purchase however. Oh no. This, was retribution.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for one of my cool old oven dishes - I had two, a square one & a round one, and I needed the round one to bake in... I couldn't find it anywhere, and when I thought about it, I realised I hadn't seen it for quite a while.

Days later, I stumbled upon this;



My incredible powers of deduction were put to the test, but in the end, I was able to find the culprit.

It must have been a terrible scene, a dark & stormy night, the back door opens with a creak & a man steps out onto the wet cement. A large brute of a dog approaches menacingly, eyeing the prize in the mans hands greedily... moments later, the startling sound of vintage ovenware shattering into several heart breaking pieces pierces the night air...

That's right. The Boy had given my beautiful dish to the dog with leftovers in it. That in itself is wrong on so many levels, but somehow the dish was broken and The Boy, knowing the implications, and fearing the wrath of a kitchen kitch collecting crazy woman, "hid" the evidence down beside the house.... apparently while finishing off a beer.

So, when I saw this cute set of Pyrex on ebay, I knew it had to be mine, oh yes, and there wasn't a darn thing The Boy would be able to say about it!

You'll be shocked & horrified to learn that he also, two house moves ago, heartlessly disposed of my vintage sunbeam mixmaster.

I am keeping my eye out.

Houdini.

Now accepting theories as to how this: (Sans the vegemite beard)

Escaped from here:

My guess would have been some sort of climbing and falling incident, HOWEVER, I was awake at the time of the 'escape', was leisurely considering my options as to when and how I myself was going to alight from my own bed. I heard Le Punk talking happily to herself & figured I had a couple more minutes at least to contemplate life from under the warm snugly covers... when all of a sudden her bedroom door slid open & she trudged out, happily, with her teddy & her dummy.

I heard no bangs, thumps or bumps. There were no squeals of terror, discomfort or even triumph.

Mysterious.

Oh Op Shop.. How Do I Love Thee?

...let me count the ways!

• I love how you are so unpredictable, two days are never alike with you!
• I love all of your special treasures, just waiting for me to find them...
• I love your beautiful staff, who almost always go out of their way to assist.
• I love how affordable your wares are... most of the time!
• I love how you invoke memories, without even trying.
• I love how you provide so much that goes toward making new memories.
• I love rummaging around in your piles of stuff.
• I love finding things that I would never buy, wear or use, just to know that such things exist.
• I love your surprises....

• I love mustard coloured chairs that cost $5.

• I love that said chair has already become Punky's firm favourite.
• I love that I didn't realise until I got it home that it reclines.... bonus!

• I love vintage table & chair sets that cost $50.
• I love how sturdy & solid old furniture is...!
• I love how I can now relegate our dodgey, wobbly, IKEA table to the back room (more space for crafting...!).
• I love how it only cost an extra $5 for two LOVELY old gentlemen to deliver everything, immediately.

• I love how I was able to find all these treasures & squirrel them away early - before the torrents of rain started, and the wind ramped up it's hurricane efforts...
  

Lucky For Me I Have No Willpower...

...because if I did... I wouldn't know that I am the incredibly lucky winner of this awesomeness:

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! *does happy dance* I won the skully skully goodness, I won the skully skully goodness....!!!

Thanks go to the gorgeous witchie woman Mrs B & the talented Tara from Tarabu, I am just buzzing with excitement and am so, so glad that I am totally devoid of resolution & turned the computer on 'just for a second' after putting Punky down for a nap.

The awesomeness is threefold, like all good things are; 1. Skulls are my absolute, boney hands down, favourite thing, ever. 2. This is my first blog giveaway win (or anything at all interesting that didn't involve drawing or making something) and 3. I'm going to be Mrs B's bag twin!! lol

Oh yeah. Good times.