A Punky Year

Punky through 2009. How she's grown! Gosh I love this kid...! Happy New Year!

YAY!

Now I just have to gradually pack/declutter & WAIT, wait, wait, until the end of February!

Mellow Yellow.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to dye my hair pink. I can’t tell you how I came to this decision – it seemed to just appear out of thin air. I don’t even particularly like pink. Anywho, I was trawling eBay for cheap Fudge, for when I was 16 & dying my hair “crazy” shades of blue & green, Fudge was where it was at.

In my travels I came across another brand of hair colour that I’d not seen before; Manic Panic. It seems this brand is supposed to last a bit longer than Fudge, and has a much larger array of colours – I think poor ol’Fudge paintbox colours have gone down in popularity since their heyday in the nineties – they don’t even HAVE green anymore…!

I also found another brand, Special Effects, that is supposed to last longer than  Fudge & Manic Panic put together…! Because I was suffering from information overload & a little too many options (like milk; full fat? Half fat? No fat? Skim….?), I decided to give up for the time being & come back to it later – then I remembered the Fudge I had bought at an oppy in Melbourne before we moved here – Mellow Yellow. When I bought it, it was from it’s original point of sale box, the colour had been discontinued obviously & the salon had given it to the opshop. I bought it “just because” and it’s been carted around in boxes since.

After rummaging around in the shed I came up with a tube & decided “What the hell” & did it.

Just the smell of it when I opened the tube took me back 12 years to standing in my Mum’s bathroom with an old towel & a roll of gladwrap at the ready.

 

I like it (…for a discontinued possibly out of date colour)! I am definitely going to try pink – and although I’d be interested in trying those other brands, seems they require some pretty heavy duty bleaching beforehand (which is kind of funny – semi permanent colour over rather permanent bleach), where as you can quite happily slap Fudge on without that rather drastic step.

I feel like I have doll’s hair! And I am suprised when my fringe flops in front of my eyes! Now I can worry about whether it’ll wash out before my driving test… although, as I was saying to a friend yesterday, it may very well guarantee a pass if my hair looks dodgey!

On your bike.

So, being a public holiday, I will not have any more news today about the house, or “The Cottage” as I have come to think of her, but that shall not stop me from worrying, hoping & planning the entire interior decor.

One thing I would really like to have in my little home, when we can finally “bang a nail in” wherever & whenever we like, is an abundance of beautiful art. I am drawn to illustrations & drawings mostly, maybe because that is what I do…? I don’t know, but I feel a deeper, quicker connection to drawings that I like than I do with paintings that I like, or even photographs, so I’ve been looking for lovely drawings lately that I can frame & admire.

I already have one lovely print ready to go – I am yet to find the right frame, but how I love this picture! I was lucky enough to win it, but I’ve only gone & forgotten where… it’s from here.

Isn’t he great? “Murray the Moose”. Brilliant.

I was thinking maybe some more bicycle themed art to go with him….? What do you think of this lot….?

“Stork Legs on a Penny Farthing”

“The Trick Rider” – not a drawing obviously, but pretty damn cool me thinks!

“1982 Schwinn Sting”

“Life is like riding a bicycle”

 

I actually have the remains of a bike veeeeeeeeery similar to that last one in the back yard at the moment – I fell in love when I saw it – shiny red with cool handles & white wall tires… too bad it was incredibly impractical to ride (make that ‘impossible’). I stole the seat for my current ride & plan on making one of the tires into a massive clock…

Confessions….

Ah, the time has come to tell the truth!

I told you I was banning myself from the computer! I told you I had things to make & stuff to do! I told you I would be off making those things & doing that stuff…..

But I lied.

It wasn’t intentional, I promise. But I’m lazy. It was hot. The dog ate my homew… oh.

I spent the few days I had given myself away from the blog, erm… reading other blogs (like Lola’s… I HAD to comment on her boots – outing myself immediately…), worrying about the house (yes, we still don’t know fo’shizzle if she will be ours…. and I am dying over here…!), doing uncharacteristically well at my driving lesson because instead of worrying about my driving test I was worrying about the house, shopping, lazing about & shopping.

To answer your question Claire (…and why THANK YOU for asking… I really appreciate you keeping me honest, damn you.), no, I didn’t make The Boy a single handmade thing. He does have something coming in the mail… but other than that… *whistles innocently*

I did manage however, after mooching about for days doing nada, to find myself on Christmas eve with nothing to wear to Christmas lunch & with no Christmas stocking for Punky to leave out for Santa.

I knocked the outfit over in no-time flat, making me wonder why I kept putting it off. I bought a skirt last week at the oppy that was super-gorgeous but about two sizes too small for my big butt, so I removed the waistband, button & zip & added another panel with an elastic waist. I used an old red sheet with a hem, so I didn’t even have to sew the elastic casing…! Lazy much?

.

Lucky for me, my gorgy Curlypops brooch went perfectly with my skirt! (And you can see why I was so desperate to get those boots on… I was planning to wear them on Xmas from the moment I saw them online!)

The wee hours saw me doing a TERRIBLE job of putting together a patchwork stocking for Punky with a dodgily embroidered name patch… I really should not be allowed to craft after midnight… (…that’s when my brain turns into a pumpkin…)

 

What else did I say I was going to do but didn’t…? I can’t remember but I doubt I did it. My family haven’t even had their pressies posted yet…! (But, all of their pressies ARE handmade… so that surely counts for something…?!)

Tra La La La Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…….

You hear that? That’s the fat lady singing. Christmas is officially over for another year, after….

 

….Santa visiting…..

…presents being opened….

 

 

…lunchy munching….

…..and playing.

Ah. It was awesome!

I hope your day was just as great!

Christmas Break!

I'm Blonde.

Just so you know.

I have only just really REALISED that;

a) Christmas is on Friday.

b) FRIDAY!!!!!

c) I haven't made The Boy ANY of the handmade crap he loathes, yet I vowed I would make.

d) FRIDAY!!!!

e) I am yet to make, refashioned or otherwise, what I am supposed to be wearing to Christmas lunch.

f) Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!!!!

g) FRIDAY!!!!! (I think you know that I could go on like this for quite some time...)

So. I am BANNING MYSELF FROM THE COMPUTER. From Now. (Okay, not from like, 'now', now, but soon, like at the end of this post 'now'. Have you ever noticed that the more you write 'now' the less it seems like a real word, and you wonder to yourself "How do you spell now? Because N O W certainly doesn't look right... )

If past experience is anything to go by, I may be back tomorrow. If, miraculously, I stay away in an actual attempt to get real things done in the here & now, I'll see you after Christmas & I hope you have a great one!

Take care all in Blogland & Merry Christmas from the Punky household!

xoxox

Let's Bounce.

I'm glad Christmas came early. If it hadn't, I wouldn't have these!

Facebook Status Collage

Have you seen these popping up in your facebook feeds lately....? Is yours just as mindnumbingly pointless...?!

DIY Cake Stand

Truth is, I finished this cake stand a while ago but have been putting off sharing it – I thought I would make some sweet, pretty cupcakes to adorn it & show it’s cute functionality… but…. who am I kidding…?!

How to make;

Collect yourself some bland plates: A dinner plate, a bread & butter plate & a saucer. Originally I was going to use some cute vintage plates & leave it at that, but when it came down to it I couldn’t sacrifice their lovely brown floral goodness to being glued forever more to some sherry glasses, so I decided to go with some ugly plates & paint the whole construction.

You’ll also need two of the afore mentioned sherry glasses, your local oppy shall, I guarantee, have a plethora, some heavy duty glue – make sure it says on the pack that it’s suitable for glass & ceramics – and some enamel paint. You’ll need the grey base coat & the colour of your finished piece… red, surely…?

You know the glue is the real deal when it is kept separated….!

Find the centre of both your dinner plate & the bread & butter plate. Mix the glue (use a match stick) & apply it to the rim of one of your sherry glasses (if you have a larger & a smaller one, like I did, use the larger for the dinner plate) & attach carefully to the centre of your dinner plate. You don’t want to be too far off centre or your cake stand will look lopsided and perhaps be unstable. Repeat with the bread & butter plate.

When the glue is set, you can stack everything together & see how it fits. I found this part super easy – the bases of the sherry glasses fit straight & centred into the rimmed bases of the plates above. When you can see how they fit together, apply your glue to the base of the glass on the dinner plate & place the bread & butter plate on top. Repeat with your last plate & leave to dry.

Paint stand with enamel base coat. You will need 2 coats – read the instructions on your paint tin – I had to leave 16 hours between coats with mine.

Now for the fun, yet time consuming part – painting the colour! Again you’ll need 2 coats, with perhaps 16 hours between each. I painted the underside of the plates first, let dry, then turned over & painted the other side.

And voila! A super cake stand you can admire, whether it is filled with cakes or not.

My Place and Yours; The ‘Me’ Wardrobe

This week’s theme has been chosen by Sandra;

What's your favourite item of clothing, the one that you feel special in, the most "you" in, keep going back to, can be spotted in by friends from miles away, wear over and over and hope will never fall apart and die? Perhaps you've even had to darn it already? (There's to keeping an old craft alive!) It might be a scarf that you made, a pair of gorgeous red high heels, a vintage printed dress or even a pair of old pink flannelette pyjamas. Or it can be more than one!

 

I have two things in my wardrobe that came to mind immediately, both are a little worse for (lots & lots of) wear.

First is my lovely snugly brown jacket;

I’ve been doing it up with a massive safety pin for as long as I’ve had it I think… well… it was on sale!

I think everyone that knows me has seen me in this number at some point. The faux fur is looking rather scraggly, the woven bits are all coming loose, and it’s even coming apart at the collar (I really should fix that…), but I don’t care, I love it still.

The other thing, or things, are these boots;

I really don’t think they have much longer to live, if I’m honest. They are beyond scuffed – there are chunks of vinyl missing all over the place – and it’s a very sad state of affairs indeed – I love these boots! They have been on countless shopping trips, days at work,  many nights out, a Big Day Out, park trips, beach trips, road trips…. whenever a good boot was called for, they were there!

The no-nonsense heel is perfect for hours on my feet and they were super comfy from the get go. Even though I think the places to wear these aging lovelies are limited, I doubt I’ll be able to part with them… I loved them so much when I bought them that I went back the next day and bought the same ones in black – they, strangely, are still in almost mint condition!

Thanks for a great theme Sandra! Visit Pip to play along!

Not long now....

...until Christmas, is it? I certainly hate to remind you... but if it had happened to slip your mind, I think you might like the warning...? Soon you will be descended upon by long lost relatives bearing gifts, Uncles eating chunks of ham & a mountain of discarded wrapping paper that you swear could have wrapped your entire house several times over.

(image)

I wonder when the Softies for Mirabel cuties go to their new homes for Christmas...? I know they've left Mikes... where I was very glad to see my green haired girl had arrived safe & sound... can you spot her...?!

Thank you Mummy!

For sending us a crazy amount of presents, the first to go under our tree because I've been slack with wrapping duties....

...letting Punk have a bit of early Christmas playtime fun, courtesy of not one but two massive postage boxes....

...and for being so generous & reliable. I appreciate it, and you, I do!

Luff you Mumma! (And LePunk says "Argooh Dado", which I can only assume means "Thanks Nanny!")

xoxoxo

There's a snake in my boots!

...okay. No there isn't. But there is something unusual.

Yesterday my boots arrived, those wicked awesome bargain boots from L'america. You know the ones. Yes you do. Okay well even if you don't, it doesn't matter really, all that matters is I got me some kick ass cowboy boots for a song.

However.

After rejoicing in their arrival, delighting in their no-nonsense weight, fondling their worn wooden soles and generally being super chuffed, I decided to try them on.

But they would not go on kids. Oh no. They wouldn't.

My big fat elephant foot would go no further than the narrow part after the heel. No way. No how. I wedged. I pulled. I pushed. I yanked. I most certainly swore. Nope. And to think I was worried they might be too big!

My bargain boots, my beautiful, beautiful bargain boots were USELESS!

The Boy, startlingly, was un-phased. He told me I could always sell them on eBay, that the world would not end, and that there were other boots in the world?!

Boys just don't get it, do they?

I turned to the Internet, as I do in dire times of need, whether it is to ask how to make plain flour into self raising, convert lbs into something I might understand or ask how to stretch me some cowboy boots.

There are indeed ways, it seems, to stretch your pinching boots, but most of them *ahem* require you to be able to put your mammoth, gargantuan foot into the damn boots in the first place. There are magical stretching sprays, saddle soap, wet newspaper methods, various oils and unguents... none of which I happened to have handy on a Wednesday afternoon.

I was understandably desperate when I came across a piece of advice I doubted would work. It couldn't work. Could it?

Five minutes later I ran out into the lounge room on beautifully vintage cowboy boot clad feet. I presented my feet to The Boy, smiling madly.

"How did you get them on?" He asked, as that is obviously what I was expecting.

I smiled harder, clicked my heels together & admired my pretty tootsies.

.......

"Sandwich bags!"

ETA: Gosh you've made me laugh this morning ladies, with questions like "What did you do with the sandwich bags?"

You've had me picturing all the possibilities that would have me using sandwich bags in an EVEN MORE unusual way to get those damn boots on! IE; Fill sandwich bags with sandwiches. Place sandwiches in the centre of a square piece of hessian, and wrap. Tie sandwich package with golden thread, and bury in the yard. Say magical boot stretching (or foot shrinking) incantation.

Dig up package. Remove sandwiches. Put sandwich bags on feet. Slip sandwich bag clad feet miraculously into boots. Jump for joy.

Let me tell you though - even on a hot day, sandwich bag clad feet in tight cowboy boots are not all that uncomfortable. The boots themselves are also surprisingly comfortable, once I've got them on!

Freaking. Out.

Bank messing with us. Real estate agent impatient. Vic feeling SICK.

Maybe it's not supposed to be....

Wordy Wednesday….

All this talk of houses & buying has reminded me of our first buy – a teeny weenie little one bedroom unit in North Sydney. I found a couple of photos of it a few weeks back…. it really was so small – compounded by my bower birding, which itself was at a chronic stage, due to my rather close proximity to many, many, many glorious Opshops & hard earned Borders bucks burning a hole in my pocket.

We loved living there (almost getting teary just thinking about it now… *sniffles*), it was an amazing location with everything at our fingertips. The Boy could walk to work & I had about an hour shaved off my travel time to get to Bondi Junction, with pleasant diversions along the way, like a wander around Town Hall in the mornings, enjoying the bustle, a coffee, a spot of early morning shopping.

It was a pleasant stroll to Lunar Park, or too a plethora of great restaurants at Milsons Point, where we could get a take away meal and sit under the Harbour bridge to enjoy it. A stroll across the bridge to The Rocks was not uncommon. Circular Quay, with it’s Museum of Contemporary Art, street performers & kitschy restaurant where the menus are printed in a newspaper, was a favourite haunt of mine.

I’d go out on Friday nights with my friends and be able to make it home in a cab quicker & cheaper than ever, enjoying the bright city lights on the way.

I shopped at the markets in Haymarket, dragging my Nanna trolley through throngs of people to find the cheapest bananas, enjoying the hawker’s pleas and the busy energy of the place. I’d wander for ages in the Asian supermarket, wondering at everything exotic & stocking up on mock chicken nuggets.

Glebe & Glebe markets made me incredibly happy. Those of you in Sydney will know how great Glebe markets are, how nice the vibe is, how interesting the stuff is… Glebe markets are my kind of markets, and Glebe my kind of place.

Ah.

City living.

Sydney living.

Now, we are going to be living in a three bedroom house (hopefully… contracts yet to be signed, butterflies have taken up permanent residency in my stomach!), still small, but not that small, and my Opshopping….?! Well, there may not be as many Oppies here, but the few that are here serve me well! I am able to buy furniture, something unthinkable for our tiny unit.

I have no Borders bucks… or even a Borders, but we live simpler now. No longer is every second meal bought out, no longer do I buy new clothes a couple of times a week, just because they are there, and no longer do I want or need to.

Now, I have a gorgeous, crazy, energetic, cheeky daughter. The coolest little kid I’ve ever come across, who makes my life pre-Punk seem almost lacklustre. I laugh every single day, get more hugs than I can count and feel so very blessed and lucky. The Boy has to work less, and gets to spend quality time with the child of ours, out and about in the country air.

I can look forward to a time when I can take Punky back to Sydney – the city where she was born no less – and show her the sights. I remember the excitement of visiting Melbourne when I was a kid here, I think Sydney in all her glory for a will-be-country kid will be unforgettable. Taronga zoo, The Harbour, more sushi than she could eat….!

Everything made that much more special by it’s otherness, and sharing it with people that love you more than anything else in the world.

Q: What is better than $5 Opshop furniture….?

A: FREE Opshop furniture!

Oh. Yeah. It’s fair to say that these finds absolutely made my Monday morning! We were driving home yesterday when I asked The Boy to swing by the Oppy with the open garage – you can see any new furniture they have from the road – but I complained as I asked him “Not that there’ll be anything – and if there is it’ll be too expensive – the prices have gone nuts lately.” or some such whinge.

Past we go – I spot these lovelies with “FREE” plastered on them. Free! I squealed & made The Boy zoom around the roundabout & stop in front of the garage. I run in (one of the rare times I would run) & hover around the cabinet, perusing it’s lovely oldness & in particular, it’s rather fetching freeness. Was I too late….? There was a lady there already – talking to an Opshop worker. Looking at the furniture. My furniture.

“$10 to get it delivered?” She asked the worker. She nodded. She pondered a little longer. I start hopping around, in spite of myself, like I was in desperate need to go to the loo. A physical manifestation of the thoughts in my head “Hurry up & walk away lady!”. She did. I pounced on the poor Opshop worker; “Did I just hear you could deliver these for $10?!”, yep yep!

I am beyond happy. A new furniture project… better than that – two new furniture projects! The cabinet is way cool, the top unlocks (it still has all it’s keys!) & lifts up, I can imagine it’s past life housing an array of shimmering jewels… and the dressing table – how awesome is that mirror?!

My Place & Yours; Five Minutes Peace.

The adorable Pilgrim of Draw Pilgrim! is Theme Queen this week for Pip’s fun meme & she has chosen as her theme “Five Minutes Peace”;

where do you retreat to for that sanity-regaining break? i am interested in what or where in your home your sanctuary is...

Lovely theme Pilgrim, thank you!

Where I gain my five minutes is wherever this cup is;

It used to be wherever this cup was, but my sweet little Punk was “helping” me one day & toddled with it into the kitchen, let’s just say there was an ‘incident’. I was distraught for the morning but quickly recovered when I was out opshopping & spied this out the front of a home wares shop in the main St – LOVE! In fact, it was more like cute retro themed coffee cup lust – there were several different designs & I stood there for a painfully long (for the Punk at least) time, ummming & ahhhing, before deciding firmly on this one – I think it was the gorgeous blue sky contrasting with their clothes that got me in the end. Anyway… I digress!

Since my cup is, when in use, filled with hot coffee, or hot tea, or the occasional naughty yet satisfying hot Milo – it means that I have no choice but to slow down for a wee while as I drink it – lest there be scalding issues & coffee stains reminiscent of a Rorschach test on the carpet.

Apart from wandering slowly around the house, procrastinating about housework, the most common places to find myself & my cup are;

My $5 chair in the lounge. This has become “my chair”. Punk has her own wee armchair, or the couch, and The Boy has claimed “The Crafting Throne” (…it really is to low for me to sit at my craft cabinet & work comfortably..), this mustard coloured beauty is soooooo comfy & sees me through a spot of reading (still trying to get through all those glorious copies of thaw!) & late night movie watching.

In front of le computer. As I am right now, doing the bloggy rounds, often with toast in hand.

Even though I’ve only had it a few weeks, I love, love, love my pretty cup – not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it signals a bit of down time… and usually a welcome hit of caffeine.

Do play along this week, won’t you?