Treasures.

Thank you all for your congratulations & excitement with regard to my getting my licence yesterday… I can still hardly believe I can, you know, drive places, on my own.

Depending on your definition, Punky & I went on our very first Mummy-driven road trip today… to a town about 15 minutes away. I had planned an afternoon raid on their oppy, only to arrive at 1pm to find out they close at 12, and are next open for a brief period on Friday.

Ah well.

We lunched on yummy toasted sandwiches & had a wee run in the park (we were very disappointed to find they had removed their cool wooden play equipment too… why would you do that…?!) before heading back to peruse our local haunts, which brings me to today’s oppy goodness. The first opshop treasures driven home by moi. (You are going to have to bare with me for a while I’m afraid – still to come are the first groceries driven home by moi, the first pizza picked up by moi, the first trip to the beach by moi…. I think you get the picture….)

* At the back there is a lovely big mirror, $4 – I wouldn’t have been juggling that back here on my bike!

* Then, buttons, buttons, buttons!! Back to being a bit more expensive, but I’ve had a bit of a button drought lately so I bought every jar they had.

* Pretty Pyrex bowl.

* 2 pairs of gorgeous vintage Le Specs, with their cases (which, oddly, were sold seperately…?), one pair with their original swing tag. I like one pair very much, and dare I say it, they even suit me, which is lucky as Punky broke my last pair of sunnies yesterday, the other pair, don’t suit me at all so I think I might sell them (…or tell myself I’ll sell them, then find them in a drawer in 5 years time..).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I forgot a thing or two down the street… I might just have to drive down again… gosh darnitt.

A little "refashion" I forgot to post...

I posted this 'hardly a refashion at all refashion' over on Wardrobe Refashion on Tuesday but forgot to post it here as Tuesday was the day of the faithfull camping trip & I was in a hurry to head off & pack various necessary.... necessities.

This top come tunic come dress deal'e has been hanging around here for YEARS. You may recall it from Punk's Dress Up adventure (yes... seems I use the box of "things to do something with" as a dress up box....). I didn't wear it because of the weird top part... I mean.... what IS going on there...?! I intended to make it into a skirt or something, until on camping day, it was pretty warm & I couldn't find anything to wear, I spotted it again & had an idea...

I was actually wearing it while "fixing" it, and it took no time at all, but I was so happy with the result - something, well, wearable! (Not to mention accented with the very height of fashion - the classic "red button".)

....missed it by that much.

What do you want first...? 'The Good News" or "The Bad News"?! (Why is it though, that whenever people ask you that, you know that the bad news will pretty much Null & void the good news...? A more accurate question would be, generally, "Do you want the bad news, or the really bad news?")

The good news is... BUTTONS! Le Punk & I toddled down to the oppy for a wee spot of retail therapy yesterday afternoon, and to post those fashionably late drawings, and I was all "Woo-hoo!" and "Yea-Haw!" to find four jars of buttons waiting for me. There has been a shortage of jars of buttons since my last post about them going down in price, it seems I am not the only one around here with a penchant for cheap vintage buttons, but yesterday, I was in luck. There were three small jars & one larger jar - the small ones were $1 each & the larger $4.

To tell you the truth I did hesitate about the bigger one, but then I realised that there are no guarantees that this oppy won't make like the other & sell buttons in "sets" of four or five for $2 so I thought I'd just buy them, lest I regret it later. I bought a few other things too (duh) & when the sweet little old lady came to the buttons ("One dollar, one dollar, one dollar...") she was stopped in her tracks by the $4 & said "Oh, I'll give you those for $2." & made me the kind of happy that one shouldn't really get just from being awarded a discounted jar of buttons.

.....

The bad news. *sigh* Oh. It makes me a little sad even having to type it. You would think, wouldn't you, that the below picture of an unbearably cute little play kitchen cabinet (dust & all....) that I managed to score for the princely sum of $1 at another oppy would have been included in "The Good News", wouldn't you? Oh it would have been, I assure you, had I just not... turned... around. But I did. I turned around & my heart skipped a beat.

There, in it's adorable handmade, vintage glory, was THE PERFECT wooden sink & stove play kitchen set. We are getting Le Punk a toy kitchen for her birthday in January, I considered making one but, if I'm honest, I really don't know how I'd go about it, I mean, I could try but it might turn out more like a kitchen post-tornado or something. We tried to put a kitchen on lay by but they were on back order, I have a rain check but they still aren't in, it's been five months or so & I'm not at all sure if they will be available by early January or not, so I have been on the look out & thought, briefly, my search had ended.

Until.

I saw.

The "sold" stickers.

I can't help but think, if I were better at time management, I would not have been stuck home drawing all morning & I would have been down the street that much earlier.....

Buttons by Candlelight, aka "How to make a button bracelet"

You may recall my whinging recently about the price of buttons going up to the dizzying heights of $5 a jar at one of my local opshops...? Well when I was last in I was glad to see that the button jar pricer had come to their senses (...perhaps their sales were down due to my refusal to by buttons...? I buy enough of them so that certainly is possible...) & repriced the jars at $2. That's a dollar cheaper than they used to be before the crazy jump! So I bought 3 jars of buttony, buttony goodness, and spent an embarrassingly long period of time sorting them into colour families.

Things I learnt about opshop jars of buttons;

There are more white or clear than any other colour.

The least popular colour is yellow.

There are some hideously ugly buttons in there.

After sorting them I realised that I finally had enough red buttons of the appropriate size to make myself a button bracelet - Hurrah!

Button Bracelet Supplies;

1 candle

1 (or several... just to be safe) quite large, strong needle

A charm bracelet blank

Jump rings

Pliers

As many (plastic) buttons as you want on your bracelet

Ah! Crafting by candlelight....

Light your candle & hold the tip of your needle in the flame, I try to heat as much of the needle as I can as it makes going through the entire button a wee bit easier, but it depends on the size of your needle, you don't want to burn your fingers!

You might want to use gloves or use your pliers to hold the needle, but I found it fine to hold on it's own - just make sure you hold it as far back as possible.

Decide where you want the hole for your jump ring to go & pierce it with your needle - you have to be really fast with this step or your needle will be too cool & you'll either have to heat it up again or you'll bend the tip of your needle. Not that I know, because I wouldn't have done it any way other than perfectly... *whistles inconspicuously*

What worked for me; Holding the button up & piercing it from the side & then twisting the button down the length of the needle. Sometimes the button gets stuck at the bottom of the needle, just push the point onto a flat surface & press the button down & it will slide off.

Pierce many buttons. Attach with jump rings to bracelet using your trusty pliers. You can arrange your buttons in the order you want them before you attach them, but I just did it haphazardly, as I do.





Take artsy fartsy photos of your lovely new bracelet & admire your handy work. Perhaps even wear it. Wonder if making button bracelets counts as wardrobe refashioning.

My Creative Space.

I wasn't going to post "My Creative Space" today, as apart from the start of the week I've not been creating all that much at all, the sun has finally come out & it has been so hard to force myself inside for any reason (hence why my last couple of posts could barely be called "posts", sitting in front of the computer seems the least inviting place of all...), even playing with buttons & fabric & bias binding... but surely my creative space can be a place that inspires, refreshes & renews? Surely it can be a place that makes me happy & gets my creative juices flowing?

I think it can be, so I am sharing it with you; "Outside".

We've been to the beach, to waterfalls (...where *bursts with pride* Le Punk climbed almost 200 stairs by herself.... going up...!!! It was incredibly cute & pretty amazing, since The Boy & I were struggling (I still have sore calves), & she made a tennis-worthy grunt with every step.....!), having bbqs, playing in the park & just generally stooging around outside in the sun.

Punky has been waking up crazy happy as opposed to regular happy & every body's mood has lifted to dizzying heights - you don't realise how much you miss the sun until it makes you feel like this!

....and, just because I am really not a rule breaker at heart, a picture of what I was playing with before the sun decided to shine upon us, buttons a plenty. I made the bracelet for my giveaway & decided I needed one for myself, but the needle/candle method I was using to put holes in the buttons for the jump rings came unstuck when several needles' points bent in weird & wonderful ways... is there a better way crafty peeps?! Do share!

Also on the button front, I was dismayed to find yesterday that one of my Oppies is now charging $5 for what used to be a $3 jar of buttons.... *sigh* I know it's only $2 more but I can't bring myself to pay that much for a (not all that big) jar of old buttons!

Best of the 'Fest Giveaway #2... Ch-ch-ch-changes....

Hey folks! We're really ploughing through this month aren't we? It will be over before we know it! Brainstorming for daily posts will be a thing of the past, compulsive picture taking especially for the blog, thinking of everything that happens; "Can I blog this?" will all become hazy memories of the Blogtober that was.

This week I have tweaked the BOTF rules - if you don't blog you can still go ahead & link to somebody else who made you smile, think or create, but if you do & you've been participating in the festival I want you to share a post of your own from the last week that you are either particularly proud of or want others to see for some reason.

I've done this for a couple of reasons, not least because I want to play with Mr Linky....

But, first things first! Who won Giveaway Numero Uno?! Well, the names were piled into the magical hat (aka a tin that used to hold cotton reels that Punky now lugs around like a handbag, filled with blocks) & one was extracted by a set of chubby fingers (Le Punk's, not mine, although I do have some of my own...)...

Congratulations to The Craft Gypsy! I hope you like your gift M'dear... really I do!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter & share their Best of the 'Fest with me! I was particularly taken by an ode to Blogtoberfest!

So, what is up for grabs this week? Buttons, buttons everywhere....

I may or may not have been up to the wee hours last night making this as I had pretty much forgotten about today....

...a blue button bracelet! I was quite taken with it when I was done, I am soooooooooo making myself one in red next! If this one had been red all you would be getting is these alone;

Three packs of carded vintage buttons! 8 marbled blue from 'Maxart' & 5 floral pretties from Ye Olde Woolworths!

I hope you likey - I am going to try REALLY HARD not to freak out this time...!

Right so, the details again;

How to Enter:

Link below to a post of your own you are super proud of from the last week OR a post of another festival player.

Leave a comment - can be as little as "I posed xyz link" or the reasons why you've linked to your particular choice.

Willing to post worldwide again as the parcel would be rather wee - so anybody can enter - hurrah! Winner randomly selected yet again, posted next week yet again & new giveaway announced.... yet again!

Don't forget to check out Ms Pops blog sidebar for more festival loot!

I'll kick things off again with a post I hadn't planned - but it's about something you all should know about! It's been cracking me up daily since I found it!!! Regretsy....!