Keeping Them on Their Toes

Housework, the bane of every womens life. Unless you are one of those neatnicks that define yourself by how clean your house is. I'm certainly not! Lord I could grow potatoes in the dust on top of the fridge, not that I'm proud of that by any means, there's just better and more interesting (and safer at my time of life) things to do than climb up a step ladder, take everything off (several trips up and down the ladder) dust, wipe and and put everything back.
So the other day whilst vacuuming and giving everything a lick and a promise a strange and foreign sensation overcame me. Usually the only vacuuming that gets done by me in the kids bedrooms is determined by how far the cord stretches into their rooms, which is around the doorway and the end of the bed.
My two are 27 and 25, adults in my book and their rooms and the bathroom they share are their domain and I'm not responsible for cleaning them. But something possessed me, some evil house cleaning imp took over my body and the next thing I knew I was making their beds. I know.....I know, it was scary. I'm glad she didn't stay round too long because I couldn't have coped with cleaning the oven too. So that evening whilst I was making dinner (another detested chore) this is the conversation I heard from the lounge room.
M: Mum made my bed today.
B: Oh my god! She made mine too.
M: Serious?
B: How come?
M: Dunno.
B: Do you think she's sick?
M: Naaah!
B: But she never makes our beds.
M: Tell me about it.
B: Should we ask her why?
M: Naah.
B: But if we say something she might do it again.
M: Doubt it.
B: She hasn't made our beds since we were 10. Somethings not right.
M: Maybe their getting divorced.
B: Don't be ridiculous, why would she make our beds if they were getting divorced.
M: Dunno.
So the moral of the story is: don't do strange and unexpected things in the house. It scares the kiddies!

Back to the Drawing Board

It's finished but I'm not happy with it. The bails I've used aren't quite right. Because the back of the bail was quite large I couldn't get the loop bit to sit flush with the edge of the tile and when the bracelet is on your wrist they stick up too much. So it was a trip to the bead store, well actually 3 bead stores, 2 of them have closed down. Casualties of the economy I expect.

So I got some smaller bails along with more beads and several other bits and bobs.......$70.00 later and I was back home embossing more tiles. I've done a different colour for the next one, so when it's finished I'll take photos (that's if this one doesn't require another trip back to the drawing board too).

Yesterday I got the best surprise. I won a prize on Broken Heart Art's blog. I'd left a comment for Susan's 200th post and I won. You must go and visit her, Susan is very talented, very funny and her blog layout is something to aspire to. She has been doing the most amazing background papers and her ATC's are to die for with sassy sayings and incredible stamping. Lucky me......I won!

A new project, will they ever end.......

......and will I ever finish anything. I don't know, I start something, which leads to something else, which lead to ever more things and before I know it I've started about 12 different projects. None of which are finished. This is my latest craze (or crazy) thing I'm doing.
You might remember in an earlier post I bought a necklace that was a small tile with a green design on it. Well this got me thinking about transforming some tiles into a bracelet, so after sourcing said tiles from Bunnings and sharing half with Carmen this is what I've come up with so far. Below is a plain off white glass tile about 2cm square.

On this one I've stamped and embossed with black embossing powder a small flower, then glazed it with dimensional magic stuff. Gee...macro lens really pick up everything, you can see all the stray powder which in real life isn't evident to the naked eye. Now I've glued some bails on either side of the tile and when they're dry, I'll join them all together with some jump rings, add some sort of closure gizmo and see how it all looks.

When it's all finished I'll give it to Brighita and get her to where it heaps and see if it stands up to normal wear and tear. Maybe she won't like it, maybe she'll think it's soooo not like her kind of thing and wouldn't been seen dead wearing it mum.....I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. Of course she'll like it and of course she'll wear it and be my test case, if she knows what's good for her and which side her bread is buttered on and who does her washing and who cooks her dinner and on the odd occasion who makes her bed (ok, maybe once in the last 15 years). She'll wear that bracelet or else!

The Last ones.....I Promise!

Here are the last two items from Perth Upmarket. This is a hand carved stamp about 7 cm (2 3/4") by 2.5 cm (1"). I just fell in love with it and thought it would be perfect for ATC's, except they will have to be landscape orientation rather than the traditional portrait one. I most assuredly have ideas for these little houses. The lady who did these also had beautiful collograph prints that were way out of my price range, so I just stood and drooled over them until I got pushed out of the way by a lady with a pram. (prams shouldn't be allowed at these events......just kidding.....not really) Now this piece I just love. The photo doesn't do it justice. Silver of course, my preferred metal. Grey faux pearls and mesh chain all woven together into a bracelet. I'm a pearl girl, just love them and it's also my birth stone and that was my justification for buying it. You can go here to have a look at their other jewelry.

Just a note on the weather. I'm declaring it officially cold. The last few days I've been wearing socks with my slippers and wandering around the house with my dressing gown on over the top of my clothes until about lunch time. Gawd....I'm turning into my mother! In my lounge room it's currently 15.5c and according to the Weather Pixie it's 10c outside, why does she look so perky and happy then?

.......and some more.

I've been wearing the same pair of silver earings for so long that I thought a change would be as good as a holiday. But it's weird, because I'm so used to my old earings, when I put a different pair on it looks strange, peculiar and odd. Old habits die hard, I don't know.....you get old and set in your ways. Oh for crying out loud.........it's just earings! Anyway if you go here you will see some very nice pieces. Especially the brooches and pendants. I forgot I had a close up of the necklace I showed you on the post below.

I'm saving my favourite piece for last.

Purchases

Here's a couple of other pieces that I bought at Perth Upmarket. The necklace is a grey glass tile I think, with a green and black design on it. I'm a sucker for anything green.

And I'm a sucker for fridge magnets as well. Just a few choice ones. I know some people are anti fridge magnets and also they don't stick to stainless steel appliances of which I have none. But I thought these were pretty and stylish. Here's the web site http://www.mokoh.com.au/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=27 She has some wonderful prints of boab trees, grass trees and gum trees that I was very tempted to buy. Go and have a look, you may be tempted as well.

A Leisurely Sunday

On Sunday my friend Joanie and I went to the Perth Upmarket Craft show. It's the first time I've been and I have to say I was very impressed with the quality, so impressed in fact, that I spent quite a bit of money. But I justified my little spending spree by the fact that today is my birthday, happy birthday me, and I could buy myself some little presents, so there! So over the next few days I'll show you what I bought. This little piece below is quite nifty.
It comes apart.

You can add whatever beads or charms you like.

Screw it back together again and you have a unique pendant. Those beads I put on it are just an example.

After the craft show, we strolled up to Borders and ate cake and drank coffee and browsed the book shelves. We had time to kill because later in the afternoon we were off to a Sculptue exhibition. Our friend Joan (another Joan) was exhibiting one of her peices at the Gomboc Gallery.

We had to navigate our way out of the city and head to points north. Joanie just loves it when I navigate, I have to turn the map book every which way and we have to stop every so often because I can't read whilst in the car (motion sickeness) so in the end, out of pure frustration, Joanie snatches the book out of my hands and plots our course. Well Joanie, if you don't want vomit all over the inside of the Subaru............

The exhibition was interesting. We ate cheese and sausage, Joanie had a wine and I had an orange juice and we swanned around pretending we new everything about art and sculpture. I just wish I had thought to bring my camera. So all in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday.

See that handsome kid in the post below? Well he's cooking my birthday dinner tonight. Gourmet steak sandwiches.........can't wait!

We have a winner.

This is the human form of random.org. Please smile.....you look like a 'con' from Casuarina prison. That's better. What are you doing? Well you're drawing the winner of my giveaway for my blogaversary dear. Yes I know....I'm a silly sausage, but I'm a happy silly sausage dear.

Oh look, it's number 2.

"Happy Blogaversary Davinia. Thanks for sharing and inspiring. Hugs Audrey"

Audrey whoohoo. You win. Audrey was my lovely teacher at Scraptivate. You may remember one of the pages from an art journal I did called Penis Head. Well Audrey was responsible for that!

This is what you win . One of my bamboo tile bracelets. This one with an Asian theme and little silver beads. I hope you like it and I hope we can catch up so I can give it to you in person.

So hard to photograph on my wrist so a roll of paper towel was the next best thing.

Thanks to my faithful readers and commenters, you know who you are.