Have you seen these things advertised on FB and Instagram? They keep coming up on my feeds so one day I thought “why not?”
I groom dogs, and till its hot enough to wear shorts in summer, I groom in leggings which get covered in hair. Not to mention any long sleeve Tshirts I might wear… I figured these might be the answer to the problem of dog hair making its way onto everything I own!
Not.
I’ve only used them once only, to be fair, on a load of black and dark clothes, but the clothes came out just as hairy as they went in while the green ‘hair collectors’ remained as bald and sticky as a billiard ball rubbed in toffee.
A few years ago (…quite a few years ago…) I began this photo display of my dad and his friend as youngsters, dressed up as cowboys for the carnival. I love the photo. I had a lot of old vinyl at the time and decided one of the inner sleeves would make a great mat for it. This is far as I got. (Lumpy and bumpy, I didn’t quite have decoupage under control back then.)
Today I was inspired to get a few things ticked off my arm-long to do list (and out of the way since I tend to leave things that need doing soon on every surface of my small house) so I decided to use a frame I owned and finally get it on the wall and off the bookcase. Of course I didn’t have a frame for the entire thing so had to cut it down, but I’m quite happy with it anyway. It looks nice in my tiny hall.
The frame was a cheapie I’d bought a few months ago, with a light timber look, so I gave it a single coat of chalk paint to let some of the wood show through. The white dot on the picture is a reflection.
I also had this vintage frame that belonged to my aunt. I’d given it a coat of white paint and wax while I was in Athens. I decided this would hold photos of my mom before she met dad.
I chose two photos I really liked, trimmed them to fit in the frame together and used a vintage music sheet from my collection as background.
Since I’m always rearranging things I don’t know if this is its forever home, but I love the look of it over the very chippy shelf/coat rack I was gifted.
Other than that I haven’t done a whole lot of creative stuff. I’ve been more concerned about what job I’ll find to get me through the season and how I can spread the little savings I have to achieve the things I want to achieve… It’s a challenge. I need a whole lot more money than I have to build the house and studio/workshop I dream of… sigh… And I was so excited to make that my goal this year: to start on that project. I can already see me in my new home and studio… getting there is the hard part.
Remember the beautiful lace curtain I made during the first lockdown?
This is what it looks like now…
Yep. In tatters.
All that work… took me days to make it. A cat destroyed it in a couple of hours.
Did I mention kitten-gate? When a cat got locked in my house accidentally?
Well, it could have been way worse. It could have been locked in for days and I could have come home to a dead cat. Ugh. I think I should consider myself lucky the only casualty was the curtain. I have more doilies and lace. I can make another.
Lainee is quite relaxed about it. In fact she and her teddy bear are both taking it all in stride.
Just quickly sharing a little textile necklace I made a couple of weeks ago for a friend. This was made in her favourite colours – pink and black – and the word faith which is what she wanted. She would have preferred a gold loop and cross but I had to use what I had – so I added this cute mother of pearl cross and a silver jump ring.
I used a piece of pale pink linen I had for the ‘body’ and added a scrap of vintage lace to the front and a bit black lace flower detail for a little punch.
The close up pics aren’t the best but I no longer have it to take better photos.
I forgot to share this little baby when I made it. I was putting away my crafty sewy stuff in preparation for going back home to Paros and got side-tracked – as you do.
I found a few baby safety pins I had in my collection and suddenly got the urge to make a brooch out of one of them. I’m actually really pleased with the result.
I also spent some time the last few days trialling a new shop on ecwid. You can visit it here.
I’m only on the free plan to see how it goes and that only allows 10 products at a time so I concentrated on a Valentines theme, but the paid versions promise big things like linking the shop to instagram and FB. It sounds good, but I’m reluctant to pay for a shop I dont know will do well.
I still have my etsy shop here and my CafePress shop here but neither of those are setting the world on fire. With Etsy I pay a small amount per year to have the shop opened and a percentage on sales. The CafePress shop only gives me a commission on sales. Its been a long time since I updated or added new products to either store.
Over the years I’ve successfully sold on ebay but it just got too expensive and compicated (postage has always been my downfall!) – however they do have a huge audience so I may give it another go one day. When I lived in Tasmania I also sold a lot of stuff on the local FB buy/sell pages, here I’m not sure how well that would go. Then again, in Tasmania I did the occasional market and sold things there so there was always a bit of extra $$ coming in.
My problem (I think) is that I don’t stick to one thing and dedicate myself to that. I see people who paint and who dedicate themselves to doing that and do well. I see people who make jewellery and do well. Or macrame. Or crochet. They pick something they enjoy and are good at and work hard at it.
Me, on the other hand – I do a little bit of everything. I have ADHD when it comes to creativity. I’ll be inspired to make textile jewellery and will do that for a while. Then I’ll get bored and move on to fixing up a piece of furniture. Or painting. Or sewing little zombie dolls or monster critters. Or make a curtain out of doilies. I love variety. And I love trying new things.
In the end I think markets and selling online through local channels worked for me cause the stuff I made in Tasmania was something people were into there. Here, I haven’t quite yet found my ‘niche’ creatively speaking.
Since coming to Greece I have made and sold paintings on stone and marble, spring wreaths and other decor, pet portraits on commission, textile items… so it hasn’t been a complete failure, but its not quite ‘there’ for me yet.
I wish I could afford to open a shop of my own. A place to work and sell whatever it is I get inspired to create.
Since I’ve been treading water for the last week+ I decided to have a go at recycling old soap bars into new soap bars. I’ve wanted to try soap making for a few years but to be honest, I can’t really see myself doing the whole lye thing… at least not till I have a proper workshop to experiment in (as opposed to my kitchen).
I’ve seen plenty of posts on Pinterest about making soap from scraps so I thought I’d try that. I went with a microwave tutorial since I didn’t really want to use mom’s saucepans for this.
I got the small bits of soap and some small hotel soaps mom had and did what it said on the Pinterest post. I chopped the soaps up, put it all into a microwave safe bowl and started melting it.
Problem was, no matter how long I melted it, it remained lumpy. I had to take it out often while heating it up and mix it or it would bubble and overflow (the microwave was a mess after this!).
In the end I gave up trying to make it smooth, added some essential oil and some dry lavender mom had and called it good. I used a tray from a packet of biscuits to set it in.
I ‘cut’ the pieces and let it dry for a few days. Its probably the worst soap I’ve ever had… its lumpy and hard and doesn’t even foam up well.
So much for that!
Here’s a photo of Lainee on our first outing in the car after being snowed in for 5 days.
The snow was the deepest I’ve ever seen in a city anywhere before. Way more than Athens has gotten previously that I know of. And Athens is full of narrow streets, hills and millions of parked cars. Most councils only cleared the main roads, leaving everyone in the side streets to fend for themselves. Took 5 days for the road outside our house to be cleared – most was done by neighbours who tried to dig themselves safe paths. The snow has still not totally melted in areas where it was piled up or where people dont walk. Pretty incredible snowfall.
I’m still in Athens obviously. My first and second attempts to return home to Paros was foiled by the snow. Now mom is holding me here. She wants to come home (from her sister’s seaside home where she’s been almost the entire time I’ve been in Athens) and spend some time with me in Athens and would actually like it if I stayed all of February cause ‘what will you do on Paros?’… Um like… BE HOME!
Hopefully next time the sea is calm I can make my escape!
My work here seems to have come to a grinding halt. Its not that there’s not a ton left to do, its that in a way my hands are tied. I can’t work on the upstairs house while mom is still living in it, and until we have natural gas connected to the house downstairs mom can’t move down there.
So I’m at the floundering stage where I’m not really sure what to do. I’ve sorted out most closets and cabinets, donated a ton of stuff, thrown some out, packed away some stuff of sentimental value and stored it where it will be safe… and now the upstairs house looks like a cyclone went through it and the downstairs house is waiting.
All downstairs needs of course is the gas connection and radiators installed for mom to be able to move in. But I’m told that could take another month or two – they are so behind in applications. And its just our luck that right when we opt to switch, the price of gas has more than doubled. sigh. I never seem to win when it comes to money spent.
Whatever. I won’t dwell.
I finished a small project last week just so I could feel like I was doing something. I recovered mom’s old kitchen chairs. This is what they looked lke originally…
Plain cream weaved fabric. Very dirty from years of use. Grey metal frame. Plain and simple. This is how mom had them to hide the stains…
Ok, too yucky for me in her new home. So I decided to recover them using something bright and cheerful. It was easy to take them apart as the top was simply screwed in place on the frame.
The frames are in good condition, though I need an allen key to give them a bit of a tighten. They were mostly missing all their ‘feet’ so I ended up buying some rubber stoppers for them so they wouldn’t scrape on the tile floor.
I was planning to buy some nice waterproof fabric from a local store but while going through mom’s stuff I found this pretty tablecloth and decided to make do.
I didnt’ have my staple gun with me so I had to use hot glue to secure the fabric to the bottom of the chairs. Hopefully it will last long enough… If not, well… I’ll have to redo them. No problem. This is how they came up. Much better.
For now mom has a table and ‘happy’ chairs for her new kitchen. They will do.
Now I’m waiting for good weather so I can return to my home on Paros for a while. I may as well be in my own home while I wait for the gas installation. I’ll have to return to Athens to be here when that’s happening and to finally finish moving mom downstairs. At that stage I can get some removalists (ie burly men) to take down the fridge, washing machine and couch plus any other boxes I pack up for her.
To be honest I need the break… A couple of days ago I carried some boxes to the stairwell for collection and pulled a muscle in my back. Ugh. No more carrying for a few days.
Remember the teddy bear I found in the roof space above the hallway? My first ever teddy bear, Charalambis? Pictured here with pyjama puppy Bobby in all their grime?
Well, I put them both in the washing machine (without putting them in a pillow case first) and they suffered some minor damage. At least teddy’s was minor. He only lost one eye. But yesterday I got to work on restoring him. I created a new eye for him using two buttons and I think it looks pretty good.
Anyway, this is what his coat looked like after his bath – to be honest it was pretty much like that before as well. Kind of curly and mashed up.
Turns out Lainee’s slicker brush is good for more than just poodle coats. I used it to brush him out all over. You can see the difference on his chest where I brushed half and left the rest as it was.
Here he is finished and all fluffed up. Looking good Charalambis!
I was already thinking he needs to come home with me and not be put back in storage, then Lainee climbed onto the bed and snuggled with him and the decision was made. Lainee needs a teddy to cuddle with! I mean look at the pic below. We were visiting friends and the first thing she did was curl up on their couch with their teddy bear. The girl deserves her own bear.
I was going through a ton of photos that belonged to mom, my aunt, my brother and me – trying to sort them out and put them in some sort of order. I think I mentioned mom has so many photos in frames of all sizes, on walls and on every surface in the house. I needed to contain them somehow, keep her memories while limiting the need for wall space.
I spent two days on that project alone, finishing it this afternoon. Its not really finished either. There are still too many framed photos to decide what to do with. And I’m sure I’ll come across more in my sorting and packing.
I have 4 albums I’ve been putting photos in, divided more or less: one with very old photos of mom and dad’s family, their wedding, our early life in Australia. Another with my brother and his first family, Another with my brother’s yougest son, another for me and other random pics. They’re not in perfect date order either as that’s a nightmare in itself, but at least mom can now pic and album knowing what she’ll find in it.
I bought 2 pretty frames that hold 8 photos each, one has a small corkboard on the side so mom can pin up new photos when she gets them. I plan to buy a piece of cork to put in another frame to do the same, perhaps even adapt the Christmas frame with wire and pegs so mom has plenty of places to show new photos.
Anyway, while doing this I found a couple of small albums of my own. Most of my photos are in storage already, but I found these in the attic above the hallway. They’re from 1995 when I was leaving Australia the first time to be with my father who was sick. At the time it was like now: I came for dad and had no idea when, or if, I would return to Australia.
Looking back brings so many great memories, and I look at my younger, gorgeous self and wonder how I could ever have thought I was fat! I was perfect.
Before I left I had a couple of goodbye nights out – one with one of my favourite Melbourne country bands, Rough Cut and my cowboy hat wearing, two steppin’ friends:
With the singer of the band, always a groupie.With my rocker, non-cowboy hat wearing boyfriend.
The other night was with my most favourite Melbourne rockabilly band The Straight 8s.
With the boys in the band.Me and my best friend Jamie.My boyfriend in his element. Too cool to dance though…Rock’n’Roll with Jamie.Who said you can’t twostep to a rockabilly band?
A few pics from a holiday in Queensland, where I met up with some line dancing friends.
Loved them boots!Love affair with Syvester at Movie World on the Gold Coast.Trm and roller blading fit!
Some random rockabilly event pics…
With his pride and joy, a ’52 Chevy.Where else would we be? At a car show. Wearing my two tone dancing shoes. I still have the pencil skirt I made – its impossibly tiny.
Oh boy. Its bittersweet. I miss that girl. I realise I’ll never be her again, but I miss the slimness, the fitness, the lifestyle: the dancing mostly. I guess I could have that in Athens, more or less, as there’s a swing/jive thing happening here, but without a dance partner and with COVID… eh.
And it only took five months, 6 days and 10 minutes!
Seriously. After months of calls and complaints a guy actually arrived on Sunday and took 10 minutes to re-connect our power!
Ten minutes work. That’s what I’ve been fighting for for five months…
So, here we are now:
Yay!
Life has been going on. I hit a low spot a couple of days ago – missing my workshop, the farm in Tassie, my dogs, the life I had there. But its no use walllowing. I have stuff that needs doing here and now, so I plod on. Making small forward steps every day and never seeming to get to the end of it.
Today I tackled the loft above the hallway and thankfully found it was mostly empty but for a few things. Like my knee pads and bike helmet – from my roller blading days.
I rehomed my roller blades a long time ago and I still miss them. I still roller blade in my dreams.
And the first stuffed toys I ever had.
This is my first teddy bear, Charalambis, and my first doggie (I think his name was Bobby) – the sort you put your PJs in and sit on top of your bed. Both need a good wash. I’m thinking I’ll put them both in the washing machine tomorrow. They may not survive it unscathed, but they really need it if I’m to keep the little guys. They’re almost as old as I am! In fact, I think Charalambis IS my age. I had him as a baby.
There were some other things too, but most of those are going to the bin or to be donated. I think I’ll hold onto the knee pads for kneeling work and the bike helmet might go to a friend. I doubt I’ll be getting a bike again – not on Paros where the roads are bad and the drivers worse.
Hopefully I’ll have more exciting stuff to share again soon. 🙂
junk4joy 