top ten pictures from the week ~ 14 June 11 (and a relative of mine starts a blog!)

Hello possums...

seen on wish you were here

how was your long weekend?

seen on brabourne farm

...if you were lucky enough to have one that is.

seen on archiphile tumblr

...mine was mixed.

by nic at make space

I spent most of saturday starting to make a quilt for a new baby

paul candales as seen on the style files

her name is Ruby Grace...isn't that lovely

seen on mfamb

you can see the start of it over on my FB page

seen on archiphile tumblr

but my plans to finish it were scuttled by that thing called work

seen on anya adores

which seems to be crowding my life just a bit too much at the moment

seen on an indian summer

I shouldn't complain...it pays the bills after all

seen on alkemie

but still...

taken by anya adores

My cousin Phillip has started a blog (he says he was inspired by me...silly bugger. I've warned him about blogging addiction)

seen on driftwood interiors

...it's called Reinventing Home and it will chronicle his and his partner's search for their first home somewhere in the Blue Mountains. Pop over and say hi if you get a chance. He's family after all :)

seen on compulsively compiled

There'll be no top ten next week...I'll be out of the country and quite possibly incommunicado!

You'll cope I'm sure......but I've given you a few extras today just in case you don't :)

soul food friday ~ redefining "I need..." and a 100 day challenge

Soul food friday posts are written mostly for me...to help me get my head on straight about things that concern me, or sometimes just a bit of fluff about things I've been thinking about. But I do know that sometimes they strike a chord with some of you. Maybe this one will too. See what you think.

I read an article a little while back called 60 small ways to improve your life in the next 100 days. You can find it here. It's a bit of false advertising if you ask me. I'm not sure that all of those 60 things could be classified as small. For example, keeping a log of your mental chatter (both positive and negative) for the next ten days is not a small ask. It's huuuuuge. Especially if you talk to yourself a lot. Who, me? Don't be silly.

But one of the 60 caught my eye.  It was this: don't buy anything you don't really need for the next 100 days. 

I'm big on concepts. I work with them all the time in my day job. For me, the 'concept' of not buying anything you don't need for 100 days is fine. Will it improve my life? I'm not sure what the evidence is to support that, but I'm happy to give it the benefit of the doubt. But as with all strategies, it's the execution that's the killer (ooh, I think I just made a clever, but unintentional pun!) The execution...and the definitions.

To be more precise, the definition of 'need'. For certain, there are things that we absolutely, positively, definitely need in our lives: love, affection, shelter, food, clothing, appreciation, someone to lean on. But the kitchenaid that I so admire? Perhaps not. Especially when I don't bake.  Which is why I painted this one.

So I thought about whether I would take on this challenge. If I were to examine my possessions closely I'd have to say that I don't really need much of anything. I have furniture, clothing, a reliable car that gets me from A to B, a reasonably equipped kitchen, nice things to look at, good plates to eat off. So, on the face of it, not buying anything I don't really need for 100 days seems an easy enough challenge.

I would have to say though, that all my life I have been, and continue to be a 'consumer' (although probably to a lesser extent now). I have lost count of the number of things that I have bought (and brought into) my life that I didn't need, and perhaps as a result, no longer have. I have bought things out of desire, want, maybe if I'm truly honest, even competition. And many times I've bought things out of need...not for the thing itself, but for the hole in my life I thought it would fill. It invariably didn't.

Why do I want to undertake this challenge? A couple of reasons: to save a bit of money; to not bring anything else into the house until I've had a chance to donate things that I no longer need...and if I'm honest (twice in the one post!)...just to see if I can do it. I've always been ever so slightly competitive :) But probably, most importantly, to find that line between spendthrift and savvy. To know, without question, what purchase will bring pleasure way out of proportion to its cost. Because, there are of course 'things' that can lift us up simply by looking at them. And why would you deny yourself that. That's just crazy talk. It's also probably about defining 'what is enough?'
Here's what I've decided fits into the 'I don't really need' category for me for the next 100 days:

• magazines (other than the ones I've already subscribed to which are therefore 'free'!!);
• books (this will be very, very hard for me)...but as I have an entire shelf of books in my bookcase waiting to be read, and I'm a member of the library, and I have friends with books...I think I can do it. Just.
• appliances (unless it's to replace an essential item that has given up the ghost);
• clothing, shoes and accessories;
• music;
• craft materials (unless it's a gift for someone and it can't be made with what I already have);
• anything decorative for my house;
• linen and towels;
• cosmetics (unless it's to replace a basic that's run out...don't want to scare small children now do we)
• iPad applications!;
• anything from an op shop that I don't need even if it is an absolute bargain and I'm helping a charity. If it's that great someone else will snap it up anyway;
• wine (just kidding...!)

So my friends, it starts from now and according to my quick calculation it will end on 18 September. That's more than a bit scary when you write it down! I'm going to keep a few notes about the things that have enticed me along the way and whether I succumbed or not. Because sure as eggs or little green apples I am likely to fall off the shopping trolley at some point or another!

Caveat: (I'm not silly).. and no, that's not the caveat, although it could be. I'm heading off to Bali next weekend for a writing course run by the Sydney Writers' Centre. It was booked months and months ago so don't go asking me if it's really a need! And in any case, it is. There will be things I see there that I will want to buy. And I will. I know that. Because I have always bought something special back from my travels, and I'm not prepared to stop that for this bit of self imposed nonsense. So, apart from that...let's see how I go. Maybe you'd like to make my list a bit longer so it's more of a challenge. Please don't :) Or just tell me what you think. Or join me if you'd like. I'm happy any which way.
All images found on pinterest. And why all the buddhas? Because that's almost certainly what I'll be buying in Bali :)

top ten pictures from the week ~ and photographer Peta Rudd

Oops...a bit late this week.

seen on abigail ahern

Work. Don't ask.

seen on decorology

Consequently, a smallish collection...

seen on the style files

only five...

seen on pretty space tumblr

but...there's a bonus...

seen on the diversion project

A few weeks ago...in one of my regular top ten posts...there was this picture...

by peta rudd and seen on the design files

It was of a very cool Canberra house, and as I said in that post, yes...Canberra can do cool. Not often. But sometimes...

by peta rudd

It certainly does cool people, because Peta Rudd, the photographer and stylist and artist who took that shot wrote to me and very politely, incredibly politely in fact, asked if I wouldn't mind crediting her as the photographer in that post. Hell yes, hang my head in shame, of course I wouldn't mind. So I did. You can go back and check if you don't believe me :)

peta rudd

I felt really bad that I hadn't done it in the first place. You know me...always running on empty, trying to get posts up, do the very busy day job, to say nothing of the Cert IV (yes, let's say nothing about that!), wanting to do stuff around the townhouse, drag out the sewing machine, the crochet hooks, the knitting needles, the brushes...yada, yada, yada...

peta rudd

So I thought the next best thing was to highlight some of Peta's work for you to see...and so I have. It's a bit lovely isn't it. You can find more of her stuff here and here. Phew, one thing done that I told myself I'd do. 

peta rudd

Only eleventy-seven more to go! But they'll have to wait. I'm off to watch MasterChef :)

A few changes in the living room...

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good thanks.
I made a few changes to the living room wall...

...added the mirror (found at an op shop) and stuck up one of my 'K's using blu-tac. It hasn't fallen on anyone's head yet,  but I'm afraid the cyclamen is past its best. But no probs...I've got a hyacinth now...even if it does have a slight lean :)

I framed and hung the New York poster...and moved the ballets russes costume painting. Sorry about the reflections.

My friend Chris suggested I need to fill the whole wall. Not likely, and certainly not without a bloody big ladder!  Some things however, always stay the same...

The vampire slayer wishes you a good week. I do too.

a new blog for you to visit...

Morning all. I just had an email from a lovely woman I met on Shannon Fricke's Styling workshop last month. Nic was sitting next to me and we got to talking...and then more talking with Kerri with an 'i'...(because is there such a thing as too much gas bagging? I think not). And we kept in touch as like minded people do.  Nic didn't have a blog. But she does now! 

She's blaming Kerri and me for her entry into bloggy world, and I'm happy to be blamed. Bet Kerri is too. Thank goodness Nic's not a Kerrie with an 'ie' or there'd be mass confusion.

Nic's a colour girl like me, and lucky for me she's doing the same Cert IV course I am, so I'll be making a nuisance of myself asking for advice. These are some pics from her very first blog post...

How about you pop over, see the rest and make her welcome...that'd be lovely :)
Have a terrific weekend everyone. I'm very hopeful that I'll be doing a great deal of not a lot!

mason jars...an interesting but completely useless fact

First of all...thank you for your sympathetic responses about my weekend of working. Believe me, it's not something I like to make a habit of. This is in lieu of a 'my creative space' post this week, because as we know, damn it, the aforementioned weekend of working meant I didn't do anything remotely creative. Not even glueing anything together. 
So, having complained twice in the one week I'm going to drop it now. Possibly. Instead I'm going to talk about mason jars. If you're anything like me, and are quite the fan of a bit of useless information...read on.

source

You see these jars all over bloggy world...there's no end to their uses... storage for one...

via pinterest (which I am still resisting!)

lighting...

via small acorns

they're even quite nice when being used for their original purpose...heaven forbid...

via simply recipes

...but did you know that John Landis Mason (who solved the preserving problem by patenting the threaded glass jar with a metal screw-on lid thereby making it possible to preserve all kinds of foods that would have spoiled without the benefit of said jar)...you can take a breath now...

via pink patent mary janes

...did you know that he sold the rights to his patent for a very modest amount of money so he could concentrate on inventing other things (a folding life raft, self draining soap dish, case for cigars) that he thought would make him rich but didn't. As all his other inventions failed he "withdrew into a semi demented poverty (and) died alone and forgotten in a New York City tenement house in 1902". Did you know that? No? Me either. In fact before I started blogging I don't think I'd even heard of a mason jar, let alone its inventor.
And how did I know this? By reading this book. Not that I've had time to finish it....too much work to do! I did say possibly :)

I'll catch you next week...after what I hope will be a really relaxing weekend. Enjoy yours and thank you for dropping in whenever you have the chance. I will try my best to do the same very soon :)

top ten pictures from the week ~ 31 May 11

I have my grumbly-bum pants on as I'm writing this.

via bohemian hunter

I worked all weekend...

via the seventy tree

yes really...all weekend

matthew patrick smythe via if the lampshade fits

From 10 am till 5.15 pm on Saturday.

naomi from design manifest (her place)

stopping only because the fella was coming for dinner and there was no food in the house so I had to go and get some.

by janis nicolay, pinecone camp 

then from 7.30 am till 5 pm on Sunday...ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous!

via bohemian hunter

After a very full on working week. Consequently I don't have ten pictures.

via design junkies

...nor have I done anything remotely crafty, creative or relaxing. Not happy.

Perhaps next weekend.

Ok, grumbling done...thanks for listening :)