The World's Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?'

The girl said, 'NO!'

And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

The End


This was shamelessly lifted from Cathy's Capers so go pay her a visit and see about life in the foothills of the Dandenongs in Australia.

For Them's That's Down Under

Cold clear nights lead to cold cold days.

Thinking of you all and your hot hot weather, I'm sending you this. That's from my desk looking out over the kitchen roof down through the whole back yard. Sorry but I was not about to open the window and remove the (whole window) screen.

And then we have the same from the kitchen - it's shiny because that's a layer of ice on top of the snow.

Feel the cold!

Presents from Australia

Back near Christmas I received another packet from Australia. I had totally forgotten about this gift which I won over at Juddie's blog, Flightless Boyds. She wrote and asked for my address and then I forgot all about it again. I mean is it worth wasting energy worrying about Free Gifts? Let the Universe do that, as it seems to be doing quite well imho.

Well this packet lands on our dining room table, the repository for mail after it comes thru the mail slot or is left in the pocket between the door and the storm door. I love leaving the packages on the table for a couple of hours, walking round them as I go in and out of the dining room all day...wondering, anticipating, enjoying.

Behold...

We have going from top center (the green and red Thai cloth is mine)

• a rose tea towel
• fancy blue wrapping paper which I shall save for dd
• 2 fab pieces of fabric which will be perfect for pillows (ahem. Is there a seamstress in Bayridge?)
• a temple rubbing (being held down with glass candlesticks)which may or may not go to dd
• 3 red hearts (Christmas 2009 ornaments!) and one button pin
• bird gift tag
  
• a palm grass container that held the temple rubbing

I didn't want to post about this in the midst of all the Christmas fol del rol and fa la la but at the same time I didn't want to forget it. DH has already spoken harshly (!!!) to me about forgetting an on line password this week. boo hiss phhhhhtttttt!!!

So go on now, check out Flightless Boyds, say hello to Juddie, and then have a peep at her Other Blog ...come on now, you have to go look! ...Gin Slings and Whimsy for a marvelous collection of vintage illustrations. One might be just the thing you've been looking for.

Thanks again Juddie!

On my desk...April 30

Lots of sunlight! Wow it's nice in the a.m. these days. I suspect I will be getting up by 6am or earlier now.

And other than sunlight?? items to go to the Post Office when they open. Postcards for a swap-bot exchange I joined. This Birthday Card swap needs some more people but it is not international. US readers? think about it.

There is also a package finally getting on its way to Australia. ;-)

And then there is the crinkly blotter....got wet one rainy pm, and I'll be glad to get to May tomorrow which still looks ok. Today I will be starting...god willin'....two postcards for a handmade pc swap. This one is international and I hope it will get my creative juices flowing. I have an idea to cobble/collage some extra pics I played around with for Christmas cards. Wish me luck! getting the idea from the head to the hands is quite a challenge I find.

Pinhole not Pinprick

Pinhole, pinhole... is what I had been talking about earlier. The artist is Heather Smith Jones and her flickr pics are just amazing. What patience she has!! And she's Australian too!! (Wrong! HSJ tells me she is not - I believe she is from Kansas US. Ty KSJ. ) I see all this As A SIGN that I am meant to go to Australia. But what a loooong long time on the airplane. (n.b. even if HSJ is not Australian, I think a future trip is plannable. )

While Heather says she uses a sewing machine needle, it seems that there is a tool in one of her pics. In quickly googling, I didn't find too much that did not go back to referencing Heather. One other blog CallyCreates has pictures taken from Heather's site and other work she and others have done. I am going to have to read up a bit and see what they have done and how they have done it.

I DO have a new thimble bought in Lisbon that I spied with just this project in mind. Two other women were looking at the thimbles as I came back to buy the one I'd pondered (but didn't buy on first look), and neither one knew what the little items were or what they were used for. I explained and they still didn't quite get it and English was the language we all shared so it wasn't that. I guess if you've never seen a thimble in use or sewn, it makes no sense.

Anyhow, with a price at just under 1.5 Euros I snatched the one I wanted while they looked at these tiny and affordable souvenirs. As my little treasure is some kind of pottery, I do hope it will work. A pic later when I can figure out how to put it on my finger and snap or get dh to do the imaging for me.