Five Friday Faves

1. Cookies and hot chocolate for the kids on a day like this.
 It rained ALL day! Really hard! Sheesh.
BEFORE

AFTER!

2. This is a street in Buenos Aires. How cool is that?

3.  THIS from Apron Thrift Girl.. it's from a 1979 catalogue.
There's pages of other stuff.. electronics, lego, other toys etc..

Drooling, dribbling etc. over those yellow ones there.

4. Dice Collection. I love seeing people's collections and how they display them.
 (Trying to justify my own terrible habits maybe?!)
From here via Pinterest.
I'm a rookie blogger but one day I'm going to try and do
one of those linky linky things all about people's collections.. I'd love that.

5. And this boy here (Joe) having tooth fairy dreams right now..
His little gnome bearing the tiny tooth..
xx LOVE

STARS and the Best Boots in the World

THE BEST THING ABOUT WINTER!

CAMPER COMFORT

I'M IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN..

..JUST LIKE LAST YEAR!

Happy Matariki!

It's Matariki here in NZ.

Those stars, sometimes called the 7 Sisters, are visible at this time of the year, and herald the MAori New Year.. How brightly they shine is how good the crops are going to grow this year...

We celebrate Matariki by having some sort of feast.. usually involving things cooked 

using  kumara. (sweet potato) 

A kumara cook off.

ANyway..

Today was the kindy family KAI HAKARI (feast) and it was, 

as always FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!!

Scoff, scoff, dribble, drool.

BROWNIE STARS

WOBBLY STRIPEY STARS

(stars and stripes?)

ANd of course, it was about then that the camera battery died 

and so there are no photos from the party. 

Bummer. It was amazing.

Thanks to my sister for this.
I have put it on the KITSCH-en window sill.
Because I need to remember that!

It's Busy City here!

Five Friday Faves (or maybe Saturday!)

So another Friday has (been) come around..

It is currently Saturday night and I have NO kids at home. 

I am meant to be doing sensible, useful things.

But I am missing my babies..

And this will be a quick post.

5 FAVS...

1. LOVE this lamp. ANd that old transistor there too, for that matter.

2. My dresser. 

3. In my dreams, my freezer would look like this! Food all  homemade, of course. 

I can't abide ready packaged meals.

Except the odd pizza base for when i can't be effed making one.

4. CARVED CRAYONS by DIEM CHAU, found via this blog.

5 AND I HAVE TO FINISH with one of my favourite photos of  that bloke of mine..
Coz it's his 45th today..
This photo is in 2006
But that jawline is just as dashing today!

Kooky photo of the photo with me in it!!


HAVE A ROCK AND ROLL 3-DAY WEEKEND KIWI KIDS!

Weekly COLLEcTION SelectIOn - my challenge! #7

TEA TOWELS!

Our dishwasher has died.

But I actually don't mind..

We've been quite enjoying doing the dishes by hand, chatting as we do it..

But when I saw the tea towels hanging on the line, it got me thinking..

Should i be using my favourites for the dishes?

(Actually they're all my favourites.. I only buy ones I like, 

and I ALWAYS grab funky or kitsch retro ones when I see them at the op shops)

But, my point is, when they're gone, they're gone.. right?

SO threadbare.
This one was one we used when we were kids.. so it has actually lasted a long time.

Maybe I should buy some new cheap ones that I can use for all these 

mountains of dishes. so my favs don't all end up looking like this..

That funky heart one is so ripped it might be on its last duties tonight..
And if you look closely at the other one, you'll see a gaping hole from
when it got  burnt on the element..

Somebody took the time to blanket stitch around the edge of this one.
that's a big effort for  a tea towel, I would have thought.

Or I could hang them on the wall like this one..
I got it at a garage sale for 50c -
Already mounted in its frame, and faded over time..

Or this one that was a gift for people who hosted members of the orchestra on the 1988 tour..
A great example of 'Kiwinalia'.

Or I could make things out of them, like
these

How cute is that?
That's from  THE CRAFT REVIVAL

Or one of these toy bags from RECYCLED SEWING

ANyway.

This 'collection' makes me happy.

I can do the 50s housewife dish-washing thing

with one of my vintage tea towels

and maybe we won't bother

with fixing the dishwasher...

?

Recent finds..

.. well mainly today's actually..

I'm thrilled to have found this as we had one EXACTLY the same,
and I dropped it...

LOVE this little girl. She might just end up with pride of place on the kitchen window sill..

Strangely and totally attracted to this..

SHe's got a great attitude, don't y'all think?

Cute shoes for my Iris.. I'm sure I had some once that were exactly the same..

A bit of 3D Japanese kitsch. 

2 new chairs for a tenner.. 

50c of sparkly kitsch beautifulness..

plus a skipping rope and another plastic fantastic canister to add to my ridiculous collection..


Total spend today: about $20!! Nuts!

Hope you've had some good scores recently!

IT'S GENETIC

(Gratuitous sentimental journey post alert!!!)

I went to my Dad's place in the weekend, in Auckland. It was the bi-yearly inorganic (hard rubbish) collection weekend in his area. Bliss, joy!! Oh how I longed to join the other curb-crawlers and go rummaging around the streets!!

But I was there to help my siblings SORT OUT all the stuff that was cluttering up Dad's basement and loft. You see I come from brilliant Collector stock! My darling Mum, rest her soul, was a creative and bright and wonderful woman. Thrifty and sentimental.. she held on to a lot of stuff...

Need a zip, anyone?

Now I have to add that she was not a hoarder, and she always managed to find a way to keep the house tidy and organised. HOW????  I would love to ask her, if only I could..

She was obsessed with storage solutions, as am I.. but I often find my stuff gets the better of my house!!

I love looking at all the stuff she accumulated, and remembering all her stories and anecdotes about things she gathered, places she'd been...

The doll collection that I  was not often allowed to touch when I was a kid!

Needless to say, Mum always had the things we needed for any projects we wanted to undertake..

Box of (mainly) buckles!

Some of my fav things at Dad's place......

One of the besquillion things that Mum's fair hands created.. 

My doll house.

2 of my all-time fav books from childhood - I have found the color one at a garage sale
- but am still hunting for Zeralda's Ogre!