In lieu of a sewing room, this is the shoebox system.
This is my art cupboard. A refrigerator drawer is "repurposed" for storage. Not pretty, but it fits the space.
This is my glorious compact CD collection and the $3 box I bought to keep it in.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Organising odds and ends.
There are some things that I just can't find a place for. Poor Dwight.
In lieu of a sewing room, this is the shoebox system.
This is my art cupboard. A refrigerator drawer is "repurposed" for storage. Not pretty, but it fits the space.
This is my glorious compact CD collection and the $3 box I bought to keep it in.
In lieu of a sewing room, this is the shoebox system.
This is my art cupboard. A refrigerator drawer is "repurposed" for storage. Not pretty, but it fits the space.
This is my glorious compact CD collection and the $3 box I bought to keep it in.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Mum is on a bike ride.
I'm proud of my mum. Mum has been riding with Bike for Bibles from Broome to Esparence (others in the team going are continuing to the East Coast but she's already done that). Interesting that while I was on holiday all 4 women in the family were in WA. Haven't talked to her much. I just found a blog about the bike ride. They're down past Perth now. This is a picture of Mum not riding a bike at all.
http://melmothbigride.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/days-16-17-and-18-15th-17th-july.html
http://melmothbigride.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/days-16-17-and-18-15th-17th-july.html
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Dry paint.
I really want to do some paintings, I just don't have anything in particular to paint. But there has been no craft on this blog in ages, and craft was one of the original REASONS for this blog. And I recently bought some frames for $2 each. And I found some canvasses that fit in the frames among my art junk. I hereby declare my intention to paint a picture.
Friday, July 19, 2013
What I bought in WA.
Gourmet bread and butter pudding on our last night in Perth!
- Presents for Mum and Dad.
- Port.
- Loose leaf teas: peppermint and green chai. These were well priced. Cheaper than T2. I was waiting to buy tea on holidays. http://fremantlemarkets.com.au/node/164
- Tapenade to share at work.
- Shampoo and Conditioner. Natural ingredient ones made in Margaret River, cheaper than the Body Shop.
- A tea towel. This was the most useless thing I bought. It's a typographic map. I could use it, or hang it on the kitchen wall. I just need a wall.
- A second-hand coat. I call it my Country Vet Coat. It looks rather English and 50s, but the buttons tell me it is from the 80s. I might look at changing them. It was $65 which is exy for 2nd hand but cheap for new. I'm replacing an old long cardigan with this long coat. Replacing is my aim these days. In this case, long layer for long layer. I find long things work well over dresses. And I do love dresses.
- Chocolate. I opened the box last night, saw the foil, and closed it up again. I can't eat this chocolate until I have carefully photographed the packaging.
- 2 Postcards. One I posted.
What I do is, I don't buy souvenir trinkety things, but I buy normal things that I'll use and know they are from a nice holiday. So my blanket cape is from Armidale. My brown vinyl bag is from London. I'll be washing my hair in fancy Margaret River shampoo for the next 6 months and drinking tea from Fremantle Markets. Useful things from nice places.
I do, however, buy postcards. They are excellent value. I send one to work. Then when I get back to work, I read it and remember fun times, and I stick the postcard on my collage.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Last of the Far West photos.
Chocolate factory which served rocky road cheesecake, I have no idea how they cut through marshmallows so cleanly.
A fancy place called Providore, I think, where they make chutney and things.
A service station!
The cow milking toy at the ice-cream factory, with one of my new little friends
The green countryside.
The lovely yellow stone they have in Perth, the Mint.
The CBA view in the mall at lunchtime.
Some random Shakespearian shopping lane.
View from hotel at sunrise. I don't think I've ever seen so many sunrises and sunsets in one week.
Some boring council building with a changing light display.
A fancy place called Providore, I think, where they make chutney and things.
A service station!
The cow milking toy at the ice-cream factory, with one of my new little friends
The green countryside.
The lovely yellow stone they have in Perth, the Mint.
The CBA view in the mall at lunchtime.
Some random Shakespearian shopping lane.
View from hotel at sunrise. I don't think I've ever seen so many sunrises and sunsets in one week.
Some boring council building with a changing light display.
Friday, July 12, 2013
More pleasant westerra photos.
That's my other suggestion for a name for WA. Westerra. Classier than wawaland. Means west land.
More photos!
More photos!
WA wa land.
The first touristy thing we did was watch the sunset over the ocean. It was nice. And had pizzas for dinner at a marina. See photos below. I can't spread photos through text on my iPad. I'll fix it when I'm back on a computer.
Perth is like Canberra by the sea and some big rivers. Well mown grass, smooth driving, modern buildings. Fremantle is old though. We did a tunnel tour of the prison which is expensive but more interesting than seeing cells, if you have already seen other gaols, because you go underground in safety gear and wade in flooded tunnels and row boats under ground.
The markets are indoor markets like haymarket but smaller and perhaps nicer. There are heaps of restaurants. Then we went to kings park which is very handsome and has amazingly fine smooth grass and very good views of the rivers and the cbd. Then we went to church. And we were super tired, it was extremely hard to keep awake after a long day plus the 2 hour time difference.
On Monday we drove with Heather down to busselton where Julia lives. We took her horse for a walk, taking turns to ride, and did some farmy horsy things. And then we went to the jetty and walked along it as it got dark... Too cloudy for a sunset. But cold sea breezes, and it's the longest jetty you'll see.
Tuesday, we all went driving around the Margaret river area. It's a lot like the hunter valley, but with more sheep and dairy cows and a lot more rain, and more convenient to drive around, you can drive past an interesting cottage industry or winery every half a km. we bought something at every place we stopped! We went to one winery for tasting, woody nook, which was very friendly. We went to a maze and solved it. We went to a small chocolate factory and tasted cocoa bean and different darkness of chocolate and had home made ice creams. We went to an olive oil factory that makes soaps and oil things. We went to "cow town". We had lunch at a bakery at Margaret River, and I bought a coat at a vintage clothes shop next door. We went to one of the caves, the lake cave. And then we went home and bought Chinese takeaway for dinner. So I highly recommend the Margaret river for an excellent density of interesting things to do all in just one day.
Heather went back to Perth for work the next day, so we got up early with her, and went back to the jetty and watched the sunrise. The very exciting thing that happened was that I discovered that my camera has a setting for tilt shift effect! I started taking miniaturised photos like mad.
Spent the day just wandering around busselton. D caught a bus in the evening, up to meet a new friend she had met at church and arranged to visit the pinnacles district with on Thursday and Friday. I stayed with Julia for another day and met some of her best friends, the Johnson family. We all did a few more things in Margaret river: the bigger chocolate factory, a silk worm farm and silk shop, an ice cream factory, and a cheese factory. All of these factories are basically shops that make things and tell tourists how they are made. Then we did sing star at the Johnson's house, had dinner, and I drew portraits of the girls.
On Friday morning I caught an early bus up to Perth. It took 3 and a bit hours. I got to the bus station at 11am, and couldn't make head or tale of the transport system and also i had runout of cash because i didnt know my PIN, so decided that at least I knew how to read a map and walk, so I walked to the hotel which took about 30 minutes. Dumped my suitcase with the concierge and walked to the river to eat snacks from my backpack. Woohoo! Realised the Perth mint was very close, so I went there and did tour and saw a lot of gold. Shiny liquid gold and lots of bars.
Then I realised that there are free buses called cats that circle the cbd. Possibly all the buses are free in the cbd also. So I went full circle on the red cat bus, which took an hour and was pleasant. Then I got off in the mall and posted Heather's birthday card, found a cafe to have late lunch and wrote this blog post up until this point. I had heard a lot about WAs expensive eating, but we only did one gourmet meal that was $30 each. We ate a lot of meals $8-15. It's bright and sunny and not cold at all, and is similar but different to Sydney. I'm sitting opposite the old cba and gpo, and they are exactly the same model as the buildings in Martin place, but in bright yellow sandstone instead of greyish sandstone or granite style. Fewer Asians, more Africans. Quite prosperous, but in a suburban way rather than a city way. A lot of personalised number plates, like maybe a third of them.
Perth is like Canberra by the sea and some big rivers. Well mown grass, smooth driving, modern buildings. Fremantle is old though. We did a tunnel tour of the prison which is expensive but more interesting than seeing cells, if you have already seen other gaols, because you go underground in safety gear and wade in flooded tunnels and row boats under ground.
The markets are indoor markets like haymarket but smaller and perhaps nicer. There are heaps of restaurants. Then we went to kings park which is very handsome and has amazingly fine smooth grass and very good views of the rivers and the cbd. Then we went to church. And we were super tired, it was extremely hard to keep awake after a long day plus the 2 hour time difference.
On Monday we drove with Heather down to busselton where Julia lives. We took her horse for a walk, taking turns to ride, and did some farmy horsy things. And then we went to the jetty and walked along it as it got dark... Too cloudy for a sunset. But cold sea breezes, and it's the longest jetty you'll see.
Tuesday, we all went driving around the Margaret river area. It's a lot like the hunter valley, but with more sheep and dairy cows and a lot more rain, and more convenient to drive around, you can drive past an interesting cottage industry or winery every half a km. we bought something at every place we stopped! We went to one winery for tasting, woody nook, which was very friendly. We went to a maze and solved it. We went to a small chocolate factory and tasted cocoa bean and different darkness of chocolate and had home made ice creams. We went to an olive oil factory that makes soaps and oil things. We went to "cow town". We had lunch at a bakery at Margaret River, and I bought a coat at a vintage clothes shop next door. We went to one of the caves, the lake cave. And then we went home and bought Chinese takeaway for dinner. So I highly recommend the Margaret river for an excellent density of interesting things to do all in just one day.
Heather went back to Perth for work the next day, so we got up early with her, and went back to the jetty and watched the sunrise. The very exciting thing that happened was that I discovered that my camera has a setting for tilt shift effect! I started taking miniaturised photos like mad.
Spent the day just wandering around busselton. D caught a bus in the evening, up to meet a new friend she had met at church and arranged to visit the pinnacles district with on Thursday and Friday. I stayed with Julia for another day and met some of her best friends, the Johnson family. We all did a few more things in Margaret river: the bigger chocolate factory, a silk worm farm and silk shop, an ice cream factory, and a cheese factory. All of these factories are basically shops that make things and tell tourists how they are made. Then we did sing star at the Johnson's house, had dinner, and I drew portraits of the girls.
On Friday morning I caught an early bus up to Perth. It took 3 and a bit hours. I got to the bus station at 11am, and couldn't make head or tale of the transport system and also i had runout of cash because i didnt know my PIN, so decided that at least I knew how to read a map and walk, so I walked to the hotel which took about 30 minutes. Dumped my suitcase with the concierge and walked to the river to eat snacks from my backpack. Woohoo! Realised the Perth mint was very close, so I went there and did tour and saw a lot of gold. Shiny liquid gold and lots of bars.
Then I realised that there are free buses called cats that circle the cbd. Possibly all the buses are free in the cbd also. So I went full circle on the red cat bus, which took an hour and was pleasant. Then I got off in the mall and posted Heather's birthday card, found a cafe to have late lunch and wrote this blog post up until this point. I had heard a lot about WAs expensive eating, but we only did one gourmet meal that was $30 each. We ate a lot of meals $8-15. It's bright and sunny and not cold at all, and is similar but different to Sydney. I'm sitting opposite the old cba and gpo, and they are exactly the same model as the buildings in Martin place, but in bright yellow sandstone instead of greyish sandstone or granite style. Fewer Asians, more Africans. Quite prosperous, but in a suburban way rather than a city way. A lot of personalised number plates, like maybe a third of them.
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