Behold my $2.40 miniature espresso machine from my Mini Brands Home ball! I must admit that when I opened the box I let out a little squee... followed by an amount of hyperventilating as I realised the packaging continued underneath: I think that was $2.40 well spent. ? But wait! There's more! (I may have not only returned to Kmart today to buy more balls, but infected several people at this afternoon's mini club meeting as I opened them in front of them at show and tell, then passed the contents around the group, including a KitchenAid coffee grinder, which arrived similarly ..read more

 Back in January, when I went in search of Miniverse Lifestyle balls, I joined a Facebook buy, sell and swap group in the hopes of completing my collection faster, and at a lower price than buying the balls retail. And once I'd completed my collection, I decided to stay on so I'd be alerted if more items were released (which have been, but I'm only interested in a couple of the pieces so am holding off making a decision until I see if they're released in Australia). Yesterday someone posted in the group about a new home series by a different company, Mini Brands, and based on their p ..read more

Just before the Christmas break I was at the Reject Shop stocking up on something (laundry powder? dishwashing liquid? small bags of cashew nuts?) when I spotted the most adorable (and I don't often use that word) little fry pan with a Quant-inspired black and white daisy pattern printed on it. I was desperate to bring it home but couldn't justify it as I have no need for a little fry pan, mainly because I already have a perfectly excellent Tefal one that I use regularly. I'd occasionally pine after it (possibly a bit more than I thought, as a friend I was visiting in New Zealand ended up sa ..read more

I was feeling all smug like before lunch, imagining how happy I'd feel after I completed the dark academia study, taken the necessary pictures and put the contents away, leaving a nice clean work table to start my next project. Alas, by the time my lunch break ended, the scene looked like this: Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow, then ..read more

You'll recall I mentioned looking for my decanter on Tuesday. Well, I've had no luck finding it so far (and, alas, the current weather isn't quite up to a scoot down to see James and buy a new one from him: it's times like this that I do miss having a car), and am starting to wonder if it is in fact imagined. But my poor tired brain is trying ever so hard to be helpful. First, and fairly easily, it found me this, which I'd made from a Trash to treasure kit given to me back in 2015: (Which, granted could work in a pinch if I dig out something suitable for a stopper). Next try was this lamp sh ..read more

 My stash drawer reorganisation worked a treat and I was able to place my hands on both my stash of overhead-projector film and my container of small white card scraps within seconds of opening the drawer, which pleased me greatly. And meant that I could spend my lunchtime framing rather than finding: I approached the framing a bit differently to how I usually doing it, using washi tape to hold things in place rather than my usual approach of gluing a sheet of thin brown paper bag over the back. This means that the framing isn't permanent and I can easily swap in a different pictur ..read more

During today's (half-hour) lunchbreak, I not only made and ate lunch (wholegrain noodles with Thai-green-curry tuna and stir fry veges, if you're interested) but also found an extra sheet of the scrapbooking paper I'm using on the walls of the dark academia study, which gives me the option to extend the build further along one wall or add a third wall if I feel the need (although if I add another wall I fear I will be setting myself up to have to create a wall of filled bookcases). I also sorted through the images I chose yesterday, and through my drawer of empty frames to match up some likel ..read more

I finally asked myself my standard 'Who lives here?' question for this scene at lunchtime today, which caused me to wonder and ponder as I sorted through my art stash to find items that that person might chose for their walls, then set them out for further scrutiny and decision making: I also pulled out some blue items to try, as I mentioned last week, and found myself trying out some windows (which I last used back in December 2020, with a different background in them). Which lead me to wonder if it needed a fireplace as well: Oh dear: I seem to have asked myself more questions than I an ..read more

(Alas only miniature) At mini club a friend arrived with dark grey fingerless gloves on her hands: not knitted, but something that looked more like fabric gardening gloves with the fingers cut off. "Oh" she said "I hurt my hands and I've been told to keep them warm. But I hate these". It just so happened that I'd stopped off at Lincraft on the way to club to buy some nicely-discounted machine-washable wool to knit some lounge socks for Mum, so pulled out my purchases and asked if she liked any of the colours, as I'd decided she needed some nice hand-knitted wristwarmers instead. She picked th ..read more

 Today was mini club. And the workshop was a macrame plant hanger. 'How hard can it be?', I thought. Much harder than I imagined it would seem, even for someone who remembers the 70s and Golden Hands magazine. It all seemed easy enough: although I was confronted by the fact that the smaller-scale version only came in red. Then I was faced with a yarn octopus... some knotty problems, and, finally, and hopefully something that resembles a plant hanger? I need to shove a plant pot in it and see if I made the correct number of knots. And process the realisation that my eyes are gettin ..read more