Between the time I'm spending fending off the ever-so-clever spam bots on my blog (Damn you, AI for making spam comments sound almost real!) and fending off a Pumpkin beetles attack in my real home, on top of the fact that all of the team my position sits in is on leave at the moment, means that I have no capacity to think mini. So here's a lovely photo of my newly-made summer bed with of with my most favourite sheets and my very most favourite bedspread ..read more

 Hello there. It's been a while, and things have changed since I last blogged. Most excitingly, Daiso opened its first shop in Canberra in June. I went to the opening (of course) and am now thoroughly enjoying 'just popping in' to pick up one or 2 items as needed, or just to see what's new. It's pretty small as Daisos go and doesn't stock a number of things I buy regularly, so I guess I'll still continue my pilgrimages to the Wellington store when I'm in New Zealand. Speaking of which, I was in Wellington in August. While I was there we made use of the residents' workshop to make progress ..read more

Little did I realise when I was blogging yesterday evening about how I was tossing up if I should try to go to the Sydney show this weekend and possibly sneak up to Hornsby to visit Daiso, that Daiso had just posted this on their Facebook feed: Well blow me down! Although I've been wishing and hoping for it for many years, I never expected it to actually happen: and the fact that it's the nearest mall to me is just icing on the (early birthday) cake! But back to the here and now. Today I was mindful of the light issue, and made sure to set most of my lunch break aside to do something for t ..read more

Walking into Woolies today I spotted these and thought 'Oh! I'd like a couple more of those'. And it took me a beat to realise it was the Miniverse version I wanted not full-sized ..read more

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