I have avery soft spot for Op Shops.. Or thrift stores as they  are called over here.

I love the way they make me feel and the exciting anticipation I feel when I walk into one.. I have to stop myself from running around.. I have to tell myself to slow down and enjoy the hunt instead!

From the preceding post, you can see I needed a mood lifter. And  although the boy himself is most definately one, when he suggested a walk into town, I immeadiately asked if we could swing past the thrift store! The answer.. “what for?”  Such a silly response when talking about oppys!

But anyhoo… LOOK!

Souvenier spoons! And from places I’ve been!! I have grand plans for them to end up in a travel inspired collage when I am nestled in my future home back in Australia!

The British Columbia one has Revelstoke engraved in the spoon part and the Niagra Falls one has a map of Canada in the same spot!

I’m still feeling giddy about them.. Is that weird?

A day to myself but it didn’t yield much success. I attempted the ‘realistic’ sculpy fairy I’ve been thinking about for nearly a year.

I had a sleep in thinking it would refresh me for creativity.. but alas no.    I got very frustrated, deserted the pathetic effort and went to the kitchen in search of food. I made an absolutely awful pesto pasta.. ate two bites and abandoned that as well.. now I’m hungry, and cranky, watching Party of Five re-runs (I don’t remember all the girls in that show being so annoying!) and awaiting the boy to come home from the hill and make everything better.

Maybe I should stick with my whimsical Dark Crystal-inspired fairys instead…

Had a rare day with the boy off the mountain today. And it was lovely.

We began the day making m&m brownies. As you can tell by the boy’s shirt, m&ms are quite popular at our place . A quarter never fails to go into the lolly machine at our local market after shopping and a handful is always enjoyed on the walk home. Our little ritual.

While the brownies were cooling on the baking rack, the boy and I mucked around a bit on the guiter and acoustic bass respectively.

Now don’t get the wrong idea! I don’t have the musical ability or the voice I always wished I did  with such a talented father. My sense of rythmn is a little off as the boy has discovered whilst trying to teach me a bass line to play along with a tune he’s recently made up.. I need to state at this time how incredibly talented the boy is on guitar although he denies it.. to the point of being annoying!

So I am practicing.. even when he’s not around.. and my fingers hurt.. and after commenting on the funny look on his face when he plays the bass in particular, I have realised my own face contorts while concentrating on what I am doing. It is a different look of concentration to my snowboarding face however which involves a poking out toungue. This one scares the boy because he’s worried I’ll bite it off accidently!

Finished the day eating homemade pizza leftovers and knitting a beanie with the new wool I picked up at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. (I came home that day with my wool and a variety puzzle book.. the boy said it looked like his grandma had been shopping!)

Was glad for the brownies when our friends Jesse and Simone popped over unexpectadly for a pot of tea tonight! Went down a treat!

I went to the thrift store yesterday and bought me some forks!! Along with a pair of pliers from the $2 store. Last night I got very frustrated with how difficult it is to bend forks..  My pliers were not big enough, the element on the stove not hot enough and my Uri Geller-cutlery bending mental abilities not strong enough.

So I left a pile of sad looking forks haphazardly piled on my desk. I woke this morning with new vigor and set to work on another fork!

Success!!

Not the most attractive fork, but definitely the most malleable in the bunch! Next time I shall equip myself with bigger pliers and have a fork insect with much prettier ‘wings’.

Like these ones…

So, What do you think..

A little bit of button jewelery.

This is branching out on a theme I had whilst in Ottawa. I actually had a dream after watching Coraline for the first time about earrings that looked as though they are sewn to your ear. This earring project is one  I need to keep experimenting with though as I am yet to find a strong enough glue.. My buttons keep breaking off. But today I thought I’d add to the ‘button collection’ so I have a little bit of everything when I open my market stall one day. One day..

By the way, what a wonderful opening to a movie. Gives me goosebumps.

It’s 10am and I’m still in bed. The crumbs from my vegemite toast on my chest (how wonderful was that thanks to a friend heading to Oz and leaving us his supply last night!) and the effects of the coffee starting to take hold. I’m happy, despite a few sniffles and an tickley cough.

I have taken a “Kelly Day”. Some quiet time to myself. I’ve discovered the magic of these days this winter and am enjoying them thoroughly.. The boy heads up the hill for a few runs on his snowboard and I give my weary snowboarded-out legs a rest.

It’s on these days I feel crafty and itching to create things.. but what shall it be today? For some reason I feel it should involve buttons..  hmmmm.. I’ll post a picture later today if something comes of this button urge!

Will have to get up and clean my creative space first (a lovely little desk the boy bought me for Christmas- you might get a pic of that when it’s clean too!).. Think  I’ll pop Coraline on for some inspiration while I tidy!

Stay tuned