Boy, he's getting game now!

My apologies for the lighting in this shot..... This is one of our gorgeous king parrots that visit us most days. This young man is a chick from last year, he has decided to really get friendly with us. Toddy (Ian) and I were sitting outside late in the afternoon and he actually landed on his hat! Since then he loves to swoop us when we go outside, just saying hello, and will eat out of our hands. We feel so honoured that a wild thing like him has much trust in us......

Halloween display.....

I know we don't celebrate Halloween much here in Australia, but I couldn't resist.... I bought the hat, boots and Jack-o-lantern from the last Chocky Crow Auction (www.thechocolatecrowtrader.com) I designed and made the gourds in the basket myself, if anyone wants the e-pattern send me an email! My Dad bought me the great rusty old camp oven and we picked up the little copper kettle at an auction not long ago. The ceramic pumpkins are op-shop treasures and the other bits I have accumulated over the years. I bought some divine prim Halloween patterns from the girls at www.theprimitivepear.com but I didn't get time to make any yet...... hopefully next year! I do have a prim witch ornie but she lives in my kitchen. It is a German tradition to have a kitchen witch for luck, I guess it saves me being the only witch in the house lol.........

I made a barn star!

I am so impressed at how easy this was to make. Believe it or not I made it from a cereal box! I got the template here

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160166827867&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=006

I enlarged it 200% so the final star is about 20cm across. I will have a go at making a huge one soon, love those. All you need is a craft knife and ruler, some cardboard, black spray paint, spray adhesive and cinnamon. Of course you could paint them any colour you like, but I love the faux-rust look. Only took me about ten minutes to make this one and I already had everything I need. Considering how pricey the big barn stars are this is a really cheap way of making heaps of them!

A few bits and pieces

My fave food in the world is sushi, but living in a small town we don't get to indulge very often. For ages I've had a sushi-making kit and recently I took the plunge and had a go. Here is the result, not bad for a first try.... It was divine if I say so myself, the tuna was amazing!

Just a bit of eye candy for the prim lovers out there.

I have acquired quite a few cream stoneware pieces so I put them all together with a few cinnamon sticks and some antique egg-beaters.
These tags are great, my friend Ang made them and I have been trying to find a spot for them to show them off properly. I joined a few sticks together with the hot glue gun and some calico strips, and put them in a rusty tin with a rusty pie plate. I put in some gravel to give it stability.

I looooove a good clearing sale......

Ian and I went to a clearing sale on the weekend, I love these sales, usually they happen when someone sells a farm so there's some great old goodies. This sale didn't have much, but we did get a couple of things, including this table.
We salvaged these great weatherboards from our old house. They still have some of the original green paint on them. Ian cut them to size for me and fitted them as a shelf for the table.
A good drink of linseed oil to revive the timber and it was all done! We think the table came from an old school house, it is covered in kids names lol..... I love having bit of history like this in our home.The table is in my kitchen, we have so much more serving and preparation area now, it's fantastic! Please excuse the washing up on the bench lol, I was a bit busy lol...... No doubt the stuff I plonked on the shelf below the table will be rearranged, but for now I reckon it looks pretty good! Not bad for $55 and a couple of hours work.....

Aaaaaaaarghhhh computers!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's now 7 long weeks since my new laptop went back to the shop for repair, and I'm STILL waiting! Not happy......Needless to say this has affected my blogging somewhat..... I have been promised a new one as they have tried to repair it three times, the first time I brought it home, turned it on and blue smoke came out! Thank goodness my hubby brings his work laptop home each night so I can use it then, but I don't get the time to do much then. Hopefully my new laptop will arrive this week.