Introducing our new mate Trep-Trep.

Introducing our new mate Trep-Trep., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

This fella was kindly donated to Eliza at the second hand markets on the weekend. She has named him "Trep-Trep". As much as I love trash and treasure, we always seem to get given other peoples unwanted crap toys. "Oh here you go, have another unwanted McDonalds happy meal toy." You can keep your crap thanks, I always think but am too polite to ever say.

This guy is kind of cute. He is slowly deflating so I don't think he is going to survive the week out.

Sunday Treats.

Sunday was a trip to the Adamstown Markets in Newcastle. It was fairly quiet, but full of casual stall holders, so it was a great for a change of scenery. We picked up this gorgeous wooden doll's house on the way out. It was $30 and included all the wooden furniture and dolls. Apparently it had once belonged to a preschool. I love the idea that so many little hands have once created magic in this place. I am looking forward to renovating our new house and hopefully having it finished in time for Miss almost 2's birthday. It definitely needs some new carpet!

I love the dunny!


Come and share your Sunday Flea Market Finds over here.

Sunday Treats.

Yesterday was a quick trip to the Wickham markets. It was raining on and off so there weren't many marketeers there. We only had $15 with us so I had to be careful what I was going to spend my money on. In the end it came down to these 3 treasures. I bought 2 biscuits tins ($4 each) to keep some crafty "stuff" in. I am slowly trying to organise my creative space and moving the old shoe boxes into some more appealing containers. I am even tempted to get myself a label maker just to make sure that everything has its place. :)

I also bought this wooden shadow box for $5. My intention is to give it a paint, maybe even a bit of mod podge love and use it to store my spools on.

Helping Mum make Olive bread.

Helping Mum make Olive bread., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Yesterday I had no meal planned (as usual) and decided it was important for me to use what I already had available in the house. I ended up making a chorizo and chickpea stew with lots of tomatoes and veggies in it.

At about 3 o'clock I thought maybe we can eat this with a loaf of crusty bread, but I don't want to drive all the way to the shops just for one item. My bike tyre was flat, so we weren't going to do any riding either.

And then, I remembered, I know how to bake bread! It's been a few months since I have baked, but within a few hours we had a delightful olive and rosemary bread. Miss E had a great time helping Mummy knead the dough.

I was proud that I could switch my brain to remember that I can make things from scratch!

Wishlist Wednesday.

Well obviously procrastinating getting any of my own work done and truth is I should probably be in bed, but I just thought I'd give you some of my favourites from this week.

• Gorgeous skirts by koosi from the Netherlands.

• I think I need a Moleskine journal to keep all my ideas in. I'm thinking this one is pretty funky by tamptation in Sydney.
  

• I love the work by local Newcastle artist sketch & jones. I bought Eliza's Christmas dress from her on the weekend at the Art Bazaar. Her prints are gorgeous. These softies are just gorgeous but unfortunately not a necessity around here at the moment...

• Well I gave into this wish and bought myself this bag. I have been eyeing this one off for ages. I love fellow DUSTer Penny's prints from pocketcarnival.

The postman woke the baby.

But all was forgiven once I opened my parcel!

I was a winner in the 'Lil Sonny Sky blog giveaway by the ever so talented and generous Lisa Stubbs. There was a massive amount of gorgeous cards, pins, tags, prints and mini chupa chups! arriving all the way from England. Too bad I had already posted out my Christmas cards this year, let's just say that I am already looking forward to next Christmas so I can post out some of these sweet ones. This little tree card is my favourite :)

I have also been working on a temporary business card that I can just print out a few little ones onto photo paper to hand out at the Red Lantern Night Markets this Friday.

What are your thoughts?

Wearable photography.

This is a sneak peek of my latest project, and as you can see I like to get around a bit and jump from one craft to another!

These are brooches made from upcycled scrabble tiles and bottle caps. I have downsized and printed my photographs so that they fit into this space. Poured some resin over the top, wait a day and ta da, we have some wearable photography.

I had to experiment with the paper to see which would work with the resin the best and I found that the photographs printed on the photographic paper came out the best. They were still bright and the contrast was still good. The ones that were just printed onto colour paper tended to go a bit grey.

All of my Newcastle themed brooches were quite a hit at the Red Lantern Night Market on Friday night so I was quite happy with that. Now I have to get busy and make some more for this coming Friday night market!

Toodooloo :)