Needs More Cowbell.....

Keeping busy today.....and tomorrow....Sending positive vibes out into the world....well it cant hurt.

Lily asked me how long it was till xmas....I had a think, and said seven weeks, I then feel into a deep depression....Yikes!!! Make that Double Yikes!!! So far from ready for the festive season... I don't suppose that will stop it of course. So I better come up with a natty label for November...Something like Rock-tober, only with November, like Mo-vember, but to do with pulling your finger out.... I will mull...

Got a new project or ten.... So I might have to ignore the couch moving back pain and crack on... actually I think most of the back damage was done by irony, that would be lifting a very heavy spin bike in and out of car.... and a dressing table .... and a trunk and a bloody big TV.... Maybe it wasn't irony, maybe it was stupidity....

If i get a few days of nice weather I should be able to get this done....

It was dirt cheap for a very solid, if not attractive....but it should be a quick job, a bit of filler and paint and done. It has a stamp saying it was made seven days before I born....

Mock Duck.....

Well mock post really.....too much going on at the moment, so I am taking a day to get my head straight before I say anything....

And in the mock theme..... I am mocking up the dressing table.... I enjoy this bit of the design process, just seeing where things might go, and coming up with new ideas as I do....

Out to Lunch....

Well out to dinner in this case.....not sure but this might be my first night out in almost 6 months!!! That is pretty scary.....Nice restaurant, a few drinks....lovely....

Dodo.....

Had to go to Bathurst today, even though I didn't need to take the kids to the ex....Needed a trailer, and it cost $68 a day to hire one!!! So a quick round trip with a quick hello to kids, and a very quick coffee....a start on a little picture to make my poor little girl smile, she has the chicken pox... So I am drawing her favourite character from Alice in Wonderland, The dodo? She is a strange little girl, and I love her.

Spot the Difference.....

Couldn't have been a bigger farce if I tried.....My Daughter has Chicken Pox....and I didn't notice....bad bad dad.... I had that moment I dreaded,

"can you come pick lily up from school?"
"I am a couple of hours away"
"Is there someone else you can call?"

No there isn't.....that's the problem....

It got sorted....I had Laksa and I am still sad.....

The Devil is in the Details.....

.....or God is in the Detail, depending on which way you hang your crucifix.... Not sure if it is a side effect of the happy pills or a descent into grumpy old mandom, but detail has become important. When I was a younger man, a wore a younger mans clothes, I didn't have the patience for detail...and now I have no tolerance for lack of attention to detail.... Ahhhh youth it is wasted on.... well most people.

So I have just spent half an hour making bits of wood with metal pins in them, and recessed backs the exact size for brass buttons....and when I put them on the piece I am doing you probably wont even notice they are there....but I will....and hopefully one day someone else will and say that's clever....or they don't mak'em like that anymore....or some such hokey thing.

I couldn't remove the excess glue without risking knock the pins off centre, they need to be straight...because the Devil is in the details.....

Finally got the last coat on the teak tables I have restored....some of my better and more subtle work, shame I have really gone off the retro stuff. I think the fact that while in a Doctors waiting room today I saw an article on "Retro" furnishing in a New Idea, hasn't helped....Time to move into a bit more more Industrial/Neo Victorian industrial.... But the tables are nice.

Who Moved My Cheese and Whine.....

Still feeling like crap....man-flu must have set in. Feeling old, the helpful optometrist telling me I have a a gradual decline in eyesight to look forward too. I wasn't up for that today...Pulling a muscle in my back moving a table hasn't helped with that feeling either.... I started out the week feeling fat and like crap, sick, couldn't work and enough residual stress floating around to bring on a long attack from a long dormant IBS....and no one to talk to about it....they all have there own problems.... but still I am not copeing with being everybody elses go to for woes guy... I am trying and failing....

Nothing done again today....a 20min coffee break was about it.....

Vanity.....

Been a bit lapse on the taking care of myself lately....Time to get back in the swing of it.... Doctors appointment of Wednesday for more pills and potions.... Might try and squeeze in a bit more exercise and a trip to the spa place too... To kick start myself along I have nuked the living shit out of my hair, it was a bit brassy yesterday but found the colour rinse stuff today (after checking five shops) and it is now a very pleasant shade of serial killer white now...

I have decided I need a dressing table, or a grooming table....or what ever the hell you call it so it doesn't sound to girly....

Bought this.....this is way to girly!!! So I will make it match the rest of the bedroom setting....There will be sanding to get the dreadful lumpy paint back to smooth and there will be drills and glue....I bought a bag of old brass buttons for six dollars at the op-shop today, it had some very weird old police and military buttons in it as well as lots of nice plain metal buttons.... So at the moment I am drilling test holes in a scrap bit of wood, to see what depth I want them.

Starting to get back into the swing of the projects....which is good as there is a few to do... If I can stay out of the op-shops I will be fine :)

Speaking of op-shops, I was impressed at the speed technology is becoming redundant.... I bought a iPhone 3GS 32GB from Salvo's today for a hundred and fifty dollars....bargain....

Probability Beans......

Sick.....Sick....Sick.....Lets add short tempered and down to my last nerve to that.... The kids are back, dropped of by "I don't deserve a weekend" ex... Did I mention moody and on my last nerve. Call me over sensitive but threatening me with renegotiating maintenance after I just agreed to move the kids back and to a public school, so she gets an extra pile of cash...made me snap.... Cant wait to be free of her money bullshit, If I was incapable of budgeting and wasted as much as she does I would be a bit more glass houses and a bit less moody bitch... oh....did I mention i am not well and it's a bad day to poke the bear? All I said was I would like her to ba able to pick kids up after school a couple of times a week, You know, so maybe I could work or something? So I didnt need her precious money. Done!!!

 A tin of jelly beans, but I put the black ones back each time I take some.... Therefore I increase my chance of the dreaded black jelly bean next.... That could be an analogy or a lesson, but most likely it is a warning.... Eventually there will only be black jelly beans left in the tin....

Show the Dog the Rabbit.....

Not well....coff coff sniffle.... Not man flu, just run down and need a day off.... Lazy day other than starting to guild a bunny not a lot going on. A boring terracotta rabbit gets a coat of black.

and and a rub of imitation silver....

and a quick layer of silver lief.....

....and now twenty four hours to dry so I can rub off the excess and start the next step.....



Lazy.....

Not sure I want to do Hippy markets tomorrow....they have stuck me in a place near the stage.... I will have to listen to six hours of people talking.... Some sensible, some insane.... Not sure I am up to it...

Hot Pussy.....

Yet another day of being out and about....this is doing bad things to my reputation as a hermit... A trip to pick up three cats...only resulting in mild stress and one claw in my finger injury.

Off to Bathurst again tomorrow on the never ending child swap, which has finally killed my enjoyment of driving.... It has become a chore, even without the kids in the car. So I will drop the kids at their Nanna's house, check the op-shops, and drink a couple coffee's and draw for an hour or so, to work myself up for the trip back....oh and pick up a free table from katoomba on the way through.

There was no news today.....

There probably was, but I have been busy with mundane stuff and visits from the daddy...Love my dad dearly, but he could bore for Australia on the subject of guns and motorbikes.... Not really just a bit tired from continued lack of decent sleep. Booked myself in for hippy markets at Katoomba on Saturday, must remember not to bathe or make sense... Once again just tired.

I have decided to move away from mid century retro stuff in the house.... So I am going to sell it all!!! In fact just sold my JVC Videoshpere....It was cool....but what do you do with it? It is ok for that LIFE ON MARS evening, when you just want to sit around in your turtle neck drinking campari... But I have already done that this week....

Sand Castles.....

A good day....busy but good..... K-town brekky with M a bit of op-shopping... Poor M so busy and stressed at the moment... Hopefully a meteorite strike on her ex happens soon. She has suggested a family holiday...I don't mind the idea but the timing is a concern.... I will sleep on it I think.

Got a very interesting old radio case....toying with a few ideas, from ipod dock to bar?

I was right about this picture being one coffee from done....Now that it's done I can get to work on the big version.

However I am running very low on the felt tip pens I use....so time to order some from Hong Kong.

The Up-Late Up-Date..... Got my first Supermarket home delivery tonight, Ordered and payed for online, the delivered the next day.... This is the way to do it, no checkouts and other people, no fighting with kids and forgetting half of what I came in for....and I even got a bottle of wine, stylin big time.

Just ordered $60 worth of pens off ebay, that may sound excessive but i do go through them, and for that I will get 36 pens and not the 8-10 I would get from the art supplies store....and I have been getting more than $60 for one picture, so not to bad.

Just had a cup of tea on the veranda....hmmmm..... Looking a bit Sanford and Son out there, got to start turning some of this stuff into finished projects....soon.

Moon Over Parma...

Music is something that can bring joy.... I am not sure that is the way it was meant in this case, but I just bought a super cool 1950's Piano Accordion for my son, it can live at, and be practiced on, at his mothers house.... The very thought makes me smile....

...and miss five just asked for a harmonica, joy.....

Nice Day for it....

I did the markets in the next suburb today....Very relaxed, good dollars, a sexy helper and no hour plus drive home after. Sold a pile of stuff that hadn't shifted for ages, so hopefully I can get into these markets again next month. Absolutely stuff though, feel like I haven't slept well enough in weeks.... Started on a big picture tonight, but cant concentrate enough to do any real work on it tonight....

Mirror....Mirror....

A head clearing day..... A trip to Penrith.... A new stereo for the car, well a stereo in a box to go to into the car soon.... A bit of drawing in a cafe resulted in a picture that is one latte from done. Got home, did a little cleaning, and I mean a little.

Found the coolest thing in Bathurst yesterday. So I cleaned it up a bit.... I think this is one of those items that will be spending quite a while in my house.

It weighs a ton, and I have no idea what to do with it, or put in it....but I like it.

New Shoes....

Not the most productive day ever.....two new tires on the car.....a bit of op-shopping and dropping the kids of with ex....  I already miss them.... But I need to work this weekend to pay for my cars new $400 shoes... I am going to try and finish this tomorrow and then start work on the large version of it...

Have Blog....Will Post.....

Another long day....yawn....to tired to fight at the moment. Cup of coffee, feet up and I dream of Jeannie on TV.... Just need to switch off for a bit. Constantly having stuff taken the wrong way by everyone around me is draining.... So I did a little sanding and a bit more work on Light Saber stand...

Just waiting on the slim line battery case from ebay to arrive, so I can solder it all up and make it shiny. Not sure if I will put a small lens or cut crystal in the brass thing with a hole in it? Might wait till the LED's are working and see what looks best... Very impressed that the switch works.... Thinking about adding some brass catches to base?

Steam Punk.....

I have been thinking about steam punk stuff a bit lately....There really seems to be two main paths to go down....One is the more aesthetic, stick broken clock bits to things path, nothing wrong with that it, if it is done with style....and the other path is following the idea that the embellishment should be functional, not completely of course...but if the technology had gone down that path, then the items you make, should look like they could work..... So I am moving away from the old watch bits path.....

....and trying to follow a more functional path..... With that in mind tonights project may seem a little dull.... I really think it represents what I want to achieve.... A completly functioning push switch, with a brass collar made from a bullet casing and brass cap, when resessed into a wood panel it will be almost flush. Is it strange to be so happy with a tiny switch?

Half Time....Changes Sides!.....

My children are taking it in turns to be enthusiastic and sullen about school....I wish they could at least synchronise it with each other.... Sod all done today, probably try and sort out the stuff for Lawson Markets on Sunday... Maybe sand a a bit more of a coffee table....

Still enjoying the fact that local op-shops will sell me a piece like this for five dollars, when they price everything else so ridiculously....also might give this a bit of work over.....

Rough afternoon.....Sebastian has returned from holidays with a potty mouth....so all frustration no results in yells of crap and such....how lovely..... a bit of time without video games is in order....

I have just spent a ridiculous amount of effort to make a battery pack....I will replace it with something a bit more practical and a nice brass switch eventually....more just seeing if it could be done....So now I need a brass washer or a penny with a 3/8 hole in it to make the top look complete...

Leave a Light on for me......

Tuesday feels like Thursday of next week..... Insomnia is back, almost got some sleep last night till my daughter had a nightmare and decided it would be better if she slept in the middle of my bed....Had to sleep on the edge of bed, but didn't care....missed them both, I wouldn't have cared if Seb had come in to...and that is saying something as he is a squirmy little bugger.... I have spent most of the afternoon watching them play together....No sure what to do for them, what is the best for them? So in the short term I am buying some lamp oil for my newly finished oil lamps, in case I decide to do without electricity....

The mind numbing effort for today.....Doing something that is so labour intensive to do by chisel and hammer, that would take 2 mins with a router, is strangely satisfying.... The knowledge that if I was trapped on a desert isle or in an Oubliette I could (A) carve a canoe or (B) a tunnel..... It would of course be important get the situation correct....

Stand by me......

Monday and kids returned to school.....Feeling a bit more relaxed already....I didn't get much downtime during the school holidays, and it really caught up with me....Had a talk with the kids principle today about whether kids knew that they were leaving the school? I am sure they know it is a possibility, but I am not sure I want them to spend there last term there thinking about leaving....If there was anyway of keeping there I would, they are happy....I hate that money is the reason they can't stay....I hate that money is the reason I have to go to Bathurst...Even if the kids were in a public school I would probably be unable to afford to live in mountains.... I am still looking at options, but the inability to fit work in around the kids school hours has me stuffed... I cant see a way out....

In Bathurst I will have more support with kids, I will be able to earn money and possibly even get more balanced time vs. sole parent going on.... But the kids will be in a school I still have reservations about.... In a town that everyone has reservations about.... There is a part of me that knows Bathurst is pretty much irrelevant as a location.... I can operate the same out of anywhere I guess.... But still???

Today I have been sanding and polishing stuff.... A wooden napkin holder has been cut back and modified into a light saber stand...

Still a bit of work to go....some more embellishments and brass bits to go, but I have been meaning to find someway of displaying this for years...

I picked up a wobbly stool during the council pick ups last month.... Leaving it as a stool seems pointless....So I have pulled it apart.... I have given the top a few tweeks, not because I know what to do with it, but because I wanted to see if I could still use woodworking skills learned many years ago. My high school woodwork teacher would be amazed that I retained any information at all, considering the amount of time I spent talking during his class....

I have sanded and rebated with a chisel and othe woody stuff, not sure what to do with it yet....I might keep adding to it....

Pitbull Vs. Sleep....

Doing the markets on two hours sleep.....head all wobbly....Had to krank Pitbull up to 11 in the car on the way home, to stop from nodding off.... A very slow day at the markets and not in the best of moods.... Bought a bike to cheer myself up, no idea why... Just one of those things that sat there taunting me with it's coolness, till I bought it....It needs a good clean and a few tweaks, but if it doesn't become the shop bike, I might kit it out for my son... I don't want him riding around on something off the rack....

Free Fall......

Not Sure what is going on right now.....no sleep.....second happy pill of the day....trying to keep busy....auto pilot mainly.... Glad the kids are not here, just want to crawl into a hole and die. Life wasn't meant to be this complicated. I should just stay away from people, every ones life would be a lot easier.... I should just do my meaningless little bits and pieces of junk and let the world move one without me.... I break stuff.... I cannot cope with that anymore.....

6:30.....Car is packed for markets.....Really don't want to go tomorrow, but I am broke and will just spend the whole day eating or drinking, or both if I don't..... Really not sure if I am doing the right thing, it is hard....very hard.... Just sad. I really thought I could be happy and make her happy, cant take the pressure anymore.... I just want to stop hurting people....

Welcome to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

Weird, very weird....Sitting.....Sketching outside a cafe in Katoomba, and I kept getting Japanese tourists asking to take a picture with me? Not sure if it was because they liked my artwork? Or because I am a large, blue eyed, tattooed descendant of convicts?

This afternoon I finished the Alan Quatermain Patented Automatic Numerator (1825)....Well I had to call it something..... Perhaps I should have named it after Sherlock Holmes, But he resided at 221B Baker Street....and Not 221A that seemed a bit of a stretch.

I took a few pics in different styles....Heres a colour one....

and another angle.....well there is also a bit of spot the difference going on too?

(Answer - I swapped the silver washer under the brass bolt holding it to the wood for a aged brass one)

Only the Lonely.....

Just waiting for the ex to collect the kids and take then off to the coast to stay at resort, and fish and have fun etc....Glad the kids will get to have fun, sad that I cannot do that for them at the moment... No matter, It wont be that way forever, or even for long.

On the doing stuff front, I did a picture that I am not unhappy with....

Not sure what to do today, lots of things I could or should do.... So I thought I would make a morning post of uncertainty.... and an evening update of what that uncertainty became.

I Think it Counts?......

Bit of sleep in.....The one great thing about school holidays is no school run!!! House is a bomb site...and my lodger just gave notice, less dollars but more space.  The great thing is though I have already sorted all the crap from the summer house now, so I can have a clean house again with no storage problems.  I have been very restrained with purchases this week, even with the couple of items I bought for the next project, I am not broke yet....and as long as the weather holds for the markets I can get the last few bits and pieces next week. Normally I would have bought it all at once and been broke, budgeting is getting easier....That said the lack of a lodgers income will mean more markets and other work....As is traditional I got offered a job by chatting this week, Unfortunately the job is on a Sunday, So I cant take it.... I did some chatting in Bathurst on Tuesday to, lets see if that leads to a job offer for next year.

So I bought this yesterday, not sure what it was, or exactly what it will be? It was just to cool to say no to.....

It all works, in that the gears spin and the hands turn, I could just clean it all up and display it....but it seems a shame not to have it actually do something?

Extra Time.....

Got a whole time thing going on this week..... I picked up kids, did a little op-shopping....got some spoons.....or spoon rests I think..... One dollar a piece, bit pricey for spoons....but I think I may be able to split each of them into three items.....and I like this picture of them i just took anyway.

Tomorow I am going to take the fancy camera for a run again, I want to try some photoshop versions of the clock stuff....Need bigger files to play with might see if I can blow them up and print them.

These are in the growing list of things that make me smile.....



I thought it would be Warmer....

Here in hell with a messy house and no picture done....whoops.... The enormity of the task kind of got the better of me....and about six o'clock it was starting to do my head in.

Luckily it was shortly after that, that the tipping point came...That wonderful feeling that you have just crossed into that, 51% done area....The downhill run has begun.

So the only non shuffling shit from one place to the other is......

A bit of work with a dremel and some solder, and a plain zippo gets some nerd cred. So not a very creative day, but I found and older picture I did, and I might take another shot at it and get it right this time.

So an early night, bit lonely, but early, and off to Bathurst as early as I can, Doctors appointment for more happy pills, a quick trip to the hardware shop for spray paint and pick up my gorgeous children.