Never on a Sunday.....

No projects today as it was market day....A very slow day at the markets.... I was even in danger of spending more than I made, but a few sales late in the day put me in the black...  and I got another boxed vectrex and games, which is a bit like money in the bank...stupid impulse purchase of the day....old mannequin.... disturbingly now wearing a star trek uniform, and also need to find it a place to stand where it stops scaring the crap outta me when I forget it is there....

Worried I will have taken it too far if i stick a phaser in his hand. Going to throw myself into sorting mode for the next couple of days, the house is stressfully disorganised...to the point where it's a bit embarrassing. So weather dependant projects aside, sort toss and sell is the plan for this week....

Hard rubbish days are the devil!!!! I need a project intervention, or at least a picking up junk patch....Got some items that I am really not sure about, or at least not sure what to do with them yet items. I will just focus on the items I have a clear vision for first, and maybe that will help me come up with a plan for the other pieces....

Life on Mars.....

Only one project today....in that lazy mood that strikes before a Sunday market... Quick sand and clean-up and a bit of oil and elbow action, and if you wander into the hall drunk you will get the feeling you are back in 1974....

Framed!!!!.....

Spring came and went....It is frosty today....So I switched to indoor projects, well I switched to sitting around drinking coffee with my father, well green tea.... and started on the interesting frame I found last week.... Not a big job but a delicate one...

Getting the glass out was a delicate job, with a bit of nervous pliers work required to get at the pins that held it in. So the glass is out and clean....Didn't want to break it as it is the original glass by the look of it....So all the rusty hardware removed and the old painted finish removed from the two wood sides, sanded and ready for paint....Many years of tarnish removed from the brass sides, which took way longer than expected.

Derailed by lack of masking tape that is where the job ended today.... The big trick will be what to put in it when its done?

A Fair Exchange of Ideas.....

Maybe I should make a list of furniture that's days are numbered....There are some items in the house that scream compromise.... I am sick of so many items in this house, but financial constraints require financial restraint.

So I will continue the swap system that is working well at the moment....find new piece...sell the item it replaces. The latest furniture freebie is a sideboard thing in a Parker-esqe style, not totally in love with it, but I will clean it up and sand it down and give it a coat of danish oil... It can then replace something I don't like....

Other find of the day....an iMac G3....A bit of a design classic in its own right. Not sure what it will be, selling it doesn't appeal.... I have been doing a bit of research and upgrading it a bit is very easy... Ram is very cheap, a new hard drive and a few other tweaks and it might make a interesting media centre.

One of the mothers at school might also have the mouse and keyboard from her original one that she will give me for free....If so I will keep it and pimp it a bit....

More of the Same....

Odd weekend....Ups and downs....Finally got to go to markets and get some money...Had the ex in my house being awkward and sad....Made enough at markets to get the bills paid, now just need to get the savings back in the black....She may want the occasional weekend off but it can really play havoc with my income...I can only earn dollars on the weekend and only good dollars if the weather is v.good...Maybe I should take the same attitude about my work that she does about hers....it comes first...because it sucked being that close to broke. And the lack of $$$ slowed down buy materials for the next few projects.... A backlog that needs to be cleared fast. I have drawn up a budget for each piece and a timeline...just to make sure each is financially worthwhile, meaning will the end product sell for more than the cost of producing it? Yes it will.... Hard rubbish day has now started in Lawson, some v.good finds today, some amazing vintage frames and a great mirror stand...The mirror stand was found today but has moved up the project list to next, as I have a very good idea of what it should become...This will either work v.well or not at all, no middle ground here.

 It was a weekend full of other peoples problems derailing my plans, I am not coping well with that... But on the upside I got my first every real fathers day, with a card and present...Made me v.happy and v.sad that my Son had to be eight years old before that happened.

The side table will also be mostly done by end of the week I hope.... Got a bargain Dremel type multi tool cheap, so I can get on the de-construction part. Did a bit of a mock up to see if the look I was thinking about...So a bit of balancing a some black electrical tape and I am happy to move on to the next step...



That wont fit me....

Feeling a little uncomfortable in my own house at the moment....Markets in the morning....Not a v.productive day...not a bad day....just not real productive....Baked lunch has filled the belly and a little drawing filled the book of round things a little bit more....

Welcome to Man Land.....

Thursday's things found, a nice foam mattress that I intend to go with an electric carving knife, to fit in the back of the cruiser....4 Dining chairs.... I really don't like the 40's walnut ones I have now....The other Bose speaker (that i picked up the working one of on Monday), with a damaged cone.....and a 50's dressing table that is delightfully ugly to everyone one else, but I have a few ideas that might turn it into the newest addition to man land....

I had driven past it a few times this week, today I got out to have a look....it was a lot more attractive closer up....the veneer is about 2.5mm thick, Sycamore and walnut.... It is missing one drawer, but the removable back panel is made of the same thing as the missing drawer....Strangely it is the incompleteness of the item that has given me the idea of how to make it something more than it is....The problem is the solution....very zen.

Hump Day......

Wednesday that feels like Friday, project backlog due to cash flow problems...Markets this Sunday should set things right again, and get me the required supplies to finish a few things off.... Need spray paint and glue in large quantities.... Just like a homeless kid. Budgeting 400 for jewelry making equipment but that may need to wait till I sell some of the finished furniture items. I also like the look of the new Dremel 3 in 1. The router function would be handy....

This probably quite a sensible purchase as it would allow me to do some things that are currently to tricky with the current tools I have. Also looking at getting a regular rotary tool as well, the grinding and buffing tools would be handy and the cutting and drilling would be handy for jewelry etc...

So looks like October will be an expensive month for equipment...that's better than the reaming i got on bills in September though.

Let them eat.....

One interesting result of being skint, due to car insurance, is that I have been unable to buy convenient ready made muesli bars and their ilk....this is interesting because I have had to bake and be all Martha Stewart. So far this week i have baked three different batches of muffins, cookies and tonight a very successful Madeira cake, combined with the chopping of carrots and portioning of sultanas my children have eaten everyday.... breakfast and dinner too...this is the month stockpiling staples has paid off.... and there is cake too....

Took another spin round roadside collection day suburbia today.... Not quiet the same disturbing haul as yesterday....Luckily.

Car load of junk....Great little chesterfield ottoman, with one broken leg...today located an original ottoman with very original legs, so a little swap and one nice ottoman with the only original part on most antique footstools, the legs! Everything else tends to get replaced over the years.

Also continued my Serial Killer of Couches hobby....Took down one huge brown one for its pelt and a few smaller ones for just their feet....So I now have a big pile of leather....

.....and the streets of Hazlebrook are littered with dismembered seating....

Pointless.....

A completely pointless new post to say I have nothing to say today.