Jeff's bird feeding pays off

Another nice interesting bird in the garden, thanks to Jeff's long term project of hanging bird bells. This one is a crimson rosella. When they are adults, they are lovely crimson and blue, but when they are immature, they are dull green. This one is right in between! So it's a teenager.

Rather a lot of PSX Rubber Stamps for sale

So, what is your latest project, Mrs Laing?

I'm glad you asked.

I recently agreed to help a friend move on the last of her HUGE stamp collection. I decided that on line selling would work best for me, so that's where you will find the sale. Here is the link to my actual items. If you don't see any items when you click, that probably just means I'm preparing more.

So, how huge is HUGE? Well, here's a photo of the boxes in my garage. As you can see, there's a bunch of boxes, and each box contains, let's say, quite a few stamps. So a bunch times quite a few is ... umm... lots.

The boxes are roughly themed. The boxes I have already listed are :
- Botanical
- Garden
- Halloween

and boxes still to come include Floral, Fruit and Vegies, Trees, Roses, Frames, Bears (oh my goodness, then there's still more).

And here's one example to whet your appetite. It's a gorgeous PSX rose garden scene, code number K2521. It's a rare and beautiful stamp (I have had my own copy of this one for some years, and it's one of my treasures).
















And I went looking to see if I had a photo of a card I'd made with it. Couldn't find one, but here's a similar one! How nice.

Here's the link to the blog about the sale...

And here's the link to the sale itself ...

Happy Father's Day Jeff!

Happy Father's day Jeff! I made a cute little card ... it features BUNKY THE ART SPARROW, now in small form and with a die to cut him out! It also features a stamp that looks like washi tape. I have plenty of washi tape, but I'm really drawn to the fake stamp that looks like it.

How craft skills will save you time and money

Having craft tools around, and the skills to use them, can save you so much money. So much.

Like, if you had a 2x2 Rubik's cube, and some of the stickers were a bit damaged, what would you do. Throw it out?

Not me. I used colourful cardstock, a square punch, glue and satin varnish to make it as good as new!

Well, Thomas was pleased.

One thing I've learned about gardening...

... is that it's probably best to let carrots grow in rather a DEEP pot.

You're still in time for the Hot Chocolate Festival

Did you know there's a Chocolaterie in the Yarra Valley? Well, there is. Yarra Valley Chocolaterie will serve you a better than average hot chocolate any day of the week, and if you can get out without buying a treat to take home, you're a better woman (or man) than I.

Right now (August 2013) is the Hot Chocolate Festival. They have 31 special flavours, and you get to vote on your favourite. They've organised it to be seven flavours every seven days, so no danger of finding the one flavour you didn't like being the only thing on the menu. We've had two visits - we have a learner driver in the family (who has to fill in a log book with 120 hours of proper supervised driving practice), and she thinks a one hour drive, then chocolate, then a one hour drive is a morning well spent.

I had Lemon Myrtle in week 1. Oh wow. Lemon Myrtle is a bush food you need to get into your repertoire, it's fabulous.

That's a shot of melted milk chocolate next to it, and a handmade marshmallow.

Jeff recommends the mint...

While Catriona favours Cookies and Cream.

That was week 1.

In week 2 we had macadamia (amaaazingly good), mocha (big coffee hit, apparently) and jaffa (never fails to be a good combo). No photos that time.

And this weekend, it's week 3, but our driver is busy singing and dancing. Shall we have driving practice without her?

You must become a John Finnemore fan!

Who's the funniest comedy writer working today? Why, it's John Finnemore! If you want a treat on your iPod, you should hunt down Cabin Pressure, and Souvenir Programme.  Cabin Pressure is a sit com based at a tiny airline. It stars the now-very-famous Benedict Cumberbatch, but of course when it started, he was just part of the talented ensemble. And Souvenir Programme is a sketch show, featuring some of the cleverest and funniest sketches I've ever heard. There's one about grasshoppers, honestly, cleverest thing ever, but you'll have to work up to it.

Here's a link to the first episode of Cabin Pressure, and here's one for Souvenir Programme.

And here is a link to Mr Finnemore's own blog, a terrific read (his descriptions of procrastinating at the British Library when he's supposed to be writing are particularly worthwhile).

And here ... this is good ... is a sketch he wrote, and wasn't able to use in the new Souvenir Programme, so he kindly gave it to all of us.

And here are my twins, Jonathan (left) and Thomas (right) performing the sketch after dinner. I was amazed at how it came to life in performance. Even though I'd read it, I giggled myself silly! And anything that gets 15 year old boys away from the computer is a good thing.

So thanks for a lot of laughs, Mr Finnemore, and get back to that next writing thing you were supposed to be working on.