artisticsnessesses

Occasionally I crack out the paintbrushes and canvasses and have a good go at unleashing my inner artist.

Here's a sample of my dabbles with the brush :))

The three paintings above are miniatures, approximately 20cm square. I really enjoyed working on a small scale. All three are self-portraits (with alot of artistic license) meant to represent three aspects of my depressive funk I was in at the time.

 Just some pen and inks from my sketch pad...

 This is meant to be my dog, Bettie...I haven't finished colouring her in yet. I think I'll get her tattoed on me.

A gypsy woman

Crazy House Parties!!

 Okay, so I've lived with my housemate Jess for about 2 years now, and we are the PARTY QUEENS of Canberra. We love to party and we live to party :)) Here for your general amusement is documented some of the great times we had. We've had at least 3 shows in our backyard with bands. The craziest of all was my birthday part where we had TEN bands play. Always, the mosh mattress makes an appearance hahaha

 Below is the infamous GO-KARTING night. We built a go-kart out of an old skateboard and a Coles crate and bombed the hill (exempt I had a broken ankle at the time so could only watch...)

Above and below is the BIG party with the ten band line up...

On my birthday, that particular night we had over 100 people in our yard, but its okay cos we charged em $5 each to get in :)) It was minus 4 degrees that night and we all froze our arses off around some small measley fires, but it was worth it for the good memories.

CRAZY CRAZY PARTY TIMES.

Junk I Got Overseas/ JunkBot's Kitchen

 I got a couple of puppets in Thailand and Burma. This is a Thai Angel. It hangs in the corner of my room off the curtain rail.

 I found this little beauty on the streets of Tokyo! What an awesome souvineer. I love it.

This is the poodle I bought in Paris at the flea market. Its a wind up toy that plays a song and the ears move and the tail wags and the mouth/eyes open and shut. I bought it from a man who must have been in his 80s or 90s (or a 60 year old who'd had a really hard life) and he told me its from the 1950s. Poodles are so Parisian :)

I'm not just all about junk either. I looove to cook. Here's the recipe I came up with last week. A stir fry of silken tofu, egg and tomato on rice. It is delicious.

Basically you stir fry the tofu, tomato and egg in a lovely mixture of garlic, dried chillis, soy sauce, fish sauce, shaoxing cooking wine and a drizzle of sesame oil. Yuuuummmmm. Serve on rice.

Thanks for reading :)

Bedroom Junk Pt2: Free Junk

 Is there anything better than being given or finding random exciting and unique objects d'art?! This blog post is a sample of the things that have been given to me, or I have gotten for FREE. This wooden ship's helm barometer was given to me by my Dad. He is absolutely in love with it, and it used to hang in the kitchen of my Mum and Dad's house, but the Mum renovated the kitchen and she didn't want this kitschy piece ruining the effect of marble bench tops and steel appliances so she made Dad put it out in the shed. I promised him it would find a good home with me and would take pride of place in my house! I love it. The barometer doesn't work anymore, but it looks fantastic.

 When my ex-boyfriends grandfather died, we were told we could take anything in his apartment that hadn't already been packed into boxes. I really really had to struggle to hide my excitement, and not go too nuts out of respect for the deceased, but boy did I pick up some fantastic stuff. This old ceramic water jug, rimmed with gold paint, for example. It looks so beautiful filled with fresh flowers.

 This toy 'Saturday Night Fever' toy was given to me by one of my close friends! It's still unopened in the box and on the back of the box it has cheesy 'pick up lines' of this 1970s lothario. Hilarious.

 The same friend (who is a toy collector, mostly Star Wars) gave me these Star Wars toys. They date to late 70s, but aren't in good enough condition to resell. They look cute on my shelf though! One toy collectors junk is a junk collectors treasure!!

 These Beswick ceramic birds were another great find in my ex-boyfriend's deceased grandfathers house. He had this amazing HUGE 3 bedroom apartment overlooking Manly beach in Sydney. It was chockers with potentially valuable antiques, but out of respect I only took a few items. Turns out these sparrows are worth quite a bit of money. I ebay searched Beswick ceramics and collectors are buying them for over $100 per piece. A really amazing find.

I adore this print. I found it near the skips at my local shops, about to be thrown out and it is in perfect condition! I spent 6 months travelling through Asia in 2008/2009 and this print reminds me of those travels, lazy days on islands, sleeping in wooden huts, drinking out of coconuts and swimming in crystal clear oceans.

Part of being a hoarder is the sentimental attachments you get to items which might mean nothing to somebody else. I am not (yet) one of those really gross hoarders you see on television. As soon as I get too much clutter I will do a ruthless clean out and usually I don't miss the items I throw away. I also often give things to friends. A while ago I gave a friend of mine a scarf printed with cowboys, spurs and horses. I was pleasantly surprised when a few months later she gave it back to me for my birthday sewn into a pencil case!! I'd forgotten about the scarf until then, but what a great way to give old junk a new lease of life.

My Housemates

Thanks for your interest in my junk :) Ok so people have been asking how I have enough room to store all this junk!! The answer is, with some difficulty. Our house is quite cluttered. At the moment I'm pretty lucky, me and three other lovely people share a crumbling old 1930s house in one of Canberra's oldest (and richest) suburbs right near the city. It costs us $650 per week, so around $165 each. Which is why I'm so poor...because I'm on a measly student scholarship. But life is quite good. and I'm also lucky enough to have the biggest bedroom, which is about 3 times the size of a normal sized bedroom, which I share with my dog Bettie who sleeps on the end of my bed.

Luckily my housemates seem to like my crap collection. In fact, my housemates Jess and Dan both collect too! Jess (with the blue hair) loves Hello Kitty and random op shop finds, tack and kitsch. Dan collects comics and books about anarchism. Jess is a hairdresser and Dan is a bus driver.

Today Dan got told off for playing metal music too loud while driving the bus. He was quite chuffed because it made him feel like Otto from The Simpsons.

Today Jess found this great spirits bottle in a handmade wooden case, and there are four small shot glasses in the base! A great addition to our junk collection.

So as you can see, my housemates are very supportive of my eccentricities and clutter. We get along quite well (besides the mess) and bond over our mutual interests of punk rock, tattoos, beer and life in the 'Bra (Canberra, Australia).

Bedroom Junk Pt1

 This globe is one of my treasured possessions as it came from my Gran's house before it got demolished to build apartments. It can be dated to approximately 1950s. I have had it for quite a few years and spent quite a few hours looking at it and dreaming of all the places I wanted to see.

 1950s bride doll. In ok condition. This was my mother's only doll as a child, she apparently was more into books than toys.

 Another couple of treasures. The cuckoo clock was a gift from my Gran in the early 1980s after she got back from playing tournament tennis in Switzerland. It has been on my bedroom wall (or shelf, as it i currently situated) nearly all my life. It is broken at the moment. The girl on the swing used to bob up and down and a little bluebird chirped the hour.

The camera is a 1960s Olympus Trip 35, valued at over $100, but I wouldn't sell it because it still takes excellent pictures and its another family pass me down.

I love collecting photos. I have bags and bags of them and keep my favourites on display. This is one of my absolute favourites, a picture of my Dad in his hometown of Greenwich Connecticut in the early 60s. The plaid pants/striped shirt combo is garish even in black and white, teamed with horn-rimmed glasses! Classic.

This is the ultimate in kitsch. An African baby sitting on a banana that is a money box and thermometer. This is the type of stuff I would have hoards and hoards of if I had enough dollars to be a serious collector. This was actually a 'found' item, left behind at my house by a housemate who I hated so I kept it. Its probably 1950s/60s by estimation and would be easy to resell, but I'm a bit too keen on it.

Stay tuned for more Bedroom Junk! There are loads and loads more little treasures to talk about. Sorry about the quality of the pics, the lighting is terrible because I've got two blown bulbs which I haven't got around to replacing :/

Coast Junk Shop 2010

Who wants ceramic figurines in the shape of a man and woman iron?! ME. Alas on this particular junk  (antique) shop mission I was flat broke so a photo of the desired treasures would have to suffice.

These photos are from a junk shop on the Southeast coast of Australia. I cannot walk past junk stores or flea markets. I have been to junk stores and flea markets all over the world and agonized over all the shit I can't afford. But I also collect FOUND items. I FOUND a vintage geisha kewpie doll on the streets of Tokyo and a Hello Kitty dressed as a cat (ironic) on the street in Kyoto. In Paris I was lucky enough to spend a few hours in one of the biggest flea markets in Europe! I splashed out there and bought a 1950s wind up toy poodle. The best souvineers are junk souvineers. On the occasion documented above I had no money, so I bonded with a few of the local rainbow lorikeets. Aren't they beautiful? :)))

pretty flamingos

I am a bit of a hoarder. I am trying to cut down on the junk accumulated, but there are some things that really make me happy and I'll probably be recording them on here and telling the stories behind the crap I collect. This first photo is of my vintage garden flamingo (I have two) among a display of fake flowers which I set up myself! I like styling and interior design as a hobby, but I'm a little too poor (and messy) to ever take it too seriously. My bedroom looks a lot more like a dusty museum of odd bits and trinkets. One day when I own my own house it will look nicer because I'll hire a cleaning lady to look after me and my six dogs (I only have one right now). My dog is the love of my life. Her name is Bettie Mae.