Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well Kids, the lights are up. the gifts are under the tree and Bing is crooning softly in the background. It's been a very long year and I think its time to put my feet up with a magazine and a glass of something bubbly. 

I just want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for popping by and indulging me this little bit of the universe. A wise man once said to a friend of mine, upon commenting on the size of his ute ,

"It's a big country baby".

and with that I leave you until the new year!

toodle pip!

my creative space

I've been avoiding putting up Christmas decorations for weeks because frankly, I am not the most vigilant of mothers and Freddy is a most adventurous lad with a penchant for placing perfectly round, chokey sized things in his mouth and other orifices. Ada was getting a bit fed up with me and kept making her own decorations to cheer the place up a bit, so yesterday while she was at Crèche I set about making some Christmas bling that the youngest lion fruit couldn't asphyxiate himself on.

BEHOLD a flat Christmas tree wall hanging with appliqué, problem solved!.

I used cookie cutters as my templates for the decorations and just cut the Christmas tree shapes by hand out of some artist canvas. I sewed the tree bits to the big flat bit, frayed the edges of the tree and ran some bias tape down the sides of the whole thing. on went the appliqués, a couple more seems at the top and bottom to run a couple of dowels through and BAM, Flat Christmassy goodness of the non chokey variety!

dog days

I have a stray dog in my backyard, an excitable little brindle thing with short legs and a head shaped like a pumpkin. I shouldn't have a dog in my backyard, my yard should be dog free. Norman is at the vet's becoming a eunuch and, while I was quite looking forward to not having to pick up dog poo for a day, things never pan out quite the way you plan do they? This dog was making himself quite at home until about an hour ago when he started vigorously dry humping my leg; now he's outside looking at me rather forlornly through the back windows. I took a picture but dogs with heads shaped like pumpkins do not make for particularly attractive subjects.  Thankfully 'pumpkin head' has a tag with his owners phone number on it, now I just have to brave the vigorous dry humping to get close enough to call. At least Norman won't be in the mood for dry humping when he gets home.

flea market finds

The Flea Market Faeries have been most generous with me this week, with lot's of goodies popping up for mere pennies. Two vintage tablecloths (including the one on the table), two ace plastic and cane baskets (I heart these BIG TIME). A roll of groovy floral wallpaper ('groovy' omg kill me now, that word belongs in a museum not in blogland), a teeny tiny, Delft teacup and a 70's Fisher Price Activity centre (didn't everybody have one of these?). The thing that most impressed me with this weeks goodies is that the grand total only came to $19 (hello, bargain!) and, I found a $20 in one of my old handbags (see I told you the Flea Faeries were on my side) completely guilt free flea hunting.

for more thrifty shenanigans pop over to the mistress of vintage, Sophie from Her Library Adventures.

I heart my Print Gocco!

I've spent some 'free' time the last week experimenting with my Gocco, printing and designing some Christmas cards and just playing around. I'm relatively happy with the end result but for future reference I will definitely choose a better quality card stock. I found the results where a bit hit and miss when printing onto the smooth almost glossy card stock, but a matt and more absorbent paper achieved a much better result. 

I'm not to sure where the inspiration for a fat little sumo/babushka girl in snow gear and with dear horns came from, but she's a bit 'seasonal' without being over the top (whatever that means?) and I like her non the less.

I'm off to make Christmas decorations next, what are you making for Christmas this year?

animation friday.....

I'm feelin' a bit 'sunny side up' today so I thought my friday gif shenanigans should reflect that. There's nothing like the bright yellow face of an egg and a pot of tea to cheer you up in the morning.

For more animated goodness or to join in the fun pop over to visit My Poppet for an easy peasy tutorial.

Happy Mikasa!

I love vintage Mikasa a very lot. I also love receiving gifts and getting things in the mail so today when this lovely sugar bowl and creamer arrived I was a little bit tickled. Zigsma from Ope Shope Hope has been trying to win me over with gifts as part of her bid for the 2018 soccer world cup and if this the sort of stuff us delegates can expect to be showered with then she gets my vote...ehem

Thank You very much Zigsma! 

I'm now really keen to try and replace my whole dinner set with this range, its called 'Saffron' on account of the saffron yellow glaze one can assume. Keep your eye's peeled people, EYES PEELED! 

on another bent, the venerable Carmel from Make Mine Mid Century has nominated me for a Cherry on top award YAY! (she thinks I'm clever).

The award requires me to list 3 things I like...only three things, this could be difficult. Then forward the award on to four other worthy blogs in need of some sweet cherry recognition.

so here goes, three things I like.

1. Sonny and the Sunsets, this song in particular. This album will be my soundtrack to summer, because everyone needs one of those.

2. Home made lemon cordial. With plentiful lemons and thirsts to be quenched, I will be making loads of this sunny elixir this summer. 

image via here

3. This skirt for Christmas. Pockets, pleats and buttons, LOVE IT.

image via here

I'm tagging 

Sophie from Shine Little Light because there's always so much going on in that head of hers.

Zigsma from Ope Shope Hope because we have the same birthday and she gives me stuff (thanks peeps)

Woolfe from Woolfenbell because she was one of the first to read my blog and everyone knows Belgians are kind of crazy.

and last but not least

Stella from The Golden Adventures of a very dark horse because I love her blog and her shop Frank and Dean and because she illustrated my blog header.

nighty night peeps

x

a flea market find

Ada is into Super Heroes. I'm not sure how this came about because it's not something Andrew or I talk about and she's never watched commercial television (we like to avoid ads). But, somewhere in her short little life she has developed a fondness for Batman and Superman. I was particularly tickled to find this 1960's Batman poster from the market on the weekend for a very tiny sum. It's quite large (110cm x 90cm) and a bit banged up and has been pinned on a wall for the last 40+ years but it has loads of character, is beautifully screen printed and has a real pop art vibe with all the shading made up of lots of tiny dots. Iv'e had to undertake a bit of minor restoration and will probably need to get it linen backed if I want it to last but I think it's a worthy cause. the only problem now is that I want it in the living room and Ada wants it in her bedroom.....hmmm

For more adventures in thrifting pop over to Her Library Adventures.

my creative space

I don't have a lot of available mental space for writing this week. Freddy is cutting four teeth at once, bringing the sum total to TWELVE (that's a lot of teeth for a one year old) and sleep is being taken in short hour and a half bursts (torture).  Beside catching up on a mountain of folding (worst job in the world) I have managed to sit down and start making some Christmas gifts. These are miniature rag rugs in the making. I'm thinking they will make fabulous coasters, but they also might look good as a crafty tree decoration, no? They really are quick and simple to make and they use up lot's of sewing room scraps so they're a bit of a favourite in my house at the moment.

When I get my mojo back I'll write up a quick tutorial........this would be good, yes?

For more creative spaces pop over to Kootoyoo for a squiz.

flea market finds

My grandparents had chairs like these when I was a kid. They sat in my grandfathers wood turning shed covered in sawdust and then every Christmas they would be hauled out and dusted off, ready for a hoard of bums to plant themselves and gorge on the once a year feast. I remember they smelt strongly of timber and wood putty and you always ended up with little bits of sawdust sticking to the backs of your legs or getting caught in your spaghetti sandals.

For more flea market finds pop over to visit Sophie at Her Library Adventures.

On a slightly different note, Freddy's party was a smashing success (if you can judge the success of a kids party by the amount of chocolate crackles squished into the carpet). Thanks for all your your well wishes! 

My Darling Boy

It's Freddy's first birthday tomorrow and we're throwing him a big party with lots of friends and family to celebrate. I'm a bit flat out today, I have to make a big cake (and the toilet still needs cleaning) but I think I might actually be organised for a change. I've been preparing all week and we've had lots of fun making the decorations, the hard part will be bringing it all together tomorrow morning......

for more Animation Friday fun pop over to My Poppet.

I finally got around to posting a picture of the bolster cushion I made for our bed on the weekend. Bad light in the bedroom made it impossible to photograph on the actual bed so here it is on the couch. It looks much spiffier nestled amongst a pile of pillows with yellow, white and brown, vintage pillow cases but those are the breaks. 

I've been flat out the last couple of days preparing for Freddy's first birthday party this weekend. Party bags, games, cakes, food and decorations require quite a bit of work when your trying to do it on the cheap and your not sure how many people are actually coming. Numbers for first birthday party's are not usually a big deal, except when you married the youngest of 14, then it's a HUGE problem.

Unknown quantities aside, I'm really looking forward to celebrating my little guy's first year. 

how very velvet

almost done...............

Just a few more things to do and my big fat olive green cushion will be complete. Its nice to finish things, it happens so rarely in my house. Hopefully, if the light is good tomorrow I can take a reasonable picture. I might even get a couple of flea market finds photographed, I had some good scores this week and I'm itching for a bit of 'show and tell'.

oh so long......

I finally bought myself an overlocker a couple of weeks ago. A nice vintage Janomelock I found on ebay, in excellent condition except for a missing power cable and foot peddle. After a bit of ringing around I found a repair man who thought he might have one 'in a box somewhere'. After a couple of days searching (and a couple of days in the post) the cables finally arrived yesterday and, with the help of Cintia and her sewing machine know how, I've been over-locking myself silly ever since.

First off the rank were a couple of sewing machine covers, then I tackled a dress alteration for Ada and I'm currently in the middle of some new cushions for the couch, olive green velvet with hot pick buttons...tre sexy, yes? 

There really is nothing quite like having a new toy.

my creative space

I thought I would drag out the water colours and indulge in a little video game fun. Tetris is not exactly fine art, but it has given me an idea for a quilt for Freddy's room..........not that I have time to quilt.

for more more creative spaces pop over to kootoyoo

the toy apocalypse

I'm doing battle against an invading army of toys at the moment. blocks, trains, dolls and dress up's have successfully found their way into every room in the house and I can't take a step without tripping over a toy pram or treading on a wooden block. I feel overwhelmed already but with Freddy's first birthday just a couple of weeks away I fear this toy army may just swell ranks enough to make a successful takeover bid. 

In a desperate attempt to survive the coming toy apocalypse I have begun pre-emptive strikes, throwing anything currently not being played with, nor likely to be played with into plastic bags and sending them down to the local Op shop. I've also taken the opportunity to address the toy storage issue and sorted all the kids toys into old suitcases, they look cute, are super easy to lug around and keep everything well and truly contained. I'm thinking of adding a few picture labels to the suitcase handles to help the kids with putting away their own toys. Imagine that, kids that picked up after themselves, they might even teach their Dad.

Video: Warpaint, "Elephants"

Hey Look! we've got a new 'do'!

Stella from The Golden Adventures of.....a very dark horse has gone and put her exceptionally talented pen to paper and illustrated the new curbside style blog header. I've always wanted the blog header to be more artistic and indicative of the blog and I think Stella's illustration really captures the spirit of curbside style.  Stella's beautiful illustrations can be found adorning lot's of lovely stationary over at Frank & Dean's  illustationary shop, the cottage industry she runs with her sister Rosa-May. I'm especially fond of the A Message to April postcard set and the Birthday Calendar, but you should also check out both ladies awesome custom (that's right 'custom) illustrations. These girls create absolutely beautiful illustrations and they are so reasonably priced it would make a fabulous gift idea.

a message to April postcard

pages from the Frank & Dean birthday calendar

All images belong to Stella Rutherford and Rosa-May Rutherford.

All works can be purchased through Frank & Dean.

flea market finds

For the first time in weeks I actually had a couple of good oppy finds. A little teak bust and a cool 1970's plastic globe that will replace the one the kids destroyed last week. Wooden sculpture, mid century primitive art and globes are some of my favourite things to hunt for when I'm scouring op shops or markets. I admit that the demand for globes adds to the excitement. Their scarcity and desirability adds to the appeal, you feel a bit like you've struck vintage gold when you snag a good one.

For more flea market finds pop over and visit Sophie at Her Library Adventures.

Raining on the Festival of Lights

Image from here

Image from here

Image from here

Image from here

 Image from here
 

We were meant to head into Federation Square with some friends of Mr Curbside to join in on the Diwali festivities today. Food, music, dancing and lots of childrens entertainment had us all pumped for a really exciting family day out, but alas the rain came down and with it our chance to celebrate the Hindu new year with some Indian friends. So, in lieu of all the fabulous photos I'm sure I would have taken to share with you today, here are a bunch of Diwali pic's from Flickr. 

animation friday....

I'm running a bit late today, thankfully I had some coloured card stock and paper doily's on hand or I would have been without subject matter or indeed a blog post.

For more animation Friday fun and a quick and easy tutorial, pop on over the the My Poppet blog.

Le vagabond

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, author of The Vagabond

I'm on a bit of a book bender this week. Our order of books has arrived from the Book Depository and I'm sinking my teeth into The Vagabond by Colette. Celebrating it's hundredth year, this classic novel is so rich in period detail it's like jumping in a time machine and finding yourself in Paris with a glass of absinthe in one hand and a Gitane (Frenchy cigarette) in the other, smack bang in the middle of les Années Folles or 'The Crazy Years'. Loosely based on the experiences of the author, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.The Vagabond tells the story of 33 year old Renee Nere - a once renowned author who divorces her wealthy, philandering husband and makes her own way as a vaudeville performer in the Dance Halls of Paris circa 1910.

"Beneath the greenish gas, my street at this hour is a creamy mess of burnt almond, mocha brown, and caramel yellow, a desert that has caved in and melted, with the nougat of the building stones floating on top."

yummy.........

Now imagine what her apartment might have looked like? 

I came across this story a couple of months ago. A Paris apartment lays untouched for more than 70 years. Originally owned by actress Marthe de Florian and later lived in by her granddaughter, the apartment is closed up just before the start of the second world war when the owner moved to the south of France. The apartment remained unopened until her death in June this year. When the estate auctioneers were brought in to catalog the place, this is what they found.

Louis Chairs, oriental rugs, gilt mirrors, hand screened wallpapers.....gasp

Look at all those paintings and the tableware

Micky Mouse, Embroidered Silk and a taxidermy Ostrich, brilliant!

and the painting of Marthe de Florian by Giovani Boldini that originally caused all the fuss. This painting recently sold for $2.9 million.

I hope that they don't sell this apartment or doing anything to it. I would love to be able to go and see it for myself. I wonder if the French have a National Trust? For now though, I will have to let Colette guide my imagination.

Sing it Sister......

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain

five books I wish I had never read and five books I wish I had read instead.

image from here

Sometimes spring cleaning forces you to have a good hard look at yourself, or in this case, my reading material. In preparation for a wave of new books due to arrive from The Book Depository in the UK (Mr Curbside has been on a bit of a bender) we've been cleaning out the bookshelves and doing a bit of 'library editing'. Deciding what stays and what goes is usually quite difficult, but this time the job was made much simpler because some truly awful crap had made it's way into my personal collection. Now I must point out that not all of these books were purchased by me and that not all were read in their entirety, this is important because I don't want their inclusion to be considered a reflection of my personal taste, ehem.......

so here goes, the FIVE worst books I have read or almost read and five books I wish I had read instead.

Number 1, The Bride Striped Bare by 'Anonymous', I'll admit to getting caught up in the hype of this book. Described as "telling shocking truths about love and sex" and being "so deeply private" that "I did not want my name attached to it". This book was supposed to be a very personal account of a relationship, but turned out to be a brilliantly marketed, poorly written, gratuitous 'diary' of a very sad woman with poor impulse control. Not worth the $24.95 I paid for it and definitely not worth the time spent reading it.
Book I should have read instead, Perfume, The Story of a Murder by Patrick Suskind

Number 2, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This book started off well enough, I'll even admit to enjoying it and getting caught up in the whole conspiracy theory thing but somewhere in the middle it just degenerated into an Indiana Jones type farce and I lost interest. Disappointing because it started off so well and thus the let down was all the greater.
Book I should have read instead, The Road by Cormac McCarthy


Number 3, The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, I'm Including all four books as one entry because they are barley distinguishable and frankly would have taken up 4 of the five entries because I truly regret reading them all. I could probably write a very long winded thesis about the many ways that this series of books corrodes the very fabric of society. A series that parades itself as a big, juicy, forbidden love apple is actually a reeking pile of submissiveness, self destruction and apathy. Never have I met a central character I have loathed more than the insipid 'Bella'. Also any author who calls a character 'Renesmee' should have their pen license removed.
Book I should have read instead, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel by Susanna Clark

Number 4, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, (I did not buy this, it was a gift and I have not read it all).  I am an atheist so I was never going open this book with an un-biased mind. I was however incredibly curious about the philosophy this book was selling. The power of positive thought is a nice and harmless idea, but the idea that you can have everything you want just by thinking positively is dangerous, idiotic and un-true. Rhonda Byrne would have more credibility if she sold snake oil as a cure for cancer in-front of a children's hospital.
Book I should have read instead, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Number 5, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This one just didn't do it for me. I got about half way through, put it down and couldn't spare the energy to pick it up again.
Book I should have read instead, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

What do you think of my 'list o' regret'? Do you have any books you really wish you had never picked up?

and the winner is............

comment number 33!

Congratulations Bek of Beards Foxes Fires I hope you enjoy your new blanket, bag and bees wax candle. Bek if you can email me with your address I will shoot your parcel off asap. 

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was lovely to get such a great response, I'm really enjoying all the new comments on the blog.

flea market finds of the year!

Ghetto Blaster

Beach Umbrella

Wicker Saucer Chair

Woolly Blankets

Crocodile Suitcase and Bally Shoes 

Vintage Linen 

Sophie from Her Library Adventures is hosting Flea Market Finds of THE YEAR! today, whoohoo! I love an opportunity to brag and since I'm nursing a mean Szechuan hangover from a night out full of good folks, good food and some awesome live music, I thought I would just show you a bunch of photos of my favourites so far.

The first half of the year provided a bumper flea market harvest but recent  weeks are proving less than satisfying. I haven't had a truly brilliant score for a while and I'm suffering what might be described as 'crap withdrawals'. I took Ada out for lunch today and we hit two different markets and I didn't see a single thing that I wanted. This melancholic behaviour is not like me at all, could it be that I am becoming more....dare I say it......'discerning'? Probably not.

Don't forget to enter my BLOGTOBER GIVEAWAY, last chance as I will be drawing that sucker tomorrow!

Animation Friday - how did I forget about you?

I found this old library card file at a garage sale about 5 years ago and that's about how long it's been sitting in my shed full of redundant CD's. I hadn't given it a second thought until I came across this before and after over at Design Sponge. My little file is not so large nor so glamorous, but it is really cute and it does deserve better than being hidden away in an old shed stuffed with 80's power ballads and more 90's 'grunge' than any self respecting individual should own up to.

For more animation Friday and a quick and easy tutorial pop on over to My Poppet.

Huh, what happend?

Im not sure what happened yesterday, but it appears I missed a blog post....whoops!

I spent day with Cintia making knitting needle bangles ( it was like cooking rainbow spaghetti) and eating coconut bundt cake. Cintia has a new 50mm camera lens and wandered around the house snapping little vignettes like a vintage paparazzo, which is good because otherwise I would have absolutely nothing to show you today!

I can only get a couple of the pictures to load for some reason so you'll just have to be happy with some rosemaling folk art plates and a ball of string, don't say I never give you anything!

Speaking of giving stuff away, don't forget to enter my Blogertoberfest giveaway! I'm going to draw it on Monday the 25th of October to you have 4 days left to get yourself some goodies.

That's it for me today, I've got an hour before I need to pick Ada up from Crèche and there are three new magazines sitting on my bedside table that have yet to have there glossy pages soiled, hello Real Living, Frankie and Vogue Living. With the weather so deliciously warm and fuzzy I'm going to perch myself under the apple trees in the back yard with Freddy and a cup of tea and get my mag fix for the month.

peace out fellow clutter hounds. 

smartie pants

Ada and I re-discovered' this old Smarties ad in a 1951 copy of Woman's Day magazine today. We were cutting it up to make some paper bunting for a coming birthday when Ada spied the delightful ad for 'lovely lollies' as the young miss called it. I say 're-discovered' because I had glimpsed it a year ago while undertaking the exact same activity and then completely forgot about it. I love coming across  full page ads in vintage magazines.It's lovely to look at products from a time when a less cynical philosophy to advertising was used and when pen and ink ruled to the page. I know Madmen probably makes my comment about mid century advertising being 'less cynical' seem ridiculous but compared to the way mass advertising works now, they were amateurs and this stuff is therefore lovely and even mildly innocent.

not all Step Mothers are evil.........

some make you delicious passion fruit  sponges for your birthday, with pots of hot tea. They even take your kids for walks to feed the chooks, while you doze in front of the wood fire with your pants un-buttoned and a small dog licks cake crumbs from your cheek. Some Step Mothers are AWESOME!