Better crumbs and the lady lamp

I had another go at the crumb blocks. And I don't know if it was because I was in the mood for it, or if I changed my method slightly, but it was fun! And slightly addictive. I made about forty 6 1/2" blocks ... no idea what I'll use them for of course. But that's OK. And there doesn't seem to be any appreciable dent in the box of bits. In fact it seems to be fuller - they were all scrunched flat and I've fluffed them up with my trawling and grabbing. 

I think it was easier this time around because I embraced the diagonal and didn't worry about waste - just chopped it off and chucked it in the bin. Or back in the scrap box! No wonder it didn't get any lower.

Do you like my lilies from Costco? I do like Costco because I am a keen shopper, and it has so much, so much, so much to buy in such wonderful big big big sizes. I've learned not to buy the 1.5 kg bag of chocolate chips (much better quality than homebrand and much cheaper) because I EAT THEM ALL. No self control. And the queues are smaller than the supermarket and you can park closer. Although I do go mid-week.

And do you like the naked lady lamp? I do, although I didn't choose it, my husband did. Back when we first moved to Canberra in 1994, and I didn't have a job, so we were living off his salary - and he had car repayments and a mortgage on a beach house and insurance and superannuation before we even started paying for rent and food for the two of us ... it wasn't fun.

And we had no furniture at all. My husband had been a single guy in a share house before the posting to New Zealand so owned a ratty chest of drawers, a single bed and an ex-government desk. I had two shelves of books, a queen-size duvet and a sewing machine. We rented a little house in the suburbs and haunted the second hand furniture stores trying to pull together enough to stop us looking like derelict squatters. And it wasn't fun. It wasn't vintage, retro, shabby chic or upcycling. It was wading through crap up to your armpits. It was poor quality, grubby, impractical and smelly. There were definite low points. We bought a new fridge on hire purchase and had to ask my parents-in-law to make the second repayment because we couldn't. And I spent my husband's commemorative 50 cent piece collection on groceries to get us through the last 48 hours before payday.

So the point of my story? While we were scouring for second-hand furniture my husband thought it was a good idea to spend about $300 on a naked lady lamp. And now, nearly twenty years of lady-lamp enjoyment later, I can say with confidence that he was right - it was a great idea.