Old clothes

As part of our decluttering - prior to our downsizing - I went through a few bags of old clothes that were lurking in the back bedroom. These were things that I hadn't been able to throw away in previous purges because of their sentimental value ... they were part of the 'archive'. Well, it turns out that badly made clothes (I made them) from cheap materials don't fare very well in grotty plastic bags in the back bedroom. It was time to realise they had no inherent value, and memories don't vanish just because the clothes do. So I put them through the wash and have donated anything wearable. 

But, just to make sure that the memories live on, here are the highlights. For starters, this sunflower dress I wore from 1994 - 1996. Sunflowers were a big thing in the 1990s! Trust me. I know this dress dazzled the crowds in Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It also went to parties in our funny little rental house, with one of my dad's old brown cardies. Fashion!!!!

And Christmas in 1995 - easily dated because my sister's twins were born in October. Those are also her toddlers being wrangled. Not a great shot of anyone ... for toddler and twin reasons.

How about this fabulous paisley vest from 1990. 

Paisley was very big in 1990, as you can tell by my vest and my flatmates' shirts. This was in the early stages of a massive party we were throwing - possibly Brent or Gavin's 21st - we got a flat photo when people had arrived to take it but before everybody got unhinged. Brent was growing silverbeet by the back fence and someone vomited on it, but we never told him and the rain washed it off before he ate it. Actually before he cooked and fed it to all of us, now I think about it.

And just because I want to, an unrelated 1995 photo of a friend's wedding in Toowoomba. I remember thinking how unflattering that photo was at the time ... and now I think how pretty I am! How handsome my husband is! Aren't we lovely. And red-headed. 

Last of the abstracts

I have stuck all my abstracts to the mirror door of my cupboard, and it is now full, so time to move onto other things. But it was fun while it lasted. The two below are where you make shapes out of little marks, or doodles, or symbols. There is an amazing artist who does incredibly detailed paintings like this, but it is definitely not for me. Too fiddly.

Here is a slightly bigger one, which was enjoyable, although I used a 300 gsm rough watercolour paper and the markers don't like it as much. It's a bit harder to get an even colour.

And these were exploring other shapes, and colours and backgrounds. I love them, and will probably do more in the future, but I'm now learning acrylic painting! Time for a new set of skills (and new stuff to buy, of course, shopping is half the fun....)

A couple more Easter pics

I left the folk festival on the second to last day to go down to the beach and meet up with a friend and her family over from NZ - they were doing a road trip along the coast and stayed a couple of days at our place. It was lovely to catch up with them all, and show them my little slice of paradise :) Although NZ is very well served with its own beautiful beaches. They left early Easter Monday to drive up to Sydney to fly home, so I had a quiet day with some lovely swims (water is still amazingly warm) before back to work on Tuesday.

On my drive down on Sunday I stopped by the new house to eat a chocolate brownie quietly on the verandah (I didn't have keys). It was very tranquil. My dad is over at the moment from NZ so we took him out last weekend to get garden advice ... I also ran the vacuum over it and opened the windows and lit the fire. Not strictly necessary but important to make the effort and appease the domestic gods.

It is very lovely and the pines are super swooshy. Just a constant rustle with cows in the distance and not much else. I think tenants are moving in next week so no more drive-bys....

Easter good times

Easter brings the National Folk Festival again! After cancellations in 2020 and 2021, and then a convalescent effort in 2022, it is back and at close to full strength, so I went off for three days of folkiness. Friday was a terrible day for weather - rainy and windy - so I huddled in tents with many other old people and got muddy and sad. And nearly bogged my car in the parking field. The clouds were amazing - not so much the storms that came through in waves with full thunder and lightning. Atmospheric.

But Saturday and Sunday were much better, and I saw lots of great acts, and ate some good food. Here are old people listening to afrobeat. 

Here is Fiona Ross singing - unaccompanied - traditional Scots songs about loss, heartbreak, war, rain and being burned to death. Loved it, she made us sing along too. No idea what any of the words meant (except 'dreich' which was very apt at the time...)

Yet more abstracts

Here are some doodle paintings that don't go to the edges. The first thing I do is put down some watercolour swirls or splotches, so that can spread all over the paper, or sometimes not. And then you go adding in bits until it is finished. Not very scientific.

I went down the beach on the weekend and had a couple of lovely swims. My husband went back to the country house with a mate to see the occasional gardener guy, who will keep doing the lawns and some of the chopping / poisoning / pruning / clearing. 

He said they had a picnic on the verandah and it was magical. Sigh.....