Let There Be Light Fittings

…I first “met” this particularly wonderful example of 70s plastic and “gold” plated light fitting when I had the record shop at Chicks Hotel in Port Chalmers…

…I needed to own them…

…but they were attached to the pub…

…I’d drive by and ogle the only other example I knew of when ever I could….it’s a commercial double sized version that hangs in a glassed in stairwell on the side of a warehouse in the South Dunedin industrial area…just down from my favourite DIY materials haunt….

….then…

…having driven past a second hand shop sign outside Ranfurly on numerous occasions and thought “how sad that it had ceased operations on the main street”, I drove thru Ranfurly in the other direction only to discover that I’d been completely missing the other sign that indicated that said shop had moved to the outskirts town….(duh)…..

…The Curiosity Shoppe is now located in a delightfully spacious tin shed next to a converted railways workshop, where the proprietor resides….having met a kindred spirit in said proprietor and during the ensuing tour of the premises, right at the back of said railways workshop, we came upon two large cardboard boxes containing….oh be still my beating heart….not one, not two, but five of the coveted light fittings all separated in to halves and covered in dust….

….bargaining….

…bargaining between second dealer-collectors….

….I bought two….

…and promised photos when I’d got them installed…

…that was months ago, sorry Ali’, but now they’re up….

…in the living room….

…and the library….

….thank you Ali’….

…my life is near as damn complete….

…almost….

Goodbye Mr Yuck Pantry

…or… “What I Did With My Week’s Holiday”…

….pantry inserted into old kitchen entry at end of hallway circa “when-everything-was-built-with-horrid-MDF”….sans ugly fake wood grain doors….

…enter 4+ days of hard, no building experience, labour….

…scratch built from a couple of pieces of rimu I got from friends, a huge rimu cabinet with three sliding doors that came from the folks new house, a couple of pallets from work and part of the counter from that shop I used to own…

…almost everything fits….

…and it makes me dislike my freezing cold pre 1900, mucked about by philistines, kitchen a little less….especially with it’s new found expansive sweeping views up the hallway….

….(actually, this will be blocked up again and I’m having a whole-house-heating log burner installed)….(just in time for the end of spring)….

Swatch Cometh

…coming from a work bench, a long, long way away….

….swatch….

…it cometh….

….probably next week.

Mired

…between circles…..

…and tentacles….

…and white paint….

…and colours….

…but the medium is becoming less milky, more translucent, and I’m sure I can see the surface of the pond from down here……

…don’t touch that dial.

Shedupdate

….finished!….

…and while we were moving the pile….

…wetas….lotsa wetas….(small)….

…and….coming soon….

….Shed II….

…just when you thought it was safe.

 

Shed

….built a wood shed….

…it can also be used as a drinking shed…

…or…

…a phone booth/orangery….(Italian sandals optional)….

…but first and foremost it’s a woodshed.

Recycling At Its Most Horrifying

…I’d have to admit to being more than slightly shocked that the pile illustrated below is not my olds weekly haul of life preserving med’s from the chemists….

….no, this is the result of Mother reusing all those handy little paper bags she’s been carefully tucking away for packaging up treats to hand out to neighbourhood kids on all hallows eve….

….laughed till I cried….

…Mother failed to see the joke.

…(no pills were handed out to children in the making of this post).

…( my “Mrs. Axelgrinder” character is NOT based on my mother….honest!)