Kiwi Tales

"Art In The Yard" Spring Fling

Basking in the satisfaction of another show been and gone. I say that because the lead up is brutal and only made worse by a nasty toothache that descended upon me a few days before. As they say in the...as they say...somewhere; the show must go on, and indeed it did. I may have appeared in a vicodin haze and I am sure I was not just dreaming...we did open the gates on time, I know we did. Soooo...this is how it went down. 10:15pm the night before and the kitchen still looked trashed. 11.00 pm and I drag the vac out hoping its sounds were muffled by stucco walls...note to self. MUST ASK the neighbors! 11:50pm I pop a vicodin and stumble into bed and reset the body clock for 5:30am. The Yank is still missing in action, she has printing and laminating tasks which as usual are added to the  "Leave To The Last Moment" list. Y'all know the list...the one you swore you would alter or never make ever again. Well...The Yank and The Kiwis "Leave to The Last Moment" list seems to get bigger each year...its like a grocery list of uncompleted must dos before the big day. One could say diabolically insane and they would be correct! Still...we had other important agenda tasks on our plate that took time out of the packet and still it got done...whewwwww.

A good time seemed to be had by one and all. Money was made by the artists and the buyers went away happy. The garden looked wonderful with the flowers of spring, the new sail shades we had put up gave a nice glow to the lawn beneath and the pleasure generated by a well attended show...priceless. Signing off now to prepare for another show this coming Saturday. I can concentrate on looking at suitable stock to pack and maybe get some creating hours in before I have my "How to pull a trailer" lesson. I have to tow a trailer...oh my...what has a gal got herself into?

 

Down and Dirty in DTLA

Well there I was... pounding the grimy streets of the downtown wholesale area of LA, a fave haunt of The Kiwi's. With wits semi intact, the need to go meant I went from being wide-eyed prowess to being pinkie in distress. I no longer had the LA TIMES car-park to sneak into and enjoy their somewhat cleanish facilities. I knew that Charbucks was a WC free space...go figure. Then I remembered I had passed a McDisgusting on previous adventures through the alternate world of LA. I was going to say the alternate world of well heeled LA and then I remembered that this wee pot hole part of one of the most famous and infamous cities of America is also well to do in an underworld sort of way. I was winding and weaving my way through olde Persia where the bucks collected, very rarely go through the books to fatten the back pockets of the likes of Bel Air. As usual I digress and resort to a mad rave...ce la vie. So there I was, winding down the gulf, needing a pee so bad that I dare not stop to contemplate an alternative, McDisgusting here I come. The usual clientele were there, the bedraggled, the crusties, the zoot suited pimples of society and me. I kind of blended with the bedraggled. Tracy gets it...she will confirm my uncanny ability to mix in with the weirdest of weird and with a flick of the hair it is like I belong. I know there is another name for it but it eludes me right now. Sooooo...back to the story. I get to the front of the line, open the door, half expecting to see a scene out of LA LAW and ORDER. You know the ones...corpse with hole in forehead propped up against the bog, or corpse with eyes looking straight ahead with needle in dirty arm. Have I painted the picture of our big cityscape? Instead, the first of two cesspools had rubbish piled up and I was toooo scared to even look inside the bowl because I just knew it was blocked up with goodness knows what. I looked left then right then left again and settled on the dunny straight ahead. To cut a long story short, when a gal has to pee she could even pee under a tree but in LA fabric district there aren't any trees so Macs place has a monopoly, what's new.
I thought you might like to share my adventure and yes, at least there was toilet paper and no corpses. I must look into one of those female urinal things, I know I have seen them in the wrinkles magazines before today. Not a bad option when one travels on the sidewalks and freeways these days. If anyone has had experience using one of these devices can they please riddle me this...Can they be used with one hand and is it even legal? All that being said, relief being sweet... the treasure hunt continued, buttons and various other Gorgeous Wee Objects were added to the YanKiwi inventory. I think next time I shall just go to the supermarket and get myself a six pack of Depends and save myself the dispair of downtown dunny disgust.

Doing the ZeroRez thing...

Can I just say WOW?... I am impressed and it takes a lot to impress The Kiwi...ask Trace.  Let me expand on that. Today's the day the carpet and rugs got a makeover. Its like plastic surgery for the floor. Old worn, and grubby underfoot  becomes light bright and gay. Not a hundred percent because miracles must be dished out sparingly but bloody near. I had heard of the logic of Zero Rez through the airwaves and it resonated. I had used one of those bizzel machines but it never really  did a damn thing apart form spew bubbles all over the place and cause me grief. I finally managed to melt the canister and that was that.  THIS is what impressed me...

1/ No chemicals

2/ Fantastic suction and extreem heat used.

3/ Dry in a shorter time.

Keith came and sucked all the crap left behind by MOI and BAM he is gone. The whole process took a small amount of time and it feels gorgeously CLEAN. It makes sense that a build up of soap makes for a magnet of dirt and there are of course the instances the of spilt coffee, wine and pepsi at various times. In fact I got over exuberant killing someone at the wii resort yesterday and sent my cold coffee flying. I just paper towel soaked it up as I knew magic was going to be performed today. And indeed it was. I am so impressed I just had to share the moment with the peeps. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again and I I'm happy to say it. They do have a special on right now but who doesn't lol

THE KIWI DISCLAIMER:

The above activities may lead to a whole house makeover so BEWARE.

Goodies from the Dollar shop...

aka The 99c store. Now I know some of you haven't ever stepped inside one of these places. I'm not too proud to say I have and I love them. Here are my latest scores. For those of you who can't see the pic clearly due to suffering from the C.S.S.S then here's a wee log of contents. I won't mention brands unless I let it slip and forget to erase. I personally think they ought pay me to advertise for them. We will see. ANYWAY...that crap aside I am very proud of my last findings. Fresh Organic Baby Herb Salad mix, Fresh Organic Baby Salad Greens and I am talking biggggggg containers of.  Shredded red cabbage, popular brand. A snowy white cauli that looked like it was picked just yesterday by the color of the cut underneath. Ummmmm mmmmmm...prepared horseraddish, popular brand. Honey Dew. Honey don't! Big jats of both bread and butter pickle slices and sweet relish, popular brand. Fab find in a biggish jar of organic tahini...imagine that. What can I say BUTT hummus Hummus HUMMUS! I also scored some European grape geletin type dessert. Very yummmm and not so wicked, and a tray with 2  huge, gorgeous portabella mushrooms called Stir and Fry. Above is a better than typical haul from the shop that's shall not be mentioned again. Have I ever mention that I don't usually boil my cabbages twice? Though as one ages one starts to. If you are brave enough to venture to one of the above shops, don't forget to check the labels. I mostly stare clear of the  foods not from here or rather from suspect countries. A lot of trans-fat can be found. It is cheap and twice as nasty. So there you go. Some of the spoils from war. Be careful out there. Ignorance is not bliss and last but not least The "Ginge" doesn't seem to know he is missing his palotas and doesn't seem to have any balance issues as he flies sideways from chair to chair chasing fresh air. Onwards and upwards. I must go squeeze kittens, caio for now.

The Fly Whisperer aka The Kiwi

Just got in from rounding up some flies and herding them towards fly heaven. I don't know about you, but The Kiwi hates flies, especially when she is preparing food. Probably because the American flies reminds her of the Australian flies, badly behaved and totally irreverent. The Yank gets majorly demented over ants but that is another story. But with flies, she sure is a sight to behold as she flings herself around the kitchen puffing herself up to look ten times bigger. Its enough to scare the wings off the dirty wee blighters and make them drop the food out of their mouth whilst flying in fright. A gal can't even leave the backdoor open without the little buggers using the place like a drive thru. Now where was I?
OH... wherever I went, there I was [and so were the flies] To cut a long story short and save you all from the cliches. I've been a badddddd Kiwi blog mistress. So beat me!

Months have passed, seasons have changed, we have a new Prez, what else, hmmmmmm. We both have some new grey hairs and I am also pleased to say we have just had yet another "Art in The Yard" flingette. This time I really concentrated on our table display setting it up the night before under the covered patio.  I was remiss last time and totally neglected our space table as I wandered around like mother hen making sure all the participants were ok with their allotted areas, cooked breakfast for 25 and took care of any special needs. The Yank was busy with her tasks and before you knew it BAM... the gates were opened. Sooooooo... in a nutshell, we kicked butt with our area this time, lots of nooks and crannies with new creations made using a lot of YanKiwi product. From hand stamped earrings, bracelets and pendants; to cards, tags and stained glass sun-catchers made by the both of us. The Yank had worked hard and long at kicking the garden up a notch even threatening the grass to grow, or else! The birdlife was out in force, fountains were flowing. 100's of attendees/friends/buyers enjoyed a fine afternoon in our garden and a fun time, food and wine was shared. We even had a chair masseuse this time and she was kept busy.
    Currently, I am so excited I can barely contain myself as I have a new project underway. The Kiwi is inspired. Its been a while and I'm enjoying the flow whilst looking forward to the next show in November. The Yank and The Kiwi will be working on some garden art to include hypertufa pots, troughs and other gorgeous organic growths that we can think of when playing with said mixture. Watch this space for pics... In the interim I am off, back to the shade of the lower patio to work on my current itches. The Yank is uploading a pic to our SALE page at the virtual convention our ghosts are presently attending at The Rubberstampchat site. Check it out, it runs till Monday eve. I am not going to make any more loose promises to be frequent with my bloggett. I am going to work at the least to be better as the Yank threatened to send me to the fly farm where I will have no choice but to constantly run around in circles, fly swat in hand instead of the dremel. I am pretty sure that can be seen as the equivalent as limbo for some of you.

Tootles for now.

The Kiwi

OH...p.s. The Yank wanted me to mention that the reason we have flies is the WEATHER and the fact that I leave the door open with no screen. Its NOT because I leave crumbs on the bench. I repeat. It is NOT because I leave crumbs on the bench... that would be countertop for the American readers.