New Acquisitions #13

I don't usually put food on my list of new acquisitions, but this is an experiment. I am no gardener, but I would love to grow my own food. At least some of it. So I bought some lettuce plants, coriander and basil - I hope to soon be making my salads fresh from my garden!

It will be interesting to see if they survive the fresh sea breeze here. And more importantly,  the stormwinds! And did I mention the army of snails that has made my garden its operational headquarters?

New Acquisitions #12

This is my worst kind of buying - Buying Because it is a Bargain.

Over the last few months the little stationery shop in Simon's Town has been selling off its old stock at ridiculous prices. I mean, they were practically giving the stuff away! R1 (that is roughly 70 US cents) for a box with eighty A5 plastic sleeves. What a bargain!

Do I need eighty A5 sleeves? Not really, but they could come in pretty handy, I guess. I also got 104 photo corners for R1. What a bargain! I have no idea what I will do with them; my photo prints are already filed in photo albums; these days I use a digital camera and store everything digitally anyway. Parker and Sheaffer rollerball refills at R1 each. What a bargain! I do not have Parker or Sheaffer pens, but who cares. I have already decided the inners themselves make pretty handy little pens for one's handbag. Cash register paper rolls at R1 each. What a bargain! I have no cash register ( nor do I have any cash, actually), but I just love paper in all its forms. I suppose I could do something creative with them. A plastic PUSH sign for R1. What a bargain! Now this one I actually bought with a purpose. I am going to stick it on a door that you have to pull. Hehehehehe.

New Acquisitions #11

This is what my desk looks like:

Scary, hey? That little space in the middle towards the front is where I work. So that is what prompted my new acquisition. A school desk!

I must state that I am not one of those people who think back longingly to their school days, nostalgic tears trickling down their cheeks. Although I did very well academically - usually top of the class - I hated school. Let's face it, I was considered a nerd. Never popular. Always on the outside looking in. So the immediate affection - even love - I felt when my eyes first fell on this desk was rather weird, if not suspect. But consider this - a lid that lifts to reveal a lovely space for storing notes, pens, books and so on; a little groove for my pen and pencil; a seat that lifts, the perfect back rest, the solidness of it. I mostly use it for working on my laptop. The strange thing is that I did not go out and look for something that would solve my untidy-desk-with-5x5-inch-space-for-working  problem. No, I just walked past a junk shop and saw this lovingly restored desk, and then only did I realise that I needed to solve the untidy-desk-with-5x5-inch-space-for-working  problem. I didn't even realise I had a problem until I saw my school desk. So I do not really know how to classify this one ...
Have a great weekend, every one. School's out!!!!!

New Acquisitions #10

A few weeks ago I bought one of these for a dear friend. Made by a woman in Simon's Town, in her workshop overlooking the harbour. My friend's has butterflies on it. I had to play with it a little before I wrapped it - just to check that it worked, of course. And was so taken with it that I got this one for myself ...

Can you guess what it is?

Yay Yippee Yay Woo Hoo and all that ...

Dear friends, the master set is finally signed off!! Oh, I am so happy, I'm so happy, tra la lalala la laaaaaaaaa!!
Freedom, freedom at last ...
I will be visiting you on the weekend (today I am first going to celebrate, so I may not be in a fit state to see you tonight). I hope you will all still recognise me - wan and pale and trembling from nervous exhaustion. But HAPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!
Have a great weekend. Celebrate something!

New Acquisitions #9

Found at the car boot sale two weeks ago ...

I now have four old scales - two from Germany, one from Australia, and my most recent one, which looks Scandinavian, I think.

You may wonder why I post this litany of acquisitions. I have decided to keep a catalogue of what I buy (apart from necessities and groceries) in an effort to understand why I buy stuff. I like each of my posted nine acquisitions - not exactly love, but like. I don't need any of them. I did not go searching for any of them. Yet each one caught my eye and has found a space in my life and a use - even if only as decoration (2, 3, 5). Some have turned out to be quite functional, although I did not initially buy them for a reason (1 is used for meditation, 6 to warm my neck on chilly mornings, and I use number 4 on occasion to play one of those memory games as a bit of brain exercise - have to keep the Big A at bay, you know). One was specifically purchased for its entertainment value (8), another for its creative potential (7) and the last one (9) I'm afraid was purely to extend a collection.

The rule of 'one thing in, one thing out', does not really work for me. I really like the things I buy, so I do not necessarily want to get rid of something just because I've bought something new. Do you acquire stuff that you don't need? And why?

New Acquisitions #8

Oh, I do so love Hitchcock ...











And there is of course a reason why I am posting this acquisition today. Can you guess? Happy weekend, everybody!