Winter wallpaper, caravans, apple trees and Ikea

Winter has arrived this weekend with cold, grey, blustery days filling this Queen's Jubilee long weekend. When the skies are murky and the winds chilly, it's even more reason to stay indoors and break out some colour therapy.

I finally splurged and bought myself a cutting mat, blade and rotary cutter in a recent Spotlight sale. And something else caught my eye while I was there, something else for my friend Mod Podge and I to collaborate on. It's nearly finished,  just a few touch ups needed.

When it rains and grand plans are thwarted, we often fall back on visiting our old faithful, Ikea. And we had a list this time. There has been a dire lack of paper rolls in the house, Roboboy has been making do with A4 but it's definitely been limiting the masterpieces.We finally bought one of these.

And Roboboy fell in love with these placements. Can't blame him really, there is a matching tray too, he was swooning over that as well.

For me, a lovely little wire basket for all my rolls of vintage wallpaper- it was on sale for $6.

I finally had a little moment of understanding over where my love of vintage wallpaper has come from. Before I started blogging I guess I didn't really know it was out there. Then when I discovered all the gorgeous colour and pattern it was like finding an old friend.

 My mum has been going through a minimalist phase for about a decade and anything that is not nailed down is being sent to the Salvos. Imagine my surprise a few weeks back when she turned up with a folio full of all my  preschool art, class photos and report cards. And in the pile were some Grade 1 folios covered in, you guessed it, vintage wallpaper. And I was filled with a rush of recognition, a warm fuzzy kind of rush. Check out that purple and blue number.

And there was another little moment too. One of those- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree moments. Roboboy and I share a great love of colour, his artwork has always reflected  that. It would  never occur to him to draw in just lead pencil or biro as many boys do. In fact when his best mate gave him a highly detailed    
lead pencil drawn Octonauts birthday card, Roboboy was confused about this incomplete work. He was only slightly satisfied by my suggestion that perhaps it was done intentionally so that Roboboy could colour it in himself.

Anyway the other thing Roboboy does is produce vast quantities of the same kind of work. A collection of sorts. I thought it was kind of funny in a quirky way. Seems he gets that particular quirk from me. Amongst my pile of preschool art there were piles of houses with apple tree gardens, an assortment of marsupials with babies in pouches, treehouses belonging to Owl and Pooh, Santas with christmas trees and a hefty assortment of these below . Explains another one of my little loves.

Yep that would be a fleet of vintage caravans, circa 1977 I suspect. No idea where this love came from for as far as I can recall I never actually went anywhere in a caravan. I was obviously coveting them from afar. Nothing really changes in 3 decades, now I just stalk them on ebay.

And this huge poster was my version of the town show or Ekka. I must have been  a bit older for this one, it obviously made a big impact, I think that's the Superloop top left and the Matterhorn down the bottom. It's nice that my mum kept them all these years to share with my own kids. Roboboy if off again now, inspired by all my Christmas trees, he's whipping up a giant Christmas tree advent calendar.......... in June. That gives him 6 months to produce another 57 versions before the big day.

Anyway, enough of 70's childrens art, I bet you are all wondering what I found at the oppies on my little daytrip to Caloundra to rescue a rogue suitcase?. Worth every minute of that drive for this $15 find.

Yep, those asymmetric curved pieces just keep finding me. I am seeing this one repainted in pink, maybe some wallpaper treatment as well, then straight to miss Liongirl's room. Hope you are all staying warm this weekend.