scary clown alert...look away now

it was my bright idea to have a 'trashy secret Santa' for the adults in our family. the rules were simple...nothing over $10 (the cheaper the better), trashy items that were to be displayed for 365 days in a prominent position and proof of trashy display on web blog/face book etc...

mick and i had a ball searching for our trashy gifts, laughing so hard that i nearly had an accident...some of the items we found in the thrift shop were just too bad to give to someone and after a long hard search we decided on a very poorly painted and rather large self portrait (artist unknown) and a china angel candle holder which was holding fake and very old flowers. that doesn't sound that bad except that the angel had one hand on one boob and the other on its head as if to say 'check me out'! happy with our purchases we gathered at my fathers house for a Christmas eve dinner. my niece Katie came up with the great idea of numbering each gift and then passing round the hat for us to pull out a matching number so as to get a present randomly. after much laughter and me holding the video camera i was one of the last to choose and had to pick...you guessed it a porcelain clown!!!

now i imagine that 99% of the population has a morbid fear, and rightfully so, of any type of clown especially clowns that could clatter down the hall in the middle of the night with their arms out wide ready to strangle you. well that is EXACTLY the type of clown i was left holding at the end of our trashy session @_@. after looking at all of the gifts that were received mick and i came to the realisation that the clown i was holding looked familiar and was in fact the exact same clown i put back as i thought it was too nasty to give to someone. yes my sister went shopping at the very same thrift shop that we went to! mick was gifted THE ugliest mirror in the world which is right behind me at this moment.

believe it or not this is actually a mirror! what the?

anyhow, not one to leave anyone out i have kindly uploaded some photos of ~ Mr Jangles ~ as he is affectionately known around here for you to enjoy.

WARNING LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVE A FEAR OF CLOWNS

here he is enjoying a jaunt in the garden

hanging around on the water tank.

while he stood there leaning on the watering can i started to lose my fear and actually had a thought...what if i took off his awful poly filled outfit? would he be as scary??

it worked, i can actually look at him and not feel that automatic gag and goose bump thing happening.

in fact he looks so cute Claudia has fallen in love with him.

she carried him around the room posing him in all sorts of places.

here he is on my favourite chair

smelling the roses

enjoying a spot of music

visiting the Eiffel tower...however not all of the kids are convinced of his new appeal...

lili reluctantly held him for this photo.

anyhow before you go i will leave you with one last image...

is he waving or is he coming to get you??

happy Australia day