It's time...

... to move to a brand new place.

My utterly fascinating blog has now moved HERE.

Go and visit... do it now... you know you want to 

And finally...

Birds on a, erm, string.

I made these little paper birds to hang across the kitchen windows.  I love the colours but I also love the silhouette when it's getting darker.

I might work on invisible-ish strings.  One day.

The new view from my kitchen window...

...and seriously, the only thing that could make it a better view would be if I actually owned them.  But this will do nicely for now.  The black one is a little terror and keeps mercilessly aggravating the grey, who is impressively fit from constantly running away.  Nothing nasty though, just playfulness.

(Killer)Baby likes to watch them too... from the safety of indoors.

She probably thinks they're a bit stupid, with all that running around in the cold and eating stuff off the floor.  Actually she probably thinks most things/people are a bit stupid.  Why don't they get themselves an Aga to sleep on?  Duhhh.

You can always tell when I've got time off work...

Found these letters in a little shop in Norfolk.
They're about 12cm tall and I just love the designs. Most of them were especially chosen because of some special connection to me.  The rest were especially chosen because of some tenuous, possibly entirely fabricated, connection to me.  And because they're groovy.
I found a stretched canvas in a good shape, stretched natural linen over it and mounted the letters with spray mount.  I now have spray mount all over my hands and I've washed them 7 times with industrial hand cleaner.  Aint coming off.

So yes, call me egocentric if you want... but I'm the guinea pig here so it's acceptable to start with my own name.

This week...

...I have mostly been making origami cranes.
No, I'm not an expert and no, I'm probably not going to make it to 1000.
It's good though.  It's satisfying when your fingers reach the level of familiarity required to be able to do the job without too much input from the brain.  Which is a mildly stupid idea.  But you know what I mean.

Knitting and stuff... yeah I'm SO rock'n'roll

It's cool to knit.  It also sets my teeth on edge... something about the time it takes to get through a row, even if you're a fast knitter, and the endless repetition.

I'm a semi-fast knitter.  I quite liked knitting tiny-sized clothes (when my children were tiny-sized), although I wasn't always quite so keen on putting the knitted stuff actually on them, but I really can't be doing with knitting the vast areas which would be required to keep any of them warm now.  Quite lucky really, seeing as I can't quite imagine them all running around in badly-knitted cardigans. Or tank tops?!

My granny was a staggeringly slow knitter.  I can remember her starting a yellow polo-neck jumper for one of my older brothers to go riding in (yellow polo-necks for riding?  What was all that about?) and it still wasn't finished when I'd already outgrown the notion of it.  Not quite sure what happened to it after that, although I do know my youngest brother wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole (and I suspect the YPN-for-riding vogue had passed by then)... perhaps she turned it into yellow knitted dishcloths or something.  Useful.  One thing's for sure, she wouldn't have thrown it away.  My granny recycled and re-used everything and wasted nothing.  Quite impressive, really, although I'd have drawn the line at feeding my (grand)children mouldy bread, if I was her.  My brother and I attempted to flush it (the mouldy bread) down the toilet but she could smell a rat from miles away and came marching up the stairs to find the evidence.  We were in trouble for that one.  Wouldn't do it any differently now though.... still couldn't force down a green, furry sandwich if I tried and I'm still not convinced by the 'Don't you know they make antibiotics out of this?  It's GOOD for you!' argument.  Even when I was seven I had an inkling that they must DO something to the furry green stuff before they pump you full of it to fight infection.

So anyway, what I do to fool the knitting demons is find ways of kidding myself that there's not much to do, and one of the ways of doing that is to knit everything in small bits/different colours/varied stitches.  This is my latest thing...

I'm really into these colours at the moment.

I have a mildly genius way of constructing my knitted pieces onto an existing cushion, which at least means I don't have to go through all the agonies of the knit and then follow it with a huge amount of sewing.  Actually it took ages to make this work really nicely, but there was a fair amount of self-kidding going on here too.  

Ho hum.  Good job I'm clever enough to get one over on myself all the time.

Spring??

Just wanted to share this... because it's lovely and it's a beautiful day and it makes me (rather naively) hopeful for Spring.

If you are in the UK, you can get one from Tesco right now, for the princely sum of £7.00, which I think is pretty good.

Go on then!

yeah..

XXX

It wouldn't be right...

... if I didn't jump on the ooooh-it's-snowing bandwagon and post up a few winter wonderland photos.
I'm not the only one who was utterly convinced we'd be staying at home for the day.  Unfortunately, we are far more snow-stoic than I imagined, and these were taken before I slid off to work.

This is the front garden, looking out on to the ummmwhereistheroad?

The back door, and I knew those lights should stay in the box trees after Christmas.

The kitchen window.  Fancy a seat?

Loving this one.  I don't imagine the house looked very different a couple of hundred years ago.

This won't take long...

I've had these chairs for years.  I covered the seats in gingham oilcloth, when the children were younger and messy.  Recently I've been thinking that they look a bit sad and, erm, icky... so I've re-covered them in the most gorgeous, soft, pink babycord.  Now that the children are older and even messier, I will probably spend half my life scraping mashed potatoes off them and wishing they were grubby gingham oilcloth... but if I have a sophisticated dinner party anytime soon (which is pretty unlikely), I'll be quite proud.

Other than that, and a HUGE amount of work, I've been playing with a little pine corner cupboard I paid 4 quid for.  I gave it a quick paint job and put on a sweet little china handle (can't say 'knob' without laughing) and now it's in the corner of the kitchen, looking quite ok.

Righto, back to work.x

Eversoknac... worn out...

Can't wait to start work again on Monday.  It's been such a restful break, what with moving house and stuff.  All in all I would have to concur that house-moving is not entirely fun, although the new place is utterly delightful and a perfect place for Christmas, wood burners, Aga and all.  Unfortunately it's only temporary, so the hunt continues, but I'm absolutely determined to enjoy it for the time we're here.  Hopefully I will find some time to photograph how the light pours in through the huge sash windows in the kitchen in the mornings, and the misty view over the fields.  Oh, and apparently there's a ghost, although I haven't met her, unless she's the one who opened the front door when I was falling into it with an armful of last-minute presents, in which case I didn't forget to say Thank You. Phew.

Christmas was a bit sparse, in terms of homemade stuff, but I did manage to chuck in a birdie theme and throw together a cake.

I've decided to leave the wreath, on the basis that it's not overly Christmassy and I really like it.

That's all folks.

Oh, and anyone who needs the new address, let me know.  It will probably help if I know you.x

Guess who's back...... back again...

Ok, so I didn't have time for this.
I actually don't have time for anything.
But it was important.

Oh, and on a side note, I always seem to be at the wrong end of the seasons.  Forgive me, there's always next year.  And the faint hope that summer will somehow make a glorious comeback and hang around until about December, and then it will snow and be quite lovely.  For about a month.

So yes, the bbq fell apart about a month ago, after a long and arduous life of being left out all year, and  being used as a mini-bonfire, and having wet stuff left in it for months.  So I've been looking around for another one and wondering why they always have to come in alpha-male colours like forest green.

I found this...

Isn't she a beauty?  No, quite horrible.  But it was sold to me (for a very badly-haggled fiver) at a car boot sale by an utterly charming gentleman - clearly not a regular -  who later announced, 'my dear, I'm so thrilled to get rid of it I'd have paid you five pounds to take it away!'

Black and green - how practical.  Won't show the dirt.  Pfff.

Look at it now...

... a retro futuristic space-age masterpiece in silver and pink, worthy of The Jetsons' final frontier.
Who needs practical?x

Can you believe it... it's nearly the end of August!  Where did that go??

Main thing on the summer agenda was a trip across the pond which was, I absolutely have to say, bloody fantastic.  The weather was amazing, the places were anything ranging from hilarious to breathtakingly spectacular.  We packed SUCH a lot into a couple of weeks and I could do it all again tomorrow.

From watching the kite surfers on South Haven (Michigan) beach, the morning after a spectacular storm rolled in across the lake...

... to standing in the spray of Niagara Falls, trying not to ruin my camera...

... to checking out some Lichtensteinesque culture at the Art Institute in downtown Chicago...

... cowboy riding, target shooting, walking in the Jurassic Park-like Hocking Hills state park in Ohio, checking out the Toronto landscape, stepping back in time in a pioneer village... and more... and more.

I've got literally thousands of photos and, if I can find the time/energy/motivation/internet speed I will post more in the days/weeks/years to come. 

I got a feeling inside of me, it's kinda strange like a stormy sea...

My new rose apparently doesn't care about the shite weather we're having, it's blossomed anyhow and it's looking quite delightful.  It's even nicer than I remembered and a lot nicer than the photo on the website I bought it from (see below) - not even sure that's the same rose.

And while we're on the subject, it's a well-known fact that I've never been a fan of yer common carnation (dead posh, me) until I noticed these babies in the supermarket the other day.  Feckin gorgeous, quite frankly, and inexpensive enough to render them almost more important than food.  They have a delicate vintage look about them and, mixed with some creamy-coloured stocks, make small areas of my house look nearly sophisticated(ish).

It's been a while....

.... but I've been busy getting a new job and being in France and stuff.

I stayed near (and worked in, just in case anyone thinks I was having fun) Laval.  It really is the most beautiful little city and I'm quite sure I will visit again before long.

The most beautiful cobbled streets with sweet little houses, in the old part of the city...

 ... and one of the views from the tower of the medieval Château de Laval. 

Most memorably, for the moment, I finally got to visit Mont St Michel, which was totally amazing - everything I hoped for and more.

And I fell in love with a rose (fell in love once and almost completely).  It was everywhere and it called out to me.  It's called Pierre de Ronsard.  I couldn't quite bring myself to bring one back (along with a case big enough and heavy enough to be smuggling home an entire bijou Laval town house) on Eurostar, but I was a very happy bunny when I found one here (just for you, MandiS).  It arrived very quickly and is in full bud.  Can't wait to get it in the garden, just as soon as the hurricanes are over.

 

A couple of things on Ebay today...

...that's all folks!
(for now)

Eversoslightlyboredofcomingupwith'everso'titlessothiscouldbethelast.

I realize I've become mildly obsessed with these things... but with good reason, I feel.
This is the latest.  One of the others is sold, the other is still available...for the moment.
Is it possible to marry a light fitting?  I'm aware they use electricity and need the occasional bulb replacing... but that's pretty low maintenance, in a comparative sort of way.  Just a thought.

eversopleased...

...with this one!
I really love it, really love the ice cream colours and the shape of the cups.
They're vintage Gaydon Melmex cups and saucers - the kind you might find in a VW camper.
The two shown on here are just about ready to sell - message me if you're interested.
The big one's on its way... but I'm keeping that.

Eversotoile

Yes, I seem to find myself liking toile again recently.  You know how it is: you get struck down with a touch of the Marie-Antoinettes and have to go rushing around adorning every available soft furnishing with idyllic pastoral picnic scenes.
And so it is for my bed ce soir.  I can't seem to get a half-decent photograph today, so you'll have to make do with a, erm, quarter-decent one (impeccable maths, as ever).

At times like these you may find yourself seeking out the finest french linens in quaint little vintage shops.
Me? ... I go to Ikea.

Yup, all cotton, quite lovely, all the stuff you'd expect from stuff that goes on your bed..... and cheap as pommes frites....find it here.
All I need now is a couple of lambs with pink satin bows round their necks and I'll be laughing all the way to the  Hameau de la Reine.

Eversoflowery

In the meantime, here's a nice idea for a lazygirl flower arrangement.  I love coloured glass, love little bottles, love roses.  Did I mention I love roses?