Dee has the binding to hand stitch then she is finished with her beautiful new quilt. This was one of the Cherry Pit classes. Great job, Dee! Happy Quilting! Jane
Dee's Quilt
Dee has the binding to hand stitch then she is finished with her beautiful new quilt. This was one of the Cherry Pit classes. Great job, Dee! Happy Quilting! Jane
packing for a spot of beavering...
tomorrow, myself and Miss Ethel are leaving the shed for a visit with my adopted auntie. Miss Ethel is particularly tres delighted as she has not left the shed for a spin since last September. i am packing up lots of vintage fabrics and lace, where upon arriving at my adopted auntie's lovely old grey cottage by a babbling brook, we will spend many quality hours beavering away together making apron wraps. we are being most disciplined and will not spend our time chin wagging as we are apt to do, only to find several hours later we have achieved nothing for our time spent together other than putting the world to rights.
my adopted auntie has done a cracking job at rustling up some more lovely high hope flags to hang in the shop window. we have been most happy with how well they have sold and i in turn have been most happy with the results of cutting up all the leftovers she kindly saved for me.
little itty bitty high hope strings, all doing rather a lovely job of making it look like Spring has Sprung in my studio. which of course it has not and i do believe as tomorrow is the first of June it is likely to not Spring at all this year and now i am just hoping Summer does us the pleasure of his company before we go 'a little spare' in these parts.
the itty bitty strings are to travel the seas with me to England in three weeks time. along with the large high hope flags, they are destined to bring a certain dottie angelness to a lovely cottage by the sea. if indeed you are thinking you may like to visit this cottage by the sea and spend some quality time learning the way i 'patch and a piece' secondhand fabrics together then it would be lovely to have you join us. we still have a few places left, so if you are sitting on the fence pondering if this is something you may like to do then please do get in contact with either myself or Angela so we may help you get down off your fence and pack up your vintage stash and head to Suffolk in July. did i mention before that Our #1 will also be joining us, yes indeedy she will be my right hand man (or girl as the case maybe) and i am thinking, i could not ask for a better assistant, yes grand stuff indeed
she has packed a suitcase, just in case she is tempted to stay a while with her adopted auntie ~ Tif
May flowers
Flowers and arrangements from the month of May.
A special shout out goes to the hyacinth in its cozy can, which flowered gloriously around the middle of the month. Hyacinths in May? It felt completely wrong, but I enjoyed it all the same, carrying it from room to room and positioning it where the scent would best waft toward my nose. A special mention also to the brave little rose, surely the last of her bush, who managed to unfurl and shine despite the chilly mornings.
Flea Market Finds
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a bit of 'lo and beholdness' in the shed...
do you recall a certain lovely thrift store blanket?
no need to fret about your recall skills, nor mutter under your breathe
"blimey Tif, i can hardly recall what i had for dinner last night, let alone your thrifty finds"
for i have provided an image to help, i know its friday and the week has been long so i do not wish you to have to mutter under your breathe because of me.
actually i can recall what i had for dinner last night, a rare occurrence indeed. not 'having dinner', the recalling it bit. it was a meal of orange with a hint of green. it was completely home cooked and surprisingly appealing looking, therefore worthy of recall in my mind.
however it is not about my culinary delights today, no sirree! it is all about Mille and her crocheting kindness.
upon finding my lovely thrift store blanket, then gifting it to another i continued about my life.
then one day Mille appeared, she told me how the blanket had inspired her to make one for herself and as she had trouble finding a pattern for it, very cleverly (i am thinking) worked it out from my blanket! this had me very delighted and even more so when she wrote up her 'something pretty' pattern and was happy to share it with us. thank you so kindly Mille for inspiring me to pick up Mr Hook again and others i am quite sure.
i am totally in love with Mille's use of colours, this is so often where i trip up but not today, for today i am riding high, higher than i have ever ridden in my short history of crochet riding...
for you see, thanks to the brilliant Mille, a small miracle came to pass last night in Mossy Shed.
as i sat, pondering her pattern with Mr Hook in hand and a ball of gray (see what i mean about colour), i established two rounds of petals and instead of doing as i was told and finishing up with a round of granny square to complete the one petaled square, a little voice whispered in my ear.
that little voice tempted me to do another round of petals, it questioned if indeed i could perhaps go another round or two after that. it was daring me to aim for a circle of crocheted goodness. i made a silent promise to Mille i would come back to her squares after i had ventured off with my little voice
never in my short span of crocheting career (do i have one) have i managed a circle of muchness. but i was feeling reckless, i was in my new snug, cozy, crafty hangout upstairs tucked out of the way of my clan, i was feeling anything was possible at that moment in time. the world of crocheting was my oyster.
and so it would appear the crocheting circle gods were in line, for row after row of petals and hour after hour of me sitting there listening to the early morning show on Radio 2 had me believing that miracles do happen. as i stood to go to bed, a little achy and creaky, well past my due date of hitting the sack, i laid my crocheted circle offering down and right there and then, a chorus of angels appeared, (singing quietly cause it was late) and glory shone down on me.
a crocheted circle of 'lo and beholdness' had been born and not an ounce of 'colour iffyness' about it.
she is wishing you a bit of 'lo and beholdness' yourselves this weekend ~ Tif
Winter Knitting
I'd love to try these socks but I already have 3 unfinished knitting projects for this winter! Have a warm and cosy weekend ♥ Leah
a two parter...
yes dearest readers, such is the extent of our 'positively beaming' in the shed these days, i must indeed break down our new/old carpet moment into a two parter. for those that have rambled alongside of me for many a year will know this here home we like to call Mossy Shed was a sad and neglected little place upon arrival of us, three years ago.
the first year we did a brilliant job at ripping out this, tearing out that and slowly but surely breathing life back into the old girl, but then as is often the way with massive remodeling sort of jobs you run out of steam and you run out of doe... leaving a nest 90% done and 10% still to go.
earlier in the year i noted to my man i felt the need to move on to another nest, for my nomadic creative soul needed new pastures green. he looked at me in horror and then voiced since when had i ever been a nomad, i who never ever leaves my nest. i pointed out it was not my actual body which felt the need to move on, but my creative spirit which obviously comes from nomadic descent and therefore requires this continuous 'to the point of obsessive' need to shuffle things around.
he then wisely pointed out we loved our shed. to which i agreed whole heartily, but then i also pointed out that certain areas of her, i did not. he then wisely pointed out it is far more savvy a move to finish up the forgotten 10% then to actually move to another forgotten soul of a home requiring 100% attention.
gosh, well right there and then was the conversation we needed to have, to pull up our knee socks. well actually my man did not, for he does not possess such things, however he does have those kind of almost calf length socks leftover from his days of wearing businessy business attire. so he pulled those up really high and they did a good job at stretching up to his knees. i did not have my knee socks on but an old pair of woolly tights, darned in the toes and lacking in elastic around the waist, thus being held up by having my undervest nicely tucked in tightly. so i pulled those up so they were also nice and properly high up, with no baggy crotch thing going on and we set to work...
the cans of white paint came out and the wonderfulness of my friend Maggi happened! after 3 years of living with a 'can't work with you as much as i try' 30 year old green carpet, this past monday, 2 men and 12 hours later we had ourselves a beige secondhand granny carpet resplendent in the shed. truth be told it had to be patched and pieced in places a carpet should not be, but we did not care, no sirree! for anything was better than what we had on the stairs, landing and three bedrooms before our lovely granny carpet came to stay.
"i have three shades of beige in my bedroom" exclaimed Our #4 at 8pm on monday after the fellows had left. it appeared he seemed genuinely delighted with his good fortune
"it reminds me of something a granny would knit" said Our #3
"do you think so! really?" i excitedly hoped so
"why yes, if you look at the self pattern in it, it looks like one of those sweaters they knit" he continued "i thought you would be happy to hear that" with a twinkle in his eye
and i was dearest readers, i was.
for in an ideal world i would have wood flooring throughout my shed, but this was never going to be and therefore the next best thing was a secondhand granny chic carpet kindly gifted to us by a friend.
today sees me 'a shuffling and a shifting' the bedrooms back together whilst hammering in nails and hanging pictures, and tomorrow the white paint comes out again to finish up the rest of the dark wood. for it is hard to remember but when we moved here everything in this shed was dark. the walls, the doors, the wood trim and the ceilings... little by little with a 'slight hiccup' in between of two years, we are back on the road to finishing up Mossy Shed and making her feel not 90% loved but 100%, just as she deserves.
she has an urge to crochet for the first time in yonks ~ Tif
footynote: just in case you may be wondering, 'cos that is perfectly okay to do, some of the best folks i know wonder often. the board at the bottom of our stairs is a 'pesky little olive' gate. thus allowing the furry feline friend to live happily upstairs without interruption from a pesky doggie... knocked together by my man and myself, no less :)
Broccoli
My broccoli is doing really well this season. Sometimes when I've grown it it's been small and spindly, or shot to seed, or not even had a head at all. I haven't been feeding anything special this time, or much at all really, so I'm going to presume this means I have the soil well fertilised with compost etc, and continue what I've been doing with home composting.
This green broccoli sprouts lots of little heads when you cut one off, a bit like Medusa. It's easy to harvest and an added bonus is that it rarely needs more chopping when you get it inside!
Broccoli is easy to freeze - I just chop it and put it in a ziplock bag. I don't worry about blanching. When I want to cook it I just tip it straight into the pan from the freezer, or you can put it in a sieve and run hot water over it to defrost it first.
This is italian broccoli. I had a really old packet of seeds that I tried once, back in the garden of the rental flat where the soil was stony and poor. I didn't have much success so the rest of the seeds didn't get used. But I discovered them recently and thought I'd have another go before I chucked the seeds out - looks like I've been more successful this time!
This is my old favourite - Violet Sicilian cauliflower, but called purple broccoli by me. It starts off looking like a cauliflower, but sprouts into more of a broccoli head before long. The purple colour is intensified by cold weather.
sorting and a shuffling...
we've been unplugged at the shed, whilst 'goings on' are going on upstairs. but hurrah hooray, we are plugged back in and Colin the computer is back up and running.
i wish the same could be said for a feline friend of mine who lives in Our 2's bedroom. the unearthing of his room and contents, two coats of white paint later and a carpet that does not contain his smells, but smells of another home, had him on hunger strike for a while.
however i am delighted to report as of today he appears over his 'i will not eat for my heart and my home is broken' mood. proving so by eating a hearty midnight feast and 'up chucking' on new/old carpet to christen it. after which, promptly finding my 'high hopes wrap' for a chilly day and claiming it as a cat blanket.
i will be back tomorrow with a closer look at our new/old carpet, surely it doesn't get more frilling than that i am thinking. looking at someone else's recently required secondhand carpet... some days i marvel at the level of thrillingness on this here rambly space
she is sorting and a shuffling the shed back into shape ~ Tif
Late autumn bouquet
Making the most of some late flowers - cosmos, carnations, lavender and chrysanthemums - with the first of the season's wintersweet.
Potting corner
This weekend I continued with my autum clean up and moved onto the potting area. I'd always intended to put some more shelving in there, so I went to Bunnings and picked up this wooden kitset shelf. It wasn't too bad to put together actually - easier than those horrible galvanised shelves I've used in the past, and it can be painted - bonus! It has the holes for the shelves pre-drilled, but there are extra holes too, so you can customise it to a certain extent. I decided to leave the bottom shelf off so I could stack large pots underneath. I put the extra shelf in the middle of the unit for holding saucers and other small things.
So after a coat of my unifying dark green paint I put the shelf in its new home. The pots fitted under and around it nicely. To the right, under the piece of old carpet (and behind the vintage mirror that I still have to find a perfect garden spot for), is my worm farm. I thought all the worms had died but I had a quick look anyway, and to my surprise found several living worms. I put some more food scraps in for them, but they don't eat the food very quickly - I hadn't fed them for months prior.
Pots, punnets and plants. I have more punnets than I need and it's a waste to throw them out. I wonder if someone would come and take them if I put them on Trade Me for $1.00...
I was gutted to lose several aged terracotta pots in the quake. It takes about 3-4 years to get a good patina on there. The ones at the front are new, just starting the aging process. Winter weather helps!
These bags are holding unmatured compost. As I was tidying up it became clear that I would need to start another compost heap, so I emptied out one of the bins. I put it in these bags in the hope that it will break down just as well in them as in the bin.
For the new heap, I layered autumn leaves, grass clippings, old potting mix out of pots, and ash from the pellet fire. I haven't really made a proper layered heap before, as I usually just throw things in as I come across them. We'll see if it makes any difference!
Some of the last autumn flowers in reclaimed glass bottles brighten up the table.
Here's the just-a-tad-bit-wonky shelving on the fence. It makes a nice display area.
Some brave little bulbs making an early showing. The hoop petticoats in the blue pot put out lots of foliage every year, but I've only ever had one flower. I keep meaning to just chuck them in the garden somewhere and forget about them.
Well, glasshouse and potting corner are done. Next weekend is the shed, the worst of the lot. Can't wait.
rebellion in the shed...
its a little nutso at the shed, more so than usual. on Monday the green carpet of 30 years living upstairs, is being replaced by a beige carpet of 10 years with interesting self patterning courtesy of my lovely friend Maggi
on Wednesday evening, my man and i started the job of emptying three bedrooms worth of stuff and hauling it into the bonus room. Our #4 (newly aged 13) sat amongst his dwindling possessions, whilst nursing his broken toe acquired less than four hours before.
"why is everything we own look like it belonged to a granny, even the carpet we are getting is old and granny like?" he had a point, it does have a 'granny like' quality about it now i have inspected it closer, which of course i am delighted about.
he continued "every room we have is filled with old stuff, why don't we ever have gleaming new modern things?"
i looked around his room and noted he has an ikea bookcase and desk in white. the only thing remotely vintage in my mind within his four walls at that moment, was me, my man and an old pine chest of drawers loitering with intent to hold his clothes, however they have never made it that far.
i always saw ikea furniture as modern and new and i was now seeing a 'doubter' in my son.
gosh, he was my one who loved a thrifty hunt amongst the shelves of despair, finding great enjoyment with the crappity crap that lay before him. i chose to put it down to his broken toe, turning 13 and the black cloud above him talking. a rare thing indeed, for black clouds do not hangout over his head, in fact this maybe the first black cloud i have ever seen venture to do such a thing.
yesterday evening i voiced a need to go thrifting (two times in one day!), i am on a mission for materials and as is always the way, you can never find what you are looking for, only what you did not know you needed, like a cheap print of flowers in an iffy frame.
still i was going to give it a go.
"can i come?" he pipes up, which immediately made me suspect he had homework to do.
"how will you manage with your toe?" i ask
"i'll hobble around"
so i went 'a thrifting' this time with my pins of paleness and a companion hobbling. i found a forsaken little soul and he found a brilliant red Adidas jacket with LONDON appliquéd on the back and the skyline (including Big Ben) across the chest. it was in 'top notch' nick and a bobby bargain to boot. he was delighted and so was i.
ah yes, for second hand gods had intervened and his doubting ways were gone. just because something is second hand does not mean it has to be old or granny like. perfectly new looking goodness can be found too, he just needed a little reminder
someone who does not need reminding is Little Olive, who after a day of play yesterday, spent the evening wisely 'swaddled' in her home of secondhand goodness
she is most happy with the transformation of her secondhand, 'slightly kitsch' picture find of yesterday ~ Tif
Mix ups!!
Another photo of our Gracie Girl. Yesterday at daycare she told the new afternoon carer that her name was Mary Ann. several frantic phone calls were made to us and her "emergency contacts" because Grace could not be found.
Oh dear our Gracie Mary!!♥
I'm supposed to be in Melbourne with my husband right now, we had a big mix up at the airport ( 0600 this morning) and I had to send him off to the Alfred alone. The upside is that I now have a couple of "childfree" hours!
Have a great weekend, just not sure what ours will bring ♥ Leah
pins of paleness...
today i have dared to pottle outside the shed with my pins of paleness.
a thrift store pottle no less.
happens every single year,
waiting and waiting for Mr Sun to show his warmth
and then he does,
thus resulting in me shedding my woolly skin of tights
and revealing my 'pins of paleness' to the world.
to add to my woes of exposure
the recurring issue of my undies has reoccurred.
no longer held in place by my woolly attire,
they are once again left to their own devices.
several pairs past their due date of 'high elastic retaining' qualities
are far to great a risk to wear.
the others though, i noted with their elastic still intact
appear to be a little snug,
"how can this be" i cried with alarm,
twirling around to catch a glimpse of my derrière.
i froze with shock,
for there lurking below my back was a friend,
a fast growing friend,
a 'bottom of great proportion' had attached himself to moi.
he was not there before.
i do not recall inviting him to join me
in any way, shape or form.
but then all became clear
as i frantically retraced my moments
of the past six hibernating months of winter.
i turned 42 in september.
there should be a book out,
perhaps there is.
"what to expect after 40"
turning 40: you may wish to cry, this is perfectly normal behavior for some one leaving their 'youth' behind. do not fret, it will pass
turning 41: you will by now have got over turning 40, however you may notice odd things like nostril hairs appearing. do not fret, do not renew your glasses prescription, live in denial, this is perfectly normal behavior
turning 42: your bottom will grow, you undies will dig in and sadly, your chest will stay alarming flat, thus highlighting the 'grandness' of your derrière. do not fret, nor weep. this is perfectly normal behavior for a bottom of your age. chose not to turn around and try to glimpse said growing bottom, for two reasons, it is behind you and therefore out of sight and out of mind. and secondly being 42 you now also have a jippy neck and back and it would not do to 'put it out' due to trying to glimpse your large new friend hanging on behind
turning 43: you will wake up and find your knees have disappeared...
and so forth.
yes, how brilliant is that, do you see dearest readers,
i have totally forgotten my pins of paleness now
by focusing on something else,
albeit my undies and my bottom
and indeed my peachy thrift store finds
hurrah hooray!
her lovely adopted auntie is coming for tea tomorrow ~ Tif
On my reading table
Dreamhunter and Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox
This gorgeously written "duet" by NZ author Elizabeth Knox deserves to be more widely known. It tells the story of the Place, a sort of no-man's-land where dreams can literally be caught as if catching a cold. Only dreamhunters can cross the border into the Place. There they camp, sleep, and if they are lucky and sleeping on the right spot, they will catch a wonderful (or frightening) dream. Once loaded with a dream, the dreamhunter will "perform" the dream nightly at one of the opulent dream palaces - these are where the rich and fabulous members of society go, clad in silk pyjamas and fashionable nightgowns, to retire to their private suites and be swept away in a dream not of their own making. Dreamhunters can become wealthy and famous, but they are also held in a superstitious awe, since not everyone can or wants to be able to enter the Place.
Cousins Laura and Rose come from the most famous dreamhunting family, and are awaiting their Try to discover if they have the ability to enter the Place. Set in a sort of alternate Edwardian era, the girls also attend school at Founderston Girls Academy, prepare for balls and have tea and cream cakes at Farry's Confectioners. The writing is lush and descriptive, and the story is intelligent and complex. It has some interesting twists and turns, but everything fits in somehow, somewhere. I've read this duet several times now for the beautiful visuals and the wonderful characters who now feel like old friends.
Good books.
Custom Birds
george and a jig...
george, a passing pesky gnome has taken a liking to our front yard.
i am thinking all the weeding and planting of late has attracted him.
do not let his cheery face fool you.
i have noted he carries a weapon of mass destruction,
has something lurking in his other hand, carefully hidden
and if that were not enough to treat him with caution.
he appears to be the sneaky type who lurks with intent,
waiting for unsuspecting grannies to do a spot of yard work
i have done several jigs today,
i think it fair to say i am not in good shape to do such a thing,
but i did not let that impede my jiggery mode.
Used Dog is banned from jigging with her jippy joints,
however Little Olive, i must congratulate upon her ability to jig like a pro,
despite her legs of little length.
so there we have it,
a short legged little sausage jigging,
an unfit, quite clammy by the end of it all, woman jigging
and a used dog of many, many years not jigging
and what, i am thinking, you may be wondering were our reasons for such jiggery.
well dearest readers, i have seen a few pages of my book
and blimey! if that isn't worth getting a little clammy,
whilst doing several laps of the shed with clogs on jigging,
then i do not know what is.
i am not sure the bit where i could not breath after several laps
was because of my complete unfit condition
or because my breathe was taken away
with the wonderful work Janine is doing with my pennings.
i am telling myself it is the latter...
she is noting Mr Sun is shinning like he means it for the first time in months ~ Tif
The Supervisor
He has his own chair - all the better for watching from.
And my chair too as soon as my back is half turned, for that all-important supervisory nap. We work hard around here!
a spot of rustling...
i am not here today,
i am over at Victoria's shiny place.
i do like Victoria's shiny place and i do like her too.
whilst Victoria is away on her hols,
she kindly invited a gaggle of bloggers
(i like that too! a 'gaggle' of bloggers)
to ramble on in her absence
and what a peachy line up she rustled up
i was most chuffed indeed to be included in her rustling
and so i did a spot of 'rustling up' myself with a little 'how-to'
for the faded vintagey looking lanterns i did a whilst back.
she is dropping her folks at the airport and thinking the shed will have an empty feeling upon her return ~ TIF
Handmade Birthday gifts ♥
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