Attic24

Today I am...

:: Today I am...having a love-hate thing with the wintery weather ::

Loving the view from my cosy Attic window, with the hills looking impossibly beautiful dusted in a light sprinkling of snow. And hating the thought of snow arriving down here in the town as I am no longer able to fasten up any coats I possess or wear any footwear other than crocs. Neither of which is suited to doing the school run in snow.

:: Today I am...enjoying the sight of our early morning pre-breakfast crafting ::

We rise early here at number 24, at around 6:15am or thereabouts, so even on school days there is always time for some pre-breakfast activity of one sort or another. During this week I've been joining the Little People most mornings in making some more decs for our tree, and it's been a whole lot of fun. 

We're using pre-cut felt shapes, glitter glues, shiny stars and christmas stickers, all of which are making me feel quite Excitably Festive. Not decided yet whether to string these little decorated shapes into a garland or hang them individually, but either way, I think they're going to look pretty good.

:: Today I am...enjoying a little bit of happy hooky time ::

Been at the cafe this morning, nattering, cappuccino drinking and hooking. I worked some more colourful cottony stripes to my current WiP, which is a new bag.

I have to say I've not been crocheting very much at home just lately as I usually hook in the evenings or at weekends, both of which seem to have been swamped by either tiredness or other activities of late. But this afternoon, just after lunch I sat with a cup of tea and a little Sweet Something on the side (recipe for that coming tomorrow) and enjoyed some Afternoon Hooky. Very pleasurable it was too.

In fact....am about to go and squeeze in a few more stripes before it's time to plod along the canal to school.

Hoping you're having a Happy Today, whatever the weather and whatever you are up to, and I shall see you tomorrow for some Festive Baking.....it's gonna be rather Mmmmmmm at Attic24 tomorrow!

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Lampshade Makeover :: Ta-dah!

Do you know something? Since the beginning of November, I've actually written no less than four Ta-dah type posts, which makes todays post "Ta-dah number five", isn't that something? I'd say it's been a very creative and productive time for me of late hasn't it?

So yes, a little bit of a rippy-sticky reveal for you today as I show you my recently completed decopatched lampshade. Remember when I told you all about the joys of Decopatch when I discovered it last month? And do you remember my first rippy-sticky project, the LOVE letters??

I tell you, this decopatch stuff was truly made for the likes of me, I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's such a simple craft, so childish in many ways, but the joy of decopatch, oh the complete JOY of it lies precisely in it's Simplicity and it's Childishness. The simple, childish pleasure of ripping up little bits of paper and getting all messy-fingered with glue is not to be underestimated. Well not for me at any rate.

So anyhow...lets get on with revealing this particular project :: the Horrid Lampshade Makeover.

This funny white plastic lampshade hangs low over our dining table on one of those springy wire type things which means you can alter the height of it. We use it every single day, and it was here in the house when we moved in. Over the two years that we've lived with this light, I've looked about on many occasions for a replacement shade but without success. I mean, as lampshades go, it wasn't completely hideous, but it wasn't really very nice either. It was just kind of functional and there.

The idea to give it a decopatch makeover was quite spontaneous, and to be honest I wasn't sure that it would actually work out. But as I had little sentiment for the Horrid Lampshade, I didn't feel too worried if it ended up a disaster. So off I went, full steam ahead with the rippy-sticky makeover.

I decided on a very simple design of stripes. Nothing complicated, nothing too faffy. Horizontal stripes, about 4cm deep, starting out from the top and working my way down.

I admit I had a little confidence wobble at the above point, when three stripes had been completed. I had to keep hanging the shade back up every time I came to a stop because we needed the shade in place in order to keep the light low enough (without the weight of the shade, the light bulb would spring up near to the ceiling, making the whole room seem very harshly lit and not nice for eating under).

So for a week or so, the Horrid Lampshade remained in it's half-finished state as I pondered on it's progress. Then one evening last week, I decided that it really HAD to be finished, and that it was daft to leave it half done, even if I was unsure of it. So off I went again with the rippy-sticky, working my way down to the wavy, fluted bottom edge until all of the white plastic was hidden under a mass of little coloured papery bits...............

................and it was only then, with the last stripe in place, that I decided it had possibly been a success.

That I did in fact kind of like what I had done to the Horrid Lampshade.

That

it

was

horrid

no

more.

Want to see??

ok.........you got it..........

Ta-Dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hung it in place and looked at it from every which way.

Took me a while to really get used to it, to move on from thinking it was merely an "OK" improvement.

Had to live with it a while to really fall in love with it.

But now I am.

In Love with it, that is.

In the evenings when the light's switched on, the dozens of little bits of coloured paper glow like a magical mosaic.

It really does look very Lovely indeed.

And it fits so well with this room, brings a smile, warms my heart. 

So....thats the story of how the Horrid Lampshade received the rippy-sticky treatment and was magically transformed into the Lovely Lampshade.

I do appreciate a good, happy ending to a story, don't you?

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LOVE Letters :: Ta-dah!

It's always good to partake in a little Ta-dahing on a wet gloomy Friday if you ask me, and most especially on a wet gloomy Friday when one is feeling quite unbelievably tired at the tail end of a rather loooong drawn out week. Yes, it's good to feel that amidst all the worn out Coping-with-it-all that's been going on with me this week, that something pretty and frivolous and exciting and creative did indeed happen here at Attic24.

So do you recall my rather over-the-top Overexcitable post on Monday, the one where I went on (and on) about the wonderous potential of my new craft hobby? Remember the Decopatch??

Ahhhhhhh, such FUN I've had with this decopatch thing, sitting in my own little private happy place, filled with the joy of ripping up and gluing little bits of paper.

Such a long time since I've had a really good glue-session, gosh I had forgotten how wonderfully satisfying and theraputic it is to glue things.

It was Marvelous!

After some deliberation on how to proceed with this project, I finally chose four colourful sheets of my new decoupatch paper (2 red/pink and 2 blue) to use for the four letters of LOVE.

I then ripped the sheets neatly into strips about an inch wide, then ripped again to form little inch-squares.

And then the gluing began...bit by bit I glued the paper squares in place, working my way around each letter, gluing, sticking, smoothing as I went.

It was easy, but oh-so-satisfying.

In fact I would go so far as to say it was Immensely satisfying to see each plain wooden letter come to life with applied colour and pattern.

Once the letters had all beensuccessfully decopatched and left to dry over night, I decided that a little further Embellishment was needed.

I pondered it a while, tried out various ideas, then finally settled on punched paper flowers and buttons. 

The Little People were involved with my choice of Embellishment, and helped me select which coloured buttons to use and how to arrange them. They had (thankfully) forgotten that I had loudly refused to let them help out during the early stages of ripping and gluing. That I had rather meanly used the words Go Away This is MY Project for ME to do by MYsELF. 

So anyways, moving swiftly on....

Embellishments were completed.....

And my LOVE Letters joyfully finished and admired.

Want

to

see ????

Ok...

here

they

come....

TA-DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you impressed??

Do you love them??

Do you feel all giddy and excited for this decopatch thing??

Or is it just me??

I wasn't quite sure in the end where to display my LOVE Letters.

At first i thought they would be good in my bedroom, but then changed my mind...I wanted to be able to see them throughout the day so decided in the end to keep them downstairs.

So yesterday I stuck them up on the wall above the sofa (as in above pic), and I thought they looked quite good there. But then Little Man came home from school yesterday and said

"I see you've put The Letters up."

(I nod)

"They don't look very good there Mum."

(I frown)

"You should move them."

(I listen)

"Put them above the mirror over there look."

(I look)

And I thought my goodness he's right, The Little Man is right. And why didn't I think of that?

So now they sit above the mirror in the dining room end of our living space, looking quite funky and joyful and very much at home

And I'm very, very happy with them.

Now then....if you look in the mirror up above there, can you see the reflection of our low pendant light which hangs over the dining table?? This light was here when we moved in, and I've never much liked the shade. Never much cared for the dirty looking yellowing plastic thats it's made from, although I do like the shape.

So....guess what's going to be next in line for a little glue-and-paper makeover. A little Decopatch jiggery-pokery?

Uh-huh.

You guessed it.

Right then, on that happy note I'll have to love you and leave you for now, I've gotta go rip-and-glue.

Have a wonderful weekend......

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Overexcitability

I have to tell you I am suffering at the moment, reeeeaaaaaallly suffering. Yes, I have been struck down with a most severe case of Overexcitability and it is so bad that I am quite beside myself. I can't sleep properly, I am all over the place with the giddy-jitters and my mind is bursting with so much inspiration and so many creative possibilities presenting themselves to me at the moment.

Of course, this is not a new experience for me, no-no-no, it's all too familiar. I often suffer from this affliction, and it just today occurred to me that it could possibly be seasonal (see this post from this time last year? See how remarkably close the dates are?? Uncanny or what??)

So let us chat a little about the Root Cause of my current Overexcitable condition shall we? Well it's been brewing for a while you understand, but finally came to a head yesterday when I left the house at 9.30am, and drove myself across the hills to Harrogate to visit the Knitting and Stitching Show. It was quite a spontaneous and last minute decision to go, but I am so glad I made the effort. It was sooooo exciting! I only took one photograph at the show (the above amazing stitched vase of flowers), cos I was quite honestly too busy rushing around hither and thither working myself up into an Overexcited frenzy.

After a medicinal cappuccino and a danish pastry had been consumed, my first stop was my favourite button stand to replenish my stock of deliciously coloured plastic buttons.

I spent a lovely time here selecting from the colour themed pick-and-mix tubs, filling my little bags with same-size buttons, chatting to the other customers as we took turns making our selections, swapping places when necessary, admiring each others choices. It was a lot of fun, and I love-love-love my buttons.

Second stop was to be fabric. Now then....I had it in the back of my mind that I might possibly be able to buy some rather nice fabric at the show, but had not really entirely planned it you understand. The whole business of buying fabric and Building a Stash scares me a little, it always seems so frivolous and extravagant, and there is often a lot of associated Guilt involved.

But you see, I've had it in me to make a Patchwork Quilt for the Longest Time now, I really, really, really have desperately wanted to do it for years. You may remember me chatting to you about it earlier in the year, and showing you my modest stash back then. You may also remember my patchwork chair seat cover, and how I managed to end up with a whole stack of extra fabric squares now waiting patiently to be assembled into Quilt Formation.

 

So yesterday, with this quilt idea in the back of my mind, I ended up going a little bit crazy and went off on a bit of a spontaneous fabric-buying splurge. I visited four different fabric sellers and in a frenzy of Overexcitable buying I ended up with the above fat quarters. Sixteen in total, a mixture of Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey and Anna-Maria Horner.

What do you think?? Aren't they LUSH????

Oh I have been fondling and smooching these little stacks of fabricky gorgeousness like you wouldn't believe, I am very much smitten.....

.....and once they were added to my other fabrics, I realised with complete joy that after many years I have now assembled the Perfect Stash to make a quilt with. And I am so excited.

SO VERY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But deary-deary me folks, that is not all. That is not the end of my Overexcitability I'm afraid. No, there was one other thing that Got me yesterday :: my third stop at the show was the amazing "Decopatch" stand. I wish that I'd had the thought to take some photographs at this stand, it was completely brilliant, and hugely inspiring, I just could not resist it's colourful charms. Already buzzing from my button and fabric purchases, I kind of just went with the flow here and indulged my creative Overexcitability to the max.

So what is Decopatch?? Well it's basically a form of decoupage, where one uses specially dyed thin tissue papers with a special glossy glue, and proceeds to cover all manner of household objects.

The blurb describes it as the "exciting new 'paint without paint' papercraft technique. It's a funky addictive papercraft that's amazingly simple to use, a modern twist on the traditional decoupage.  All you need is the paper, the object that you're going to cover and the special glue varnish.  Simply cut or tear your paper into small pieces - we've found postage stamp or a bit bigger works well - paint a coat of the glue-varnish onto your object, stick the paper on and pop anopther coat on the top and hey presto, you're a decopatcher! And you'll find projects everywhere, you can cover practically anything: old furniture, glass, wood, stone, cardboard, the possibilities are endless!"

Ahhhhhh just LOOK at the papers I bought!!! Aren't they amazing?!

 

Can you just imagine me in a complete state of Overexcitement here, gathering these pretty papers together, jigging from foot to foot, almost hyperventilating with pleasure :o). Well yes, you know me well by now, I'm sure you can imagine it very well indeed.

 

So now I am about to become not only a Patchwork Quilter, but also a Decopatcher too. I bought these wooden LOVE letters as my starting project and plan on doing that tomorrow. I am hugely excited by it I have to tell you.

By the way, I've discovered today that there's lots of stuff on the www to do with this amazing craft...a couple of good sites/stockists I've found are here and here, should you find yourself as Overexcitable as me and be tempted to give it a go.

Well, after all that dizzy show-n-tell I really need to go have a cup of tea and try to calm myself down a bit now. Deep breaths, reeeeelax.

Have yourselves a lovely, creative, fun, inspiring, happy day my lovelies.....

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Stars and Stitches

It's been a very idle sort of a day here today. Down right lazy in fact. I spent almost the entire morning with the Little People creating with hama/perler beads. Oh we LOVE these little itsy bitsy plastic beads! I know without a shadow of a doubt that if these beads had been invented when I was a child I would have been totally, completely addicted to them.
Little Man sat for hours on end today in front of my laptop, using the perler beads website which has hundreds of design ideas and patterns to follow. He made two dogs, a frog, an electric guitar, a whale, two fish, and a car.
Little Lady and I collaborated on a joint project to makes stars together.
It was a lot of fun, more than perhaps a forty year old should admit to having with this kind of thing. Possibly.

Our house, being Victorian, has a very tall space for a front door, which allows for an extra piece of glass across the top (officially called a Transom, don't you know). Now the previous house owners installed a (rather hideous, in my humble opinion) white plastic front door and transom, with wibbly wobbly leafy glass. I really dislike it, and one of my greatest wishes for Number 24 is for this lovely old house to have a lovely new front door. A beautiful, handmade, painted wooden front door with some beautiful panels of stained glass made to my own design. The transom window is just crying out for coloured stained glass, don't you think? Possibly with the number 24 incorporated...ahhh, it makes me feel quite giddy thinking of the creative possibilities!

Anyhow, I decided on a whim to hang our perler bead stars up at the transom window with invisible thread, and every time I've walked into the hallway and seen them there today, I've experienced a rush of pleasure. Ok, so it's not quite stained glass, but I like the effect rather a lot.

It struck me how closely the beady stars resembled the colours/patterns in my crochet work. How my instinctive use of colour repeats itself through all my creativity, whether it be fabric, yarn or plastic.
See my Big Chair there? Photo taken today, and I have to say, another pleaure rush there too.
I was asked a little while ago about this little needlepoint cushion of mine (so sorry I forget who exactly asked to see it more closely, but I hope you know who you are)...I didn't make it, although it is handmade. It was given to me by my mother in law who bought it for £1 from a car boot sale knowing I would love it.
And I do, very much.
Want to take a closer look?

So simple, just little repeating squares of colour worked in tent stitch (don't I sound knowledgable haha!)

It's been a great many years since I did needlepoint (I remember as a child, I was given a small kit for a birthday present once) and I suddenly have a real strong yearning to try it again, to see if it's something I might enjoy to sit quietly and work on in idle moments when I do not feel like crocheting (gasp!).

I had a little pootle about on the internet today, trying to find some modern/contemporary needlepoint kits/designs, but it seemed there was not a lot to be found. Most of what is available is quite stuffy and old fashioned in my opinion. I did find this rather nice website called Jolly Red which is bright and cheerful and the designs appeal to me. I like this one and this one...but am seriously wondering about designing my own and buying the wool and holey fabricky stuff to do it my way.

Attic24-stylie needlepoint.

Now there's a delicious thought.

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PS if any of you know of any good books/websites/blogs/sources of inspiration for needlepoint, please do let me know? Ta muchly xxx

Edited to add :: Oh oh oh...look what I found here and here ... Cripes, I really have the excitable heebie-jeebies for this new craft, not good just before bedtime, i feel all twitchy! If there was a craft shop open right now selling needplepoint supplies, I would be there in my pyjamas!!

My Today

:: 9am, walking home from school along the canal, loving the sunshine ::

:: enjoying the stillness of the water.... ::

:: ....with it's upsidedown reflections ::

:: the yellow of these forsythia flowers stopped me in my tracks ::

:: 9.10am, a load of dirty laundry to see to before I dash out again ::

 

:: 9.15am, bags on the step as I stop to lock my front door ::

: :9.30am, at the cafe for my second crochet workshop  ::

:: 11am everyone busy with hooks and yarn ::

 

:: 12.30pm, oh dear, housekeeping is not up to scratch these days ::

 

:: 12.45pm, oh dear-oh dear, must see to those narcissi ::

:: 1.30pm, into school for more butterflies and PPPs ::

:: 3.30pm, back home, and a much needed sit down with a cuppa ::

 

:: 3.45pm, up to the Attic, and oH!! That View!! That blue sky ::

Such a busy, brimful kind of a day for me today. So much sharing and doing, creating and talking, hither and thither. I will breathe out again soon, I feel like I've been kind of been catching my breath all day, well all week come to think about it. I'm not accustomed to so much activity, to so much sociability, to so much rushing about. Its good though, to pull ones idle bones out of the fur lined rut and shake things up a bit.

Isn't it?

To be completely truthful, I am so looking forward to my Todays being slower again. Yes, bring me them slow-easy days and let me potter again. Let me try and get my house back into some sort of habitable state, where flowers are not half dead and where essential household items are in existence. Where laundry is clean, and where I don't trip over the piles of stuff everywhere. I can feel a Spring Clean coming on. Either that or a Gin Cocktail.

Now where did I put the gin?

xxxxxxx

Butterflies and PPP's

A busy week for me this one, with a touch of madness I feel. I sometimes wonder why I volunteer myself for such things, why I choose to put myself out there so much at times. But then how can I not? How can I be a stay-at-home-mum with no employment to speak of, and not get involved with activities at the Little People's school when I am Time Rich?? Of course I can't shake my head and say no. Of course I have to jump in with both feet and get involved.

So this week finds me leading the way in organising a Mothers Day craft project with the school children. The hope is that it'll be a fun activity for them to do, resulting in a lovely gift for all those Mummies, and also a little cash will be generated to put in to the schools coffers.

I've had a few weeks to get it together with this project, but in typical fashion I don't prepare in advance and instead choose my usual fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach. Its OK I think, because The Idea has already been sorted. The Creative Design has been established, my ideas got a Nod at the recent PTA meeting. All I need to do is bring it all together. Purchase craft materials and the such like. Eaaaasy, no probs, I can get away with doing this oooo let me see, the day before? The day itself? I kid you not, this is generally how I operate, you would not want me on your team.

So want to see what my Idea was? Want to see the Creative Design?

Ok, well here you can see we need lots of brightly coloured card. A heart punch too.

Many, many frazzled minutes are spent cutting and punching and snipping.

Components for the Creative Design are assembled....

Hearts (two sizes), butterfly bodies and butterfly wings, all cut by hand.

With-love-from labels printed, and little cards cut and folded too.

Butterfly wings and bodies are glued together.

Butterfly wings are decorated, my-my I'm enjoying this.

Butterfly attaches to folded card with a jaunty label glued inside.

Space to write ones name, and a little x too.

Now if you pass me the selotape I can stick the whole butterfly ensemble to a brightly coloured lolly pop stick, and ta-dah!!! A Sticky Butterfly!!!

Hmm sorry, what was that?

What am I proposing to do with this butterfly stick?

Where am I gonna stick it, excuse me???

Well....into a PPP of course!!

A PPP, yes :: a Pretty Potted Primula!!!

Look.......

Don't you just think the Little People are going to enjoy making these?

And don't you think all those Mummies are going to love them?

Simple, yet effective.

Now then, need to figure out where/how to purhcase 100 PPP's.

Need to go and harass poor unsuspecting plant man on the plant stall at the market.

Plant man is very nice indeed, says I can surely pop to his nursery and purchase 100 PPP's.

And so this morning (the first day of The Project) I pop to the nursery and fill my car boot up with glorious PPP's.

I dance around with delight when I get home, opening and closing my car boot several times just to get that ker-pow effect of seeing all this floral goodness in there.

Open-Ahhhhh!!!-close. Open-Oooooeeee!!!-close. Open-ohhhhhHHhHhhhhh!!!-close.

It absolutely thrills me to bits to have a car full of flowers.

And this afternnoon, off I go to school and spend a couple hours working with the smallest class which happens to contain my own Little Lady. We successfully transform 30 PPP's with crafty Butterfly Goodness, and everyone is delighted. Teachers are wowed, children are excited, me, well, I'm both of those things and a few others besides.

Tomorrow afternoon I shall go back for more. And the next day. And the next. We have one hundred of these to get through, four more classes of children.

And then there will be The Moment on Friday afternoon, when one hundred  Little People will come tumbling out of classrooms, clutching their PPP with its sticky Butterfly to proudly present to their Mummy.

Ahhhhh, I am SO looking forward to that moment, I shall have two of these coming back at me from my two Little People, and I'll be very happy indeed I expect.

xxx

Nature's Treasures

Up here in the Attic, we have three very large, spacious, deep under-eave storage cupboards that stretch the whole width of the house. They are not tidy, organised cupboards, oh no, they are messy, hectic, dreadfully untidy cupboards and they are rammed full of Stuff. It's mostly my stuff, I might add, and I am rather ashamed of the mess in there.

As you know it's now a year since we moved, and a large proportion of the attic-eaves-Stuff consists of boxes of unpacked possessions. Things that belong to me which move with me whenever I move, things which I absolutely can't part with, yet somehow do not end up seeing the light of day very often. Boxes of old photographs, old school work, old toys, old ornaments, old collections, old books, old textiles, old postcards, old crockery. Old, old, old.
I wonder why I keep all this stuff? I cannot fathom it, but I have this deep, ingrained hoarding tendency which refuses to be ignored.

Annnnyhow, to the point :: yesterday afternoon, I was to be found on my hands and knees, bum in the air, attempting to crawl into the cupboards to find something. After a huge amount of rummaging and some rather unladylike words, I did eventually manage to find what I was looking for (a battered leather suitcase full of my old childhood toys), as well as many other things I had forgotten about. One of these forgotten things was a crate containing some old books. And amongst the old books, I found this little Sarah Lugg book called "objects of my affection". It's many years since I looked through this little book, had quite forgotten my obsession with this artist. I spent a lovely while this morning sitting in the Attic24 window seat with a  cup of coffee, looking through the pages, and have been inspired to share with you.

Have you heard of Sarah Lugg?
I tried to search for her on the internet, but sadly, there is not a lot to be found anymore. She used to have a fantastic website, yet it seems to have disappeared. I did find an interview with her which you can read if you are not familiar with her :: she is a mixed media artist who creates these beautiful collages using natural materials. And although she is English, her popularity was huge in the US where she mainly ended up selling her work.

These "tag" images are from the above book (sadly no longer in print), which contains Sarah Luggs beautiful work along with romantic quotes and poetry.

I find the images so inspiring.

And these images are from printed greetings cards (from my Inspiration Stash Pile, I tell you, I hoard like you wouldn't believe).

I especially like her references to the sea in these images, her use of shells and pebbles...

...reminders of beach walks and summer holidays. I find them very nostalgic.

And this is not the work of Sarah Lugg, but the work of a rather loopy little thing. A funny odd ball who goes through life collecting and hoarding and squirreling away Nature's Treasures.

Hmm, yes, well what can we say about this loopy little odd ball? She loves the sea obviously, and she has an obsession with collecting natural finds. Calendars, yes, she loves her calendars, positively adores the rhythm of the months and the seasons.

Shall we take a closer look??

I made this little picture years ago, just for me. I have it hanging in my bedroom, and still really love it and remember making it, recall the pleasure of selecting just the right little natural treasures to represent each month of the year.

It was no easy task doing the selecting.

My personal collection of Natural Treasures is quite substantial.

 

Wanna see?

Wanna peek into my secret drawers?

Not many people get to go here you know, you are quite honoured.

You sure you want to look?

Ok.

If you're sure.

Let me open a drawer for you to peek............................

Many, many, many, many bits and pieces, gathered over many, many years, from many, many locations far and wide.

Memories of holidays and walks, of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Collected and hoarded and stored....

....for no real reason other than I felt the need.

Could not bare to throw these treasures away.

I'm not sure what you are going to think of all this?

It's quite a thing to share the private contents of ones drawers.

Edited to add :: a few of you have asked about the actual drawers themselves and I realised I totally forgot to tell you about them. The little divided wooden trays came from Ikea, they were called "collectors boxes" and designed to be hung on a wall. Sadly I don't think they make them anymore, well thats to say I couldn't find them on the Ikea website. I bought four of them specifically to to lay horizontally and hold my gathering collection of natural treasures. They were stacked on top of each other for quite a while before I had the brainwave of asking my wonderful father-in-law to make the outside wooden shell to hold them as drawers (he is a good carpenter, does amazing things with wood and scary tools). That was about twelve years ago now I think, gosh doesn't time fly?!

The TWIG project

Well now, hello to you all. You doing OK today? Good, good, me too. This morning I was casting around for something to post about today, umming and ahhing over subject matter. I pondered chatting more about housework and my recent discovery of the FLY lady (thanks Amanda), or perhaps I could talk Soup Recipes? Or possibly I could get away with bombarding you with more crochet hexagons which I cannot stop photographing? Or maybe even show you my new fabric stash which arrived through the post a few weeks ago?
But then I suddenly remembered The TWIGS. Remember way-back-when in the depths of the Summer holidays, I took the Little People out in the rain to gather soggy twigs from the woods?
Do you recall me talking about the Mysterious Twig Project I was working on??
Wanna see it?
Yeah?
You sure?
Oh, well go on then, let me tell you the story of the DAMNED HARDEST PROJECT EVER INVENTED.

Here is my small, ancient fabric stash, well the patterned bit of it anyhow :: I also have a box of blindingly coloured plain cottons. Back in my dim distant past pre-Little-People, I was a working textile artist and amongst other things, I used to make a lot of hand made greetings cards. And when I say a lot, I do mean thousands. The above fabrics used to be cut into tiny pieces to make miniature appliqued and embroidered motifs for my cards, and this collection is what I have left. Once I reached eight months pregnant and could no longer sit my huuuuge belly in front of a sewing machine to fulfil orders, I wound down my little business, packed up all my materials into a cupboard and my work room was hurriedly transformed into a baby's room.

That was in 2002 and I since then I have done very little in the way of sewing. Every so often, I get inspired to stitch, get the urge to have a play with fabric, ribbons, buttons. I've stitched the odd gift, and made a few bits and pieces. I wait for Inspiration to strike. Inspiration needs to strike me pretty damn hard these days, and back in August there it suddenly was :: Bang! The most perfect little decorative sewing project!

One of the many things I love about visiting Blogland and Flickrville, is the thing I call the Chain-of-Influence. You know when you see something creative that someone else has done, and you follow a link to a pattern or website, and then you get all excited for giving it a go yourself. And you discover that quite a few others are also doing the very same thing, and then lots of different variations of the same project all get created and shared, and then they in turn inspire more people to give it a go. A chain of creativity and linked ideas. It's great isn't it?
So this is how the Chain of Inspiration went ::
The Yvestown Blog :: Spool Sewing :: Flickr :: Attic 24

This is the story of The Bird Mobile AKA The Twig Project AKA The Damned Hardest Project Ever Invented.

I could not wait to do this project, I was so excited for it. A bird mobile! How delightful! How beautifully simple! How Creative! And Decorative!

I made four birdies in one afternoon.

Cut them out in a frenzy of activity, stitched them as fast as I could because I could not wait to stuff them and see them all sitting prettily in a row.

The Little People adored these birds. I had to snatch them back on numerous occasions, especially from Little Lady who wanted to take them to bed with her. All four of them.

I declare they are not toys and must remain in the Attic to be Attached to Twigs and made into the perfect mobile. Just like the clever people at Spool Sewing had done.
And here my friends is where it starts to go pear shaped.

I paint the twigs white.
I try to do as the Spool People said and stitch the birds to the twigs.
It is devilishly difficult and I decide they must be glued on instead.
But how to position them so they balance?
How to get the twigs to all stay horizontal and provide a series of perfectly balanced perches for my birds?
It is IMPOSSIBLY HARD to make a well balanced mobile.
There is lots of cursing.
A fairly major hissy fit.
The birds will not sit properly, they keep spinning upsidedown and hang moodily underneath the perch instead of jauntily on top.

Eventually, I manage to get three birds to remain upright, and the twig to remain straight(ish).
I hang the mobile from my bedroom light and I do enjoy it very much.
But it doesn't last long.
J keeps knocking it when he is taking his clothes off.
I keep knocking it when I am making the bed.
And because it is so delicately balanced, it's hard to put it right once it's been knocked off kilter.
Then one day last week, the Kaffe Fassett fabric bird fell off completely, so I took it as a sign that the Twig Project had had it's day.

But I do still love the birds, and they have now flown around the house to perch.

They are happier this way.
And so am I.

Edited to add :: please don't let my own crappy mobile-making skills put you off this project! The free bird pattern is there in the sidebar of the Spool Sewing blog, and the birds are FABULous to make, so do give them a go. I am fully intending to give the mobile thing another try too (because I do still LOVE the idea of it). Only I think I need to use more twigs in a configuration because I suddenly realised maybe this is where I went wrong, trying to balance just one twig? Any advice or mobile-making experience welcome!

Our Summer :: the Rainy Days

Thanks so very much for all your warm welcome home wishes yesterday, for Little Man's Birthday wishes and for the hugs and sympathy for the start of school. OK, I have to admit that in the grand scheme of things, yesterday was not really so bad. I know there was snot and tears, but we are all still intact, no limbs were lost, and no-one was irreparably damaged in any way.  I kind of lost the perspective there for a while when I was writing yesterdays post, those darn emotions, don't they lead us a merry dance sometimes? Silly old me.
Despite the traumatic start, Little Man did in fact go on to have a "great" day yesterday, and this morning, well he was still extremely clingy but no tears thank goodness. I am hoping the morning drop-off will get progressively easier day by day. That I will not traumatise the poor teachers and other mothers by snotting over them again.

So :: onward and upward. The next few days, if it's ok by you, I feel the need to review a little. To do Closure of our Summer. I like the word Closure. According to the online dictionary, there are several definitions, but the one that's most appropriate here is this ::
"an often comforting or satisfying sense of finality"

Somehow it seems important for me to record some of the past six weeks, to remember the ordinary, every day bits of summer  '08 that would perhaps otherwise get forgotten. To sort of lay them out, view them, then wrap them up and store them away and get on with the activity of Autumn. I was looking back through photos and a few of my posts-in-draft yesterday and was delighted and surprised to see that our summer this year was really rather good, despite the weather. I feel as if we enjoyed it hugely, rain and shine,  and the time spent with my Little People throughout the six weeks was really great.

These pictures were all taken on one single day at the start of the holidays :: Wednesday 30th July.

This day was very typical of the Wet Days we spent together at home during the summer, although as August went on, we increasingly seemed to have more and more children in the house. Number 24 has become a magnet for children up and down the street as well as various ajoining streets. It's been great fun if not a little noisy and chaotic at times (yesterday after school I had 5 extra kids in the house as well as my two, I kid you not). And as much as I love that they enjoy coming to our house, I did like the days when it was just the three of us.

There was crafting :: I bought the Littl'n's a Craft Chest at the start of the hols, and pretty much left them to their own devises with it. I didn't really do much in the way of organised activity, only helped out when I was asked to, and it was great to see what they came up with. A spider named Harry (Little Man's creation), and two little pompom pets (Little Lady made these). And over the weeks there have been all sorts of wonderful things constructed out of pipe cleaners, feathers, sticks and straws, card and foam, string and selotape, glue and glitter. It's been very messy at times (there is still a sprinkling of glitter throughout the house), but good all the same.

There was baking :: I baked a LOT during the holidays, mainly to provide snack material for the hungry hoards, but also quite often as a rainy day activity to keep Little Fingers busy.

There's nothing like the promise of smarties, hundreds and thousands and Writing-Icing to bring excitement and creativity into the kitchen.

There was morning coffee :: my treat each morning when I was missing my regular cafe visits. I have this great coffee machine, its a Phillips Senseo.
I can highly recommend this machine. The coffee it produces is mighty fine and has this scrumptious creamy layer on the top :: it's almost (but not quite) as good as a cafe coffee experience.

And its one of those little things that makes me hugely happy, one of life's little luxuries. My favourite mug with a creamy cup of coffee with a sprinkling of chocolate powder, and perhaps a little caramelised biscuit to go with it..mmmmmmm. I sit at the table with the Little People, sometimes crocheting, sometimes blog-reading on my baby laptop, while they get stuck in with the crafting.

There were stories :: cosying up on the sofa under the Granny blanket, reading together.

There was "work" :: I found these books in the supermarket and they have been great. Little Man loves to work these pages, and Little Lady has even started to read and write using hers. It was delightful to watch.

There was counting :: coins emptied from the money box and painstakingly counted (several times) into little metal buckets. Later in the afternoon we went out in the rain, carrying the money buckets to the local newsagent to buy a few sweets. Counting out the coins on the counter, exchanging pennies for lolipops to suck on the way home.

There was Home Cinema :: on this particular late afternoon, the Little People chose the Nanny McPhee dvd.

We adore this film :: I particularly love the children's bedroom scenes, with the beds all decked out in patchwork quilts and crochet blankets, the huge light filled window and the delightful butterfly mobile.

 

It's a magical film, perfect for a rainy afternoon.
So, that was the rainy, wet day that was 30:07:08.
It was ordinary, but oh so worth remembering.
Tomorrow, a look at the Sunny Days........