Attic24

Country Living

Good morning! Did you have a good weekend? Was it Wet where you live? It was here, yes, it was. It was indeed forecast to be Wet (my neighbour told me on Friday, she always seems to know the Forecast) but it was still a disappointment waking up on Saturday to grey Wetness. In the morning I had to go out to the shops for essential supplies (bread and wine, I kid you not) and I got Wet going to the shops, and even Wetter coming home from the shops :: trudging home with Wet flapping trousers and rain dripping down my face, I decided I was not going out again for the rest of the day.
So when I walked in the door and saw the post had been and saw it was a Country Living weekend, I was exceptionally happy, even though I was dripping Wet. I tried not to yelp with excitement, didn't want to get the odd look again from J.

I subscribe to CL, think I have done for the past ten years or so, and yet I still never remember which time of the month the magazine arrives. Is it the end? The beginning? The middle? A set date? Every month it's always a delightful surprise when the postman rams it through the letter box ker-plunk onto my dirty old doormat (note to self :: must buy this, or maybe this, this or this to replace the current monstrosity). And as it's generally a Saturday, its makes it kind of blissful.

I have a routine for CL-arrival weekends. I like to read the cover first, study the cover image and ponder what kind of an issue this is gonna be. I do not open it. I leave it lying on the table and I glance at it a lot throughout the day. I am of course Desperate to read it, but I can't just flop down and read it any old how. It has to be perfect. Peace and quiet preferably (very hard to come by on a weekend) and  extreme comfort (I need to be wearing pyjamas and either in bed, or snuggled up somewhere with a blanket). So I wait. Wait for the perfect time to enter the pages.

Early afternoon I bake flapjack. We have the in-laws drop by for a cuppa (well we call it a Brew up here in Yorkshire). And it's still Wet. So we have an afternoon of kids-in-the-house. Our own and the neighbours. Its noisy, fun, hectic. I manage to sit in our big armchair in the bay window and crochet quite a lot of hexagons as the kids play. Barbies are out, a train track gets set up. I drink tea and eat flapjack, later moving on to a glass or two of wine. Actually, crocheting hexagons whilst drinking icecold Semillon Sauvignon Blanc with CL on standby takes me pretty damn close to heaven.

Little People eventually tell me they're hungry and as I try not to generally cook much at weekends I do pizza. Jazz up a basic margherita with some rocket and goats cheese. Garlic bread. Carrot sticks, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Apple juice for the Little People (a treat for them, I make them drink water 98% of the time), vinof or the Big People. We sit on the floor and eat picnic style round the coffee table.

So its about 7pm now and I am on my second/third glass of wine. J has retreated to the dining table with his laptop and is doing some geekish computery stuff, he has that look which says Do Not Disturb Me. I am Hugely Desperate to delve in to CL by now, it's been sitting beside me unopened all day. I deploy bribery to deal with the Little People  in order to achieve a certain state of calm :: we all get into our pj's and I snuggle them up in blankets on the sofa, put Tom and Jerry cartoons on tv (best kiddie dvd's we ever bought) and give them little eggcups of mini smarties. They are Hugely Happy (apple juice and sweets on one day, woohoo!)

And so I am finally ready to go in. I like to casually browse through quite quickly at first, get a feel for what's on offer.

And oh I'm not disappointed. It's stunning. Vibrant. Bold. Mmmmmmmmmm.

This is certainly an issue designed for me, there is colour by the bucket load. Ohhhh this textile designer's house, page 92!

And Ohhhh those dahlias, page 100! I am swooning! Pour me another glass of wine!

So I am flicking through, seeing, pondering, absorbing, taking photographs. But I'm not actually reading the words yet.

No, I save this for early Sunday morning, sat in bed with my pink spotty mug of hot tea.

Total peace and quiet before the Little People get up and I finally get to read it thoroughly.

Cover to cover.
Enjoy it enormously.
It was worth the wait.

 

Fridayish

Wow folks, you do certainly know how to make a girl feel great dontcha?! Thank you so very very much for all the wonderful Ripple Love yesterday and for all your lovely comments. I really appreciated every word, and oh my, you are waaaaay too kind, I am not that youthful you know. But you should've seen my grin, it was ear to ear. It was especially appreciated as I am approaching something of a milestone in that the big Four-OH looms in nine weeks time. I feel ok about it I think. I am fatter than I feel I should be, have more saggy bits than I'd like, but overall, yes, I think I'm doing ok. But a little reassurance from you has gone a long way to making me feel Great. So please accept a colourful bowl of hearts with my love and thanks. And please try and ignore the dust if possible, I'm not big on dusting.

Cor, I don't know about you, but it feels like its been a heckava loooooooong week this week.  Its the end of our second week being at home during the holidays and I feel worn. Can't say we've done anything momentous this week :: we've visited friends, been to a family day at our little local museum, been to the park, paddled in the beck, walked along the canal, baked buns. There's been tea parties, water fights, bubbles, hopscotch, painting by numbers, scootering, flopping in front of the tv. There's been laughter and high volume squabbles. There's been creativity and  fun and play and there's been endless mess and an awful lot of dirty laundry. Wet soggy clothes and trainers. Chocolate icing all over the sofa. Crushed chalks trodden in. Its the average stuff of home life with a four and five year old I know, but Oh Dear, I am weary of the mess.

We don't have any plans for today :: the same as yesterday, it's a day of taking it as it comes, freewheeling according to the weather, who else is around to play with and how the Little People happen to be feeling hour to hour.
I did have in my mind that today really ought to be a tidying/organising sort of a day. We've got a couple of play-dates lined up for next week and it helps enormously if visiting children coming to play can actually set foot into the bedrooms to carry out the playing.
This morning I went to assess the situation and took these aerial photos of the floors so you can see the enormity of the task ahead. It's the teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy toys that cause the most mess, the stuff that accumulates but doesn't have a proper place to live. It just invades. And spreads.

There's a huge amount of sorting out to be done, lots of "donating" to charity shops me thinks. I know I'm going to meet resistance, but I can be strong. Forceful if needs be. Down right Ruthless if push comes to shove. It needs to be done. 

And truth be known, I'm as bad with the mess. If not worse. This box full of papers (one of four) still mocks me, months after writing "sort out files/paperwork" on my to-do list. Oh the shame of it, do you think there's any hope for me? Do you think I might ever be organised, might ever possess a neat and tidy Home Filing System?

Of course, I don't really want to be sorting kids mess. Or filing/shredding my own mess. What I really want to be doing is creating. Playing with fabric and buttons and bits of ribbon. I'm absolutely bursting at the seams with ideas and inspiration and things I want to have a go at. I need to make the last little bits to go in my Blog Candy Giveaway bags (haven't forgotten, its almost there). Need to chop and stitch tea towels. Need to complete the mysterious Twig Project. Need to start thinking of ways to make stuff in order to earn money again. Yes, its almost time for me to stop twiddling and start working again. Sounds serious.

Maybe I'll stay in my pyjamas and sit in the Attic24 window drinking tea, looking out at the changing weather rolling over the hills. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes, that's more like it.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone, hope you find yourself a little bit of bliss amongst the mess.

The Ripple, Ta-dah!

Welcome to the big Ripple Reveal everyone. Feast your eyes on those ripply, ripplesome, rippletastic ripples! Aren't they wonderful?  Oh I'm so glad to be showing you this project in it's completed, finished state, after many months (has it been 4? 5?) of showing you bits of it. This blanket has spanned over two seasons, started in March/spring and finished in August/summer. It's been such a joy, a pleasure in every way. Soothing, rhythmic, creative, exciting, fulfilling, fun. Every one of the 85 ripples has a streak of pleasure and happiness running through it. Spring and summer memories. It's that kind of blanket.

It's a bedroom blanket this one. I just love seeing it spread out on my bed, love when I walk past the bedroom door I catch an unexpected glimpse of it laid out there, rippling softly.

Love that I can go to sleep with it and wake up with it. Love that the colours also go beautifully with the jar of flowers currently by my bed :: a gift from Lovley C, a hastily picked bunch of soft, pastely  sweet peas, vivid orange calendula, and deep cornflowers and cosmos, presented to me as I was about to leave her wonderful house and garden on Tuesday. They are the happy colours of a summer garden, coffee and flapjack, crochet and natter. And my blanket.

The Little People really, really like this blanket, which makes me so happy. I catch them creeping onto my bed and crawling under it. And in the evenings they politely request permission to bring it downstairs for a spot of cuddling up on the sofa. Which is precisely what handmade blankets are for.

I'm sorry the colour is sometimes slightly "off" in these photos as the light in my bedroom is not great. Really these colours are beautiful in real life. There was a time when I wasn't sure about my colour choices for this blanket. I started out with nine colours of Rowan Cashsoft yarn, which were mainly pastely blues/lilac/pinks, with the lime green and orange thrown in to provide zing. Now you know me by now don't you? Know that my natural tendancy is towards bright, strong, vivid colours. But as I did really want this blanket to be for my bedroom, I thought I would try a soft colour palette for a change. But yes, the inevitable happened :: after about 15 or so stripes, I was getting bored with the softness. I was finding it too dull. And it's very hard to work on a project which is giving off dull vibes.

So that's when I added in the Raspberry stripes. Do you remember I bought a couple balls of this when I visited London in March? Its a Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn and the addition of that bright reddy-pink colour made a Big difference. As I only had two balls of it,  I had to space these stripes out evenly making only five altogether. But what a huge difference those five stripes have made to the overall tone of the blanket, don't you think? The regular spacing of the raspberry stripes was the only colour choice I made that wasn't random :: all the other stripes were randomly chosen as I went along. And I'm really, really pleased with the way it all panned out.

There's a lot to be said for buying yarn locally, for handling it, for arranging it all over the shop floor, and Rowan is my local yarn suppliers choice. Which is why I decided to use the Rowan yarn in the first place. But I've since found another small independent yarn shop about 8  miles away in another town which sells Rowan and Debbie bliss yarns side by side. Now theres a destination for Retail Therapy if ever there was one. So if I was to embark on a second ripple (which is highly likely), I'll go more with my natural instinct and choose bold, vivid Debbie Bliss colours I think.

The pattern for the ripple came from Jan Eatons book, and to me, it was a dream to work, although I know I've had one or two emails from people asking for help/advice about this pattern. Its the first few rows which are the hardest, when you have this long, dangling chain of loops and you're frantically counting and hooking and hoping it's all going to come right by the end of the row. But once you get going, it's easy to see the stitches, to see the rhythmic counting thats involved ::

one dc, one dc, one dc, 2dctog, 2dctog, one dc, one dc, one dc, 2dc's, 2 dc's, one dc, one dc, one dc

And so on. On and on and on, its the Rhthym of the Ripple. Nothing complicated folks, just simple stitches and simple counting, row after row after row, ripple after ripple after ripple.

So would you like some riveting facts about this here project of mine?

Ok, here you have it ::

Measures :: 110cm x 170cm
Starting chain :: 219 stitches
Stripes :: 85
Rows :: 170
Time :: approx 50mins each stripe = 4,250 minutes = 70.83 hours
Balls :: 29
Weight :: 1450g / 3.19670 lb
Cost :: £4.35 per ball = ermmmmmmm a LOT, but its a family heirloom, don't question.
Mileage :: 29 balls @ 130m each ball = 3770metres = 2.34 miles of yarn (!)

Photo :: me sitting on the stairs in my pyjamas, taken by Little Man one morning
Blanket :: gorgeous
Me :: happy.

Tea towels and Lovely Things

Good morning! It's another grey, damp day today, the view of the hills from the Attic24 window is still gorgeous but oh I am disappointed with the weather.
Yestderday it rained on and off all day, we spent a delicious few hours up at Lovely C's wonderful farmhouse, C and I sat in the kitchen nattering, drinking coffee and eating flapjack while the Little People ran round outside, went to feed the chickens and collect the eggs, and bounced on the trampoline. Even when it rained they refused to come inside, they were so excited to be let loose in someone else's garden. What a thrill, bless 'em.
Late afternoon after being home and stuck indoors for a few hours we decided to go out regardless of the wet stuff. We pulled raincoats on and went on a little expedition up the road to the small woods at the top of the park. I wanted to gather some small branches for a Project I'm working on :: yes, branches indeed, how mad am I? Now that's gonna be a good show n tell when it's finished, bet you can't wait to see what loveliness I'm gonna be making with wet soggy branches?!
It was fun :: the Little People rose to the challenge and I ended up with an armful of twigs and sticks, some very small weeny, spindly ones (Little Lady's offering) and some big, fat, dog-chewed ones (Little Man's contribution) which had to be discreetly slung back into the undergrowth. But there were some that I think will be just right for The Project. Oh the intrigue!
So anyways, on with today. My bloggy contribution today is a bunch of Lovely Things that I've been meaning to share with you for a while, ie recent purchases. The last couple months, in various locations, I've been indulging in Retail Therapy my friends. J and I have since had words, and I've been asked to Restrain Myself henceforth into the month of August (good job twigs are free then), but it was good fun while it lasted, this little spending spree of mine.

As you will already know from this post, Retail Therapy for me usually includes tea towels, and four new beauties have joined the ranks :: the two on the left (above) are Greengate and came from the Girls Own Store, and the two on the right were in the Cath Kidston sale when I visited the York store last month.

So they've joined the stash, and I now have about 19 tea towels I think. However, last week when I was stroking and photographing them (as you do with tea towels), I had this Eureka moment :: I layed them all out on the floor and decided there and then that they would make the PERFECT quilt. Nothing elaborate as I have never made a quilt before, but I thought simple squares, as beautifully demonstrated here and here, can be very effective. You see, I am not daft. By turning towels into a quilt, I have a sewing project, a lovely quilt to drape over the second sofa downstairs, and furthermore, a valid reason to buy more tea towels when our existing ones have all been chopped up. Three ways a winner.

Gosh, I am rambling this morning aren't I? Need to be a bit quicker with this blogging lark cos today we need to be somewhere at 10am. Yikes. So speeding on :: more new household kit following a trip to Sainsburys :: Sarah Smith dishcloths and some scrumptious new scourers. Ooooo the pleasure!

A tin of pins (CK) and some lovely ribbon....

.... a vintage tin, again from the Girls Own Store, the one that caused much shaking of the head by J who thought £5 was a criminal amount to pay for a rusty old biscuit tin. Hmmmm...

.... a dinky little old stool from an antiques market (can't you just see the shaking of the head getting more vigorous? Men don't understand the words Vintage and Distressed do they?)...

...some pretty paper lanterns to hang in the kitchen....

...and a rosy lampshade for the bedroom, both from Girls Own Store again (how I love that shop for providing the perfect Retail Therapy Experience).

Phewwwww, spent out now. Thanks for coming along with me, hope you enjoyed the therapy. It's been a pleasure sharing it with you.
Same time, same place tomorrow? Its the big Ripple Reveal, so see you then? xxx

On the Menu :: Fishcakes

Smoked mackerel and sweet potato fishcakes :: yes its an on-the-menu day today.

Tuesday seems to be a good day to talk about food. By Tuesday I'm generally over the slacking of the weekend and have a menu plan chalked up for the week, with a full compliment of food in the fridge and cupboards to back up the aforementioned menu plan.
This was on the menu Tuesday of last week, and is a firm favourite around here.
We have smoked mackerel usually once a week. Its a wonderful staple food :: cheap, tasty, extremely nutritious and versatile. If I'm not making it into fishcakes, we have it as it comes (cold with a robust salad), in a kedgeree, or sometimes mixed with tuna and a cheese sauce into a pasta bake.

I'm particularly chuffed to be passing this recipe on to you because it's one of my very own. YEs, it really is! An Attic24 exclusive no less. Devised by yours truly. And as with most of my favourite recipes, it's easy, tasty, LP-friendly, and only six ingredients to worry about, one of which is growing in a pot outside the back door.

So first off you take the above four ingredients (1 slice wholemeal bread, 1 clove of garlic, juice of half a lemon and a handful of parsley) and whizz them together until you get fine, fragrant, zesty, herby breadcrumbs, as below. Have a good sniff, appreciate the thorough herbiness and zestiness.

Next you will need two smoked mackerel fillets and two medium sweet potatoes. Flake the smoked mackerel into a bowl along with the breadcrumb mixture.

Peel and finely dice the potato and cook until soft (I steam them in the microwave). Marvel at the colour, its the best kind of orangey orange. Give the potato a good mashing with a fork, then season well and add to the fish/crumb mixture.

Now you need to roll your sleeves up and get weighed in with your hands. It's squishing time. Trust me on this one, Squishing is the best method, you want everything combined thoroughly and hands/fingers are the perfect tool. Get stuck in, enjoy the muckiness of it!

To make the fishcakes. take small handfuls of the squished mixture and form it into neat patties in the palm of your hand. I can usually get about 10 smallish cakes from these ingredients which serves us just right (3 each for Big People and 2 each for Little People).
At this point, it helps to put the fishcakes in the fridge for 30min to firm up. This way you prevent them from mushing into a big heap in the frying pan in the manner of potato hash, which causes severe hissy fit.
So once they have chilled, heat a glug of oil in a non stick frying pan and gently fry the cakes for 3 mins or so on each side, or until they turn golden brown. Take care when flipping them over, they are quite soft and you do want to avoid it all going horribly wrong at this point.

To serve, I like to provide a selection of dolloppy dipping sauces.
This usually consists of tomato ketchup, a sweet chilli sauce, and then some sort of fresh creamy dip too. I make the creamy dip according to whats in the fridge :: sometimes it'll be a simple mix of greek yoghurt with a  squeeze of lemon juice, or in this case it was a mix of cream cheese and tartare sauce with snipped fresh chives.

Then you need to provide a big pile of crudites to dip in the dolloppy dipping sauces. (cucumber, carrot and red/yellow pepper sticks). The idea is that the Little People are permitted to eat this whole meal with their fingers, dunking everything in the three dollopy dips. It delights them to eat this way. It tastes better this way. And of course there are always an abundance of pretty paper napkins to wipe fingers off afterwards.

Afternoon Tea

Yes, I know, more flowers, I hope you don't mind too much. I know I only showed you these ones a few weeks ago, but I can't resist photographing them, they are so damn pretty. Little garden posies like this are absolutely my favourite type of flowers. I do like shop bought ones, I love narcissi in the spring, adore tulips, sweet williams and occasionally flirt with shop bought roses if the mood takes me. But nothing lifts my spirits like a little jug of snipped blooms from just outside the door.
I have this dear little jug that is perfect for garden posies. I bought it in Jaipur when J and I spent a while traveling in India. It was 1996, and I carried it all round India in my backpack, wrapped up in tissue paper, hoping it would make it without getting broken (I once bought a beautiful ceramic bowl from Spain which got smashed to smithereens during the journey home when J dumped my rucksack down on the airport floor. So you understand my worry for Breakages).
I noticed Steph at Curlew Country (love that blog) has some gorgeous garden flowers too look, oh I just love them.

So my lovelies, how was your weekend? Here under the Attic24 roof, it was hunkydory. We didn't do a lot, didn't venture far, but it was lovely all the same.
On Saturday I did quite a bit of baking. I am easily influenced you see. I was doing a bit of blog-visiting early Saturday morning and whilst hopping about in cyberspace I called in on the Ragged Roses household. Oh, what a treat! A tea party! I was bowled over by the prettiness of it and immediately decided that I wanted some teaparty lovliness. I got amazingly excited and announced it to the family :: Today at 5pm We Are Having a Tea Party! I picked flowers, ironed my prettiest tea towel (yes, I really did iron it, it was quite an occasion) and set our little coffee table in preparation.

I baked buns (recipe here) and decorated them with little fruit jelly pigs.
And I baked a banana bread loaf. 

I had various Little People in and out of the house all day (my own and other peoples) and as you can see the banana bread did not make it to the tea table intact. And I had to hide the buns because they were under serious threat All Day.

I keep popping in to the sitting room to admire my flowers, oh look how pretty they are and oh I can smell the sweet peas from over by the door. Lovely. Right, on with more baking, something savoury this time.

Mmmmmmmm yes, some Cheesy Crumbles I think. These are deeeeeeelicious and incredibly quick and easy to make, the recipe comes from a great little Book called Cookies Galore.

Whenever I make them, they get snaffled up very quickly, especially by my locust-children. I don't always put the walnuts in, and usually use snipped chives in place of spring onions. They're great served with little cubes of cheese and apple slices. Good for snacks, packed lunches and picnics. And 5pm tea parties.

Oh look, my flowers, my flowers, still looking oh-so-pretty. Did I mention how much I love them?

The tea party was a great success. As well as my baking,  I made egg mayonnaise and tuna mayonnaise sandwiches cut into little triangles. There was a big bowl of strawberries. And jaffa cakes. I used my new Greengate melamine plates with an assortment of napkins from the growing collection. And I served tea from my spotty teapot, milk in a pretty jug.

Sadly I did not get chance to take a picture of the whole table when it was laden and looking beautifully tea-partyish. I had a hungry, demanding, rampaging family who ravaged the food as soon as plate touched cloth. It wasn't polite. Or refined. But it was fun. And delicious.

August, Flowers, Awards and Happy-happy

 

Good morning :o) So it's July no more, farewell July, you were a mixed bag but gave us a taste of true summer last week, and for that I am hugely grateful. Goodness, we are speeding our way through summer aren't we, the weeks are shooting by. I turned pages on my two calendars this morning and so into August we go with a hop and a skip. I know I say it every month, but I do so love my calendars. For those of you who haven't been with me since the start, you can read about my calendars here. Yes, I do enjoy the changing of the seasons, the turning of the pages, the rhythm of life.

((yaaawn)), oh I'm so sorry I am tired this morning. Last night we had a terrific storm here in North Yorkshire, there was heavy rain through most the night (in fact it's rained on and off through most of this week), and then at around 4am I was woken up with a Bang. Literally. There was the most ginormous clap of thunder right over our roof and I almost lept out of bed with fright. My heart was pounding, it's the most disconcerting feeling to be woken up with such a start, especially when I was pleasantly in dreamland (I was dreaming that Little Lady and I were shopping in Laura Ashley for Christmas decorations, eating mince pies).
J and I lay awake for a while, listening to the sounds of the storm, watching the sky light up with lightening streaks. He then decided, unprompted, that we needed a cup of tea so down he went to do the decent thing. You can't beat a hot steaming cuppa at 4.30am whilst snuggled in bed listening to the storm rolling away across the hills, it was lovely. But tiring, my goodness ((yaaawn)) I cannot stop yawning. I did manage to drop back to sleep for about an hour or so before getting up with J again at 6.25am.
I get up at this time every morning to make him his sandwiches to take to work. Some mornings I do this wifely thing very very begrudgingly, but mostly I don't mind. It gets me up and about, albeit in my pyjamas, and once J has left for work at 6.40 or so,  I make a fresh brew and come up to the Attic to blog. In recent weeks The Little People have suddenly learnt the ability to wake-roll-over-and-go-back-to-sleep, which has been quite wonderful. After many years of 5am wake-up calls from them in summer months, this is the first summer when we are waking and rising before them. It feels rather brilliant actually. So my summer holiday routine has formed, and the LP know that when they get up, they can come and find me in the Attic. We have a single bed up here with a big douvet and pillows and they are happy enough to snuggle in for a while to let me "do my work".

So :: a quick view of the view this morning :: the sun is trying it's damndest to shine look, but the storm clouds are still lurking. It could go either way, could be sunny, could be cloudy, could be dry, could be wet. Who knows. It's the English weather, totally unpredictable.

Enough of the weather, lets do some flowery stuff shall we? How do you like my new pvc cover I bought for my outside table? Funky isn't it? I like it very much, as do the Little People. J declined to comment. He shakes his head a lot at me these days, I think he thinks I've lost the plot slightly.
He thinks my purchases are bonkers (J :: how much money did you pay for that rusty old biscuit tin? Me :: its not old, its Vintage, and it has roses on it. It was a fiver. J :: you were robbed).
He thinks my photographic subject matter is mental (J :: what on earth are you doing? Me :: taking a photo of our dinner).
He refuses to read my blog, he simply cannot comprehend it. To him it's utter madness.
But folks, I soldier on in the face of disbelief. I photograph and blog regardless because I've found I love to record my life in this way. It makes me happy. Just like this tablecover does.

And these fake flowers. Bought last week in Bridport from a funny little discount shop called This N That. Three "bunches" for £3. Happy happy.

Into my Cornishware jug they go, and take a peek at another new purchase, this little red spotted jug. Oh I fell head over heels for this little thing, it was love at first sight. Happy happy happy.

And more happiness in the form of Awards. Yes, these little things have been doing the rounds in Blogland and I am honored and thrilled to have been a Triple Receiver in recent weeks.
So with very many heartfelt, happy thanks to ::

Anna at All Things Lovely

and
Claire at Serendipity

and
Julie at Julie Alvarez

These awards have added to my happy-happy days.

I'm glad you don't shake your head at me in disbelief when I prop a book open on the mantel and nearly start crying because the images make my heart squeeze.

This book is called Cut Flowers by Tricia Guild (of Designers Guild fame).
This is the blurb about it ::
"Cut Flowers is a lyrical photographic essay celebrating flowers in essence: the intense joy and pleasure one can derive from the simple, yet thoughtful arrangement of flowers; the way even a few simple stems can transform a room, create a mood, revive a flagging spirit. Above all, this is a book about looking at flowers, and about picking and placing them so their strength and fragile beauty can be truly seen."

I've had this book for many years, I am a big Tricia Guild fan.
So let me tell you about something that happened a few days ago. I happened upon a new blog, one that immediately struck a note with me. Don't you love it when that happens? When you find yourself immediately going back to the start of  a newly discovered blog and reading the whole damn lot from beginning to end? The blog in question is Lavenderhouse and is written by Emma. I think we have a lot in common, Emma and me. Our Little People are the same age. We have similar style. We have this colour-love thing.
So I come across a post of hers that chats about this very book, she tells how she has it open on her coffee table, turning new pages every day. I immediately go take my copy down off the shelf as it's a long while since I've looked through it. I'm inspired by the idea of having the book open on display and decide to prop it on the mantel (the coffee table is currently overflowing with barbies, colouring books, lego, coloured pencils). And get this :: when I randomly open the book, the first page that falls open is the exact page that Emma shows:: the Voluptuous Curves page.
Well make of that what you will, but can I say Emma, if you are reading this, thank you for such inspiration. It has made me happy happy happy.

And lastly, some more floral goodness :: just feast your eyes on these geraniums. Sadly they are not mine, they belong to B's neighbour in Bridport. They stopped me in my tracks every time I walked past and I had to photograph them before I left.

More shaking of the head from him and more happy-happy-happy from me. Yay!