Attic24

Idle hooking

Good morning! Normal blogging resumes today, I promise you, no more talk about housework. Gawd I was even boring myself yesterday when I read back through that post later in the day, so thank you for putting up with all that, you are good to me.
I generally write my posts at a fair speed with only a slight amount of editing for typo errors. So I would say my writing is pretty spontaneous and it does truly reflect my good self at that particular time :: mostly, as you know, it is happy, light, creative, colourful, pretty stuff, which is mostly how I am. Sometimes it's green and outdoorsy, sometimes it's kitcheny and cooky. But oh dear, it's very rarely so self indulgent and fed up and exclaimy!!!!!!

I am sorry for all that. Now I just have a few things to say re the Flylady, then the subject will be firmly closed.

Number one :: I didn't sign up for the gazillion Flylady daily emails, I just read the website by myself to see what to do. So I am not in the Guilt-trap.

Number two :: I do not possess a Control Journal, and am never likely to, although I have made myself a tentative Weekly Plan.

Number three :: There is a difference in my mind between cleaning and tidying. I am not at all arsed about cleaning religiously, I like dust, specks on the carpet hold no fear for me, ditto cobwebs, dirty windows, skirting boards etc. I agree, life's too damn short. Its been the untidy/chaotic/messyness that has had me up in arms of late, and that I am trying to overcome.

Number four :: I am managing to do some flylady things relatively easily. I am Swishing and Swiping every morning. I am making beds every morning and making my kitchen tidy at night. I do not, however, shine my sink because to me that is one step too close to insanity. Nor do I wear shoes in the house because it drives me crazy, I like to wiggle my toes.

 

So :: there endeth the Flylady business. Now, shall we get on with some creative prettiness??

Last week, around about Tuesday lunchtime, I felt the need to do some idle crochet. I had been browsing the internet  and inadvertently come across the designs of Anne-Claire Petit, most specifically this. Isn't it wonderful? I just love the whole idea of a crocheted vase of flowers, it has that same pretty-but-useless wonderfulness that fabric bunting has, and I love it for that.

I would like to try making my own version of her flower vase sometime, but in the meantime, I came up with this idea :: a simple little crochet cover for glass jars.

My first one was made to fit an empty Bonne Maman jam jar, of which I have dozens lining a shelf in the cellar. Just. In. Case. I cannot bring myself to recycle them :: you never know what uses you can find for a jam jar with a pretty red and white checked lid.

This is an easy-peasy crochet project, and if you'd like to give it a go, then let me help a little.
Firstly, make a slip knot, leaving a long end (about 6 inches).
Then  make your foundation chain to fit around the base of your chosen jar :: for the Bonne Maman jar I chained 38, plus 3 for turning.
Work your first row in Treble Crochet. (thats UK treble, or US double crochet)
When you reach the end, join the whole thing into a ring by making  a slip stitch into the beginning of the row. Fasten off the yarn.
Then using a darning needle, thread the long tail end of yarn that you left when starting the chain, and use this to make a few stitches to join the ring completely. It should now look like a crocheted bracelet.
Tie in a new colour, chain 3, then work a second row of double crochet, joining the ring with a slip stitch  when you get back round to where you started.
Continue working in rows, changing to a new colour each time, until it's the right height to fit your jar (mine was nine rows of tr's). Finally, work a last row in Double Crochet to give a nice, neat top edge (thats UK dc, or work in sc if you're in the US).

Slip the little cover onto your jar and admire. Yelping and clapping at your own inventiveness and creativeness is optional but recommended.

The little jacketed jar can be put to use around the house to hold pens, or flowers.

You may want to then get hold of different sizes of vessel and make several  more Jacketed Jars. I found a pesto jar which was a bit taller and thinner than the jam jar, and it worked well for holding flowers.

I hope you might give this a go, it's guaranteed to put a smile on your face :o)

 

 

 

Good Intentions

I am having a slight obsession about my home right now, an obsession with sorting, clearing, de-cluttering, freshening and cleaning the place. It's like this big, powerful Nesting Hormone has taken over and I am powerless to go against it. People, I'm driving myself nuts.

I'm not entirely sure what is causing me to feel this way?
It could be the change in the seasons, the focus swinging from outdoors to indoors, the natural urge to cosy the home up and prepare for longer times spent indoors.
It could well be hormonal :: I have noticed in the past that I get these  brief cleaning urges which coincide with my menstrual cycles, am I abnormal, does anyone else have this??!!
But I think truthfully, it's a natural reaction to my altered Employment Status within the home. 
When Little Lady started school a few weeks ago, my primary day-job suddenly changed. It ceased to be Childcare, and became something like Homecare. It was as if that wonderful, fulfilling, natural-as-breathing job that I had done rather well for 6 years suddenly had it's hours dramatically cut back, and I was forced to accept that change whether I wanted it or not.

Damn!!!!

I really liked my old job, and I suck at my new job!
I am no bloody good at it!!
As much as I desperately want to do it, I am useless at organising my time, I cannot de-clutter, I cannot follow the FlyLady's regime!!!!!!!
My Hot Spots are still burning!!!!
They are White Hot!!!!

It seems you had no need to fear for me my friends, had no need to worry that the FlyLady would take over my life, it has just not been happening for me.
Last weekend I told J all about the Flylady, told him all about my plans to follow her regime, to deal with the Hotspots, to do daily housework in the Zones and my Good Intentions to make our home a clean and tidy place At All Times. This weekend, he casually asked me what had happened, why the house was in fact no different and still an Embarrassing Mess, what had happened to my Good Intentions?? He asked me with humour and kindness, he was not trying to make me feel bad. And I could not answer, could not say why it had not happened. He told me I am very good at Talking the Talk, but not very good at Walking the Walk. So true, oh so true. He knows me so well.

My home may still be messy, but it is smelling delicious though. Did any of you read about Simones Yankee Candle Obsession Collection? Oh, yes she has it bad, and she has inspired me to dip my toe into the Yankee Candle Home-Frangrancing pool. I went and treated myself to a burner and a few Tarts yesterday. Oh how I love that word "Tarts"!!!!!! Bloody hell, I am laughing out loud here just typing the word, I think I need help.
So anyways, back to the candle thing. The TARTS (snigger), I have discovered,  are a delightful way to bring fragrance into the home. The range of smells is Enormous. HuuuUUuuge. Take a look here and read through that luscious list of "fragrance families" and tell me you are not inspired to give it a try??

My current fragrance of choice, scenting my untidy home right now is called Beachwalk :: "Refreshing salt water and sea musk warmed with sunny notes of tangerine and orange blossom". Doesn't it sound divine??
I also bought Clean Cotton :: "Sun-dried cotton combined with green notes, white flowers, and a hint of lemon", and Fresh Cut Roses :: "An intoxicating English garden of fragrant heirloom roses".

So today my home smells beautifully Refreshing and full of Sunny Notes, but it is still a mess.
This whole urge to tidy and clean is NOT something I sit comfortably with, it does not come naturally. But, the urge is there nevertheless.
And inhabiting Blogland like I do, I know I am not alone. I read Julia's post a few weeks ago, and truly recognised myself there thinking the same things. I also know that Emma is going through a remarkably similar phase right now, and that makes me feel a damn site better. It truly does help to have others in a similar position, to know I am not the only bonkers person  struggling with this change of roles, this new employment.

I admit I am generally much happier swinging through the days plumping up a few cushions, arranging nasturtiums in little jars, baking cakes, putting pretty things about the place, crocheting. Yes, these are the "Homely" things that to me are as easy as breathing, that make me absurdly happy and content.
But they do not make the place clean and tidy, they merely distract the eye.
So what's a girl to do?
Really I should stop thinking about it, writing about, getting fidgety with it and just get on and deal with it. Roll my sleeves up and tidy the place up a bit. Get busy with the flowery cloths and the squirty stuff.
Then I can get back to my usual business of prettifying the place with flowers and yarn. More of that tomorrow.

Edited to add :: 2:45pm :: I put on some very loud, un-cool music (Hot Chocolate), and performed precisely One Hour of De-cluttering in The Zone. It felt good, and my living room is now tidy and ready for cleaning. So today I finally managed to Walk the Walk (or should that be Toddle the Toddle?!)
Thanks for your words of support, so very much appreciated as always xxxxxxx

Breakfast

I always eat breakfast, it's a part of the day which for me absolutely has to happen. I cannot leave the house without it, cannot for the life of me understand friends who don't do breakfast.

I go through phases with breakfasts. Some days I have to have museli and nothing else will do. Other days it might be Weetabix, or maybe toast/marmite and fresh fruit. But right now, this is my current favourite :: a bowl of piping hot Ready brek (made with all milk) and topped with a generous swirl of golden syrup and a scattering of chopped fruit (strawberries for the Little People, banana for me). Fresh orange juice to drink. I have eaten this every morning this week and may well continue into next week, although I might possibly be entering an Alpen phase next week.

We (me and the Little People) sit down to eat breakfast at 7.30am or thereabouts. By then, I have generally been up and about for 75mins or so, and have usually already done the following ::

drunk one (sometimes two) cups of tea
Made three packed lunches
Emptied the dishwasher
Kissed goodbye to husband
Checked calendar/diary for the days events
Put one load of washing into the machine
Cuddled sleepy children as they awake
Sniffed them as much as I dare (I adore the smell of warm, fresh-out-of-bed kids)
Kissed sleepy children, as much as I can get away with
Provided emergency pre-breakfast snack material for sleepy children
Solved "what shall I do?" issues for now not-so-sleepy children
A small amount of reading/spelling practice with Little Man (his choice not mine)
Made all the beds
Rounded up school uniform items flung to far corners of bedrooms
Located Bookbags
Polished scuffs off school shoes
Escaped up to the Attic to check the view and the weather
Put computer on, read/written emails for approximately 17minutes
Cleared the inevitable shite off the dining table.

For the record, this morning's table-shite was mainly left-overs from the early morning card-making session (why do my children love to glue things as soon as they get up??)

Phewwwwwww, finally ready for breakfast at last, suddenly ravenous. But I was also suddenly struck by the lovely colours of yesterdays breakfast on the table and photographed it for you. Yes, aren't I thoughtful?!

Now if you want to see some seriously gorgeous breakfasts that put mine in the shade, go forthwith here and feast your eyes.
Drooling optional.

Bicycle Girl

It's Tuesday 2nd September.
Little Man has gone to school and Little Lady remains home with me for her last few days before her own school life starts.
She is in fine spirits, her usual bubbly, friendly, adorable self.
She is dressed in a very pretty, floaty,  Monsoon summer dress which I bought for £1.75 from a charity shop.
She loves it because the skirt part of the dress is full and twirls right out when she spins round.
I love it because it is exactly the kind of dress I adored when I was a child.
I had a thing about spinning around wearing twirly-wirly skirts and dresses.

It's sometime after lunch, we are wondering what to do.
I suggest a bicycle ride along the canal tow path and through the park.
The suggestion is met with huge enthusiasm.
Big smiles, jumping up and down and clapping hands.
So we hastily get ready, try and fail to locate Barbie cycle helmet in the mess of the cellar (she ends up using Little Man's one, but is remarkably un-bothered by it's boyishness).
Spend an Age selecting precisely the right companion to ride along in the bike carrier.
The Lucky Chosen-one is Minnie Mouse.

We are all set and off we go.
Notice rather black looking clouds on the horizon, but Little Lady is already off and pedalling down the street, so I run after her.
We reach the canal and sure enough it begins to rain, just a little warm, light drizzle.
We keep going, we are now in the park,  her pedalling and me pushing-up-hills/running-behind-down-hills.
And the rain becomes more persistent.
We have no coats, we begin to get quite damp.
We keep going, Little Lady is singing and chanting some sort of Faster-faster-faster-wheeeeeeeeeee-this-is-FUN-type thing.
And suddenly without warning, the rain really lets rips and we are in the midst of a torrential downpour.
We scream and laugh, pedal/run as fast as we can to the nearest tree to take shelter.
We wait a while under the dripping branches but the rain doesn't stop.
It is absolutely pouring.
We have a quick stay-or-go discussion and decide to Go.
Out from under the tree, we pedal/run through the pouring rain.
We get extremely wet, soaked to the skin, drenched.
We are laughing a lot.
And suddenly the rain subsides as fast as it came, and the downpour is over.
We are still laughing a lot, rain streaming down our faces.
We are very, very, very, incredibly wet.
And somehow very, very, very, ridiculously happy.
We can't stop laughing.

We make it home, strip our clothes off and get into our pyjamas.
We snuggle on the sofa, our hair wrapped in towels.
It was the most fun I've had in the rain in a very long time.
And the memory of that one hour, on a fairly ordinary Tuesday afternoon in September, will remain with me forever.

Week 39

Did you know that we are currently in week 39 of the year? And did you also know that in the UK this week, the sun is officially rising at 6.44am and setting at 7.03pm? I am in possession of such knowledge because I keep a diary, and diaries generally keep you informed of week numbers, sunrise and sunset times and moon phases (next full moon :: Tuesday 28th October in case you need to know).

Remember back at the beginning of July when I began my Academic Year Diary in an attempt to get myself organised? Well I'm pleased to report that 2.75 months on and I am still using it, still writing lists, and still attempting to chivvy myself into action.
Yesterday's to-do list consisted of the following IMPORTANT reminders :

1. make buns
2. cut grass
3. De-clutter 2 Hotspots (kitchen worktop, hall shelf)
4. Buy plug for basin
5. Go to Recycle

So as you can see, my life is very serious indeed right now :: many, many important, pressing things to be done.

I am doing  a lot of thinking at the moment, a lot of pondering and contemplating is taking place in the jumbled little space inside my head. There is change on the horizon.
After today, I have only Seventeen days left of being a Thirty-something. Yes, the big Four-oh looms large and I am having a minor wobble about it. I am feeling like there is a lot I need to get done in the next couple of weeks because I do not want to become forty surrounded by chaos and clutter. I feel a need to get busy, to make everything ship-shape as I prepare to enter my fourth decade. Yes, there is a lot to get done around here. I have been free-wheeling my lazy-arse through the summer months and now it is time to start getting busy and hauling this house (and myself) into shape.

Last week I was introduced to the FlyLady. Wow. That really opened my eyes as to how things can be achieved if there is a schedule and the will to do it. I am beginning to take some of the things she says on board. I have discovered my Hotspots (I have TEN of the bleeders, not including the Attic which is one HUmungous Hotspot all to itself). So this week I am attempting to clear two a day :: nothing drastic, its babysteps for me. Next week, when the hotspots have been de-cluttered and cleared, I am going to embark on a major clean. One room each day. Can't be too hard, surely?

I am sincerely hoping that all this de-cluttering and cleaning will settle my restlessness because I am finding it hard to concentrate on things at the moment. I am two thirds of the way through Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" which I'm reading with my book club group (it was my choice for this month). I'm enjoying it enormously and it has really made me think about  a lot of things, made me think about my life, made me question myself more than I am used to doing. But I'll chat to you more about all that when I've finished the book and De-cluttered my Hotspots.

For now, in week 39, lets not get too deep and meaningful.
Hope you've enjoyed these pretty flowers from my garden today.
Simple, pleasurable beauty to take my mind off the Clutter.

Fabric and Pins

Nine metres of new fabric :: mine all mine.
Bought from The Little Fabric Shop.
First time I have ever purchased fabric on-line.
First time I have ever had the absolute heart-skipping pleasure of having fabric arrive through the letter box in blue plastic parcels.

I deliberated long and hard about spending money on nine yards of fabric without a purpose for it.
I wanted to buy it just because it was so pretty, because it squeezed my heart like Greengate products do.
In my defence, it was in The Sale, and if you hurry, the sale is still on and there are some fabrics left at the bargain price of £3.99 per metre.
And in the grand scheme of things, Three-ninety-nine is not a great deal to pay for one metre of printed cotton deliciousness.
But multiply that by nine and yes, I did feel a bit guilty spending that sort of money on fabric.
Didn't last long though, I never generally give in to Guilt for more than a day or so.

I find this fabric so damn pretty and charming, it captivates me.
It's been lying around in the Attic for a month or so now and I have done nothing more than gaze at it, arrange it, stack it, fold it, re-arrange it some more and photograph it.
I've been using Flickr to search for some likely projects for this fabric of mine.
I do love Flickr, it is so completely brimful of inspiration.
So I've been pondering some ideas :: maybe a patchwork cushion or two, perhaps something like this? Or maybe this?

Remember the other day I was talking about the Chain-of-Influence?
Well this is how the most recent chain went ::

Yarnstorm :: Anna Maria Horner :: Flickr :: Red Rapunzel :: Wild Flower Pincushion

So this is what I've been up to this morning, I've been stitching myself a Wild Flower Pincushion. And  I'm pleased to report that unlike the Twig Project AKA the Bird Mobile, this attempt at sewing from a pattern was free of hissy fits and blue language. Thank heavens.

I am pleased with it, and I love the patchworky effect with the different fabrics combined.

 

And its a whoppa this wild flower pincushion. Look at it next to my miniature patchwork pin cushion of old and you get the scale of it. I made that little hexagon pincushion of old :: paper-pieced and hand stitched it when I was about 13 years old, .

 

Oh I do love these fabrics, did I mention that? They make me sigh with pleasure.

I still think I want to try a log-cabiney type patchwork cushion with them though.
Any other suggestions for pretty florally, stitchy fabric projects? That don't involve twigs?

 

Reflections

Just look at that blue-blue sky, isn't that the most beautiful colour? It looks like it could be mid summer doesn't it? We had a fabulous weekend here in Yorkshire, I can't tell you how good it was get out into the countryside to feast my eyes on all that blueness up above and feel the warmth of the sun on my face. It was gorgeous.

Every so often, J and I do like to tramp off into the countryside together. We deposit our Little Dependants into the very capable hands of their Nana, Grandad, Auntie and Uncle and we are then free to skip off into the Dales for a spot of walking, talking and picnicking. Because the weather has been so dire during the summer months, it felt like a long time since we last managed to escape like this  (early June maybe?), and we have missed it.

Sunday was a particularly clear, still, perfect Summer/Autumn day, and the Dales were looking glorious. There were unmistakable signs of Autumn arriving :: the colouring of the leaves on the horse chestnut trees, the Hawthorns laden with red berries, and that particular kind of light and shadow which is so hard to describe, but which is so distinctly Autumnal.

We were walking along the River Wharfe from Burnsall, one of our absolute favourite places.

The river was slow and lazy and almost at a standstill in places, so that the trees and the sky were perfectly reflected. We saw trout leaping.

We talked, we walked, we reflected, we made plans. There is change in the air.

But it is good, and we are happy.    
Love you J.
xxx

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!

My Thursday

Thursday today, and I do really like Thursdays. Something about this precise point in the week which makes me feel glad. I like that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are behind me and the weekend is almost in sight.
The weather here today in my little part of the world is just glorious. Early this morning the air was crisp and the sky was misty and the light was ohhhhhhh-so-beautiful. It was most definitely, perfectly, beautifully Autumnal. I took the above photo from the Attic at 7.30am, it really made me so happy for the day ahead.

It was lovely to read all your comments on yesterdays post re the housework situation, ahh I did so love you all for making me feel better! Two phrases that have stuck in my mind are "better a homemaker than a housekeeper" and "my home is clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy". Oh you are so wise and wonderful my friends, those words are so simple yet so true.

So I managed to buoy myself up on those words and squash down the guilt and Potential-Stroppiness-from-the-Management and decided to make today a my-time-Thursday. Housework can wait till tomorrow. Today is for me, me, me.
So off I toddled to my weekly Knit and Natter at the cafe this morning, feeling bright and breezy and carefree. Oh I did enjoy my morning! I was crocheting, Lovely C was doing her wonderful hooking, S was knitting and M was needlepointing. And while we stitched and hooked and drank delicious coffee, we talked children, school, flowers, allotments, chickens, magazines, Country Living Fairs, London shopping, crochet, hooking, recipes.
My flowery circles of crochet are looking fabulous (can I say that about my own work?) and I have begun to crochet them together into blanket form. I'll try and remember to show you some more pics of how it's shaping up next week.

It was so sunny and warm by the time I returned home at lunch time that I decided to eat lunch outside. Not all that many flowers out here now, but my geraniums are still flowering their little hearts out. I do so love their stubbornness and failure to give in to the weather. 

I made a hastily tossed together salad with a bit of smoked salmon thrown in and a glass of elderflower lemonade.

Whilst I was eating, I browsed through a library book I have out on loan at the moment. It's called Cheap Chic by Emily Chalmers and I love love love it. So far I have only looked at the pictures, but I do fully intend to read the words at some point very soon.

It's the one "style" book I've come across which seems to be close to my own personal style. The pages are delicious and inspirational. I think I must be a Cheap-Chic kind of a girl at heart.



Sadly it doesn't look like it's available to buy new, but I am going to buy myself a second hand copy because I love it so. I see from Amazon that she also has another book called "Flea Market Style" :: does anyone have this one, do you think I would like it? I think it might already possibly be on my teetering, toppling pile of Wishlist-I-want-books on Amazon . One can never have too many Sources of Inspiration, can one?

Shopping and Baking

 Ahh school days, they are treating us well right now. After a shaky start to the term, Little Man has delighted and surprised me by doing a complete turnaround and now appearing Keen to go to school each day. No more tears or mishaps, no hysterics and I am so glad of that fact. I don't think I could've coped with many weeks like that first one, don't think Tesco would've let me keep coming in to snot and weep round the fruit and veg each morning.
Little Lady is also very happy with the whole Going To School thing. She loves her uniform, loves her teacher, loves the classroom, loves her new friends. On Monday she started full time and it's taking some getting used to (for me, not her). No more dashing out at lunch time to collect her, I now have a straight six hours each day to do stuff. To be Me. And like I say, it's taking some getting used to.
I admit I have felt a little adrift at times, and to combat that I have mostly been Shopping and Baking.

Mondays is my usual day for food shopping and during the summer holidays I had been doing it the evening, which was quite a chore. But now the Little People are out all day I am back to morning jaunts to the supermarket with the old biddies and Mums-of-toddlers. I don't mind the weekly supermarket shop to be honest. I have been collecting the Tesco/Cath Kidston bags as and when they have appeared and it does jolly the whole event up quite nicely.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I decided to go off on a little solo jaunt. It was quite exciting as it involved trains and Big City Shops, and I had a lovely time :: nothing like a bit of travelling, browsing and retail therapy to lift the spirits. I browsed in Borders, bought this luscious pink glass cake stand from Paperchase. It perfectly matches my new cyclamen.

So this morning I couldn't really justify going shopping again (well I've run out of money). So I decided to bake and decorate buns. The Little People need buns, they are Essential and I had to make them.

But truthfully I really just couldn't wait to see what they would look like on my new cake stand. I've never owned a cake stand before, and I am actually thrilled with it. Best six pounds fifty pence I've spent in ages.

Looking at these photos, I think I need to invest in some proper coloured paste for colouring the icing, the sort that Jane uses for hers. My cheap strawberry liquidy stuff is just not cutting the mustard here is it? And talking of cakes and coloured icing, have you come across the baking over at Kitschen Pink? Oh my, this is one delightful blog and her baking is beautiful, truly beautiful. Yes I think I've just discovered a whole new area of retail therapy opening up before me :: icing colours and glittery sprinkle stuff and wafer roses and little sugar flowers. Mmmmm, bring it on.

In order to take todays photos I had to sweep off the coffee table and attempt to  make a teensy tiny area of my home look tidy. Serisouly, this pace is a mess and today I have had complaints from the Management. Have been told in no uncertain terms to do less shopping, less blogging and more housewifery. I need to dust off the Dyson and make the house a little more presentable or else The Management (ie J) may well get Stroppy.

I wish I liked housework more, wish that I could clean and tidy with the same passion that I shop and bake and crochet and blog. But sadly it just never appeals in quite the same way and I can always find nicer things to do with my time. No, I am not a good housekeeper, but I am quite good at purchasing pretty things. I bought this little enamel peg bucket yesterday from British Home Stores, and I think it's delightful. Yes, Purchasing Pretty Things is something I really am good at.