Attic24

2009 :: Home Review

You know, this week I've been really, really enjoying looking back over my (many hundreds) of photographs from this year, browsing through from January to December and thinking about My Year and all that has taken place. Taking photographs pretty much every day has allowed me to create a great visual record of my life which gives me a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction to look back on.

I've written 196 posts during the course of this year, and thats an awful lot of babble, blurb and pictures I'd say. There's been a lot of outings, weather observations and attic-views. Lots of nature, flowers, baking and crochet. And there's been a lot of what I would call Homey Stuff :: the little itty-bits that make up the day-to-day of my stay-at-home life. Nothing remarkable, a lot of it quite quirky I guess, and well.... all very Ordinary. Yet somehow, through the medium of Blog, those little bits of domestic Ordinariness manage to become something quite special. Well that's to say, they are special to me.

So for today's Review, I've gathered together some of my favourite Ordinary Bits from the year...a collection of quite random images that for me say "Home".

Here we go...................................................................................................................

Sometimes, when I bother to stop and think of it objectively, the whole business of writing a Blog with this sort of content and subject matter is very, very odd indeed. Really quite Bonkers in fact!!

I mean....what sort of normal person would think to take photographs of a pile of teatowels, a bowl of breakfast cereal, their socks, or a mug of tea??? And not only take the photographs in the first place, but then think up words to accompany the Bonkers Photographs and share them with the Whole Wide World???

Well it really is a little crazy, but do you know what?? I Absolutely LOVE IT. Love-love-love-love-LOVE-IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I love writing my blog with a passion, love sharing these ordinary, bonkers little itty-bits of my home life with you. Just don't ask me to try and explain why exactly, but know that it gives me a huge amount of pleasure to do so and I shan't be stopping any time soon.

And on that Happy Note, I'd like to say a very big, heartfelt ((THANK YOU)) to you for all your visits to the Attic during this past year. Your friendship, understanding , sharing and enthusiasm has meant more to me than I can possibly put into words.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, and I'll see you soon..............

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2009 :: Floral Review

 

One thing I've noticed through writing a blog is that I am a pretty consistant sort of a person, and my excitements, interests and passions have not altered very much since I first started blogging in March 2008. The same sort of things continue to float my boat week in week out, whatever the season, whatever my mood.

Having fresh flowers in the house is one such consistent excitement/interest/passion, and I can't ever see this changing. Not ever. Fresh flowers give such a huge amount for so little investment in my opinion, and I love having them around my home sooososososososoooo much.

So today I'm giving you my own Floral Review :: 2009 from January to December in flower-form. Its undiluted eyecandy for sure, but I'm sure you won't mind too much.

Here it comes then.....................enjoy................................................................

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you enjoy that little lot? Do you feel energised by all that floral beauty and colour??? Yummy-scrummy wasn't it?!

I always love to start the year with narcissi :: here in the UK they begin to appear on the market in November, but I always wait it out until January before I give in and buy myself a bunch. The year then moved on through the Amaryllis bulbs, anemones and spring tulips to the early summer fresias and sweet williams. Then came roses and little posies of summer annuals from my back yard (love these most of all I think). Onwards towards Autumn and the dahlias and asters arrived, followed by forced winter bulbs, berries and evergreen foliage.

It's been a lot of fun gathering these photographs together to create my own personal Year-In-Flowers, and as always I thank you very much for sharing it with me.

Will you come back again tomorrow for another little Review?? Not sure quite what it'll be yet, but I'll think of something. See you then...

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2009 :: Crochet Review

Hello my lovelies, it's good to see you! Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas time?

We certainly did, it was fun and happy and relaxed, just as I had hoped it would be. A little too dominated by the arrival of this for my liking but hey, I am only one quarter of the family and for the other three-quarters it's providing huge excitement and many happy hours of entertainment. So who am I to judge? Thank heavens for crochet is all I can say :: thank heavens I can sit with my family while they are in full-on Gaming Mode and immerse myself in my own little colourful hooky world. I am very adept at zoning out.

So Christmas is over for another year...don't know about you but I always breathe a little private, gentle sigh of relief once we come out the other side. I love the activity and festivity and full-on family time very much, but do somewhat find myself craving a bit of normality to return.

I was pottering around the house earlier, tidying up a little of the humongous mess that has been invading our living space since the 25th, thinking little reflective thoughts to myself, pondering the fact that we have only a few more days left of this year. Its been a good year for me this one, a happy year, and a creative one. There's much I'd like to say with regards to my little Bloglett and the way it's grown and evolved during 2009, but I'll leave that for another time I think....in the meantime, I thought I might spend the next few days here at Attic24 having a little look back over this year, a little Review if you like.

And where better to begin than with some crochet?? Yes, today's post is going to be full of hooky-goodness. Yaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So without further ado, let the Happy Hookyness begin...................

January :: Granny's Flower Patch cushion ::

January :: Bathroom Bunting ::

January :: Striped jar covers ::

February :: Flower posy brooch ::

March :: a few Crochet Flowers blooming ::

April :: Ripple Cushion ::

April :: Round cushion ::

May :: The Square Throw ::

June :: Bottle cover ::

June :: Stool cover ::

August :: BB is finished ::

August :: cushion covers ::

September :: Baby Ripple blanket ::

September :: Circles scarf ::

 

October :: Wrist Warmers ::

October ::  Birdies (more here) ::

November :: Baby Granny blanket ::

November :: Granny Stars ::

 

December :: Snowflakes ::

I'm really proud of all my crochet projects that've materialised during this past year, and I hope you've enjoyed looking back over these photos as much as I have..............

Tomorrow :: A Floral Review :: looking forward to seeing you then..

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The Joy of Snow

 

Having snow around at Christmas time is very unusual for us here in the UK these days. Even though it's one of the things that many people wish for each year it very rarely actually happens. So when the snow started falling last week, hopes for a White Christmas began to rise rapidly, bringing with it much excitement and outdoor play opportunities for those of us with Little People.

Waking up on Christmas Eve morning and discovering we'd had a fresh few inches fall during the night before was wonderful :: everything looked so perfectly snowy and beautiful that day.

You may recall that when I wrote my last post here in the Attic, it was Christmas Eve afternoon and I was about to light the fire and settle down whilst J and the Little People were sledging at the park. But on the spur of the moment I decided to pull on coat-hat-scarf-gloves-boots and head out to join them :: I couldn't bare the thought of missing out on the Joy of Snow on Christmas Eve.

And I'm so glad I made the effort to trudge up our little hill to the top of our park...oh it was just fabulous! I plodded along the snowy path, through the snowy wood....

....emerging at the top of the snow-covered park to the above scene. It looked like an illustration from a book, so perfectly wintery and joyful. Many families were out enjoying the delights of zooming down the snowy slope on sledges, lots of excited shouting and laughter filled the air.

At the top of our park along the line of trees there're some wooden benches, and here I found J waiting for our Little People to climb back up the hill after their recent downward run on sledges. I watched as they came closer, and oh their little faces were a picture!! Such sparkle in their eyes, such rosy cheeks, such excited chatter, I felt fit to burst with happiness observing them.

I lost count of the many times they went speeding off down the snowy slope, down and up, down and up they went, time after time after time.

It was cold that afternoon, cold for us Big People sitting on a damp wooden bench. So J decided to nip back home (we only live 5 minutes walk away) to go fetch a blanket, a flask of coffee and some chocolate.....ahhh sitting on that bench with a mug of hot coffee on that cold, snowy afternoon was just the best! I don't think I can remember such a fun and joyful Christmas Eve as this one, it really will be one to remember.

Today (Boxing Day) the sun's been shining and the snow's begnning to slowly thaw and melt here in town. The surrounding landscape is still impossibly beautiful and joyfully snowy mind you, so we decided earlier this afternoon to head out and stroll around in it a bit before it completely disappears.

We didn't go far, just to our favourite local Easy Countryside Option (Bolton Abbey). And although it was very busy with other people all having the same post-Christmas idea as us, it was still quite lovely to be out and about. Fresh, crisp air, the soft winters sun shining through the trees...

...lots of throwing of snowballs into the river, a rather competitive game of I-spy, and finally a very welcome rest in the cafe for coffee and chocolate cake.

Having the Joy of Snow this Christmas time has been very special and I've enjoyed it hugely. Even if i have been forced to wear J's (big, black) welly boots to go out in it.

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Christmas Time

Woooooooooooohooooooooooooooo, it's Christmas Time!!

My starry advent garland has been hung with it's final number 24 this morning and I'm happy to say that all is jolly and festive here in the Attic24 household. Presents are all bought and wrapped, decorations are up, our log and candle supply replenished and a fresh layer of powdery snow has fallen over night.

We are set and ready.

We were quite late getting our decorations up this year, which was entirely down to me not quite having the energy to get down on my hands and knees and crawl into the under-eaves cupboard in the Attic to retrieve them. The Little People were very, very patient, but by Monday their patience had run out and they stomped their Little Feet and demanded that we go fetch The Christmas Boxes and get busy.

Some years ago I decided that I would only have red and white decorations on our tree. It would be simple and chic and co-ordinated. I bought a whole load of new decorations that year, all red and white, and although it looked OK, I kind of felt like the fun was missing. So over the following years (helped enormously by the arrival of the Little People) I began to buy and make more colourful decorations for the tree, and the fun and colour crept back in. 

This year, I decided to leave the red-and-white decorations in their boxes and just bring out the colourful ones. No pine cones or cinnamon sticks this year either, just colour and fun.

 

Aside from the very top branches, the Little People did all the decorating, and they did good, don't you think? I was more than happy to let them crack on, and enjoyed their delight in doing it By-Themselves.

We love our tree. Ok, so it's not a real one this year, but we love it all the same. The new coloured lights have made me especially happy (don't know why we had white ones for so many years??)

The rest of my Christmas decorating has been greatly simplified this year. Our dining room fireplace remains pretty much as it always is, although I moved out my jugs of artificial flowers to make way for the evergreens and berries, and a few little Christmas characters arrived too (the adorable crocheted robins and penguins were made by the lovely Alison, aren't they amazing?)

The Little People took charge of this years table display...

....these little pom-pom robins that they made from a simple kit make me laugh every time I see them, they're so quirky and full of character. Love-love-love them so much, I think they'll be sticking around for a while after Christmas has been and gone.

 

I also managed to find the little jam-jar ribbons that I made a few years ago, so my Bonne Mamman candle jars on the mantle got a little extra seasonal makeover.

And then there's the snowflakes....remember them? Well yesterday afternoon I sat and prettified them a little. Ahhhh, you know what? I had fully intended to string them up with silver beads and possibly some white pearly buttons,  but when it came down to it, I just could not. Resist. The. Colour. Hahaha, I can tell you're not one bit surprised at that.

I love that the flakes themselves are white, but I love even more that they now have some little coloured buttons and bells.

I strung then on some silvery pom-pom thread which I found in the cupboard....

....and they do look rather lovely against the dark wood of our fireplace.

I just LOVE Christmas Eve, love the feelings of anticipation and excitement mixed up with the feelings of calm and relief that all is ready, and all is as it should be.

I was sitting drinking coffee and eating a mince pie earlier on, listening to the Little People playing out in the hallway (zooming toy cars through the long empty tube that the wrapping paper was wrapped around), and I felt so happy, so very happy and blessed for all that I have.

 

We've been to town this morning, walking slowly through the snowy streets, bumping into friends, buying a few last minute bits and pieces (a carrot for Rudolph being top of the list of Things-we-nearly-forgot).

Home again now :: it's  mid afternoon and J has taken the extremely excited Little People to the park to go sledging as we still have quite a lot of snow lying on the ground. The Excitement in the air today is huuuuge :: Snow on the ground and only One More Sleep till Christmas, it's almost too much to take!!!

Well......I'm off to go light the fire now and will settle myself down and wait for my snowy family to return. I'm all set for a cosy afternoon/evening with my feet up.

Thank you so much, as always for calling in to see me, I really do appreciate your company very much. Here's wishing you a very, very Happy Christmas, I hope the days ahead will be filled with love and laughter, joy and happiness.

With Love to you all.........

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Striped Bag :: WiP

I've had this idea for a new bag rattling around in my mind for what seems like an age now. Inside that very messy (but quite fantastical) tangled place that is my Creative Mind, it gets mighty crowded with ideas, designs and inspiration, and sometimes it can take a while for a project to actually work it's way out and come to life. But when it finally does begin to happen, and happens just exactly as I imagined it in my mind, it truly makes for one of my greatest Excitements in life.

I'm using my ever-faithful stash of Rowan Handknit DK Cotton for this bag, worked on a 4mm hook. It's a yarn that I never, ever tire of using :: it's soft but not floppy, and most importantly the colours are fantastic and it always gives me a huge buzz combining them. My Hexie Blanket is made in this yarn, as are several of my cushion covers, my heart bunting, my advent garland, my jam jar covers....like I say, I never tire of using it. 

I think I've got about twelve colours going on in this bag, working them up in random stripes of half-treble crochet (half double crochet for those of you in the US). I like working this stitch :: it makes quite a firm texture, but is still quite quick to produce lovely, colourful, stripy results.

 

This is a design for an across-the-body type bag, a practical bag that can be slung across my green Boden coat and used every day. It'll probably not come as a surprise to you to know that I am not a handbaggy type person, never have been. I currently have a small, very battered and cheap fake-leather handbag that I use every day, and that's an across-the-body style with a long strap. It's on it's last legs mind you, is all frayed and tattered and quite disgustingly shabby (not in an attractive way), so desperately needs replacing. Even J has asked me to get rid of it, and I figure that if he notices how bad it looks, then it really must be Very Bad Indeed.

I like an across-the-body style bag as I can sling it across myself and more or less forget it's there. It leaves my hands free and I don't have to fret about the possibility of putting it down and forgetting about it. And for scatterbrains like me, this is a Most Important consideration for an everyday bag.

The above photo shows where I'm currently at with my baggy WiP...I've made the front and back pieces, and the looooooooooong strap which will connect them together....

....can you get an idea of how it's going to come together? The strap has been made in a big loop and will form the bottom and sides of the bag, as well as the handle. The back piece comes right up and over to make a flap which'll be fastened at the front with a loop and pretty button.

I can tell you that there's also going to be quite a bit of Additional Embellishment on the front of this bag in the form of flowers, leaves and buttons.

Oh yes, as lovely as the stripes are, I think Stripes-with-Flowers make for something extra super-duper special.

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ps over in Flickrville, I've created a little Gallery containing some of my favourite inspirational crochet bags...do go take a look.

pps there's also a group pool specifically for Crochet Bags...don't ya just adore Flickr??! xx

Winteryness

Well, the snowy white stuff arrived here on Thursday evening, and has been falling on and off for the past four days. It's been snowing, melting a bit, freezing over, snowing some more, melting a bit more, freezing over again and then snowing a whole lot more on top. So you can imagine the state of our roads...we've not been able to get cars up/down our hilly street at all in the last three days.

Winteryness has arrived in our patch for sure.

These photos were taken on Friday morning as we walked to school....

 

....it was a slow, fun walk for me and the Little People.

And an even slower, plodding walk home for me, giving me time to observe the details and enjoy the very winteryness of the snowy canalside.

At times during the past few days the sky has been so laden with snow that my attic view of the hills has been completely obscured. And at other times the sky has cleared and allowed the sun to shine and it has been absolutely glorious.

 

Cold, wintery, bright, and perfectly seasonal. Truly a lovely start to the holidays.

I've been hibernating during the past three days, and have not been out the house.

At.

All.

Yup, kept myself cosy and house-bound during the whole of Saturday-Sunday-Monday, and it has felt wonderfully indulgent, and extremely necessary given the weather conditions and the way I've been feeling. I've slept a lot, and lounged around a lot too.

An early Christmas present arrived on Saturday (of the From-me-to-me variety) :: a gorgeously luxurious knitted dressing gown bought (greatly reduced in price) in the Boden Sale. So I was perfectly set for an extended weekend of Extreme Lounging.

Wrapped up in cotton-cashmere-angora (yes really, I can't tell you how divine my new dressing gown is), with a hot cuppa tea, Country Living magazine on my lap, Christmas carols playing, it's been wonderful. Restorative. Relaxing.

A little bit of quiet hooky on the sofa has been happening too :: oh the joys of snow-falling-outside+hot tea+pyjamas+dressing gown+snuggly socks+ crochet!

My stripy bag is coming on a treat, and I'll be showing you more of it in the next day or two. I'm really happy with how it's working out.

 

We finally finished decking our tree today and I created a little bit of a simple seasonal display around our fireplace too. I've kept our Christmas decorating very simple this year, thinking that the less I get out, the less there is to pack away in a couple weeks time.

Its Winter Solstice today too, I only just realised this as I was setting out candles in old jam jars on the mantel. I briefly contemplated pulling on some boots and going out in the snow to collect some greenery to celebrate (remember last year?), but decided nah, candles in jars'll do just fine this year. We'll still take time to sit around the fire a little later on tonight when we're all in our pyjamas with a mug of hot chocolate, and make a Winters Wish.

Yeah, it's Simplified Celebrating for us this year, and I'm more than happy with that.

Here's wishing you a very warm, simple, cosy and peaceful Winter Solstice.

With love from me to you..

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Festive Florentines

So tell me :: have you ever heard of Florentines??

I hadn't until last week. Had no idea what these little scrumptious beauties were at all, had never come across them, had never eaten them, and had certainly never thought to make them. But last week I was enjoying a quiet moment browsing through a beautiful book called Christmas Inspirations by Rose Hammick & Charlotte Packer, and there they were on page 121, looking quite festive and delicious. From the recipe they seemed easy to make with only a few uncomplicated ingredients, so I thought I'd give them a whirl. And oh.....what a delight these are!

I ended up experimenting a little with the recipe, making a couple of changes to suit my taste/store cupboard. The original recipe used mixed peel and glace cherries, neither of which I had in or am particularly fond of. So I used a mixture of dried cranberries and apricots when I first made them, but I found the apricots a little sweet so now use just the cranberries. I also altered the chocolatey bit, making mine with a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate orange. And I have to say, in my humble opinion, using chocolate-orange was quite inspired and reeeeeeeaally makes these very special indeed.

So anyhow, here is my version of Festive Florentines.

Or to describe them another way, Cranberry and Chocolate Orange Florentines...

Into a heat proof bowl, put the following ::

50g butter

50g caster sugar

1 tablespoon clear runny honey.

Pop the bowl into the microwave for about 45seconds so that everything melts together, and give a good stir.

Now add ::

50g plain flour

Stir well until you have a smooth paste.

Now add ::

50g flaked almonds

50g dried cranberries

Mix well.

The mixture should make around 18 Florentines, so either use two baking sheets or bake in two batches. You'll need to line your baking sheet(s) with grease proof paper, then dollop on teaspoons of the mixture. Space them well apart as they spread when they cook.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 / 350 / gas 4 for 8-10 mins :: NOTE :: keep a close eye on how they're doing towards the end as it's easy to overcook them. They should end up a light golden colour.

The picture above is of the first batch I made which were baked for 10 mins, see how they look a bit brown and crispy at the edges?? I now take them out at 8 mins before they brown too much and they look/taste much nicer.

When the baking sheet comes out of the oven, leave for a couple of minutes so the florentines begin to harden, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Now for the chocolately bit....you'll need to melt 120g good chocolate of your choice... I combined 60g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) and 60g milk chocolate orange, heated in the microwave for about 45secs, then stirred well until it all melted.

Spread a good teaspoon of melted chocolate onto the underside of each Florentine until it's well covered, then leave to cool/set completely.

These little festive Sweet Treats are sooooooo yummy, and very very good alongside a mug of freshly brewed morning coffee.

I'm going to be making up several batches to package prettily and give to family and friends next week as gifts.

Here's hoping they're scoffed with pleasure.

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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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