Friday, March 13

not yesterday and not tomorrow but just today...

today is an inbetweeny kind of day...yesterday i was super duper busy putting a few wares into my shop and then trying to get photos of mossy shed. this proved a tricky one to pull off, several things do not work in my favor when taking interior pictures.

#1. i actually don't know any settings on the camera other than the one our #1 leaves it on (just typing this has almost but not quite shamed me into reading the manual)
#2. the sunlight when it appears is never ever in the right place, we have large windows and they seem to cause me no end of trouble
#3. the piles that have accumulated, this always happens when i turn my attention to my little shop. last week i was beavering away in my studio, blissfully unawares of the outside world...i think it is the best feeling in the world, just you, your fabric stash, your faithful sewing machine and no one to bother your thoughts.
but of course the downside to this is i am also totally unaware of my surroundings inside of the shed. thus giving everyone free rein to 'dump and run'...and so when the sun appeared yesterday and i felt the need to 'snap' a few frames there was 'disaster' all around. i spent rather a long time not actually dispersing the neglected articles to the right location but merely shifting it from 'a' to 'b' and back again so it would not be on 'film'.

perhaps dearest readers, you do not believe me and my 'pile' issues so i have taken a snap shot as evidence...
my lovely styled shot



i mentioned this was an inbetweeny day because tomorrow i have big plans, the kind that involve chickens...("oh my, oh my...are you getting your chickens Tif?") now now, not quite as big as that, so let us put it as 'medium plans'. i am off to my 'chicken 101' workshop...according to the 'blurb' when i leave the workshop i will leave knowing all there is to know about keeping some chickies in an urban backyard setting. i reckon, combined with the 'knowledge' they will bestow upon me and the three books i have already read, i will be prepared...in fact i will more prepared for our wee chicky peas then i ever was when i had my children. i never read a book for my impending motherhood, i did my 'ostrich in the sand' technique and made it up as we went along...as my man said the other day "Tif, you have managed to keep your children going for 17 years i think you can keep a few hens alive".

i had hoped to wear my lovely knitted hat to the workshop, but alas that isn't to be...i don't know what bothers me more, the fact that i lost the hat or that i can't remember the last time i had it. i purchased my fine 'head attire' when visiting my mum a few weeks back, it fast became my best friend in the freezing temperatures and best of all disguised my 'why did i cut you' hair style.
on returning to the shed i wore it several times, once to meet our #4 at school "oh, em, what's that you're wearing" followed by that look of 'please don't let anyone know i'm with you'.
then again, to head out thrifting one cold evening...our #2 exclaimed with fits of laughter "do you know you have a mushroom on your head, what's that all about?"
and again when me and my man went out for a curry one night (this happens about once every five years) as we were sitting at the table he asked "don't you want to take that thing off your head?"
i even phoned the curry house and shouted down the phone in a vain attempt for them to understand the words 'knitted hat' but to no avail...

and so my little heart aches for my lost hat and my lost memory. on an up note, i managed to squeeze a piddly amount of hair into some pigtails today...


i miss my pigtails, i know they are more suited to 'young girls' and not so much 'aging women' but you can't escape the convenience of them, plus the added bonus of pulling the facial skin a bit tighter...a free face lift if you will

so i leave you without a birthday cake, ("phew" i hear you sigh) but you are not getting away with it so lightly. in celebration of 'two years' of waffling i will be adding a couple of regular features to my blog.

first up
'cooking with Tif' ("run for the hills" i'll pretend i didn't hear you say that)
and second up
'a question of crafting' ("oooh, that sounds quite intriquing" i know, i thought so too)

she will see you on monday with a 'first' for dottie angel (calm yourselves now) ~ Tif

13 comments:

Gigibird said...

It seems relating more to your ‘normal’ photo – and to be quite honest it looks pretty tidy…..fruit on the table and on the floor? Well if you faint and come round you could nibble on the grapes until helps arrives and if it doesn’t 2 bags of cat litter will come in useful

Di said...

Have fun at the chicken workshop! My friends have had chickens for a couple of months now and got their first egg this week - of course all the jokes about "don't put all your eggs in one basket" were coming out!

me said...

Enjoy the Chickens 101 - my friend Debi will be there helping out (and looking for you) as I told her you would be there and she's looking forward to "meeting Tif" and hearing more chicken stories (Debi has her own chickens, and will enjoy helping out). Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

sadly, I wasn't shocked by your real life photo- I've seen much, much worse!

have fun with the chickens!

Unknown said...

thank you so much for 'the real world' pic...
after looking at your elle decoration style shots on flickr yesterday i was beginning to think you were some kind of 'clean freak' and i mean that in the nicest possible way!
it was just depressing when i turned and looked at my living room with an old printer and all it's cables strewn across the floor (that really needs a mop over it!) and then the sofa with the pacaking remnants from the new printer...
oh, and three dog beds, why does a tiny little cocker spaniel need three beds especially when he would much prefer to sleep on mine!?

breathe... a mini rant always makes things seem better, i think some spring cleaning is in order this weekend... :)

emma
x

ps - good luck with the chickens btw, and surely you could knit yourself a new beret... ?

Anonymous said...

You'll have a great time with the chickens! They're really funny to watch and make interesting pets. We have just 4 hens and a rooster. They've recently begun laying again after a 2 month winter break(and gobbling up my spring shoots!). We're hoping for chicks this spring! Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Well, if pigtails are supposed to be only for the young, they work perfectly for you.

I've seen worse than your 'real life' picture, but I can definitely relate to it. And, I hope you find that hat. It was so pretty!

You're going to love your chickens. We got ours last year and I absolutely love them. (I'm a bit of a 'city turned country' girl, myself.) We have 20-something right now and we're even thinking of getting more of the sweet little Bantams, this spring, to join the bunch; to help with our tick invasion out here in the north woods.

Anonymous said...

your husband's chicken comment is great!

and i like this blog even more for "the real world" shot. :)

Anonymous said...

Don't do that pulling your hair up thing in the hope of looking younger - here in England it's known as the Croydon Facelift!!! And that's not a good thing!!

kat said...

eh, short piggies are sassier than longer ones. embrace them, i say!

dottie angel said...

oh diane i appreciate the 'croydon facelift' comment! not sure quite what i make of it ;)
i think i like the idea of 'sassie' piggies much better though...

Hear Me Roar! said...

Gigibird's comment had me cracking up here at work, when I'm supposed to be doing useful things instead of reading my favorite blog. I can't wait to see what the new regular features will bring, and have been planning a few surprises of my own for my blog's 2 year anniversary (some time at the end of April I think). Here's to many more years of taking pictures that are artfully angled (so as to avoid the piles), talking about our loved ones because we didn't craft anything new to talk about, and acting young for our age (because we deserve it).

Teresa @ good-grace said...

You are a DOLL for sharing the before picture with us!! :) That's absolutely how I feel on most days... moving one pile from point a to point b. But really, the "before" isn't terrible.

Your home is gorgeous!! (LOVing the wallpaper... where have I seen it?)

Adding this blog to my google/reader right now. I've found my new favorite blog. (where do you find the time, by the way?) So fun! and thank you for sharing!! :)

P.S. I also love the short piggies! (and sorry to hear about the hat... but it was hilarious reading your children's/hubbies "take" on the infamous headcovering!!)