whirring cogs, makers fair and no breakdowns allowed ...

my head is a little jumbly bumbly these days. too many things happening all at once and thus, my cogs are whirring away, but i am being most careful each and everyday to stop still and breathe, for no matter how full the day is of 'must-dos' for other folks, i 'must-do' for myself if a balance is to be maintained.

tomorrow i will be announcing my holiday shop update for next week but for today, well today my cogs are in holiday market fair mode, for yes indeedy! i am most happy to be taking part in a holiday market this year, and muchly happy it will be at Tolt Yarn and Wool store. when i have the nitty gritty info of all the other peachy vendors i will be sure to share, in the meantime though i do know it will be on saturday december 7th, 10 till 6 and that alone tells my little whirring cogs time is of the essence.

having spent a fair old chunk of my crafty making soul working on my 'collection of sorts' in recent weeks i decided a cunning plan was required to pull more hand made goodness out of my granny chic bag. and thus i said to myself, what would i, if i were perusing a dottie angel stall with purse in hand wish to see and the answer was loud and clear.

little strings of happy

some fabric

some paper

an itty bitty 'little string of happy' birthday banner

and 

some crocheted... 

and then my cogs went one further and produced an epiphany of 'a little string of happy' utmost kind. one which i cannot share just yet ("boo Tif, party pooper") but will share in december in anticipation of the new shiny year... ("oh hurrah hooray Tif, all is forgiven")

so today finds me painting insides of drawers in preparation of displaying little strings of happy alongside of other 'this and thats' like 'little framed yarny specimens'. 

all conjured from my granny chic bag over the next few weeks... 

i have checked the contents of my bag, tis filled to the brim with crafty notions and trimmings. i noted a note to self "no room for breakdowns inside of this bag" less i forget and placed it safely inside :)

a frock for the holiday season...

on friday some peachy perfect barkcloth arrived on my doormat. i do believe it is tres tricky these days to find tippity top barkcloth in yardage and unused and in a colour or pattern one likes. every now and then i will trawl the aisles of Ebay or Etsy and more often than not, i come away empty handed. but not this time, this time i struck barkcloth gold, 3 yds of floral fabulous-ness

when it arrived, i took a good old ganders and truth be told, the pattern was way larger than i had anticipated. i pondered and thought to myself, what lovely curtains it would make but no, no that could not be, for a barkcloth floral frock must be. so i pinned and snippity snipped the frock out, after having done a turn in Miss W Machine. thus no turning back to curtains...

on saturday i took more than a few hours out of the usual round of saturday chores and dabbled with Miss Ethel. at one point it became obvious having plotted and planned a front and a back, i had now made the back the front and the front the back. i told myself this did not matter and indeed upon finishing up the frock with 2 rather lucky horseshoe shaped pockets and standing back to peruse, i noted the back that was now the front turned out perfectly perfect with the pattern and its position.

on saturday eve, i donned my newly made vintage barkcloth frock and left for a party at the yarn store, alas and alack, 40 minutes later i returned in my frock having made it only a third of the way. the storm had bought trees down willy nilly and not knowing my way around in the dark, i was unable to find a 3rd alternative route to the first 2 i had tried

on sunday it was a day for dottie angel to come out to play, a 'collection of sorts' photos were a mustly must. i asked Our #3 if he would be so kind as to take a pic of my newly made and donned frock and so he did. upon close inspection i am most delighted with my first attempt at using large florals on a frock and thinking the colours perfeclty suited to the up and coming holiday season. 

this frock without a doubt, will be packed in my little suitcase come december when for the first time in 13 years, we will be going 'home for the holidays' hurrah hooray! 

a perfectly peachy poncho for a pottle or two...

early weds morn on the way to yoga i had a woolly epiphany. such was my giddiness from said epiphany it was all i could do not to turn back home and carry out the deed. instead i stayed strong and went on my yoga calling way and did my utmost to keep all thoughts of the woolly epiphany out of my cogs and thus not interfere with polishing my little light.

upon my return to mossy shed, light glowing a tad brighter than before, i rustled around in the cupboard on our landing and located my 'high hopes wrap for a chilly day' and after just 10 minutes, i had myself a 'high hopes poncho for a chilly day'.

i placed one end of the wrap up against one side of the wrap, (when i say wrap, i use the term loosely! 'tis a glorified rectangle of crocheted goodness, recipe of which, may be found here) and stitched in place. i then proceeded with a bit of yarn to slightly gather the edging along the back neckline to make for a peachy fit on the shoulders.

i wore my poncho for a pottle to the drug store to collect Used Dog's prescriptions. i noted how warm and cozy my poncho was having layered it a-top several layers including a thermal undervest. i told myself as i stood in line waiting for the pharmacist to finish assisting others, i was not having a hot flush and to not panic but to instead, focus on how marvelous my little poncho and all its woolly goodness was at keeping me warm as toast and how jolly useful he will be in the chilly winter days to follow

i wore my poncho to the grocery store and discovered i should have practiced at home how one carries one bag whilst poncho wearing. on top of my shoulder over my poncho creates quite the bulk and the straps of my bag struggle to cling on. thus a tussle resulted between moi, my bag, my poncho and every time i leant over to place an item in my grocery cart. half way through i changed to having my bag on my shoulder but under my poncho. with a bit of rearranging this appeared to be most satisfactory until my phone rang and i had to dive under my poncho to locate the inners of my bag, resulting in yet more tussling this time in the bakery department. i did not let this put me off my woolly poncho and its warming hug. no sirree! i was not quite ready to forsake my newly found again woolly friend, i merely made up my mind to be more wise about what sort of bag i must don with my poncho. for surely my poncho is deserving of such considerate thought. thus i am thinking a basket is the trick, yes indeedy, no need for shoulder straps, a basket is the answer and a basket is the only thing good enough from now on for my perfectly peachy poncho and me...