a little bit of CLOTH...

if you recall twenty ten is all about risk taking

(do not worry if you do not recall such details, the fact that you are even here today reading my ramblings qualifies you for a gold sticky star, so go ahead and place it where you will and i shall continue)

and so before January bid us 'adieu' i took yet another groundbreaking risque endeavor to add to my growing list of other groundbreaking risque endeavors, that for the life of me i cannot recall.

i know i did them, i just can't remember what they were.

i fear this sort of forgetful behavior could see me stripped of my gold star.

my latest risque behavior has been to write a tutorial

(*GASP!*)

on a recycled curtain

(*SHOCK!*)

for a magazine

(*HORROR!*)

(i've paused a little here for you to recover, whilst you are doing so i shall adjust my little gold sticky star from my forehead to my knee, demoting my ranks amongst the 'gold sticky star' wearers due to my lack of memory recalling skills)

and so it would appear dearest readers that indeed i am not the only one seeing twenty ten as a year of risk taking.

for a magazine to ask of me a tutorial, they surely are taking a few risks of their own.

my little but 'oh so rambly' tutorial now resides in the laps of Cloth.

a rather lovely fresh faced UK magazine that aims to encourage folks across the land to arm themselves with a few basic skills in sewing and then see where it takes them.

i'm all for that... after all, i do believe with just a few simple 'know hows' and some words of encouragement we are all capable of greatness within the crafty realm of things

(i have no idea what i've just said, i fear being demoted in the gold sticky star wearing has caused my little brain to slow down, and drift without direction)

so i am going to be terribly bold and suggest you take a look at a copy,

i'm not sure how available it is outside of the UK just as i'm not sure about a lot of things that go on outside of Mossy Shed,

but i am quite sure if you track down a copy,

you will like the paper it is printed on

(because i know i did)

you will like the young modern feel it has

(because i know i did)

you will like the 'filled to the rafters' info it contains

(because i know i did)

and

you will like the size of it

(because i know i did)

in short dearest readers, and once again boldly going where i have never gone before

(as in having an opinion on something)
i think Cloth has potential to become a regular sight upon the sewing, crafting shelves of our local bookstore or newsagent.

and as we all know, don't we dearest readers,

'potential' is all one can ever ask for when it comes to 'taking a risk'

(once again i fear i have lost the plot, drifted from comprehensible to non, so that in turn, makes me know, it's just another ordinary ramble for moi. and yes, my gold sticky star is now on my big toe, the lowest of the low in the ranks of 'gold sticky star' wearers)

she is busy with origami paper and a thrifty find, whilst thanking you all most kindly for your 'melancholy' words of support ~ Tif

footynote: and now i'm thinking you may perhaps wish to know the issue my little rambly tutorial will appear in, i believe it is going to be the spring issue, prehaps i may be so bold as to tell you when it's upon the shelves... yes that's what i'll do :)

ANOTHER FOOTYNOTE:

it would appear my little shiny place does not wish to link to Cloth magazine, never in all my born days of blogging has such a 'to do' happened to me.

the first time i put myself out there, bold as can be, talking about a magazine and ha! the link doesn't like me, doesn't matter how, or which way i do it, i can't get it to work for me,

perhaps it's working for you,

(oh please say it is!)

but just incase you too are having 'link issues'

here's Cloth's address

http://www.clothmagazine.co.uk/

i think i need to go and talk to my chickens now...

YET ANOTHER FOOTYNOTE:

my gold sticky star has fallen off my big toe and been eaten by little olive

i think that about sums things up for today :)

the missing groove... continued

i asked the lady in the natty red vest who works at the thrift store if she had seen my 'little groove' upon her travels.

she smiled a smile that needed no words for it told me what she was thinking

"ah ha, another loopy fruit talking to me"

i came back to the shed, no 'little groove' beside me, and asked the two forsaken little souls upon my studio mantlepiece, if indeed they would care to help me locate my 'little groove'.

they said they couldn't possibly, as they were terribly busy being 'perfectly peachy'.

i said i understood and moved on.

i sat down

i got up

i paced

i fretted

and then

i sat down,

next to my crochet.

my crocheting stared at me and i stared at it...

it taunted me, i told my crochet i wasn't in the mood,

but it wouldn't leave me alone.

so i picked it up and in doing so dearest readers, i found my 'little groove'!

for it all became clear,

how silly of me,

of course, i left my 'little groove' within the folds of a growing blanket.

for this blanket is nearly a third way done,

it may on the outside represent a lustrous threesome between me, Dr Hook and Dorothy but it also represents something far deeper...

yes this little blanket,

in all it's jolly colorfulness represents

a 'change' that is 'a coming',

a change that i'm bracing myself for,

a change that i haven't seen the likes of, since becoming a mother eighteen years ago

a change that signals the beginning of a new chapter in my life

("blimey Tif, this is pretty epic!" i hear you exclaim.

"quite right you are dearest readers, nothing like a bit of drama where a 'lost groove' is concerned")

i know this change is 'a coming' for the letter Our #1 holds in her hands tells me so.

it tells me that her dreams and hopes are just beginning, that she has a place that wishes to share them with her,

a place called 'art and design' college.

at the end of August, the change in my life will begin.

i am so very chuffed for her, my little heart swelling with pride.

but i would be lying if i didn't tell you a little piece inside of me is aching

to bolt the door,

to lock the windows

and

to never let her go...

there will be no popping home for laundry assistance and a home cooked meal (albeit a rather dubious one).

for Our #1 has chosen to go back to her roots, crossing the pond to study in old blighty.

to move so very far away from my apron strings...

and that right there, i believe is why i lost my 'little groove' amongst the rows of a blanket.

for every stitch i stitch,

i am one stitch closer to finishing a 'blanket of the utmost kind' for Our #1,

so that she may take a 'piece of me' with her upon this journey

and i promise dearest readers.

i shall be good,

i shall hold her tight

and then

i shall let her go,

so she may create her own artistic footprint upon this earth,

with suitcase in one hand and a blanket in the other...

"enough" she says, tomorrow she will get her little groove 'back on' with Miss Ethel ~ Tif

the missing groove...

i've lost my groove,

i'm trying to remember the last time i had it, i'm thinking perhaps it was on friday...

i recall returning from the thrift store, quite late with several pillowcases, a lovely little quilt and a couple of stick back chairs.

i was rather elated by my finds.

a few hours later, i discovered i'd mislaid my groove...

i'm assuming i must have left it at the thrift store.

i will have to go back, just in case it lurks amongst the shelves waiting patiently for me to retrieve it.

i'm now picturing 'my groove' feeling lonely and frightened,

having been left behind by me, of course not intentionally,

but my 'little groove' does not know that does it?

no, my 'little groove' has been all alone for three nights, enough time to dwell on being left.

at first i'm sure my 'little groove' would have had reasonable thoughts

"oh that's okay, Tif will be back in a minute for me, she's a little forgetful these days" turning to a discarded forsaken soul for reassurance

but after a while that forsaken soul will not have any reassurance to give, it will start to mutter things like

"don't bet on it deary, that's what we all thought, but time goes on and you wake up one day having lost count of the hours it's been. that's the day it dawns on you, they ain't coming back, mark my words"

oh my poor 'little groove'!

thinking i have no use for it, when i do.

for without my groove i am nothing.

i can't get a thing done, my procrastinating reaches an all time low and i wander through my days lost, bewildered and without direction...

i blame 'clogs' for my lost groove.

if i hadn't been so busy trying to 'visualize' wooden clogs at the thrift store then i wouldn't have absentmindedly put my groove down.

for i have become a 'visualizer' when thrifting, this in turn i blame on my best pal Debbie.

she informed me when staying last Fall, that if you visualize a parking space in a 'full to the brim' parking lot, quite often one appears out of nowhere...

since 'imparting knowledge' of such wisdom to moi, i spend most of my thrifting moments visualizing.

and especially when it comes to 'clogs'.

lovely little dutch wooden clogs for the walls of mossy shed

since discovering these beauties i have got 'clog' fever, and i've got it bad.

last week i found a little pair that made my heart skip a beat.

on returning to the shed, i promptly painted the sweeties 'coral'.

i like 'coral' it is indeed the color of a grandma's lipstick and it makes me feel warm and comforted.

i now appear to be a collector of clogs, i didn't know it until i added my coral lovelies to my wall and my wall stared back at me, begging for more where 'coral' came from...

and it would appear, dutch wooden clogs are not my only obsession, for i am now obsessing about a swedish pair of clogs for my feet this summer.

i am foreseeing spring and summer being most worrisome when it comes to the challenge.

for there is something about spring and the need to buy a nice new pretty pair of attire for one's feet.

i'm thinking colorful clogs would be so very appealing.

i'm thinking colorful clogs with painted flowers would make even the most mundane of domestic chores be so much more exotic.

i'm thinking this thinking of clogs maybe the undoing of me...

she is off to visualize her 'groove' amongst the shelves of despair, hopefully next to a pair of swedish clogs with her name on ~ Tif