school's out...

so once again a week flies on by and i am looking back wondering where the days have gone...my yarn project has been stuffed back in the suitcase for another day, quite frankly i need to stick to rectangles and squares...circles are not my thing. i had planned to spend last thursday evening correcting my circular cushion disaster but as our #4 ended up requiring stitches to a wound he received running into his drum kit, it was not meant to be...

a few days on and his 'war wound' is looking just great, quite amazing to see how fast young skin heals...(i am still nursing a cut received on my shin by my platform bed several months ago which appears not to want to fade in any way at all)...i have also been wrapped up in end of school events...three of my 'dears' are changing schools next year so lots of goodbyes needed to be said, add to this 'the worst weather' since records began for spring, it's been a strange old week...

i did however on the morning of 'the last day' pull out Miss Ethel and give her a whirl, i have been motivated into this by our #1, she kindly pointed out that i was not unlike the Roman Empire...

"mother" she said "that would perfectly describe you and dottie angel, this time last year you were riding high on selling slips but a year on you have let it all go just like the Romans...you need to pull it together and before it is too late."...after making three slips i sat down with a cup of tea to watch the clock, counting the minutes and thought to myself, "i think i've still got it"...

and so as i pack my bags and head across the pond to rest awhile with my parents...i shall use the time wisely to work out a schedule that sees me finding a balance between...

1. motherhood

2. remodelling mossy shed

3. building a hen house

4. doing up Gladys

5. keeping a family of six fed from a veggie patch

6. dottie angel

7. etsy

8. baking edible treats

9. pulling it all off effortlessly

10. turning forty with style...

she's wishing you a lovely month and hope's to be back, in control at the end of july ~ Tif

a good yarn...

last night i hauled out my yarn stash...i realized that it has been forever and a day since i did anything with yarn. a bit of 'yarn therapy' was in order and all the more, since i happened upon this beautiful book in Borders a few weeks back...

the shelves in my local bookstore are heaving with knitting and crocheting books, they always look tempting and it seems each week new ones are published...but when my eyes lit upon 'Vintage Crochet' by Susan Cropper (she of the wonderful Loop store) my little heart skipped a beat...if you have a liking for all things retro and vintage mixed in with some yarn then this book is for you with it's wonderful inspiring images and lovely patterns...

my problem i realized when looking to see which project i wished to start was my yarn stash...an awful lot of 'one of everything' seemed to be in my suitcases. what does this say about me as a yarn shopper? so i narrowed it down to the fact i wished for a round cushion (what is it about me and knitted/crocheted cushions, none of them have ever come out right) to sit upon a little seat by my front door...

i was also very much taken with the lampshade and the colors used...as luck would have it i had very similar colors amongst my stash...

so i have set about crocheting a cushion cover loosely based upon this lovely book...i say loosely because i am making it up as i go along, so far it is resembling a beret and not a cushion cover, i am hoping that will sort it's self out when stretched over the cushion...we shall see. if i make it to the end then i shall reward myself with some proper yarn shopping of the appropriate yarn to follow one of the patterns precisely...

in the meantime i must tell you 'the diggers' and 'the men' are back right outside mossy shed, i have been told it won't be long before my contact with the outside world is taken away for a day or two...so i shall take the time to finish up my cushion cover, using 'therapy' time with my yarn to ponder on how i am going to get through ten weeks of summer with my 'lovelies' in a positive good parenting way...

she's noticed a small gap in the clouds, could there be sunshine coming her way ~ Tif

another day in paradise...

the last few days have passed in a blur of paint and rain...our #4's bedroom is finished apart from requiring a new floor covering and the platform for his bed (all in good time)...

i have now turned my attention to the landing and stairs, with the doors and frames finished it was down to covering up the dingy 'hasn't seen a lick of paint in years' knock down.

dear readers it was not unlike trying to paint a cliff face (not that i have ever tried to paint a cliff face, i am merely using my imagination here)...who ever used his talent to create the texture on my wall must have fallen asleep when waiting for the plaster to be 'just right' for knocking down...he missed his window of time and now i have been left 28 years later with an incredibly heavy surface to cover...however the good news is all the white is doing a marvelous job of making the hallway feel bright and cheery even on the dullest of days (and there's a lot of those at the moment)...i just have the stairwell bit left to do and quite frankly i am leaving it for my man, a little treat for the weekend...

Winston is not a happy bunny, i moved him down the yard as my man said it was all looking a little crowded...then the storm came through and appeared not to care about Winston in the least when it came to debris...

miss josephina lola has taken up residence in my flower bed...i am worrying as to how long she will survive our inclement weather

my veggie patch isn't looking very exciting either, unless we get a bit of sun soon i fear any seeds i have planted are no longer in my patch but washed down the hill residing at a neighbor's...i can see it now "honey, did you plant cauliflower and peas in my herbaceous border?". "why no Frank, i did not"..."mmm, well i'll be"...

and so you can be sure that the dreary (and cold, i might add) weather is slowly going to my head. that and the knowledge tomorrow is my last full day before school ends...enough to make a grown woman cry...

she's thinking there's nothing for it but to go and do a bit of thrifting to cheer the spirit ~ Tif

gray day...

very excited to announce that it may be gray in the sky, gray on my house but there is no sign of gray on my head...yipee! those pesky roots have been banished for a few weeks and it has cheered me no end...

apart from my hair being sorted i also spent yesterday sorting my laundry cupboard...now if you recall my hallway is rather drab...actually without having the sun tunnels put in, it was completely dark. i have counted there are eight doors on my upstairs hallway which accounts for half the doors in the shed...when the painter was here doing his best with my french doors he took pity on my 'door' painting and offered me a 'you won't be able to resist' price for doing my landing doors...i caved dear readers, the price was too good, he needed work and i needed help...i calculated that it takes me two days to paint out one door and another two days to do the frame, that's four days, times that by sixteen doors...well that's a lot of days ( i would tell you the total amount but alas i was never good with figures), so i have halved my total of work days on the doors in the shed, leaving me to get on with the window frames and walls upstairs...

anyhow the point i am trying to get to is for the last two weeks we have been without doors upstairs...this makes for very interesting family life, especially with teenage girls and their bathroom habits...i have been most creative and pinned lovely thrift store sheets from certain doors, but when the frames were wet it was proving more tricky and did i mention that was the same time as having no water...no doors and no water for teenage girls is not a good combination...still we have got through it and i am busy putting the doors back on (hurrah!). now i am quite sure you are aware that i am not a 'beefy' lady and do not pack much of a punch, when i removed the doors myself i was rather chuffed that i achieved such a task...to put them back on i have devised a technique of balancing them on books so they become level with the hinges...

the point of that last mumbling paragraph was to get to the fact that yesterday i did a little experiment with my laundry cupboard...i am most lucky to have two big closets in the hallway to hide all the towels, bed linen and pillows, plus i am quite sure a moth or two...i did consider painting the brown shelves but quite honestly i am getting a little burnt out with painting (shock, horror). i was told by my friend Suzanne that it is possible to cover shelves with fabric using starch...(this is where you all go "well duh, Tif...didn't you know that?") well actually i didn't...and so i made a starch/water solution of 50/50 and dipped, wringed and placed fabric onto my brown shelves. the fabric i used was very light weight cotton and from the clearance aisle...for an experiment i am happy with the wrinkly crusty results. (please excuse the terrible picture but i knew you would want to see it even in a blurry state)...however, i cannot be bothered to do the other cupboard...i think wallpaper would look much better and so have plans to buy some anayglyta wallpaper and use that instead...

this weekend we are tackling our #4's room, who has waited patiently for me to get around to his space...at the moment he sleeps on a mattress in his closet (doors removed)...now here's the thing that has always amused me living in the states, and i'm not sure this is the case for the whole of the states or just my neck of the woods. if the room contains a 'built in' closet then it can be sold as a bedroom, if it does not then it is not classed as a bedroom...if that had applied to my last house in the UK then we would have been selling a house with a lot of 'reception' rooms and no bedrooms at all...so the plan is to build a raised platform in the closet space with storage underneath and a mattress on the top, painted out in green (his choice) and the rest of the room painted out in white, (my choice, surprise surprise)...

i am hoping that next week the dreadful rain will disappear thus resulting in my blog being a little less damp and a bit more cheery...

she's wishing you a pleasant weekend ~ Tif

footnote: pics in today's post are courtesy of my children and their creations...due to lousy photo taking conditions i have rummaged through my flickr archives :)

and they entered two by two...

it has been a little like living in Noah's ark the last few days, water under us, coming out the side of us and all around us (rain and more rain) but none where it should be...do not worry for me and my little clan, a 'love him forever' plumber came later yesterday and fixed the pipe allowing us to wash our hands and shower again...isn't it funny how we take for granted on a daily basis those simple things such as washing hands before preparing dinner (i use the word dinner loosely in my case)...just the ability to flush a toilet in a household of six is something i appreciate even more today.

a few years back we had storms whip through before christmas leaving huge areas in the northwest without electricity...we were without power and heat for over three days, a lot of people up to several weeks...it is always humbling and makes one appreciate the comforts we have on a daily basis...

and so with the 'water retention' issues at the shed and then little connection to the outside world via cable i have not been the nicest of people to know...of course things like not having done laundry for over a week and then 'not being able to', was causing some disturbances amongst the ranks, our #4 said it was no problem that he was running out of boxers to wear "i'll do just as papa (my father-in-law) does on vacation, wear each pair four times just turning them around and inside out"...that's the spirit don't you think?

in the meantime i have twiddled around the place, occasionally with a paintbrush, finishing up a project or two (some of you more faint hearted readers may have to look away at the horror of me painting out a rather nice piece of furniture)

"what won't be painted by the time you have finished mossy shed?" our #1 asked "i fear if i stand still long enough you will paint me" (have i told you that before? i think my memory is going, something to do with heading straight towards the big '4' '0')

i even managed a spin on Miss Ethel in my studio, recovering a thrift store chair that i will have to leave to another day to show you...it is like a cave in the shed today due to the horribly wet weather and thus i don't have a hope of getting a good picture.

of course if i read the manual i am quite sure there is a chapter telling me how to overcome such obstacles, but as i have allergies to manuals i'm going to give it a miss...(now i know i've told you that before...)

last but not least for today, i do not recall ever putting my heating on in June but quite frankly dear readers, i am a broken woman with my 'water damage' and need a little comfort...

she's off to attempt to clear the backlog of laundry but strangely getting distracted by other things like sitting down with a cup of tea and her new/old blankie ~ Tif

things i've learnt...

it has taken me most of the day to get onto my little computer, they are replacing the cable outside my house and so i am without computer access and phone line, but am with lots of noise...it appears they have all gone home for the day and so i have quick smart jumped onto the web before the hungry hordes appear and require some attention...(too late they are through the door, this will be published in a wee bit...)

i thought it rather nice to start off the week with a few things i've learnt over the past few days...

thing #1: i will never again rely on kid's glue when crafting 'outside' signs...it would appear we no longer live at mossy shed...

thing #2: tooth paste strips paint. now some of you maybe wondering how i know such interesting, ney fascinating facts...

well, last night as i was walking past my newly 'three coated, tricky to paint' staircase, i glanced down to admire my handy work only to find a huge dollop of bright blue toothpaste smeared along one post. when i enquired in a high shrill voice as to whom this toothpaste belonged, it came as no surprise that suddenly the shed was very quiet...i have yet to discover the culprit. "not to worry" says my man, getting a piece of dampened toilet paper and scrubbing away..."mmmm, that's interesting" he mumbled "it would appear that toothpaste takes paint off"...i will not type what my next few words were, i shall leave it to your imagination...

thing #3: i will never have to waste my hard earned cash on a gym membership, much cheaper alternative workout is Winston, my 1968 truck who has no power steering. once i have got the engine going after several attempts, i proceed to drive him around my acre of moss, after several minutes i'm breaking out in a sweat and by the end of my ten minute workout have used every muscle in my arms and legs to manoeuvre my Ford 'tank' back to his parking position.

thing #4: i nearly fainted when told the three heirloom tomatoes i was wishing to purchase at my local farmers market would cost me $13, i came home and decided it's time to try growing my own...i think there is money to be made in tomatoes, quite possibly more than crafting...

thing #5: i must not expect members of my household to appreciate my thrifty finds, they will never understand just how amazing the moment was when my eyes fell upon a knitted blanket in the local thrift store. a blanket that has not been made from a 'luminous neon stash' belonging to a 'color blind granny' is a rare find indeed...my blankie is crafted from attractive colored yarn in a beautiful crocheted stripe...even better it's never been used and only $4.99...no, it is true to say they will never hear the chorus of angels at such moments in my life, (but i am quite sure you, dear readers would)...

thing #6: when i am having 'siding' replaced on my wooden house by a workman, it is most important to notice that a nail has been put through my hot water pipe, even more important is to notice it straight away and not five weeks later, when the crawl space is pooling with water, the sub floor is rotting and suddenly i have a big problem on my hands (understatement of the year)...

thing #7: if you inherit an overgrown veggie patch, or three as in my case, it is possible to turn it around and own a 'mr mcgregor' garden...now i'm not claiming i know what i am doing, or if it will actually be edible, but i do think it looks rather splendid and as my man and i were busy working on it this sunday he mentioned how we were just like the 'good life' (old BBC sit-com), then i pointed out that was not true, we do not own a pig...and then i started thinking....

she's thanking you for the 'winston' love and hoping to see you tomorrow, 'cable' willing ~ Tif

footnote: no offense meant towards wonderful organic farmers at my local market and 'color blind grannies' who do a sterling job of keeping us warm :)