winterizing...

in between being florence nightingale this weekend

i have pottered,

i have cleaned,

i have sorted

and

i have winterized

winterizing is usually something

i do with relish,

and

i do with glee,

i start 'a planning' in september and just love an excuse 'to nest'.

but this year i lack the 'urge to do so'...

i am thinking it is due to an unusually long hot summer. for one summery season i lived the life of an 'outdoor' bohemian, chicken lady. flitting in and out of the open back door, lanterns hanging, countless meals eaten 'al fresco' and only needing a summer dress day after day (but let's not dwell on the summer dress thing, 'cause then we think about 'the missing slip' and then it spoils everything. no, best all round if we just move on from that)

and then several weeks back it was like 'bam!' winter is upon us, cold, wet and miserable. daylight hours appeared to no longer exist and the shed resembled a cave.

a cold cave, for our shed suddenly appeared very white. i don't usually notice this for all the 'clutter' that surrounds me, but there is not denying it, it lacks a feeling of warmth...

having looked at the Neet Magazine blog i noted the shed's whiteness

i mentioned this to our #1 as she recuperated

"blimey, mum... of course it's white, every wall is white apart from the odd bit of wallpaper, it's glaringly white, we live in a white, white box, haven't you noticed before?"

i can only imagine it was the concoction of painkillers that made her feel the 'whiteness' so deeply and thus her 'outburst',

and of course i recall the time i put wallpaper one end of the lounge, our #4 remarked, it was a huge relief as he no longer felt like he lived in a hospital...

and so it was at the weekend, i went around doing a bit of winterizing, hoping to warm the place up...

i found one strand of fairy lights in a drawer and hung them on the fireplace.

they lasted one night and then gave up the ghost. so much for twinkly lights this christmas.

i found some knitted jackets, some i had made and some i had been given and wrapped up a few cold souls

i took down the white linen drapes in my studio and hung up my prized granny barkcloth, not bothering to hem the fabric, knowing in a few months something else would probably replace them

and

then i started a little crocheted garland for my fireplace

in warm, woolly thrifted cream yarn

i'm not sure my attempts at winterizing have met with much enthusiasm, although our #4 was tres excited about the yarn balls and knitted jackets on the cold souls, he exclaimed it would seem only right that a 'pesky gnome' sit upon the horse and he hoped they would hurry up and arrive soon...

but i do not need to worry, for little olive never lets me down, she embraces all my winterizing with great gusto, i know this to be true when i look under the couch and see her 'magpie treasures' accumlated from around the shed, all made from yarn and all crocheted...

she is dipping her crafting toes into the world of kitschy 'miniature living' and wondering if she is 'quite all there' ~ Tif