a big day...

hurrah hooray! i cannot believe we are already at the official book launch day... it has been a whole year since Janine, Glen and little Finley came to stay at Mossy Shed and now they are back in Seattle for our book launch.

in a matter of hours i will be catching the bus to the big city, where upon i will meet up with Janine and her little clan, and the lovely Lola Nova, my most fine and dandy buddy from Portland. she is in my 'nice folks' section of the book because quite frankly she is very nice to know.

then together we will sally forth to The Assemble Gallery and have a spiffy old time of things this evening. 

i think today would be a most fitting time for me to say perhaps the biggest "thanking your kindly" i have ever needed to say...

from the lovely peachy comments here, to the incredible amount of fabby mails in my inbox, to the twittering words tweeted, to the kind facebook messages, i have truly been overwhelmed by the response to the book. i feel most humbled to know so many folks have found the book to be inspiring, unique and totally dottie angel.

these past weeks for my family across the pond, well, it has been a crappity crap few weeks filled with emotions and sadness, and there are many more to come. so late last night into the wee early hours my man and i sat, and we talked and we talked with heavy hearts and heavy heads. he then told me, "no matter what Tif, tomorrow is your day, it is your moment and nothing will overshadow this, you have waited patiently for half a lifetime to have a little moment to shine and you deserve it."

and so dearest readers, i shall do just as he says, i will take 'my day', i will wear my cloggy sandals with pride as i step on the bus, 'little lucky bunny' safely tucked in my bag and head to meet my friends and my lovely blog readers to share this moment with them...

and i wish to share with you also, for those that cannot be here, be it my family across the pond, my lovely girls so far away and you, my dearest readers. thank you kindly for making me feel like i have inspired you to be a little crafty, to look at your stash piles of yarny fabric goodness and to feel itching to get stitching, for if that is one thing i am proud of, is knowing others too have become as addicted to crafting as me due to my little book and this here little blog i like to call home...

yes, today more than any other day, she is truly thanking you kindly, each and every one of you...

Tif 

intermingling with Hubert...

yesterday as i sat on the floor, Used Dog deep in slumber close by, Little Olive upon my lap chewing her bone and me 'a pondering and a plotting' my next crafty move, the word 'intermingle' popped into my little brain.

where it came from i have no idea, i have never used nor thought of this spiffy word before. after several moments of thinking about nothing but this new and exotic word i decided it must be a sign. a sign from the thrifty gods. yes yes, with no doubt at all, they were sending me a sign.

i realized in this one word 'intermingle' was a whole message, the message being

"Tif, go forth to the thrift store and intermingle with other thrifty souls"

i protested a little, i know perhaps that sounds very unlike me, but we have reached the time of year when for two whole months my thrift store is taken over by halloween and the need for every man and his dog to find a costume of such. thus resulting in much loved shelves and rows, once filled with spiffy secondhand goodness, now filled with crappity crap mass produced wares.

however, 'intermingle' would not let me be, all through homework, all through dinner, all through whatever else i was 'all throughing' (Mr Spell Checker isn't happy) 'intermingle' kept on calling my name.

so i had no choice, i could not lie in bed listening to this word the secondhand gods had sent as a sign. this would have been a terrible faux pas, for the gods may chose to never bless me again with their thrifting good luck.

upon entering my thriftstore door, i turned to the left as is always my way and that was the moment Hubert and i found each other. on the shelves of knick knacks, right by the door, all else faded away except for a white bright light highlighting Hubert and his little fleabitten soul.

on close inspection Hubert has been knocked around a bit, he does not wear his 46 years well. i know his age, not because he told me, for alas Hubert has not spoken in many a long time, but because someone at some point decided to write it on his derriere, of course they could have been making it up, but i like to believe he is quite the old boy. i noted his crazed and craggy fur, i noted his terribly broken leg, still showing the scars of a badly patched job... but most of all, i noted his dignified look as i gazed into his little black eyes

when Hubert and i returned home to a dark and quiet shed, such is my life living with 'lads of three' who are out and about most evenings, i bathed him and then i found him a perfect little spot, one i had created only a few days before. i like to call them vignettes, my man has taken to calling them 'Tif's shrines' as in "ah, i see another shrine to your handcrafted and thrifty finds, has popped up whilst i turned my back". no matter. what matters is, i am thankful i was given a sign, so old Hubert can look forward to many happy days of 'intermingling' at mossy shed.

she is thinking how perfectly lovely of Victoria to encourage folks to dilly dally my way this friday ~ Tif

big things and little strings...

last week all became a little tricky dicky 

and so on friday i went to spend quality time with

my adopted auntie

at her little gray cottage by a babbling brook

where we spent many happy moments

stringing little strings of happy

whilst Miss Mina looked on 

i think it quite true to say,

one of the besty best things to have happened to me of late is adopting my auntie.

i would highly recommend it...

she is delighted to say, the mountain has become a mole hill and she is nearly at the top ~ Tif 

mr and mrs monkey...

rescued from the shelves of despair, mr and mrs monkey have found true happiness in their twilight years. mr monkey having no sense of smell is unawares of mrs monkey's need to wear her 'eau de toilette' on the heavy side. and most peachy indeed is mrs monkey, being very hard of hearing, is not kept awake at night by mr monkey's tres terrible snoring. one might think an old monkey may not snore when his nose is a fabric button, but think again because he does.

this lovely little tea tray celebrates mr and mrs monkey's fondness for each other and quite frankly, makes me smile. big enough to enjoy tea for two or indeed perfectly suited to be hung on the wall as a reminder of what makes us happy in life.

if you think mr and mrs monkey would be most suited to spend life in your peachy nest, then you can find them sitting in my shop window, waiting patiently for their forever home.

she is off to visit her adopted auntie in her little gray cottage tomorrow ~ Tif 

note taking again...

oh how i love myself some notes...

bee day notes:

note one: it occurred to me, half way through yesterday, the Queen does birthday portraits every year, so why can't i, after all i had my new birthday frock on.

note two: my 'lads of three' did not let me down! to think they plotted and planned without Our #1 and #2 around made me feel super spiffy inside. along with handmade cards (the bestest kind to receive) i was given three lovely books of which i will show on an up and coming thrilling 'book week' (to be announced, i like that and so i had to write it, "to be announced"), two bars of cadbury's caramel and EVIL'O', a glowing pesky daxie. my lads have noted on many an occasion that OLIVE spelt backwards says 'evilo' and so this seemed most fitting for a life size daxie now glowing in the corner of our lounge

note three: EVIL'O' looks a little chilly to me :)

crafty notes:

note one: in between a mammoth amount of chin wagging with clan members far far away i did get a little crafty yesterday, not enough for my liking but enough to feel like i am making headway. for this sunday i am heading to Seattle to install (doesn't that sound professional and like i know what i am doing, gosh what a spiffy little word) a 'dottie angel' vignette (please see booky notes below for install reasons)

note two: i wish for a cluster of goodness and i need to get my crafty granny pants on and not dilly dally about the place, for dilly dallying is banned this week. i think i may put up signs around the shed stating this. i do not think i have ever banned anything in our shed before, however, time is not on my side and dilly dallying therefore will be banned

booky notes:

note one: hurrah hooray, for 'tis tres exciting. Janine and myself are having a book launch in Seattle and you are all invited! in my heart of hearts, i wish you could all be there but alas and alack i know this is not possible. however there maybe one or two of you peachy readers who do live near by, who are not doing much on September 30th, between 6 and 9pm and fancy a bit of dilly dallying at the lovely Assemble Gallery and Studio. (the dilly dallying ban will have been lifted by then)

how grand it would be for you to come and join us, small beings and little critters most welcome. actually i do not know about the little critter bit, so perhaps if you have a mousey who likes to go out and about in your pocket i am thinking that might be okay. or a hedgehog like Basil, but not so sure about larger critters, so best leave them at home. but small and big beings all welcome. my 'lads of three' will be there, i have mentioned to my man he may want to read my book as he might be asked a tricky question like "have you read the book?" his response was "i live in your dolified world Tif, i think i'll be okay"

i think he has a point...

she is thanking you most kindly for the peachy well wishes yesterday and will be back tomorrow with a little monkey busy businessy stuff ~ Tif

43...

i did not plan on turning 43 today, no sirree. 

i planned on staying 42 for another year and then turning 44 next year. 

to me it seemed a perfectly perfect cunning plan. 

however it would appear my 'lads of three' have other plans...

whilst i wait for their return to the shed this afternoon, 

i shall spend my happy day wisely doing what i like to do best...

feeling a little crafty.

Tif

creatively connected...

hurrah hooray! i made it to Minnesota on wednesday on my 'owny oh', and made it all the way back again yesterday. we had the most spiffiest of times, me, Janine and Jessie, my two creative connection buddies. all three of us wore our rose coloured spectacles...

me, Janine and Jessie with our rose coloured specs firmly in place

so many many creative folks and so much connecting going on, it was quite the sight to behold. as i thought might be the case, i was so busy being a busy bee, 'frankly frank' hardly got a moment to do his thing, but thank goodness Janine was a little bit more 'altogether' and has put up a lovely slide show of just some of the event. so please do have a looky, you can click on it and make it larger. you'll be able to spot our stall and even if we did say it ourselves we were pretty chuffed with how it looked. each day we started tres early and ended tres late, sleeping very little as our cogs kept on turning through the night.

me taken by Janine Vangool (a most spiffy publisher of whom i am so proud of)

i am so thankful to all of you who stopped by our stall, who said "hello Tif", who bought me gifts and just made me feel so welcome. i am truly humbled by the kindness you showed me, the huge enthusiasm for the book and i am without doubt, quite positively sure, these past few days will stay with me forever.

she is busy beavering away, for her little creative cogs are riding high from being surrounded by so much crafty goodness ~ Tif

the creative connection...

on the one hand, i am not cut out for a life where you jet off to foreign climes, meet a gazillion new faces and hob nob. but on the other hand, an itty bitty bit inside of me sees past Mr Doubter and Mr Scaredy Pants and sees the bit where it is simply quite thrilling to be travelling to do a market place stall, sit amongst other fine authors and best of all, meet peachy folks such as yourselves, dearest readers.

so with that in mind, i sallied forth to the drugstore yesterday to buy me a bottle of nail polish in an attempt to freshen up my appearance. my eyes alighted upon the perfect granny coral orange polish right at the back of the shelf. as i was riding high, on a roll, i heeded my adopted auntie and soul sister's wise words and stood bedazzled in the make up aisle. after much indecision due to major bedazzlement, i targeted a green eyeliner as the little bit of miracle to make me look tres peachy on the long days and nights ahead.

once home, i discovered the clumpy coral nail polish was not only the colour a granny would love but was also as old as a granny. my toe nails had looked better before with the two month old chipped teal they had been sporting prior to my meddling. application of the green eyeliner left me with no doubt it was more suited to a halloween event and not an author book signing.

and so it is dearest readers, come tomorrow early morning, i shall sally forth 'as is' with a case full of dottie angel wares (just room for 4 pairs of granny knickers), my exciting travel assemble of layered florals and pinstripes topped off with cardi and handstitched elbow patches and 'a heart and a head' full of high hopes for the coming five days. i have informed Mr Doubter and Mr Scaredy Pants there is no room at the Inn where i am going...

if you are heading to The Creative Connection, she would love for you to say "hello Tif" and will do her utmost with Frankly Frank's help, to bring home some photos to share ~ Tif

random things to note...

random thing one:

i am guilty of using the word 'spiffy' too many times, i need to curtail my usage for fear of 'spiffy overload' which is not good, just the thought of it and what it may cause is fearful enough

random thing two:

despite saying i would not twiddle, i could not help myself and thus proceeded to do a little itty bitty twiddling with Gladys, therefore i am thinking i may be forgiven, because it was so itty bitty it really doesn't count.

random thing three:

a little jealousy can be a good thing sometimes, especially in the case of Danielle Krysa the peachy Jealous Curator no less. i am most delighted to see she will be running a fabby camp this October in Palm Springs. i have never been to Palm Springs, but my thrifty senses tell me it is full of granny goodness to be found. i noted Danielle's camp would be well suited to me except the bit about pilates, however i noted this was optional. as my dabbling with yoga and tai chi was pretty pants i can only imagine how i would be at pilates. the rest of the blurb is well worth a noting. so yes, i am a little jealous of those who will be going

random thing four:

i have finished reading my book, i read it from back to front to add an element of surprise. surprisingly i noted it read equally as well backwards... not sure what this says about the book but i like to think it adds an element of uniqueness to the whole thing

random thing five:

cellar door magazine is a spiffy magazine (just one spiffy today) i was most happy when they ran a little article on mossy shed. this may be my first printed article in a magazine which says 'by Tif Fussell'

random thing six:

shop window was filled last week, thank you kindly to those who dropped by. i will be adding more things when i return after my trip to Minnesota

random thing seven:

am testing out my market stall set up today with my adopted auntie. she has kindly agreed to come by and give me words of wisdom on the stall, me fretting about traveling alone next week and indeed doing a better job at pulling up my knee socks

random thing eight:

my doorbell went yesterday morning and a Brit was on my doorstep. i noted she may have been sent from above, even though she said she have moved in 4 houses down. i am hoping she did not notice my frightfully birds nest plaited hair-do, going on 3 days worth and deranged look in my eye due to lack of sleep the night before when Mr Lurgy visited Our #4. i am also hoping i did not scare her off with my huge enthusiasm at having a fellow Brit in the neighbourhood.

random thing nine:

a bear took a bath in my next door neighbours pond two days ago 

random thing ten:

i cannot say the word 'skipping' in a normal voice, i tried all morning whilst doing the washing up. it is not possible to say it without actually a skippity skip tone to my voice. interesting, very interesting, i wonder what other words are like that

random thing eleven:

nope its gone, my mind has gone blank, the cogs have stopped turning, yep this is as good as it will ever get for today.

she is wishing you the most agreeable weekend ~ Tif

snippets of...

ah yes, 'tis been a while for sure. but today we have 'snippets of...' but just like always, before the snippets, there must be a ramble. of course you could just scroll on down and skip the ramble, quite understandable and i will forgive if you do. for those that are not skipping, then here's the blurb...

(the word 'skipping' is a most spiffy word i think)

yesterday i practiced the 'fine art of avoidance', some days i think i could get a degree in this form of fine art.

there i was sitting staring at a 'pressing' blank word document, Colin the Computer was so kindly holding up for me, when the little voice inside my head piped up

"do not put off till tomorrow, what you can do today"

wise words indeed i thought as i stared blankly at my screen. then another little voice butted in reminding me of the little spiffy can of paint my magical paint man had mixed for me. the most perfectly perfect greeny aqua colour, the exact match of our kitchen chair.

the first little voice pointed out this was not what it meant, the second little voice said, surely these wise words apply to anything, including a little pot of paint and a laundry room cupboard waiting patiently.

i then proceeded to ponder how it is, i see my laundry room as a luxury space. is it because i am a Brit and until moving stateside always had my w. machine in the kitchen? i think perhaps it is, and so therefore i love my little laundry space with quite a passion. however i do not love dirty laundry with any passion, but as this is part and parcel of the life i lead then how spiffy to have a small space to do it in. when we first moved in, the little space was filled with old Formica cupboards, i removed some doors and painted others.

as i was practicing the fine art of avoidance, it seemed only fitting i listened to little voice number two and switched off little voice number one. whereupon i spent a happy half hour freshening up the laundry room cupboard. upon which i noted afterwards, it needed a new curtain, so i took some of the fabby nylon tablecloth i found in the thrift store a few weeks back and made one. after which i noted my little laundry space needed a clean, so i did. and then after all that, i felt such a love for my little laundry room i invited 'frankly frank' in to record my afternoon efforts.

so today i have

snippets of... a laundry room

thrilling stuff!

and the besty best snippet of all

Bingo Bee...

she now finds herself one day later staring at a blank word doc, kindly held up by Colin the Computer, more pressing than the day before and this time she has no choice but to listen to voice number one ~ Tif