a jolly good read...

if perchance you are looking for a jolly good read today then may i suggest the latest issue of 91magazine

and if you happen to turn to page 62 you'll find a spiffy feature about our Mossy Shed and a nice little write up about my book.

 i am quite the fan of 91magazine, the articles are beautiful and i even find myself enjoying the ads which is nice i think, sometimes ads just do not sit right amongst the pages, but not in this magazine, no sirree! they fit peachy perfect, hurrah hooray. 

yes indeedy, it is the perfect read with a cup of tea on a winter's afternoon.

many thank you kindlies to Caroline and indeed Chloe for inviting me to be part of such a spiffy publication

her mother hen heart has been put through the mill by her chickie peas today ~ Tif 

fabby fabric from a silly old suitcase...

oh golly gosh, nothing quite like a piece of fabby vintage fabric to get my creative soul feeling a little crafty and that is exactly what happened when a wonderful parcel full of peachy goodness arrived on my doorstep a few weeks back.

lovely Maartje from silly old suitcase blog had a give away, a very generous give away where upon several of us won! when i heard the news i was pretty giddy with the anticipation of what my little prize would be. for just one look at Maartje's world with her crafty vintage talent has my little heart beating faster. on a side note here, if perhaps you are amidst the blearghy winter feeling where every thing around appears a little dreary and drab, may i suggest you visit Maartje and her 'silly old suitcase', to me it is a 'light box' blog, one that is bound to lift your spirits and you are left feeling like a little ray of sunshine has been to visit. such colour and such prettiness abounds from every photo you come away ready to fend of Mr Deary and Mr Drab with a "be gone dull guys! i do not have time for your depressing ways, no sirree, i am filled with happy sunny colourful thoughts thanks to Maartje and her little old suitcase filled with happy things"

and so my package of goodies arrived before Christmas, where upon i hung several dingly danglies around the shed made by Maarje's own fair crafty hands and then i sat and hugged the other part of the parcel, for it contained a length of vintage fabric like no other i had seen before. a fabric worthy of a long hug, my very fabby fav type of vintage fabric...

ugly pretty no less!!

with a shed full of gleeful decorations and clan, i wisely placed my new love where i would see her daily, reminding me of things to come when the shed was cleared of decorations and clan. so i waited and whilst i waited i pondered, for such was her ugly pretty beauty i knew i needed to do her justice.

roll on to January, i was in full on shed clearing mode and along with the crappity crap things like cleaning out drawers, recycling and thrifting, i interspersed it with jolly things, like re-covering our old IKEA couch with a  pair of wonderful vintage Sanderson curtains found on Ebay, which had also been biding its time waiting for a quiet moment. once the loose cover was miraculously made, i realized my couch was no longer a couch, but a settee, for a settee sounded so much grander and Sanderson fabric is grand in my books. i dared to wonder if the handcrafted gods were on my side, after all i had managed to make a slip cover out of 2 curtains surely they were... 

and they were, for unfolding my lovely bit of 'silly old suitcase' fabric i discovered there was enough to make 3 spiffy back cushions for my newly Sanderson-ed settee.

oh joy, oh happy day, when once again i stood back to see the completed transformation of IKEA couch into a settee of vintage Sanderson goodness along with some ugly pretty cushions worthy of a joyful tear or two

how marvellous i think to myself every night whilst sitting upon our settee, that i was lucky enough to win such an amazing piece of fabric and my hope is Maartje will see just how suited it is to living in our Mossy Shed. thank you kindly Maartje, for your lovely fabric, your wonderful happy blog, for cheering up the cold winter months and indeed your silly old suitcase filled with crafty vintage goodness

once again she finds herself waiting in anticipation of Mr Postie and what he carries in his Van ~ Tif

thrilling friday's instant images...

yesterday i got waylaid in my studio, dabbling with Miss Ethel and the epiphany i had before Christmas and stored away in a little drawer in my brain labelled

'little drawer of epiphanies worthy of returning to'

like all crafting epiphanies one never knows till one attempts them. then after some attempting has been done, only then can one step back and assess the situation.

"is it pants, or is it peachy?"

today however is friday!

 hurrah hooray, thrilling friday and with it my 'instant images' post. yes indeedy, it comes as no surprise Ivor Ipad and myself, having found ourselves after several months of living near each other, are in the throws of a love affair. Ivor Ipad apart from being rather attractive, has many qualities about him i admire, but none more so then his 'instagram' button. so i thought it might be nice, a sort of nice thing to do on a friday, sort of thing, to show some of the instant images Ivor Ipad and myself have taken together. 

perhaps i may have a story behind them to tell, perhaps i may not. 

perhaps i may only show one, perhaps i may show more. 

perhaps they may be blurry, perhaps they may not. 

who knows and who really truly cares. 

all i know is, Ivor Ipad is the bees knees with his little button of instant imagery

attempting a roundie crocheted cushion with the help of Little Olive the other evening

a snippet of hand embroidery hanging around Mossy Shed

oilcloth bunting from my Aunt Hetty, braving the snow

Little Olive & Used Dog tired out from listening to me marvelling at the joyous vintage Sanderson fabric found on Ebay 

during my manic January clearout, our bedroom was treated to a shuffle around, resulting in this corner where once our bed was placed

a snippet of store goodies i am working on for february

a woodland gathering inside of Mossy Shed where it is warm for little critters feet in winter

i do hope your weekend is peachy and not pants in the least, yes, only peachy weekends all round

Tif 

things i like today...

in no particular order

thing one: my lads back in school

thing two: listening to Noah and the Whale whilst painting 3 coats of glossy white on doors in the shed

thing three: a postcard from Bernina to Panini regaling thrifty finds of goodness

thing four: snippets of black in fabrics around the shed

detail of a smocked roundie cushion i made, who despite my best intentions became a smocked oval cushion who mocks me, reminding me, roundie cushions are still out of my reach

a lovely black fabric, new but vintage inspired, doing a peachy job of keeping derrieres comfy on a chair

a single panel bought on Ebay over 5 years ago & rediscovered in my manic clearing of cupboards & drawers this past month

despite her frayed & tattered self, she has now found a friend to hang out with who does not see her imperfections but only her worldly pretty charm

thing five: Miss Ethel, now resplendent in her new studio home upstairs

thing six: braids growing nicely & choosing to ignore the extra growth of gray hairs

thing seven: lovely folks who stop by to say lovely hellos on my facebook page

thing eight: a peachy book review by tres spiffy Amanda, which really truly made my morning

thing nine: just thinking of a thrift store jolly and 'a plotting & a planning' it

thing ten: my critters, always my critters

Tif 

a dar~ing, clue~ing, hint~ing kind of day...

today i have donned my businessy nitty gritty cap 

so i may tackle my businessy nitty gritty stuff with authority. 

i thought my cap rather bedraggled 

leaving me no choice but to perk it up 

by wearing a bright green floral frock & cardi avec elbow fabric patches. 

so far i have dibbled and dabbled upon Colin the computer for near on two hours, 

all the time dingly dangling the carrot of a 'gold sticky star' so i may stay focused. 

do you like clues?

 hints?

 possible snippets of something interesting? 

i have no idea if monday is such a day for such things, 

but whilst wearing my businessy nitty gritty cap

 i am overcome with throwing caution to the wind, 

gathering up my authority on such matters as 'hints and clues' 

and saying

 "why yes it is Tif, it is the only day of the week worthy of such matters"...

how daring, how clue~ing, and yes, how hint~ing can one get?

Tif 

scuppered by a snow storm...

yes indeedy, 

we have been scuppered by a snow storm

 but the grand news is, 

we have power and heat again, 

hurrah hooray!

here's just a smidgen of pics 

showing the wintery views from Mossy Shed

these past few days...

i will be back on monday, all thawed out and ready to go 

(not that i'm going anywhere in particular, but as in a 'hey ho lets go' sort of way) 

wishing you a spiffy and warm weekend

(unless you are in exotic climes such as Australia, then perhaps it is a little too warm and you maybe wishing for a cooler weekend, if so, then i do wish you a spiffy and cooler weekend)

Tif

a goat, a bernina & a panini...

i got a goat for christmas! not just any old ordinary goat but an exotic goat.

i know him to be exotic for he lives in foreign climes. it warms my heart to think of my goat living out there in the big wide world with nice folks in their bit of yard, helping them daily with things goats are good at helping with. 

my goat is named PIP'S FRIEND and one day when i have another goat in my own back yard she will be called PIP and i will be able to say "do not be lonely PIP, for you have a friend living in foreign climes and perhaps you may care to skype with your friend so you feel a little better". 

of course it may be possible that they will not understand each other, having been bought up in different countries with different languages, but then again, i wonder if goats the world over speak only one language and therefore communication is not a problemo

i told my man, this was a grand gift indeed. how thoughtful that he should know how much i wished for a goat of my own and yet at this moment in time am unable to give my goat a home in our yard. however now, he has told me i am able to say i have a goat, he just happens to live elsewhere a bit like some of my clan. this kind gesture has greatly made up for the 'panini maker' incident of 2008, i think he felt rather relieved upon knowing this fact. 

whilst we are on the subject of Paninis i do have some thrilling news to share, 'the thrifty crafty tales of Bernina & Panini' sort of thrilling news which has me most giddy.

the beginning of this new shiny year was the start of many things, one of which, a new blog called 

'postcards from across a pond' 

based upon the friendships of old. the lovely handwritten postcards sent between two friends telling little tales of this and that. and so it came to be, my lovely friend Bernina (who was gifted a bernina sewing machine for her 40th) and me, Panini (who was gifted a panini maker for her 40th) decided to share our thrifty crafty tales in the way of postcards sent across the pond.

a spiffy example of the thrilling postcards written between Bernina & Panini...

we hope you will enjoy reading the rambling postcards sent between two eclectic women of a certain age, separated by a pond but brought together in the spirit of friendship & by the love of all things granny.

'tis a huge dump of snow outside her window, telling her its best to stay in and wallpaper ~ Tif

buttons, twitterings, books and a bit of instants...

since the shed's contents of bods has halved and all is quiet, i have used the opportunity to sort things in my head and my shed. this has been most brilliant, for many things within my head have been nagging me for months, little things i wished to do but never seemed to find the time nor the energy for, at the end of last year. so i did the best thing i could at the time, i made a note of those things and waited patiently for a new spiffy year. for me a new spiffy year is all i need to find a bit of motivation. whilst i've been pulling out cupboards and drawers, manically shredding and donating, i have also been twiddling in cyber land.

buttons

hurrah hooray is all i can say, for my new blog buttons.

my dandy friend Marjan did a peachy job indeed. i said "oh can you do this and can you do that" and voila! she could because she can. thank you Marjan you are the bees knees

books

yes indeedy after floundering around the place and being quite honestly pants at the whole facebook thing, i have finally pulled up my facebook knee socks and with it, a dottie angel page is up and running.

facebook page

this will be where i tell nitty gritty businessy things like 'today i put this in the store window' or 'today i really like this peachy find or folk'. i have no doubt it will be sporadic in its postings because i have not found a pesky passing gnome to help me just yet. but none the less, if you so like to know such things then please do hop over and find me

instants

it has only taken me nearly 4 months to figure out i could have an instant photo album. 

it took Our #1 to come home for the holidays for me to see the light. i live in a PC world through and through but in the summer i rebelled and trust me, it truly was a rebellion. i took my piggy bank along with my rebellion and bought an ipad. upon arriving home with rebellion product in hand i pondered what to do next. the pondering took 4 months and my daughter to assist. now i have music playing all day long in the shed and best of all, something which has me inspired like i have not been in a long time, the ability to take instant snapshots. 

and last but not least

twitterings

yes indeedy, whilst pulling up my facebook knee socks, i also pulled up my twittering ones too.

twitter page

 i find wearing them both at the same time, the layered look, works rather well for me. i have high hopes they will not fall down from the weight of two pairs of socks at the same time. the elastic seems in pretty good nick and so things are looking bright in that department.

i'm not a brillantly witty nor super chatty twitterer. some days i am better than others, some days the inner voice gets to talk and others i just link to a snapshot or blog post.

its been good to have a break, so many things i feel like i have started to sort which means over the coming weeks i will have that feeling of being less overwhelmed and more in control and for me, that is the best way to start a fresh shiny new year

Tif :)

a good man...

at christmas our clan lost a good man.

he was my man's father and my children's grandfather and he passed away from cancer. the past few months, it had been unbearable for him and so there was somewhat a relief to know his pain and suffering was over. but that initial feeling is quickly replaced by the realization that a constant in your life is gone forever. a feeling that doesn't ever really go away.

he was an ordinary man who did many extra ordinary things. he loved the outdoors more than any other person i have ever met. this week my clan celebrated the many moments we have shared in this wonderful world with him and said our final goodbyes to a good man whom we knew quite simply as 'Papa'.

happy shiny year

wishing

you

a

brilliantly

for

2012

Tif

(back to rambling on the 16th Jan)