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Thursday, October 25

duck egg blue... oh how i love you

where there is a will, there is a way...
hip hip hooray.
after 7 years of being white,
and 16 of living with us.


our table is now
a most jolly
duck egg blue


'tis a little brighter in the flesh,
however 'frankly frank' my camera
is not keen on blues and greens
and does his own little thing.


its a big old table,
and its a big old bit of duck egg blue
sitting in the family room.
took a few days to get used to
but now i am most 
delighted with our table 
with its fresh and glossy coat
of duck egg blue...

"duck egg blue,
oh how i love you"

Tif


Sunday, October 21

a bicycle made for three...


my bike stand arrived on friday!
1 day earlier than expected.
that in its self is always a treat,
something arriving via mail earlier than expected.

on saturday i went into the garage
and found my peachy bicycle
waiting patiently for me.
after a bit of a wrestle with piles of crappity crap
i wheeled my bike out of its
dark and dreary surroundings
into our shed filled with granny chic goodness

after my man assured me
he had done a proper job
i tentatively hopped up on my bicycle
(it was quite a hop up due to the stand adding height)
and started to peddle.


oh joy of joys!
to go on a bike ride with no hill
nor rain, nor helmet to scupper the enjoyment.
after a bit, i noted
'shop duck' and 'shop cat'
were having a good old ganders 
at me on my bicycle.
it seemed rather mean
not to offer them a ride


this morning (sunday)
whilst on our cycle ride,
'shop duck' and 'shop cat'
commented after 10 minutes
the view was a little dull
despite me turning the front wheel
from time to time
and having Radio 2 blaring out.


i told them to close their eyes
and use their imagination.
i noted 'shop cat' was very good at doing so,
however, i noted 'shop duck' was not.
and from where i was sitting,
peddling away
(and yes i must admit,
breaking a sweat
in my flannel plaid pyjamas)
i noted something else about 'shop duck'.
 he can look forwards
and look backwards 
at the same time...
thus continuing to keep
a beady eye on me
at all times,
making sure my peddling
stays on track.
"peachy peddling allowed
pants peddling not allowed"
says his one beady eye...


Tif 

Friday, October 19

days of this & that...

on sunday 
* i started my 10 day elimination diet.
all part of the master plan
put in place by my naturopath

on monday 
* i lost 14 inches to my coif.
all part of the master plan
to embrace a whole new chapter


on tuesday 
* i did over 1 hour of yoga therapy.
all part of the master plan
to feel well again

on wednesday 
* i counted my yarn stash
and then lost count
(all part of the master plan
to distract me from yoga therapy aches,
other aches, inner voice
and food cravings of the chocolatey kind)


on thursday 
* i did over 1 hour of yoga therapy
and ordered 1 bike stand
(the sort that makes your everyday bicycle
into a 'keep fit' bicycle)
*i took 1 pesky little doggie to the vets,
a pesky little doggie who needs to lose 2 lbs
and 1 tooth.


today, on friday 
* i have unsuccessfully tried to 
close the suitcase lid
on my countless amount of yarn.
*patted myself on the back
for reaching day 6 of elimination diet
with only 1 day of feeling completely hopeless
and that was day 1.
* noted my limbs are not aching so badly
* a pesky little doggie started her day 1
of keeping fit
thanks to my man who came to the rescue
and will walk little olive each and every morn
from now on,
till i am able to take the reins again

tomorrow, on saturday
* i will work on 2 quite thrilling things.
thing 1 being to read all recipes in our granny chic book
(as per request from a very nice person)
thing 2 being to answer questions for a dutch magazine
whom i am rather fond of

the day after tomorrow, on sunday
* i will awake in my 1 bed
and think of 1 country across the pond
and 1 particular newspaper,
who has a sunday supplement called YOU
and wonder to myself, 
many many miles away in my bed
how surreal it is, 
to have our Granny Chic book
featured amongst their glossy pages.
* all this whilst knowing,
there will be only 2 days left 
of the elimination diet to get through
and 2 days left to the biggest surreal
'magazine moment'
of all time

Tif 



Thursday, October 18

plotting, planning & painting...

over the past month or so,
i have been plotting and planning
to dabble in some painting.
my plotting and planning ways
have led to dreaming big
but alas for reasons i have yet to mention,
will be a little while till the dreams
become reality.

you have to dream big though
so dream away i do...

i dream of our 
'been white for donkey's years' table
going a duck egg blue
or perhaps a vintagey green


i dream of our retro papered wall
becoming less orange 
and more something else.
what else i have no idea
but i ponder it daily


i dream of the rather
'in quite a sad state' midcentury table
found out on a thrifty jolly
becoming less sad and more peachy.
do i keep him all wood and wallpaper the top?
do i give him a once over with the sand paper
and paint his rather lovely lines
a glossy colour to brighten up the winter months?
for now a rather spiffy kitschy plastic doily cloth
covers up his sad ways
whilst i dream big for what he may become


in the meantime
i dabbled small with my paint brush.
i risked it for a biscuit
and i painted a lovely old frame
a rather jolly green.
a green i have used before
a green that is extremely good
at being jolly.
therefore a jolly good green
to know i feel.
the result of which i am most delighted with
and has continued to feed my dreaming big
and kept my thinking ways happy...


Tif 


Friday, October 12

a friend...

yesterday at the thrift store,
 i found a friend...
for it was quite vulnerable in its current state.
vulnerable from falling on the floor
and gathering up Used Dog's hairs.
vulnerable from a passing pesky doggie
noting its crocheted loveliness
and making it into a nest.
this vulnerability was causing me to fret...


but all fretting has been cast aside,
thanks to the discovery of a fine friend.
the friend is very plastic,
he is also quite blue
and it would be quite true to say 
he is rather fantastic
at several things
fantastic thing one:
 keeping items off the ground
with his handy dandy little feet.
fantastic thing two:
perfectly sized for several yarn balls
and a growing bit of yarny goodness
and
fantastic thing three:
(quite possibly the most fantastic of all)
two handy dandy handles
for picking up on a whim
and taking along on journeys
should they occur on any given day
at any given moment

Tif 

Thursday, October 11

yarny goodness...

i do like fall,
i like it a whole big lot.
i like it for one reason
and one reason only.
that reason being
'nesting'
yes indeedy,
fall = nesting
and nothing says
fall and nesting 
quite like a yarny blanket


i have high hopes 
for this fall's yarny blanket.
it will be made from 
mustard
 and it will be made from
granny knicker pink.
and it will quite shockingly
not be made from 
cream.
it will also be made 
slowly and surely,
for that is my motto of late.

i found a peachy pattern 
over at the very nice folks
it was for a small being, 
so i tweaked it to make it bigger.
i confess for several rows
the pattern went a little off on its own.
however i did not fret
nor particularly care.
i just kept on keeping on
and slowly but surely
i got the hang of it
and the pattern righted itself


i am down 3 mustard balls
with 5 more to go,
i am a little giddy 
as each mustard ball
slowly but surely
turns into yarny goodness...
and i am thinking
the granny knicker pink
will be the cherry on the top

Tif


Tuesday, October 2

a Granny Chic book...

at the end of last week a parcel plonked itself upon my doormat, a parcel i had been anticipating for a couple of days.

inside was the result of 3 months creative madness on behalf of myself and my book writing buddy Rachelle.
as i dared to remove the parcel's content, slowly but surely turn the cover and look through squinted eyes i felt my inner mr doubter fade away and in its place, taking up residence was mr pride.


to think we started writing this book mid April and now at the end of September both Rachelle and i hold 'our creation' in our crafty mitts. i still can't get over the extraordinary morphing of our two crafty souls and have no doubt this was key to the book coming out the way it did. we set out intent on bridging the gap between craft book and interior book and i believe we have done so, in our own quirky way. we call it a recipe book for in our minds, our grannies would have recipe books filled with scribbles, tear-outs, suggestions and plenty of visual inspiration. our hope was to produce such a recipe book for granny chic living and by jove i believe we have.

our Granny Chic book will become available on oct 25th, it is possible to buy it online and also i have been told it will be stocked in stores around the globe. as and when i know nitty gritty i will do my besty best to pass it along.

in the meantime, it is rather grand to know what we saw in our heads the day we started to plot and plan our crafty book is now in our hands, thanks to a team of hardworking 'rose coloured spec' wearers at Kyle Books and of course the 'can we keep her forever' Cath and the 'beavered away on our behalf so brilliantly' Helen. 

i have shouted my three cheers in the back yard, facing east in the hope it travels across the pond to the correct ears so these peachy folks will know just how happy i am with the book

Tif