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

wordless wednesday...

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 

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 

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 

wordless wednesday...

a friend...

yesterday at the thrift store,

 i found a friend...

a friend for my growing yarny bit of goodness,

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 

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

Lion Brand Yarn

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

wordless wednesday...

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