flea-market finds...

last weekend me and my lads of three went to the flea-market. i had pocket money burning a hole in my handmade frock pocket and it did not take me long to find a few forsaken little souls who spoke to me

forsaken little soul #1:

a most delightfully yellow parrot complete with mushrooms!! seriously little itty bitty mushrooms! in all my born days of collecting these most rare and kitschy birdie figurines i have never found one with mushrooms before. this fine fellow only cost me the princely sum of $4 due to a chip, 

chip or no chip, i loved him and so he came home to live in the kitchen and do a most marvelous job at holding a few vintage fabric flowers

forsaken little soul #2:

a birdie picture in most spiffy colours complete with fabby plastic fake basket weaving frame. golly i am a sucker for plastic fake basket weaving, gets me every time and even more so if it surrounds a birdie picture of this magnificent-ness. this little sweetie cost me 6 tidy $1 notes.

and it would appear, once home, she was always going to fit right in...

forsaken little soul #3:

a cheeky chappy of the utmost kind. okay, i realize she is not a chappy but it sounds so much better than cheeky dolly. so cheeky chappy she is. my man rolled his eyes to the sky and followed his action swiftly with a "really Tif?" but i knew what i knew, and what i knew was this. cheeky chappies don't come by every day of the week with this sort of wonderfulness about them. obviously the stall owner knew this too and would not take less than $5. i could see why, this cheeky chappy was expert at cheering...

upon arrival back at mossy shed, cheeky chappy found himself/herself most at home in my 'recently made' cabinet of curiosity.

"umm, i'm thinking you might like a bit of crocheted goodness too" says little brown bunny with his warm ears 

"yippee"

"hello hello, here i am"

now surely that's worthy of a cheer or two

:)

dottie angel & society6

today i am wearing my 'salesman' cap, its been quite the while and i have to say with my top knot and butterfly clip is not the most comfortable but hey ho, lets go...

one of my new year resolutions alongside of 'make space for opportunity to come knocking' was 'set up a society6 shop'

well 5 whole months later i have only jolly well gone and done it! its taken me several days to set up for several reasons...

reason one: i have a humongous archive of pictures over the past 6 years of dottie angel and that takes a lot of time to shift through

reason two: popping prints in the shop was easy peasy as 1 2 3, however re-sizing things to become something other than a print was not my forte and required a lesson in Gimp from Our #3

and

reason three:  i am a tortoise these days, long gone are my days of being a hare... and surely knowing the outcome of that little tale, a tortoise is 'a okay' with me

so there we have it, 46 dottie angel pictures are now in my dottie angel society6 shop and i could not be more hippity happity about the whole darn thing.

my little society6 shop is filled to the point of overflowing with dottie angel goodness and in turn has filled my little heart and head with glee.

here's just a sprinkling, ney smidgen of what you will find...

art prints

in all different sizes

framed art prints

if you click on one, you will see the choice of frames

stationary cards

most handy dandy for every eventuality

iphone & ipod cases

never in my life have i wished as much as i do now for an iphone. i would like a different cover for each day of the week, a bit like the 'monday to sunday' knickers one wore as a child

ipad cases

nifty and nice, 'nough said

iphone & ipod skins

see above about my 'monday to sunday' knickers

laptop and ipad skins

a perfectly perfect way to make lappity laptop and ivor ipad look the bees knees lying around on the coffee table

cushions

so kitschy, so colourful, so darn slightly wrong! if you click on them in the shop, you can see all the sizes they come in

so ta dah! 

dottie angel & society6

who would have believed it...

oh! and just in case a dearie or two may happen to bring their piggy bank whilst window shopping i have a bees knees coupon for free shipping the kind folks at society6 gave me. alas it appears to not last more than 24 hrs, expiring midnight pacific time on the 31st may, however, i am thinking, better than nothing at all.

copy and paste this handy link

http://society6.com/dottieangel?promo=9d25b4

(it does exclude, framed art, canvases and cushions with inserts, but a okay for cushion covers)

and plonk it in the necessary place during checkout.

gosh, i truly am quite professional at my instructions today. as i have yet to actually try it myself i am hazarding a guess there is a necessary place at some point during checkout. i am thinking i will have to give it a go myself... test it out, be a guinea pig, oh! be a Mister Muchly

no no no! Mister Muchly, do not distract from my salesman spiel with your 'just too muchly cute ways'...

darn and drat it

oakie dokes, well that's me and my sales pitch done. 

over and out for now,

Tif x... oh yes, well alright then...

Tif and Mister Muchly x

a little loaf of white crusty goodness...

last week a small miracle happened and that small miracle, was i made bread. now for some that may not count as a miracle but for me it does. i would go as far as to say, it goes alongside the miracle of learning to crochet. that's how marvelous last week's little miracle was to me

a little loaf of white crusty goodness

i think i lived in fear of making bread, i never really understood how you did it, just presumed it was a bit of a faff and took up time and lots of kneading and oh, so many other things i put in the way of attempting to make a little loaf of white crusty goodness.

however times are 'a changing' around this here mossy shed, and after years of bumbling through my kitchen seeing things as a bit of a chore, i now have to reassess how and what i spend my time on. finally, after what seems like yonks, i have knowledge as to what has caused me chronic health symptoms for quite the while. and in turn, (alongside of other things), what i stick into my aging bod is of the utmost importance. i think it always has been, i was just in denial. so label reading has become my new hobby at the grocery store and homemade 'i know what i put in it, so i know what i will get out of it' cooking is the order of the day. 

(and i confess, this actually takes up most of my day these days, i have high hopes this will become less so the more knowledgeable i become but for now, it is what it is)

fortunately a friend of mine told me of a recipe she had found for easy peasy bread making. "easy peasy breadmaking" were the key words to make me sit up and take note. after i had sat up, made a few notes, i finished it up with a rallying pep talk to myself...

and like so many things when we take the time, set it aside and use it wisely to learn something new, we are left with such an overwhelming sense of achievement that really cannot be equaled to anything else i know. was i fearful my little loaf would not play fair with me and end up like a brick? yes i was. however i cast Mr Doubter aside and instead, saw my little loaf of bread as something handmade and immediately my little cogs switched to a different gear, a gear that said "handmade! easy peasy! you're in your element, Tif. you can do it!"

and so i did...

not a brick insight...

2 miracles made for each other, homemade soup and homemade bread

and if indeed you would like to also try your crafty hand at a little loaf of white crusty goodness so easy peasy you will wish to make one each and every day, then here is where you will find all the info and brilliant step by step photos.

 simple so good crusty bread

and just a footynote, because a footynote does need to be added: 

my first attempt (yes, i have dared to make 2 just to test it was not a one off miracle) i added a tad more than the 1 1/2 cups of water in the recipe. to start with, a mild panic arose when i looked at the soggy wet contents in my bowl but i just covered it up with cling film and allowed it to rest on the side as per instructions and continued as if nothing had happened. well here's the thing, it came out just peachy perfect and in fact, having cooked the 2nd loaf as per instructions i've come to the conclusion i prefer it with a bit more water in the mix.

last week & this week...

i added a few bits to the old dusty shop shelves...

one bit last week

and 

two bits this week

this makes me most happy.

these 'few bits' i like to call

'little wall patches of positivity'

and

i have high hopes

more will follow shortly...

a 'cabinet of curiosity' in the making...

today was cleaning day. cleaning day is always a little dull and always seems to roll around way too quickly for my liking. i do not have a specific day of the week designated to this less than thrilling task. rather i judge it upon the build up of dust, dog hair, crappity crap piles etc. when they have got to the point where there is an accumulation in most areas, then i announce a day to clean.

as i was home alone today and the accumulated piles had been mocking me for quite the while, i felt this would be the most fitting day and thus arose with good intentions, donned my most handmade frock of them all and went about my merry way 'tidying and a cleaning'

i do not do this alone, i am always shadowed by my constant canine companions and when Mr Hoover starts up, Little Olive comes alive and there continues a battle between the pair until Mr H switches off again. i was doing 'a-okay', i was on track with a motivation not been seen since the days of Mr Motivator on morning telly during the 90's but then it happened. Mr Dull came knocking, pointed out this was all very well but really it was terribly dull and why not make it more thrilling by adding a bit of shuffling to the drudgery of cleaning. 

"no no no" protested i

"yes yes yes" insisted Mr Dull

and that was that...

except it wasn't a bit of shuffling in the least, it turned out to be an epic several hours, requiring the electric sander to be bought in from the garage, (contributing nicely to the buildup of dust already in the family room). then after giving Kathleen's cupboard a good old rub down, (causing quite a bit of distress to her newly painted coat from last month), 

i stripped her of her blouse and piles of fabric 'inners', and proceeded to collect from all four corners of our mossy shed, my most treasured possessions, (mainly my Marys and a few other forsaken souls). 

yes, the sudden urge to create a 'cabinet of curiosity' had possessed me, however i was not sure what i had to offer up to my cupboard was of a curious nature in the least. i told myself, do not fret, this is perhaps the beginning of a new collection, for now, add some books, and a bit of greenery found on the tree outside. oddities and eccentricities will seek you out, if a 'cabinet of curiosity' is in your destiny.

upon closing the door 

and looking from a far, 

i have high hopes, my destiny will indeed hold curiosity and collectibles but for now, i must figure out where i can ferret away a whole cupboard full of vintage linens which had to be removed to make way for my 'cabinet of nearly, but not quite curiosity'. darn and drat, i see not only cleaning rolling over to tomorrow, but more shuffling as well...

Rhody, the Doctor & me...

i have no idea where this shrub called Rhody has come from...

i do not recall in five years ever seeing it before.

i am highly suspicious of  Rhody.

i watch Doctor Who.

i know what goes on out there.

i am thinking Rhody was sent from another planet and is of another life form disguising its self as an innocent over sized bit of shrubbery between ours and our neighbour's yard. i am thinking it could quite possibly have evil intentions of taking over the earth and eradicating the human race.

"oh yes, i'm not stupid you know" i told Rhody when i took its picture, i thought this would be a good way to let it know, i knew it was up to no good. i warned Rhody, "i have my beady eye on you, one false move and i know just what to do"

oh yes, i've seen how it works, i will stand in my yard and shout to the skies above "doctor, doctor... can you hear me, doctor? i need you doctor". it might get a little messy and no doubt i must be prepared to get a little frightened but i have no doubt, the Doctor will save the world from the evil clutches of Rhody the Shrubbery and all will be well just in time for teatime.

how do i know? because i've seen it on the telly, therefore it must be true...

pulling up one's pesky saggy baggy crafty knee socks...

on monday,  i pulled up my crafty knees socks and made the 'lucky happy' baja sunshiny frock which has been knocking around my crafty cogs for a while. 

a few weeks back i found some lovely lengths of lightweight cotton at the thrift store with a nod to retro and with their perfectly perfect mini sprigs of floral delights i knew they were destined to be sun frocks for tres hot days in tres sunny climes. its quite true to say, many folks think our area does not know what summer is all about, but they are misinformed! for indeedy, the summers here are just the most beautiful i have ever known in my life and when the temps rise, all one requires is one's granny knickers, a wispy frock to allow the air to circulate in all the right places and a pair of clog sandals.

i am beyond delighted with my 'lucky happy' baja sunshiny frock and its 'lucky horseshoe shaped' pocket... i would be telling a fib if i did not say i was most happy with the quilted vintage bib of luckiness as well. when i stepped back to try my sunshiny frock on my bod, how thrilled i was to note it fitted just as i hoped. oh yes indeedy, i could not help but feel glad i had taken a right turn, following the bread crumbs back to the path and pulling up those pesky saggy baggy crafty knee socks once again...

footynote: 'lucky happy' baja sunshiny frock design belongs to dottie angel ltd

hippity happity hoppity day...

today is little olive's birthday...

i have said it before

and i will say it again.

never did i ever think,

i would love a little doggie

quite as much as 

i love little olive.

today she is 

'four and not much more'

oh what a marvelous magnificent

truly spiffy age to be

hippity happity hoppity day

little olive,

you 'silly billy

pesky

illegally parked

every single day'

constant canine companion

of mine

x