a matter of thee utmost importance...

dearest readers,

never in all my born days of rambling have i ever rambled more than once in a day...

i can tell you that there have been times when i have wished to rush to your sides and ramble sweet nothings all day long but i have stopped myself, held back, knowing you have your own little world to get on with and 'once is enough' coming from me.

but today i must break my 'once is enough' rule for i have been overcome with clog lust.

overcome i tell you.

yes i have 'googled'

(yes! ha! i 'googled' and not 'binged', because i'm a rebel within my shed)

i have googled

"handcrafted Swedish clogs"

and i found

SVEN

the new love of my life

(please please let the linky gods be with me on this one)

i have sat mesmerized by Sven's changing pretty photo at the top.

i have fallen in love with the pretties on show.

i have scrolled down and read the blurb, albeit rather hastily due to my 'quickening heart',

and even with my failing eyesight,

(knowing bi-focal hell is beckoning me once again)

i do believe i have found handcrafted clogs.

i have ignored the scary prices, choosing to put that little bit of the screen in my 'floater' area of my vision.

i'm delighted to have at last found a 'positive' for those pesky black dots that float around and sometimes jump out at me when i'm least expecting them.

but i digress and we must not digress for we are looking at handcrafted clogs.

we must not faint at the cost of such attire for one's feet, after all we know they will last forever and ever...

well we can faint but then we must get right back up upon our little stools and take another looky at clog heaven.

so dearest readers i am without a doubt,

quite postively sure,

you are way, way too busy doing busy important stuff of your own to take a little looky at

these sweet things,

or perhaps

these pretties

knowing they come in

all the colors of the rainbow

and as if that wasn't enough

to get your clog juices craving

then i'm thinking this

peachy pair

will...

how tres fabby it would be to wander about the place in clog boots!

do you see it, do you!?

the apron wrap,

the slip peeking out

the chicken under the arm

i need to stop,

i'm overcome with it all...

for i am now becoming a clog boot luster of the worst kind,

and no one likes a clog boot luster,

or do they?

she is quite sure Sven and her 'peachy looking souls' factory must be the closest thing to clog heaven this side of the pearly gates ~ Tif

progress report...

oooh, doesn't that title make it sound like i have terribly important things to say?

like i perhaps have made progress in a very professional way?

like i need to report it in a pie chart or graph of some kind?

i'm almost tempted to change out of my 'natty' clothes into something more befitting a progress report,

but then i know that's not possible for my closet contains not 'an ounce' of progress reporting attire.

nearly five months into the challenge of the utmost kind

and

i am becoming a little desperate for a different dress to adorn myself.

i like to wear dresses daily, it is my uniform.

i like to wear dresses with tights and boots,

i like to wear dresses over jeans, with a cardi,

i like to wear dresses with flip flops and a slip

and i'm thinking

i would like to wear dresses with a pair of painted swedish clogs

(in fact i know i would)

and so it is quite apparent from that bit of divulging about my 'dress wearing ways' that indeed any dress of mine gets a lot of wear.

it is an all season little bit of cloth,

layered for winter

and unlayered for summer...

and that is where i am struggling with the challenge

two of my dearest dresses have given up the ghost,

no amount of patching and stitching was going to bring them back.

for the past few weeks i have started to lurk in the dress and skirt aisles when out and about thrifting.

but here's the thing,

i believe it is a 'talent', ney a 'gift' from the thrifty gods, to take a forsaken bit of clothing and make it smile.

Our #1 has it coming out of her fingers and toes by the bucket load.

the most awful sad neglected item upon the rails of despair can by taken down by her and made to shine in all it's glory...

a 'gift' i am sadly lacking in.

i took a look on Etsy

there were some rather lovely organic cotton skirts and dresses available but i'm looking for a little pattern, a little nostalgia, a little color

i'm shopping for a 41 year old with a 32 year old eclectic bohemian 'alter ego' inside of her.

this makes my search a little more tricky, my alter ego is egging me on and i'm happy to go down that path of 'eclectic' wear if only i could find it handcrafted or secondhand...

and so in the end,

out of desperation,

i took a loved and worn skirt from my closet bought over 4 years back and popped her in Miss W. Machine with a packet of dye.

i chopped out the lower ruffled panel and added a 'fat quarter' from my stash.

and completed my 'overhaul' with a little dash of doilies...

i'm not loving it,

i am especially not loving it over jeans, teamed with a rather dubious green sweater,

and i am especially not loving,

that after five months of being a handcrafted thrifty mama this little skirt is the best i have to offer for my efforts

she is thinking it most fortunate that Miss Ethel has made much better progress than herself ~ Tif

thwarted...

my plans of venturing to THEE thrift store

on saturday were thwarted...

thwarted by a

CLOSED DOWN

sign.

i'm not sure how i feel about this,

knowing that after forty years a thrift store,

not just any thrift store i might add

but

THEE Mecca of all thrift stores has gone,

leaving me unable to travel the well worn road,

like a pilgrim to their place of worship.

knowing i will never tread upon those hallow grounds,

trod before me by so many other

thrifty good souls caused me to 'wallow' somewhat.

our #1 said i was not to take it so hard,

to know that indeed the world is rather large and there was a good chance of another thrift store equally close, upon the ladder to heaven.

in fact, it could perhaps be even better than the one she had found.

(i doubted it, for what she had described was truly thrifty heaven on earth)

she then informed me that we were not going to let it ruin our thrifty day out

and promptly drove me to the big 'shiny' city and the big 'shiny' Goodwill.

i protested, dragged my heels at first

saying it would be too busy,

perhaps it wasn't meant to be,

etc

etc

she rolled her eyes and said

"oh come on mother, i'm not hanging around this shed being driven nuts another day and neither are you"

i'm glad she dragged me along

for i found many a lovely find with my name on

including a tray with a sweet deer upon it

and a rather lovely enamel tea or coffee pot

along with some pyrex

and a natty little plate rack

after Goodwill

we ventured to the Sally army.

i like the Sally army,

i like the fact although it's a little rough around the edges,

in the 'knick knack' department they arrange their items in groups of color.

after the first aisle, where someone has taken time to place things pleasingly

they have then got to the second aisle and thought

"oh sod this"

and literally up ended the box onto the shelves.

leaving a great big dump of a mess,

that leaves moi sensing within the 'crappity crap' is a 'find of the utmost kind' lurking,

frightened and alone...

no amount of visualizing caused a pair of 'where have you been all my life' clogs to appear,

but that's okay,

for now i have a clock instead.

they both begin with the letter 'c' so i'm thinking 'mr visualizer' up above got confused and thought i said 'clock' instead of 'clog'

i like my new clock,

i like that in the Sally army it did not work,

yet on the way back to the shed, it ticked happily all the way,

almost with 'glee' at knowing it was no longer alone.

the minute i popped it up on my mantelpiece it stopped ticking.

i like to think my little clock has been 'overcome' knowing it's living at Mossy Shed,

a place it heard about from other 'forsaken souls' upon the shelves of despair.

a place it had visited in dreams night after night,

a Mecca of sorts for waifs and strays.

i'm waiting for my little clock to come out of shock and start

ticking along nicely...

until such moment, she is spending quality time with Miss Ethel ~ Tif