treasure indeedy...

i have treasure that has me rather giddy, perhaps more giddy then i have been in quite the while... my first treasure arrived when i was winging my way to foreign climes. i had of course hoped and prayed to the post office gods high up above that my box of treasure would arrive before my departure. however when i clicked on the handy dandy tracking number all high hopes were dashed. the day of delivery for my treasure = the day of departure for moi...

i did not hang my head, nor weep, instead i told myself i had something to look forward to upon my return. a box filled with unknown treasure... well actually that is not true, i knew the treasure, however having purr-chased it online and colours being what colours are, it was still an unknown as to whether i would gasp with delight at my selection, or indeed weep with dismay at the 'wrongness' of what lay within the little brown box.

GASP! indeedy!

my next bit of giddy inducing treasure came back from foreign climes safely stowed in my hand luggage. i cannot help myself, i see a candle in the grocery stores in and around Todos Santos, Baja and i am overcome with the need to buy them all for fear i will never ever see another candle quite like these ones for the rest of my life. this time i piled my cart pretty highly and thus, my hand luggage was pretty hefty in weight but i did not care, i did not fret, i did not weaken and ask for help. no sirree! i channeled all the yoga arm muscle energy i could muster and carried my prized treasure home. 

where upon i immediately set them up in lovely huddle to admire. i then daydreamed and dallied my hours away thinking of how if i had a bricks and mortar emporium, an emporium of the utmost kind, i would indeed have these magical and magnificent grocery store candles... as surely no emporium worth its emporium salt, could call its self 'the utmost kind' without such peachy candles upon its shelves

things to note... {again}

thing one:

last week i went a little yarn nutso and ordered some lovelies from here... i threw in some variegated goodness alongside of greens, turquoises and good old granny knicker peachy pink. i am now giddy with the anticipation of a box filled with yarn winging its way to me as i tippity type. i have a cunning plan to make a blanket of thee utmost kind (ummm, nothing new there then, Tif). in my head it looks tres spiffy, i can only have high hopes, in my hands it will look the same

thing two:

 my girls, (photo courtesy of pride of mice)

i did not think i would be seeing my girls for the longest time. its been 7 long months and i thought it would be longer, but nope! someone up above smiled down on me, for in just a few days, my clan will be together again and i in turn, will be whole for a short while

thing three:

my little garden keeps on, keeping on, it would appear from being completely pants at keeping little green things alive all my life, i now not only can keep them alive, but they are thriving and taking over the whole of my world. as my adopted auntie said to me whilst i told my tale of my every waking hour being spent tending to my little green friends. "you have created a monster, Tif" and yes, i have... 

i am beyond proud of my one little dahlia which bloomed this week, i fought hard on the side of my little green friends against the pesty pests and this little yellow sweetie, tells me it was worth the battle. i am hopeful she will have friends joining her shortly

and my sunflowers, oh, my sunflowers... my sweet, innocent trusting sunflowers, i have sadly, let them down. woe is me. they have run out of room, now over 8 or 9 ft and still growing. short of cutting a hole in our roof, i am at a loss as to know how to help them.

thing four:

out and about on a pottle recently, i found a little paper lantern in a thrift store. it was $2 and it spoke to me.

 at the moment i have hung it above the alcove where our table was recently shifted to. 

i am planning to make something nicely dingly dangly to hang from it below. i am pondering what that dingly dangly thing will be so for now, as i pass by, i pause and i ponder and wait for the 'bling' moment to happen

thing five:

our bathroom remodel is officially done! its been nearly 5 weeks and i am beyond delighted with the results. 

i have to do some top coat painting and because of this reason, i have yet to unleash my inner 'dottie angel' upon the space, 

but for now a few knick knacks are doing a peachy job of  keeping things going...

thing six:

there is a heat wave going on in old blighty... well of course there is! just as i predicted. first june/july not to head back across the pond in umpteen years and they have sunshine. it was guaranteed. also guaranteed will be a wet dreary september because that is when i will be flying home

thing seven:

with my clan back intact, i am going to take a few weeks off, actually that does sound kind of silly because i have hardly been online in the past month with school out, my mother in law staying and all that other jazz going on each and every day. summer this year has me completely out of routine for some reason and i just need to go with the flow rather than fight it. so i will... i am off but i will be back, some time, some day, some how

over and out for now

Tif 

an easy peasy 'little string of happy'...

last week if you recall i had the urge to make a grand sized 'little string of happy'. nothing complicated, nor fancy, a quick crafty fix. having seen nor hide nor hair of Mr Pesky Squirrel all spring, i felt confident this was the year if ever there was a year, to hang a grand sized 'little string of happy' between my grand sized trees and have it stay there.

i spent a happy ten minutes cutting out rectangles of fabric, i did not measure, nor do anything precise in the least, i just eyeballed and cut, placing my little rectangles in a little pile which steadily grew. i also chose to make them different sizes to each other which greatly aids things if you are eyeballing.

after which i 'ummm and ahhhed'. to leave a gap, or not to leave a gap? i decided to 'not leave a gap' and go with a prayer flag look for this little particular string, similar to the ones i sold in my store a few summers back.

quite simply, i placed them one after another in a random way, along the twill tape and fed them through Miss Ethel's mighty fine foot

here i might point out, most sensible thing would be to measure the space where you are hanging your string, i did not, i just went with a wing and prayer as i could not be bothered to go downstairs and find a tape measure long enough to measure between the trees.

after all my little rectangles were sewn in place, i folded them neatly so that i did not get in a big old twisted pickle

after which i pottled outside, spent a few moments getting in a big old twisted pickle despite having folded things nicely and attached my grand sized 'little string of happy' to one of the trees. i then proceeded to take the other end of my string and went about attaching it to the other tree, and just as i stepped back to admire the little bit of crafty goodness hanging from my trees, 

that very moment, from way way up high, higher then i dare look for fear of a vertigo moment... came a squeak, a squeak that was undeniable... a squeak that could only belong to one critter, and one critter alone.

 Mr Pesky Squirrel himself

footynote:

if you too would like to make a grand sized 'little string of happy' to scratch a crafty itch, you will only need a smidgen of ingredients

* twill tape (or any other length of tape, ribbon, lace etc)

* various leftovers of fabby fav fabrics

* a handy dandy sewing machine

* thread for your handy dandy friend

* scissors for snippity snipping

and then follow the ramblings up above

:)