on a roll...

yes indeedy, whilst we are on a roll,

"what sort of roll is that Tif, a bread roll, or perhaps a tootsie roll?" i hear you cry

oh dearest dearies, you are quite the cards are you not! no i am talking a wallpapering roll. (ha ha hee hee, brilliant pun 'tis it not!)

for we had Ben and his little coat of modge podged patchworked wallpaper

and

the lovely Mrs Monkey and her newly adopted baby with their mighty fine wallpapered ears.

so i thought to myself as i sit here tippity tapping, why not finish up the week with more wallpapering moments within the shed. then we can all be done with it and move on to yet more thrilling things next week. if perhaps you think it can't get more thrilling then me talking wallpaper talk three posts in a row, then if i were to mention i have a little thing called 'wheres dottie' lined up for next week, then perhaps the monitor which records levels of thrillingness somewhere might just have peaked a little above the wallpaper thrilling mark. who knows, only the person who owns such a monitor would know, but i like to think it will peak quite nicely.

a few weeks back, i do believe this was when i was on a blogging break, headscarf donned and pennings going well, i had a moment, another antsy creative moment. this time my victim was our entrance way wall.

'tis a little bit of wall and indeed the very reason why i fell in love with mossy shed. i have said it before but for those that perhaps are new, or indeed slept through when i said it before (and who could blame you) i will recap.

you open our front door and right in front of you is my wallpapered wall. it is not very far in front of your nose, and if i take a 'face on' photo i have to stand on my doorstep to take it.

to the right is the stairs and the step down into our lounge, to the left is my studio and the narrow hallway to the kitchen. no doors, just open doorways.

last year i found some retro goodness from the peachy folks at 'h is for home' and promptly papered our little wall. (please see above) i was delighted with the results and do not understand why i had to go and let my antsy mood take such a risk. yes i 'risked it for a biscuit' and afterwards, as if that wasn't enough 'biscuit risking' behaviour, i then hammered lots of nails in the wall and covered my newly risky bisky wallpaper with vintage plates.

now i am not the first to paper their wall in different strips for sure, however when i have seen it before, it has always been with lighter brighter more retro florals and because of that reason my doubting ways took a hold

after which, i stood back and thought "blimey Tif, this is a bit exotic even for you". i then began to fret, worried i had lost my tiny tasteful mind, visions of dolls and their knitted toilet roll covering skirts came to mind. i felt a little faint... just as i was beginning to feel super duper dizzy the handcrafted secondhand gods intervened. they handed me a pair of rose colored specs and told the little voice within my head called Mr Doubter,

"actually if you look upon this wall of many 'goings on', it is no different to the way Tif patches her cushions together"

suddenly Mr Doubter high tailed it out of the shed door and ever since everytime i walk through mossy shed's front door, rose colored specs firmly upon my nose i am most delighted with the results of my antsy wallpapering moment

she is thanking you most kindly for cheering her week with your sunny comments and is wishing you a peachy weekend ~ Tif

a happy ending...

these two found me one week apart in my local thrift store,

both waiting on the shelves of despair,

both in need.

Mr Monkey needed a new nose

Mrs Monkey needed a pair of new ears

and

they both needed love

nearly a year on,

i am delighted to report their love is still going strong.

however unbeknownst to me they had secretly wished to be parents

so when a little baby monkey found me today

whilst 'a pottling' around the thrift store,

their little secret wish came true

after a new pair of ears

i stood back to admire the family.

i noted how they looked made for each other

and how interestingly of all,

little baby wooden monkey's ears were

the color as his mothers

but the shape of his fathers

she now has 'we are family' and 'reunited' going round and around in her head ~ Tif

oh how i love thee, modge podge...

last week when my plans to 'continue pennings' fell apart due to snow days, my creative cogs got antsy, this antsy-ness led to me quite frankly not being very nice to know.

as i sat upon the couch in pyjamas, crochet by my side and my clan under foot (not exactly under my foot but just 'there') i picked up my lovely copy of MILK decor, which the mail man had delivered a few days before. i cannot tell you how delighted i was to have it finally in my mitts. the lovely Jenny from LittleBig had sent it out the beginning of january and obviously my little magazine had travelled the seven seas to get to my doorstep 6 weeks later.

oh but such gladness was mine to know my little copy of MILK was so brave and determined to make it stateside to mossy shed's mailbox. issue 4 is jammy packed with peachy interiors, yes it is about children but quite honestly i could not find a thing it in that would not appeal to an adult. any magazine which has a fabby donna wilson cushion on the cover is going to be my sort of a read. well upon perusal, with antsy cogs accompanying my perusing moment, i stumbled across these stools. immediately i rustled around the kitchen drawer, found my detective cap and went 'a hunting' for clues and then as is often the way with me i discover the very thing that caused my heart to pitter patter has been around for quite sometime and others have known this for said 'quite sometime'.

back on my couch, antsy cogs still nagging and now my heart in stool lusting mode like never before, a thought appeared. the sort of lovely thought one has from time to time, yes i would put it as a 'ah ha thoughty' thought!

eight years ago we bought two ikea stools, the lovely bentwood ones which alas they no longer produce. at the time of purchase i had plans for them but my plans got no further then stenciling a damask pattern on one of them, promptly leaving them out in the rain and ruining the wood. the little damask number was beyond help, but the other one was okay for life as a painting stool, on close inspection his wood was all cracked but he was a sturdy little number and so for the past years he lives in the garage waiting for the moments i require his broad shoulders to stand upon so my paint brush can reach the ceiling areas.

once i thought of Ben in the garage (he originally was called Benjamin by ikea) and my wallpaper collection, i was inspired! and so i went about feeding my antsy creative hunger merrily, whilst my clan continued to be underfoot, cutting and stitching pieces of wallpaper.

now here is what i found to be true for me and Ben. first off i have always used wallpaper paste and had no trouble whatsoever with it sticking and as that is all i had to hand then i used it. i also discovered it was easier to cut the rough size out, stitch with the help of Miss Ethel and then glue the piece. upon placing it on the stool carefully i smoothed it out and then went around the edges with a Stanley knife, most cautiously, to get a really spiffy neat edge.

after much stitching, patching and piecing, i stood back to admire Ben and his new coat of patchwork. my antsy cogs were riding high, i was in love for sure. the next day i came downstairs to greet Ben and admire his coat of many wallpapers, but alas Ben and his coat had not faired so well, areas were peeling off and quite frankly i wished to weep at my new loves condition.

"do not panic" i said to myself wisely, "keep a calm head and think Tif"

i repasted the pieces and held them down, willing them to adhere to Ben, but alas again they would not behave.

but do not fear nor weep for Ben and his little jacket of patched paper for there is a happy ending... yes indeed, MODGE PODGE is my new best friend, i had heard about its clever ways but never taken a chance, partly cause the bottle appeared so little for the cost involved. how wrong i was, silly silly me! i want to shout it from the shed's roof top "i love modge podge" indeed i am thinking of getting a t-shirt printed with the very words, but that would be silly cause i don't wear t-shirts so instead i may get a bumper sticker for the car.

can i tell you why i love modge podge with all my little antsy creative heart strings, because once it had glued down Ben's paper coat, not only did it stay there, but when i put 4 layers of it's gluey goodness over the paper and stitching, suddenly Ben had a coat of what can only be described as an oilcloth looking loveliness.

every time i pass by Ben i have to touch him, to check his smooth good looks, so far i have allowed no member of the clan to go near him for he is so peachy i wish to keep him all to myself.

as i tippity type this large long ramble he sits beside me, looking peachy perfect...

and yesterday, why yesterday he suggested how grand it would be to perhaps relive the good old days, so i climbed upon his broad shoulders this time not for a spot of painting but for a spot of bench mondaying...

and who was i to disagree

she is wishing to modge podge the whole of mossy shed and is looking for her next willing victim within her four walls ~ Tif

footynote: okay so typical moi, apparently upon closer inspection of my little wonder pot of glue on the kitchen windowsill tonight, it is called Mod Podge. i have no idea why i cannot ever quite use the right word for something. i believe i inherited this trait from my lovely granny... still i think i like modge podge better so perhaps i will stick with it. ha! stick with it, nice one Tif :)