tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25595910550182439422024-03-12T23:45:32.902+00:00Edith FlorenceMissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-39735364075291892402013-08-30T15:38:00.002+01:002013-08-30T15:38:22.527+01:00The Wanderer Returns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Good afternoon, campers. How you all doing? (If anyone is still out there and actually looking at this.)<br />
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What a most glorious summer we've had and are still having. Mainly. Apart from last Saturday when my village got flooded and some silly sausage drove his car into it and had to be rescued. You always get one doncha? On the news and everything. And The Daily Mail. I wonder how it's affected house prices.<br />
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It's been a while and now and then I have popped in and read a few blogs but the urge to write hasn't hit me until just lately. I've taken a run up.<br />
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During this period of Non Blogness I have not bought much at all or crocheted or sewn or done anything very crafty at all. So it would seem that I have not very much at all to blog about but I thought I'd dive in anyway.<br />
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Yesterday I painted something. Wahay! My mate has started a painted furniture emporium in her front bedroom and is doing ok and we did a sort of swap. I gave her a crocheted blanket, (and believe me that wasn't easy,) and she supplied the Annie Sloan, brushes, wax, venue, lunch and a hand with the painting. We did my chest of drawers. (Hold up I'm going to try and put a picture in here and we all know how that normally goes...)<br />
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Well, goodness me, (I just typed something not half as polite as that but deleted it) it worked. Ok, it's small but it's there. You may notice that the quality of photography is a step up from what it was. This is due to me finally giving in and acquiring a phone that doesn't look like it belongs to Dom Joly. I appear to be in possession of a tiny, teeny, baby laptop, posing as a phone that does everything apart from make me a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Twitter, I'm there, Instagram, bring it, Facebook on the toilet, been there, done it. I have morphed into one of those sad sacks that walk about looking at the thing all day just in case anything happened when they took their eye off it for five seconds. Well, you never know, Danny Baker might make a funny tweet or someone I knew seven years ago might be hanging out her washing in Romford.<br />
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Anyway, the chest. It was horrible, orange pine and is now Annie Sloan Old White and heavily distressed by me and the pal. We had a bit of a business talk about somehow doing something together. The idea of a shop was bandied about (I could fill it from my garage...) but overheads are a bit too much. Then a unit somewhere, but still with the overheads. So we have decided to investigate the idea of rocking up at a couple of localish vintage fairs (if we ever find any) and seeing how we do there. Could be all talk, as is usually the case with me and my big ideas but we'll see.<br />
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I'll try another couple of pictures, just to break the words up a bit. Stay there.<br />
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The chest posing with the blanket (which some of you may remember or recognise) in my mate's gorgeous back garden just after being tarted up. We were both happy. And I even sewed (I say sewed...) a label onto her blanket.<br />
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Anyway, now I've done the first one, I would like to think I'll keep doing this. Painting and blogging. I was never happier than when I was painting something or writing something so all good.<br />
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Laters, girls.<br />
x<br />
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Ps. Went here for my holiday. Olu Deniz in Turkey. Blinking fab. </div>
Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-34325392446121889502012-09-08T19:49:00.000+01:002012-09-08T19:49:30.747+01:00Dotty Sparkle at the seaside...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well hello! It's been a while...<br />
Holidays have been taken, work has been resumed and blogging seems to have fallen by the wayside for a bit. I'm sure the bug will catch me again. I've been having a butchers at all yours though even if I've not been commenting very much. Thanks for all your comments on the last post and hello to any new followers. Welcome aboard!<br />
Anyway, I thought I'd just pop in and let you know that next Sunday my sister and I are doing our first, much talked about but never got round to doing it, vintage fair. Edith Florence goes live!<br />
We'll be here...<br />
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...trying to tout some toot. No really, being serious, we have a bit of good gear between us and also a shedload of my mum's more retro 70's 80's stylee stuff.</div>
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So, if you fancy a little day out at the seaside, get yourself down to Thorpe Bay next Sunday. Please God it won't rain and plenty of people turn up. If not we'll be eating too much cake and drinking too much tea and disturbing everyone with our loud laughing. It will be fun anyway.</div>
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I've been washing, sorting and boxing up and although we're a bit nervous it's also quite exciting now that we've finally got round to doing it.</div>
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Be there or be square!</div>
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Hope you're enjoying this late summer we've having... about flipping time though 'aint it? </div>
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Laters!</div>
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xx</div>
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Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-17897412043115147172012-07-26T11:26:00.003+01:002012-07-26T11:28:06.306+01:00Patchwork, Pyrex, Plates and Stuff<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Morning chaps! And by the looks of it it's shaping up to be another nice day. Hurrah! Today I have plans to drag a sunlounger out and bask in it all afternoon. Quite handily, my garden faces west, so if I spend most of the morning doing all the boring stuff like changing beds, emptying the dishwasher and running over the Co-op for things, I don't feel like I'm missing out on the sun. I'm not actually a mad sunbather, but the combination of this horrible weather we've had and my legs being the colour of milk bottles has brought on this need to try and get a little bit of a tan. Plus Miss EF The Younger, the one who is coming on holiday with us only has to open a curtain and she's brown and she's been out there for two days solid and looks like she's had a month in a very hot country and I have some catching up to do on the tan front.<br />
Right, a bit of business before we start, a big hello to girls who are following and thanks for your comments on the award post. Which leads me to this, after I did that post I kept thinking, 'oooh I could have passed it on to this one or that one' and I started to feel all rotten that I hadn't. So, I'm sorry, to all those ladies whose blogs I read and enjoy that I didn't spread it about a bit more. (and there are blimming loads, believe me.)<br />
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Let's have a photo shall we?<br />
I think I'll start with my new craze. The English Paper Piecing. See me, even using the right name now... <br />
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I have actually cracked on a bit more with this and I have another row of the blues and have sewn the two blocks together. I decided that if I kept it to the nine squares I could stay in control of it, it would be easier to manage and it would be portable enough for me to take on holiday and do round the swimming pool if I fancied it. I won't sew the blocks together any more, I just wanted to see what they looked like. (And kiss it a few times and carry it round the house showing everyone and telling them how clever I am and that I never thought I would be able to do this until they all ran away and hid.)<br />
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The colours look clearer on this one taken in the garden. I think I will have to find a thicker white linen than the one I used here, it looks a bit see through. I will find another pair of gone at the crutch trousers to cut up. <br />
I had a small disaster with the papers, well it felt like one to me, when I spent a good hour on Sunday evening using some 1cm square graph paper as a template to cut up some more and then realised I'd made them smaller than the lot that I'd spent hours tacking on to the last batch. I didn't cry, and I pulled myself together amazingly quickly, nothing thrown round the room, no swearing or anything. I just decided that instead of 8cm square blocks I would now be making them 7cm square and sat in the garden for an hour yesterday undoing all the tacking to start again. I told myself that us patchworkers have to remain patient at all times, mistakes will be made but they can be put right in a serene manner without tantrums. <br />
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The squares I did before the disaster. Some of them anyway. I have decided to make my tacking stitches bigger because they are barks to get out otherwise, so a lesson learned. <br />
Right, moving on from the sewing before we have patchwork overload and you all run off screaming. Last Saturday Miss EFTY and I spent a nice afternoon in Leigh on Sea. It is my nearest lovely place and we go there quite a lot. There are lots of charity shops there but it is a rare thing that I find anything good in any of them. I'm talking toot now, not clothes. There could be good clothes but I don't always look when I'm there because there are so many shops to look in it would hold me up. I think the reason there is a lack of good stuff is that the people who live there 'get it' and also there are a few vintage shops there and I imagine they are buying up anything worth having before us lowly punters get their mitts on it. Which is fair enough and what I would do myself. What I mean about 'getting it' is this. Even though it's only a couple of miles up the road Leigh has its own vibe. Poncy word but I'm using it anyway. Where I live is very nice indeed but I get the feeling that most of the inhabitants, if they're not really old, like to buy their homewares in Next and shops like that. Nothing wrong with that and I applaud them because it means my local three chazzas have better stuff for me to buy because nobody else wants it. Indeed they are probably laughing at me for wanting to buy things in them. It's like a dirty secret and I look both ways in my village before I go in them in case anyone I know sees me. But in Leigh, it is different. It has an almost Whitstable feel about it but not so posh and distinctly more Essexy in parts. People go there to buy nice things and live there because it has rows of gorgeous Victorian terraces (murder for parking though) and lots of bars and restaurants. Anyway this is what I bought in Leigh. Not even in a charity shop.<br />
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He was one of three but I thought buying them all would make him look naff because I think with the other two it made up that see no evil, speak no evil thingy and I didn't want that. On his own he just looks like he's calling his mates to come out to play, or shouting 'Oi... you, get the hoover out and sort this gaff out pronto.'<br />
I find I'm quite into cherubs at the moment, but I think too many would probably be overkill. <br />
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While I was in Leigh I went into the material shop there and was all excited at getting my hands on some fabric and batting. Did that, but came out quite deflated at the non -helpful and unfriendly attitude of the women who worked there. I will go in there again because we are short on fabric shops round here but I won't enjoy it.<br />
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You know the other day I said Pyrex was a passing fad with me, well I might have been a bit hasty.<br />
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Aren't they dinky? Well they are dinkier than they look in this picture and regular and long time readers might remember that I bought a bigger one of these some time ago. I actually left them in the charity shop twice and then woke up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat (that might have been an age thing) wondering why I had been so stupid and ran back and bought them. See that's the people round here for you. They were in the window display for days but when I ran in there, panting after running from my car, to buy them they were inside on the shelf and no one had bought them. Meant for me, see, waiting for me to go in and buy them. Same with this plate.<br />
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I had to ask the woman if they still had it and she went out the back to get it for me. Why I didn't buy them in the first place is a mystery. I think I must have been on a not spending so much money mission. £3.25 the lot so I wouldn't have been able to do much more with that money if I hadn't bought them. Silly mare.<br />
As well as the charity shop stuff I had a little dabble on ebay too and got these.<br />
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I've had to stop myself from taking these to bed, I'm so in love.<br />
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This one was 99p. Really. 99p. I had to pay P&P which was about a fiver but still bargaintastic. And it came in a box with French writing on it which I have obviously kept because I am a mentaller. <br />
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This one came in at about £9.00 but still good I thought for French enamel. Please note we are on a different garden table here, when I went out this morning to take pictures, the leavings of wasp poison were all over the other table. I had more fun than I should have yesterday watching a man (no, he was old, and a bit too flippant for my liking) tog up and spray a wasps' nest up under the eaves. I was waiting for a swarm but my sister later told me that apparently they go back in to die rather than coming out. I had to find that out from my sister, not the man who charged me £48 and then left his pump up my side alley and had to come back. Anyway, I digress, French enamel jars with all their rusty bits,I love them and will be looking out for more on ebay. <br />
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So that's what I've been up to this week. From today I intend to start The Holiday Ironing. The worst part of a holiday I reckon apart from the washing when you get back. I'm not an ironer. I don't go out with my clothes all creased, I'm an every day ironer, I only I iron what I want when I want it, I can't be doing with hours spent in front of an ironing board thanks. Too boring and too many more interesting things to be doing. My wardrobe obviously looks like carnage. Creased clothes all over the shop and gear stuffed in the top where I can't be bothered to find hangers. One day, when I grow up, (and can afford an ironing lady, my sole ambition in life) I will have a lovely organised wardrobe, with colour co-ordinated rows of perfectly pressed garments. I will be able to get up in the morning knowing I have a selection of outifits at my fingertips and not have to start dragging things out and then finding other things to go with those things and then ironing them before I can even go over the Co-op to buy a pint of milk.(And that's along with doing my hair and putting on some mascara and blusher so I don't look dead.) It would make life much easier if I took up doing the ironing but I won't. Apart from before a holiday and that's only just in case the suitcases fly open at Gatwick and a bundle of creased rags falls out causing thousands of holidaymakers to point and laugh and whisper behind their hands about my slatternly ways. So today I shall be ironing in the garden. Probably.</div>
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Have a lovely day wherever you are and for the people who live in England, enjoy the sunshine and get your flags out for The Olympics! And by the way, I know I could be on my own here but how excited am I that TOWIE is back? More excited than I should be that's how excited.</div>
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Laters.</div>
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xxx</div>
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-23680742997105732872012-07-24T12:07:00.001+01:002012-07-24T12:07:55.765+01:00The Blog Award Post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Morning, ladies!<br />
What spiffing weather we're having! Well here where I am anyway. After lunch, when I have to take Miss EF The Younger to her mate's for a sleepover, I am going to pitch myself up in the garden with a sunlounger and my patchwork, (oh yes... I'm still addicted and will do a post soon) and stay there for the remainder of the day. Make the most of it I say.<br />
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Anyway, I've been given a blog award by Kate at <a href="http://grannytaughtmetocrochet.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Granny Taught Me To Crochet</a>. It's this one...</div>
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the One Lovely Blog Award. So thank you most kindly, Kate! Apparently I have to list seven things about myself and I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with some interesting stuff, so here goes.</div>
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1. I am a true cockney. Born within the sound of Bow Bells at Barts Hospital. Bow Bells are actually in a church in Cheapside, whose name escapes me, and not actually in Bow, where I have never lived and wasn't born. I suppose when the term cockney was coined, London was a much smaller place and more people lived in what is now The City. The City is now more a financial and business area with not much housing. Anyway, that's me a cockney, London is in my blood in a big way even if I no longer live there. My dad was 'on the buses' and so was my mum, they met when he was a driver and she was a clippie and then my dad went on to be a taxi driver. My mum was posh. She came from Kent!</div>
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2. I can tap dance. Not like Lionel Blair or anything but I have medals. Some from when I was a little girl and some from more recently. I've done shows and everything. Drunk, admittedly, but I've done them. Well wouldn't any adult in their 40s have to take the alcohol before getting on stage wearing a top hat and tails. I love the sound of tap shoes on a floor and if I didn't think I would look like The Roly Poly's I'd think about doing it again now. </div>
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3. I'm a flitter. My blog will testify to that. One minute I'm all over crochet, the next it's reading books like another one will never be printed, other times I fancy myself as a vintage and antiques dealer and buy anything not nailed down, then I'm painting furniture and filling the garage up with tat off ebay. At the moment it's patchwork. My new thing. Let's see how long this lasts. My mates all know this about me and crack up laughing when I'm all enthusiastic about my next interest.</div>
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4. I can't sing. I've never been able to. My aunt was a professional singer and various members of my family seem to have the gift but it never got passed on to me. I'm laughably bad although I like doing it. I generally only allow myself to belt one out in the privacy of my own car. Also I had an operation on my neck a few years back which involved pushing my voice box over to one side (nice) and since then I think my voice has gone more growly and actually disappears when I try to hit a high note. I'd like to think I sound like Mariella Frostrup but I probably don't.</div>
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5. One of the things I flitted at was writing. I still do it on and off, (not on this blog, it doesn't count) but not as much as I did. I've had a few short stories published, nowhere you would have heard of, but it sort of fizzled out. The need seemed to leave me but now and then it comes back and I have a little bash at something. One day I would like to write a book, but then wouldn't we all?</div>
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6. I don't like cooking. I do it because I have to provide dinners every day but I take no pleasure in it and think it's really, really, really boring. I don't mind making cakes sometimes but that's mainly so I can lick the spoon and I like cake. I like eating and I can graze all day but I'm not that interested in dinners. </div>
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7. I think I'm French. No, really. My maiden name is Huguenot, well it's not that but it's a Huguenot name and when I've been to France, which is not as often as I'd like to, I feel all normal and like I'm meant to be there and not in Essex. (Although I like Essex, well the bit I live in anyway.) I've been thinking about this and I think my nan might have had a bit of a French thing too because apparently when I was born and my mum named me Janet (the most boring name ever invented, sorry to any Janets out there) my nan suggested I was called Jeanette 'because it's French.' My mum refused and told her I was English and that was that. My nan was German so there is definitely a continental vibe going on somewhere inside me. I'd like to think that one day I might live in France but being realistic it's not very likely. I don't how a cockney would get on out there in real life!</div>
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So that's me.</div>
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Right I have to pass this on and I'm struggling a bit because after having a scoot round it seems that most of the blogs I read have it already but I will pass it on to,</div>
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Gem at <a href="http://treasuresfromthecherrytree.blogspot.co.uk/">http://treasuresfromthecherrytree.blogspot.co.uk/</a></div>
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Sophie at <a href="http://fading-grace.blogspot.co.uk/">http://fading-grace.blogspot.co.uk/</a></div>
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and Lynne at <a href="http://pieceful-lynne.blogspot.co.uk/">http://pieceful-lynne.blogspot.co.uk/</a></div>
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I won't mind if you're not the awards type and would rather not take it.</div>
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Enjoy the sunshine!</div>
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Laters</div>
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xx</div>
</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-63172092244766846392012-07-12T15:09:00.003+01:002012-07-12T15:23:58.402+01:00Parading my patchwork...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Afternoon!<br />
Well, thanks to Sophie at <a href="http://fading-grace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/for-those-about-to-quilti-salute-you.html" target="_blank">Fading Grace</a><span style="color: #6aa84f;">, </span><span style="color: black;">who wrote this lovely post with some gorgeous photos and very easy to follow instructions, this...</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pku8ivQl2QI/T_7XEvBZ6jI/AAAAAAAAA5c/iWaD-JBOJHU/s1600/ebay+and+blog+032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pku8ivQl2QI/T_7XEvBZ6jI/AAAAAAAAA5c/iWaD-JBOJHU/s400/ebay+and+blog+032.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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by way of this...</div>
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So I'd like to thank Sophie, for inspiring me to get off my jacksy and give it a go and not worry too much about how it turns out. Do pop over to her very pretty blog, she takes the most lovely pictures and on her travels she finds great stuff.<br />
Patchwork, I'm flipping loving it! <br />
Laters, chicks!<br />
xx<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-63522341808732755922012-07-10T09:54:00.001+01:002012-07-10T09:54:01.433+01:00Jugs, quilts and books!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wotcher, ladies! Before I start I'll say thanks for your comments and a hello to the new followers. It's nice (and a little worrying) to know that there are people out there who like reading this. <br />
Today I am linking up with Lakota over at <a href="http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ta-dah-tuesday-how-to-remove-glitter.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping</span></a> for Ta-Da Tuesday,even though I haven't got anything much to Ta Da about. I have bought a few bits, (quelle surprise...) found something of note down in the garden room and been somewhere different, so sort of Ta Da-ish.<br />
Yesterday I had to go and have the dreaded neck injection, (really not too bad, would even have it done again and not be so scared) which meant going to St John's Wood. In an effort to make the day a tad nicer I thought I would get there a bit early and have a meander down the High Street. It is very nice indeed and even though it is bang in the middle of London (almost, two stops from Bond Street) it feels very villagey. No photos because my phone is from 1978 and I never think to take a camera out. Anyway, there are three charity shops. Not bad, if you really had time you could find something to wear in there and some reasonably good labels if you are into that. (I sort of am, if I am getting a bargain.) I didn't actually buy any clothes but I did linger round an off white M&S coat for some time. It had been reduced to a tenner and was in very good nick and very heavy, but I tried to be sensible and thought about how miserable it would make me (or Mr EF) carrying it home on two tubes and an overground train. Added to the fact that I was already negotiating my way round with a very tall fake hydrangea and had a jug and a saucer clanking about in my handbag. I thught I might look a bit of a mentaller turning up to have this procedure done laden down with charity shop bags. So I left it.<br />
Anyway, here's the jug.<br />
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The flash went off in every photo this morning due to it being like November round here. I really liked this little jug, I think it's Crown Derby or Devon. I might let it live on the new dresser. Talking of the new dresser, I had The Subsidence Man round last week and I know I haven't told you the story but it's been a three year fight with The Scout's Association and the council about an oak tree and we have an outcome. This means that in the near future I am going to have to pack the whole house up ready to be strengthened and decorated. As much as I'm looking forward to having new ceilings, walls all repaired and painted and various other things mended, I'm dreading the packing. We might even have to move out for a bit if they find asbestos. So be warned, never buy a house near an oak tree. Especially if it has a TPO on it.<br />
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Right back to 'stuff.' At the weekend I was nosing round ebay, like you do, well like I do, and I was looking at patchwork quilts when all of a sudden I remembered a quilt I bought years ago in Primark. Really a lot of years ago. I wondered where it was and thought the best place to start looking was in the garden room. Found it straight away. Smelling a bit musty and lying half on the bed and half on the floor but there and looking ok. So I washed it, nearly killed my washing machine doing it and it has been on and off the line since Sunday trying to dry. (I've just had to dash out and get it in, it's raining again.)<br />
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It's huge and reversible and I forgot I had it! I'm not sure where it's going, probably back down the garden room but I'm glad I found it. And I was looking on ebay and thinking about buying one. Silly moo. I still can't believe I found this in Primark. I know it was more than ten years ago and I know I bought it in Gravesend but I can't remember how much. <br />
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The other thing I've been doing is putting books on my Kindle. We are going on holiday in about three weeks so I'm getting prepared. Not ironing or anything but buying books.<br />
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I'm quite excited that this will be the first year I haven't had to earmark half a suitcase for books and then when I run out have to check out what other people round the pool are reading and sidle up to them and ask if I can borrow their book when they've finished it. You can see how much I've been reading this year, seven books, absolutely woeful. Although I have read a couple of 'real' books too and have to say that however handy these Kindles are I still prefer holding a paper book in my hand. Perfect for holidays though and I used it on the train journey yesterday. </div>
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So that's me today, I will finish with a picture of my sewing machine. Look how pristine and unused it looks. I think I've had it about 25 years and it's probably seized up. It's been out of the garage for weeks and sitting on this chair waiting for me to have a go at making something. Pigs might fly eh!</div>
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Happy Tuesday!</div>
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-59562574781592926472012-07-07T10:03:00.000+01:002012-07-07T10:03:09.829+01:00Madelief's Lovely Giveaway!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Do pop over to <a href="http://madeliefje-madelief.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/vintage-tea-party-giveaway.html?showComment=1341651488911" target="_blank">Madelief's very pretty blog</a>. Her photography is wonderful, lots of lovely photos to look at and she is having a very nice giveaway indeed!<br />
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A happy weekend, girlies!</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-23007756225730622682012-07-05T11:17:00.002+01:002012-07-05T11:17:54.968+01:00The one with all the shopping...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Morning, campers! Get me with over 50 followers! One of them doesn't count because it was me sodding about yesterday trying to work something out and I accidentally joined my own blog. Anyway, hello to new ones and I will apologise in advance for the quality of the photography. It really is pants. But, Little Miss EF has chosen photography as one of her options next term so if she gets it I will be after her for some tips. I might even employ her as my photographer. Nice to have you aboard anyway ladies!<br />
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Doesn't time go fast? I can't believe it's a week since my last post. All this sitting about doing nothing makes the days whizz by I can tell you. Hopefully this will soon be rectified and I can get back to work. (Just in time for the six weeks holidays...) Next Monday I am having something called a Nerve Root Sheath Infiltration. In my neck. A needle. Probably a long one. (Or not, I just made that bit up to make it sound scarier.) I hope the name of it is more dramatic than the reality. I am trying to take the good out of it. I have to go to St. John's Wood, a part of London that is most pleasant indeed and where I will almost certainly be residing when I win the Lottery. My intention is to get a step on in the morning (ha ha) and get myself up there pronto so I can walk along the High Street and pretend I am rich and posh for an hour. There are charity shops that I shall most certainly be frequenting. Obv any purchases will be set out for perusal on here at a later date. And this time I am meeting Mr EF at the hospital so I won't have him sighing and looking all forlorn and making me feel guilty so I will have more time to have a proper root round.<br />
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So, this week. Bought a few things, natch. Finished a thing. Threatened to start a few things but didn't.<br />
Let's have a photo, there's been a lot of talking so far and it will get boring.<br />
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A random picture of my dog, Manny. Just because he looks so gorgeous. Don't you think his eyes look human?<br />
Right on to the real stuff. <br />
Last Sunday I got Miss EF The Elder to drive me to the shops because I was having withdrawal symptoms and internet shopping, however fun, wasn't quite cutting the mustard. It also means I'm scared to get in the shower every day in case I miss a parcel. So, off we trot to Southend, our local proper shops. She, who works in a lovely big law firm in London and earns her own money, (more than me) was skint and I knew that she would only stand so much of me waving my card about before she got the hump. This actually happened in the first shop. TK Maxx. Ok, we were in there for an hour, who wouldn't be? Ok, I bought a load of stuff I don't actually need but wanted very badly but she didn't have to threaten to take me home as soon as we'd paid. I think it was because I left her holding armloads in the queue while I ran off to see if there was anything I'd missed. We managed to patch it up when I bought her a full English in Debenhams and treated her to her sun tan lotion for her holiday. <br />
In TK Maxx I bought a couple of Le Parfait jars. Still languishing, empty on the side in the kitchen because I don't really 'do' jars, apart from keep buying the things. It was the French writing, I'm very easily pleased. I also bought this.<br />
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There were others but I resisted. Our phone chargers live in this now. Much nicer than having them all plugged in and trailing bits of black wire all over the shop.<br />
A side view. (How can one get so excited about a tin?)<br />
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I even know what that means! Please excuse the flash. It was like night time in my kitchen this morning.<br />
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A couple of other tins. I saw the blue one on Chipper Nelly and loved it and dashed to Marks to get it. I didn't buy the Queen tin but I had to go back and get it a couple of weeks later. The biscuits were flipping gorgeous and I will definitely be getting the Christmas shortbread from there this year.<br />
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I'm a sucker for anything with a taxi or a bus on it, my dad used to drive both.<br />
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And Her Maj. I love the colours on this and it's been promoted to being our new biscuit tin.<br />
I've had a thing about tins lately. I hope it stops soon.<br />
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Right, the cupboard. Last weekend Mr EF went on a racing jolly to Newmarket for the weekend. I waved him off and as soon as he got to the top of the road I shouted out to Miss EF The Younger to help me climb up on a chair and get the door off the cupboard. We had a bit of a job but after we'd charged up his electric screwdriver, (I think he's used it once,) we were away. Once the door was off I spent a good deal of time fart arsing about with bits of Pyrex and what have you deciding what was going to be in there. In the end I'm afraid most of the Pyrex lost out. I think, on reflection, Pyrex was a passing fad for me, most of it anyway, and it ended up back in a cupboard. I'm not getting rid of it yet, you never know when you might need to cook casseroles for 158 people do you? The prettier bits made the cut but I decided that the thing that I like seeing the most is my mugs. So instead of hiding them away they are out on the pretend open shelves. <br />
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With Pyrex. Excuse the washing in the dining room but what can you do when you live in England and it rains every day? <br />
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With mugs and not so much Pyrex just the nicer bits. Please notice the number of empty jars. Thank you.<br />
For most of the weekend and occasionally even now I was and still am trying to close the cupboard door. (You can see it in the background leaning against the dresser near the washing. It's still there.And probably will be for the forseeable future.) I am used to it now and like it. When Mr EF got home he asked if I wanted his honest opinion. I didn't, but felt it would be rude not to say yes. His opinion is that it looks like a cupboard with the door off. But what does he know? He likes brown. Nuff said. I will leave it like this now but I won't throw the door away in case I change my mind and do the fabric thing.<br />
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Yesterday I had a little trot to my village and had a look in the charity shops. I have decided that I like them because sometimes they get it spectacularly wrong, and all to my benefit. In one I found this.<br />
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Those of you who have been knocking about on here for a bit may remember a set of cups and saucers I bought a few weeks ago, the Gaylord plastic stuff. This is the matching jug. Standing there on its own for fifty of our new pence. I trembled slightly, looked left and right and grabbed it quick. Thinking about it, I wondered if they had more of it out the back and asked the lady, but alas she said this had come in on its own. I'm not sure I believe her so I will have to keep going back and checking. <br />
Further up the road in another chazza, I found this.<br />
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Meakin Glamour Celesete. 75p. Yes really. And this.</div>
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Royal Vale, I don't know if that's good but I don't care because I liked it anyway, for 50p. The thing is I find these little treasures for no money at all and then further up the shelf I see bits of old rubbish, like the jar you buy Stilton in from Tesco at Christmas for three and four quids. Mentalness. I like it though and I don't feel guilty because the other day I realised that by accident I had sent a bag of my clothes up there a few weeks previously when I was tidying the loft. When I realised I actually cried. I had to mourn the loss of some of these things. DKNY top, Karen Millen dress, a few Ralph Lauren bits, stuff I would have worn this summer, chinos and linen trousers, all gone. I actually saw a dress of mine that I wore once to Royal Ascot hanging in there for £7.50 and had to walk out because I got all emotional. I felt like a nutter getting upset about a few clothes but it really bothered me. I feel a bit teary now. So to get my own back a little bit I bought a Boden top in there for £4.50 and then sold it on Ebay for about £16. It helped a little bit! It has made me think though about how attached I get to things and find it hard to part with stuff.</div>
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Moving on, the latest blanket and the horrible edging. I changed it to this.</div>
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I'm happier with it now although I sort of wish I'd ripped that bright pink row out too. So another blanket to live in blanket town. The shelf on the table where all the other blankets live.<br />
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Now the thing I haven't finished. Or even really started properly.<br />
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Remember these? I bought them to try patchwork. Oh yes, I was going to make a quilt... I played with them, laid them all out on the dining room table and juggled them around for about half hour till I got them exactly how I wanted them, then walked away and left them. Then I cleared them off and realised that it wasn't a good idea to leave them there until I sewed them together because I couldn't expect my family to eat off their laps for five years. I actually pinned them and started tacking them together. And when I looked at them this morning it made me feel a bit sad that I hadn't even mustered up the enthusiasm to get to the end of this bit of tacking. <br />
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What a quitter. They are so pretty and I think my fear is that I will bugger it up. I almost certainly will so I don't even try, which is stupid because I could always try again. Also this week I have been threatening to make Manny a new bandana in an effort to make him look less gay, and so that people don't think he is a girl when we take him out, but I haven't done that either. I have the fabric all ready, red with white spots, and I know it will be easy but sewing scares the flipping life out of me apart from putting a button on something. Daft cow. <div align="left">
Oooh, oooh another tin. I forgot this one. </div>
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Debenhams, 70% off and down to three nicker. I wondered why they even had any left at all being as it's so gorge but then I realised that No2 also means poo and it might have put people off. Not me though! Oh no! My crochet hooks and scissors have a new home and are within easy reach of my little nest now and I don't even think of poo when I look at it. Much.<br />
I also bought (and I think this may actually be bargain purchase of the week although it was the most expensive) a Betty Jackson red short sleeve shirt- waister dress (that I will wear open with linen trousers because I don't really do dresses) for £18 down from £60. Bargaintastic or what! <br />
So that's me this week, plenty of retail therapy. Hurrah for shopping!<br />
Happy weekend, girlies! And also thanks so much for all your comments, I really like reading them and they do make me laugh and make it worth wrestling with Blogger for an hour to get the photos in the right places. <br />
Laters!<br />
xx<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-80004546968508260042012-06-28T14:19:00.002+01:002012-06-28T14:19:43.644+01:00French Linen Sheet and Cupboard Doors. A Quandary...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello it's me again. Twice in two days, blige, I must have too much time on my hands! Thanks as always for your comments on my last post and hello to a couple of new followers. Welcome to the land of drivel and bad photography!<br />
Anyway, today I have a question, well two questions actually. <br />
Right, first question is about a French linen sheet. I will make it more interesting by telling you where I bought it.<br />
A couple of years ago we went to France for our summer holiday. An idea had been bandied about at various times about a group of us, family and friends, renting a chateau for a week. A real life French one. In France. So we looked into it and my mate who is super duper efficient produced a little brochure with a shortlist. My stipulation was that it had to look like the chateau I live in in my head, tall windows and just generally chateauish, preferably white and with the odd French door and shutter thrown in. I didn't want any of these turreted castles or ones that didn't look right. Anyway the decision was made and we went here.<br />
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This is the back view but I will post the link where you will find loads of photos that, if you are anything like me, will have you drooling and possibly crying a little bit because you live in a bungalow near Southend that has subsidence and not in this magnificent house.<br />
The link<span style="color: magenta;">...</span><a href="http://www.chateaudelaplace.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Chateau De La Place</span></a><br />
This is not an advert and I'm not being paid for it, nor do I know the owners but if you want to do this type of thing then I would highly recommend this place. <br />
So anyway, eighteen of us made our way there. We all went our own ways. Mr EF, me and The EF Girls hired an eight seater van and drove down with another family. Actually I drove all the way there from here, yes all the way, me, a fact I still boast about loudly to this day. Big van, wrong side of the road, foreign country, manual motor, six people moaning behind me, absolutely knackered and first time I ever used a sat nav and it took hours, lots of hours and we did an overnight stay at a farmhouse in Normandy, you'd be boasting too.<br />
So the first morning a little gang of us go out to score some croissants and bread. I take one step out of the street door into the square (La Place) and blige me what do I see... flea markets. In the plural. Two. After texting my mate back in England and doing a few little jumps and possibly a little bit of wee and not being able to speak properly with excitement I have to decide which way to run first. And that's where the sheet comes in. For weeks I'd had this thing about a French linen sheet, preferably monogrammed, and had been bidding on ebay for any that seemed reasonable money. These babies go for cash, I tell you. I only wanted one because I wanted one, you know how you get that longing for something that seems a little bit out of reach, well it was that. <br />
And in one of these flea markets on the first morning of my holiday I got one! Well actually two, although the other one isn't linen but cotton. It's huge and very heavy and thick and when I've put it on the bed, the old man says it's like sleeping under a lump of cardboard.<br />
Right, so here's the sheet. (Not ironed, what a surprise, but dragged out of my linen cupboard.)<br />
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The monogramms. H and R. Not my initials but I could make them fit. Ropey Hair. Relaxed Home.Raving Harlot. (Maybe not.) Red Hair. (Once in the 80s.) Happy Reader. Hot Raver. The possibilities are endless.<br />
This is my quandary. Do I cut this up? (I whispered that in case it heard.)<br />
I think it's quite old because it has a seam down the middle which apparently means it has some age. Something about not being able to weave the widths in those days, or something I wouldn't understand.<br />
Down the middle it has some wear.<br />
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Can you see there's a little hole and in the second photo the linen has worn quite thin? The problem being that when I've used it on my bed, feet tend to get caught up in the worn bits and I think eventually a foot will go right through it leaving a huge hole. The outside edges are fine as you would expect and lovely and sturdy and I keep wondering if I could make cushions (cushion, I will get bored after one) from it or at least do something with it rather than leaving it languishing in the airing cupboard.<br />
So what would you do? Leave it in all its glory or put it to some use? <br />
Oh yes but the way did I mention I paid 8 euros for both sheets. Not 8 euros each, 8 euros <em>all together...</em><br />
So I had to get on my hands and knees and scrabble around in a suitcase on the floor but who wouldn't?<br />
That's my first quandary- the cutting up or not of the French sheet.<br />
Second quandary is kitchen cupboard door. There is a cupboard in my kitchen that I can't stand. I'll do a photo first so you can see and then I'll tell you what it is I don't like about it.<br />
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It's the one with the glass door. The smeary glass door. My question is this, why have a glass door if you can't flipping well see through it? Why? Why? They (the people we bought the house from) even had a light put inside it. Again,why? Why? Whatever you put in it appears like a blurry image through this horrible glass that is impossible to get smear free. I did ask my mate's husband, a kitchen fitter, to take the glass out for me. A simple job you may think, one that a normal husband ought to be able to tackle... if you've been here before you may remember that anything requiring tools and manual labour is not Mr EF's thang. So, my idea was to take the glass out, put a piece of fabric in there instead and then I could put all manners of things in there and they would be hidden. But yesterday I had a little brainwave. What if I took the door off and made this cupboard into Pretend Open Shelves. (Another idea I had and have had six shelves living in the boot of my car since last August to prove it.) What do you think? I'll give you a chance to judge by presenting you with a photo of each way. Door on and door off, well door open anyway.</div>
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Obviously I'd take the Chinese Takeaway menu out and the old cups that I use for putting tea bags in and I did think that what if I lined the back and sides or painted them? </div>
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My main opposition will be the old man who likes things to stay how they are forever. I have thought about taking the door off while he is in work,a fait accompli so to speak but if he really hates it and puts the door back on I know it will never open or close properly again. And with that and the cardboard sheet comment it would mean I would probably have to kill him to death. The thing is I want it to look like open shelves not just a cupboard with door taken off. Any ideas or opinions most welcome please thank you!</div>
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So, two quandaries, sheets and cupboards, I really do have too much time on my hands don't I?</div>
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Laters, ladies!</div>
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xx</div>
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PS I think you can make these photos large by clicking on them. I only used large today instead of Xlarge.O the last post the photos were so big they looked a bit mutant. Like they were trying to take over the words. </div>
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-28281399881670827952012-06-26T14:15:00.000+01:002012-06-26T14:28:56.477+01:00Fings What I Have Bought.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello chaps! Gorgeous day isn't it? I wonder how long this will last. I'm trying not to notice it too much in case it goes away. Thanks for all your lovely comments on the garden and hello to any new followers! <br />
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Anyway, today I thought I'd do a quick run down on Fings What I Have Bought. Well actually Some of The Fings What I Have Bought. As well as these charity shop and boot sale purchases I have also had a little tiny bash of the Cath Kidston website and a few books have found their way into my possession. I need to get back to work before I skint myself with all this internet.com shopping. I've just been signed off for another month but have also had my medication doubled so I'll probably be too off my face to see the screen properly let alone order stuff.<br />
Anyway, back to the Fings.<br />
Firstly this little tea set. I bought this to sell. Honestly and truly, I had no intention of keeping it and still haven't. It's going in the vintage fair... (about 2039 then...) I actually do really like it and even more so because it's plastic, Gaydon Something Or Other. But I have nowhere really for it to go and it will end up in a cupboard somewhere and I like the thought of someone having it in their camper van and being all vintagey with it.<br />
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Great colour isn't it? And the saucers are oval! I loved them even more when I noticed that. And I really like the shape of the handle. (I'm talking myself into keeping these babies...)<br />
The saucer, not sure if the shape comes out very well in a photo.<br />
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Please note the rust spots on the garden table. Not rusty enough to look French but just rusty enough to look crap.<br />
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Next up a little bowl. I don't normally go for these colours but the pattern is so delicate and I like it when you get a bit of decoration on the inside. A bit more for your money.<br />
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I have it on the dresser in the dining room. I have foofed that one up a bit after raiding it for the Mum dresser. I will show that in another post.<br />
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And this little pink pot. I love it. The rose on it, the sort of faded pink and the gold bits. <br />
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It's probably supposed to be on a dressing table but at the moment almost everything I buy is going on that new dresser. You know when you get something new and it's your best thing for a little while? Well that's what that dresser is to me. I've just got past the stage of going out in the hall purposely to look at it but I do walk a little bit slower when I'm going past it and sometimes I light a scented candle so it looks nice in the evenings. Even though I can't see it, I still know. Daft mare.<br />
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Right, a vase. Bought to sell, but is a lodger on the dresser for the moment. I'm starting to like it on there so it might stay. <br />
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It's bright and it does look quite sweet. It's not washed up that well and I don't want to put it in the dishwasher in case the pattern comes off! <br />
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Little shaker, bought in the charity shop while waiting to meet my mate for lunch. He was standing outside the pub opposite the charity shop waving to me while I was paying. Busted!<br />
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There were actually three there and I forced myself to leave the other two but I sort of regret it now. This lives in French corner. (The Ikea bookcase nicked from daughter No2's room.)<br />
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Now all you buttony, vintagy people get ready. Found these in my mum's button tin. I bought a white linen shirt on ebay (BNWT, I got the lingo,) and thought the buttons looked a bit boring so I was hunting through mine and my mum's buttons to see if I could find any more interesting ones and came across these.<br />
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How blimming great are they? They are obviously now living on the New Dresser Of Lovely Things. I was all excited thinking that they had been in this button tin all the time and started digging through to see if there were any more but sadly not. Plenty not on cards but only these all on the card. I see my mum has used one. She used to knit all our jumpers and cardis so it was probably on one of those. <br />
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And now my new obsession. All Selina Lake's fault. I bought her book The Romantic Home and amongst all the lovely things in there (I had to ration myself, I kept getting the vapours at all the gorgeousness) was a picture of a group of glass candlesticks with pink candles. 'That's the very Billy for me,' I thought and set about hunting and gathering said glass candlesticks. The first day I set forth to my village and thought 'I'm going to get me a glass candlestick,' and I did. First charity shop, one sitting there, bought and in the bag. 'This is easy,' I thought. Since then I have scoured chazzas in Leigh on Sea, Rayleigh, my village again and couldn't find any. Then last Friday when I met my mate, I found one in the shop with the shaker and after lunch went in this dodgy furniture shop (melamine, New York skyline canvases and crappy silk flowers, we've all been there) and spied some on a table. After knocking over a topiary tree whilst climbing into the window to grab four of these candlesticks before anyone else got them (because there were hundreds of people fighting me to get them, you know how it is) the lady informed me she had some out the back and I needn't have clambered all over her window display. So, bought four and ordered two more from <a href="http://simply-scandinavian.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Simply Scandinavian</a> along with three grey candles. Now I need four more grey candles or seven of a different colour or I might have three grey and three white or pink. It's these things my kids hate me for. I've been obsessing over these candlesticks for about a week now. Now I've talked about them for half hour I'll show you the photo.<br />
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I'm not sure if they are going to stay on this table but at the moment I am spending so much time on the armchair you can just see in the background that I am leaving them there because I like looking at them! They sparkle a bit and catch the light coming in through the French doors. I won't be able to stop buying them for a while if I see any more. They are a bit of an illness at the moment.<br />
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Last thing, the new border on the Garden Blanket. I'm doing a little bit at a time and I've had to modify it a bit (get me.. ) it looked a bit wrong, but I much prefer it to that bright pink. It fits in nicely and I like the laciness of the pattern. This was one of the easier edgings in the book. I'm taking a run up to the others.<br />
So that's me this week, linking up to Lovely Lakota at <a href="http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ta-dah-tuesday-felt-flower-make-and.html" target="_blank">Faith Hope and Charity Shopping</a> with her felt brooch and her very funny indeed post. Do hop over and have a butchers, you won't regret it!<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-40579353966840503232012-06-19T11:53:00.000+01:002012-06-19T11:53:03.964+01:00Ta-Dah Tuesday In The Garden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well hello! How the devil are you? On this sunny Tuesday morning, I once again find myself linking up with the Lovely Lakota at<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span><a href="http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping</span></a><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span><span style="color: black;">for Ta, Dah Tuesday.</span><br />
This week, it's not actually a Ta Dah of my own doing. I had to Get A Man In for this one. Getting A Man In is something we have to do quite often in Edith Florence Towers, due to Mr EF's reluctance and quite frankly pantsness at anything to do with DIY. Or in this case gardening. Cutting the grass is fine, but anything beyond that, unless he sees me heading off out there with a saw and decides he wants a piece of the action, is not his bag. <br />
On the whole, I keep on top of the the garden. I don't mean I float above it like the Heavenly Host, I mean I keep it under control. Almost. Up to a point. This year, however, due to the Nasty Neck of Badness and The Hurty Arm of Pain, it had gone a bit wild. I will tell you a bit about my garden. It is about 100 foot long and about 42 foot wide. (I still remember this from the Estate Agent's blurb Next time I move shout the word <span style="font-size: large;">COURTYARD</span> to me at the top of your voices please.) There is a fairly large garage near the back door, a tumbledown greenhouse behind that and a wall, which I pretend looks French about 50 odd foot down, which separates it into two parts. Behind the wall is a summerhouse that I blogged about <a href="http://edithflorencediaryofahome.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/summer-project.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">here</span></a>. Since then, surprise, surprise, not been touched. Also behind this French wall and sort of next to the summerhouse is another little outbuilding that I have never set foot into. Behind that and on the back of the summerhouse is a log store thingy that is full of branches and rubbish that we have cut down in previous years. There are about twelve or so trees out there (I'm guessing this) and just lately they had started to resemble a rain forest canopy. Also the borders (and I use that term loosely) had started to look a right old mess. So, as I can't even pick up a crochet hook without squealing in pain and we already know that Mr EF doesn't care much for gardening, I decided it was time to Get In The Man. <br />
They came on Saturday and I very much regret now only thinking of before and after pictures and not actually getting any durings. The tools alone were worthy of a mention. They actually lined them up on the grass (I hesitate to call it a lawn) and set down petrol cans next to them. Very impressive array of cutting down instruments I can tell you.<br />
Anyway, I will do some photos of before and after.<br />
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Garage before and after. At least this bench is clear enough to sit on now! They took the rose bush right down to give it a chance to come back and went at the winter jasmine with a chain saw thingy that looked like it belonged in a horror movie! </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">When we moved here, I was quite relieved in a way that it was a 'mature garden.' In our previous two houses we (for that read I) have done the garden from scratch. Had it turfed then put every single plant in. Although I enjoyed that, it's hard work and costs a lot of money. The difference in this garden is that there is hardly room to shoehorn a plant in, which sounds stupid given the size of it, but believe me, I've tried. Every year I've trotted happily back from the nursery with pots of lupins, foxgloves, acquiligas and other cottagey loveliness and have found places to put them in. Do they ever grow? Nah. Do they come up the next year? Nah. Am I bothering again. Yeah, course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Anyway back to the men with the power tools. I gave them free reign to a degree. I said I wanted a very brutal haircut of everything they could manage to get to in one day. They got as far as French wall and then had to be convinced by Mr EF to just do the little path behind it. Fair play, they did loads and had the cuts and sweat to prove it. By the time they'd done there was a mountain (oh why didn't I go out with my camera?) in the middle of the grass and another Man had to be called to dispose of it all in his truck. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Some more photos.</span></div>
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As you can see, they were a tad gung ho with their chain saws and have left this side a bit bare looking. A lot of what was there was half dead or being strangled by ivy anway and I'm telling myself that this is a good thing as it gives me space to put a few flowering shrubs in. Problem being that it needs digging over, lots of bits of old root taking out, and planted up. And we know that Mr EF isn't up for much of that. I may be Getting The Man In again before long. (When I have saved up, or sold one of my kids on Ebay to pay for it.)<br />
All in all, I'm happy with it. I would still like a chunk taken off some of the trees down behind the wall and behind the garage as I think this will let in more light, but the rain forest canopy effect isn't so bad now and I can see some space to play with. I do miss that romantic, overgrown look, I don't like a garden to look too tidy but at least now I can see the sky, I don't have to turn lights on in the day time and there are different areas to sit other than directly outside the back doors.<br />
So that's my ta da for today. Carried out by someone else but enjoyed by me! Do hop over to Lakota's to see her lovely recipe, it's very retro! Her post made me laugh out loud!<br />
Laters!<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-85985977638175805892012-06-15T19:59:00.003+01:002012-06-15T19:59:34.109+01:00Normal Service Resumed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Phew. I don't know how I did but I sorted the blog disaster. I shall stick with this grey now. (Probably for ever, too dangerous to try and change it...)</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-5203375506416285962012-06-15T17:58:00.002+01:002012-06-15T19:59:48.033+01:00What a shambles!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
State of this blog. Too much time on my hands I reckon. I can't make it go normal now. Blimming thing. </div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-33656848315872349462012-06-12T14:59:00.000+01:002012-06-12T15:01:01.256+01:00Ta -Dah Tuesday Again!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hello, chaps! Has a week really gone by already? How fast was that? Just want to say thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post. I'm still faffing a bit with that dresser and have re-foofed the other one, (the one just in the background of the picture below) and might make that another post. By the way, I don't have a dresser in every room. Just some of them. And I don't live in a mansion. If I buy any more furniture I will have to use a shoe horn and a packet of butter to oil it in with.<br />
Anyway, today I am linking up with Lakota at <a href="http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: purple;">Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping</span></a> for Ta- Dah Tuesday. Do pop over and say hello and have a look at her fab picture.<br />
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Right, I am unvieling the new blanket, tantalising glimpses of which could be seen on the shelf of the table in my last post!<br />
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It was hard to take photos today as the light is so bad, (yeah right...) but you get the gist of it anyway. I made this from mainly wool I had knocking about with just a couple of extra balls thrown in. I have tons left and really would have liked to make this bigger but I ran out of that duck egg bluey green that I used to edge and join with and couldn't get any more. As it was I had to do the edging (I'll come back to that,) in a different colour. It's all double knit, mainly acrylic, picked up from here there and everywhere based on colour. I wanted this one to be a bit girlier and prettier than the last one and to feature a few more pinks and greens. In real life, it reminds of a garden. (That's my attempt at being arty farty.)</div>
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I've spread it out on the dining room table, mainly because the bed isn't made. It's 2.21pm and I have unmade beds. What a slob! My excuse is that I returned to work today. The hurty arm of pain has made a bit of improvement, probably not enough to be back at work but I feel guilty. And I want to see the year 6s before they leave. I'm doing a phased return so it's gently does it.</div>
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As I'm doing this, the photos are all coming out in the wrong places and any minute now I am going to throw the laptop across the room.</div>
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Right, trying again...</div>
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I will do a bit of writing to see if the next photos come out right! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Could do bettererer</td></tr>
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Right, the edging. Not happy with it and will be ripping it out and starting again. I can't yet because I have had to step away from the crochet again for a bit as it wasn't doing the arm much good at all. I sort of wanted something a little bit fancy on this but whenever I try to do that the edges and corners curl up. I thought I'd be satisfied to leave it but I won't. I bought a book last week chock full of the prettiest edgings ever so I will use one of those when I get round to changing it.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RS0R5vVbH74/T9dHM9q_m4I/AAAAAAAAAus/iVcJW9jowTM/s1600/new+blanket+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RS0R5vVbH74/T9dHM9q_m4I/AAAAAAAAAus/iVcJW9jowTM/s640/new+blanket+010.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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Blimey, these photos are going where they fancy, so this post is all over the shop. I might try one more just before the end. I might sneak it in while Blogger isn't looking.</div>
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So, The Garden Blanket, I might call it that. Happy with it, apart from the edging and wish it was a row or two bigger!</div>
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I had plans and made three squares of the next one but I've left it now and will go back to it another time.</div>
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Last week I bought the Cath Kidston, Stitch! book. It's ages since I've done cross stitch but I might have another little bash at that. </div>
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Hope you're not getting too fed up with all this rain. I may write to The Queen soon and request some sunshine. </div>
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Happy Tuesday!</div>
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xx</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ha ha- foiled you, Blogger!</td></tr>
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-54636406475691056862012-06-05T10:20:00.000+01:002012-06-05T10:20:01.084+01:00Ta... Da...Tuesday!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well hello! How have your Jubilee celebrations been? We met some friends down the pub on Sunday and had a thoroughly good old catch up. I was the designated driver because I'm still rattling with tablets, which was good because it meant yesterday I was up bright and early and had an afternoon mooching round Leigh Broadway with Miss Edith Florence The Younger. We had a lovely lunch and made a few purchases. and we both came home smiling.<br />
Anyway, today I am linking up with Lakota over at <a href="http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ta-dah-tuesday-storage-satisfaction.html"><span style="color: magenta;">Faith Hope and Charity Shopping</span></a> to take part in Ta.. Da.. Tuesday.<br />
Here is my Ta...Da...<br />
I am going to apologise in advance for the photos. Regular readers will be aware that photography is not my strong point (an understatement, believe me...) but these are taken in my hallway where this photographer is relying solely on artificial light. One lightbulb in fact. That's my excuse anyway.<br />
I give to you... My Mum's Dresser...<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qmu26IdYvhE/T83KOXg3TUI/AAAAAAAAAtE/ZsA6cKoZlho/s1600/dresser+007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qmu26IdYvhE/T83KOXg3TUI/AAAAAAAAAtE/ZsA6cKoZlho/s640/dresser+007.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VmME26vhRp8/T83DvwUiLNI/AAAAAAAAAr8/vjZ7pUKoCfw/s1600/dresser+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VmME26vhRp8/T83DvwUiLNI/AAAAAAAAAr8/vjZ7pUKoCfw/s640/dresser+002.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
Bought from Argos about 17 years ago and made of pine. There are a couple of photos of it in an earlier post, it has been in my garage for a while waiting to be tarted up.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ZDZWcDeJdI/T83E3b_QqgI/AAAAAAAAAsE/GK5g5WO68iI/s1600/dresser+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ZDZWcDeJdI/T83E3b_QqgI/AAAAAAAAAsE/GK5g5WO68iI/s640/dresser+014.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Bit of a close up. This is after I foofed and faffed with it for about an hour. I 'shopped my own house,' which is good fun. Found stuff I had, in the garage, nicked from the other dresser (which now looks rather carnagy and needs re-foofing) and had a little play. There are also a fair few bits of my mum's on there which seems quite fitting although I'm not making it into a shrine! </div>
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Right, about the paint. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for the first time. I liked it. I reserved judgement after the first coat. I was expecting some sort of miracle to occur but it looked rather patchy and very, very chalky. After the second coat I liked it and after waxing I liked it even more. It is easy to use because there is no prep whatsover. I did give the dresser a good old wash down with fairy liquid before I started but apart from that zilch. The paint goes on well and I would use it again. The only problem for me is that I had to pay about seven nicker postage and packing because I can't get it anywhere near here. It hasn't quite reached my bit of Essex yet! The colour is Old White. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaHxkc5sZpk/T83GemTz5eI/AAAAAAAAAsM/ISJxKQf8hlY/s1600/dresser+2+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaHxkc5sZpk/T83GemTz5eI/AAAAAAAAAsM/ISJxKQf8hlY/s640/dresser+2+002.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aq32LVzJ0OQ/T83G4N3ZERI/AAAAAAAAAsc/8ny418lvI2o/s1600/dresser+2+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aq32LVzJ0OQ/T83G4N3ZERI/AAAAAAAAAsc/8ny418lvI2o/s640/dresser+2+006.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Just to give an idea on how the distressing looks. I don't like things toooooo distressed because I know it's a fake effect anyway but I think if it's overdone it looks too fake. (I know what I mean!) Whatever I paint, my first rule of distessing is Look For The Drips. Anywhere the paint has dripped I rub it off, or even pick it off. On this piece and with this paint it looks ok I think. After that I sort of look at the corners and edges and just rub a bit of paint off and try not to overdo it. This was easy to distress. I waxed first, not with Annie Sloan wax but with what I had in the garage. On with one old t-shirt and then buffed up with another. After that I rubbed paint off. I did go over some of the rubbed off bits with a spot more wax just to darken them a bit.</div>
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All in all I liked this paint and found it easy to use. I might try using two colours next time. (After I have taken out a mortgage for postage and packing.) It's worth it not to do all that boring rubbing down and priming. I have bored my kids to death by keep asking them if it looks good enough to sell and if I'm good enough at painting stuff to do it for a living. I have to say I'm happier than that geezer Larry when I have a paintbrush in my grubby little mitt.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A plethora of china!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great home for the Ladybird books!</td></tr>
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I'm still debating whether to put another row of hooks on that bottom shelf and I am also going to change the knobs when I see some I like. I tried to get Miss EF The Younger to come in B&Q with me yesterday but she had had enough, she was tired. Fifteen years old and gets tired going round a few shops. I fear for that girl where shopping's concerned I really do. No stamina.</div>
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More photos...</div>
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Please note that the contents of this dresser keep changing. It is getting fuller and fuller where I keep on finding things to put on it!</div>
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Another good thing is it is a handy bit of storage in the hall. It will soon be full of junk!</div>
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Anyway chaps, that's my Ta.. Da... </div>
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Do hop over to Lakota's for a butchers if you get a chance!</div>
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Oh yes, a tantalising glimpse of another Ta Da.. one of the crochet kind...</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YW_fy2qeuEI/T83NlPIrBVI/AAAAAAAAAtc/kMA7NZEgULs/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YW_fy2qeuEI/T83NlPIrBVI/AAAAAAAAAtc/kMA7NZEgULs/s640/001.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out the pink edging!<br />
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I will save it for another post!</div>
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Enjoy the holiday today, chaps.</div>
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Laters.</div>
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xx</div>
</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-13175838908203898332012-06-01T10:17:00.000+01:002012-06-01T10:17:28.749+01:00Flowery Friday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In my garden.<br />
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I love this rose. We inherited it and I didn't like it at first but now I like the way the colours change as the buds open. I also like the blowsiness of it. When the petals are about to fall the flowers look all wanton and as if they're throwing off their underwear! It is rather spiteful, the thorns are huge and at the moment, due to my poorly armage and the non-gardening nature of my old man it is a health hazard as it is hanging right off the trellis and tries to attack anyone who dares to get past it.<br />
In complete contrast, this pretty geranium. I love their simplicity, so cottagy and without frills but effective in a big clump.<br />
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LIke smiley little faces!<br />
On my kitchen windowsill.<br />
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Please excuse the most attractive big black damp patch on the laundry room ceiling. Due to subsidence (that's another less cheerful post...) we are in limbo where repairs and redecoration are concerned. Bought these lovely stocks yesterday at Tescos for 70p a bunch. Obv bought three, bargainstastic! The begonia was a present from my friend and I'm sort of waiting for it to die, I'm not struck to be honest. I do water it, but only when I feel sorry for it.<br />
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On the tea towels I purchased in J Sainsbury Esq yesterday. I almost broke into a light sweat when I spotted these. How Cathish! And for far less money! A fiver the pack. Well chuffed. Actually they had some quite good stuff in there. I had to force myself not to buy a sign with Summerhouse on it and a china apple with green polka dots. Not sure if these tea towels are going to be for using or for admiring and shouting at people for using.<br />
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In the living room. On the new table. Well ok, the fiver from Ebay table that I painted last week. Same stocks, 70p a pop.They smell lovely and I love the look of them even if it means no one can see the telly.</div>
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In the fireplace. Ok, ok, they're not real. Spot the imposter in this post. I still love them though and they won't die! £8 each from a shop in Leigh on Sea. I think it's called Scape, but it might not be. Most of the stuff is a bit mod for my taste but they do, now and then, have some great fake flowers and I bought a mirror in there that looks like a window. I'll take a photo of that another day. These hydrangeas are in my boney fidey Thrench milk bottle that I bought for 1 euro in a flea market in Thrance. </div>
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So that's the flowers in my manor today. </div>
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Happy Jubilee Weekend chaps. God Save The Queen.</div>
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Laters.</div>
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xx</div>
</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-14564606930610969542012-05-29T21:37:00.001+01:002012-05-29T21:52:07.309+01:00I'd like to thank my agent...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Before I start, welcome to new followers. Even more people reading this drivel! Hello!<br />
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Blige me... the very funny Gem from <a href="http://treasuresfromthecherrytree.blogspot.co.uk/">http://treasuresfromthecherrytree.blogspot.co.uk/</a> has given me an award! The Sunshine Award, which is quite apt now it has stopped blimming well raining and spring has really sprung. Thanks, luv! Most honoured indeed.<br />
Apparently I have to answer some questions and then pass it on. I'll answer the questions but I'm bottling out of passing it on because it's tooooooooo haaaaaaaaaaard and I can't choooooooooooooose. So if anyone fancies it, please take it and pass it on if you wish.<br />
Right, the questions. (I warn you, I am a bit boring.)<br />
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Favourite colour<br />
Erm.. grey. (See, told you I was boring.) That's my favourite colour at the moment. This changes on a weekly, if not daily basis.<br />
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Favourite Number<br />
Very strange question! I don't have a favourite number but I am more drawn to even numbers. They're more neat and tidy with no messy bits on the end. <br />
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Favourite animal<br />
Dog. Hands down. Preferably my own, Manny. He's naughty, thinks he's human and is the best looking dog that ever lived. <br />
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Favourite non alcoholic drink.<br />
Tea, all day long. Twinings Everyday thank you. If it's good enough for Stevie Fry it's good enough for me.<br />
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Facebook or Twitter?<br />
Facebook, but in a small way, just to be nosy.<br />
I don't tweet, I honestly don't get it and my phone is not one of those fancy shmancy ones. I like computers but I can't do phones and I don't want to know when someone hangs out their washing or goes up Tescos. <br />
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What is my passion?<br />
This changes. Sometimes it's clothes, sometimes it's crochet, sometimes it's reading etc etc. I tend to be very over enthusiastic about whatever I'm into in the moment. This might last a few weeks then I go onto the next thing. I do love a book though. <br />
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(While I'm typing this Embarrassing Bodies is on telly. O.M.G. So far I've seen moobs, poo, sweaty boobs and varicose veins of the fanjita. Is it me? Who wants to see a lady garden and a most unattractive one at that at 9.26 of a Tuesday night? I've just eaten my tea...)<br />
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Do I prefer giving or receiving?<br />
A bit of both really. I love giving my kids stuff but I also love it when they get me a present and they've thought about it a bit. <br />
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Favourite patterns.<br />
I like spots, some florals, a bit of gingham, paisley. Lots really.<br />
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Favourite day of the week.<br />
Friday. Hands down. My day off and everyone else is at work or school so my day, all to myself!<br />
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Favourite flower<br />
Lupins and hollyhocks. Neither of which I've managed to grow in any of the gardens I've owned. Three houses I've lived in and I've spent £££££££s on Lupins and they never come back. Now and then I get one flower and lay in front of it salivating and stroking the stem until it dies. Hardy perennial my arse. I've never seen one twice. They hate me.<br />
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So that's me. Thanks Gem!<br />
Been loving this sunshine! <br />
Laters chaps.<br />
xx<br />
<br /></div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-49138779098697790922012-05-23T17:53:00.000+01:002012-05-23T17:57:48.289+01:00The Off Sick Blanket<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well hello! How the devil are you?<br />
Today I am parading my new blanket. Crocheted with the hurty arm of pain during moments when it wasn't so hurty.<br />
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Spread almost right out in it's colourful glory. I was meant to be using up all the odds and sods of wool I had knocking about but obv I had to buy a couple of new balls to add to it. Any excuse, eh?<br />
Despite leaving the taking of pictures until the sunniest day this year they have still come out dark, but any regular readers of this blog will know that photography isn't my strong point. <br />
I'll stick another couple on even though it looks like a completely different blanket.<br />
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The edging, which I am really happy with. I wish I'd gone round a few more times with the beigey colour but got bored with it and stopped. I like the picot though, although I didn't enjoy doing it much.<br />
Anyway, that's the blanket. It's standing on a table that I painted at the weekend. It's been living in the garage, rubbed down and primed since last summer. I got Mr Me to bring it indoors and just gave it a quick coat of grey with a bit of white mixed in and distressed it slightly by rubbing down the drips. No wax because I couldn't be bothered. Here's a picture of it without blanket.<br />
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So that's what I've been up to. Crocheting and painting. I like the table as a home for the blankets and I knew it wouldn't be long before the dog took up residence on the shelf. He did it today, but jumped off sharpish when I hollered at him. I love him and all that but I don't want my blankets smelling like dog thank you very glad.<br />
Anyway that's me. Last week the lovely and very funny Gem from Treasures at The Cherry Tree gave me the Sunshine Award. Thanks, Luv! I will get round to doing it later this week, maybe even tomorrow. Which reminds me that a while ago I was given another award by Mum and also Magie from Teacups and Bunting. Sorry that I never got round to doing what I had to on that but thank you very much anyway.<br />
Enjoy the sunshine!<br />
Laters, chaps.<br />
xx<br />
PS.<br />
You wouldn't want to cross this geezer would you?<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-61069833627347325462012-05-15T14:44:00.000+01:002012-05-15T14:47:23.088+01:00Peter and The Mice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Meet Peter.<br />
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He's smiling in this one, having just been rescued and washed after an adventure in a mouse's nest. I know he has a gammy eye but give him a break, he's knocking on 50. His moobs are looking pretty good aren't they? I had to throw his clothes away as they had been half eaten by said mice. My nan had knitted him a rather dashing all in one with a zip up the front in about 1962 and I was more upset than I should have been at having to throw it away. This is really for Gem at The Cherry Tree who keeps coming across weird and wonderful dolls whilst on her travels. I only had to go into my own garage to find this one...<br />
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Another picture of him. <br />
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He looks a bit more sinister here and even more boss eyed. I'm debating whether he's safe to keep indoors actually. <br />
Anyway, poor Peter was my first doll and was living quite happily, alongside my Sindy furniture, a collection of gonks (you have to be of a certain age...) and a couple teddy bears, in a box in the garage. Last Sunday, Manny the dog, spent a lovely hour barking at this box until we pulled it out and very gingerly emptied it. In the bottom, after pulling out half eaten teddies, we found a nest of mouse babies. I'm not going to go into what we did with them, but let's just say they are no longer with us. <br />
I was straight on the phone to my sister to tell her that I had joined the ranks of Professional Hoarders because my hoard had acquired vermin. I could be off the telly.<br />
My first reaction was to lob the lot and indeed we did. But I had to get my Sindy out of the bin and give her a wash and brush up.<br />
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Sindy taking a bath in the kitchen sink and giving me a dirty look for throwing her in the bin. Her hair isn't green (it's jolly matted though) that's washing up liquid. Looking good for 42, Girlfriend! I gave her a good soaking and a scrub with Cif and she's come up like new. Except the hair. Sadly her clothes are gone. The leather look skirt and red sleeveless polo neck are in the bin. The only thing she has is her drawers and a pair of cords. Poor mare.<br />
I saved the Sindy wardrobe and chest of drawers, they are still in the garden awaiting a scrub.<br />
So let this be a tale of caution to you all. If you value something, don't leave it in a box in your garage or the rodents will find it and make a home in it. Mind you, if your garage looks anything like this...<br />
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then you deserve everything you get. The dresser is from my mum's and I have the Annie Sloan just waiting for my arm to get a bit better. Behind it are the crates of 'vintage' stuff that my sister and I are saving for when we do a fair or something. Ha ha. <br />
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On a lighter and non vermin related note, last week in the charity shop I found this.<br />
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I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to buy nuffink else. But I LOVE IT, so it's staying. There is more. (I'm blushing a bit now) but I haven't taken pictures yet. <br />
Also have some crocheting on the go and in an effort to de-clutter have put some wool up for sale on Ebay today. I will take photos of the crocheting wip later in the week.<br />
Anyway chaps, Happy Tuesday and laters.<br />
xx</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-57585697003556053452012-04-24T11:05:00.000+01:002012-04-24T11:05:23.646+01:00Addiction to Stuff<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello chaps. Lately, because I am semi house-bound and have too much time on my hands to think, I have been pondering my need for 'stuff.' Now don't take this the wrong way, but it's not only me is it? I think lots of bloggers (and non bloggers for all I know) have this need. <br />
Granted, on the whole we are getting our fixes in charity shops and bootsales, so it's not costing us what it could do, (note I am now lumping you in with me, thereby making myself feel better because it's not just me...) but how much of this gear do we really need? <br />
I know I'm a sporadic blogger but sometimes the thought has crossed my mind that I only bought something because it would be something to show on my blog. And I wonder how many other bloggers are thinking in the same way. <br />
Let me show you some examples of my 'stuff.'<br />
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I must admit to rather liking the packed solid look, but honestly, you can't even see most of this stuff it's so closely packed together. How many plates does a person need? <br />
More examples...<br />
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The top of the dresser. This stuff can't breathe.<br />
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There is so much of everything I don't even remember what's there. And as for dusting... never gets done. <br />
More...<br />
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This is all on one set of shelves. I call it French Corner, because I am a pretentious prat. Honestly I don't even notice this now, I could hardly tell you what's on these shelves because there is so much of it. And the boxes at the bottom are also full of china. Tea sets that I haven't got room to display but had to buy anyway. <br />
This is the mantlepiece. Please excuse the most attractive yorkstone wall and be thankful that there is only a hint of the gorgeous Baxi Bermuda fire. This is my attempt at disguising the ugliness. And also somewhere to dump even more things I have bought. <br />
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Now let me tell you that all these photos were taken in the same room. Overload or what? I haven't even included a couple of bits of furniture also smothered in things because they seemed pretty conservative compared to these. <br />
On top of all this I have boxes, yes, actual boxes full of china and glass in the garage. I also have another dresser, from my mum's, that I am going to paint, (when my arm is better) so I can stand it in my hallway and put all this boxed up stuff on. I've started to feel a little bit mental.<br />
I've had a feeling for a while that I was buying things for the sake of it. I might like it very much and it might be a bargain (which is often a deciding factor) but I haven't given any thought to where it's going when I get it home. I have piles of tablecloths, fabric stuffed away in bags and boxes, (like I ever sew...) so many duvet sets I can't even fit them all in the cupboard, enough pyrex dishes to make casseroles all week and never have to wash up, wool coming out of my ears, a whole cupboard full of home magazines, just stuff, stuff, stuff. <br />
On top of all this, my sister and I have cleared our parents' house and have crates of stuff marked 'Vintage.' Our idea was to do a vintage stall at a fair or something as we know that a lot of what my mum liked (60s and 70s) is now quite collectible. So I have crates in the garage waiting for us to get our act together and work our how we are going to sell it all. <br />
From today, I have decided that nothing is coming in this house unless,<br />
a) I need it.<br />
b) I love it.<br />
c) I haven't got one already.<br />
d) I think I can sell it.<br />
e) I actually will sell it and not just talk about selling it.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to buy thing because I might be able to make something from it because I never do. I'm not going to buy another tea set just because I like the idea of one day have a tea shop. I'm not going to buy another plate because I like it so much I want to lick it. I'm not going to buy another posy because they are my new craze.<br />
I'm going to be ultra selective.<br />
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My name is Missy and I'm a Stuff Addict.<br />
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Picture of my dog lying by the fire. It has no relation to this post but he looks quite sweet.<br />
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</div>Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-36958959016581282392012-04-19T12:36:00.000+01:002012-04-19T12:36:12.658+01:00Crochet newsHello chaps! Being as all I'm doing is sitting about all day, poncing about on the interweb.com, watching the box set of Friends and downloading books onto my Kindle that I don't end up reading, I thought it was time to get my arse in gear and do a blog post. Quick update on the neck...I still have the hurty arm of pain, but a little less hurty than it was a couple of weeks ago. I've gone past the stage of wanting it amputated anyway. The neurosurgeon said it is a prolapsed disc and will take about 8-12 weeks to get better. I was supposed to have a steroid injection for the pain last week, but the doctor wouldn't do it, (thankfully, I was bricking it) because where he had to put the needle was too near my spinal cord and a bit risky. So I am grinning and bearing it and most of the time I am off my tits on medication, which to be honest can be rather pleasant.<br />
Today I am up, showered, hair washed and dried, smothered in body lotion and wearing clothes. Onwards and upwards. <br />
Anyway, crocheting n ting. <br />
The two completed blankets are blatant knock offs of blankets I kept salivating over on two different blogs. The grey and cream one I nicked from Mia Landliv and the stripey one from Little Woolie. My versions are vastly inferior, but I like them anyway. Not quite as much as I like theirs but I'll live with it. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nhjVWwVhWTA/T4_SXtRsHbI/AAAAAAAAAjo/SHLlHLyKoDY/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nhjVWwVhWTA/T4_SXtRsHbI/AAAAAAAAAjo/SHLlHLyKoDY/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B001.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Stripey blanket. I made this in Aran as I wanted it to grow fast and it did. I actually did this one before Christmas so it's old news to me and thus is being allowed to travel further and further away from my side. I even let The Teenage Daughters use it now and then. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ntmiZUaIgtk/T4_SzsPcjUI/AAAAAAAAAj0/lPyABtaDODQ/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ntmiZUaIgtk/T4_SzsPcjUI/AAAAAAAAAj0/lPyABtaDODQ/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B002.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I had to do the edging with the ruffle to hide the fact that it is as wavy as a very wavy thing because I am pants at knowing where to start on a new row. Held up straight it looks a bit odd and mental but hey ho, mostly I fold it and try to make it look a bit straight. Or it is over my knees being stroked and admired. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jcemsqclEDM/T4_TQYEcyzI/AAAAAAAAAkA/lqbu-pMWWmU/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jcemsqclEDM/T4_TQYEcyzI/AAAAAAAAAkA/lqbu-pMWWmU/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B004.JPG" /></a></div>Foldy uppy picture.<br />
Right... next.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YrWTnb22NE0/T4_Tek0Ck4I/AAAAAAAAAkM/kTayXqev8xU/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YrWTnb22NE0/T4_Tek0Ck4I/AAAAAAAAAkM/kTayXqev8xU/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B005.JPG" /></a></div>The grey and cream one. I did this one over Christmas and I really enjoyed it because it was very easy and I like grey anyway. Every now and then I had a roll call of squares and it seemed to grow quite quickly. It's plain with a plain-ish edging but I really like it. And it's straight! No wavy edges.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tzjo-rVGdOc/T4_T-51UoGI/AAAAAAAAAkY/2MP33UWoi5E/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tzjo-rVGdOc/T4_T-51UoGI/AAAAAAAAAkY/2MP33UWoi5E/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B006.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sCj-keDhYjw/T4_UIt1xwjI/AAAAAAAAAkk/5yjoQfUPczo/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sCj-keDhYjw/T4_UIt1xwjI/AAAAAAAAAkk/5yjoQfUPczo/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B007.JPG" /></a></div>I actually did the edging twice because after a month or so I realised it looked rotten and I could have done better so I attacked it with scissors and did it again and I'm more happy with it now.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1lTrZ9otqvI/T4_UcxdqVzI/AAAAAAAAAkw/TRcLd8pxKTQ/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1lTrZ9otqvI/T4_UcxdqVzI/AAAAAAAAAkw/TRcLd8pxKTQ/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B008.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MFQxP09Smxw/T4_UmE40vRI/AAAAAAAAAk8/ziYloKrgUNk/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MFQxP09Smxw/T4_UmE40vRI/AAAAAAAAAk8/ziYloKrgUNk/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B009.JPG" /></a></div>More foldy uppiness.<br />
Next we have the WIP. One of them anyway. I have been doing this on and off since about October. Losing interest then picking it up again and now I like it. I decided to put small squares round the edge, just to see if I could and because it was a picture in my head and I wanted to see how it would come out. I probably should have blocked the big squares before I joined them (I joined them in that join as you go way and felt like crying with relief that I never, ever have to sew squares together again if I don't want to,)but it's too late now and the crookedness adds to it. No really. It does. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ClJjda6OYs/T4_VZVzG2wI/AAAAAAAAAlI/V5SlkNijKqE/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ClJjda6OYs/T4_VZVzG2wI/AAAAAAAAAlI/V5SlkNijKqE/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B010.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nVuveC1nqWE/T4_VjNdXv1I/AAAAAAAAAlU/B1B_t6N4Gec/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nVuveC1nqWE/T4_VjNdXv1I/AAAAAAAAAlU/B1B_t6N4Gec/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B011.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mCEH3eSyfq0/T4_VsraOREI/AAAAAAAAAlg/WvbZ1oqDUic/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mCEH3eSyfq0/T4_VsraOREI/AAAAAAAAAlg/WvbZ1oqDUic/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B012.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fNhfkbXTVk/T4_V3ExEasI/AAAAAAAAAls/-PSTdaXK7pg/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fNhfkbXTVk/T4_V3ExEasI/AAAAAAAAAls/-PSTdaXK7pg/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B014.JPG" /></a></div>The edging will be in this pale green, one more round of trebles I think then probably shells. Crocheting is still painful at the moment and I am doing about four inches a day then necking a few tablets to get over the exertion. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qjbYvq32_ZE/T4_WbDMH0PI/AAAAAAAAAl4/p9rjjh65QcQ/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qjbYvq32_ZE/T4_WbDMH0PI/AAAAAAAAAl4/p9rjjh65QcQ/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B017.JPG" /></a></div>Major foldage.<br />
I am dreading sewing the ends in. Take a look at this little blighter...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jGtt3I8dq0I/T4_Wr0GSYQI/AAAAAAAAAmE/gdvrtGGoEvQ/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jGtt3I8dq0I/T4_Wr0GSYQI/AAAAAAAAAmE/gdvrtGGoEvQ/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B015.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47853cMJnEU/T4_W1nQMiRI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/5aelNb6HjvU/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47853cMJnEU/T4_W1nQMiRI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/5aelNb6HjvU/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B016.JPG" /></a></div>Before the neck I started these.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOtjiylhYL4/T4_XFyaMXyI/AAAAAAAAAmc/bBBWKMIpEOo/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jOtjiylhYL4/T4_XFyaMXyI/AAAAAAAAAmc/bBBWKMIpEOo/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B018.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AUKMuL9eN_A/T4_XPgf3u1I/AAAAAAAAAmo/5TfXw3snZa4/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AUKMuL9eN_A/T4_XPgf3u1I/AAAAAAAAAmo/5TfXw3snZa4/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B019.JPG" /></a></div>I love them. I don't know if you can slip a disc by treating crochet as if it's an extreme sport but if you can then I will blame these babies. I was knocking them out at a rate of knots. Loved making them and was all over excited about how gorgeous they were turning out. The wool is by King Cole and a massive bargain. Very soft and lovely to work with but perhaps a bit limited in colours. Obviously I bought shedloads of it and also started another thing in white, red, pale blue and something else that I can't remember. Due to having to step away from the crocheting for the time being, I have packed my stash away in a big bag and put it under my bed so I'm not tempted.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bjF98XBZI_E/T4_aoaF_LMI/AAAAAAAAAm0/9JoEyx1M7ns/s1600/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bjF98XBZI_E/T4_aoaF_LMI/AAAAAAAAAm0/9JoEyx1M7ns/s400/crochet%2Bblog%2Bpost%2B023.JPG" /></a></div>Please note how I artfully placed my other blanket near the bag so I could get it in the shot. (How do I have the cheek to call these amateurish snaps, shots? Who do I think I am, David Bailey?)<br />
Another exciting thing is Crochet Club. A few girls from work, (I use the terms girls very loosely, but don't tell them,) were nagging me to teach them so we started Crochet Club. It's at my house on some Thursdays. We sit in my dining room and drink wine and tea and eat cake and chocolate and slag off anyone who isn't there. I have actually taught four people to do this now and I have surprised myself with my patience. It's rather exclusive because if everyone came we wouldn't have anyone to talk about. I like it though and being as I don't work Fridays I don't have to worry if it goes on late. <br />
So, my mate is popping round for a cuppa in a bit, good job I'm dressed today and not sitting here festering in a dirty dressing gown, so I'm toddling off. <br />
Laters...Missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-39708775025368646552012-03-21T19:38:00.000+00:002012-03-21T19:38:28.528+00:00Crochet AgonyHello ladies!<br />
Since Christmas I have been crocheting like a demon. (I will try to do some photos this week... you can't wait can you?) Granny squares have been flying off my hook and many plans are in my head for new projects. Last Friday morning, I woke up with a bit of a stiff neck and a bit of a sore arm. Not letting this stop me, I crocheted like a maniac all weekend. By Monday I could hardly move my arm without crying and Mr EF said I was groaning in my sleep. This morning, after a couple of days and nights of agonising pain I have given in and been to the doctors. I knew this was coming because I've had it before, (but not from crocheting) so it was no surprise when he said he thinks I have a possible prolapsed disc in my neck. Now it might not be anything to do with crocheting but I have just tried to do a bit and nearly had to run in the kitchen to neck a handful of Co -drydomol (or whatever they're called.) I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on 10th of April and am praying to the God of Crochet and Necks that I don't need surgery. (Again. I had a plastic disc put in my neck about five years ago.)<br />
So ladies (and gents if any read this) be careful when indulging in extreme crochet. The pain is so bad I feel like my arm is in labour.<br />
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Apart from that, how the devil are you? I've been reading and commenting here and there but have had a busy old time and also periods of time with pants internet connection. Four BT engineers later I think we are back to normal as long as I don't breathe near the router and connect by using the medium of shutting my eyes and wishing very hard indeed.<br />
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I will dig out a camera tomorrow (off sick due to hurty arm of pain) and take a few snaps of recent crochet projects. (Probably.)<br />
Laters.<br />
xMissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-4532793540996092332011-12-23T13:12:00.002+00:002011-12-23T13:12:41.077+00:00Happy ChristmasSorry, still no photos but wanted to wish people a great Christmas and a happy and healthy 2012.<br />
xxMissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-41590823056409680182011-11-23T21:28:00.000+00:002011-11-23T21:28:44.353+00:00MovemberSaw this on Facebook and haven't stopped laughing yet...<br />
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Right girls - we don't want the men thinking they are doing all the hard work by not shaving for "movember" so wait for it ..... Fannuary ..... Let's get started and keep warm for winter !!!! Copy and paste girls xxxMissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2559591055018243942.post-13542245303941630282011-11-09T20:36:00.000+00:002011-11-09T20:36:10.184+00:00Looking ForwardThanks for your lovely comments on the last post. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to write about this but I think I will. My lovely mum passed away on the 24th of October. It's like double heartbreak because we lost our gorgeous Dad only this February gone. My sister and I and all our family have had a rotten year but we are trying be strong. Normally I'm the sort of person who counts their blessings (I still do) and takes the positive out of a situation and that's what I'm trying to do. Time will have to do its job on us I think until we mend. We have both gone back to work (my sister and I) and we are trying to move forward and get back to a bit of normality.<br />
Anyway,things I have to look forward to, Part 1.<br />
1.This Friday I am off to the Country Living Christmas Fair in Islington with my cousin. We went last year and it was good but horrendously busy. This year I am getting there a bit earlier (my cousin lives in Islington, lucky moo) to get a head start. <br />
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2. The following Saturday I am going to see The Dualers with my sister in Maidstone. A treat from my brother in law. He is also dropping us off and picking us up after so we can 'warm up.'Hopefully a bit of bopping about to some ska will do us the world of good.<br />
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3. The Saturday after that the Old Man is taking me to the Christmas Market in Lille for the day. I love France, I could marry it, and have never been to Lille so this should be a good day out.<br />
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Christmas is normally one of my favourite things, if not the favourite thing but this year I think I will struggle a bit.<br />
Anyway, onwards and upwards. <br />
Thanks again for your kind comments.<br />
xMissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770551694049478266noreply@blogger.com14