What can I say? I'm raising Nikon babies. An afternoon of *carefully* sharing Mama's camera (the mantra 'mind the lens, mind the lens, mind the lens' firmly of their lips) and a disk full of their views of the world, I have permission to show you some of their captures::
Geniuses, I'm sure you'd agree.
No, I am not biased.
:: Little pockets colour.
:: Pretty little things.
In one of my more lucid moments last week, I had the good sense to buy yarn. Buying yarn does not need a reason, but I had a reason anyway - I wanted a variety of colours in the stash instead of the slew of teals, mustards, greys and blues I have amassed.
Because in my lucid moment of yarn buying I envisaged myself in Ramadan sitting contentedly in the chair crocheting blankets for the coming winter as I did dhikr whilst my children played co-operative games whilst also doing dhikr. And singing kum-by-ah. Holding hands.
In my perfectly lucid, tea-drinking, eating cake moment this was how the coming month was going to be. Ah, yes.
Then Ramadan came; the children did not sing kum-by-ah. I am not sitting in the easy chair crocheting whilst hymning the praises of my Lord. We are not playing co-operative games and being angelic. No. We are in the crash position. We are wondering why, of all religions to pick, did we choose Islam and not Buddhism. We cannot be arsed to pick a crochet hook up. We may even entertain evil ideas of what could be done with a crochet hook. We may even be in bed letting the babes watch DVDs all day. That's the reality.
So, instead, the yarn stays tucked up ready for cake-eating days, in it's little rack under the table by the easy chair. It has gone from being a stash to an art installation, from yarn to decor.
And I think I quite like it like that.
Glance at any corner in our house and what you will see is a random collection of thrifted treasures. Random corners, then, and some things that are hiding there.
Do you photograph the Corners of Your Home too?
These nasturtiums are called 'Day-Glo', and they ain't kidding. Bred as a hanging basket flower these flowers are painfully flourescent and gorgeously screaming 'summer'. The colours range from traffic cone orange through to neon red. They look like they should come with sirens.
The hydrangea was a recent purchase; I've always resisted buying them as I associate them with old people (tell me, have you ever seen any retired couple who do not have one of these plants in their front garden? exactly), but, well, they are so pretty and who could resist their delicate blooms and promise of summer-long flowers? Who? Tell me. A philistine is who. So that now sits welcoming us into the house by the back door. So pretty.
The hyacinth have descided they are so damn hot that they can risk another head of flower before autumn, and that is a nice surprise.
We also have a buddlea in situ awaiting the transformation into butterfly magnet; no flowers yet, but hoping that it won't be long.
And a lilac sapling! An little slip of a thing, not sure whether it wants to wilt and wane or burst into life, so we are whispering sweet nothings to it and fussing over it greatly in the hope that it will indeed decide to grace us with it's company and bring us a shed load of lilac blooms next May!
The rest of the flowers which I had high hopes for are suprisingly unimpressive, and I think next year I will ditch the seeds and go back to plug and plant flower gardening. Because I am impatient. We are now spending the rest of the summer filling the garden up with herbs instead so expect some pesto recipes insha'allah!
And you? What's in your garden this year?
This box, this shabby, beaten up old bedding box, used to be my Nana's, and when it was new it was covered in a quilted vinyl of little chintzy lilac roses on a cream background, trimmed with a heavy plaited chord around the edge.
When my Nan died my mother inherited the box, still in full bloom with the chintzy roses. Until I managed to skank it off her and talk her into reupholstering it for me first (she wasn't amused but did it anyway, bless her).
When my mother gave ME this bedding box is was covered in a beautiful jacquard creamy upholstery fabric, trimmed with a beautiful champagne satin trim, emblazoned with brass tacks. It was the business.
This is what it turned into before a year was up.
We use this box to keep the boys' dressing up clothes in. And what can I say. My children are Genghis Khan incarnate. The midget at nine months old, in his walker, unpicked every brass tack with the concentration and determination of a NASA rocket scientist. The trim fell off. Grubby legs embedded the creamy fabric with grot. Jumping babes demolished the chipboard in the lid until it caved leaving nothing but floppy fabric, and if that wasn't enough, they somehow managed to unscrew the hinges without the agent of a screwdriver leaving the box with a take off lid rather than a lift up flap!
And still I cannot get rid of this box as a lost cause, because it isn't a battered bedding box, you see. It's a little piece of my Nana. And I know if she were here now she'd tell me to get rid of it and buy a new one; and maybe if she was still here I would. Be she isn't and I can't.
So in an attempt to keep this box going a little bit longer, a little bit of TLC.
And if I could just screw the lid back on I think I would be very happy indeed.
Garden. It's been all about the garden all week - outside play, outside food, outside lazing. Enjoying the weather, making trips to the allotment, before coming home to once again laze in the garden....
We have craft going on out there, and crafting ideas brewing. The babes are finding things to investigate - we have nests and bugs and plants and birds, oh they have plenty to investigate!
We have ice lollies on demand. We haven't forgotten our suncream. We have our shades and hats.
But you know what? I am itching for some beach...
I miss the beach; I think planning for a road trip is in order....
And I get never get tired of the colour 'mustard', or yarn.
And mustard-coloured yarn?
I think I could live on the stuff....
Hands up all who love those gorgeous little jam jars by Bonne Maman ? Those lovely, chunky, double thick glass jam jars which make us go all wobbly at the knees for real farm livin' and the good ol' days of Enid Blyton adventures and lashings and lashings of rice pud with various delicious drops of red jam, plop! squarely in the middle? With real cream, and custard with a skin on the top. And boiled eggs. And fresh plums picked straight off the tree??
*Crickets chirp* ... *Tumbleweed blows past*
No?
Just me then.
I do have to stop myself from buying this brand, because in my head I do battle - on one side my brain is living an Enid Blyton fantasy and wants the little jar forever and ever. On the other side my rational self is screaming CEASE AND DESIST , for one jar of this illusion in gingham is the same price as my entire body weight of cheapo-store brand jam.
But I do so love these jars. It's irrational. I want to make a necklace out of them. Or else design a holster for me to carry them where'er I go.
But until then? Hah - a little idea that made me high five myself (and I'm quite small so I had to stand on a chair) - a little emergency stash of first aid things - items which I have to rummage around in the cupboard for which results in a cascade of medicinal compounds crashing around our heads in the frenzy to get plasters.
A few first aid things within reach, some plasters, arnica, migraine relief - things like that - things which are constantly needed. No more rummaging, and a gorgeous eye-candy jar to boot!
I'll go and get out more now....
Gosh, what can I say? Where are my manners? Sorry for just bailing out like that. Life just took over for a while, y'know?
So. Where were we? Well, I've been hit by the painting and decorating bug AGAIN - just corners of our home badly neglected that needed some well-earned TLC. Firstly, our old lobby area (you thought the bathroom was small? Oy...), which with a lick of paint, a new light fixture and some re-arranging of nooks and crannies, has now been officially designated the laundry niche. Yup. I got me a utility space. Kinda. More a futility space. But pretty colour.
I have some (new to us) furniture requiring several layers of paint pencilled in for these coming days, as well as various other things, and if that wasn't enough hopefully a shop update next week insha'allah.
Busy, busy, busy....
Have a great weekend, people!
x
This year is the first time ever that I have bothered about the garden; previous years have been left to DHs pottering ways and good luck.
Despite having a rather long garden there isn't really anywhere to plant flowers except a narrow strip of mud along the edge of the path, which lends itself only to straight lines of boring flower arrangements. So to try to get the garden looking more like an Eden and less like a slag heap I have decided to try a container garden along with hanging arrangements nailed up along the fence. The idea being I can generate height and illusion of depth.
Last autumn for the first time ever I took the time to plant bulbs of various traditional spring flowers. The slow-burning firework display so far has been breath-taking - first the crocus, then the daffodils, the hyacinth and the tulips following on. It's been a lovely spring-like garden this year, which I'm chuffed with.
Now summer flowers have been placed lovingly in their seed trays waiting for the magic to happen, and I can't wait to see what the summer show will be like. Watch this space insha'allah...
Just in case you can't get enough yellow in your life. Is it any wonder yellow has been making it's way into my crafting recently?
More on that next week, hopefully.
March! Hello! Oh, how we have awaited your arrival! And how you blessed us with a glorious spring-like day on your very first day! Giddy with oxygen from all day outdoor play, here are a number of 'firsts' to couple the First of March! :: the first daffodil in the garden, the first and only spring flower in the garden. We thought it deserved a break so we brought it inside for a while.
The first uncurling leaf from our first apple tree.
Surprisingly, the first of the Winter Jasmine (had no show this year til now).
The first outdoor play for a looooooong while. The first time outdoors without jackets for several months.
The first warm day since Autumn. The first blue sky that wasn't followed by snow.
The first bit of silly garden whatnot - patiently looking on from the kitchen sill.
The first, we hope of many, many glorious days of sun. Hello, March - Oh how welcome you are!
Days of lingering sickness have meant lots of ::
KNITTING :: The resurgence of interest in knitting has not yet abated. I'm keeping sane most days by churning things out.
THRIFTING:: Mama recharges with some hit-n-run reccies to the thrift store, just to make sure the Sofa of My Dreams hasn't decided to stop playing hard to get.
PLAYING:: No brainer. Starts off genteel enough, but by afternoon cabin-fever hyperactivity gives way to slaughering the sibling, coughing lungs up and laughing like maniacs. And destroying my house...
READING & PLANNING:: I need to put our order of seeds in!
SNUGGLING :: under lots of wool, blankets, quilts and the like.
Just a few things in our days of illness-instigated-randomness...
The weather is still crazy here - one day the weather is cold and dry, the next is two inches of snow followed by a day of bright sun. Seven seasons in 24 hours. I'm still not convinced Spring is even nearly here, but am heartened that everytime the sun does make it's way through the cloud coverage that it's stronger and brighter each time.
If nothing else I can get decent pictures without a flash now! Huzzah!
Ta da. Done. It didn't actually take that long; and for a twist I actually pasted the walls not the paper which avoided tearing (and swearing).
It is David Hicks' Hexagons by Cole and Son 66-8055 and I love it. And now I will have to find non-blue things on my travels to tart up the new look wall.
Ta da! My first ever (albeit small) crochet thing. I had wanted something to cover the back of The Chair and nothing was working, so as I set to work figuring the granny out, I had an idea in my little noggin about what it would be when it was finished - a lil tiny blankie to cover the chair.
I edged it, AND I even blocked it.
It isn't perfect, I know. But I now feel confident for bigger things!
{Eames Eiffel Chair Quote Postcard Print by Nan Lawson on Etsy}
Rearranging, painting, new thrifty/handmade finds. Just little ways to keep things fresh.
In one mad afternoon last week sometime I sewed together these six inch patches to form the top of a new throw/blanket for our bed.
The yellow quilt top blanket I made at the begining of 2009 has served us very well and looks really very attractive, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and well, I just fancied something new...
There is a mixture of floral prints, some I can't remember who by, but some Cath Kidston, Anna Marie Horner and Windham classics to name a few.
I have yet to finish it - I'm still waiting to find just the right sheet in a thrifting adventure for the backing, and insha'allah if I do then hopefully it won't take an hour to finish the backing and binding with perhaps ties to bind it together. As it won't have batting, it really doesn't need quilting.
So something new to keep the interior bright in these oh so grey days...
You know you're tired when you read the word 'compose' as 'compost'; although that may have something to do with my reading material lately... hmn...
Some weekend snapshots.
What has your weekend involved?
Yes, that's really how this blog post begins - 'I have this chair'.
Bear with me as I try to find an angle for a post which attempts to be upbeat and perky when really what I want to do is hibernate under my quilts and blankets and wait for spring. Or Judgement Day. Either or. Not bothered.
So I have this chair which I thrifted sometime ago. It was one of those times I had to go back to the store the next day to get it, because I couldn't get it out of my head even though I couldn't put my finger on why. I just had to have it. The deal was clinched when my eldest announced:: Mum - this chair says 'get a cup of tea and snuggle up with your boys and talk about trains' - its snuggly. Yes he really said that. And how could I refuse. I knew what he meant - he meant 'cosy'. And I'm all for snuggly and cosy. It's what I'm about.
What I didn't like was the colour all too much - I mean, the colour was OK it just didn't fit nicely with the blue of our sitting room. I've been trying to disguise it and adorn it many different ways but nothing seems to look right.
I don't have the skill to upholster it myself and I'd have to auction a kidney to be able to afford someone else do it for me. So it stays like this - thrifted, colour unco-ordinated and jazzed up with quilts and blankets.
I'd say it fits right it with everything else in this place.
Already it's my favourite place in the house - comfortable, warm, the right height to reach for my teacup and best of all? Great for knitting in as the babes play.
Oh yes, it's seen a LOT of knitting in it's short Mu'Mu life. And now if you could all send me 'thrifting well wishes' for the sofa of my dreams (instead of the reality of my worst nightmares which is our current offering), perhaps this sitting room can be THE place for sitting with a cup of tea as we all talk about the important stuff in life - you know - trains, cars, David Attenborough programmes, things like that - cosily.
Each season comes with it's own rhythm, it's own pulse.
We feel the contraction of the end of summer, we start to find our way back into our home, readying for a season of cosiness insha'allah.
It involves a lot of play, and a lot of craft.
And sometimes on the good days, we do both at the same time!
Enjoy your weekend!
Have you begun to feel it too? There's a nip in the air, isn't there? Can't leave arms out of bedcovers at night; that shawl is coming in handy; children are wearing vests again.
And it's triggered something off in the primal part of my brain - just as something triggers the geese to fly South for the Winter, something triggers Mamas to start fluffing out the nest. My mind has instinctively turned towards ensuring the house will be ready for Winter.
Patterns are being rumaged through, several projects are on the sticks, and last week I had the compulsion to make a quilt for the lounge.
A while ago I ordered some Denyse Schmidt County Fair and a yard specifically of the crazy log cabin faux patchwork in light canvas weight. It sat there as I fell first in love, then in hate with it. One day it would be on the cutting mat, and the next it would be shoved at the bottom of some fabric stash. What can I say? I had a love-hate relationship with fabric *shrugs* I guess it got personal.
ANYWAY, last week I was in love again and quickly decided to do something before it changed. Using an old, thrifted quilted throw (which I really did not like) for the batting, and some vintage screenprinted cotton for the backing I spent the afternoon 'framing' the Denyse Schmidt yardage so it would fit the batting, and then quilting and binding the whole thing in less then an hour in the evening.
I really like it; in an unexpected way it seems to bring the room together. Those insane colour combos really do work. And the best part? Uh, that would have to be that it looks like I have a genuine Denyse quilt of my very own.
Won't say no to that.
Ramadan Mubarak! It's here! The month we have been living in mortal fear of! Well, I'm sure our nafs have, but now it's here I am sure you all are as excited and as pleased as we are! An excellent month lays ahead the like of which cannot be replaced by any other act of worship, so I hope you are all mentally and physically prepared for this little jihad.
This is my personal jihad this month:
Oh how caffeine is my backbone in times of stress!
Taken yesterday after a mammoth clean-fest in preparation for Ramadan - after an all day clean it was heaven to be able to put my (sore) feet up and sip that tea...
Golden nectar, how I shall miss thee....
Keep us in your prayers!
xx
Vintage blankets, sheets and pillowcases.
Chintzy ceramic.
Vintage vanity case.
Plus various bits of fabric for under a pound already ear-marked for crafty things for the babes.
I love treasure-hunting!
Can there be a more beautiful and delicious sight than that of good quality yarn in a well made hank? No, there cannot, I am sorry but you are wrong. Yarn in a hank is MUCH more beautiful than watching your babes sleep, or looking at free chocolate.
There can be no greater relaxation than knitting. It just zones me out.
But one thing I HATE WITH A PASSION??! It would be winding that beautiful damn hank of yarn into a ball before I can knit it. Hate hate hate that. Why? Because it involves outstretched legs that get stamped on by my children, bound feet which are prime tickling targets, and tired hands; and such an inner rage blows out of proportion as I waste a good 20 minutes getting the yarn into a workable form. Irritable? Yeah.
So imagine my delight last year when I find a vintage wool winder for sale!!
I was stupidly excited - something old, pretty and really really useful? Score! But although my tired hands were now free from pain, I still had the outstretched leg torture and it was starting to grate on my nerves a little. It was starting to impact on yarn buying as I just couldn't face the winding debacle. I know!! Terrible!
I knew I needed one of these and just look how happy hers made her. And so patiently I kept waiting to find one in one of my thrifty treasure hunts.
It never happened.
So like all good crafters I bought one from China. Problem solved.
Can there be anything more beautiful than a hank of yarn? Yes. There can. And that's a cake of yarn make in less than a minute.
And the good thing is that I can now resume yarn buying ....(and that might the moral of this tale)
And I think I've decided I'm not really a shawl person after all. Hey ho.
.
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