If you know me, you'll know I arse around on Facebook a lot. And love an application called "Courage Wolf", where it gives you a "random" piece of wisdom. Lately every time I click it, it gave me this one, so I figured it was a sign. And embroidered it up one evening...December 11 to be precise.
I've always had a bit of a thing for orange. My kinder boyfriend was a redhead, I liked a ranga in high school, and I married one too. Maybe it was meant to be that my rented kitchen has very orange tiles. And I *heart* them. Which gives me a license to orange up the rest of the place. After Christmas there'll be another orange boy in my life...the furry kind.
In the meantime, here's some orangey Flickr'd goodness:
While I was going through my photos looking for a new header image this morning, I found the old 5 and 10 cent store poster that I'd saved. This took my brain on a little nostalgia trip, to a place I've never been for real. "5 and dime stores"...so American, so before my lifetime. I do know most of them evolved into the standard variety stores of today, but a couple of things have fixed them in my mind as a symbol of retro goodness.
Firstly - the scene in the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffanys (where they sneak out wearing masks):
Secondly - many of my vintage embroidery transfers still have the price tags on them from the shops where they were purchased. Labels like "Kressages 10c" and "Sprouse-Reitz 15c" suggest to my mind a shop full of treasures, available to take home for mere pennies. Image source
Of course that's just me being misty-eyed about a past that was probably nowhere near as sweet and easy as my retro embroidery shopping brain pictures it. Sigh. But at least I can look at pics:
Oh you know I so want this shop to be filled with thirties things again so I can shop there! And the red tiles and deco lettering...swoon! Image source
I've been going through a bit of a self-imposed exile. Sometimes it feels like Facebook is my only link to the outside world, those of you who know me well am aware how much time I spend on there. It helps keep me sane. I'm still not sure where I'm at, I have times where I miss my husband dreadfully, I miss all the little things like having our own vocabulary, and the fact that someone "gets" you. Oh, I've met a few people, the bad and the bad, and the okay-ish. I've been cursing distance, wanting a cuddle, and wishing and thinking. I've been op-shopping, bookshopping and reading, and trying to stitch my troubles away. I've jumped for joy at my independence, loved having my own uncluttered space, pined for the cats and staffies and drunk too much bourbon. And I have met someone new with lots of potential, but I worry about my baggage. I'm just trying to work out what's important.
After a brief silly FB chat one evening, I offered to stitch up a pillowcase for a mate. This was his suggestion for his affirmation. And an 'I heart'... well cause he does heart them. Lettering from Sublime Stitching Craft Pad, girlie bits from their Vital Organs patterns. The rooster is from Vogart. Now he just better appreciate the effort, or I'll kick him in the bag.
PS. How SUPER COOL is this?! I just rushed and bought the meat and roaring twenties patterns. Mmmm embroidered meat.
Just a shot of some of my embroidered pillowcases. I haven't been blogging much, or doing much or anything useful, but I have been stitching. Latest one is the kitty in the left foreground, from a vintage pattern. She's dreaming of the perfect boy...aren't we all?
And a current WIP, another pillowcase with a Sublime pattern:
Pic source My blogging and crafting has ground to a halt, nothing to report, been anxious and busy at the same time. Hopefully I'll get it together again soon. xx
"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern — it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that . . . one stitch at a time, taken patiently." — Oliver Wendell Holmes
A staffy visitor to work today reminded me how much I miss my two. Alas the new casa is not big enough for a doggie, but in my future there will be more Staffies. Oh yes. And one of these: image source
PS. All these prints are available from allposters.com.au who have an incredibly impressive range of stuff for your walls. Yay! I'm off to buy a Staffy print now.
As in, not an ancient shed, but a shed full of antiques. One of the places down my end of the world that I love is the Mornington Antique Centre (65 Tyabb Road Mornington open every day from 10-5). My Monday-itis was still getting me down yesterday, so I went for a wander after work. Last time the Fella and I were there, nothing really jumped out at me, but this time, various things said "Take me home Steph", and even though I ummed over the prices of a couple of them, the following items came with me: Stuff on my kitchen bench... as you can see I've FINALLY found a metal soap shaker (that was the one that I ummed over the price). Everything else is just nice bits for the casa. The orange tin is a little vintage watercolour set, the blue jar is an Avon perfume cream jar and I was taken with the funky perpetual calendar, so I grabbed that too. And some art glass for my new e-bayed buffet, which Dad is hopefully dropping off on the weekend.
Sigh... I probably shouldn't be so pleased about acquiring stuff, 'cause after all they're just material possessions. But following William Morris' "useful/beautiful" theory... yay for nice things.
My mother's afraid of the subway It's a living bad dream I hold her hand as the doors close And she pales and stifles a scream Ali's afraid of Ad-libbing Of improvising at jams She is not very happy right now And spends all her money on grams Ade is afraid of commitment So Carla dumped him today She is very disappointed She was hoping he'd beg her to stay Ayo he just wants a girlfriend He's afraid of dying alone He doesn't go out very much Sits at home a lot getting stoned
You see fear is only holding us back Look closely amongst all your peeps There is usually one thing that keeps Us off track It is fear, It is fear, It is fear
Ella is worried about her weight She won't eat in public anymore She is fucking her ex again When they've finished She sleeps on the floor Nate has a heart of gold But give it away he will not His mother abandoned him at ten It's a pain he has never forgot Mary's afraid of herself Her sentences often cut half She will never give her own opinion She's afraid that people might laugh And I am afraid of sharks I will not swim out past my head And sometimes I worry My boyfriend will die My first love is already dead
You see fear is only holding us back Look closely amongst all your peeps There is usually one thing that keeps Us off track It is fear, It is fear, It is fear
You see fear is only holding us back Look closely amongst all your peeps There is usually one thing that keeps Us off track It is fear, It is fear, It is fear
Candy is having a baby She fears she will be like her mom Her friends say relax take a Deep breath And march to a different drum Sachas afraid of her Marco She think's that it's all her fault But if he did what he does to a Stranger He'd be locked up and charged With assault
You see fear is only holding us back Look closely amongst all your peeps There is usually one thing that keeps Us off track It is fear, It is fear, It is fear
Everyone knows that I love a snot block. So as a cure for Monday-itis, I purchased one with my mid-morning coffee. And immediately thought of taking a pic of it to show Selena, who is also a fan of the vanilla slice. But then I thought, that's not very inspiring:
Ah we all love the Curly Pops. She's a great chick. So when I saw the SuperPops challenge, I knew I had to play along. Plus I'm counting down the days til the end of the month (for other reasons) and so I thought this would keep me busy. Go check it out. And play along. There's even chocolate involved.
Just a WIP pic. Don't look too closely, there's a few mistakes. Who said I could count? Not me!
I also have a quandry, as I'm still not convinced that I love the granny square...I'm trying to envision a finished blankie, as I think it will all come together okay...but I'm finding I prefer the look of the round crochet medallions without the cream square edge. The problem would be, how to join them?
PS. Like my new side table? I pinched it off mum and dad... they had another larger one. Mum said they picked them off the street on hard rubbish day (ssh don't tell the council). Who are the nice people of Kew throwing out good mid-century furniture? Hope they keep it up!
...which is what the blanket construction project will be furthermore known as, aptly named by Tania. Upon arriving home yesterday, I found a nice fat parcel of yarn on the doorstep. Hooray! After dinner and the usual tootling around on Facebook, I ripped into it. Here's what it contained:
As you can see in the pic, I made a few experimental crochet squares as I'm still pondering the crochet vs. knitting method of blankie construction. Whattaya think?
Just thought I'd show you a pic of the (machine) cross-stitch on my new top that I'm wearing today... last Friday's purchase from Tar-jay*. It has two of my fave things - orange and embroidery. Yay.
On my crochet blankie. After finding this knitting book at Savers on Tuesday, I'm considering making a knitted blankie instead. See the knitted dress pattern? I think the scallopy stripes would look good as a big knitted blanket too. Pro - knitting uses less yarn than crochet? Con - I am the world's slowest knitter. Yesterday a nice lady from Bendigo Woollen Mills rang me about my order, God love her, she sounded like she was about 65... so my yarn will be arriving soon, and I'll give the knitting a burl.
Amongst the knitting patterns at Savers there were some real 50s 60s and 70s gems, especially for men's knitted waistcoats, but practising rare self restraint, I only bought the ones I'd actually make... And I really like the designs in this book, retro goodness!
Cute skirt and top.
Cute cardis with bow.
And just a shot of some scary eye makeup...I'm thinking late 60s?
I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea. Well maybe a like/hate, I can't say I actually LOVE anything there. But for the often lazy (yes that's me) they do make household necessities affordable and accessible. Do you think I can assemble the furniture though? Ahem. I've always considered myself a reasonably intelligent, competent human being, but those instruction leaflets just do my head in.
Ikea tally to date: success - 1 x chair, 1 x sofa FAIL - 2 x chairs, 1 x TV locker. And a glass lampshade that cracked on me.
Oh dear. The TV locker is one of these, a single door model, and in my infinite wisdom, I put the lid on back to front, and now I can't get the damn thing off! You may think not a big problem, but to put the door on, you need a hole in each right corner for the door pins to go in. Oh noes. So here's the cabinet as it looks at the moment, waiting for someone strong and burly to put it to rights. And someone who can be bothered...both the Fella and Dad decided it looked better without a door anyway.
Now I also bought chairs called "Harry" from Ikea a few weeks back, and tried to assemble them. Oh dear. (!) I ended up ringing the Fella in despair, who told me to go and have a cuppa and leave it till he came over next. So I did. My spare room was beginning to become a testament to my Ikea failures, for it now held the locker door, one partially assembled Harry, one Harry still in it's box and a side table that I hadn't bothered with, as I'd grabbed the wrong one and didn't realise at the time. Sigh.
Last weekend, the Fella was over, and set to put my chair disaster to rights. He couldn't get it to work either, until he realised that I'd put one of the seat braces around the wrong way "Look Steph, it fits easily when you put it in the right holes." ...because my main problem with Harry chair was that I couldn't get the dowel pins to sit right in the holes. So as usual, I had everything arse about. Oh the shame! I'm an Ikea failure. The Fella looked around the room and said "Don't worry Steph, you're good at decorating, and knitting" in an attempt to console me. Sigh.
So now, you'd think I'd have learnt my lesson and should avoid Ikea. Or at least don't unpack anything that needs assembling when I'm on my own. But the thing is, I need a queen size bed, as the double I have is a bit patethic really... so I'm currently coveting this one: [Pic source]
Of course it has a complicated headboard/shelving combination, I think I'm a bit of a masochist sometimes.
And I'm also considering one of these as a home for some rather gorgeous coffee cups that I op-shopped yesterday. (Or this one.) Me, Ikea, and glass shelving?! Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
...so why is it, I can sit at home of an evening and not feel like crafting, but the minute I'm supposed to be working, all I can think about is playing with wool (and boys, but that's another story.) Further to this post, and totally inspired by this post, I have bitten the bullet and ordered a nice range of colours from Bendigo Woollen Mills for a crochet blankie...everyone's doing it, dahling! Eyeing the colour card, I decided that the following range of colours did it for me: Except, big poo, no Cappuccino left...so now on the hunt for a nice 8 ply brown cotton yarn. Any ideas?
Yes, I know that every blogger and their donkey loves turquoise blue paired with red. And everyone loves Cath Kidston style. But as I'm currently sorting the new nest at the moment, these pics I found via Ms Cate are very appealing for home cosiness. Just humour me, okay?
[image source]
