28 February 2012

today i made a decision


Lots of people have had lots to say about Pinterest lately; Francesca, Jen and this lady. I've read what everyone has to say and I've decided to delete my boards.


I really enjoyed Pinterest - I enjoyed looking. If you ever checked out my boards you'll have seen I wasn't great at pinning. It just didn't really gel with me, I always had a little pang of should I be doing this guilt. 


I work as a designer and I use other peoples images on a daily basis, the images I use always come through an official channel and their use is paid for by the company I work for, I always make sure picture credits are created at the end of a project and these appear on the stuff I design (somewhere, usually small and out of the way - but there). 


I'm not saying everyone should do what I've done, had I had as many boards as some of you I think it would have been a much harder decision to make, but I didn't. In fact I struggled to find time to pin, so in a way this has just taken the pressure off slightly, I'll no longer feel a little deflated that my boards aren't as busy as yours!


I stick stuff up on the walls around my desk all the time, those walls can be my pinboard for now, who knows I may even start to take pictures and share them with you here.


P.S. I hope I don't sound like too much of a party-pooper!

27 February 2012

commenting without stress

Word verification is driving me nuts these days - I can barley work out what the words should say and keep having to refresh till I find something I can make sense of. So I've decided to turn it off, OK I might regret this when I'm swamped with spam - let's see. 


But for now it's off.  So look forward to reading your stress-free comments!

remember these?


My mum gave me this little view finder recently - the type that you'd put on a keyring. I made D have a look - he was totally unimpressed! I was hugely disappointed, "D look again, it's me!" I found it odd that he wouldn't recognise me, but then why should he? He didn't know me then, when I was a young girl on skis after my first week of ski-school. I hated it, absolutely hated it, skiing was hell I thought, ski-school was even more hellish! After more family holidays I learnt to enjoy it, to find it exhilarating and fun. Haven't been for years now, but I have some good memories and I love that when I fancy a chuckle to myself I can have a look through that little hole, at young me concentrating hard on not falling over!

23 February 2012

spring-like love


I've already talked about the sun today, it was amazing. I worked from home, enjoying the suns rays flooding in through the windows, creating patterns on the walls and floor, I dreamt of summer days to come. Excited by the weather I decided when D got home we should go for a walk - in the last moments of daylight to make the most of our first spring-like day. 

D was a little late getting home, the light had nearly gone, I could still see the sun disappearing over the horizon and a slim slither of moon glinting through the trees, but there was still time for a wee walk. We trotted together down drive, round the corner, turned right to the house that sells eggs, dropped-off our empty boxes (no eggs today but when they have them we buy them - delicious eggs with deep golden yolks from ducks and chickens). Carefully we crossed the railway line and headed into the openness of the nature reserve, it was hard to see now, we walked toward the lake, it looked dry or boggy - I don't know. A creature shot along the ground next to us we wondered what it was. We talked and walked and looked up at the sky, we could see stars. We walked back to our home and sat on the bench outside with a cup of tea, a magic-mouse on our lap (half on me, half on D) we looked up at the stars and I thought how lucky I am. 

No picture to share of our walk but somehow a heart full on ribbons and colour seemed ok (plus you get to see a bit more of my collection of things)!

today feels different



Ok, I only stepped outside this morning to kiss D goodbye, it probably still feels like winter. But indoors, where I am, it feels like spring. The light is pouring through the windows and has been all morning. 


I'm working from home today and on my journeys to and from the kitchen with tea I spot patterns of light and shade, so intense, so graphic, so exciting. My head is awash with dreams of summer days; sunshine, walks, garden, salads, BBQ's - I can't wait! 


But, I'm not one to wish my life away - I'm just happy we are heading that way, towards the long sunny days.



P.S. I know I need to dust and clean the windows!

20 February 2012

swooshing above my head


A few weeks ago I treated myself to this flying swallows, Flensted mobile. I've wanted a mobile for ages and as soon as I saw this I knew it would be perfect to hang above my desk. So from now onwards whenever I have a creative block I can sit and look up at the swallows swooshing about above my head. The heat from my mac seems to give them that extra swoosh! And wow they really go crazy when hoovering our little studio room!  (excuse the washi tape fixing, I'm still trying to track down a little white thumb tack to do a better job - where are they all hiding?)


Hope you had a good weekend. Ours was spent mostly at home with the exception of a little food shopping. Yesterday was the best day - really bright sunshine, though cold with it. We finally got out in the garden, pruning for me and digging for D - all satisfying stuff!

17 February 2012

presents in the post


This morning I somehow missed the clank of the letter box, but I soon spotted the post lying on the mat, two letters actually - one for me and one for D. I instantly recognised the handwriting on mine it belongs to my lovely friend Martha. Martha lives a long way away, in Ethiopia (I miss her a lot).


Inside I found this little package. It's a little paper bag, made out of old homework sheets (this is recycling Addis style). I think Martha buys eggs in the little bags (but maybe something else this time).

 



And inside, I found these, Ethiopian stamps - how cool! I like them a lot don't you? My favourites are the Addis Ababa city monuments and I also love the one with the blood bags on - celebrating 75 years of the Ethiopian Red Cross. 

Thank you Marf x

13 February 2012

messing about



D and I took last week off work, we had big plans to dig the garden and prune our apple trees, but last Saturday the snow came and put a stop to those plans. Instead we headed to our nearest hill and acted like a couple of kids. 


Followed by a whole wonderful week of adventures, buying treasures as we went. We had days out to little towns, lunches in cafes surrounded by the over 60's and afternoons rifling through the spinners and shelves of the charity shops. We bought records, tins, coats, jumpers and our best buy of all a 1950's cooker! Quite a random purchase, we spotted it in our local auction and couldn't resist a bid, amazingly we won. Still in the process of cleaning it so I'll get a picture once the weather warms up and we can finish cleaning it. We have a cooker already that works perfectly well so not quite sure where this is going to end up, though we have visions of a cosy little shed near the veg patch where we'd like to spend our summer evenings, so that's a possibility. 


The snow also forced us to stay indoors and get on with our DIY projects - we're currently painting our hallway - which is fine, it's the eight doors and their surrounds that are driving me nuts! Thought we were done but needs another coat as well as touching up the edges so we just need to keep plodding on with that.


And now we're back to reality and work...

3 February 2012

marmalade men



On Monday evening we set about making marmalade. It took us a long time all in all and it was well past bedtime before we'd filled the last jar. The following day we were able to put little hats on and label the jars, they gained a pair of eyes each and became a little army of marmalade men! I look forward to them peeking out of the cupboard at me as well as seeing smiles on friends and family's faces when we give the odd jar away.

1 February 2012

coming to life



The past two weekends we've spent Sunday in the garden. I've been pruning our apple trees and D's been digging the veg patch. Despite being pretty cold, the garden is definitely showing signs of life - winter aconites (seen here), grape hyacinth and snow drops are up and out, while other bulbs have pushed their leaves up through the ground. Seeing new life spring up is spurring us on to get the garden a little more under control and how we'd like it. We'll continue to prune and dig for another few weeks yet. The aim is to get the apple trees a little more manageable, dig the ground ready for another three veg beds - to go alongside the two we made last year. D's planted garlic, we've onion sets ready to plant and potatos chitting in egg boxes on window sills. The forecast this week is for cold weather, hopefully it won't upset the flowers that are already in bloom too much. Meanwhile we keep buying daffodils to brighten indoors.