Baby its cold outside!

A few years ago I taught myself to crochet, and started out with a very optimistic project.  I started with a granny square, and decided to create my young daughter a pretty afghan (what a '70s word!).  I can't believe I didn't ever post (or photograph) the finished afghan!  Its really quite lovely and I should post a photo one day.

A MILLION squares which need to get pieced together!

After crocheting a million squares, it took me about a year to finally piece it together!  No joke! It was pretty slow tedious work!  But it turned out so nicely!

Do you see the afghan in this advertisement?  The commercial and posters were shot in my house, and  thats my daughters bedroom.  THAT is my afghan!  It was quite flattering that in this series of commercials the Art Director didn't change ANYTHING in my home!  She said her work was done for her! Those are even my daughters Holly Hobby plates, pink frames, and butterfly wings!  Anyway, enough bragging!

Needless to say after my year long crochet project, I've only picked up my crochet needle a few more times since.  I had a real amigurami stint!  That was quite fun.  However, not too much crocheting after that.

I wanted to make myself fingerless gloves, but just didn't get around to it, so when I saw these at our local mega bookstore on sale for half price I bought them:

They are knitted, not crocheted, but they are wool and quite pretty.  However when do we ever leave anything alone?

I selected a bunch of pastel buttons from my HUGE button collection.

And Voilá!

That green button was from a cape my mom had made for me when I was 7 years old...oh the '70s!

I had to beat off my 28 year old and my 9 year old daughters!  Mines all mines!  Precious says its mines!!! (That was my Gollum impersonation btw).

Have a great weekend!  Now, time to get back to Marple on Netflix!

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Where we find inspiration

What do you do when its cold and nasty outside? Clean your basement? Do the laundry? These are things that I should have done, instead I went junking and lookie lookie what I found! Inspiration! 

Its a piece of junk I know...but I collect old clocks and its from Japan so its kinda old. I really bought it for its cool shape and jadeite green colour with pink accents.  LOVE at first sight (isn't it always...).  For $1.99 I couldn't resist.  

This clock got me thinking BAD BAD thoughts...thoughts of painting, and all that ASCP I have sitting in my basement (that should be cleaned). 

I've wanted to paint my tea trolley since I bought it. It wasn't in bad shape, but it wasn't anything beyond ordinary.

Elvis doesn't live here anymore

Back in August, I created a list of about 12 items which I HAD to paint. I still have about 10 outstanding projects from my August list of 'furniture to paint', but sometimes lists are just suggestions, guidelines.  Sometimes we must step away from the confines of rules, and 'LISTS'! LIST is just a dirty four letter word, after all! So I broke my inner chains and stepped away from my 'L**T'! I painted my tea trolley!! 

First I painted it in Annie Sloan Antibes paint, and while I love green, it was darker than I wanted. So I mixed it with Pure White. I don't know the ratio, because I kept adding white until it was light enough.  Its like, the green just kept sucking up the white!  Anyway, I eventually achieved the colour I wanted and gave the trolley a second coat of paint with the lighter green colour.

Don't judge the messy magazines in the background!

I lightly sanded it in spots.  In some places I only sanded back enough to reveal the darker green and in others, right back to the wood.  I only used clear wax.  I liked it light and airy.

My Pewter tea set from deep in the bowels of my basement

Vintage Candy Tin from England

A set of F. Winkle for Eatonia china platters

Now I love my tea trolley, with its fresh fun colour.  I pulled up a bunch of treasures from my basement, and I think I'm getting ready for spring!  Its only - 15* Celsius here with the wind chill, so I need a little spring!  Keep warm friends! 

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The Loot!

So when I came home from Ireland on Sunday night, I had to go grocery shopping for the kids lunch fixings, as the next day was a school day.  By then, I was truly zonked.  In the morning, I had HAD to put away the Christmas decorations, as it was January 7th, and past the epiphany. I love to put Christmas up on December 1st to enjoy the decorations as long as possible. However by the time its done, I just want my house uncluttered looking again (hah, as if!).  Yesterday I went into the city to visit my parents, and by the time I came home it was time to make dinner...I know I'm droning on and on, but I'm trying to explain why I HADN'T UNPACKED YET!!!!  This morning I tackled the two suitcases.  Isn't your favourite part of unpacking pulling out any shopping you did? Unfortunately I couldn't find any vintage treasures!  We did find one flea market in Dublin on our last day, but it was so small (being right after new years I guess...) that there were only about 7 vendors, mostly selling '80s clothes (I have that in my closet!).  There was one lady with old jewellery, who had a whole stack of vintage postcards for a euro each.  I could kick myself for not negotiating a price for the lot!  But by that time I was so tired and disappointed that my brain froze! I can't believe I didn't even buy one!  

However, what I did buy was some of my favourite Cath Kidston! Given the space and weight restrictions on our luggage, I had to be restrained! Also, our flight was from Dublin to Philadelphia, and a SMALL commuter to Toronto, with limited overhead space. So, I had to be cautious with carry on luggage as well!

I wanted this tin set last time we were in Ireland, but since the kids were with us, we couldn't find any room in the luggage for it!

But look! You open it up and theres not one, two...

But three lovely Royal Rose tins! The colours are so soft too!  Three tins which fit into one, definitely worth the space in my luggage! Also, I'm going to empty all the biscuits (cookies) we have in our pantry into these tins, so I will be organizing, and space saving at home too!  AH-MAY-ZZZZING!

I've been eyeing this broach on there website, and couldn't resist it!  Took no room at all!

A nice little assortment of patches! I'll put them on something!

This is a school satchel for Minnie Me (with the nicer nose, and nicer straighter hair).  The patterns on my table cloth with the satchels are hurting my eyes!

Christmas Apron

I think I can officially open my own Cath Kidston shop now...its a disease!

My oldest daughter asked for this small suitcase.  Look at the interior! It definitely had to be carry on, so why let that space go wasted? I filled it with this...

TAYTOS!!  If you've been to Ireland, you know and probably LOVE these! Cheddar and Onion is the standard flavour (none of that boring 'PLAIN' for the Irish spud!).  My kids LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE these!

This is Mr. Tayto!

Besides Cath Kidston, the only thing I bought was TONNES of candy! Whenever I travel, I always look for local/unique candy!  I miss the days of small local candy manufacturers in North America, so I troll candy aisles whenever I'm abroad!

I won't show you ALL the candy I bought, just the different types of candy! Lets just say, one suitcase was only candy!

Four boxes of these, some which got smushed! 

These are CRAZY good!

These had the funniest tv commercials!

These were called wigwag in Canada when I was a little girl!

And that that that ah thats all Folks!

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