the brightest lightest one ever ...

oh i do love a shiny new year,

tis my fabby fav thing of all without a doubt.

more than birthdays, more than christmases.

this shiny new year will be all about

living in the moment of here and now.

letting the past go

trusting the future will take care of its self

and seeing the extra ordinary in the ordinary.

each and every day

right wherever my little feet happen to be planted.

i will not be making a list of resolutions

for the coming shiny new year.

rather i will be making a list of words.

daily reminders of being present in the moment

rather than drifting backwards or looking too far forwards.

hippity happy shiny new year to you dearest readers,

here's to it being the brightest, lightest one ever

x

The Queen's Christmas Message

may your days be ...

merry & bright

joyful & light

merry christmas dearies!!!

joyful thriftstore update ...

on weds, Our #4 had an interview for a job at the new thriftstore opening up in the town next door. this is tres exciting and even more so to arrive home and find a message saying could he come back on monday for a second interview! he is thinking he may be a shelf stacker, i am thinking he may be tres good at that, what with being 6' 2". both him and myself are a little giddy about the thought of him having a job at a thrift store. 

all fingers, toes, paws and claws are crossed here in mossy shed.

on saturday a most magnificent couch found me, it found me when i was least expecting it and truth be told, as i am magically tidying up forever and ever it was most inconvenient that she should catch my eye and tug at my heart. upon close inspection with my adopted auntie, her man, Our #4 and my reluctant man it was all agreed a couch such as this is a rare find indeedy!

twenty four hours later and a lot of convincing on my behalf, the most magnificent couch was loaded into the back of the car, strapped in for safety to lessen the worry of her ending up on the side of the freeway, she came home to mossy shed. 

my first intentions were for her to live outdoors under the overhang, waiting for warmer weather, and little green friends to start keeping her company. i was smitten by her wood sides, fabby fabric and could see the potential if i dared to start to mess around with her skirts. 

after one night outside i began to fret for my newly found friend, for damp and cold can play havoc with our health and that of furniture left out back round here. upon arrival home from work the next day, i told my man i felt it would be a wrong doing to leave her out there, my man agreed it would and so in she came from the cold.

fortunately my magical tidying up has left many gaps in our shed, but on the other hand, the whole point of my magical tidying up was to make gaps and to breath and not fill those lovely empty gaps up again. i must confess i was a little fretful my 'new~to~me, old~to~another' couch would cause me to feel overwhelmed as she filled in a rather large gap in my atelier of sorts, 

but my fretting ways were soon cast aside when she sat there resplendent in her little corner. i asked "do you bring me joy?" as per my magical tidying up book, my couch sung out loud and clear "i do oh yes i do"

i covered her seat cushions in one of two beautiful lace bed throws i also found on saturday's thrift store pottle, i wonder if they came from the same donator, for both appear to be quite at home together as though they are old friends

and as i stepped back, pondering her skirts, i felt nothing but joy to see her there,

waiting patiently for a moment in this busy week for me to sit with a cup of mint tea and continue upon my path of enlightenment, this time with Louise Hay. 

wise little piggies ...

last christmas,

 Mister Muchly went to see Santa.

he asked Santa for a friend

it took a little while for Santa to work his magic

but in Spring a friend was found

this christmas,

Mister Muchly suggested to his trusty sidekick

Twiglet Piglet,

she might like to go and see Santa 

(waiting patiently for the car ride into town)

and so they did.

however neither Mister Muchly

nor Twiglet Piglet 

were fooled by this year's Santa

pointing out he did not look

old enough to drive a sleigh.

Mister Muchly was so not convinced

he tried on several occasions

to remove his beard

before being tackled into a safe grip by 'Santa'

upon perusal of the photo,

i am thinking they are quite wise little piggies

the kindest thing i did for myself this week ...

 was finish reading

The Gifts of Imperfections

by Brene Brown

if perchance you too are on the path to self awareness

or maybe you are right at the start 

not quite knowing which way to turn

i do not think you could go wrong

with picking this book up 

and starting right at the beginning.

when i read books such as these

i always start at the very beginning,

never jumping in at random pages

for i believe each chapter builds on the previous one

and quite often, 

actually more than often

i have to pause for thought,

reread and then continue.

and more often than not

i get to the end

and know i will need to reread the whole thing

just to clarify i read what was there

and not what i thought was there.

the back of our loo door is full of wise words

i have gleamed from books 

over the past three years.

however the daily reminder

i gleamed from Brene Brown's book

will not be on the back of the door

but on the kitchen wall

to remind me each and every day

how far i have come,

of where i am now

and how muchly further i have to go 

in this enlightening, 

tricky dicky at times, 

journey of mine

i said this was the kindest thing i had done for myself this week

it was a fib,

it turns out to be the kindest thing i have done for myself all year.

rebellious ways ...

 yesterday i made some easy peasy envelope cushion covers 

for our granny couch,

out of an old sanderson slipcover 

i made donkey's years ago.

i was not supposed to be doing such a thing

but i did it anyway

sometimes i marvel at my rebellious ways

pondering paint ...

tis all quiet again in the shed, not that my folks are particularly rowdy sort of folks, just that there are not as many bods around. i am spending the next few days wisely inbetween must~dos like working at the yarn shop, cleaning, laundry, cooking and christmas gifts finding, with thoughts of paint. not just any old paint but chalk paint (ummm, Tif, didn't you dabble in that before and it nearly drove you to the funny farm?) and not just any old chalk paint colour, but graphite.

my mother brought along with her a few copies of english magazines as she knows how much i enjoy a good old ganders at homes from my homeland. well one little article stopped me in my page turning tracks and it was an article about Annie Sloan and her latest book on chalk painting your nest and the world around you and there was one picture of a wall painted in graphite which made my heart skip and my cogs start to turn.

so last week on one of our pottles together, me and my folks located a can of graphite chalk paint and now my shed is empty for two weeks i am looking around for some willing victims. one willing victim will be our kitchen window frame. i think i have found another one, tis a huge old vintage framed piece of art and then there is the victim who had no choice, willing or not, i wanted to see what the paint was like. so yesterday, the day i spent all day in my pajamas, in between doing gleeful joyful tree trimming and the likes, i painted my drawer shelf on the wall to see what would be.

well, tis most graphite and dark and tis most chalk like. 

as one would expect if one paints something with graphite chalk paint.

as i am in the midst of tidying up forever and ever, never to tidy again, this means vignettes and collections of sorts have to be kept to a minimum or else they breed all over the walls and cupboards. so my drawer shelf is one of the few places i can change out with happy collections and feel this is okay because it is contained. 

when i ponder it from afar 

or up close, it looks to me like a diorama or shadow box of sorts. i like this muchly, i like how whatever i put in it, unless it is black or graphite, will pop happily and joyfully.

i have high hopes i will like my kitchen window frame and picture frame equally so although the matte~ness of it has me a little fretful...

footynote: please excuse continuing pants photos due to pants lighting, Colin the computer and his iffy monitoring issues and my long term separation with Carlos the Camera and ability to only see the world through squares.

makers market nitty gritty and whatnot and this and that ....

hello hello, 

we have been tres busy bees with 

my folks visiting, 

thanksgiving family time,

which included puzzle and game playing for all

holiday window dressing for the yarn store

and beavering away for the Makers Market 

which is upon us tomorrow.

i have also done a smidgen of joyful blinging 

as i do like a bit of christmas bling. 

this year i am going for minimal bling 

to see if i can make it through to the new year 

without me fighting the urge 

to pop it all back in the attic. 

i will share my bling next week, 

however today i will share Makers Market nitty gritty. 

if you follow along with my daily instagram postings 

you will have seen most if not all of these pics, 

but if you do not, 

then hurrah hooray! 

it will not feel like you are watching repeats on the telly.

a motley crew is gathering for the makers market in my 'atelier of sorts'

my dad took up calligraphy a little whiles ago and kindly agreed to making handwritten signs. he earnt a gold sticky star for his troubles

my mum did a fabby job at paper bag typing, however she did not earn a gold sticky star because unfortunately she typed some very rude words mid typing duties, implying the elf duties she had been given were quite crappity crap. rebelling in the elf quarters does not lead to gold sticky stars, i am afraid. tsk tsk

with limited table top space, i got creative with my leaning tower of lampshades thus making a most handy dandy holder for the vintage hmong dingle dangles and hand painted hearts 

my folks were tres good with their elf duties, oh! except for my mum's rebellious typing ways, oh! and except for her bleeding episode on the button cards .... mmmm, yes i have come to the conclusion my mum is quite a pesky elf and am quite sure she is the sort of elf who will be making noises about unions and fair pay before long

if you would like to come visit me 

and my little table of handmade, vintage, eclectic~ness, 

(but not my elves,

for alas and alack, the elves fly home tomorrow, 

sniff sniff)

i would be most delighted, 

for more nitty gritty you can clickity click right 

*** here ***

thank you kindly