Attic24

Wintry Spring

On Friday/Saturday we had two nights and two days of falling snow. SNoW! It hadn't escaped me that we passed by the Spring Equinox on Wednesday, so it seems extra odd that we've been flung so deeply back into winter.

We had an official Snow Day on Friday when many schools in Yorkshire were closed. The downside was that we also had to cancel a planned weekend away at the West coast, boo-hoo! I was madly disappointed yesterday, and stupidly cross with the weather. I mean, it is really a bit pointless saying bad swear words to a pile of snow, but I did it anyway.

After my tantrum, I packed away my bad feelings and unearthed some gratitude for a warm, cosy stay-at-home day, pottering about with a free agenda. In the early morning I baked lemon drizzle cake and it was completely right for the occasion, lifting my spirits and making the house smell good.

While the cake was baking in the oven, I nipped downstairs to the cellar to finish off my latest Mod Podge extravaganza. I've upped my fabric choice for this project and have been smearing MP all over a load of delicious Liberty tana lawn. Such luxury! Ooooooo, there is going to be a terrific ta-dah share very soon when I show you the piece of furniture that I've been working on and tell you the great story behind it.

It's so very nearly Easter isn't it? It's kind of crept up on me a little bit (Silly snow, I blame you for this, I keep thinking it's February), but I am glad it's soon. I stocked up on Eastery essentials yesterday, much to the Little People's delight. We all adore these little sugar coated blobs of chocolate, and I couldn't contemplate an Easter time without them. I shall be making chocolate crispy nests this week too, and getting out the box of Easter decorations.

I think I've pretty much finished making all the components for my Easter Wreath now too, although I might still need a few more leaves.

I pinned everything in place a few days ago, and it's looking pretty spectacular. Looking forward to showing you :o)

Little B is fighting off a very snotty cold and has not wanted to go out at all these past few days. The Little People have been playing out for short periods, sledging and snowman building up and down the length of our back cobbled street. But even they seem tired of the snow now,and I think we all just want a bit of the warmth and freedom that Springtime brings. Still, there have been some lovely moments here, with lots of snuggling and blanketeering (my two boys in the above photo, snuggled in the big chair together this morning).

Some lovely playtime too. This rather messy mess was the aftermath of the Regents Café (named by Little Lady) which opened at number 24 this morning. J and I were force fed plastic ice creams, then given plastic beans on toast followed by cups of "cappycheeeeno's" (Little B knows his café lingo)

It was decided that Regents Café would benefit enormously from real food to supplement all the plastic, so I provided the requested items (minus the mini eggs which I am ridiculously protective about), and we all sat down for  a morning snack. Picture this :: all five of us sat around the table eating rather weird food combos (tomatoes and marshmallows?) from the above platter on little dinky plastic plates. Fun!

I've been in quite a bit of pain today actually, as I had a nasty, icy slip-slide down my neighbours steps last night. It was soooo treacherously icy underfoot and I crashed down very heavily, bruising my thigh quite badly. I swear it was nothing whatsoever to do with the volume of Chardonnay, it was the ice, Ok? Anyhow....in the late morning after the umpteenth time of shouting at Little B "MIND MY LEG!!", J took pity on me and persuaded the Little People to all go and hang out with him upstairs (they gamed), leaving me in peace and quiet downstairs. I was grateful. I made coffee and cosied myself up on the sofa to read Winter Story (Brambly Hedge) which was wonderful. Oh those illustrations are incredible!

In fact J has been rather fabby today (he is not big on sympathy usually) and got the dinner all sorted (recipe from this great book ). So throughout the day there has been the waft of delicious cooking around the place, flooding me with relief at not having to bother doing or thinking about that particular job with my leg screaming at me.

This afternoon, I lit the fire and resumed my position on the sofa. I exchanged Brambly Hedge for my crochet basket and indulged in a little bit of pleasurable hooky action.

I made a little Easter something, and I'll share more of that with you tomorrow. It was fun to be lead by the hand through someone else's tutorial for a change I have to say, and the pattern was beautifully written.

I am off to bed very soon, my hot water bottle is already under the covers warming it all up for me and I suddenly feel more than ready to be right there with my head on those roses. But before I go, I just want to say a little something about my precious blog, Attic24. I just want to thank you all so, so much for your wonderful enthusiasm on my last post (the studio story). Thank you for being so happy for me! However, I have to say it did surprise me that there were a few comments asking whether my blog would be changing as a result of the studio, or if it would become second best now that the studio has appeared. I promise you faithfully that the answer is no to those things. I am mega excited about having a new workspace to play in and all that it promises for the future, but I am still a full time stay-at-home Mum remember. So Attic24 will remain pretty much the same as it always has been :: a homey, cosy sort of place to visit, a place for me to chitter chatter to you all about life on the home front.

Right, I hope that's sorted now. I'll see you tomorrow to show you more of today's hooky action. It's pretty damn cute I can tell you.

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The Studio Story

 

The town where I live is old, with ancient cobbled streets and buildings that have stood for hundreds of years. It is a bustling, lively old market town with a great atmosphere and a thriving high street. There are a good number of independent shops, pubs, restaurants and cafés occupying the old buildings that line the streets, and visually it's a really lovely town. Mellow and charming.

I walk these streets daily as I go about my business, and am very familiar with what's at ground level. I know the shops and cafés well, and am often in and out of a good number of them. But it's not often that one thinks to look up is it? What goes on above these shops and cafés? What's behind those first and second floor windows? This was the question that began to occupy my thoughts a few months ago, and I found myself looking upwards a great deal. Because I had an idea and I was beginning a Personal Search.

My idea was quite simple....I wanted to find a room. A room that would give me space to create and work, to surround myself with beautiful things, with colour and pattern, with yarn and books and buttons and crochet. It would be a room I could perhaps open up and share with others too, a place for me to invite like minded souls to come and spend some happy, creative times. It was my dream really. I've always dreamed of occupying such a space, and had often chatted to my hooky friends about it. We fantasised about it often. How lovely it would be! We could run classes! We could have Open Studio sessions! We could create, teach, share, inspire!

At the end of January, I found it. I walked down the street one day and I looked up and saw those first floor windows and I wondered.....I wondered what went on up there? I wondered if there might possibly be an empty room inside that freshly painted, stylish grey building. This is a newly opened local café bar a little way out of the town centre, an old building given a new lease of life by two enterprising and dynamic ladies. And as is so often the case in this small friendly town, I very soon found out that these lovely ladies were in fact friends of friends, and that's when it all began to rollercoaster. Phone calls were made, a meeting was set up and so began one of the most exciting adventures ever ever ever.

Would you like to come inside with me? Come on then, lets pop in and take a look......

On the ground floor, there are two rooms. The first room is where all the action is. It's where the scrummy homemade cakes and pastries are baked, where the delicious fresh coffee is made, and where the scrumptious food is cooked. There are tables and chairs here, and there is much banter and chatter and comings and goings.

The second room is just off to the right, and is light and lovely and a little more peaceful. The whole place has an exceptionally welcoming atmosphere, and it's a real pleasure just to be there really. You can bob in for a quick coffee to take away (which I had often done in the past), or you can sit down and enjoy a slice of cake with your drink or perhaps a lovely lunch with friends.

Anyhow....more about the café in a bit. I need to take you upstairs now. Come on, follow me......

.....up the very old wooden stairs....

.....admire the gorgeous old stained glass window on the landing.....

....turn right and walk down the little corridor to the old wooden door at the end. Push it open........

.....and there is indeed an empty room sat waiting.

It's old, as you can see. Old wooden floors, and old beamed ceiling, deep skirting boards and a delightful old fireplace.

It has recently been replastered and rewired, but the floor is in a dreadful state and it is dusty and dirty. Yet the room has an incredible feel to it. On this cold February morning, the sunlight streamed in through the front window, and well, I felt like I had just opened a most precious gift. Space. A light filled space. So very, very full of potential that I felt like I wanted to dance a jig right there on the spot.

I was not on my own here I might add. My very good friend Tracy was with me, as I had decided when I first began my search that I would love more than anything to be able to share. To perhaps recreate a little of the fun that accompanied my art school days. Much more fun to share, I thought.

And so we began. We began to work very, very hard at making this precious room shine.

The first task was to deal with the floor. Years of grime, paint and plaster had to be scrubbed and scraped away and it was back breaking hard graft.

We started in one corner and gradually worked our way backwards. It was slow and laborious and took many days as we both had to fit the work in between our family commitments. A little bit here, a little bit there. An hour or two each day when we could manage.

But as we scrubbed and scraped and wiped and brushed, Tracy and I talked over all our plans for this room and we shared the excitement of it all.

Slowly but surely we made progress and we could see that the hard work was beginning to pay off.

The floor boards began to look quite presentable once they were clean and dry.

The final stage was to give the floor a good rub down with some Danish Oil....

....it restored the tired, thirsty wood and made it look quite beautiful.

With the floor done, it was time to get painty. We both agreed that it had to be white, a great backdrop for all the colour that would surely come from both of us! As with the floor, it was a slow process due to the limited time we could escape there child free.

But as with the floor, we gradually began to see it taking shape. Several coats of white on all the woodwork....

....then two coats of brilliant white emulsion on the walls and ceiling.

We finished the decorating four days ago, and oh my, it was such a fantastic feeling! After many weeks of dirty work I couldn't wait to clear the room and prepare for the Fun Stuff!

We spent Saturday afternoon tidying all the messy stuff away, giving the floor a good sweep and filling some jugs with fresh flowers by way of celebration.

During the weeks when we were cleaning and decorating upstairs, we began to make our presence felt in the café downstairs. Right from the very beginning, the owners were very keen for us to bring our distinctive creative vibe into the café, so we told all our yarny friends to come and join us. Come on down we said! Tell your friends to come too! Come and join us every Friday morning for some great coffee, delicious cake and some sociable creativity! It has been a huge success and now on Friday mornings, the café is filled with much chatter and laughter and lots of crochet, knitting and stitching. It's wonderful.

As you might expect, the past few days have been mega exciting for Tracy and I. I've had trouble sleeping cos my mind is so buzzy and full of ideas, but in a really great way. We both of us have Big Creative Minds you see, and they have been working on overdrive now that the studio is ready for us. We are both on a tight budget, and will be doing things gradually. Repurposing, recycling and re-using. We are searching out pre-loved furniture in local second hand and charity shops, picking up unwanted bits and pieces from friends, scouring eBay, and even rescuing unwanted items from being thrown into landfill (more on that a little later). So it's an ongoing process, and we'll have to be patient with it, adding little by little to the room as we work out what we need and how we want the studio to work.

But it's already taking shape. It's taking shape rather beautifully........

This picture was taken at the weekend when my first bits of furniture were moved in. An old farmhouse table bought on eBay. An old kitchen chair given to me by a friend which I painted a most gorgeous blue colour. A vintage wicker bin found in a charity shop. An old stripy jug bought from the collectors centre down the road (daffies from the market). And a fabulous old Lloyd Loom chair snapped up at a bargain price from the same place as the jug.

This was Tracy's end at the weekend as she also started to bring  in some bits and pieces. An upcycled chair bought from a charity shop, old step ladders painted to use for display. Some old wooden boxes from the collectors centre, and a notice board made from an old picture frame.

And this is how my space looks right now. A little more colour has arrived!

I am beginning to feel very at home in this room....it is making me sooooooo happy :o)

My lovely prettified inspiration board will be put up on the wall above my desk, and I've painted up three wooden shelves to go on the wall too. Need to get J to come and do that for me as I am shamefully hopeless with anything that needs man tools. I just stick to what I am good at and Insubstantial Prettifying is my thing remember.

The framed pictures will soon be hung on the wall too, and my lovely wire veggie rack will soon be filled with yarn.

There is lots still to do, but I am really, really looking forward to doing it, that's for sure.

Tracy has also made herself at home. She brought down an old kitchen table to work at, and her amazing painted printers tray filled with all her sewing threads.

Her style and colour palette is a little different to mine, but I think we compliment each other very well.

It's been lovely to see her settle so easily into the studio, and her table is already filling up with work in progress. I confess I am a little jealous of the time she is able to spend working there already (her boys are older than mine and are both at school), but I know my time will come soon enough.

For now I'm enjoying the delicious task of making this studio of ours a wonderful, inspiring place to be in. A place that feels like home.

In the future, we hope to be able to run creative classes and workshops here, and to open our door every now and again for folk to come and see what we do. I will of course keep you posted, I'm going to very much enjoy sharing this new journey with you all.

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ps please do pop along to Tracy's blog Patchwork Chickens to read her tale of our studio. She is far more direct and less waffly than me, and she takes beautiful pictures too. She's a great Studio Buddie to have x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prettifying

If ever there was an object that was screaming out to be Prettified, this is it. This grey rectangle of metal is possibly the dullest looking thing I have ever purchased in my life. Do you know what it is? It's rather oddly called "Spontan" and is in fact a Very Useful Object. A magnetic notice board no less.

I knew as soon as I bought this useful bit of metal that I would not in any way shape or form be able to leave it alone. It would most certainly have to be tarted up, that was for sure. This morning, when I was putting the finishing touches to it, the word prettify came into my mind. What a smashing word that is!!! So much cuter than the word upcycle. I looked it up in the online dictionary just to check if it did actually exist (many of the words I use do not exist), and yes, it is indeed a real, bonafide word.......

pret·ti·fy  (prt-f) tr.v. pret·ti·fied, pret·ti·fy·ing, pret·ti·fies

To make pretty or prettier, especially in a superficial or insubstantial way.

HA!!!!!!!! That made me laugh out loud! Insubstantial indeed! Well. I am about to show you how I took the drab grey metal and did some superficial and insubstantial things to it.

Mod Podge . I bought this bottle ages ago after seeing it very successfully used in Blogland to cover hard ugly things with pretty fabric. I had thought (and do still think) that Connievan would benefit enormously from some fabric+modpodge treatment, but haven't yet got round to it. So this was a first time experiment for me, and I am happy to tell you it was a resounding success. Easy to use, and with fantastic end results, this stuff is crazy-marvelous! If you're going to try anything like this, I would also highly recommend you purchase a foam brush. I used a 2 inch one and it was just right.

You need to work quite quickly when you first spread the Modpodge onto the object, and this foam thing did the job beautifully.

So easy, did i say that already? First cut your fabric to size (I used a thin floral poly/cotton), leaving about an inch all around which you will trim off afterwards. Spread your hard object all over with a generous but even spread of MP. Lay your fabric on top and smooth it down firmly with your hands, eliminating any creases and air bubbles. It's not as hard as you imagine it to be. I recently covered Little Man's school book with that clear sticky plastic stuff and that was a holy nightmare, so this was childsplay by comparison.

I took some care over the corners and made some impressively neat tucks, adding quite a bit more MP to make sure it was all sticking down firmly with no flappy bits. Once it was all stuck down, I then coated the whole of the fabric with a thin layer of MP to give it a matte glaze finish.

Allow it to dry completely before trimming neatly around the edges with a sharp craft knife or rotary cutter. And that's pretty much it....I'll show you the end result in a bit, I need to talk about magnets now.

I bought this set of 24 magnets from Amazon cos I liked the bright jolly colours. But when they arrived, I had a little light bulb moment and decided that they would also benefit from a little bit of insubstantial prettifying. Buttons, I thought. They need buttoning.

There is no shortage of colourful buttons in the Attic (thank goodness), so I was able to set to work straight away.

I put a little bit of stitching in the centre of each button, totally unnecessary of course, but I like the extra little bit of detail. Then I went down into the cellar, unearthed my ancient hot glue gun, plugged it in and set to work blobbing and sticking.

I love them! They are fun and colourful and go really well with the fabric.

I'm going to use this as a sort of changing inspiration board at the studio, a place to keep pretty paper things. Do you like the lovely bird card? This is the work of textile and paper artist Nancy Nicholson, my latest crush. Her style is bright and jolly with a little bit of folksy fun thrown in. I really love what she does, especially the paper products, which she calls Interactive Stationery.

I treated myself to some of her Topiary Birds, and I love having them in the Attic.....

....they landed on the mantel and look very at home. You must go and have a snoop around Nancy's home....you will love it. It is amazing. Inspiring. Go look, and enjoy.

I'll be taking my newly prettified inspiration board down to the studio tomorrow. Uh-huh. Yesterday we finally finished the decorating, hooray!! It was such bliss to tidy all the messy mess away, sweep the gorgeous floor, bring in the first pieces of furniture and add some fresh flowers. There is still much to be done, but the hard graft is over. Let the Prettifying commence.

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ps I have (of course) been taking photographs of the studio over the past month as we've been working hard to get it ready. I'll be sharing the whole story with you here very soon. It's all so dreamy!

 

Half a Decade

Attic24 became five years old yesterday. Inside my mind and heart the day felt momentous, yet I was unable to articulate the feeling to anyone. I told a couple of close friends and I told the Little People, but even to my ears the words sounded strange. My blog is five years old! FIVE! Can you believe it? Blog Birthdays are funny things it seems. Kind of majorly significant and totally insignificant all at the same time.

I feel a little like my blog has become another child. Actually, I feel a lot like my blog is another child. I remember the pregnancy (I obsessed about the notion of blogging for 9 months before giving birth to A24, I kid you not), I remember the fledgling newborn days (awful anxiety mixed with incredible joy). I remember the toddler days (I am running with this, full tilt, watch me go!), and the pre school days (loads of fun, how can it get any more funner? There is so much to go at, so much to do and say and learn). And now it's kind of like my baby has suddenly got all grown up and gone off to school (I am still having loads of fun, but now I want to do more-more-more).

I keep wondering if Attic24 has changed much over the years, and honestly I don't think it has. I am still inspired by pretty much the same things, still do pretty much the same things, and still share it all in pretty much the same way as I always have done. I think that's the great thing about creating something so honest and personal. It retains it's own integrity, cos it is one hundred percent genuine. I don't try to make my blog take on a particular flavour or shape or subject matter. I don't try to make it fit in anywhere. It just flows naturally as it follows the course of my life.

Often I am amazed by the way in which Attic24 has grown. It sometimes feels as if the whole thing has grown so very very big. And yet it is just Me, a stay at home Mum with my little point-and-shoot camera and my laptop. And I'm not big at all. I am just here in my home, pootling about creating things and enjoying life.

I make things and I try my very best to help others make things too if they want to. I try to fix my memories in place with words and images so that I don't forget life's wonderful little pleasures. I try to appreciate the weather and the seasons, the joy of mothering, and the fun of going places. I try very, very hard to capture all that is good, and to practice gratitude. I am a lover of life. I am a happy soul. And that's about the long and short of it.

Amazing really, this blogging lark. I've grown to really love love love it and it has become such an important part of my life. I love the sharing, I love the creativity, I love the feeling of community, and I love being a part of something which gives me so much pleasure.

I love all the words too. I love that you take time to write to me, I really do. It is often presumed (quite wrongly) that I probably don't read all my comments cos there are so many, and yet I assure you hand on heart that I do. Of course I do! How could I not? Your collective voices are so lovely, and it means a lot to me that you continue to visit and read my words and respond.

Five years then. Wowsers. That's half a decade of stuff.

So all I can say really is THANK YOU. Thank you for your friendship, enthusiasm, gratitude and creativity. Thank you for coming to visit. I don't plan on going anywhere or changing anything much around here, so expect to find me with my little Attic window open for the next half decade. You are welcome to call in anytime, I'll be here.

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My Happy Day

Yesterday in the UK we celebrated Mother's Day. We hadn't made any plans for the day, preferring to wait and see what the weather was doing. We talked about possibly taking a country walk with a picnic, but deep down I secretly hoped that the weather would be grim. Cos that way I could legitimately request an indulgent day spent pleasure seeking within the warm confines of home. Wearing my pyjamas. And guess what? That's exactly what the day became, and I was so, so happy with that arrangement.

My sweet, wonderful family bought me tulips. Lots and lots and lots of tulips. This incredible sight greeted me when I walked into the room yesterday morning and I nearly fell about laughing at the scale of it all.......so so so many flowers! I had dropped some rather unsubtle hints the day before as to the exact name of my favourite, most favourite flower. Tulips I said. Not the mixed bouquets wrapped in loads of paper with loads of foliage. No, not those. Just a simple bunch of tulips. J heard the word and remembered it, only in his typical generous way he didn't seem to think that one bunch was enough (and oh it would have been, I would have been so happy with one bunch). He and the Little People came home from the shops with armfuls, and there they stand in our giant pasta pan, filling me with love and gratitude.

After the flowers and cards and hugs and kisses, I crept back to bed with a mug of coffee, my new  book (Happy Home), and my hooky basket and I nested for a bit. I snuggled down under my feather duvet, crocheted stripes, sipped coffee and turned pages. It was bliss.



I love crocheting in bed, it provides such cosy comfort and pleasure.

These stripes will be the cover for my Easter Wreath. The colours are a bit strange to be honest as I am using up scraps from my stash, but as they will be mostly smothered, it doesn't matter too much.

I spent quite a bit of time in my nest yesterday. And when the Little People demanded that I came down to join them, I simply transferred my hooky activity to the Big Chair. I had a break from the stripes and made more flowers. I had a go at making some yellow forsythia flowers from this pattern, although I had to alter them to make them smaller. I then adapted that pattern to make 6-petalled blue flowers loosely resembling Glory Of The Snow.

And I made these too, which I really love love love. They turned out so well! I was inspired by the Japanese Quince flowers that grew in the garden of my previous house, they sprang forth into my memory yesterday and I just had to make some to go on my Easter Wreath.

They look especially sweet clustered together in groups of three with a little bit of greenery behind, and I'm going to be making many more clusters for my Easter wreath. They are really easy to make, very similar to my May Roses.

Would you like to make some? I've already written the pattern up for you, you can find it in the usual place in my left hand side bar, or go HERE to see.

I am sometimes a little surprised by how much of my inspiration comes from flowers, and by how much they constantly fill up my days (both the real kind and the woollen kind). I've tried many times to analyse why I love flowers so much, and it pretty much comes down to one thing :: colour. Of course. It's always all about the colour.

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Springtime Hooky

Gah, the weather here has been dreadful today, cold, blustery and wet wet wet all day. Very wintry indeed and I found myself feeling a bit miffed that the Spring weather has not yet arrived. Where is it? Where is it hiding? I had to nip out earlier to buy guinea pig food and a tin of paint and it was so yuck out there that I couldn't wait to scurry back home and settle down with a hot mug of chocolate dusted coffee and some comforting hooky.

My polystyrene wreath ring arrived in the post this morning (gosh, I do love mail order), it's a 30cm half round ring which is the same sort I used for my Christmas Wreath. This one is going to be transformed into an equally laden Easter Wreath, and today I started hooking up the stripy cover for it. I raided my stash of leftover yarns and selected some aran weight in light spring colours :: some Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe, some Debbie Bliss Aran and some Rico Merino Aran. A 5mm hook and simple rows of double crochet, 28 stitches across. It works up quickly, and is surprisingly pleasurable.

I've begun collecting a few decorative bits n bobs too, and the giddy shivers of excitement are slowly creeping in......wreath making is such a lot of creative fun! It's a lot of work mind you, and by that I really mean lots of time. Can't exactly call it work, but it is certainly time consuming. Three weeks till Easter so I hope I'll be able to get it finished in time.

I've been gently making Spring flowers over the past few weeks, a few here, a few there. But I need lots more. And lots of leaves. And pom poms. Which reminds me, I must try and think where-oh-where have my pom pom makers gone? Can't blame the former Shelves of Doom any more, for they are still relatively tidy and don't eat things like they used to. Maybe the Creative Cupboard is looking after them, I'll go for a tentative dig in there tomorrow.

I'm loving the look of all these flowers together. The daffodils and teeny tiny flowers you already know....the six petalled flowers on the left there are my first attempts at making polyanthus flowers. They kind of worked out but am not entirely happy with them yet. More work needed. Must press on...........

 EDIT to add.....I am SO going to try this pattern...(crochet forsythia!!), will let you know how it goes! The excitement is getting intense!

 

 

 

Red Nose Day Dolls

The Red Nose Day Doll project that I've been involved with over the past couple of months is coming to a very exciting finale. Being a part of this hugely brilliant, creative, fun and worthwhile project has been an unforgettable experience for me. So much talent and so much joy from such good, lovely people who have all given their precious time and considerable skills for free. It has made me feel elated, tearful (happy tears of course), thrilled, humbled.

The four dolls have really caused quite a stir. They've been talked about in some quite high up places, and have even appeared on television. Their story has unfolded across the www, via Blogland, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. They have captured many hearts, and the amazing collection of clothing and accessories has been much admired and coveted. All in all, I would say without hesitation that is has been a  phenomenal success.

The four dolls (from left to right :: Mac, Poppy, Blossom and Maizie) are now up for auction on eBay and the bidding has begun in earnest. Remember that Every Single Penny from the auctions goes straight to Comic Relief, helping vulnerable, poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa turn their lives around.

If you want to follow the auctions (and maybe even place a bid), here are the links ::

Mac  ♥ Poppy ♥ Blossom ♥ Maisie ♥ The auctions end on 17 Mar 2013 at 21:14 GMT.

If you don't have enough dosh to place a bid, you can still be a part of this incredible fund raising effort by donating a small amount of money. Just £5 will buy a mosquito net which could save a child's life.

Donating a little bit of money is easy-peasy. All you have to do is go to the Red Nose Day Dolls giving page RIGHT HERE. Paypal or card payments are welcome.

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/rednosedaydolls

♥♥ THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for your support ♥♥

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ps I'm not in the habit of blantantly asking for cash on my blog, but I hope you know that. It's just that, well, my heartstrings have been pulled by this project and it is for such a very good cause. Thanks....that's all. I'll be off now ;o)x

 

 

Monthly Mosaics

:: January ::

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:: February

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At the start of 2013 I made a private resolution, just between me and myself. I resolved to be On Time with my monthly mosaics this year, to make them happen bang at the end of each month like other organised bloggers do. Thing is, I have to accept that making schedules for my blog is pretty pointless these days. Everything happens quite spontaneously at Attic24, and I've grown to rather like it that way. So monthly round-ups may not in fact happen at the end of the relevant month, but they will happen at some unscheduled point in time. Usually at a time when I actually have time to pootle about with my photos and create the visuals.

It's a lovely thing to do mind you, to look back at the month that has just passed and celebrate it visually. It serves to jog the memory, to capture the essence of that time in the year, to be content with the look of life's Little Bits. After almost five years of writing about my life and making these monthly mosaics (yes five years, that's sixty months!!), I still really love to do it. It makes me happy, reeeeeeeeeeally happy.

I'm looking forward to the next sixty months.

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Ps you can view all sixty of my MM's in one place if you like....you can have yourself a colourful Attic24 slideshow. There is a link to the mosaic album in my right sidebar, or go HERE to see.

Sixty! Wowsers.

 

 

 

 

A Late Winter Walk

We enjoyed a really lovely family walk today.  It wasn't a particularly pretty day with heavy clouds and low light levels, but it was surprisingly mild and very still. This is one of our favourite go-to places when scenery, fresh air and gentle exercise is called for. It's a quiet reservoir only a couple miles from the Attic, and a circular walk round it takes less than an hour. It is just enough.

Trying to get the Little People out of the house at the weekend is becoming surprisingly hard work, it's like trying to prise a limpet off a rock. They cling to the comforts of home, they protest loudly, they complain about the boredom of Walking For Pleasure. It takes determined effort to organise even a short outing such as this one. And yet.....once we arrive they really do seem to forget they didn't want to come and enjoy it very much. Lots of running, paddling, throwing, climbing, jumping. Little B is thankfully not that way yet, he is always up for an outing. He spent almost the entire time pretending he was a racing car (he did stop racing long enough to lob many rocks into the still water). I love how young children choose to run everywhere. Such energy and physical joy.

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Upcycling

I bought these delightful little "sol d'or" narcissi from the market yesterday, it was the gorgeous colour of them that grabbed my attention (am I right in thinking that sol d'or translates to golden sun in English?). But oh my goodness, I really hadn't bargained on the scent of them, and as I sit at my desk to write this morning, there is the most incredible scent of Spring in the air. It's absolutely knockout! Thinking that three vessels on the table is possibly a little excessive so I'll be moving one of the little jugs up to scent my bedroom later. I've already got some in the bathroom....ahhh, you can never have too many fresh flowers in the house.

Anyhow....this post isn't supposed to be about the whiff of flowers, I got distracted a bit there, sorry. What I want to yarn on about today is my recent upcycling exploits. I've kind of grown to like the word Upcycle, even though it annoyed me for a while with it's trendiness. I used to think why say upcycle when it's just about giving something a makeover? It's the same with vintage and retro, which is really just a trendy way of saying old isn't it?

I bought this last weekend, on a complete whim when I went out to buy eggs. Instead of going straight to the butcher, I detoured past the second hand shop and saw this quirky little (vintage? retro? old?) wire veggie rack sitting forlornly on the pavement amongst the second hand furniture. It called out to me, begged me to take it home and love it. And for the price of £6 how could I refuse the call? So I came home to the Attic with half a dozen eggs, a bunch of daffodils and a wire veggie rack tucked under my arm.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to have a precious child-free day and the weather was gorgeously bright and sunny, so out into the back yard I went to put my upcycling plans in motion. First stage, a good ol' rub down with some hot soapy water.

Second stage, lots of newspaper and a can of spray enamel paint bought in the sale from a local discount shop. Teal Treasure indeed. My favourite colour of all time (although I prefer to call it "Tiffany"). I don't have any experience of using this spray stuff, and truthfully I didn't do a very good job. I didn't listen to the words on the can and was a bit heavy handed with it. So it dripped a little, and also the can ran out before I had truly finished covering all that wire. So the upcycling is a little bit patchy and blobby. But the colour............oh the colour!!! Look see.......................

......isn't it lovely? So much more appealing than mucky old cream.

I do believe I managed to transform this unwanted item into a colourful thing of beauty. A real treasure. Useful too....can you guess what I'm going to use it for? What do you suppose those wire baskets will be crammed with? Of course......yarn, glorious yarn!!! Yippeeeeeee for the thought of a whole colourful rack of yarn that can be maneuvered about on dinky little wheels! I will of course bombard you with pictures when I've got around to filling the baskets, it'll be a visual feast.

This was my other spontaneous upcycling project this week, yesterday to be precise. Another impulse buy, this (vintage? retro? old?) wooden cutlery tray was sitting in the window of the Oxfam shop as I walked past, price £2.99. I do happen to like aged wood, but I am not too keen on the colour brown. So after lunch yesterday, I set to work with my upcycling plans. I have a modest stash of Decopatch papers left over from previous projects, so I trimmed some to size and finally managed to wrestle the lid off the top of my decopatch glue. It worked a treat...the decopatch papers are very thin, a bit like tissue paper, but the magic glue transforms it. Not only does it easily stick the paper down, but it provides a very durable finish, making the whole thing very hard wearing and practical.

So this old wooden tray has been successfully upcycled and repurposed at the same time, how about that? I'm going to be using it as a desk tidy, to hold essential bits and pieces on my new " Lovely Shabby Chic Solid Pine Farmhouse Kitchen Table with Farrow and Ball Painted Legs!"...haha, LOVE the dramatic Ebay descriptions with Lots Of Capital Letters! Yes, I have a new piece of furniture being delivered later today after a frantic, nail biting finale to an Ebay auction a few days ago. Oh the drama of those last 30 seconds!

The farmhouse kitchen table is not going to be living in the Attic though. Nor is the upcycled wire yarn rack, or the upcycled wooden tray, no no. They are all destined to go and live in my new studio. Studio. St-u-di-o. Oh that word!!! Makes my heart flutter, it still seems so dreamlike and unreal! I am desperately desperate to tell you the whole tale, but whilst we (my studio buddie and I) are busy renovating the room we will be sharing together, I feel inclined to keep it under wraps. There will be an overexcited post all about it very soon though, as soon as we have finished the dirty work. There has been much hard graft going on. Lots of cleaning, scraping, sanding and oiling (the floor), and now lots of filling, sanding, priming and painting (the rest of the room). Soon though.

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Edit to add :: Interesting article HERE about defining antique/vintage/retro (be sure to read the comments!).

I think the rough conclusion is thus ::

Antique = at least 100 years old
Vintage = 20-99 years old, from the era it represents
Retro = newer, but made to look like an item from the older era.