Isn't the internet wonderful! Log on to google today and there's a picture and link for Paul Cézanne, the french artist and post-impressionist painter who shares my birthday. He's a little older than me, admittedly, and has a great moustache in the picture ~ I just have a few stray eyelashes on my chin.
Anyway, it got me thinking about other people I share this birth date with. I only knew one person who had my birthday, up until today, a friend's mother, then I found out that one of my neighbour's shares it too. Apparently, I read in a fortune telling book I was given many moons ago (did anyone see the moon set this morning??? Jam saw it, but apparently it will be even more amazing tomorrow...) that if you have 12 people in a room at a dinner party then two will share the same birthday... Hmmm...
I share my birthday with Dolly Parton, Robert Palmer, Edgar Allan Poe, Janis Joplin, Jenson Button, to name but a few. Who do you share your birthday with?
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Monday, 17 January 2011
Home made gifts
I started this post before Christmas. When we had snow... 'It snowed even more last night, so much that we were snowed in this morning. So plans for today were cancelled and that gave me valuable time to try and make some more gifts.' That was as far as I got, honestly, these days I don't seem to have time for anything, you'd think I had a little baby or something!
These home-made gifts though are very simple to make, you can make it as arty as you like and it doesn't cost very much at all yet is greatly appreciated and treasured by your loved ones. I made a batch for family Christmas presents and am going to make some more as thank you's, although how I shall find the time to do this all again I do not know!
Footprints first. We wanted to try handprints but his little hands grab grab grab so they didn't look too pretty. We painted the bottom of one of his feet with the paint, then planted it on the card, holding firmly and making sure his toes touched the card, then whipped it off and wiped off his foot before the paint got everywhere. He was fascinated by the whole process, reaching forward to try and touch the card.
A close up of a finished one ~
Fun! We also made lots of chutney and jam. There is something so rewarding about making things for people, especially when you don't have much money and would rather make something anyway. I'm on the case with knitting.... and shall show you my Squirrel when I've sorted out his tail.
These home-made gifts though are very simple to make, you can make it as arty as you like and it doesn't cost very much at all yet is greatly appreciated and treasured by your loved ones. I made a batch for family Christmas presents and am going to make some more as thank you's, although how I shall find the time to do this all again I do not know!
Footprints first. We wanted to try handprints but his little hands grab grab grab so they didn't look too pretty. We painted the bottom of one of his feet with the paint, then planted it on the card, holding firmly and making sure his toes touched the card, then whipped it off and wiped off his foot before the paint got everywhere. He was fascinated by the whole process, reaching forward to try and touch the card.
Jam came up with the poem, we printed it off on lots of different coloured paper and used my pinking shears to cut, which I wouldn't really recommend because they are meant for material not paper and are not cheap! You can get zigzag scissors.
A quick tour of local charity shops finds lots of interesting picture frames. We tried to make each one different, using different coloured cards and cuttings, after all, each footprint was different.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Gratitude
A Day of Gratitude
I've had a wonderful weekend away for a friend's birthday ~ country house, beach walk, laughter and giggles. It's quite bizarre though, for they live right next to my Dad's first wife. A couple of years ago they hosted a friend's wedding and used her garden for the venue and it wasn't until at the party that we discovered the link. I was hanging upside down on the beams of the yurt with legs all over the place and a lopsided grin at the time, drunk to the hilt on champagne and she was talking to my husband saying 'I think that lady needs help', quite...
My little brother, who is also a musician, has come back to ours to record some of our music for another friend's wedding in May. They are getting married abroad first so want to have a recording of the music to take with them. I'm typing this as Jam is playing in the snug, it's such a treat to hear. Music is everything, without it the world is like a flat bottle of coke. Or do I mean a bottle of flat coke? Music is the fizz of life. Music makes life sparkle.
When I got home there was a parcel waiting for me and it was my friend's beautiful poetry book that I had ordered online from Lulu. She's such a warm-hearted, kind, funny, generous and inspiring lady and I am so pleased to have her in my life. We met whilst volunteering at a charity shop together in London. She has inspired me to get on with my own poetry collection. That is my project this year. It's exciting. Squeak!
I am so lucky to have so many beautiful people in my life. It's nice to step out of the usual routine and take some large gulps of fresh air to clear out the system and be reminded of everything wonderful in your world. Sometimes when there is a big change, or lots of changes it's too easy to get bogged down in the trivial daily matters and lose yourself in a depressing cycle of miserableness, worrying about silly things and forgetting the big picture. So, cheesy as it is, I'm thankful for my life, for all the joy it brings to me and my family and friends. I'm glad I have not forgotten how to smile at myself, and to others. And I'm so pleased that since having my baby, my boobs are enormous. Ok so that won't last and they will probably be around my ankles when I finish breastfeeding, but I will surely have something else to be grateful for when that happens.
I've had a wonderful weekend away for a friend's birthday ~ country house, beach walk, laughter and giggles. It's quite bizarre though, for they live right next to my Dad's first wife. A couple of years ago they hosted a friend's wedding and used her garden for the venue and it wasn't until at the party that we discovered the link. I was hanging upside down on the beams of the yurt with legs all over the place and a lopsided grin at the time, drunk to the hilt on champagne and she was talking to my husband saying 'I think that lady needs help', quite...
My little brother, who is also a musician, has come back to ours to record some of our music for another friend's wedding in May. They are getting married abroad first so want to have a recording of the music to take with them. I'm typing this as Jam is playing in the snug, it's such a treat to hear. Music is everything, without it the world is like a flat bottle of coke. Or do I mean a bottle of flat coke? Music is the fizz of life. Music makes life sparkle.
When I got home there was a parcel waiting for me and it was my friend's beautiful poetry book that I had ordered online from Lulu. She's such a warm-hearted, kind, funny, generous and inspiring lady and I am so pleased to have her in my life. We met whilst volunteering at a charity shop together in London. She has inspired me to get on with my own poetry collection. That is my project this year. It's exciting. Squeak!
I am so lucky to have so many beautiful people in my life. It's nice to step out of the usual routine and take some large gulps of fresh air to clear out the system and be reminded of everything wonderful in your world. Sometimes when there is a big change, or lots of changes it's too easy to get bogged down in the trivial daily matters and lose yourself in a depressing cycle of miserableness, worrying about silly things and forgetting the big picture. So, cheesy as it is, I'm thankful for my life, for all the joy it brings to me and my family and friends. I'm glad I have not forgotten how to smile at myself, and to others. And I'm so pleased that since having my baby, my boobs are enormous. Ok so that won't last and they will probably be around my ankles when I finish breastfeeding, but I will surely have something else to be grateful for when that happens.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Negligee, sorry neglect...
I'm neglecting you aren't I? Would rather be sorting out my knicker drawer than writing my blog, so it seems but you're wrong, I'm sorry, I hope your heart is growing fonder and I shall be back with a vendetta sorry vengeance, just as soon as I remember how to write, fit everything in and get my child to sleep on his own without him needing to be on my boobs all day! ;)
Thursday, 6 January 2011
The Wallpaper Strip - Part 5
Click click - and you're back in the room...
Happy New Year, excuse my absence, visiting family and friends, changed plans and no time for writing. Shocking I know, but hey - it makes me feel like I've got a life!!
Now, the room we are in this week is the spare room. It has the most incredible wallpaper, it confuses me slightly too, for Jam's mother says it was his grandad's bedroom, but I hope that I am mistaken!
I'm loving the border, it looks hand-painted.
I'm not sure I am capturing the brightness of this paper, it is hard to capture, it is bright, very bright, much brighter than this.
Of course, with a contrasting curtain and lovely pelmet. (I believe that is what the white thing is called.)
Lovely ornate handles and knobs to match.
Happy New Year, excuse my absence, visiting family and friends, changed plans and no time for writing. Shocking I know, but hey - it makes me feel like I've got a life!!
Now, the room we are in this week is the spare room. It has the most incredible wallpaper, it confuses me slightly too, for Jam's mother says it was his grandad's bedroom, but I hope that I am mistaken!
I'm loving the border, it looks hand-painted.
Yes it's on every wall! This room is a small double. It has built in wardrobes in each corner, that seem to disappear into the walls. It has the fabulous bed-head complete with lamps and drawers.
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Let it snow
This is more like it. Let it snow and the whole world becomes a friendly place, where people talk to you, very britishly about the weather, then invite you back to theirs for tea to admire their wallpaper. I kid you not...
We crept through the fields, stopping for a quick photoshoot, guessing which animals had made their tracks in the snow. At the top of the hill by the church we met a local man and pondered whether there were cows or not in the field in the distance, he was convinced they were a shed of sorts but on his zoom lens of the camera they were definitely two cows, looking frozen around a bale of hay.
A small crowd of people were out sledging, I guess that will include us in a couple of years, everyone was smiling and laughing.
In the local shop we bumped into a lady we'd met in the lane when we had first moved in and she invited us back for tea. A cuddle with Rowan, a spot of piano playing by Jam and...
the wallpaper...
So, I had had about three hours sleep, Jam said he would take Rowan for a walk and when he looked outside there was a gorgeous blanket of snow everywhere.
The child inside yelled 'get out there girl, sleep shmeep, plenty of time to do that when he's left home'.... so we togged up and skipped, well trod carefully outside, over the stile, onto the circuit that takes us to the farm, through the field, up the hill to the church then back down through the village.
We crept through the fields, stopping for a quick photoshoot, guessing which animals had made their tracks in the snow. At the top of the hill by the church we met a local man and pondered whether there were cows or not in the field in the distance, he was convinced they were a shed of sorts but on his zoom lens of the camera they were definitely two cows, looking frozen around a bale of hay. 
A small crowd of people were out sledging, I guess that will include us in a couple of years, everyone was smiling and laughing.
In the local shop we bumped into a lady we'd met in the lane when we had first moved in and she invited us back for tea. A cuddle with Rowan, a spot of piano playing by Jam and...
the wallpaper...
What a treat. What a day. We got home, kindly turning down more offers of tea from more neighbours in need of getting home to change the babe's nappy and make some lunch, have a nap, make some gifts, have a laugh and look at the sunset...
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
The Wallpaper Strip - Part 4
This week finds us in the hallway and stairwell. Now if this wallpaper was in a room where you had to sit down and look at it, it wouldn't work. One wouldn't work for sure, one would be far too busy looking at the wallpaper itself. One would also pass out after half an hour.
This wallpaper is 3D. I all sticks out. All the wallpaper throughout the house has been put up meticulously I must add. Not even a millimetre out of place. That takes some doing. I remember as a child helping my Mum do the wallpapering and getting into a bit of a muddle when it came to lining the drop up properly. It's quite a messy job too.
This wallpaper is 3D. I all sticks out. All the wallpaper throughout the house has been put up meticulously I must add. Not even a millimetre out of place. That takes some doing. I remember as a child helping my Mum do the wallpapering and getting into a bit of a muddle when it came to lining the drop up properly. It's quite a messy job too.
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