Unveiled

Four brooches
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Here are four of the brooches I've been making.

I must admit, I'm rather happy with them.....I'd wear one anyway!

Brooches seem to be something you love or hate, like Marmite or The X factor(don't get me started about that!)

Personally I LOVE wearing a brooch......on my hat, on a bag, of course on the lapel of a jacket or to brighten up a boring cardigan.....

I can't work out how to put all the html stuff into my blog so that I have a Flickr thing in my sidebar.....it's driving me absolutely mental......I've tried three times now and just cannot do it.
Any advice would be very welcome!

I'm now off to get a coffee, tidy up.......all that sort of daily stuff that has to be done.

Then I won't feel guilty when I lounge around making things later!

the brooches

the brooches
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Just a quick post....I've given myself until 9.15 then have to get on and do stuff (like get dressed!)

These strange shapes will be turned into brooches....the colours are much better in real life......some needle felting and bead embellishments.
They remind me of the artist Hundertwasswer (well, not him, his work) who I love......he inspires me with his use of colour and his amazing imagination....all environmentally aware too!

Thanks for the comments about my selfish weekend (previous post!).....glad to know that you all approve! Gwen looks like she's been pretty busy herself and Kirsten wanted to see the brooches......

And I have a babysitter who lives just around the corner and wants craft stuff as payment!! Colette, that sounds like a great idea (and maybe it'll mean I have less stuff to tidy!?)

Hoorah....off to have my third cup of tea, then I will put my work hat on.

selfish weekend

felt
Originally uploaded by nellyme

This weekend was a selfish one.

Both of my girls were off with their Dad and I decided I wouldn't work.
Nope.
No midwifery AT ALL.

In fact, a weekend all about me, me, me.

So that's what I did and it was rather nice, but not how I'd envisaged it at all.

Plans to go out, properly out, failed.

The weather was awful, so no garden tidying.

But......

I did a few tiny bits of Christmas shopping.
I lounged.
I soaked in a big fat bubbly bath whilst reading an exciting new book.

And I made stuff.

Not loads, but a few bits.

Six brooches finished.
Four more to be finished off tomorrow.
Two bits of felt which will be tweaked and embellished before magically turning into journal covers.

Fun indeed.

It's been a while since I did this.....I've been concentrating on trying to earn money.....so when my ex husband has the girls ( a paltry once a month.......) I go up to London to work.
So I haven't had a selfish weekend for a while.

I think I need to work out how I can do this more often....and I also need a nice cheap, reliable babysitter so I can have the occasional evening out too.

Hmm....

the wisdom of owls

owlgroup1
Originally uploaded by ElisabethD

How gorgeous are these?Obviously wise (yet fun too!)

You can find them on good ol' Flickr in ElisabethD's photostream.

I've been whiling away HOURS on Flickr and in blogland.......I'm trying to decide if I should clear my reader and start a whole new, fine-tuned list.....just a few treasured blogs, rather than the ZILLIONS I seem to look at!

But then think of what I'd miss.....I'd hate to miss that vital bit of writing that makes me think (or sometimes rethink), that family photo that makes me smile, the crafty object that makes me throb with jealousy and wonder if I could do that too.......

I'm sure many people wouldn't understand the lure of this world....the skipping about from blog to blog, link to link...glimpses of other lives, other countries that have become quite precious to me.

And many, MANY people would be horrified by the hours I 'waste' looking around these treasure chests of loveliness.

But actually, for me it's not a waste.....maybe not for anyone of us.

The more blogs I read, the more tales I hear of inspiration, friendships made, links that these strangers have forged because of a common love of something....be it crochet, food, caravans, vintage....whatever.

I think it's pretty amazing really.

But I am going to have a rethink of my style.....I don't think it's quite settled yet, it doesn't always quite say what I want, how I want it said.

Hmmmmm....like a blog springclean in Winter.

missing........

surf beach3
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Ha!

So you thought I'd be loving life back in England by now??

Sadly, not really.....which is why there's another Tenerfie picture on my blog today!


This is the beach.....5 minutes or so from where we stayed.....quiet (except for the surfers at the far end), hot, breezy....sparkling sand, warm sea........bliss really.

This was the first day....we arrived at lunchtime, dumped our stuff and ran down to the beach.
We walked from our end to the surfers end and back......icecreams on the way, talking madly about where we wanted to visit first.

Sadly, I was looking forward to shopping at Hyperdino....yup, a supermarket.

But....a foreign supermarket.
It has some recognisable stuff (like cheerios for my daughter who is addicted to them) and loads of exciting holiday foods.
Strange cakes and biscuits, pipas (sunflower seeds in their shells that you crunch to open and spit out the shell!)...lots of weird sweets and fab toiletries.....saddo!

I'm sure I'll be back to normal soon....it was just that this year it was such an absolutely perfect week that everything else pales in comparison.

I'm even looking at Tenerife blogs.......

return of the native

zigzag girl
Originally uploaded by nellyme

Hola!

Well, I'm back from Tenerife......a bit of a shock coming from sunshine and temperatures of 25 to 28 to one of 9 (yes, 9!!).

And rain.
And dark by 4.30.

No handsome Spanish men plying me with tapas, cold beer, strong coffee......

Arrrrgh.

Isn't it odd to return from a holiday and feel like you haven't been away?

We've been to the same place in Tenerife four times now.
On my first visit, I had suddenly developed the worst cold EVER just before we left and then we had an 8 hour delay at the airport.

We eventually arrived, but to my dismay the landscape was barren, rocky, ugly and full of skeletons of buildings covered in huge, flapping sheets of polythene.

I sat in the car, dripping with snot, trying not to cry and saying 'oh my god, it's Basra' every few seconds.
I was horrified.

It is a dry, rocky, volcanic landscape (in the South) and there are a fair few buildings still with polythene overcoats, but it's rather beautiful.

It's unpretentious....at least where we stay.
We don't stay in the big places where all the bars are 'british pubs' and serve roasts every day.

We stay in a quietish, surfy place where Spanish is the language you hear most.

We love it.

As for the picture....isn't it great?!

A mannequin outside a shop in Los Christianos.......we visit for the big sweetshop where I stock up on enough coffee caramel sweets to last until our visit next year.......

Deliciousness

Life continues chez moi.

We have a new guinea pig called Rosti.

Yup.

Like potato rosti........

don't ask me....ask my younger daughter who is in lurve with the little creature.


He is about 11 weeks old, kind of teddy bear furry and is grey and white (with a tiny bit of caramel).

He is rather lovely.



Rojo (the black beast of Dorset) likes him too and it's rather amusing to watch him torn between being very grown up and big brotherly or popcorning around the garden like a grasshopper on crack.

They follow each other around, eat side by side and sleep in a squished up pile of piggy love.


I like to see it....life is simple if you're a guinea pig methinks.








The picture is of one of my obsessions.



I flat out ADORE this magazine....it is like creative porn to me.
It makes me salivate...creative juices gone wild.



It's American and perhaps a little expensive.

Sometimes I treat myself to a copy when I go to London and spend hours browsing big bookshops.
Then I sit somewhere with a big fat caramel latte and slowly turn the pages, smiling and sighing and admiring all the loveliness within.



I think I might treat myself to a subscription this year.....how exciting.
Perhaps it can be my christmas present to myself.







I'm doing lots of tidying...off to Tenerife next Wednesday.....a week in the sun, gorgeous warm sea, yummy tapas, handsome surfer men to admire from afar.

Lovely!


I'm tidying because my mum is coming to stay so that she can enjoy a week in Dorset and can babysit the guinea pigs............she thinks I'm disgustingly untidy and will probably check the skirting boards for dust as soon as she arrives.



Ha.
Well, she'll find plenty.



I am so NOT getting into that much tidying!