Green Wellies

Whittle away...

The dictionary meaning of whittle, at least according to my old frayed pocket Oxford that I've had since my high school days, is reduce by repeated subtractions and that's exactly what's been happening to the little corner shelves on either side of my kitchen window.  They were crammed to overflowing and now look like this...

And this...

And this...

And this...

I like the sparse look better.  It's all because I started painting everything white and can't get enough of it.

* The original title was Whittle While I Work, but it made it sound as though I sit around carving little wooden whistles with a penknife while washing dishes or folding laundry.

Heartstrings...

Just a few random photos of some hearts found on the beach...

...wrapped up in string

...too big to carry in a pocket

...just the right size for the porch railing

...and tiny beach glass ones kept safe inside.

Oh, little bird tree...

At one time, when the children were young and we lived in a wonderful old frame house in the country, the Christmas trees came from the forest behind us and the whole season was full of family traditions.  We'd bundle up, haul the toboggan back along the trail, find our tree and with mugs of hot chocolate and carols in the background, we'd trim it with an odd assortment of holiday school crafts, vintage finds and family heirlooms.  On Christmas eve, friends would arrive along the snowy path lit by a very early version of luminarias...candles in brown paper bags.  After a hearty bowl of homemade soup, we'd take flashlights and candles, cones of birdseed to spread along the trail and go off in search of the yule log.  Days before, I'd head out into the woods with the dog and a chosen birch log tied with a huge red ribbon and set it somewhere for the children and friends to find...the stuff that memories are made of!

These days, I don't have room for a large tree in my cottage and I was thrilled when I found a fake one that had a real wood trunk and pinecones...kind of real, but not.  I gave the family decorations over to the care of my daughters and only saved out the little vintage birds that were gathered over the years.  Now my tree has become the bird tree and with a string of small lights, they are the only things on it.  A few newer birds have been added and I'm going to stay on the thrift store hunt until each branch has a bird...my own little Christmas flock!

Easy Come, Easy Go...In A Matter Of Seconds

It was 1:30 in the morning last Thursday...the supports on the kitchen shelf that held (notice the past tense) my platters, large plates, small plates and bowls gave way and EVERYTHING came crashing down.  You can't imagine the heap of shattered crockery.  Bits flew from one end of my cottage to the other...a downfall of having a very open plan.  How some pieces made it around the corner and into the bathroom, I'll never know.  I was stunned, crawled back into bed and left the whole mess to clean up in the morning.  I had to keep both Casper and the foster child sealed in the very back sewing room and at 6:30, started the disheartening job of picking up the shards of some favourite dishes...YES, one of the polka dot plates from Jayne lay in tatters.  One large plate and three bowls that were in the dishwasher survived the fiasco.  The upper shelves in the kitchen are open, so there weren't even doors to hold some things back.  I went to the hardware store that day and had some wood cut for braces underneath the shelves (decided to do the other three main shelves while I was at it) and with my trusty cordless drill in hand, fastened them to the wall.  The upside is that the shelves all got a good scrubbing while they were down and now it will take a bona fide earthquake to budge them.  Most of the dishes were thrift finds and there were certainly enough kicking around in the bottom cupboards to replace them, but one does grow SO attached to goods bought for pennies!  I saved some of the best bits to throw into the sea and who knows, maybe on one of my walks, I'll find them again...resurrected as beach glass to pop into my pocket!

 

Those Clever Scandinavians

I love IKEA goods for their simplicity, cheap prices and the challenge of a DIY project...you could almost imagine you built it yourself once you've managed to fit every nut and bolt into its proper place...with nothing left over on the floor after you've pitched the instructions out.  But, thanks to Jane, I've discovered Green Gate...Danish, fabulous patterns and lovely washed-out vintage colours.  She just posted some wonderful things on a wish list and many of them were Green Gate goodies.  With the arrival of spring, the top of my list would be this fabulous Danish watering can.  If all things were possible, I wonder if this could be classified as carry-on luggage...

Polka Dots...

I'm just realizing that I've had a closet polka dot love for a long time, but never let on.  I wanted a yellow polka dot bikini when the song first hit the hit parade and after seeing Princess Diana in a polka dot dress, I know years ago I tried to convince Gwen that she'd look great in one for a prom...no bikini and no prom dress though!  One of my favourite mugs is a solid diner-style white with blue polka dots.  Out of the blue, Jayne found these at the thrift store for me, matching my one mug exactly...

                                                                           

                                                               

And then the next day she went back and look what was waiting for her...

There's ALWAYS room for one more mug (or two), especially if they're dotted!   

Pretty Darn Good Shell

A crafty person made this thrift store bookend, but with a little imagination, it's easy to see that the scallop shell is large enough to be one half of a bikini top for a mermaid...it's big and beautiful!  I can't wait to show it to Jayne and I can't believe that I managed to grab it off the shelf before someone beat me to it.

 

Do Not Stop!

Jayne arrived at just after midnight Tuesday (long story involving a tree across the highway, making the last ferry with minutes to spare and dodging tree limbs and debris on the road in the dark) and she stayed until Saturday morning.  Her rules seem to be...don't sit still at all, make the most of every second and laugh until your belly aches.  We did just that.  At the dump on Friday, we saw over 50 black wooden restaurant chairs being tossed and after kicking ourselves for not picking up a couple, we went back on Saturday to rescue three of them, plus an old Remington typewriter that still works, massive wooden frame, fab wicker lamp, planters, stool and small odds and sods.  Pictured is one of the chairs and the typewriter, along with some thrift store goodies...the Restoration Hardware shams and king duvet cover for a total of $4.50 were in the wash during photo shoot!  We managed to squeeze in several beach walks with Casper, filling our pockets to the brim with beach glass tossed up by the storm.  At 10:30 Friday evening, we decided it would be fun to don raincoats and wellies and head to the beach by flashlight to watch the waves...aren't normal people sitting curled up with a good book when a night storm is raging?  Boring is not a word that exists in the same dictionary as the word sister.

Service Socks

Okay...I REALLY wasn't going to pick up any more knitting booklets...no, no, no!  But then I spied this one today at the thrift store and the hand was quicker than the eye.  Last night, dad asked me find some info for him online about a Hamilton bomber that's about to be retrieved from a Scottish lake and restored (he was in the air force during the war) and I thought I was seeing things when I first saw the cover of this pattern book.  The pilot with his Canadian Air Force uniform and badges is standing with his gal while bombers fly overhead...yes, bombers on a pattern book.  It's full of reminders to help the war effort by conserving wool, yet one of the patterns is for a two-piece knitted suit.  Service socks seem appropriate, but knitted suit?  One part of the opening paragraph reads, "Busy fingers may continue to set needles a'clicking to knit practical socks and bags for our boys and girls overseas and on the home front...'til Corty Comes Marching Home."  The Corty in question is a tabby cat with his own little section on the back cover...The Wartime Adventures of Corty the Kitten...sketched as a nurse, a member of the army corps and of course, stay-at-home knitter.  Now how could I have possibly left this behind?  Well, I didn't.

No Room For More

Oh,oh...I read once that three of the same thing makes a collection and over the last few weeks, I've picked up four wee books from the thrift store...2 cookbooks I'll never use, 1 knitting book (I don't knit) and recipes for birds, which is the only maybe in the bunch.  Looks like I have another collection starting and I didn't see it coming.  This is it, I have to stop.  There's no room in my wee house for any more wee collections!  I couldn't resist this one I found today though.  The inside black and white photos are so 40's and in this day and age, no twelve-year old boy would wear a sweater ("that matches dad's") with a border of umbrellas...dad wouldn't either!  The cover model looks downright perky in green and I liked the bulldog logo at the bottom.  But...no more, no more.

* I really have to start saving for a better camera...one that will actually take close-ups!