Feeling sentimental :0)

My wedding poem. The hubby often quotes the part about wanting to call the cops when I linger long in the shops lol!

Tin Whistle Marriage
Ogden Nash

Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown
Where you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.
 

Flying the flag

Claud learned to fly a kite this week, with a perfect, pint-sized kite we got from  the V&A gift shop when we were in London at Christmas.

We've also been baking again. Killing time...waiting for the Royal Wedding TV coverage to begin! Any excuse to bring out the cookie-cutter collection. Anyone want a biccie with their tea?

Beautifying my workspace #2

A work in progress... Well not much has changed. Yet!
It's been tidied and de-cluttered. However, I'm already tired of going back and forth to get stuff out of storage. Ideally I need about 100 more cool boxes, or set of plan drawers cum cubby holes cum little drawers, that lock to keep little kiddy-mitts out, in Rimu or another NZ timber, with some brass hardware. Heh. Dream on. I don't think any such thing exists after a trawl of furniture and antiques stores (well the ones left post-earthquake anyway).

Then the hubby remembered he had, in a shed at his family farm, a set of munted old wooden drawers that he used to keep screws and nails in, a few era's ago when he was a coach-builders apprentice. These look like the ones pictured a-top, except with more, smaller drawers. I'm certain they will fit under the shelf on the right, in place of the sewing machine cabinet that Claudine regularly trashes. The best thing about them is that the drawer runners are shot. ie only an adult has enough strength to yank them open. Hurrah!
So we've made an apointment with the farm leasee to go pick 'em up. Hopefully a polish will be all that's required, otherwise they will have to join the 'doing-up' to-do list. I'm too impatient for that. I'm already mentally labeling all the drawers!

Next, the pictured litho by NZ mid-century modernist Roy Cowan I got at auction ages ago is off to the framers, set to replace those old watercolours. Whilst I'm really not into interior decorator art, the interior decorator tactic of having some linking colours is definatly going to help here, to link this space with the rest of the room as there is a wee bit of pale blue in some of the other art and pottery there, and in my lovely 1950's paper fans http://www.acornandwill.co.uk/acatalog/vintage_paper_fans.html

Cheery pastel retro-towels

Scrummy easter-pastel colours, perfect for washing all that chocolate off my chops! I LOVE paisley.
Featured to celebrate flea market finds day over at Her Library Adventures :0)

Happy Easter Holidays

Yet another great plus of having a small child is re-discovering the joy in celebrating the passage of time. Not just milestones and birthdays, but different holidays, the change of seasons and such-like. Only two days into Easter and Claudine can sign rabbit and egg, and she sings the "hop" part of the "hop little bunnies" song. Bless! Her first bake-with-mum session produced these rabbit biccies. She was utterly facinated with the flour, and needed vacuuming from head to toe afterwards!

Beautify your workspace

Even my husband says this is "messy looking" It's also not working for me, constantly moving stuff to get space to work, taking forever to find things and having to set up and then pack up my printer every time I need it so the little sprog doesn't wreck it etc. I'm giving myself a week to improve both aspects before I post an 'after' photo. Where to begin..?!

Put out the flags and polish the silver!

One feather headress ta-da! Still not 100% happy re the proportions but the white rik-rak is a winner. Next; a cornflower blue/peacock feather version for Claudine's best friend Olivia's 2nd birthday.
Plotting fun and food for THE upcoming wedding celebrations. A friend from England also living here in NZ is planning a wedding-watching-garden-party type "do". I have fossicked out red, white and blue bits and bobs to inspire, and my British Isles cookie cutter arrived- Hurray! www.re-foundobjects.com/shop
Put out the flags and polish the silver!

Sublime Celadon

I have a preference for the pale green or pale blue colour glazes of Korean celadon pottery. We are fortunate to have a substantial collection of celadon wares, from the original 10th century Chinese celadons to more moderns Thai celadons; on permanent display in our local, Canterbury Museum. I can look at them forever.
Middle photo.

Whilst I have no ancient celadon pottery myself, I do have a small collection of modern celadon wares, carefully chosen to evoke a similar feeling in me, to those Korean celadons I visit annually. I may not be able to photograph these as they are now behind perspex to protect them from the Canterbury earthquakes; and Claud-quakes! In the meantime, a photo of similar Chris Weaver work to that which I own.
At top.

Outside of pottery, for me, celadon-the-colour evokes the slightly sterile glazed tiles in the stairwells of the victorian building of my old high school; and aspects of the varied old asylum buildings I have worked in as a psychiatric nurse in England and New Zealand. Which I like. Calming, I suppose if you believe the cliche as to why hospitals were often painted pale green in days gone by. I love true celadons because they are both warm and cooling, austere and rich at the same time. They speak to me, perhaps of me too.

From the sublime to the domestic...celadon, in my home. On the kitchen walls (we aimed for a more manageable version of the 'depression green' that much of our 1929 villa interior was originally painted (Dulux Van Gogh (interior) green); and these missoni-esq retro hand towels my mother-in-law gifted us from her sister-in-law's deceased estate.

Reveling in childish lingo

Increasing age, and several years running a theatre sports group at work mean I have no qualms showing my inner-child. However, the old, shy-er part of me still notices the raised eyebrows when my latent Margaret Mahy puts in an appearance in public (she's always on duty at home). Whilst my quiet rebel is delighted at the rolled eyes and amps it up the yibber-yabber a notch in response, alas, most serious parenting books recommend avoiding the baby-talk babble explaining that it will confuse the child, and potentially slow their verbal development, thereby making them hate books and talk funny at a later stage. (Ok, the last bit is only implied).
For me though, a parent who is thrilled at finding yet another rhyming, allitarative word-developing phrase to singsong to her little loved one at nappy change time (come on, it's one thing to sing it, even with an audience, entirely another to write it down for posterity and I wont do it. Noooooo! I tried, it looked terrible and I don't want to ruin the wonderful feeling I get from the sound tap-dancing off my tongue when I do it out loud) can only inspire delight in words, music, and perhaps poetry in her wee charge, at least eventually?
So, the word-picture painting riffing chunter will continue round these parts, especially since the little pixie is signing like crazy and saying several words consistently (dog, duck, cat) regardless. (And I wont blame my self for the "oosh's" (=shoes, backwards, heh!).
And here is the little darling eating her autumn bounty on the doorstep-she picks her own every morning, perhaps not for much longer since it feels like the first frost is around the corner...

My crafting mojo returns

An afternoon kip was all it took to re-awaken my crafting mojo after several weeks of dormancy. Having a holiday coming up helped too. In addition to the Easter paperchain featured, I'm also working on a few prototype couture kids feather headbands...all white now, with a peacock feather version to come. And to boot I've also got the inspiration for my next project...looka this understated and elegant calender from www.harringtonandsquires.co.uk. bisous x