Bouquet Garni-Nature in the Home

Green-bouquet garni; bay, sage, thyme & parsley from the garden, for stock making. 



nature in the home. could be a challenge over winter, but a life enhancing one.

Trug up for winter. Op-Shop Show-Off: May 28th, 2013

Trug. Such an unglamorous name. So close to thug, and trudge, it sounds like the name a troll would go by. Trugs. Not that pretty to look at either to my eye, you know, compared with a fitched basket, a macrame shopper, or a Maori kete. But like all those lovely things a trug is practical and natural, traditional and handcrafted, and therefore ticks lots of my boxes. Terry gave me a Bill Blair trug a few birthdays ago when we holidayed in Oamaru, and I use it almost constantly to cart around gardening bits and bobs, especially growings. They are at the height of their limited beauty when displaying home grown produce. This child of Trug was holding plastic beads on the counter at a local oppy, a very undignified a job for the workhorse garden carrier, so for 20 cents I repatriated it. It looks like it is made of the traditional Sussex Trug materials: cricket bat willow, coppiced sweet chestnut bark and copper nails: and has the makers/company stamp on the base "Chairworks, London, FT1".
The perfect size for garden berry pickings; and little person nature collectings in the meantime.

and speaking of Trugging rugging-up, if any of you guys see nice woolen blankets on your op-shop travels, think about a donation to The Hottie Project. The New Zealand crafty-bloggy community are making hot water bottle covers to keep Christchurch kids warm this winter. Or even better, have a bash yourself! Or just help publicise it. Or make a donation to buy the hotties to put inside. All the deets you need are here. Thank you x

pps. I'm in full-time manual mode on the camera as of today. You wouldn't not believe how long it took me to get those pictures *flops down, mopping brow*

But anyway, camera talk is not what you're here for, op-shop talk is what your here for: so spill...and link up!

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life. tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.

 How to link up?
1. post your second hand shopping related blog post.

2. link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over and peruse or post in the linky too.

 3. scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the linky tool, then follow the three easy steps.

 4. don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up.

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in blogger and save).

21/52 Portraits of my Children

Claudine-Baking, concentrating.


Findlay-Happiness, infectious.



Joining in the Portrait Project, 52 weekly portraits of my children in 2013, at Che and Fidel.



*My favourite from last week's submissions was the colourful sand-shell dweller at LittleMissOliveM

Aurora Alert

                                                            Image from here


Space Weather News for May 22, 2013
http://spaceweather.com

SIGNIFICANT EXPLOSION: A solar radiation storm is in progress on May 22nd following an M5-class solar flare on the sun's western limb.  The explosion not only accelerated a hailstorm of protons toward our planet, but also produced a magnificent CME, which might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field in the days ahead.  Check http://spaceweather.com for more information and updates.


Yahoo!  Now, PLEASE, PLEASE god of these things, let the giant grey cloud of rain loitering over New Zealand disperse, and the crazy-beautiful aurora light show make it to our latitude!

In the deep Midwinter. Op-Shop Show-Off: May 21st 2013.

I have a what I believe is known as a harlequin set of kitchen mugs; aka mismatched, some of them op-shopped, some of them new. I swooped on this one with glee. A little worn, but still rather fetching in a 50's manner, it's my first Midwinter. 
I had no idea the range of Midwinter pottery was so vast. I've narrowed this down to the 'Fine' shape and 'Sienna' design, from this Midwinter pottery identification guide, as designed by Jesse Tait: about whom it was said, "..The work she made as chief designer of Midwinter Pottery was characteristic of its time: cheerily and wittily modernist, exuberantly abstract and imbued with the forward-looking visual style of the Festival of Britain".
This particular mug may have been a sample or a second. It has the number 14 stamped on the bottom in tiny green lettering and has what appears to be a cracked handle which has been professionally reglazed and refired.


So tell me about you. Did anything interesting find it's way home with you from the oppy this week?

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? 

or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life. tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.

 How to link up?
1. post your second hand shopping related blog post.

2. link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over and peruse or post in the linky too.

 3. scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the linky tool, then follow the three easy steps.

 4. don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up.

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in blogger and save).

an apple a day keeps Jamie Oliver away

 

The most bewildering of Claud’s recent attempts to tell us when we're "...ALL WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING" was her foot stamping, hands-on-hips huffing insistence that “APPLES COME FROM THE SUPERMARKET”. And this the 3 year old who knows her asparagus from her artichokes, and her hazelnuts from her walnuts. This irritant joined "THE DENTIST HURTS" (she loved the dentist who gave her a bunch of crocodile stickers and a cursory glance at her teeth) at the top of the list of the 'perils of kindy and the big-kid-gospel'. (great name for a band btw!).
Of little matter the apple tree in our garden; albeit elderly and poorly yielding of sour 'cookers'. “THAT'S A CLIMBING TREE. HUH”. Of larger matter that her father was raised in 'The fruit bowl of Canterbury’.  “Right” he said, outraged, slamming down his book to match her defiance, “WE'RE GOING TO MANDALA”. An escapee of  Jamie Oliver defying Rotherham myself, I frogmarched her to the car.

The grass knee high, and bathed in slanting sun, the orchard was fairytale populated by greedy birds. Row after row of stumpy trees sagged with rosy Pacific Rose apples, unpicked, becoming pecked. Claud, full of wonder and hunger roamed, gorging on the go. Terry reminisced about his apple picking youth and lectured us on apple plucking technique, Fin on his shoulder squinting at the sun and the shadows. I chewed and salivated, plotting Loburn apples impaled on prunings, toffee dipped. You can take the girl out of Rotherham, but you can't entirely take Rotherham out of the girl.
I told a wide-eyed Claud the story of snow-white as the birds swooped and chased overhead, who choked on her apple because it was a rubbery on the outside/powdery on the inside cold-stored for goodness-knows-how-long, from-goodness-only-knows-where-in-the-world supermarket apple, who was saved only at the very last minute, by gasping out the magic words ..."...APPLES...GROW...ON...TREES...".
Parents 1 : Big-Kid Gospel 1

20/52 Portraits of my Children

Claudine-hiding from the lens, as per.

Findlay-he would twist his head off in the manner of an owl to avoid taking his amused eyes off his exciting big sister. luckily she finds him equally enchanting.

playing the portrait project game again at Che and Fidel.


*my favourite from last week was the photo of Harper at We Stood Together. it makes me glad every time i look at it.   


and i'm so honoured my slightly chewed soft toy was a favourite at che and fidel last week!

Mothers Day 2013

my first 'made-at-kindy' card. 

awwww..huh? 

a precocious but accurate *wink* observation for one so young!

the ultima op-shop find. Op-Shop Show-Off; May 14th, 2013.

I have mentioned before my husbands op-shopping prowess. he's totally on form at the moment and found these classy glasses in his lunch hour yesterday. 5 hand blown iitalia (Finland) Ultima Thule glasses, designed by Tapio Wirkkala, according to my 70's decorative arts book. 50c each. so cool ice is not necessary!
apparently these come in different sizes but this is the only size i've ever come across-we have a singleton i found eons ago. terry is overjoyed at this significant addition to his drinks cabinet collection.

hurraa! (Finish for 'cheers'), and hurrah too!!!

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? 

or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life. tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.

 How to link up?

1. post your second hand shopping related blog post.

2. link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over and peruse or post in the linky too.

 3. scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the linky tool, then follow the three easy steps.

 4. don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up.

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in blogger and save).

19/52 Portraits of my Children

Claudine:   In her favourite, rather dilapidated get-up.

Findlay: Finding everything fascinating.


Week 19/52 Portraits of my Children project at Che and Fidel.


*My personal favourite from last week was of a sweet sleeper at the night bakery

a whisper of craft

saturday morning means dada-date to claud: swimming lessons and cafe, DVD browsing and rewards chart shopping. she is always ecstatic at the promise of it. ecstasy is so noisy! my shoulders relax as i hear their feet finally crunch gravel on the drive. after the gate clangs closed the incredible racket of a toddler and a father getting ready for a morning out is still palpable, for a minute. ah, quiet.  welcome back, i remember you! the cheerful baby sleeps on lulled by rain tapping and wood fire warmth. the minutes tick by.
i hadn't considered that possibility. ooh the possibilities!  i could nap, read, or cook something frivolous. i could blog, facebook or email, from my bed. i could clean, tidy and sort. or i could just stare into space some more, rub my itchy foot in the carpet a bit longer and then have a pot of tea. but i have had a nagging 'i-want-to'.  i crave craft as much as quiet these days. and perish the thought of leaving my cosy lair and waking my peaceful baby for a gift shop!
but the likelihood of baby waking precludes creativity. this is paint by numbers printing and i just want to get them done. with my hands busy my mind sifts. i think of the lovely muted noises you can hear when the more noisy-noise pause: chook clucks, a page turned, tiny baby snores. ahh. i think about birthdays past, and how old we are all getting, but the big picture passing of time seems so insignificant compared with a whole morning of surprise quiet freedom.








*show and telling

with a rebel yell, she cried more, more, more. Op-Shop Show-Off:May 7th, 2013

my further finds from last weeks riccarton market jaunt included these colourful little numbers to add to my crown lynn colour glaze collection. yes, plates! at long, long last. i love that happy-hoppy-skippy feeling you get when you score something to add to a collection.  

 whilst on the subject of collections i should mention that kiwi collectormaniac Linda the Op-Shop Mama has started up Collection Selection, a collections linky, the spot to find out the fascinating what's and why's of people's collections, including some of mine. 

get thee there (and here!) and show us your stuffs people!





ps. song title post titles. fist pump!

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life. tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.

 How to link up?
1. post your second hand shopping related blog post.

2. link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over and peruse or post in the linky too.

 3. scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the linky tool, then follow the three easy steps.

 4. don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up.

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in blogger and save).

18/52 Portraits of my Children

Claudine: sleeping beauty

Findlay: the baba-dada gaze


loving and learning from the 52 portraits project at Che and Fidel



my favourite this week was stellas of the golden adventures of a very dark horse's portrait of eleanor-magic, just like a character in a fairytale!