On gardening

Here I am again, the weather is (so) far too good to be true, hence I'm out and about and in the garden. Trying to rescue this poor neglected rented garden, we digged all around to create a border and now I'm planting edible flowers and plants that I tend to buy from other people (lots of cottages around sell their plants). I also planted seeds directly to the ground after I prepared it. I don't use nasty chemicals, all I use is Epsom salt and seaweed fertilizer to feed the plants, but if you can make your own comfrey is way much better.
My favourite gardener is Alys Fowler. She talks a "gardening language" that I understand, also I feel too that a garden should involved all senses and be as much edible as possible. 

There are so many ways to have plants without spending a fortune for example from an avocado seed you can have a great looking plant. To sprout, the seed needs a dark place and warmth, a couple of weeks later or a bit more you will see roots, when the stem has few leaves then you can plant it in a pot.

Now as my dear neighbour pointed out I'm becoming a British: going to the garden centre on Sundays, talking about the weather, drinking tea with milk! Oh well, whatever, I say :-)

*New potholders from Renilde will be in the shop soon ( I'll tell you when they are).
I'll add few vintage finds too.

*The cute mug is from Mamzelle Titoo.

I promise, my next posts won't show you my breakfasts.

Toodledeedoo then and cheerio!

On choices

I tried hard but I can't give up coffee and sugar, I reduced the daily dose to two -good- coffee: one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. I only buy fair-trade and organic beans, we drink less so we can afford to spend a bit more on quality and I like to sit down for 10 minutes and drink it in nice cups. 

I started to collect green crockery a while ago, when I saw this Poole celadon coffee set in my friends home last november it became an "obsession" and a bit here a bit there: it's building up!

I found this book in a local bookshop, we decided that it's more important to support local independent bookshops than to save a couple of pounds on-line, again...we read less but we read all we buy ;-)

CAMPS - A guide to 21st-Century Space by Charlie Hailey

Untitled is the new virtual space where I "collect" things I like, have a peep please.

Enjoy the weekend!

LondOn

Back to London for the weekend, back to spend time with nice friends. 

Remember their home? Meanwhile it has changed a bit.

Leah is their cat and she (of course) is the Queen of the house!

This time we saw knitted trees!

Knitted out!

I'm working on a project that will be held in Hackney, watch this space...
Have a nice week.

 

Nice things

She has grown out of pink, I still like it very much.

It's all about blues and yellows now (I dread the black phase)!

I like to wear sandals and socks.

Mieke Willems doll

Mi-avril garland

Udder penguin

On weather and socks

I don't know if when I lived in Italy I talked about the weather as much as I do here in England.

I don't think so, what I remember when I was a kid is that the seasons were hmmm more like seasons, even the fruits and vegetables were dictated by them: the end of the school year meant the season of cherries, nectarines and apricots! Today you can get cherries all year around, I think is not right really.

Hail, storm, wind, sun, heavy rain, what other atmospheric condition shall we expect today? My head feels like an helium balloon ready to explode!

Anyway, the socks will be in the shop tomorrow (these are like candies):-)

In search of a cocoon

Yesterday we had a day of sun, not too much, just enough to pack a picnic and head to Thetford Forest. Being there made me realize how much I need to be surrounded by trees and nature.

Tucked somewhere in the forest we found a space were people built dens with branches of trees, inside them is a cocoon feeling, so soothing and the smell is amazing. We all calmed down and felt much relaxed after a day in the forest. In the evening we browsed a Guide for Camping in UK and choose the next destination for our camping holiday: this time we will head to Cornwall, suggestion and tips on places to visit are very welcome.

Now, I'm really grateful for your visits and nice words here and your support in my shop.

What I don't like is :

1)People who download all the pictures of my clouds (as happened two days ago) in my blog (especially if they are downloaded from countries notorious for "stealing" designs and brands).

2) Anonymous comments who criticize extensively my work.Anonymous person: if you don't like my work or my blog why you take the time to browse here and even leave a comment? Your comment is useless, it won't be published either. I can sleep at night anyway and most of all I will keep making stuff, so, what's the point of being nasty? Do something useful instead or get a life.

3) Please crafters, don't come here telling me that my designs will be your next project on your list of things to make. I put all into the things I make (also money, which are tight for me too). 
If you really have to make something out of my designs (which are NOT craft projects for free) please, at least don't tell me. Also, Pinterest folks, why you put other people (hard) work in DIY folders that you share in public? it doesn't make you look like reliable crafters or bloggers, just little thieves really...

Thank you and sorry once again for my rantings, but hey that's the way I am and I cannot help...

;-)

//

Hello, I just wanted to show you how big Renilde's mobiles are!  

It took me 2 hours to get half decent picture of poor me. 

Excuse the fuzziness, the light is pretty bad these days!

:-)

These are the news I like

More beauties from AtSwim-Two-Birds from this Friday at knots.

Congrats to Sam and Corey, they soon will start their adventure! 

Can't wait to follow them through their journey.

Oxford and thoughts

These cold and rainy days are so uninspiring and boring, I think I reached the point when I have enough: it's not so much about the rain, it's the cold that bother me...aaanyway.

On the weekend though it was sunny and we went to Oxford to visit friends (yep, the "Oxbridge" thing, minus the superior social status, at least for us). 

I like Oxford is quite vibrant and international.

I found out the story behind Alice's in Wonderland while we walked through Christ Church Meadow. It was all very nice.

(I took very few snapshot, sorry for the poor quality).

On another hand this morning I read a post on Pikaland that then led me to more links, I find it interesting. I don't know if it's because I'm European but I live the whole blogging experience quite differently: I know that behind blogs there are human beings, hence daily life and all the different problems that arise from it. I think it's interesting that people feel the need to share the other side of their lives. Are we alienating ourselves by blogging about nice stuff?

In my case my main concerns are for my daughter: how can I raise her in the best way possible, how can I give her the tools to learn to be an independent and strong person to go through life with as little "injuries" as possible (both psychological and physical), how can I teach her to become an individual capable to take her own choices, how can  I do all this without interfering much on her decisions? will I learn to respect and accept her choices? what kind of example am I for her? am I a control freak? sometimes I feel I am, having to tell her: don't do this , don't do that etc...

And of course I too have concerns about money, health, future and getting older. On the state of economy, the lack of ethics in politics and finance, the pollution, the multinationals greed, the world poverty, the animal welfare, the poor standards of instruction and education for the majority of people, the consumerism, the gap between us and them (us the people, them the few privileged who take major decisions on our behalf and for which reason this world is not doing so good in my humble opinion) and so on...I could rant forever on all these things that affect our daily life, like it or not.

I guess these are pretty much "popular" worries that most of us has and sometimes don't make me sleep at night. 
When I go around blogs I never take for granted that what I see is the whole reality of a person's life. Do you?

My advice (if I can give one) is to (always) be true to yourself and your blog will show that principle. Said so, I'll go back moaning about the miserable weather, my favourite past time lately!
:-) 

 

Kinfolk

A new addition in the shop: Kinfolk magazine.

Such an inspirational magazine!

The shop has a new look, do you like it?

Have a good day, rain or not find your way to slow down a bit.

x