✴ happy monday

It always makes me chuckle, that no matter what kind of paint brushes, rollers, stamps, sponges and other fancy schmancy painting tools we have....there is nothing quite like swirling your finger in a dollop of paint and daubing it on the paper!  

It takes literally seconds for the paint to come out that little keen toddler fingers {hands...elbows...toes...} get completely covered and, as we all know it's a short hop, skip and a jump before everything else within toddler reach gets covered too. 

And so, with warmer weather we are doing our painting outdoors. And how lovely it is too...

"I like painting..." the little voice says..."I like hands..."..."I like cats..."

Watch this space, it's only a matter of time before I find a grumpy purple cat {or two} on my doorstep...

Happy, colourful week! x

✴ until next time

Today is the last day of Christmas. The day when all of the decorations must be pulled down and packed away until next time.

It's always sad to think it's all over. That's it. Done and dusted. It never seems to last that long, after all that effort and preparation.

I read recently in a magazine somewhere, that Sophie Conran starts to prepare for Christmas in July! How bonkers is she? I thought. Now I'm thinking that isn't such a bonkers idea. Infact, now I'm thinking it's a pretty good idea actually. I always have great hopes for lots of festive making and baking and I always seem to run out of time or find myself hurriedly writing Christmas cards in the car/bath/dentist waiting room or am struggling to remember exactly how to fold the perfect origami crane at sometime past midnight!

So now we are left with slightly drab and bunting-free walls with the occasional small patch of plaster missing from too much tape...(ooops...who did that??!) and two confused pusscat's desperately searching for anything bauble/pine cone-like to kick around the floor and bury under the sofa.

I'm keeping the fairy lights up though, it doesn't say anything in the rules about having to take down fairy lights, I mean they're not just for Christmas, are they?

✴ Through the front door...

Another week of My Place and Yours from Meet Me At Mikes. This week the theme is Through The Front Door chosen by Femme de Montmartre.

Pop along to Pip's for more doorways...

This week I've decided to focus on back home. The door to this apartment is decidedly uninspiring and well, apartment like, so after 3 months here, I am looking forward (2 weeks today!) to returning to my 1930's semi in the suburbs of Surrey. Aahhhh....

The photo above was taken just after moving in 2 years ago. It's had a lick of paint since then and a few extra bits and bobs, usually a plant or two on the window sill (probably now dead) and a small pile of letters and junk mail (probably now a mountain) waiting to be sorted and sent to the recycling.

Outside there are brick red steps leading up to the front door and a spotty front door mat from Laura Ashley. Either side of the door sits a bay tree planted in a great big pale green plant pot which is festooned with tiny fairy lights at Christmas time.

But you'll have to imagine that.

Also imagine the Arts & Crafts oak sideboard to the left of the door as you walk in, an Ebay find and the large 1930's oak oval mirror on the wall opposite also from Ebay and which arrived with a large crack in it (eek!) and was only replaced just before we came out to Australia.

On a bright day the sun streams through the stained glass, projecting distorted rose shapes onto the pale walls.

On the wall leading up the stairs is a small assortment of framed family snaps, old and new. This is the beginnings of what I hope will become a striking feature wall, full of happy images and visions of times gone by, but I've only just begun and there are still a lot of photographs to go through...

I love arriving home and walking through my stained glass door. I love that the sound of the key turning in the lock wakes Tabitha and Olive sleeping on the stairs who come running to greet me with a soft miaow and an affectionate head butt against my legs. A gentle reminder that I should probably feed them  first before kicking off my shoes and making myself a cup of tea and slouching in front of the telly!

New trees and sheds

Today, Tabitha and Olive had fun in the garden in the random few minutes that the rain stopped and the sun shone.

Tabitha was brave and climbed up onto next doors shed roof. This is quite adventurous for Tabby as she has been quite timid in the garden and doesn't seem to have ventured far. I think this may have been caused by a confrontation by a strange ginger cat that appeared in the garden one day and obviously frightened poor Tabby.

Anyway so while she climbed over next doors shed roof and then into their garden, Olive was discovering a brand new tree that she obviously hadn't noticed before.

Olive stared up at this new climbing frame for a second before hurriedly scrambling up it.

She enjoyed it lots and went quite far up until, typically she then had to work out how to get back down...not so easy!

Eventually, after me attempting to climb half way up in my big clumpy Eskimo slippers, ready to catch her should she fall, she finally did her usual backwards shimmy down the tree trunk hanging on by a claw!

If cats really do have nine lives she is definately using all of hers to the absolute limit!

May 1st, 2008

At last there seems to be a little sunshine and Tabitha and Olive are making the most of this respite from the rain and are happily chasing bees and climbing trees!