straw number, newspaper and glasses

panic is a fickle thing. did i just say i gave plenty of vases away? as i was going through a moving box in the cellar, i couldn’t find the vase from the previous post, of which a few of you readers asked for a full body view. i started wondering if perhaps i had been giving away the wrong boxes? already an error so early in the process? as i say. panic. but then i viewed the one box from the corner of my eye, the one in which this straw beauty needed to be wrapped up in newspaper, in order to protect her from harm …. so here she is. i added my glasses to the setting to lend a sense of proportion. she will be shown next when she finds another great spot, in ther new, old house. she will have to be patient first though. ☻

greener pastures, midnight green actually

“they go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong, remembered for ever like shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom”

[yes. from grease. i know!]

and they really seem to fit in with one another too! thrifted at different moments in the same shop, they may even have lived together at one stage, who will tell?

the linen table runner is unused, might shrink, will sing its song in our new home though.

the vase is one in a million… my million : i have too many vases by now. today, i have been wrapping up vases, i’ve given plenty of vases away, and i broke one in the washing just now. bell will be upset. it’s the huge, petrol (that would be midnight green) coloured one she brought along last saturday, the one we thrifted a while ago and was too big for the train ride. sorry dear. i guess she was a vase who didn’t want to live with me. gone to vase heaven. what can i say. [and for sophie's vintage attic]

transition

with son spreading his wings and indulging in independent thinking and acting (apart from a financial backdrop), i realise he’s no longer a child, my child even, we are no longer in the same zone. he’s whispering his yearnings into younger people’s ears. not that i didn’t see it coming, nor that it’s in any way unnatural. i believe even i cut the umbilical cord with my own parents far earlier than he does today. but i must have gone and missed that precise moment of incision and separation, indeed. when was it that i grew this old that i can but notice him crossing the street and slipping into his friend’s parents mercedes, chasing his own dreams. the trusty merc not driven by dad, but by friend himself, reassuringly turning the motor 'round the curb and out of sight. did i blink, did i swallow?

this fall we will blot out even more memories of a bygone dream, when we replace our current house for a freshly renovated one, a blank canvas to a new dimension. nothing will be familiar then, there will be no mental notes to fall back upon, no reliable criteria to turn to. as i’m shyly inclining towards resignation, i can’t help it. apart from anything else, i’m into missing the feeling of missing my boy too.

hand in glove {renov #5}

{previously}

23/08/10 - many hands have been inside these gloves, rushed through my mind this morning, early morning, as i was awaiting the electrician man to whizz me 'round the house for the position of all those light switches and buttons. in the meantime we are down to five and a half chimneys that need to come down still. there's light, at the end of the tunnel, they say. there. i just switched that a one on!

in between labour, laughter and rhyme, l. and i poured over the newly born russels. no, not at my place.

l. grafting, me taking the picture in the sudden realisation i had not been taking pictures of the stages.... sorry for the extreme poor quality. we're down to cell phone images here.

although the picture doesn't actually belong to the grafting saturday, it could have! this one is a fruity cherry beer... on the rocks! funny thirst-quencher that. we drank it in the runner up to our grafting saturday... and never got drunk!☻

a little vintage touch

[book illustration - part of an impressive 'giant's' event in antwerp, belgium at the very moment]
all work and no play, makes jacqueline a dull girl… it’s my personal take on an old proverb, best known for its use in THE SHINING (in the slightly more original version that is). remember THE SHINING? another film i probably should have watched later then when i first did.

[sandy heart found on new, old house floor]
just a note on that to say that vintage is on my mind, and nowhere else. the house renov had me going all day yesterday (luckily in good company of l. - so THANK YOU!), and as these last miles of stripping our house to a shell unmistakably are the longest, hardly any thrift shop saw me entering. although. i have to say. wool and cotton (for the blanket, you know) did find its way up my alley. after having adjusted my bike to my own standards again (son has one ride on it, and my bike is completely altered!), i did pop in at the local and scored, oh my, beautiful stuff, not just for the blanket.

here is a little yarn teaser, and the vintage ceramic tray (an original danish beer company café tray) it’s resting in comes from a flea market a few weeks back. i love the typography on the tray, by the way. there is more, there is so much more that needs a worthy post. but it’s going to sit in my file for a week longer. remember perhaps the notebook perils? yes, sunday has arrived, and i may just give all things IT another rest. and myself too. [library adventures ususally holds more things vintage]

within reach

[sage - rosemary - oregano wild]
september being the one month i’m already looking forward to when july starts, now she is finally within reach. do you think that is funny, a little ungrateful even? when sensing the upcoming month in the august air though, i know she's going to be powerful, once again. some flower buds are really melting down now, and herbs are moving onto an interesting stage. grapes are fully blooming, or should i say, fruiting. [calling all readers : what the heck am i going to do with them? suggestions so welcome.... could i like, distill alcohol, the dummy way?]☻

[hortensia - blood sorrel]
september-runner-up-sounds come muffled, cats fall silent, dogs bark more lightheartedly. the swelling air tends to fill up on winter promise, while our feet are aching once again, to walk those autumnal miles. come to think of it, it's the only time they really do. ache, i mean.

[grapes!]
my. fall promise is always keeping me hanging on. do you sense that too?

one hour and a half ...

… of doodling on a cross country train is what it took to update the cover of and old moleskine address booklet. An act about two years late, but never mind. it’s gonna end up with a piece of string though a hole on the top hand, to then hang from an imaginary nail, above the to-be-realised telephone stand in the hall. come to think of that, no space in the hall, and no phone to speak off yet.and ofcourse, as usual, there's a lot more going on.

every day like sunday

while august raindrops are rejoicing small victory on the window panes, i’m sitting a little aimlessly behind the new laptop, actually missing my desktop and all its habitual features. are you a singleton such as me who loses way in this myriad of programs to download, the next grueling step only being falling short of making the right choice? If this be so, please join my sunday club of miseries, and pour yourself a cuppa. i think i’m gonna pull the curtains, and the bed sheets for that matter, and stock up on long gone straightforward sundays, simply filled with library books and a handwritten diary.

lucky number

a banana wasn’t going to save her from ...

... the lucky number she pulled.

she chose the runaway river,

lest she be smothered by her own kind. some job!
[maybe there's more splendid thursday entertainment on kootoyoo?☻]

dough it up

i prefer home made pizza crust (recipe/recept) to store bought dough. nonetheless it took me a good few years to finally discover this easy pastry case, and then by accident. versatile and to my likings as this dough is, it is used in our kitchen for pizza crust, vegetable pie / tart, toast, ….
the trick of this simple delight (let’s face it : soggy pastry cases we do not want) lies in the addition of fine grained cornmeal*, i’m sure. but i’ll admit it, i dare to blind bake a crust for just a few minutes, especially if the filling is very wet (e.g. belgian endivy). the dough freezes well, so make plenty in the machine.
*cornmeal, by which i mean finely grounded cornmeal, not cornstarch, i buy at the indian shop, or at the chinese supermarket

a bird's tale

[wall paper donwstairs, unfortuantely a goner]

ofcourse i didn’t show ♥it♥ all in one go. you bet i saved the best for last. after a week of planning and wrecking, the vintage shops didn’t exactly lure me in, but my attic did! i’m sorry to disappoint those who would have wanted to adopt the baby found amidst the rubble, lack of vigilance on my part made her slip into the hereafter. but other honeys popped up. i already showed you the bird’s tail, well here she is in full armour.

[oil paint on hard board]
i think she might want to live on on my bedroom wall. later. but then j. unearthed this a-one.

[ochre coloured lamp shade]
years of solitude under weather dust blowing up from between the roof tiles, and still she shines. untouched, uncracked, whole. i am in love with her. one day soon she will throw down light like she has never done before.

saturday, again

family affair {renov#4}

{previously}

05/08/10 - deader than this is nowhere near possible. on the other hand (and knees), gleefully dead. the morning started out slow, mindful. as the hours passed, activity rose. the recycle park saw us return many, many times to the same containers. in the end they started clapping. the result was an emptied out attic. i mean : e-m-p-t-y. but wait a minute? it wasn’t all rubble after all!

there was an old painting, probably ruined by dust….

there was industrious j. hanging from the crossbeam in my future studio…

i was caught in action…

old wallpaper simply begging for attention of the lens…

well goodbye, dolly…

... and hello bird’s tail!
yes! all that found and recuperated. to stay. all of these charmers will be popping up again, over the year to come… whilest, in the meantime, still humming. it’s a family affair, it’s a family affai-air….

rack and ruin

[click on pictures to look for clues yourselves]

05/08/10 - i am looking for clues. and analogies. if i can find the link between a heap of half finished grannies and a ton of rubble, then perhaps courage will strike? it is cleaning-the-cobwebs-out-of-the-attic time today, and besides that : an old, worthless bedframe, broken children’s toys, old filthy clothes, plastic bags filled to the rim with undefined old hat, and more debris. other debris still than the tons of stone and sand we conveyed already. it seems all the stuff the people before us didn’t want, they simply pushed and shoved in the attic. behind a false ceiling. that we are now taking down. boy, are we bumping into the hidden flaws of our 64! wish it was hidden treasures. i seriously do. [and kootoyoo]

rise to the occasion

i was seriously considering making a lemon meringue pie, but i felt a little conscious of making soft meringue. i turned to cannelés de bordeaux instead, for which i altered the recipe slightly. i came up with too runny a batter, and thought, this will not do in the oven. these may bake into pastilles perhaps, but not the little snacks they are supposed to rise to. now, in the end, they taste good, they remind me of the tiny dutch pancakes called poffertjes. there is a distinct egg-milk-flour whiff in the air, so i can honestly state this is a fancy, rhummy way of having your pancakes. i used a floured flexible ‘nipple’ mould for the occasion. you do need a small partitions mould, in which you can then pour the liquid. (recipe/recept)

{vintage} ghent windows

(vintage "closed" sign at the door)

on our day off bell and i decided to score some (window) shopping. “windows only” soon turned out the tenor of the day, really. after the popular ghent festivities a lot of beauties did close shop for a (well deserved) break after a ten day partying marathon (this is a local habit only!).

("dicht" means, you've got it!, c l o s e d )
(and psssssssssst - doesn't the girl half remind you of mad men's peggy olson?)
tough luck we chose this day of all days to uncover those unfamiliar treasures ~ gladly whispered in ears by lily & hermine. a big thank you, girls! ~ , only to find most doors closed for holidays.

(orange chocolate treats)
not all was bad though. the sun was out, it wasn’t too hot, big fluffy clouds persued, In the end those windows really did work a treat. they kept our spirits high for a swift return to hands full of inspiring ideas. and then for sophie's choice.