button holed

Oh yes the studio was foul yesterday. By two I was almost comatose put I ate a lolly snake and drank some tea sitting in front of a fan and pushed through the 'pain barrier' and managed to get the dresses finished up to button stage- yay for me. Now I have about 100 button holes to do today- blah for me. I might break it down into sets of 4 just to feel like I am achieving something. It's a silly game I play but sometimes it works, production is such a pain that you have to set smaller goals to feel like you are getting somewhere.
On the satchel front it looks like there is movement at the station and we may be receiving stock very soon. I may even be relenting and ordering a few batchels this time around (I don't like the handle very much and you know I am exceedingly opinionated). It won't be a full range of colours and sizes but any stock sells so stay tuned. Sometimes I feel like we are a Cambridge Satchel Company shop, they drive me totally mad at times, I feel like a cartoon character being chased by flying satchels!
I slept in this morning after a bad first half of the night's sleep so I better get moving. I'm still in my pyjamas. Hoping the studio isn't too awful.

hopsack happy

Vintage floral linens make me happy. Yesterday I started cutting and sewing new batches of cushions. I couldn't work on the damn Swiss cotton dresses because I ran out of cream thread and needed to get buttons (which I discovered last night I had already bought) and I couldn't finish the skirts because I had no 20cm invisible zips, my haberdashery wholesaler was off on a long weekend so cushions it was. One of the cushions might actually need to stay with me, it's a rare bit of floral with a beautiful dark grey background. I don't want to let it go. I rarely keep much that I make, not because I don't like it but sometimes when you work and collect and spend your days surrounded by it it just becomes a bit overwhelming. There are things that I have regretted parting with but I take great joy in other people's delight in them.
So I worked my way through a pile of linen fabrics, smiled lovingly at a beautiful golden tinged linen hopsack and stitched up some manky green floral. Joy oh joy! Then I started on the Welsh blankets, a riot of pattern and colour. Most of the linens have made it into the shop but only a couple of the Welshies as I still haven't ordered new cushion inserts. Next week's job, well, one of next week's jobs.
I need to re-do the shop window. It's still basically the Xmas window de-tinselfied. Perhaps it will have to have a floral theme.
I'll say it again..... how the hell is it Saturday again?? This week seemed to run down the drain and 'poof!' it was gone. I know there is no way to stop it but I'm finding it annoying. I mark the weeks out in what I have/haven't achieved and perhaps this is not a good yardstick. I am longing for Autumn though, the Cottage is just that bit more cold-friendly I feel, gloves and hats and woolly things. I've quite enjoyed the dry heat over the last week but I see the humidity is on the rise and thunderstorms are forecast again, which means I will get all lethargic and sweaty. Pretty huh?
Time to get ready for the 11am shop opening.

dogs of unusual size

Thursday felt like Sunday. Sitting in a backyard, eating good food, enjoying the breeze and the chat and not actually 'celebrating' Oystralya Dai. I'm scared of the flag waving, the cars with flags attached, the face painting, the jingoism, the xenophobia. But it's nice taking a day off to hang with friends. Now this morning I am all over the place- is it Friday, Monday or another Sunday? I"m sure there will be a high rate of absenteeism today. I'm tempted to retire back to bed.
The throttling (of the internet) has stopped and joy oh joy it's like the first time you log on to high speed ADSL after years of dial-up! Amazing! Stupid! Ridiculous! I'm getting to see images in quick time rather than giving up and walking away, some of them are exciting but most of them are ho-hum and I have to laugh at myself for getting such internet withdrawals. I was amusing myself by imagining photos from peoples blog/website descriptions, imagination is a lot better sometimes!
I wish I had been able to take a better photo of the dog painting above. It might take you awhile to work out the scale of the thing. If those couch cushions are close to the camera and are 'x' in size then that would make the the painting...... put simply if I was standing next to the painting it might top me my an inch or so and I am 6'1" in my bare feet (if I haven't shrunk which is possible). Those dogs are freakin' huge. It would be hilarious to have it in a really small room- or even a middling sized room or a hugely palatial room.
So no more excuses, I better get off to the studio, do some work, make a living.
And it's Saturday again tomorrow! Perhaps it's this getting older lark, I seem to be losing days and weeks like sand through my fingers!

dressmaking with the dodgy duchess

Thankfully the humidity is sticking around 30%, it may be hot, hot, hot but at least I'm not a greasy pile of sweatiness. The studio isn't actually too bad and I've spent the last few days working on a new batch of dresses. Lovely Swiss cotton floral voile. The components are all ready to go, the skirt bits, the bodice and the facings, they just all need to come together, then lots of button holes and buttons to be done.
I still can't do any hand sewing at the moment, I've just done the third trip to the optometrist and I am really hoping that this time I will get a pair of glasses that work! The first pair were completely wrong and the second were off so if the next pair are right I'm hoping for a clear view of the computer, my books and a needle slipping through fabric. Hopefully by then I shall also have high speed internet connection.
Beck delivered the lovely Dodgy Duchess to me at the studio today. It's amazing how her eyes follow you around the room, in a cross eyed sort of way.

By the way the Cottage isn't open this Thursday, Oystralya Dai. I'll be at the Clarke Street BBQ, drinking ginger beer, if you need me.

days of whine and noses

Fingers crossed any day now my internet connection will click back over and we'll be back to full speed again. Of course this means you won't have to hear any more complaints on that front- although I am sure I can find something else to whine about.
Jethro and I spent most of yesterday on the bed snoozing and reading. I'm wishing I had a real weekend, one where you get a day to rest and a day to do household chores. Although to be honest I know I'd never use the 'household chore day' to actually do any cleaning or anything and would just beat myself up at the end of it for lolling about all day. I'm really not good with that motivation-to-clean thing. I like a clean house but it seems such a waste of time as it never stays that way. It's not that my house is dirty, it's just messy. Well the stairs are pretty grotty at the moment, they seem to catch all the fluff and dust and that gets stuck together when I spill tea on it. See, I'm whining again.
I just had to buy the box of kittens in the photo. That middle one is so Jethro, although his nose isn't pink and he's eyes aren't blue, it's an attitude thing and it's all about the fluffiness.
I'm off to the studio today. That's the plan at this stage but I will have to come back at some point to meet a customer so it's probably going to end up one of those strange disjointed types of days. Hot too. If the humidity stays low I'll be fine working.
On the shop front I am trying to get clothes done, other shops are planning winter drops but this is when we get in the hot weather clothes, the upside of making small ranges. I need to get stitching. We still have our beloved Frida dresses in but we are getting very low on some sizes and colours. Don't dawdle! Dell  got a stocktake done on Friday of sandals and some colours are getting very low, so hotfoot it in (hahaha) quick sticks!

carni folk

Have a close look at that jacket- 3D flowers!

Traditionally the last Friday before Oystralya Dai is marked in the diary (if I had one) as Fryerstown Friday. We jump in the car and head off to attend the Fryerstown Antique Market. It is always hot, plain hot or extreme hot, and very dusty, this year was mainly pleasantly hot, sweaty but not stifling and everyone seemed in a much more relaxed mood than past markets, I put it down to the breeze.
It is always interesting to notice trends and how what is popular one year is gone the next. I like seeing the same stall holders in the same spots. The op shopping compadre and I like to joke about them being 'carni folk'-and in some cases it is a little too accurate- it keeps us amused.

On the way back we stopped at the plum tree that we scored big with last year. We were sure there was none on it until on closer inspection we found the boughs ladened with fruit, hiding under the plum coloured leaves were tons of dusty plum coloured plums. This year they were strangely much sweeter than last, the flesh firm and the skins nicely crisp and pop when you bite into them. Plum and vanilla jelly anyone?
We did also detour up to Bendigo just so I could get a new enamel kettle from the disposal store as mine died this week, a nasty case of Rusty Bottom. I may also have added a small amount of enamel to the collect, just a few pieces I picked up at Fryerstown, couldn't help myself. There were some lovely enamelled spoons and ladles I might regret not getting at some stage. Dear LibraryGirl, I controlled myself, slightly (you've been making me feel guilty for all my hoarding).

I feel into bed at 10pm last night, thoroughly exhausted. 

Saturday again. 

How did that happen?

Better dash. 

I'll be the one plying yarn and spinning wool if you come into the shop today.

late night jamming

A bit of late evening strawberry jam making. I let this batch boil over whilst I was ferreting in the shop cupboard. The strawberry man came around the other day, a January Fitzroy tradition, where the growers send their excess stock out to be sold door to door. Back in my restaurant days you never knew what produce would walk on the door during harvest time. Quite nice when the fruit comes to you!
They weren't the prettiest strawbs but just perfect for boiling up with a bit of sugar and this time I resorted to pectin. It was late and strawberries are notoriously temperamental with their set. Normally I avoid pectin, it's not bad or anything, I just like to get all experimental and see how well I can set with out it, a bit of lemon juice, getting the boil right, reducing the syrup, but at 10pm in a hot kitchen it makes life a little more predictable. Licking the spoon and I was immediately transported to the dry floury taste of fluffy scones and creamy cream. Really strawberry jam is the only way to go with scones. A taste made in heaven.

all the fun of the fair

Apologies for the weird nerdiness of yesterday, just blame it on serious lack of sleep. I'm slowly knitting that ravelled sleeve and feeling a little more together. Maybe the hot nights are at fault too, although I don't really notice it when we have dry heat, which we have been having, rather than any humidity. With dry heat I just end up thinking 'oh was that 35℃? I didn't notice' whereas 35℃ and humid I am lethargically moaning and complaining. Anyway enough with the weather report.
I totally missed posting Sunday's 'humblebrag' which featured Cottage stuff and lovely things from l'Uccello, it's not a big one just a pretty circus themed styling with bunting etc. The flag cushion on the chair has gone but we have two others still here, same-same-but-different. And of course we always have a bundle of bunting hanging about!
I've been hanging about the studio but not feeling very productive, tripping over things and confused as to what to do first. Yesterday I managed to forget things to take things I needed to in order to finish some work and then got called back to the shop so not much achieved. This morning I have piles of emails to answer (stupid email account couldn't be accessed last night- again) and I have to pop into the city to get my replacement glasses.
Oh well, I better get those emails written.

nerdistan

Excuse my absence for the last few days but I have been on a journey into Geekdom and back through Nerdistan. As you know I've been complaining about the throttling of my internet speed over the last few weeks and I have to own up that it was totally my fault for downloading 'Game of Thrones' right at the start of my billing time and during peak hours instead of in the darkness of off-peak early morning (I'm a newbie at this sort of thing). I'd been given a copy of it from a friend but as in all good illegal trades the bloody thing wouldn't play so I opted for the 'way of the pay'. So having been annoyed by the throttling I let it sit there for a couple of weeks until late of Saturday night I decided to drag it out and watch it. Of course I would have to watch it on my computer so I dragged up the rocking armchair to the desk and propped my feet up on the desk stool (surprisingly comfortable as I have now worked out how to sit in this chair, it involves a footstool) and started it up.
Now the first few episodes led to a flurry of texting the next morning to Miss Beck (me propped up in bed in the Roy and her making pancakes off in sunny Cote)- and the cheeky bugger nicked my argument!
Growing up a right book reading nerd I've always loved a bit of fantasy, although I've always been very picky about bad cover artwork on a fantasy novel stopping me dead in my tracks from ever opening and reading. I spent high school reading my way through the Andre Nortons and Ursula le Guins and have the librarians to thank for letting me get away with slipping fiction out on my non-fiction lending card (they let me know they knew what I was up to but never stopped me) and long hot Summers devouring the Dragonriders of Pern series. So to say, I was quite looking forward to G of T.
Was.
It has all the makings of a great ripping 10 hours of TV including some totally fabulous production values, a cast of brilliant British actors, stunning locations, a nice bit of mud, a bit of blood and gore, handsome wolves, well trained message crows and the best title sequence is ages, a kind of clockwork Google Earth.
And some of the world's seriously worst script writing ever.
Oh my god.
And the hilarious cliched characters, everything from the drunken king, the mad widow breastfeeding her 8 year old son, the incestuous twins, the murdered mad king's weirdly blonde children, the muscle bound leader of the Barbarian Horde. I don't quite understand that whilst they seem to have gone all out on the great levels of production they couldn't spring for the computer programme that would have made the Barbarian Horde more convincing, it's a bit hard to make believe 12 horses and 30 people are actually an army of 30,000 in this case. Oh and let's not forget the absolutely appalling geekboy wet dream sex. I think I may have sniggered once to often.
So being a nerd, as I've said, I just had to do a bit of research (thank you Wikipedia) and discovered that one of the writers/developers wrote the script for that great clunker 'Troy' and the other one writes storylines for on-line games. Explains a great deal. This script is really dreadful, some of the worst exposition I've every had the painful delight of sitting through. I really don't understand TV World and its awkward use of books. Why when a book carries a good template to follow (see Sookie) does it totally stuff it up and why when a storyline could actually do with a scrub and polish do they stick to it and not improve it?
I know I probably lost your attention five paragraphs back but as much as I love the production values in this case, I was secretly longing for a BBC wobbly set and an explosion in a quarry. I was bought up on aliens dressed in a terrarium and a pinch pleat curtain, a medieval princess with a zip down the back of her dress, I'm not afraid to suspend belief!
And poor Peter Dinklage got a Golden Globe yesterday. I'm sure it was in apology for the frightfully weird accent he carries through all his scenes and having to sprout some truly dreadful speeches .
Three episodes to go. As they are well on the way to killing off every character I'm vaguely compelled by, I don't know whether I will be back next season.
Anyway I better get off to the studio. I've had a late morning after being kept awake by drunks out in the back alley. Ah Summertime in the city. It means a hot Monday night is perfect for going out with your teenage mates, getting plastered and peeing over your passed out friend who's stretched out on the cobbles- or was I just hallucinating a scene from 'Game of Thrones'?

lost and found

My morning is in disarray, hopefully I will be able to catch up on lost time!
I just caught myself taking a deep breath and willing myself to slow down before my head explodes.
( I hate it when people say 'breathe', if I wasn't breathing in the first place I'd be what is technically called 'dead'. Those self help mantra posters and plaques make me want to do something violent and destructive.)
OK the morning rant is over and I have a cup of tea so all is right with the world.
By the way I found my camera battery charger last night. Yep, it was in the bottom of a basket I have checked in 3 times already. Don't ask. Ridiculous. I swear it reappeared because I had rung to enquire the price and availability of a new one. Normally it would only have been discovered after the new one had been bought and the package opened and all the bags and tags ripped off and open voiding all return policies. Apparently I should be thanking St Anthony of Padua for the Miraculous Reappearance of the Canon Recharger.
So it's Saturday again. Where has this week disappeared to? Perhaps another job for St A of P. Down the back of the couch cushions? Probably in a basket or box I have looked in half a dozen times. Actually he needn't find the lost week, I'd much prefer he goes to work getting my internet speed sorted. Throttled indeed.
I did manage to get a few hours in the studio yesterday in between stomping from and to the brake repair place, car now has lovely new brake shoes, and managed a spot of cleaning, some fabric lugging and some cutting and sewing. The only thing finished and ready to go into the shop by 5pm yesterday was a single 'hottie' wheat bag but there is piles of lavender sachets and eye bags ready to go on Monday.
This time every year I promise myself a new top for my cutting table, this year it must happen. I think in  the past I have just got overwhelmed and annoyed but now I have a roof rack on the car and I will make it happen. Then I can get Graeme the Garbo in to get rid of all the big rubbish in the studio (the old cutting table tops, that 3 metre long piece of wood that someone left on top of the storage room, the broken table and the scavenged yellow office chair that has a strange lean to it). I'm not feeling so depressed being in the studio and I am hoping it stays that way!
Better dash. I've a shop to open.

side bored

I have to say Norden was quite nice to put together. I didn't have one moment of Ikea-angst during the whole build. He was an absolute pleasure. This picture was taken earlier in the day, he's now decorated with some cookatoos, a pile of tins, a collection of Johnston Ware Jamboree plates, a long compartmented wire basket and the start of a regiment of storage boxes. Nothing has gone into the drawers yet. There is still a mountain of sorting and cleaning to be done but getting a new piece of furniture always makes it a bit more focused.
So far the camera charger hasn't appeared so I am hoping that it will magically materialise just as I clean off the top of the table and the light come streaming through the north facing window so that I can get a lovely shot to replace the one that Lucy took that seems to pop up all over the interweb.
I'm taking the car off first thing in the morning to get new shoes, brake shoes that is, so I will be back on the road again soon. I'm feeling the need for a country jaunt. Tomorrow though I'll spend the day up in the studio (hopefully) and start thinking about making stuff. I suppose I have to do it sometime soon, I'm starting to feel a bit weird just hanging around home and the shop and I'm sure the girls will be glad to see the back of me!
In shop news we've just got a new shipment of the Tasmanian CWA 21st Anniversary Cookbook and the CWA Classics Cookbook. I'm itching to try a few more of the cake and slice recipes! Right now though I need to get a batch of sourdough ready for a long slow rise.

waiting for norden

The extent of creativity here at the moment has been hanging tapestries and waiting for the delivery truck from Ikea to arrive ('any time between 7am and 1pm, they'll text you half an hour before' and I am really hoping it is before 11am......). Yes, I have made a decision. I've gone with the Norden, all 48kgs of it, I'm planning to lug it upstairs piece by piece.
The wall has been patched and re-patched and painted, inspected by the Fur Controller and I've pulled out all my special framed tapestries that for one reason or another just haven't made it onto the wall yet. I'm trying out a new arrangement which hopefully I'll get to photograph once I have found the blasted camera battery recharger unit (still AWOL).
Weird dreams again last night. I was in the French class when I was meant to be studying German and then I was offered a French/Japanese scholarship. Must have something to do with the pot sticker dumplings I made and ate at 9.30 last night.
I'm off to clean all the crap off the stairs. Jethro had one of his spak attacks this morning (run across the bed, leap off the bed, run along the landing, pelt down the stairs, race into the shop, over the top of the counter, turn around, run back upstairs, across human in bed, turn, repeat) and managed to send a box skidding all the way to the bottom spewing stuff everywhere. That put an end to his hi-jinks.


Update!
Norden's in the house, in the house, in the house.
Of course the box is far more interesting than the contents.

closer

I really am being quite lazy. I'm doing things, running about but in a very half-arsed way. Yesterday was another trip to the optometrist's as they managed to totally stuff up my new prescription. A lovely more experienced lady did the tests this time and bingo! The test specs were perfecto! Hmmm.
I had such a hard and depressing January last year and am taking things differently this year as I just don't want to slide into that pit of despair again. It doesn't mean that one Black January means the next year's January will be Black too but I am erring on the side of caution and hoping that a bit of self-mollycoddling is preventative medicine. I'll know it is time to pick up the speed when I get that mild sense of panic (there was a tinge this morning I must admit). I'm thinking a studio visit may even be on the cards for tomorrow.
So if you have been visiting this blog to see creativity in full flight then you might need to wait a few more days! Mind you the wall patching happened last night and the first coat of patch paint went on too. The Norden table is looking like the way to go so I may even take the car out to Ikea this morning. Wish me luck as I may take one look at it in the flesh and growl in annoyance and storm home in frustration.
And crazy as I am I am enjoying this Autumnal blast of rainy squally weather quite a bit. As you know I am not a huge fan of blistering Summer.

flummoxed

They say that dreams are the 'clearing house of the mind', I say 'gee thanks for those nightmares last night'. As I have said I am a bit paranoid about one of the GSIs (Gertrude Street Irregulars) ripping the new doilies off the tree after hearing one of them say on Saturday that 'it's strangling the tree'. Well founded paranoia it seems as someone did manage to damage a foot long piece yesterday morning, easily fixed, all well. Last night though I had a strange and annoying dream that I ran downstairs after hearing noises out the front to find a group of GSIs sitting under the tree. I opened the door and asked them to be careful, shut the door and went back upstairs. A minute later I realised I needed something from the shop and went back downstairs to find two of them stuffing tea towel cushions into Coles supermarket green bags and Ikea big blue bags. Politely I asked them to leave and they do, taking all their friends with them. Back to dream-bed I headed and just as I fell off to dream-sleep a massive bang sounds from downstairs and I race down to find the whole of the shopfront blown-out and stock strewn across the street. I woke up thinking 'well that was fun- not', I'm thinking it was a crazed mix up of my doily-fears and the shop that exploded on Lygon Street last week.
So enough of my dream diary.
I have a further problem to bore you with, my shelving plans have gone seriously awry. I started work yesterday for the installation drawing nice level vertical and horizontal lines and I marked the position of the drill holes. Out came the drill and the first hole went in. Straight into a good 3" of sand plaster, no hidden brick work, no wooden lathes to bite into, nothing but crumbly honeycomby sand plaster in every single hole. Sometimes I long for a home built with stud walls and plaster sheet!
The whole plan has come to a grinding halt. There will be no shelves attached to this wall, ever, never, no way. So now I need to patch and paint and make a decision about how I am going to deal with my storage issues. Sadly I have had to go to the Ikea website and look at furniture I have been trying to avoid. I'm stumped. I need something practical and unfussy. I'm down to two possibilities- the PS cabinet (a bit lower than I would like for that wall but has doors to hide things behind) or the Norden occasional (a long table with drawers and shelves, higher but everything on show). Hmmmm. Norden is currently winning. Damn you Ikea for being ubiquitous but functional!

bonkers

My internet connection is driving me completely and utterly bonkers. It is so slow and then pages won't load and picture scroll down about a centimetre and then stop. In this particular case I am not a patient person. Perhaps it's payback for teasing Jen for the last couple of years for being on dial-up!
I loved lying in bed yesterday listening to the rain. I ventured out sleepily to get the papers and then hopped back in bed with tea and toast and at some stage in the afternoon both Jethro and I had the biggest nap. I really enjoyed it. I'm reading Neal Stephenson's new novel 'Reamde' and as it weighs in at 1042 pages I have to sit up slightly and balance it on my chest. It's a cracking read, full of online computer games, hackers, terrorists, Russian mafia and mercenaries, lots of guns and three intriguing female characters.
I haven't managed to make a plan to get into the studio yet. I'm enjoying drifting about a bit. I have things to do here at the shop/home but I'm not really getting very far with any of it. Last January I felt very depressed and exhausted so this year I am trying to easy myself into the year a little slower. This is the problem with self-employment, the need to get work done and the necessity of having a rest. I'm aiming more for the latter at the moment. I do need to spend a day scouring the house for stashes of tea towels, vintage fabric and Welsh blankets that got shoved away in the lead up to Xmas.

bad art, things go missing and a plan

I ventured out yesterday. A little unproductive op shopping on the outer northern fringes. Vinnies Epping seems to be the home of some seriously bad art that I was almost tempted to buy. It was also the home of a seriously funky bad smell and escape was necessary (this sentence contains the only use of the word 'funky' I will permit, as in bad, wrong, off). It also has some quite good furniture, Edwardian/1920-30s that I am guessing all came from the same house, an oak table, a couple of dressing tables but slightly on the expensive side, I can imagine anyone out that way even looking twice at it all.
Anyway I am in denial as it is once again Saturday and my allocated shopgirl day. Even though I have been loitering in the shop all week it has come as a shock to the system. I so didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Last Saturday I was happy to get up early as I knew I could slip back under the sheets and eat breakfast and slurp tea in bed. Not this week!
I seem to have lost the recharger for my camera batteries, my broadband speed, a single Birkenstock sandal and any desire to be motivated. I am hoping that I didn't leave the recharger in Tasmania, that I can find patience waiting for pages to load, the sandal hasn't accidentally been thrown out and that if I clean my bedroom I will find both the Birkenstock and the motivation have been sucked into a dust bunny but with a careful bit of  vacuuming they can be returned to working order. That's the plan anyway.

hoily doily

I spent today out the front frocking up Miss Magnolia after she got stripped bare by one of the Gertrude Street Irregulars on New Year's Day. Oh my, she is looking stunning! She's lost her 'Miss Havisham' look and is glowingly white- until the rain and cars send her tattered grey again.
People stopped to thank me for re-doing her and a car pulled up for its passengers to take photos. I am always amazed by people's reactions to a pile of doilies stitched to a tree.
She does look very very pretty though.

hacker

Popped down to Ikea last night to pick up the brackets for the New Project and was excited to see they have a new product instore- Pållett. I feel this new system is ripe for a bit of hacking! It's a bit 'earthier' than the usual finish of Ikea products but I think they are possibly tapping into the whole industrial look. Can't wait to see it appearing in The D-Files home profiles!

open(ed)

I had grand plans to post yesterday that the shop was open again after the Xmas break, somehow it just didn't happen- so better late than never, the shop is open again! 

I managed to finish the screen door re-vamp, Jethro has climbed it, he's found it a little saggy on the right side but he hasn't managed to tear it yet so thumbs up. I patch painted marks on the walls, moved stuff around, packed stuff away, removed all signs of glitter and tinsel and hi-de-ho off we go again for another year!

I think the heat was drained me completely, instead of feeling rested I am feeling completely exhausted. I always seem to take forever to wind down and by the time I should be ramping up again I am lethargic and energy-less. A bit like my internet access at the moment. I managed to download something at the very start of my billing time and now I have to put up with page downloads so slow I am nostalgic for the dial-up days. I'm resorting to my iPhone to read blogs! 

Well I better mosey off and see what Jethro is up to. I have a bundle of packages to pick up from the post office I see so that should be exciting. At least the heat has abated even if the humidity has skyrocketed. The Cottage does seem to be a woolly place even in the midst of Summer with the Welsh blanket cushions and the blanket quilts but we still have sandals and  Frida dresses, both of which we had a run on yesterday! 

Perhaps I need to sit on the couch today and meditate on what I need to do once I get back into the sweat shop studio.

queasy weasy

I moved very slow today. Don't really know why, yes it was hot but not overly hot inside even though I forgot to shut the windows and keep the heat out. I tend to keep the windows open to let any breeze to creep through. Tomorrow though I think I should shut the house down.
I managed to get a bit more of the shop done but I started to feel queasy and lethargic and just had to crawl upstairs. I really have shut down. I need to get it all finished tomorrow or we won't be able to open on Tuesday! One more coat of paint is needed on the bottom of the screen door and it is sorted. The greasy face and hand prints on the shop's glass door had me mightily amused this morning.
One of the Gertrude Street Irregulars took a dislike to the doilies on the magnolia tree this morning and ripped every bit off. I didn't realise what was going on until I saw him shake the tree at the end. He even cleaned up all the lace and got rid of it. Whilst part of me was angry and annoyed the other part was quite thankful that he had done the messy part and now Miss Magnolia is ready for me to apply her new dress. Lets hope psych services is back up and running after the Xmas break and he doesn't take offence when I apply the next batch of doilies!
Jethro has spent the day lying in the sun(!) or on the concrete floor downstairs. Why he feels the need to sunbake wearing his huge fur coat is beyond me! It's going to be a shock to his system when we re-open. We both enjoyed puddling about on the wet deck after I gave the plants all a good bucketing after dark this evening. I've just taken a Sri Lankan curry off the stove, ready for a good sweaty meal tomorrow.
40℃.
Blah.