'tis the season of the glove

The dyepots are finally boiling. I should have started dye a month ago but the humidity was so overpowering I couldn't face sweating my days away lugging pots around and stirring, stirring, stirring.
I managed ten batches yesterday but that is merely the tip of the iceberg. We have new swing tags coming in this week for them and I am going to have to allocate a few days a week just to the gloves- in fact my life from now until August will be centred on these fluffy little bread-and-butters.

i ♡ painkillers

Thought you might be sick of my whinge-ing and whining (and I had little to report) so I stayed away for a few days. I discovered yesterday afternoon that the stronger painkillers actually made me productive and cleared the pain induced fog in my head so I am feeling a little clearer and a bit more focused and productive. I am starting to see the path through the trees a little more.
I was at the studio early(ish) yesterday for a stylist's assistant to come pick up new autumn/winter stock for a photo shoot, I sanded down the other new/old shop table (still need to paint base) and  I made new cushions for the shop. We have very pretty new floral linen ones, a Sanderson print with the most beautiful mauve-y background, the colour makes me happy and the design is so sketchy and nice.

I also made a pair of cushions out of a piece of fabric I've been lugging around for years. It's a thick printed velvet in a kitschy alpine/flying duck/mill by the forest print. They are quite fab and need to go on a couch in a fake wood paneled room with an alpine/flying duck/mill by the forest print on the wall (and maybe a couple of crossed fake blunderbuss/pistols above the woodgrained box  tv). They are backed in denim and are quite cuddly- bit like me sometimes.

It's Saturday again, amazing. I have a lot to do this weekend, I'm a month behind in my glove dyeing and I really need to get as much done tomorrow as I can. Perhaps if I start seeing gloves fluffily piling up I will start to feel more productive. Cause and effect.

another shade of blue

I'm still blue.
And annoyed with myself for feeling so frustrated.
I've been working on a new project for the last three days and now I'm thinking it might have to be scrapped or at least reworked. Is it worth the time already spent?
I'm particularly annoyed with myself as I managed yesterday to soak a very expensive piece of fabric in the wrong soaking mix and it is now ruined (note to self: make sure you are awake before doing the laundry).  See- annoyed, annoying, annoymous.
Whilst I was in the studio today I stopped each hour and spent 5 minutes doing a little cleaning or sorting, I just can't manage to get things in order in one big hit so I am trying to break it down a little.
As a strange mixture of punishment and reward I decided late this afternoon that I needed to get the new table for the shop finally sanded. My dear antique dealer friend lent me the lovely Wiener Werkstatte table we use now and it was meant to be on loan for a year. Well it's been a bit longer than that. The new old table has been sitting in the studio for about 4 months now, taking up room and making things crowded. I dragged the top out into the hallway and around to the slightly putrid sink/bin area and pulled out the sander. I made a huge noisy mess but it's all done now and ready to be waxed and polished. I have another old table up in the studio that needs a bit of TLC and then it will be time for the big ol' switcheroo. Of course the sanding didn't take that long all in all and I am slightly kicking myself about procrastinating. Always the way.
I think my low vibe could also be put down to a lot of waiting that I having to do at the moment, things that are making me slightly unsettled. Things like the new tables for the shop and that I need to re-jig shop displays- and that we are getting a new front window. I'm sad that we will be losing the lovely lattice windows but I am happy that we will be getting windows that don't leak and aren't rotten. The new windows will also hopefully make doing displays a little easier.
Autumn is a week away, I have lots of work to do.

train of thought

I'm still in my pyjamas, eating muesli in front of the computer.
There is so much to do at the moment and my strange malaise is turning quickly into panic. There  never is a level ground here. February has been a slow month and there I was glad to see the back of January, damn.
There are new things afoot. I just wish they would happen in a bit more of a satisfying manner. I suppose it is just a case of building momentum. Chugger, chugger, splutter and away the creative train goes.

the mongrel hordes

I think I've made some headway with the kitchen clean and sort. It's certainly not finished but I managed to drag everything out from under the stairs (Jethro went into check it out and ended up lying on the floor with his paw up to his shoulder poked through a hole in the floor, he was incredibly excited by the possibility of mouse), packed boxes full of odd crockery, glass and knick-knackery, shoved and stacked it and shut the door on it.
I unpacked and cleaned all the kitchen cupboards and stood amazed at the sheer amount of plate-age I own. Tottering towers of Johnson Bros (Australian and English) ware, Meakin, Villeroy and Boch, Royal Staffordshire, Franscican, Majolica, Diana, Poole..... it goes on and on and on..... a crazy mix of pretty crockery..... tons of the damn stuff.....
The ridiculous thing is I only really use a mug, a bowl and maybe a plate (more often than not one of my massive enamel haul) every day.
The problem is if I sell it all I'll either regret it or end up starting a new collection.
And on it goes.

balmy morning

Walking down to the bakery this morning I was blown away by the green green grass, the sparkly leaves and shiny sun. The humidity might be killing me but it's giving the formerly-known-as the Garden State a real burst of fecundity. The breeze was the amazing mix of cooling and balmy and I had a moment in thinking I could quite happily lie down and let it gently blow over me (well maybe not on Gertrude Street outside the Housing Commission flats but in my dream garden perhaps).
It's been a quiet week in the Cottage, we are putting it down to a mixture of the weather, school's back  and maybe the Xmas credit card bills have arrived, perhaps my general malaise hasn't helped either.
But we have had stock arrive! The twine is back in, the Hookturn cups too and best of all the Douglas sandal order arrived yesterday. Anna and I spent the last bit of yesterday bagging the sandals up in the shoe-bags I made in the morning and stacking them on the shelves. We've got all colours and sizes 3 (euro 37) up to size 7 (42) so hurry on in!
I've just slugged back on my first tea of the day and am now sweaty and hot from the inside out. Charming.





I don't know why it is but every Saturday when  I am pressed for time I can never access my emails. Invariably I've emailed a photo to my self from my phone and I want to use it but no, thank you TPG you have decided to once again block all in-coming messages.... just as I finished putting the full stop to this little rant my emails came through.... perhaps TPG were listening..... OK now I'm creeped out....

amusement

I had to go out to pick up some fabric from the wholesaler in Thomastown this morning and as a bit of fun I thought I'd go to the Grand Opening of the new Saver's store at Mill Park. It was going off! I was more than amused to hear, in amongst the racks, two women discussing that it was 'the biggest thing that has ever happened in Mill Park' and how it would energise the whole suburb. A thrift driven economic recovery- politicians take note!
If I could have been bothered I probably could have scored big but I just opted for a bundle of tapestries and 18 books from Time Life The Good Cook series. I don't seem to be following Library Girl's good recipe book culling but almost half of them went in Dell's direction. I still have some duplicates though- like the cake edition- that might be kept in reserve as presents or swapsies.
I'm still not working up to scratch but I'll get there.
I hope.
Thanks to everyone who sent me messages about the last post. Living is sometimes just about trying to keep a balance happening, in my case it's about trying to keep pain levels at a tolerable level so that I can carry on living the everyday. I think it is what we all do, each of us have our own balancing game to play, but it is nice to know that there are others out there teetering away too.