Queen for a day...

What real commentary do these photos need?
You require only one vital piece of information...
I shopped today at a FANTASTIC vintage clothes Fayre (Northampton University) Mary Jane beauties £8

Leather bag to die, and live for! £20 (i call her 'envy', she is the envy of my sister who missed this treasure and IF i had missed it too, i would have 'envied' the new owner in a painful way)

Please also note cute little orange resin ring on my pinky £3 (thanks sis for that photo!)

The dress 'furthest' away is a Cath Kidston i might wear to a birthday lunch this weekend. I am worried it is a bit casual though. The middle is a navy print 60's dress from todays spree. The nearest is a negligee type dress in anticipation of a warmer Summer - again, found today.

I confess, there was more, but these were hurried x

The Fish Family. A fragmented and unusual family where sightings as a 'group/trio' are rare...

Ahhh Birthday-ness!

I want to say THANKYOU for all my birthday merriments and salutations. I am never usually one to 'make a fuss' but it all turned out so pretty!
I had a pile of lovely gifts - don't worry, i won't show you them all.... but very Colourful and Cookery and Cath and Cute...

Mmmmm - Gift Tokens!

Aaaahhh - shopping! Me and the YoungFish under my NEW owl teatowels x PAPERCHASE (on my list of 3 High Street weakness')

Wearing the Tea-towels.... !

Tea and cake at Station Yard Antiques Barn in Chipping Norton. Look at all that lovely crockery!! I was in heaven but ManFish struggled to get his heavy hands around the tea-cup handle (i love him for trying though)

MMMMmm bargain pearl necklace we bought from Past Times for £5

I had my hair cut which is always a nice birthday feeling. My hairdresser doesn't think it looks too red though............. ?! i beg to differ (been trying to cut all that red out)

Blue Wrap Dress has birthday significance as I am wearing it today but it was a thrift find on my birthday travels.

AND - look.... a present to ME from LauraFallulah too! She is a total sweetheart and i adore it!

See you in August my lovely x

Birthday Blogging x

Birthday Fish

I was born on a wednesday ( i think ) at around 9pm.

It was the 12th day of March 1975.

I have been addicted to drugs and alcohol and food and relationships (and cigarettes!)

I have been in and out of hospitals and 'centres' for people who need a little, help...

It is a long and really interesting story.

Tomorrow i turn 34 and i feel such a fool for telling you 2 things changed my life:

The first was becoming pregnant and becoming a Mother (it does that to most women!)

The second was finding out i could earn my living through 'craft'.

Dramatic and as corny as that all sounds - this is true. This is me. Happy Birthday to me x

Dearest Friend...

Thankyou for (yet another!) fantastic weekend.
You have made a very hectic lady, very happy. And a fairly dis-jointed family feel a little more 'glued'. Thankyou for the time, the effort, the DETAIL, the love that you put into our stay. It was all noted and all appreciated.

Thankyou for being 'oh so' pretty and fun. Thankyou for looking so good in that shirt (i must get me one the same...)

Thankyou for the sweetest Birthday presents and for making my birthday as relaxed and as lovable as i wanted it to be.

Thankyou for playing, buying, wearing and enjoying! all those crazy glasses. I even KNOW you are wearing yours today! You must have known i wore mine to drop the littleone at playgroup too?

I could eat you in these glasses with your fantastic pink Mac x

Thankyou for tea and cake and talk and laughter and sharing cheese fondue.

This is me .... always watching you! (Life thru a lens x)

Thankyou for sharing your home and your family because, even though i know you love us too, sharing your home can be an invasion of sorts, and always a little bit worrying...

Thankyou for letting me have the greatest 'chubby cuddle' i have had since mine was 8months old and pleeeaasssseee forgive me for sharing her gorgeousness with blogland when she isn't mine to share at all.

To my Dearest friend,

thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

Yours, Monday morning, sad but happy, still a little hungover, woozy with love for us all, enjoying the thoughts of what we'll do next time....

K x

I have to talk about Julie Arkell...

There are lots of things that I love.....
Dressing up - Being with my Baby - Walking the dog - Tea - Sewing... (that list continues for an age and is evergrowing...) ...and on that list, very near the top, there is the work of Julie Arkell....

I don't even know what to say about her work.

It leaves me speechless.

I am utterly compelled by it. I look at this book alllllll the time. I think about her alllll the time. Images of her work pop into my head day and evening. I am so envious that I am not her but I am so grateful she is who she is otherwise she would never have produced such craft.

All i can do is show you a few images from the small booklet i have. Even if the quality of these photos were better or brighter, they still can't match up to the 'real thing'.

I'll try to tell you what her work makes me feel of:

Think about an eldery lady who has sadly passed away, and you have been asked if there is anything you'd like from her attic before they clear it all and sell the house. There are dusty trunks filled with old lace, postcards and buttons.... there are toys, handmade from paper, wearing woolly hats. There are rabbits - on wheels! that you can pull along with string. There are wooden block clowns with frightening inter-changable heads... you find old letters and postcards from seaside towns and brown-edged photographs of a slim man whose name has carelessly been forgotten. There is a whole world of childhood all huddled and stored in paper. The stories of Summer days spill onto the wooden floorboards as you remember the taste of home-made lemonade and the smell of someones old house-coat.

Twee? maybe. But i think there is also a sinister or 'sad' edge to her work that i fail to capture in words. The sadness is a sort of frustration, like when you can't remember the name of something and it 'kills' you to rack your brain!!

You might also think I am mad, and you know Julie Arkell's work and it isn't at all how I have described... maybe my descriptions say more about me than they do about the artist?
Ah well, look her up and see for yourself. Decide if you like her too?

Julie Arkell.

Born in London 1955

more stuff: http://www.earthangelstoys.com/html/julie_arkell_-_paper_mache.html

and here: http://theconstantgatherer.blogspot.com/2008/04/julie-arkell.html

and look at her here: http://lovelytextiles.blogspot.com/2008/06/julie-arkell-knit-to-embroidery_25.html she herself is beautiful... damn my envy of her brilliance.

Ahhh Julie Arkell, thanks so much for making the world a better place to be x

Thrift BLISS!

Colour me happy :)....
I had the most perfectly thrifty morning! Oh, Colour love...
Oh thrift love...
Oh Cotton love...
Oh crockery love...

3o plus reels of cotton for £2 from a local 'Table Top Sale' (i also thrifted some books and a lemon squeezer but they didn't seem so worthy of photographic attentions)

Then onto my local Recycling Centre and i bought a BIG cardboard box full of lovely mix and match tea cups (there is a party being planned - in the vein of 'Alice', not that i need an excuse to buy pretty tea items)

I just fell in love with this little sugar bowl and cream / milk jug...

"What do you need all these for?" asks the man...

"What has 'need' got to do with shopping for crockery?" replies that Crafty Fish...

He did at least concede, that the sewing threads were a bargain - a thrifty treasure! and also very pretty all jumbled up together.

P.S the cutest little 'Tie one on' apron "made in Wales" it says, only 10p! and SmallFish tried it on as soon as we got home.

I had to share all this with you immediately, firstly because i know you would appreciate these finds too... secondly because i have new posts to share soon (involving thrifted furniture and colourful gloss paint) x

back soon..... x

Spring Chickens

The ladies in my family are feeling the strain...
My Mum is 60 next month! My sister turns 31 this week and I am 34 in March.
We are all a bit tired..... in fact we are EXHAUSTED and we feel like we're 'no Spring chickens' anymore...
Being born in March means I am a Spring Baby! And it suits me 'oh so much'.
Today i walked the dog (and child) for miles.
I cleaned the car.
I cleaned the downstairs windows of my house.
LittleFish made some flowery cakes.
We planted some bulbs and pulled up some weeds.... It is Spring! and this is what Spring makes me feel like. I dislike the addition of an extra year to my age but i love the sense of warmth, colour, scent, beginnings, that all skip alongside the start of Spring x

New badges above. I made up a few packs last night as i have a few Spring Craft Fairs coming up soon.
Flowery Brooch below (as blogged a few weeks ago ) dressing like Spring! ( i draw the line at wearing yellow)

And the prettiest LittlestFish running around in her vest and leggings... i try to resist the urge to kiss her chubby little arms every 2 seconds.

She made these darling cakes (yum yum).... i hope my sister isn't reading this because we have saved one for her birthday on Friday x x x

Happy Spring my friends! Keep colourful, keep in touch x