Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Flea Market Finds


I had three days this week of my "old life" in which I was home for those quiet hours in the mornings -- and I loved every minute. 

I was just thinking last week about what my Occupation is these days.  Normally, I write "Homemaker" on any form that asks to know an official occupation.....but, these days I'm not so much of a homemaker.  Or, at least, I'm not my version of a Homemaker.  :-)  The version I'd come to be over 16 years of being at home with children. 

I'm more of a "family member" these days -- everyone has to pitch in to compensate for my being out of the house. 

Alistair doing dishes & Lars eating food he made himself

Not that this is bad....it's just uncomfortable territory for ME. 

That means I strategically planned to enjoy three days of  über homemaking, as if to give myself an emotional stockpile &  reminder of what I could do with quiet hours.......



I watched the first light, frosty snow come in, and I melted down the frozen outdoor water supply....




....and then made Chocolate Soup for the frosty children coming home from school.




I pulled out the wool and needles and sat in a patch of winter sun.




Plus, I  read from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity again.  :-) Mmmmmm....



I drank tea, from a nice cup and used a cozy...the cozy always implies there's time for a second cup :-)



I sewed the stacks of fabric off my table....


....and then filled the table up again :-)  This is the beginning of a large "Gumdrop Pillow" from Amy Butler's pattern.  The fabric is a rough linen mattress cover from the flea market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue last spring. 

A normal three-day sampler of my homelife at ANY other given time in my history would never have been so productive, but since I planned it out and aimed to maximize the time, it turned out to be three days of bliss.





4 comments:

Padden4 said...

Absolutely fabulous! Love the "doorstop". How are you planning on using the keys? So much wonderful history - it's terribly fascinating!

Tanya said...

Well, I was thinking you might like a couple. :-) You know - for crafting, wrapping, whatever. I think I'm going to take two of them and just hang them in my studio room on the bookshelves -- or make some kind of drawer pull or ...? Haven't thought it all through yet...but they were just SO COOL I couldn't leave them there. The Somerset people use a lot of keys for collage, art journaling, etc. On Ravelry I saw a woman had SPUN a very small key into some yarn that she named "The Secret Garden" -- that knocked me out, I thought it was so creative. I'll have to find a smaller key, though....

He told me the large ones were for housedoors, and the smaller ones for trunks and storage chests.

NANA said...

Gee, even your dad loved those beautiful cups (Well, all of it..ha!)

Tanya said...

Really? Dad likes the teacups? I think he would approve of my doorstop, too -- it is so great! Even Alistair likes the 2 kg weight...very masculine...he told me right away that he thought it was a very clever use. Totally worth the 3 Euro. :-)