ᔐᔐ by hook and by crook

last year I took up my crochet hooks 

after rediscovering them in my sewing box:

making crochet corsages from merino wool

with vintage buttons:

giving some away:

*you may have noticed them mentioned here ➳

they look like this ☝

as you can see I've been busy:

these are my bags complete with a silky lining and a brooch:

handy sized for a purse, phone and lippy:

*or camera eh Suzie?*

and little hair clips:

all the rage at Libbie's school:

now I'm making granny cushion covers:

adoring the colours with a myriad of combinations:

all I need now is a Summer fair with a stall:

what have you been making?

✈ for my gucci

≣ bookworm

reading at night has a soporific effect on me:

desired when the mind won't switch off:

but not so good when I really want to 

readreadread:

this little pile awaits me at bedtime:

swaps from people I've never met:

《》walk the plank

what to do when the sun is beaming down:

the skies are beautiful blue:

on the last days of the Easter break?

when the garden has been taken over:

and the camellia flowers are fading:

no not a sandy dune but a sawdusty lawn:

noisy carpenters with their radio on:

loud drills to drown it out:

escape to a quieter place:

breathe in:

soon we'll be swabbing the new deck:

℧Ω neigh

it makes me smile when 'horsey' people talk about their animals:

my friend Helen is no exception:

she asked me to photograph two of her 'babies'

the images to be used on an invitation:

lucky for me her partner Keith was in the forge:

horsehoes everywhere:

on the floor, in buckets:

the fire roaring and metal an orange glow:

skillfully using his tools to shape the shoe:

hammer on anvil:

he put on a fine show:

ᘞ and cockle shells

not far from my house,

a fourteen minute stroll,

is the old part of Leigh-on-Sea:

walking behind the cockle sheds:

old style fonts and shiny yatch varnish:

history and weatherboarded cottages:

fishing and shellfish:

this old place is mentioned in the Doomesday book:

cocklers supplying the restaurants of the land:

cobbled streets and memories of climbing shell mountains:

I dropped in to see my friend Richard:

always inviting and his shop full of gorgeous ceramics:

past boats and masts on the estuary:

quiet and still until the tide:

to Sara's tea garden for a ploughmans:

pot of tea, ozone and vitamin D:

❃❀ bloom

it's definitely spring in our garden:

 five massive pompom camellias are bursting:

unfurling:

swirling:

buzzing with bees:

with their green glossy leaves:

a riotous show indeed:

Ꮬ rummage part two

today we went to the Truman Brewery for the 

American Apparel sale:

after a ten minute queue, we rummaged along the rails of

leggings, t shirts, hoodies, dresses & skirts:

chattering voices and squeaky hangers on rails:

colours and jersey:

Libbie saved £75 on her 5 items:

I secured a black jersey dress for a tenner:

 ❤ fashion on a budget:

lunch on the yummy Rootmaster bus:

room upstairs for a rootmaster curry and mediterranean pasta:

veggielicious:

my favourite chocolatier:

closed today but beautiful outside:

sweet sugar mice 95p:

brushfield relics:

1931:

coveting an old letterbox that's seen centuries of post:

giant rabbits and daffodils:

and Libbie smiles:

ᐇ something for the weekend

Good Friday wasn't so good:

our East London trip was delayed then cancelled:

a rummage sale by American Apparel went mad:

police grappling queuers to the ground:

seems the gods were telling us something when they put 

engineering works on the line:

change of plan ....

there's nothing like a charity shop trawl to find some goodies:

no buttons for me this time but I did get these

beauties:

⇧ outstanding three piece with the chanel line!

                                                         new and nubbly ⇧

 ⇧smiled at the sly looking guy holding his darts:

                  and the girl holding in her tum ⇧

today I stood under a huge tree:

after a big roast dinner at the railway hotel :

we were going to watch my friend Tom Burgess

as he recorded live ....

but we decided to go for a stroll instead

*sorry Tom*

and visit the peacocks:

so good to see them back at Chalkwell Park:

then home for a cup of chai and easter treats:

^_^

⎋ grab your torch

last night was the opening night of 

Interruptions of the Ordinary

at tap :

entering the darkened gallery with torches in hand

we began to open plan chest drawers:

like intruders and peeping toms:

reading strangers postcards:

other peoples lives:

curated by Charlie Levine and Hayley Lock

a call for submissions of collage pieces on the subject of Post: 

many sent through the postal system to the gallery:

a previous show at Trove

contained Christmas card/collage exchanges through invitation

via facebook:

spotlight on my own submission: ☝

the small gallery contained the surreal and childlike piece 

Granma's House by John Adams:

his mysterious assemblage had our torches dancing 

to view spiders on the roof and a dinosaur with a ribbon-bondaged 

Barbie in it's teeth:

the winch room had a three screen video piece ~

Unnamed (2007) by Joe Moran, Florence Peake

and Kirsty Richardson:

three adults, one baby +

choreographic bursts within a contained home space:

the eerie cries of the baby leaked into the other galleries:

interruptions of the ordinary indeed:

♈ no fool

it's my Pops birthday today:

he was my stepdad until one day we all adopted his surname:

he is my Pops and we always have fun:

I used to help him on his milkround at the weekends:

get up, deliver bottles of milk, collect money:

we would have fried eggs sandwiches in little cafes:

and drink tea from a flask in fingerless gloves:

in his spare time he collected stamps:

poring over his stanley gibbons books:

sorting through the little squared pieces of paper:

placing them in his special albums:

once he bought a lot at an auction:

a huge bag of stamps and some cameras:

he gave one to me:

I loved clicking the shutter and looking through the viewfinder:

this is it:

it started my collection:

it makes me smile when I see him playing the same silly

games he used to play with us ~ now with Libbie and my nephews:

they haven't eaten purple rice pudding yet though:

I have been a step parent and I am a parent:

it's not easy:

I know that:

and I know how lucky I am to still have him in my life:

thank you Pops:

for many days of love and laughter:

❤