Tonsillitis Selfie

Been under the weather with major tonsillitis and complications for nearly a week now, and no sign of improvement.  I'm surviving on about 3 hours sleep and 100 calories a day.  Sorry it's bit of a moany post but thought I ought to bring in a sick note to explain.

Update 8/11: Woohoo, feeling better at last.  Going to need a few days to catch up on all the sleep and food I've missed though, so I'll either be in bed or in the fridge.

Little Green Men (and women).

It's good to see I'm not the only person who gets excited about the little differences between countries when travelling.

Maya Barkai's Walking Men Worldwide project is a collection of pictograms of the green "WALK" person from around the world.

It's fun to play spot the cultural differences.  Some are rushing impatiently to get across the road, while others are sashaying elegantly, with all the time in the world. Some have graceful posture and fabulous outfits, others are boxy and clumsy. A handful of them are women (hello there jaunty Miss Amersfoot from The Netherlands).  I'm not even sure what Andorra's is.

More of Maya Barkai's work can be seen here.

Eastergram

A few Instagrams of the Easter Weekend (so far).

Multi-coloured hen eggs from the WI market.

Sunlight on the lagoon at Abottsbury Subtropical Garden egg hunt.

More sunlight, generally, flooding into the house.  Making everything just nice.

Old Photos

Well, not that old - I found my analogue point-and-shoot the other day, with a film still in it.

It's very exciting to send a film off when you have NO IDEA what is on it.  Turns out it was some funny photos of the girls at Bicton Gardens from about 3 years ago.

Nelly was clearly going through some kind of grumpy Alice in Wonderland phase - all the more apt when we discovered the very ramshackle miniature village there.  As you may know, I love a crap visitor attraction.

Isla was wearing a dress that she insisted on wearing nearly every day mainly, I think, because it looked a bit like Maisy Mouse's.

Thank You Letters

Normally at this time of year, I'm suffering with the guilt of the as-yet-unwritten children's Thank You letters.  Last year we left it really late and sent a hasty email with a quicky Instagram piccy.

This year, I thought I'd try something different.  We haven't written any letters, because as wholesome and morally fibrous as they are, let's face it, they're a chore.  So I thought we'd do something altogether more fun.

Although you wouldn't think it, looking at the expressions on the girls' faces... cutting out is serious work!

Recreating Locations

Last night, we saw out 2012 by watching Moonrise Kingdom.  I absolutely loved it.

Today, we saw in 2013 by driving over to the Isle of Portland - it's about as close as you could get to New Penzance Island in the UK... with its stripey lighthouse and secret coves.

Wish we'd brought a record player though.



*map of Portland from here.

*stills from Moonrise Kingdom from here and here.

Sunday / Coupon Codes

Today we walked up a big hill and enjoyed looking down on our tiny town.

Isla took a small knitted oddity (turnip? potato?), purchased from some lovely knitting ladies on the market yesterday with us.  He seemed to enjoy himself.

We ended up (after getting a bit lost for a while in a soggy field) at a Real Tennis court.  Watched a bit of a match, it's a pretty strange game.  Seemed to involve hitting the ball off a sloping roof a lot of the time.  And they had some pretty windows in the building - I love the hydrangeas and the rabbit roundel.

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I have some coupon codes to use in my Etsy shop soon - over the Cyber Friday/Black Monday weekend (23rd - 26th November) you can get 10% off everything in my shop with the code CYBER2.

There's also another one coming up as a tie-in with a mention in the Etsy/Stylist Magazine feature, but I'm not quite sure of the details of that yet - I'll keep you posted.

Blackboard Wall (and more animation)

I've been busy redecorating Nelly's room over the past week.  I've painted one of her walls entirely in blackboard paint (which was quite nervewracking - I kept having visions of Adrian Mole's attempt).

But it looks brilliant!  It turns out that everything looks good against a black wall.  Even really ordinary things like chairs and wall lights suddenly look very cool.

And then the best part was letting the girls loose on it with a box of chalks...

Chalkboard Animation from TheRoundWindow on Vimeo.

P.S. If you haven't already seen it (it's been around for a while) THIS is a beautiful blackboard animation.

Pets

We have been deliberating for a long time about getting a pet.  The girls were desperate.   I wasn't keen - I could see it just meant more work and cleaning and worrying.  And the only pet I really like is out of the question as Mike is allergic to cats.

But then my sister discovered that a farm cat had had a litter of kittens at the end of her garden, and they were living in her shed.

It hadn't occurred to me that a cat could live in a shed.

At the same time, our garden had developed an embarrassing rat problem (compost bin to blame).   It didn't take long to do the maths.

So now we have two utterly adorable kittens living in our shed.  There is a bit of work and cleaning and quite a lot of worrying about them.  But mostly there is sitting and watching them, and trying to tame them a bit, and the occasional and very satisfying purr.

Top: Otto
Bottom: Jammy Dodger

Cut and Stick

The results of our morning making collages.  We had bought a stack of old magazines from the 60s from the local junk shop - a diverse range, including National Geographic, History Today, Knitted & Soft Toys.... oh, and a He Man annual.

I thought the girls might not enjoy it as much as I did, or want to stick Moshi Monsters all over them, but they soon got into putting random images together, playing around with them until they found something that made them laugh or looked interesting.

The results aren't quite as eerily beautiful as those of Tracy Jagar, but it was a good 2 hours of cheap, creative fun.

More beautiful cutting and sticking here, from Saffa Barkhordar.

A. G. Hendy Home Store, Hastings

Another place we visited while in Hastings last weekend.  This 4-storey building in the middle of Hastings' Old Town has been painstakingly renovated and turned into, well, part museum, part old fashioned hardware store and part vintage furniture emporium by food writer and photographer Alastair Hendy. 

The prices will make your eyes water, but because everything is done so beautifully, you kind of don't care.

(I love the last Instagram of my beautiful Grace-Kelly-alike friend Jocelyn reflected in the scissor cabinet - very Hitchcock)

Weekend

We had a really good weekend visiting friends in Hastings.

Friends who live in a stunning Edwardian house that they are lovingly restoring,

who make the most amazing breakfasts and dinners (which I didn't photograph - too busy scoffing),

who get given giant prize-winning cabbages by their neighbours,

who let my 5 year old dig around in their garden for broken pottery
(and then patiently ooh and aahh at all her treasures),

and who take us to amazing places.