Showing posts with label colors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colors. Show all posts

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Hickory Dickory Dock!



I really struggle because I have very little awareness of the passage of time. This is a true and documented fact.

To me, it stretches and shrinks with no rhyme or reason. Daily, it surprises me!

It makes planning difficult.



Sometimes I think that I'll have loads of time and feel optimistically that it will stretch on forever.

Sometimes I feel frightened because I think that there's no way that I'll be able to fit everything into it's tiny space.




Everyone feels that way sometimes but, being the absent minded professor that I am, it wreaks a real havoc in my life (and, yes, in the lives of those close to me.)


Why is it then, that I love clocks so very much?


Could it be the soothing rhythmic ticking? I associate that sound with quiet moments of peace where I can breathe and rest.






I began to collect them a few years ago but stopped because I thought that it was too cruel of an irony. The fact remains, I am fascinated by clocks and think them some of the most beautiful creations in the world.







Do not fear for me. I have not brought up the issue of being overwhelmed with too much to do because of the kitchen project. For once it's going as planned!

No, I bring it up because of a certain event that is happening today.

It almost feels like a holiday and that there should be some festive decorations and a reading or two.

Today, Alice's adventures in Wonderland continues ...






The character that I can relate to the most, of course, is the white rabbit. (Well, and the red queen who always wants it HER way.)

How many times now in my life have I sung, "I'm late, I'm late!"?






My eldest son, Lliam, learned to talk at a very early age. He was also fascinated with clocks. He would cry out, "clock!" every time he saw one and boy, could he pick them out! Sometimes we would say, "no, no, there's no clock there." It would always turn out that he was right. One time, he kept insisting there was a clock on a wall that only housed a framed print. It turned out that there was a clock on the wall in the scene of the picture.

Ironically, his sense of time is even worse than mine, though definitely inherited.


For our wedding, I bought Tom a clock.




When Lliam was born, Tom bought me a small clock in the shape of a silver tea pot. (It's still packed away somewhere.)








Oh! By the way, look! There's my cup of tea du jour! (Maybe I should say my tea cup du jour.)

I am drawn to a cup of tea. I just seem to zero in on them.




Sitting down with a hot steaming mug of tea usually means that I am off to my other world where time makes no sense. You never know when I will come back.


Then I saw an amazing thing in the depths of my cup. (No, not ants in my tea!)





Here is an image of an image of an image of me.


As a reward to you for listening to my timeliness woes, I will give you a preview of my new kitchen wall color. Here is my sunny clock and, yes, that is the new color of the walls! (and, no, that is not my small but wonderful splurge - it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.)





It helps, if you are going to receive shockingly bad news to have such a lovely messenger to soften the blow.


Oh! Look at the time! Goodnight!

Katy Noelle xo


P.S. Tempus Fugit! Have you ever seen that Mary Engelbreit picture with the saying, "Time Flies -  whether you're having fun or not!" ?

Another P.S. Now, I wonder what character from Alice in Wonderland you can relate to.


* "Alice" illustration by John Speirs




Okay, I am writing this in ALERT red. I have discovered two new wonderful blogs (I'm constantly trying to maneuver around that unflattering word!) They are just wonderful!

One is Lola B's, which is gorgeously french shabby chic and gorgeously hysterical to read.

The other is cut from a similar cloth (they're good friends) - French Larkspur . Not only is a visit to her well worth it aesthetically, but, she is having a giveaway. I haven't been going for those BUT I have to tell you, she's giving away a book by Jeanne d'Arc which is, as she puts it, a living garden book. The title is Franske Farnemmelser and is about infusing Swedish/French style into your garden. The pictures are beautiful! The link above will take you to the appropriate post to enter. (Cottage Garden, it could be fate ... well, or coincidence. = )

Talk about coincidence now, she's also giving away 3 vintage clock faces! Oh dear, I really wish that I would win! sigh




Thursday, February 18, 2010

Make Do and Mend (Then)


Do you ever get a glimpse of what an age that you've lived in will look like in the history books 100 years from now?


I am a late comer to the idea of "make do and mend". I used to view being artful, inventive and "crafty" as a luxury and skill that was paramount to the final rounding off of a truly accomplished, old fashioned modern woman. (Muddled thinking I think!) It was the romantic mentality of an American girl growing up in the richness of the Reagan years. If I was going to be creative, it meant that I was going to go out of my way and that I was going to spend money on it. Whatever I did, it was for the experience more than out of necessity.

That age was such a dreamy and romantic one for more people than just me.

You know, I just bet you that Princess Diana had something to do with all of this. (I mean, aren't all princesses able to sew and talk to mice?) I was just 13 when she married Prince Charles. 




Well, I learned how to sew. I was so enamoured of Laura Ashley Style and Liberty of London prints!






I went to England when I was 16 or 17 and headed straight for that little, humble Liberty of London fabric store. Heaven! 

This dress was the result







One spring break, my best friend and I decided to sew Laura ashley jumpers. Easter morning, we were bleary eyed but triumphant. We had our frocks!




My bell dress!








(By the way, I love this hanger!)




Were all of these things on Pier 66 ?!?







Back to the present I came with a bump this morning as I was remembering those long gone times. Precious to me they were with so many memories and opportunities.

However, I love where I am now!!!


Quite honestly, once a dreamer, always a dreamer.


Love, Katy Noelle xx


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