Moving On

Longer days set me looking to the future

Wishful thinking that Spring may be just around the corner.

Moving interrupts service

After much planning and a good deal of dreaming the time has come to start dismantling the home, for another move that I hope will be the last for a good while. This time going back to where we started, back in the last century. 

I have an idea that although I have been back much, there is a lot that I have no idea how to do (topping up an Oyster Card for one!) -  it will feel a bit wierd not being the indulged foreigner, and I will have no excuse not to understand aparently simple and obvious things. 

But that is all in the future, and now, yes now, all I have to do is take things of the shelves, wrap them and box them, reflecting on how we gathered just so much stuff. So many souvenirs and memory triggers that make the packing so slow.   

All this means that posts may become a bit more intermittent than I had hoped  for 2014. If you have the patience keep with it - I have great plans for the autumn. 

Frank finds his love  

Great news on the canine love front - out walking last weekend we bumped into Frank's mystery girlfriend, and after a wonderful walk (OK, so he introduced her to the joy of jumping into sulphurous smelling river mud, resulting in sticky black paws and legs, but no one's perfect). In any event, they did get to share a sunbeam in the garden together afterwards. I think that they make a splendid couple. It's a good job you can't smell the mud from the photo. 

 

Retro Stencilled Tea Tray

All this packing has created a general mess everywhere, but the is a corner of this house that I have preserved for the all important therapy of making stuff. Quite pleased with how this one turned out. 

 The tray came from the Danish flea market on Refshalevej 166 ( See my post on it here). The lovely graphic was from Graphique's Etsy shop and I made the stencil using sticky vinyl and the Cameo Silhouette. Especially pleased with how the tea pot turned out.    

Crazy Cats and getting the bug

I took a detour this week.. and despite my best efforts ended up making a dog sock that looked more like "Smokey" the cat...  a resident of Battersea Dogs Home (Cat Department). 

I am having great fun making these critters using wool of different textures and weight, so when you sew it together it twists and turns in all kinds of unexpected ways. This is really good for ears and tails.  Shrinked  cashmere sock with loose grey walking sock seems to be fun at the moment. I learnt a lot of these techniques from Sue Haven's book. You can also find her on you tube.  

                                                               

Glad to say that Smokey has now found a home, despite being 10 years of age. I can't look at the cats at the Battersea pages without thinking of a stray cat who wondered into a public meeting on a housing estate in Stockwell back in 1997. Amid the hubub of the meeting a gentle and then not so gentle "MEOW" could be heard. I looked over the landing to the lobby below, and saw a beautiful black long haired cat who just eyeballed me ! I put her in my office overnight and bought food in for the next day before taking her to Battersea Dogs home. She turned out to be a previous resident who had been re-homed and her new owners had abandoned her. How sad is that. Her name was Lucinda and I was so pleased when a friend offered a home for her.  

Finally, just to say, the upholstery supplies have not yet arrived so the Pappa armchair is sitting in the hall lobby, looking at me, just waiting for its new clothes.... so to fill the time I have been grazing the web discovered great ways to transfer images onto wood, fabric or anything else that stops long enough. My Re-purposed life has proved to be a great jumping off point to loads of free tutorials about furniture/junk re-purposing. So inspired was I that I managed to collect 5 pallets from a factory for free, hoping to turn them into something a bit useful , and I am off to the BlaaHal in Copenhagen tomorrow, yiphee! Let's hope the old Volvo suspension is up to it.    

Travels to Copenhagen, Denmark

Oh dear ! I was doing so well getting into the swing of things with my blog, and then we had to go travelling for a while to "wonderful wonderful Copenhagen" - and it really is.

Summer is just arriving here, the last week blossom has just come out and the city has greened up. Copenhagen is a walking or even better cycling city - so nice to leave the car behind.

Last Sunday we went to the fantastic Copenhagen National Museum of Art . It was dark and raining all day, but inside the free museum was all abuzz. You can get up close to paintings, take photos and they have workshops for children. The curators ( is that the best name for them?) were so helpful and we stayed much longer than we expected.
We've got the dogs with us on this trip - and as well as city trips we have to go the beach each day, just so Frank can enjoy a swim! I love this photo of Amager Strand with the gasometers in the background, the old industry is changing and the people are reclaiming the coast - all very nice.

Finally Have just discovered the local flea markets around Copenhagen, so keep an eye out for what I find in my next post.