Silent Sunday
Posted under Crochet
Breaking the rules to say….this is my 500th post…that is all.
Archive for June, 2011
Showtime!
Posted under People I love
There are many things that I adore about my oldest child … but his dogged desire to have dancing lessons, even though he’s the only boy in the class, is one of my favourite things about him. He just doesn’t care that he’s the only boy, I’m not sure it’s really occurred to him that perhaps it is a little strange to be one boy among a sea of pink. When asked to join the dance school, I told him he’d be the only boy. He said he didn’t care and that was that. If my mother were alive she would be so tickled, since she was a ballet/tap/modern dance teacher in her younger years.
So, every Saturday, he puts on his smart white T shirt, his smart blue shorts and his special white ballet socks and off he trots to dancing school to spend an hour learning tap and ballet. I spent ages putting his name in his ballet and tap shoes. Why? He’s the only one with black shoes, there’s no chance of a shoe muddle! All the others are white or pink, of course.
Tap tappity tap. Here he is, today, giving us a little show in the kitchen. Diggy now says he wants to do dancing too. ‘The Brothers Spud’ … I can see it in lights …
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What’s your passion? The sequel…
Posted under Things I love
What’s your passion? I asked you yesterday and Suzanne from Egg Dip Dip (oh how I LOVE her blog title) was right back in my face with, ‘What’s YOUR passion?’ which is a fair point.
But I don’t know what the answer is. I’m magpie like, flitting around picking up this and that, trying one thing and another but rarely really sticking at something. Many years ago the answer would have been ‘music’ but these days it doesn’t even make the shortlist. That’s a sadness because the sheer joy of singing overwhelms me when I do it. Nothing kicks in industrial quantities of endorphins like a good old sing song. Must must must get back to singing.
Also kicking around as contenders: blogging…photography…crochet…reading…cycling…the cinema and, erm, the internet. God help us all if ‘the internet’ can pass as a true ‘passion’ though … I’m willing to allow passions which are aided by the internet, but passion FOR the internet is strictly forbidden. That’s just plain old addiction.
I’m absolutely intrigued by other people, not just nosy but intrigued. I’ve blogged before about my Story Catching tendencies but does that count as a passion? If it is, it’s certainly an enduring one … I’ve loved catching other people’s stories from childhood and it’s not showing any sign of abating. Thank Odin for blogging, facebook and twitter which gives me a constant stream of material.
So what is it? If you met me in the street and were abiding by the Holstee Manifesto and asked me, ‘What’s your passion?’ what would I say? “Words”, I would reply, looking very pleased with myself and rather charmed to have met a fellow Holstee Groupie. I am passionate about words. I love writing them, reading them, hearing them and saying them.
My name is Spud. I am the story catcher … the dreamer of dreams…the teller of tales … worshipper of words.
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What’s your passion?
Posted under Things I love
I was reminded of this by Muddling Along Mummy … don’t you love it? Soon to be hanging on the wall of my writing room, once it’s back from the framers … the Holstee Manifesto. Words to live and die by, if ever I saw some.
When I was a teenager I had a poster of Max Erhmann’s poem ‘Desiderata’ on my wall, you know the one … “Go placidly amid the noise and haste…” which I still adore. There’s a quiet stillness in his words which really touch me, a little surprising since I definitely lack quietness and stillness in my life.
But the Holstee Manifest is altogether more rousing and urgent in tone, verging on the hectoring in fact. It’s suits where I am in my life much more than Erhmann’s reflective musings. In January I declared 2011 to be the Year of JFDI (‘Just F*cking Do It’) in a bid to throw off my natural caution and fear of change. And soon I will have my Manifesto on my wall to help gather my wandering thoughts, hopes and dreams and distill in them in to what is important. Then I will just need a shove in the right direction to JFDI.
‘Ask the next person that you meet what their passion is’. Can you imagine doing that? But how much more joyful than the usual things that we ask…’Where are you from? What do you do for a living? Are you married? Do you have children?’ blah blah blah. WHO CARES? Let’s get at it and find out the really important stuff about each other. Let’s throw off the bonds of convention, let’s get out of our boxes and not define ourselves by our age, our occupation, our marital status … let’s put the every day on hold for a minute or two shall we? Let’s ‘Live our dream and share our passion’.
So, YOU are the next person that I am meeting and so I ask you this:
What is your passion?
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…and the winner is…
Posted under Witterings
Dim the lights…drum roll…tense silence…the lucky winner of all the British loveliness for my 2nd Blogoversary is:
Number 36 which is…more tension…more drum rolls…Stacey Brown of The Brown’s Zoo Tales! She lives in the US and has been a very thoughtful commenter on my blog for a long, long time. Stacey, can you email me your address so I can post off all your prizes. Congratulations!
Might have another give away soon. I think the world needs more than one nipple cake in it, don’t you think? And perhaps a couple of those really cute Crobots?
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What a difference a year makes
Posted under People I love
Or does it? Here’s Diggy and his girlfriend Clara at her 4th birthday party over the weekend. So sweet…they love each other very dearly…it really it is a very touching relationship.
Rewind exactly a year to Clara’s 3rd birthday, and what do we have?
How many years will they be so compliant for a birthday kiss I wonder? Although Diggy wasn’t that keen on attempts at another kiss once he’d obliged this year:
Clara…looking rightly disgruntled:
Happy Birthday lovely, lovely Clara xxx
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Silent Sunday
Posted under Silent Sunday
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Happy Blogoversary to me…and a little giveaway
Posted under Witterings
493 posts…5,100 comments and 113,000 page views later and Chez Spud is TWO today…ah, welcome the Terrible Twos.
To celebrate I’m having a little giveaway, a few very English things. I’ve no idea why. I started with the mug which lots of people coveted when I posted a picture of mine a few weeks ago and it kind of went from there. So, for one lucky person there will be a parcel with…a cheery mug:
A Meri Meri purse notepad:
Cath Kidson washi tape (that’s pretty masking tape) and a Cath Kidson London bus keyring:
A couple of iconic London greetings cards:
And, to go with your tea in your new mug, a cake:
It’s a crochet cake. I thought a real one might not travel too well. I’m cheating because that’s a picture from the book I’m making it from. The real one is working in progress. I think I might not do the ‘grapes’ because I think they look pretty grim. Will just stick to raspberries…though…
..they do look suspiciously like nipples. No? So, if you’re burning to own a crochet nipple cake…read on.
To enter…please leave a comment below, anything you like. Anyone can enter, no geographic restrictions, just leave me a comment and I will pick one randomly next Wednesday 8 June at noon (BST). I was going to get fancy and do that whole ‘you get extra entries if you like me on Facebook, subscribe to my blog, tweet about it’ thing. But I can’t be bothered, and the recent Facebook changes for competitions totally fox me! You can twiddle with the buttons top right of my blog if you’d like to get cosy with me on Facebook, Twitter etc etc…but that’s up to you, you’re responsible for your own twiddling…not a condition of entry!
So happy birthday me. That is all.
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Lucky Dip
Posted under Books I love, Crochet
Lucky me! Look what Postman Andy brought? A super gift from Kim at A Box of Chocolates, all the way from Australia. Can’t wait to get hooking a couple of these fine little fellows, although a trip to the craft shop is needed as they are embellished with all manner of lovely things.
I especially like the Catbot …
Alas so does someone else…
… and that was the end of the photoshoot as he wanted to sit on the book. Noooooo. Thanks Kim for a lovely and very unexpected gift. A little Crobot will be on its way to you soon…
Also on my hook this week was an Apple Jacket. Yes, a jacket…for an apple. I know, entirely pointless but sooooooo cute. See here, pattern from Mollie Makes:
See, so cute! Who could resist? Not me…so I quickly hooked one up from the very easy pattern. Or so I thought…um…umm…anyone see anything wrong?
Not much of a jacket, more a hat…a smurf hat I thought. Cry. Looks way better on Elsie…
Also in my mail this week…’Cambridge, Norfolk & Suffolk Unlocked’ from Unlocked Guides, a fantastic guide book written specifically for children.
This is NOT a sponsored post by the way, though I was sent the guide free of charge. They didn’t ask for a mention or a review, but I genuinely think it’s a super product. We’ll be testing it out over the weekend as we’re going on a trip. Watch this space…
It’s my Blogoversary tomorrow by the way – YIPPEE! And I’m having a giveaway to celebrate, and no it’s not that crappy Smurf Hat…swing by tomorrow for details.
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The Gallery…Grateful for…
Posted under The Gallery
Grateful for? My family…my friends…my health…everything else is detail. #passiton.
x
