Chez Spud

New mini project…’Ten Treasures’…ten things I would grab should my house be on fire,  assuming all the Spuds were accounted for, my handbag, my photos and my MacBook. Some of the treasures are materialistic, some are sentimental, some are both. Some are pretty things that serve no purpose anymore, I just keep them because I like them. Others are things that remind me of people and days gone by, and I cherish them as much as I cherish my memories.

First up, my pretty, sparkly Chanel party shoes. I bought these a few years ago in New York, in about 5 minutes flat. I had a black tie work function to attend one evening, and realised mid-afternoon that the skyscrapers I’d packed to wear were completely impractical for an evening when I actually had to zip about working rather than just floating, drinking and making small talk. Note, these are the shoes which I was wearing for that ill-advised foray in to air guitar.

So I zooooomed to Saks, thew my credit card at a delighted looking sales assistant,  hurried out with these beauties and made haste to the Waldorf. Ah, happy days. These days I throw rice cakes at small children and zoom to softplay.

I totally heart them. One of my anxieties during pregnancy (as well as the usual ones about the babies!) was whether my folded over legs feet would go back to their usual size post delivery, otherwise my Chanel shoes would be for the chop. Well, other bits of me didn’t fare too well but at least my feet shrank back to their usual proportions. Alas opportunities to wear them are now few and far between, but I like stroking them every now and again.

For the pedants among you it should be CHANEL not Chanel. BUT THE CAPITALISATION BOTHERS ME. And it’s my project, and they are my shoes. Poor Coco is probably turning in her CHANEL NO 5 scented grave.

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Playing along with Jane of Spain Daily, and her Corner View. This week it’s ‘A Place of Reflection’.

Controversially, I snapped this with my old Sony P&S. The Nikon is thus sulking and pretending not to care, but I can tell that she’s hurting inside. Don’t worry trusty Nikon, it was a spontaneous shot..I was pig feeding…making them talk to Extranjera re wig preferences…pig whispering if you like? Then I spotted ‘the shot’, what’s a girl to do but point & shoot? Don’t be hurt, I still love you the most…fret not..it’s me not you..kiss and make up?

This is my office. If I was remotely creative I’d call it my studio, damn I wish I was creative. But it’s definitely a place of reflection both figuratively and, because of all the glass, literally. The desk is in the corner pointing away from the fabulous view down the fields. When I sit on the sofa to ‘do some reading’ I inevitably end up doing nothing, just watching the world go by. Although that seems to involve watching foxes pick off baby bunnies at the moment, sob.

I’m off to soothe the Nikon somemore. Nikon whispering…

Edited to add more photos, none of the inside, it’s REALLY boring! Think, peach swirly wallpaper. Hmm, redecorate?

At the bottom of the garden..office to the right

On the day it was installed...looking rather bare!

Edited again…Nikon wanted to show what she can do…clearly feeling threatened by the Sony P&S. Sheesh, talk about insecure…

Nikon has the final word

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Scooting in right at the last minute for this challenge, which ends today, but I couldn’t resist it! Lesley of Funky Art Queen laid down the gauntlet in the shape of a Ten Tiny Things challenge, the rules being:
1) find 10 tiny things and group them together
2) photograph them
3) post about them on your blog
4) go to Funky Art Queen’s blog and leave a comment

The photo above is my entry, and happily it  also doubles as a tribute shot to Julochka who got me hooked on this whole blog thing. I ‘found’ Julochka through her now infamous Moo card photo, and started stalking following her on flickr and then on her blog. I’m going the whole way and will be stalking her to her home for Blog Camp 2.0. She doesn’t seem very afraid, yet. Puzzling.

So this is my entry for the Ten Tiny Things challenge, totally copied from inspired by Julocka’s masterpiece…and contains ten tiny hearts, ten tiny pegs, ten tiny Moo card and ten photos of my tiny boys.

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Ah, it’s the only child in me you see? I like to think of myself as a big hearted, sharing kind of person..what’s mine is yours, I’ll lend you anything HELL I’ll pretty much GIVE you anything if you ask. I have no issue at all with that. But if you take my stuff without asking? Well, you’re in the Grudge Book for life.

I guess this comes from, as a child, always knowing where my ‘stuff’ was ie. exactly where I left it. As a result, I get very antsy when my stuff ISN’T where I left it or if I find people using it without asking. Naturally I am a grown up and I have learnt to paint on a relaxed, ‘No, go ahead, it’s not problem’ mask. But inside I’m screaming, ‘GET…OFF…MY…STUFF!”

I have a particular issue with stationary items in the workplace. Generally I sellotape a sticker with my name on it on to key items such as staplers, hole punches etc. Alas my current colleagues seem to think this is some kind of challenge; I am rarely in the office so they think it’s OK to use my stuff (wrong – to be clear, it is never, ever OK to use my stuff without my express consent). They have attached another sticker to my stapler which says ‘We use this all the time when you’re not here!!!’ Oh, how I laughed and jested with them when I saw it. Whilst mentally scribbling in the Grudge Book of course…

One of the real downsides of having children is that they have absolutely no respect for the concept of ‘my stuff’. Over the years I’ve had to concede my mobile, my make up, my notepads, my handbags etc to them. But two things make me rage when they even approach them are (1) my Symthson diary, so pristine and pink with blue page prettiness and (2) my MacBook. Even MrSpud gets the evils when he dares to use it. The boys stab at the screen with buttery/chocolatey fingers, then smear it all over the keyboard, and takes turns to ‘shut the door’ i.e slam the lid down with force. Entry in the Grudge Book for them too, every time.

Smythson Diary and favourite necklace (since broken by boys...grr)

I know, it’s only ‘stuff’. But, you know, it’s MY STUFF. So leave it alone unless you’ve asked to use/borrow/abuse it. OK?

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Whilst pondering my 5 random favourite things today I considered ‘Small Blue Thing’ by Suzanne Vega as one of my song choices. But then I remembered how dreary it is and the fact that I hearted it as a teenager is no basis for its inclusion, since all teenagers are hard-wired to be gloomy and full of drear.

These days I like small red things. And here’s a collection of them…my brand new red Moleskin notebook (I can’t bear to take the wrapping off, because then I’ll have to start writing in it and spoil it)…a red, glass heart which child2 tries to eat if I’m not looking…my gorgeous Momiji doll( a gift from the Wife, complete with a secret shoved up her bottom…the doll not the Wife), a pin cushion in the shape of a cake and…inspired…a bottle of rose!

It’s never ‘really’ summer Chez Spud until we’ve cracked on with the rose. So i bought some in anticipation of al fresco wining and dining this weekend, since we have planned to go camping for the first time.

I checked the weather forecast. Rain. I should have known.

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Spent much of the morning pondering on the word ‘meme’…what is it….what does it mean…where did it come from…how do you pronouce it…and does it need feeding like a small pet of some sort?

Having established what it is  I pushed on and rose the not insustantial challenge of Molly’s 5 random favourite things. My list is a bit of a disappointment, a little bit…’lightweight’ shall we say? I’m now thankful that I’ve already fessed to being an intellectual lightweight, otherwise the secret would be well and truly out.

I am resisting the urge to witter on and comment on my choices as there are at least two forthcoming secrets in the 30 secrets in 30 days series contained within. So, here’s the list…

Favourite Songs:

1. True Love Ways – Buddy Holly (walked down the aisle to this)
2. Keep the customer satisfied – Simon & Garfunkel (walked back up the aisle to this)
3. Angel – Sarah McLachlan
4. Steal Away – The Furies (taking a moment to howl and sob)
5. Northern Sky – Nick Drake

Favourite Films:

1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
2. Love Actually
3. Le Divorce
4. Hans Christian Anderson (shared love with my boys, watch bits of it daily)
5. Amelie

Favourite Books:

1. Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell
2. The Music of the Spheres – Elizabeth Redfern
3. Four Letters of Love  – Niall Williams
4. Everything by Barbara Trapido (I know, I cheated)
5. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

Favourite Crushes:

1. Michael Palin
2. Michael Palin
3. Michael Palin
4. Michael Palin
5. Michael Palin

Favourite (Random) Things:

1. Brown paper packages (tied up with string of course)

2. The smell of a stationary shop

3. The bottom of the laundry basket

4. Time on my own

5. Belly laughs

Hmm, so I tag…any 5 people who read this and want to play. I think that’s cheating?!

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Digby, my younger son, has two middle names because he’s fancy like that. One of them is Elliot. Or is it Eliot. Or Elliott? Seriously I couldn’t tell you. Every time I need to fill in an official form I have to get his birth certificate out to check. MrSpud and I made our wills recently and neither of us were at all sure of the spelling – OH THE SHAME.

Diggy's Vital Statistics

Sometimes I have a wobble over the spelling of one of Bertie’s middle names too – Rafael – and have an ‘is it with a ph or an f?’ debate.  I have to google Rafael Benitez (Liverpool FC Manager) to double check it. Rafael was added to Bertie’s names after Liverpool won the European championship while I was pregnant. MrSpud made me stand in front of the TV, bump aloft, so that our unborn baby could “hear the roar of Anfield”. Yeah, blah, whatever.

Anyway, luckily my wonderful wife and BFF Lyanne designed the fabulous graphic above, and had it printed on canvas, for Diggy’s last birthday. It’s so clever and uses all his names, nicknames, initials, his date of birth and his birth weight. So when I need a quick reminder of how to spell my own child’s name I can just nip upstairs to his bedroom and check.

Here’s ‘the wife’ a wonderful portrait taken by our photographer pal Liz. Thanks for letting me use it here, it’s about 100 times better than any shot of her I’ve taken. It’s Lyanne’s fault I’m blogging actually, so if you don’t like what you see…please address all complaints to the Mrs. She’s a brilliant photographer and somehow got me started on it last Autumn and then I started to enjoy spinning the yarns to go with my snaps on Flickr as much as taking them. And thus A Blog was Born.

The 'Wife'

So thanks to my buddy I now have a ready reckoner of Diggy’s middle names for those ‘senior moments’.  I might just get his name tattooed on his forehead and be done with it.

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I thought I’d play along with the  ‘Corner View’ theme of ‘out your back door or window’ so I got a few snaps of Chez Spud today. No Baby Spuds in the shots as they’d been put away for a few hours for a nap while I debated the relative merits of tidying up v lying on the sofa drinking tea and scoffing cake. Not much of a debate I must say…

The front garden

Chez Spud

View from the back door

Chez Spud

It’s a peaceful kind of place, good for the spirit, good for the soul…all is order, all is calm. Hmmm, well maybe not ALL is order, calm etc etc because this is the view inside Chez Spud:

Hell...earlier today

Oh no. I had to shut the door on it and hoof it to a still, small voice of calm kind of a place in the house to restore inner peace. What’s your favourite little spot in your home? Show me your nooks ‘n’ crannies, I’m nosy like that! Where are the little places that raise a smile? Here’s mine, the chair in Diggy’s room. Love that Dwell Baby cushion, and the oliphant with his kitsch little flower in his ear. I don’t know what it is about that spot, I just like it.

Little haven of calm

So I’ve shown you mine, now you show me yours!

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Here are some material things that please me, the first of an occasional series of bits and pieces both useful and beautiful. First up, my Lakeland soft grip pegs. I spend a fair proportion of my day processing clothes, collecting dirty ones, sorting for washing, washing, pegging out, gathering back in, folding, sorting etc etc etc.  So let’s bring some practicality and cheer to the daily laundry drudge.

Practicality…they don’t leave marks on your clothes. Hoorah, no more frantic ironing over and over the same place to get the peg grip mark out. Not even on woolens. Love that. Cheer…these beauties come in two different shades, regular (shown here in my peg basket) and ‘Summer Colours’. I love Lakeland. What other shop would take the time to consider and then develop TWO DIFFERENT COLOUR SETS OF PEGS. Mind you, life is short – who wants to spend any time weighing up the relative merits of ‘regular’ v ‘summer colours’ pegs as part of a purchasing decision. Get both and be done with it.

Next up, my new ‘Charlotte’ Dotty beach bag. Skip the review, just buy one, we all need a vast and practical beach bag. For the beach, for swimming, for the gym, for day trips…this is the business. Made by The Old Bag Company, and designed, made and sold by a mother of five (faints) who couldn’t find a suitable bag for beach trips. Comes in loads of plain colours and spotty ones too.

The outside pockets are specially designed to hold a bottle of wine, I tested with a bottle in EACH outside pocket in the interests of sheer greed rigorous testing. Actually they are the perfect size for child drink bottles too (stamps foot and demands wine – let the children dehydrate I say). Inside there’s a zip up pocket for money etc, a pocket for a normal sized mobile (or a packet of tissues if you’re an iphone peep like me), and another deep pocket for suncream, spare pants for those not able to withstand the excitement of the beach, lip salve etc. All rounded off with one of those clippy jobbies for your keys. Oh, and a pocket on the outside for that all essential trashy magazine. Stop reading this and buy one immediately.

This has been a Public Service Announcement. Thank you and goodnight.

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