Kim Naumann Artwork

I am loving these ... Kim Naumann's artwork as seen on her blog. Magical stuff!

Inspired and inspiring.

I've long been inspired by Cath Kidston's designs, but there is a woman in Germany who goes by the name of Shabby-Roses-Cottage who blogs and has a very fine flickr photostream showcasing her Cath-inspired handmade items.

So sweet and CREATIVE! I'd be jealous if I weren't so impressed.

Now for something a little more serious.

Though it strays from the general categories of this blog, I do feel compelled to tuck something serious in here every now and again. My head is actually not full of this fun stuff all day (that would be boring in the end, wouldn't it?)

I was visiting a local library yesterday and displayed staff picks for good reads led me to pick this one up. I'm 54 pages into it and so far so good. For some reason I have a weird, completely out of place (for me, anyway) mild fascination with military history. Can't say why, though I suspect it's part of my nascent fascination with history in general.

History, a subject I cared very little for until about a year ago. Until the History Channel forced me to confront the fact that the world is very large, very complicated, and has been around a very long time.

So much still to learn. I guess you could read nothing but history for the rest of your life and still have books left untouched as you breathe your last. This is intriguing to me.

The last book I read about history was Norman Cantor's Inventing The Middle Ages, published to acclaim in 1993. A dense book, it demanded far more background knowledge about Europe than I knew then (or will probably ever know), but it was cool all the same.

I don't feel dumb when I read books that are above me. I feel spunky for trying. You know, that old "reach for the stars" thing?

Finally got my hands on something Cath!

Cath Kidston is a U.K. designer of domestic stuff, and I've been an admirer for a long time. The fact that her stuff is difficult, if not impossible, to find in the U.S. and must be ordered from Britain (at a shipping rate which beggars belief) has meant I could admire on paper only ... (or on the monitor, as it were!)

But today ... a fortuitous find. Two Cedar Mugs in Gypsy Green (pictured) and two Cedar Mugs in blue/stars (couldn't find an image, and my camera went belly up). These were five dollars each in an off-price store. Brand new, labels still on them, five dollars a piece! I now own four of the mugs which -- had I purchased them from overseas -- would have cost me probably in the area of U.S. $100 (as in hundred) with those exorbitant shipping rates.

What can I say? The world is falling down around us, the polar ice caps are melting, the economy is in the toilet, but for this hour, this evening, I am happy over this very little thing.

Hey, I take it where I can get it.

Miss Mary's malady.

My best friend, who also happens to be my housemate, is the parent of a beautiful cat named Miss Mary. Not JUST "Mary", mind you: Miss Mary. She is the queen of cats, and will not respond to anything less than the appropriate nomenclature.

This sweet and kind little beast was just recently diagnosed with feline kidney disease. Ugh. It's progressive and terminal, and though the vet caught it in its earliest stages, it will eventually take her life. Double ugh.

I didn't think I could love another cat as much as I love my own, but ... I was wrong. To absorb this information and see her in the throes of not eating, not drinking, enduring the indignity of at home subcutaneous re-hydration, totally off of her game, well it was nothing short of heartbreaking. I honestly didn't know I cared as much as I do.

There is a "Miss Mary"-shaped place in my heart.

Like buttah.

I love a yellow house. Not a horrid, canary yellow or too florid sunflower gold yellow, but a creamy, almost buttery yellow.

This is why I have decided that the dollhouse should be yellow, and not pink as I'd originally planned. Nope, yellow it is. Cheerful and just the tiniest bit unexpected. This will be my "buttercup bungalow" in miniature.

Hearts and flowers.

Hey, I've designed my first-ever bracelet!

My best friend has oodles of jewely making stuff, primarily beads. She's got all the tools and supplies necessary to make this stuff, and I sat down with all the colors this morning hoping to make just the sort of thing I'd love to find in a store but can never seem to. I'm fond of purple and green together (yes, there's something else in my palette besides pink -- witness my my entry a few posts back re: the plaque I made. Definitely some green and purple happening there). And any kind of flower motif I'm almost guaranteed to like. This one looks like a pansy or daisy type. This bracelet is probably going to become a necklace at some point, because the purple heart pieces are frankly just too large for this bracelet and they're heavy enough that they jut at funny, sort of daggery-looking points. This wouldn't happen if they were sitting flat just below the collarbones. I don't like necklaces too long, they draw attention down towards the early-middle-aged puffy bits. Which are more droop than puff, but hey -- they body's taken me to this point. It's doing something right.

Paint it pink!

I continue to plan for my apartment ... the one I will have someday. It's been a long while since I had a place of my very own, and it's high time I did again. Circumstances at the moment don't allow, but eventually ...

A friend has given me two parlor lamps, very traditional looking, and of course I cannot let them stand "as is". One of the lamps I've begun painting pink (see color, above). It's such a faint pink it looks like the lightest possible Nestle Strawberry Quick milk. It's almost like a white pink. The name is "ballet pink" and I suppose that captures it best. You really do have to look twice to see that yes, by golly -- the lamp IS pink.

Visiting Yvestown.

I'm probably the last blogger on the planet to have discovered Yvestown, but better late than never!

Yvonne Eijkenduijn is a homemaker, writer and photographer who lives in Belgium. She is the proprietress of a much-adored blog, also a second blog which is an expanded addition, and a fantastic on-line shop. She has put together an altogether charming book featuring rooms in her home, showcasing her unbelievably fantastic sense of design.

File this under: INSPIRATION.

Pretty in pink.

I'm kicking myself for not having bought more of the pieces from the Rosie B. Farmer Songbird pattern before it was retired. At one time I had the pink teapot, then foolishly sold it. Oh, my kingdom for a do-over on that one! For now I'm buying whatever pieces my lean budget will allow for. Ebay is great but can you really find a bargain there anymore? It's getting much harder. I scooped this pink Songbird creamer yesterday, but even with shipping it was about $20. Twenty dollars can buy a lot of groceries (well, I suppose that depends upon how you define "enough"!)

So was it worth the money? I'll let you know when it's sitting in my hutch, unapologetically sweet and pink for all the world (or just my company) to see. In other words: yes, it was worth it. Not because the acquistion of "stuff" makes life better, but because it is OK -- more than OK -- to beautify your environment in a way that sings to the truest places in your heart.