owls on a log

Owls are not my favourite kind of vintage find - usually they strike me as quite creepy. These twins were different somehow, they come across quite cute, don't you think?

They are a salt and pepper set with a log shaped cruet. The material is silver plate on steel, plus a lot of tarnish.They will be shinier one day; I'm sure I'll clean them up at some point, although I wonder how much the tarnish might have eaten into that whisper-thin layer of silver...

I'm not filling them with seasoning - sorry owls - although they are in perfectly functioning condition. Instead I've opted for them to be in a decorative function, to keep a little plastic cactus company on top of a little shelf.

a hand-stitched letter

The other week a bubble envelope dropped through my mailbox. It revealed Anca's hand-stitched envelope which contained her reply and lots of little treats.

Vintage needle booklets were among them. I just love old needle booklets. They always come in such charming designs. I especially like that red inner with the line-drawn animals and the golden foil with the embossed spiderweb pattern.

And the extra bonus to getting a nice letter is - the stamps! There was even a stamp made out of textile in this one. Thank you Anca, it's been lovely to receive and read your hand-stitched letter!

fat lava times two

When I was a secondary school student I loved literature class. I loved the analyzing and interpreting of poems, novels and plays. There was one poem that left me totally baffled: Ode to a Grecian Urn by Keats. How weird to get inspired by a vase to the point of daisy-chaining so many words into such a poem?

All I can say now is, that I feel the same way about fat lava vases - I feel like I probably could throw together a few adoring rhymes about their bubbling high/matt glazed beauty.

These two lovelies joined my growing collection recently, both found in the same Red Cross Store, both so cheap I turned them and turned them to see where was the chip or the crack (none found). 

The slimmer vase is made by Scheurich, the tubby blue one is by Haldensleben.

Not trying to compete with Keats here, but in fact I did think of a couple of rhymes when I wrote down that previous sentence further up:


The glaze of fat lava oozes and bubbles,
How sweet when these vases turn up in doubles.

The glaze of fat lava bubbles and oozes,
Long may West German urns be found in twos(es).

(Wow, I think I really outdid myself there *facepalm*)

dusty

It's been so quiet on this blog lately that I can almost see the dust that gathered on things in my little corner of the cyberspace.

Life is like that sometimes, it just takes over. I miss blogging - I miss the thinking process, the always running thread in the part of my brain that's allocated for writing and weaving creative thoughts. Nowadays I'm living more in the immediate present, all of me is required to be with this little boy, and to take care of other rather basic things for myself and boyfriend.

Like I told about in my previous post, there is a lot to explore. He is at such a special age, everything is new, it's spring turning into summer soon and I just want him to experience all of it, as much as our surroundings and this town can offer.

Then there is the milk allergy, which we need to prove, which means a lot of trips to doctors and the hospital. Then the trying to introduce more solid foods, which is a delicate and very messy business, but the more nutritious solids he eats the less we need to think about milk.

While making all that mess, there is also the trying to keep a sane home environment. Which means an all-day-long wet cloth in one hand, or cleaning in the night after his bedtime. When he naps, it's alternating filling the laundry basket with unloading the washed laundry from the machine.

There's a lot of hands-on stuff when he's awake; dancing, bouncing, upside down somersaults, grooving sitting up, trying to avoid banged heads, and the obsession with daddy's hat, headphones, keyboard, pulling on ears and long hair, chewing on phones, silicone covers, books, socks and so on....I wouldn't switch with anyone but it is full on.

I know, I know. This post is full of baby pictures, which I kind of told myself not to do. But that's exactly it: my days and weeks are full of baby at the moment, not much else is on my mind either.

However, there's got to be a few more other kind of posts before May finishes - I received a beautiful letter, I made some sleeping bags from scratch, I ate a really nice vegan choccy mousse, and I also picked up some double scores in the thrifts (a while ago, I have to admit).

So here's a couple of fingers crossed on my free hand that I'll endure to post about them. For now, a sticky high chair and a hot cup of tea is waiting for me in the kitchen! Bon nuit!

warmer

Finally it feels like spring is really here. The threat of returning snow and cold temperatures seems distant. There's warm sunshine and signs of new life, and colours in the world again. There're thousands of little buds on the trees and they look to unfurl any minute.

It's gorgeous to wake up to another sunny day in the morning. Oh yes, we live in the realm of light again: daylight breaks at around 5am and goes on until 10pm when the sun sets.

After getting up, baby and me usually play in the sunny living room, then after the morning nap we head out - to the park and to the swings.

There are so many new things he's encountering for the first time and I love looking at everything with new eyes, noticing little things from his point of view. One of the best things about being a parent has got to be the reliving of your own childhood through helping your kid discover the world around him. 

The rest of the short spring and the whole of summer is ahead of us. It's a lovely, reassuring, expansive feeling full of promises and excitement. I hope we'll be able to get out there close to nature as much as possible. This little boy and his mommy have a lot of exploring to do!