Sunday, 30 March 2008
Patches of loveliness
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
A meme about blogging...
1. Why did you start your blog?
In the early Summer of 2007 (which is when the above picture was taken...just in case you begin to wonder later about what the relevance might be) I finally bought a book that I'd had in my Amazon wish list for some time. It was the Crafter's Companion, edited by Anna Torborg. I had no idea at the time what an impression it might have on me or even of the existence of the online world of craft and sewing that it is based around, and that I would soon choose to become a part of. There was an overwhelming feeling of relief as I devoured the words on its pages and then followed the links online to the blogs that it talked of - it opened up to me a community of people whose thinking so often felt familiar and recognisable to me; a need to constantly create, when logic so often might say that it would be easier, and even cost less, to buy the same thing from the shop; as well as so many who share an obsession with colour and order - a people who will be delighted by a rainbow of cotton colours, tactile wooden toys, the ordering of colouring pens, a haul of vintage buttons or the satisfaction of storing a fabric stash in an aesthetically pleasing way....and a general willingness to preserve a little more of the 'old-fashioned' in their lives.
2. How did you come up with your blog name?
When I was about eight my mother read to me a short series of books about a little girl called Flossie Teacakes...and I suppose Flossie is a variation on Florence, so I identified with the character and carried the idea of her with me past the age of reading the actual book . However, despite calling my blog Flossie Teacakes, which may seem like an open invitation to call the author 'Flossie', that is something of a self-created undesired side-effect that I hadn't thought through when choosing a name for my blog - as an adult I've found being called Flossie somewhat undignified. I wonder whether anyone else feels similarly, but I find the whole idea of name shortening a troublesome ground (she said, straightening her petticoat...yes, I know that statement probably makes me sound freakishly stuffy and formal) for unbidden name shortening with anyone other than close family and old friends feels like an imposition, unless the person has introduced themselves, or signed themselves off in that way, in which case name lengthening seems equally inappropriate! Does anyone else feel the same...oh please say I'm not alone on this!?
3. Do your friends and family know about your blog? What do they think of it?
My family and closest friends know about my blog and all read it from time to time, and their reactions have been lovely. Zebra-girl enjoys scrolling down through the pictures and seeing bits of her life on there, but also likes looking at other people's blogs. I think the idea that you can get such a snapshot of someone else's world fascinates her. I sometimes question how it looks to family and friends that my blog is very much focused around the things that I create and the edited highlights of our family life which can create the appearance of a sort of vacuum....I worry that it may look as if the other things that go on in our lives are of no consequence...but it's not that at all...just a lack of desire to bare all about either myself or those around me.
In the early Summer of 2007 (which is when the above picture was taken...just in case you begin to wonder later about what the relevance might be) I finally bought a book that I'd had in my Amazon wish list for some time. It was the Crafter's Companion, edited by Anna Torborg. I had no idea at the time what an impression it might have on me or even of the existence of the online world of craft and sewing that it is based around, and that I would soon choose to become a part of. There was an overwhelming feeling of relief as I devoured the words on its pages and then followed the links online to the blogs that it talked of - it opened up to me a community of people whose thinking so often felt familiar and recognisable to me; a need to constantly create, when logic so often might say that it would be easier, and even cost less, to buy the same thing from the shop; as well as so many who share an obsession with colour and order - a people who will be delighted by a rainbow of cotton colours, tactile wooden toys, the ordering of colouring pens, a haul of vintage buttons or the satisfaction of storing a fabric stash in an aesthetically pleasing way....and a general willingness to preserve a little more of the 'old-fashioned' in their lives.
2. How did you come up with your blog name?
When I was about eight my mother read to me a short series of books about a little girl called Flossie Teacakes...and I suppose Flossie is a variation on Florence, so I identified with the character and carried the idea of her with me past the age of reading the actual book . However, despite calling my blog Flossie Teacakes, which may seem like an open invitation to call the author 'Flossie', that is something of a self-created undesired side-effect that I hadn't thought through when choosing a name for my blog - as an adult I've found being called Flossie somewhat undignified. I wonder whether anyone else feels similarly, but I find the whole idea of name shortening a troublesome ground (she said, straightening her petticoat...yes, I know that statement probably makes me sound freakishly stuffy and formal) for unbidden name shortening with anyone other than close family and old friends feels like an imposition, unless the person has introduced themselves, or signed themselves off in that way, in which case name lengthening seems equally inappropriate! Does anyone else feel the same...oh please say I'm not alone on this!?
3. Do your friends and family know about your blog? What do they think of it?
My family and closest friends know about my blog and all read it from time to time, and their reactions have been lovely. Zebra-girl enjoys scrolling down through the pictures and seeing bits of her life on there, but also likes looking at other people's blogs. I think the idea that you can get such a snapshot of someone else's world fascinates her. I sometimes question how it looks to family and friends that my blog is very much focused around the things that I create and the edited highlights of our family life which can create the appearance of a sort of vacuum....I worry that it may look as if the other things that go on in our lives are of no consequence...but it's not that at all...just a lack of desire to bare all about either myself or those around me.
4. How do you write posts?
I always start with a picture...and I don't think I've ever done a post without one. Normally, once the image is uploaded, I start writing and a lot of things that I hadn't even been aware that I was thinking, or thoughts that were only half-formed, spill out onto the page jumbled up with some bits and pieces that I've been making or thinking about making.
5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?
I can remember deleting one comment that was about 2000 words long and rather religious in tone and completely unrelated to my post, but that's it.
6. Do you check your stats? Do you care how many people read your blog? If you do care, how do you increase traffic?
I used to check stats often when I first started blogging, until Mr Teacakes pointed out to me that site traffic is rather irrelevant, as you only know that people liked what they saw and read if they leave a comment or return again. I think that's a slightly simplistic view, as there are lots of lovely blogs that I choose to only lurk on, but even so, his words have seeped into my subconscious somehow, because I only check occasionally now. I think site traffic is probably increased by doing tutorials...but to write or order my blog in a way that purposely increases site traffic would most probably be at the expense of how much I enjoy just using it for what it is...so yes, I'd really like people to read my blog, but I wouldn't change it to make that happen. Having said that, I really appreciate it when people share sewing tricks and tips that they've found helpful, and so I do try to do that when it occurs to me.
I always start with a picture...and I don't think I've ever done a post without one. Normally, once the image is uploaded, I start writing and a lot of things that I hadn't even been aware that I was thinking, or thoughts that were only half-formed, spill out onto the page jumbled up with some bits and pieces that I've been making or thinking about making.
5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?
I can remember deleting one comment that was about 2000 words long and rather religious in tone and completely unrelated to my post, but that's it.
6. Do you check your stats? Do you care how many people read your blog? If you do care, how do you increase traffic?
I used to check stats often when I first started blogging, until Mr Teacakes pointed out to me that site traffic is rather irrelevant, as you only know that people liked what they saw and read if they leave a comment or return again. I think that's a slightly simplistic view, as there are lots of lovely blogs that I choose to only lurk on, but even so, his words have seeped into my subconscious somehow, because I only check occasionally now. I think site traffic is probably increased by doing tutorials...but to write or order my blog in a way that purposely increases site traffic would most probably be at the expense of how much I enjoy just using it for what it is...so yes, I'd really like people to read my blog, but I wouldn't change it to make that happen. Having said that, I really appreciate it when people share sewing tricks and tips that they've found helpful, and so I do try to do that when it occurs to me.
7. What kind of blogs/posts interest you?
Probably the same things that most others are attracted to: I love blogs that are well written, have nice photos and are full of the author's personality. I like it when you have a sense of the place that they might be writing or working from and what the hustle and bustle of their daily life entails. I like blogs that feel like the owner has taken the time to make their page feel like a virtual home...so many with their colourful headers and busy sidebars feel like a familiar and favourite armchair to sit down in when the page first loads. And of course...lots of sewing inspiration is always good too...
8. What do you like and dislike about blogging?
For me, blogging is a catch-all for many of my favourite things - it involves writing, photography, sewing, and the opportunity to record the best bits of my life with Mr Teacakes and our children. Although when I first started to write a blog my reasons for doing so were fairly straight forward, my continuation of writing a blog is partly because the idea of leaving some document of our daily existence for our children appeals to me.
The most unexpected delight of blogging though has been meeting so many like-minded and lovely people through doing it - a passion for sewing can be a solitary thing...what loveliness to find that reading the blogs of others so often makes it feel otherwise.
What don't I like about blogging? Sometimes I'm not very efficient in answering emails quickly and then I feel awful about how rude and ungrateful of people's lovely comments that may look.
So, who to tag? I've been meaning to share some blogs that are newish to me that I've been enjoying reading recently, so I'll put links to them here and if they want to join in on the meme then that would be most lovely! They are: Erleperle, Tilly Moss, Girl Number Twenty, and The Philosophy of Lists. Some provide wonderful sewing inspiration, others are fantastic reads. If you aren't already familar with them, I hope that you enjoy them too!
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Eggful Easter
But, amongst others, I did find this lovely photo of my sister making lace at our old next-door-neighbour's house. Audrey taught my sister lace making when she was seven or eight...and I think she even tried to teach me at one point too. How lovely it was to be reminded of her bobbins and the beads that she decorated them with, and the sounds of clicketty-clacking that accompanied Audrey's own lace making as she confidently skipped them over one another.
I hope you all had lovely Easter celebrations.
And thank you so much for all the lovely, encouraging comments that you left for me on my last post - such kindness. x
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Sneaky peeky bits
I've now heard that the doorstop has arrived safely and that the little recipients are most pleased with it (thank goodness!). Oh, and if you haven't already visited, then the Molly Cup Cakes shop is definitely worth having a peek into for all its polka-dot hand-painted goodness and lovely Easter goodies.
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Soupy heart
Since they were tiny, both of our children have delighted us by looking for shapes in their food...look it's a bridge, a nose, a dog they would say. As adults, Ian and I look at these things that they show us and are just about able to make out which part they may have construed to be something other than a slice of bread edged with bite marks. We have old books full of optical illusions, the type where there first looks to be a man's face...but if you study it for half an hour longer the realisation suddenly jumps out from the page that from another angle, when you allow your vision to be drawn further into the page, it is also a vase. How perfectly lovely that children spend so much of their time not limiting themselves to looking at things simply for what they are, but are constantly seeking out an otherness to their surroundings, finding a place for an alternative interpretation.
One day last week Dinosaur-boy and I sat together eating soup and ciabatta for our lunch. 'Look, Mummy, it's a heart!' he had said giggling. I had looked up expecting to see an unrecognisable splot of soup on the breakfast bar...but was amazed to see that the soup from his spoon really had been spilt into the most perfectly-formed heart.
I shall miss sharing lunch with him in September...I wonder if I shall start looking for shapes in my solitary lunches and taking pictures of my finds to show when they come home...or if I will lose the will to bother making lunch at all once I'm home alone. Probably the latter, children are so good for giving adults a structure to their days.
One day last week Dinosaur-boy and I sat together eating soup and ciabatta for our lunch. 'Look, Mummy, it's a heart!' he had said giggling. I had looked up expecting to see an unrecognisable splot of soup on the breakfast bar...but was amazed to see that the soup from his spoon really had been spilt into the most perfectly-formed heart.
I shall miss sharing lunch with him in September...I wonder if I shall start looking for shapes in my solitary lunches and taking pictures of my finds to show when they come home...or if I will lose the will to bother making lunch at all once I'm home alone. Probably the latter, children are so good for giving adults a structure to their days.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Two-tone fun
Moving around the tables was a magician from the magic circle...whose tricks were many and impressive and who whipped cards from my hand and hid them in his pocket without me seeing or feeling a thing, despite the fact that my palms were clamped firmly together with the cards apparently safe inside. Our taxi ride home was filled with plans to create a midnight feast that revolved primarily around a slab of brie and a french stick, as well as the need for a proper debrief as to how Mr Magic might have worked his tricks. The former was quite delicious, the latter produced no firm conclusions...as you might have expected.
Saturday, 15 March 2008
Pink domesticity...
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
A happy plethora of pink & red...
Anyway, I know Mr Teacakes will disapprove of this question....but does anyone have any tea recommendations? My addiction to collecting new flavours has become the source of some resentment in my house and when I'd accumulated over 40 different varieties Ian forced me to do a cull and resign at least 35 of them to the garage, only permitted to re-enter the house on a strict rotation basis. My two favourite staples are Licorice Tea and then the rather dull, but trusty, Peppermint tea, so this leaves me with only three other possibilities at any one time! The man is a teabag tyrant!
Monday, 10 March 2008
Beneath the papers
Thank you so much for all your lovely birthday wishes...in case you were wondering my equilibrium has now been fully restored, the make-up has been properly cleansed away and my bed is no longer masquerading as a boat at sea. Horay! Being 31 is quite fabulous!
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Double birthday fun
Last night Mr Teacakes & I went to Milk & Honey, where my sister was having her birthday party...it was lots of fun...but this morning my head hurts and, despite the fact that our small ones are residing elsewhere, I woke shockingly early feeling rather like I was on a boat. I never normally eat breakfast...but I think I may have some birthday cake in bed to try and make myself feel human...or just sugary. So much of post late-night recovery is psychological though and I have just looked in the mirror and I realise that I must have slept perfectly on my back, for my makeup has magically stayed in place, and I look weirdly healthy and like I'm all ready to go to another party....this has made me feel almost instantly better - horay!
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Daytime fun
Despite my ambivalence at being another year older, Ian has some time off work and we have lots of lovely things planned, not least, going to paint some pottery in a ceramics studio, alone, just me and Mr Teacakes*, which I am really looking forward to, because daytime time together seems like such a treat and it is one of my favourite places to go and spend time. I feel oddly guilty not taking at least one child along with us as it does seem like a completely self-indulgent activity without the presence of either of the small ones....but not so guilty that I shan't do it and enjoy every minute of it.
We will also be going to my sister's party in London because it is her birthday too...which will be followed by the picking out of some blue velvet the next day so that I might make her a window-seat cushion for her office at work...I am anticipating that we made need to take our sunglasses off to assess fabric colours properly - I am hoping it won't be too painful.
(* that was for you, Alice C! x)
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Mothering Sunday loveliness...
Making Tissue-paper hearts - the Zebra way...
They first took a sainsburys bag and smeared pva glue all over it, then layered lots of beautifully coloured pieces of tissue paper over it and liberally added the glitter. Once this had dried they were able to peel it off the bag in one piece. They then drew hearts on it, cut them out and this bit of loveliness is what you are left with!
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