A Vardo (gypsy caravan) shown here (lots more pictures here in the picture gallery) on the Gypsy Caravans (UK) website. The site is predominantly about UK caravan and has a brief but good section on their history.
I love the gypsy asthetic and from a very early age wanted to live in an authentic gypsy caravan... you know, the wooden 'wagon' type with the fantastic decorative painting, and lots of textured and layered fabrics everywhere. It's part of why I've always been drawn to mobile homes, trailor living, because to me it's a cross between a gypsy caravan, a tree house and a beach hut. I would LOVE to have all 3 of these.
This came to mind just now because Ulla posted about Roullottes in France (like my childhood fantasy but with better weather!) which I had briefly thought of staying in for last years wedding trip. Seeing her post makes me half wish I had, though I don't regret staying in the B&B with the other wedding guests as we had so much fun together.
She also posted some images of wonderful authentic gypsy clothing from ISHKA (i'd like the skirt on the right for gardening in the summer) as well as numerous links and other posts for all manner of gypsy themed things/people/places.
I miss reading Ulla's blog, and Alicia's. They post so much, which is great but the landline connection can't handle it without taking an age. I still have broadband at my house but it's too too cold to work there, it was 3 degrees C yesterday in my house. My stove works but I spent my fuel money doing christmas. That said, they say winter will truly arrive tonight, hard frost, so I must use heat so my pipes don't burst. So you see, if I lived in a Vardo or a Roulotte I wouldn't be worrying about burst pipes, I'd just be stoking my Queenie stove and making a cup of tea.
Today is grey and yukky so I needed to post some colour. Not had much time to actually pack away Christmas things, just took them down at Mr P's and then ignored the pile in the corner, glistening away. I never had any up cause we were at Miss P's for xmas so a few of my things came to his house to jolly up New Year.
I got the GIANT (bigger than my hands) blue bauble on the way home after xmas for only £2 in the sale. The sardines are an addiction of his. He loves his mackarel too - smelly, but good for you and the tins are really handy as tealight holders, they are gold inside.
shed detail on sunny frosty morning this week.
Jeez, what a time we've had. Marley's Op went fine but he started bother his wound so we were meant to put one of those collars on. Fat chance. We tried. In the end we had to drive back to the vet before they closed to get them to do it. Fat chance. They tried. He now has a basket muzzle. I feel SO sorry for him. He has to wear it for a full week and it's driving him crazy. But hey, at least he can't bark, so the neighbours can have some sleep this weekend, though it does dent our training which had been proving quite effective. Anyway, we have to give him an antibiotic (huge one) soon, which means muzzle off for his delayed meal, and then fingerts crossed we can get it back on. It's a lot less fidgetty than the collar.
On a different point, It's Not Easy Being Green is being repeated at the moment, and guess what the music is that plays when they show someone pottering around - the Fiona Apple track that I got from Christine today (see previous post, not enough time to do links just now). It's just the instrumental intro bit, but I had never really noticed it last year.
Amazing, presumably cast jewellery by Mari Ishikawa found via a link on Camilla's blog recently. She has a whole series of pieces like these, well worth a look if this is your kind of thing, it certainly is mine. I love the kind of jewellery that would look great on pins in an open frame when not being worn... esp. as I don't wear jewellery very often.
Must post my xmas pressie bracelets though, the red one is my FAVE as it is such a good red, and it's chunky and natural and BOLD and I just love it. As the seasons change there are other colours to match my mood, the light, the day.... I like that. Thanks to Miss P for those beauties.
I was most surprised and excited to get yet another package in the post from the kindest soul Christine over at Vegas and Venice. I hadn't actually seen her most recent post, otherwise I would have been envious of the lucky friend who was to receive this compilation CD in it's GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS fabric wrap.
I wouldn't have had any clue it was ME that would be getting it. I wouldn't have known that the music was Regina Spektor who I had only discovered through blogs and posted about here a while back. I've never had time to go to the music library to hunt out the album they had, so I was thrilled beyond words (well, except that there were many words, all in high pitch) to get this! I will definitely be aquiring more and spreading the word on her great sound.
I was even more thrilled by some of the extras on the comp, like Jose Gonzalez who I felt sure I would maybe get for Christmas but didn't. And Fiona Apple who I have never heard of which astounds me because she is SO up my street musically that I hurt my knees bouncing on them on the hard floor when I heard her (CD played on bottom shelf at MrP's house). I will definitely be requesting her for my birthday, I could listen to that voice and instrumentation FOREVER.
And most lovely of all this was her gorgeous letter. It made me laugh and it made me cry (in a good way). Hard to believe I've had two such moving letters in one week (got one from Miss P also with that certificate). I do so love paper mail. I will ask Christine's permission to post a few snippets that were so cute about where she was writing from and what she was wearing... nothing naughty I assure you.
But then equally lovely was the stitched wrapping/case for the TURQUOISE CD. I love a good red and turquoise combo, but I also love turquoise with orange as you may remember from this post. So this fab fabric with it's turquoise button was pressing all MY buttons! Sweetest of all, it was her first go at sewing with her machine. She apologised for any flaws. Flaws? What flaws???? It is utter perfection, visually, technically, creatively.
I enthuse as Christine has been so kind in so many ways, and yet, still, my package for her sits in an envelope somewhere in my house. I am a bad friend with good intentions. I can only apologise profusely and assure you, sweet Christine, that it will reach you one day. Likewise Miss P, I will buy your arsenic soon (don't worry folks, it's actually arnica, but we like the name mix up).
Thank you thank you THANK YOU you lovely women for sending me so such personal and wonderful postal love.
Eek, I must must go, Marley has been at the vet all day, like it or not, he returns with slightly less of himself than he left with. L hopes it will reduce his aggression towards her as well as preventing unwanted puppies. She's small and quietly spoken but last night we sat together and really made some headway into him realising that she is top dog, not him. He's been very good since then. Not sure how he'll be feeling now though, poor wee soul.
Ack, work beckons too, so maybe short posts, less contact, more sleep etc. Happy weekend my lovelies one and all.
Proper snow, but where have the Pentland Hills gone?
Even Marley can't see them, though with his doggy senses he knows thay are there.
Poor L is having a tough time with him just now, he's been barking late at night and waking up at 4-5am so I'm going to do some extra walking shifts in the evenings so she can get time for sanity until we get the Barkbuster lady to the house (hopefully in a week). She's a behavioural dog person as well as traditional training, though I do think it's more about training us than the dog. It's ok for me cause I'm naturally quite dominant with dogs but L is a smaller quieter woman and he's really challenging her status as top dog.
I'm determined to be organised today, I've really let things slip recently and haven't even packed away the holiday deco's, they are strewn across the table and every available bookshelf. It must be done, small child visiting on Saturday - eek, hide the small objects!
This reminds me of Miss P, 2 of her water bottles from her August visit, next to my blue one that I use at work.
I think I've mentioned before that Miss P and I have adopted each other as sisters (neither of us having any of our own). I got the sweetest confirmation of this in the post the other day along with an absolutely lovely letter and card which moved me to tears. Thank you so much Miss P!
Sorry about the picture quality, Blogger is doing that weird thing where, even though I do all my pics exactly the same size, same pixels, same settings, it scales them down, and I have to stretch it to make it fit, which looks yukky. I've blurred Miss P's full name cause she's private like me. See how she used my favourite colour combo, red and turquoise...
PS. I have fixed the link to Miss P on my links section so feel free to drop by and say Hi to her, she's at home all the time just now during her slow recovery and would love some visitors on her new blog.
As I don't have time to do regular posts I've set up a few in advance so I can quickly post each day. It means they may be a bit random. Like my paper ball above, a Christmas deco I made using all the green toned pages from an old Howies catalogue.
And since the weather is wintery here's a pic of my big cone, one of the big hand sized ones, I love it.
