First Socklets Ever

Well, technically not the first ones made in the world but these are the first ones I ever made.

Have I showed you this already? I'm getting a bit lost with what I have done and what I have thought about doing. Oh well, humour me.... 

They are still among my favourites, mostly for their determined 'couldn't care less' attitude. I may have to cultivate that for myself!

I LOVE STRIPY SOCKS!!!!

Reflections

Here are a couple of pictures that show reflections in the river near where I live: one natural and one man-made.

 Very bright and bold, although I have no idea what the plant is.

A rather statuesque electricity pylon by the river.
I'm tempted to turn the reflection up the other way and see what it looks like...

I don't often give in to temptation but that was worth it. Rather Kooky!

The Best Toilet Waiting Room Ever

It's an unusual accolade, and I am quite happy to receive other nominations if you see somewhere worthy of note, but this was a real surprise to me.
We were in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, just exploring the town and in need of a public loo. The sign directed us to the waiting room for the passenger ferry to the mainland.

The building was small and the room sturdy (ie very thick old walls) with the toilet cubicles leading off at the back. It could have been one of those dull faceless places that chooses yucky green shiny paint for the walls, to make you feel sapped of all strength and vitality while you wait patiently for your journey home but NO!!!

For a start it had this...

 It was a large, proud and impressive piece of artwork celebrating the local area. Then all the rest of the walls were covered in big mounted photographs of fashion art and portraits (modern and beautifully done) . It felt more like going to a prestigious gallery for an art exhibition than a small waiting room (with loo) for the ferry.

 So well done ferry waiting room at Yarmouth for great use of a small and necessary area!!! We salute you!

Camden House: Ground Floor and Entirety

Here, as promised, is the ground floor with its residents, and the shot of the whole of Camden House. I tried to put this together yesterday but the stupid internet connection was refusing to let me.

 These mice are made out of one whole piece of leather, cut and folded and glued, then made to hold a disc of leather that has been stamped. I LONG to pull them apart to see how they're made but fear I may not get them back together again. I say 'they' cos there's green one too but I can't find the photo.

 The dog creatures look like the one from Georgia Byng's book about Molly Moon, a girl who can hypnotise people...or is it the dog that can do it? I read it too long ago.

The house is a wooden display cabinet from a craft shop that sat in the cupboard under the stairs waiting to be 'the right project' and then its moment came.

I painted it white outside and on the front of shelves, painted the inside walls and floors a sympathetic colour to its occupant, then wallpapered the back walls with bits of scrapbook paper.

And no, my mantelpiece is not that tidy. I cleared it for the photo.

Camden House: the Middle Floors

Yesterday you saw the attic and eaves of Camden house: homes for little weirdos purchased from stalls and shoplets in Camden. Today you get to see the middle floors.

 These are the social animals who like to dress up, party and listen to loud music

Some look like they've spent the day at Comicon but no, they dress like that all the time!

 Others are the rock chicks of the school playground.

Tomorrow the ground floor and whole overview.

Camden House: the roof

Every time I go up to Camden I see some new pointless weird little thing that just HAS to come home with me. Until recently they have just lain in a drawer or got buried on a shelf or top of a chest of drawers, waiting for their moment to shine and show the world their true weirdness.

But now there is CAMDEN HOUSE!!! A real live dwelling place where every creature has its own room, a space where the inner light of its own perculiarity can shine out.

Here is the top floor...

Llama and handler in the attic and two calico cats under the eaves.

                                    More to come...

Magic Beans

We are missing watching Once Upon a Time now that series 2 has finished, but when I went down the garden to pick some runner beans for dinner I found this!

 That SO has to be a magic bean!!! It's so fairytale.

I should have opened it and thrown it to see if it made a magic portal but we just put it in with the others and ate it. No magic effects so far...

La Parisienne

Back to the food. A couple of days ago I showed you a view of the counters in a Patisserie in Montparnasse... now here's a close up of what my husband bought.
They don't just stick it in a paper bag or even a little cake box...no! They practise paper-bag-origami on it.

So it starts as a bag, proudly displaying the name and addresses of the shops, then a bit of clever folding produces a pyramid of paper to protect the treasure inside...

 ...and that is a beautiful confection of custardy, cakey, strawberryish wonder

(with extra strawberries hidden inside).
                                                           Bon appetit!

Scooby Doo and the Folies Bergere?

I know Scooby Doo solves mysteries and I know the Folies Bergere has dancers... but I had no idea what the two things had in common. The Mystery Machine was parked at the side of the hotel we stayed in looking like this...

Are you picturing Daphne, Velma or Freddie in those little feathered outfits?
When I got back I checked out the website and if you want to do the same, here it is  http://www.foliesbergere.com/
But the answer to the mystery is not nearly as exciting as actually seing the real vehicle parked nearby!!!

A Feast For The Eyes

If you enjoy looking at cakes (and I know I do even if I can't eat them!!), then feast your eyes on these from the fantastic Patisserie we found in Montparnasse.

As a fan of the Great British Bake Off I have no desire to make these perfectly formed masterpieces of confection...

...and no great desire to eat them (weirdo, I know), but I like to see them and the exquisite workmanship that goes into their construction and display.

Actually, the children both thought we might have a go at these so the Nutella is standing by. I wonder if we'll get around to making any before the jar is suddenly and mysteriously empty?

Dr Who Meets Paris

I LOVE MY PHOTOS OF PARIS!!! 
Very immodest of me I know but some of them are just so spectacularly stunning that I can't believe I took them. Thank you Lumix (camera makers), thank you rain and cloud (for artistic contributions to the atmosphere) and well...just look at these. They wouldn't be out of place on an episode of Dr Who where the Eiffel Tower was being used as an alien transmitter/ receiver!

 

 

 

 

Paris Sur l'Automne

Sorry I have been absent for a few days from the Blogesphere but I have been to Paris. Ooooh, get me! I'm not an extravagant jet-setting traveller (you know me, I thought driving to the Isle of Wight was a real challenge this year), but I have been on this planet for half a century now and married for a fifth of that same century (can you do fractions?) and thought both of those things deserved  a celebration. So husband and I escaped (sans enfants) to Paris.

 

We have a print on our bedroom wall of the Eiffel tower back in the days it was built and there are fancy Victorian balloons drifting across the scene and I suppose it played on my mind till I had to go. Husband and daughter have both been already and I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower.

We went twice in one day: rainy morning and extrememly rainy night. The evening was certainly the most dramatic and impressive for me but husband is an auto-stitch addict and had great fun 'breaking apps'(???) on it both times.

I will post night-time pics soon and hopefully husband will upload his weirdness and I will link to it.

                                     Au revoir mes amis.

Remember Summer?

It was that really sunny warm bit of time we had a few weeks ago that made us feel happy, relaxed and possibly a bit too hot! Dr Xargles book of weather states that in Britain there are 4 types of weather: too hot, too cold, too wet and too windy. I would add that often we can get all 4 in one day!!  = )

Here's a reminder of beaches and possibly summer

although the sea looks a bit rough

and maybe Autumnal after all.

Harvest Time

We tried an allotment but could never keep up with the work needed to keep the weeds at bay (added to that our Autistic son used to run away across the plots as soon as we took our eye off him and didn't come back or answer to his name) so we gave up on that. 
However, we have kept at little growing space at the end of our long thin garden to put a few choice morsels in each year.

Tomatoes are a firm favourite and seem both to crop by the bowlful (small orange and sweet) and disappear within a couple of hours of being picked and left on the kitchen table!
Our house was built in 1928 on the site of an old orchard belonging to the big manor house (long since demolished and way before my time). Many of the old apple and pear trees still remain in ordered rows across the back gardens of the houses that have been built since, and they still crop faithfully every year, even though they are well over 100 years old!

Windmills of my Mind

A fresh wind is blowing the last of the warm summer away so I thought, rather than bemoan it, we'd celebrate it with windmills. Here are a couple of Socklets I made to match their bright spotty windmills.

 The first to colour coordinate with the magenta ...

and the second both to carry on the spotty theme and to match the strawberry colours.

Mollie Makes Macaroons... and so do I

This is the third of the Mollie Makes that I have had a go at ( see also http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/mollie-makes.html and http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/mollie-makes-sealsand-so-do-i.html if you're interested).

They were in an issue last year sometime and looked so yummy I just had to try them. At the time I was addicted to making food out of felt, you may have seen that on earlier blogs, and so this was the logical next step when I had exhausted all my own ideas.

For other felt food on this blog, checkout http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/felt-food.html
or http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/more-food-glorious-food.html    or look it up on Google images. I'm not alone! There are loads of us who just can't resist making food out of felt. We must get help...or buy more felt!

Fairy Grandmother

Yes I did spell that right- Fairy Grandmother rather than Fairy Godmother.
She's rather older than the fairies you often see portrayed: babies, children or beautiful teen-Tinkerbell types.

 

She looks of a similar sort to Mary Poppins in character: well dressed, good imagination with a touch of magic and no nonsense when she's finished.

Made from wire, a wooden bead for a head and with fusible fibres both for hair and wings. The rest of the clothing is made from felt and the glasses, twisted in wire on a bit of broken chain.

Marmite Wedding: Ebony and Ivory

Everyone loves a wedding and the Marmite community are no different. Here are a celebrity Marmite couple getting married.

 

 It being a very tolerant and enlightened society, there was no prejudice about the marriage bride and groom. Everyone knows the colour of your contents or the shape of your outside are no barrier to true love, and that all marriages need work and care.

Good luck to them!

Even more Dr Who Wisdom from the Fridge

This one is dedicated to our son: there is no meal in his life that cannot be improved with the addition of this...

 It's a Judoon (from a platoon upon the moon) and you kind of have to read it in the voice. For help try this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Amlnk3DZIM

Tunnels and (not spiral) Staircases

According to QI this is definitely not a spiral staircase. It doesn't get bigger and bigger or smaller and smaller like a spiral so it's more of a helix staircase, not so catchy but sounds like a funkier thing to walk round. It went down to a long tunnel.

The tunnel was underground and the walls so thick that none of the heat from the blazing hot day could reach in and warm it. Lovely.

The tunnel opened onto the scene shown in the first picture on my blog at the link below if you are interested.
http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/private-beach.html

Weird China Cat from Brighton

Many years ago my sister took me round a museum in Brighton and I was rather taken by a weird china cat that had been painted to look like it was wearing a coat and a lacy hood. I bought the postcard and here it is.

A while later I bought a cheap, white china cat in a furniture shop and painted it up in a similar style using model paints.

 Good fun, although there was no way to recreate the really weird smile of the original as I can't change the shape of the china.

 

The original is definitely the best but it was fun trying.