Friday 31 March 2017

A Million Little Things: Towards April

Towards April...and just as soon as you like. I'll be very happy to see March over and done with here at High In The Sky. More Spring, please!

As soon as it gets lighter in the evenings I feel in a mood for finding some sewing.


I hope that's more than just a commentary on the state of my ageing eyesight. No: it has to be about crsip cottons and gathered skirts and remembering the Liberty print smock I once made in needlework class. Or maybe a few alterations would do?

There's a little story behind this one. I did a bad thing. I made a rookie mum mistake, though I maintain it was an accident (see eyesight ref above). I got an email a while back from Uniqlo, about Ines de la Fressange's latest capsule collection. I like her style, so much that I have in my list of books I'd buy if I had a book token The New Garconne by Navaz Batliwalla. So I followed the link and I looked and I knew some of that navy, a little of that chic, had to be mine. I bought a shirt and I bought a tunic and then I added a dress for The (Not So) Small One, who is planning a summer of festival wear, due to a boy and a band. My parcel arrived..

...and I discovered that in my excitement I had hit the wrong button. My tunic and her dress are in the same print.I'll say that again. The same print. Gah! I'm taking the hem up, up high for her in the hope that she'll like it again. But that might only happen if I promise to save mine for Old Folks Outings only.

Other signs of optimism chez Fair?


A new cast on. Is there any better way of looking forward than sliding those first stitches onto the needle? I still have to piece together the man sweater I've been working on - it's nearly done - but I couldn't resist the call of the yoke: a new one for me, more of the little croft houses I knitted before, because the blue one I finished at the beginning of the year has been lifting my spirits every time I've put it on ever since.

This week if I haven't had needles in my hands I've been flipping through a book of some sort. I have


Little E and his school project to thank for the resurfacing of this old photo album. It's usually kept high up on a shelf at Granny's house: a record of her husband's, my Dad's, life before they met. That beautiful lady in that faded picture, that's not my Mum. She's called Betty, it says so on the back with love. I wonder, did she marry? have a family? Is there somebody out there, maybe roughly my age, looking at an album and puzzling over the identity of the little man with the Welsh name? I'll never know. And maybe that's right.

Not just looking, but reading: I've finished several paperbacks. A Farewell To Arms I hunted out after watching


the film of Testament of Youth. The other two are both new. I found  His Bloody Project  very sad. "It's only a story, or is it?" the reviews said: it's about a murder trial in nineteenth century Scotland and put together as a collection of documents. Very clever. As is Golden Hill, which takes place in eighteenth century New York. I loved it. What have you been reading?

...and that's everything I've been up to lately. More scrapbooking next time!

11 comments:

Julie Kirk said...

Oh goodness Sian ... the serendipity in this post is just ridiculous ... I guess this is why we're friends. I've been drawn to The New Garconne too -- the Spufford book is one I keep looking for in the library catalogue -- I considered hunting out Testament of Youth this week aaaaannnd ... I just bought a black (OK, so not navy but ...) and white checked tunic/dress on Monday.

I'm currently reading No, Wait. Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself - a long poem - by Robert Fitterman in which he apparently compiled lots of lines he found on blogs! At the moment it reminds me a little of Hamlet meets Catcher in the Rye meets the inside of my own head on stressful days! It's a library book and I'm currently debating whether to buy a copy ...

Have a lovely weekend. x

Patio Postcards said...

A good chuckling worthy story today about the tunic & dress in the same pattern. Reading I just finished (a re-read) What The Psychic Told The Pilgrim by Jane Christmas. Interesting photo & the tale that could go with it ...

Honoré said...

Despite the "goof," the orders sound like fun and I hope will be/have been well received. I always am buoyed by the start of new projects and new months...beginnings are good things.
Cheers~

Ruth said...

TNSSO will love her shortened dress, who wouldn't? We also watched the film version of Testament of Youth recently and enjoyed it (if that's the right word).

Gail Thompson said...

I had a couple of good chuckles reading your post - first I can relate to the eyes comment - I seem to be getting a lot more done in the early evenings then I was before the time change and second the goof sounds so much like osmething I'd do. Hope the shortening of the dress does the trick. As for reading I haven't had anything on the go for awhile now but yesterday I came across a fw books I totally forgot I had so think I'll be picking up one of them later today or tomorrow. A dull rainy day does make me feel I need to curl up (as much as I can do that) and read a book.

Karen said...

Well, the tunic and dress are of a lovely fabric, so I hope the shortening works out well. I'm always glad to see the titles of new books. I read Farewell to Arms so many years ago, that I wonder if I'd recognize any of it if I reread it now. I'll add Golden Hills to my list, but it will be awhile. We visited a fabulous independent book store in Nashville (co-owned by Ann Patchett, one of my favorite authors) and I came out with a bag full of books. None of them were familiar to me except one who's review I had read the previous day. That's a rule I have in a book store. Stick to the recommended titles and buy only what's new to you. I've read a bit of all of them, and am quite sure the recommendations were good ones.

Lizzy Hill said...

OOPS to the dress pattern....yay to the knitting [glad it's you and not me!] & yippy doo to looking at old photos. I had our trip [2010] 'brag book' [nowadays it's prob been rebranded as a traveller's note book!!!] out & was having a wonderful time re-remembering!
As far as reading.... I don't really 'do' history.... I'm re-reading Ngaio Marsh, detective woman [NZ] writer - contemporary of Agatha Christie and equally famous at the time...but I'm prob talking Oil to Arabs, Miss Librarian...anyways, can't go past her whodunnits....so that's what I'm sinking into.....

Maggie said...

I read Farewell to Arms years ago. Probably time for a reread. The photo album looks rather like my dad's . I can remember one of his ex girlfriends coming to visit us. Her comment as she entered was "I've come to see what I missed" ! I also found amongst my maternal gran's photos some a photo of her with words to a past boyfriend on them. Best not to know!

Sandra said...

Another post of yours that made me smile and feels just a tad familiar. I've been going through hundreds of photos of mum & dad in their youth, and so many photos don't have names but those that do always intrigue me ... I wonder if their families have similar but With my parents, names on the back xx

Jo said...

It looks like you've been doing some really lovely things. I always have a little change of hobbies when it's lighter in the evening :)

Melissa said...

Wow, you've certainly been up to quite a bit! I can hardly believe we're into April already. We enjoyed those lighter evenings on our road trip - so much more time to enjoy the sites and sounds of Vicksburg (Mississippi) and New Orleans (Louisiana). :)

Related Posts with Thumbnails