Tight Lipped Tuesday #12

One of my occasional Tuesday posts where I don’t say much (for me) but this could equally well have gone into my other, even more occasional series of posts entitled ‘Excuses Not To Do The Housework’.

I needed two dark brown or black buttons.

My main button jar is huge and has to be emptied out and searched through to find matching colours and styles.

I was fed up with it.

I’ve been meaning to have a ‘sort out’ for ages though not necessarily in the middle of a Sunday afternoon when I was planning to do something else.

Creams, Yellows and Reds.

Pastel greens, apricots and pale blues.

Purples, pinks and so many, many browns.  Why is that?

That’s better.

Next time I need two black buttons the same size and type, it won’t take me all afternoon.

Any guesses?

 

Excuse Not To Do The Housework No. 832(ish)

Just to let you know why my Colette Zinnia skirt is still a work in progress and why I haven’t started another Skater Dress even though I’ve got the fabric.  We’ve got the builders in.  Well, I say ‘the builders’ it’s actually just one builder and I was very pleased with him until today when he disappeared a bit early and isn’t coming tomorrow at all, leaving me in a miasma of dust and uncertainty. Our old insert fire was showing its age and the faux chimney breast above was cracking badly so we decided to have that knocked out and get a free standing wood burner as we have in another room.

Vintage French red marble fireplace anybody?  Buyer collects

Yes, that’s the sort of thing, now just take out the old insert and make the wall good.  What’s that you say?  The wall to the right hand side has a void behind it so you could take it right back and take out the cupboard in the corner – it would make a bigger room.    Oh, go on then.

Aha! there is a wall in front of the other wall and the first wall is crumbly and unstable, shall I knock that out too?  Oh, go on then.

Back to the original, original wall now, well mostly.  I suppose these things happen when you have an ancient house and we know this and usually don’t tackle anything needing more than a screwdriver or, occasionally, a bit of light drilling.  I’ve always fancied an exposed stone wall so that’s one redecorating decision made.  There was an old doorway behind the cupboard and we plan on keeping the frame and infilling with stone – of which we have plenty – see small sample on left.  At least the flue is now hanging straight down instead of draped across a crumbly wall.  Stan is looking for rodent skeletons.

Ready to start backfilling and pointing up now but the builder has gone and won’t be coming back until the day after tomorrow.  Something about not having the right sand.

Might as well go and finish putting the pleats in my skirt then.

A Distraction (or Excuse Not To Do the Housework No. 352ish)

I know I haven’t been blogging very much lately but there has been ‘stuff’ going on and I am still adjusting to the absence of Madamoiselle Tialys the Elder at university.  Still, I was thinking about doing a post soon as I have some projects coming to fruition (well, almost) and some very interesting vintage things to share but, in the meantime, a distraction.

Well, yes, this is just a bit of my balcony but I was watching and waiting to catch somebody on camera

who didn’t seem to want to show his face

but when he (finally) does, there seems to be something wrong but this is as close as I could get

Does anybody know what it could be?  He’s eating from the bird feeders and the other birds don’t seem to be bothering him particularly.  I wonder whether it’s an injury or a birth deformity.  Of course, there won’t be anything I can do about it – apart from carrying on supplying fat balls and sunflower seeds – but I just wondered.  And was distracted.

Excuses Not to Do The Man Chores No. 1

As a supplement to my occasional ‘Excuses Not to Do the Housework’ feature, I have now discovered that Mr. Tialys has entered into the spirit of the thing and is finding his own excuses not to do things that normally come under his domain, for example, grouting tiles in, unblocking plumbing pipes, putting up shelves to name but a few things outstanding at the moment

As it has been so cold here lately and we had not been quick enough to think about emptying the huge water butt outside the back door, the water inside froze and cracked the plastic.  Mr. T. emptied the huge block of ice out into the garden and I thought no more about it.  I heard the sound of the chainsaw and thought he was preparing more logs for the fire but then I was called to admire this

Bless ‘im!

(If he asks – just say you knew it was an eagle)

Excuse Not to Do the Housework: No. 465(ish)

Another entry in my occasional series of good reasons not to get on with the housework is also a brilliant vindication of whittering away about everything that occurs to me on my blog.

Apparently, according to a study in California, women who regularly write about things that matter to them lose more weight than those who don’t.  

 Using a test group of 45 women, the researchers asked half of them to write for 15 minutes every day about something that was important to them and the other half to write about things they had no particular interest in.  Four months later, the first group had lost, on average, 3.4lbs, the second had gained 2.7lb.  If you are writing about something you care about, you are happier, thus less likely to snack – allegedly.

Now, whilst I would like to believe that sitting on my backside in front of the screen is a form of fat burning exercise, I can’t help but think that pushing the vacuum cleaner around and wielding a duster  might actually be more effective.  So, after serious consideration, I don’t think I would be able to present this evidence to Mr. Tialys when he asks why he hasn’t got any shirts ironed again so it might not be my best ‘excuse not to do the housework’ entry.

Also. Haven’t these researchers in California got anything better to do than this?  Shouldn’t they be finding a cure for Alzheimers or something?  

*Wonder if I can have another slice of cake now*

Excuse Not To Do The Housework No. 15 (ish)

I love finding excuses not to do the housework and today it’s 34 degrees outside and too hot to move let alone stand anywhere near a steam iron, but, if that wasn’t enough, here’s another one.

To count to a million, at a rate of one number per second, would take 11.5 days.  To count to a billion would take nearly 32 years. 

                                     (courtesy of The Independent newspaper)

I’m up to 100 already….

Monday – Housework Day – Bleurgh!!

 I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.

                                                                                                                             Joan Rivers

You and me both Joan!  I usually put ‘housework avoidance’ down as one of my interests.

I remember when my girls were at primary school and they came home one day clutching  a sheet of paper with their handprints on and this little poem alongside emphasising the need to play and have fun and make the most of your children and not keep worrying about everything being clean and tidy.  Sentimental?  Yes.  Something I took to my heart and have used as an excuse ever since?  Hell yes! 

The fact they are now 15 and 17 needn’t concern us. 

Now, where’s the number of that cleaning agency?

Busy Doing Nothing

Some friends have taken my girls off to the beach today. I would have liked to have gone  too but I can’t leave 3 dogs on their own for more than 5 hours. So, I have the house to myself.

What a good woman!

Things I Should be Doing:

Sorting laundry

Ironing

Vacuuming

Damp dusting  (Love the sound of that!)

Tidying up my workroom

Filing mountains of paperwork

Baking (I don’t usually, but it seems like a ‘good wife & mother’ thing to do)

Things I Am Doing:

Spending money on a discount designer shopping site.

Talking to Ebay admin about why I can’t bid for perfume related items just because I am in France 

Re-jigging my Etsy shop because admin has changed the layout and now it doesn’t look right.

Thinking about having a bowl of cereal for lunch

Waiting for the postman in case he brings me a parcel

Writing a blog post

Generally, doing anything other than housework.

I Must Do The Housework!!

I can’t think of any reason to actually like doing housework and ironing but, there’s no getting away from it, unless you want people to think you’re a complete slob, it’s got to be done *sigh*. 

There are always plenty of other things I can find to do rather than the hoovering – usually dog walking, talking to the teens (or more like just listening these days), facebooking, blogging, talking on the telephone, eating, making tea or, most often, creating some new thing that amuses me.   As I sell my things, they must be photographed and I quite enjoy it but it is yet another thing that takes up valuable dusting time. 

I feel I am getting more creative with my photography – I’ll have one sitting backwards on a ladder back chair next, looking sultry – although I don’t think that would be possible with an owl – legs aren’t long enough.