wednesday wishlist

A few things making me smile during this particular mid-week lull.

1.  I first saw these birch bark straws on A Beautiful Mess and have been admiring them ever since.  You can buy them from amazon here.  I don't drink because I get headaches from hell if I so much as look at a cocktail, but the ones they put together on A Beautiful Mess always make me wish I did.

2.  Earl grey pomelo tart from Hungry Rabbit.  I found a stack of pomelos in the window of the little grocery in town yesterday, and all of the recipes I find involving them look so beautiful.  I haven't tried mine yet but apparently they're like a sweeter version of a grapefruit.  Plus it's just cool to have a citrus fruit as big as your head.

3.  Rewatching Twin Peaks.  One of my favourite tv shows of all time.  I'm currently coveting one of these amazing brooches from Kate Rowland.  Ooh, or maybe this one.

4.  This pretty pottery from RossLab.  I have dreams of a red and white (and green) kitchen and am pining after this crockery something rotten.

5.  These nails (complete with handy tutorial) from Small Good Things.

6.  This book of maps designed to get you lost from Visual Editions.  I love maps, I love books about maps, I love books with maps at the beginning that you can plot out the story on, and best of all I love maps of imaginary places and things that aren't physical places at all.  I will be over here looking longingly at it and stroking my laptop screen.



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out in the world

Some things spotted on my walk today.  I was lucky enough to catch some sun, as it's been grey and damp and dreary here for what seems like months.

 

 

 When I set out there was mist in all of the valleys, it was beautiful!  I fell in love with this little crooked cottage with its patterned roof, which you can't really see in summer.  I'm not quite sure how it would work, living in a house with such crooked floors and walls, but it would be fun to find out.  I think I shall add the little crooked red house to my list of houses I daydream about living in.



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clean sun on the cold grass

I don't usually make resolutions.  I don't usually - but this year I am.  It seems like a nice start to a new blog, which is itself like the first clean page of a new notebook: begging for a list.  So here is a list of six goals for my new year. 

1.  Walk.  Walk a lot, walk in high places, walk even when it's raining.  Walk further and earlier in the day.  Walk up hills and down hills and through woodland whenever possible.  Just walk.

2.   Create.  Sketch or paint every day, do it until something like a style emerges.  Draw maps, draw people, draw secret cities and hidden animals.  Paint every week, until the lines begin to loosen.

3.  Make.  There is a particular joy in making useful things, don't you think?  Once a week, make something useful: knit, or whittle, or string beads together, or bake a loaf of bread.

4.  Explore.  One of my very favourite things is exploring the country roads and little villages of the marches.  Finding roads so seldom used that grass has grown across the tarmac, spotting tiny cottages and dreaming of living in them.  Explore, and find new places close to home.

5.  Grow.  It's a tiny thing, but I would like to become better at growing plants.  Grow plants in pots and keep them alive: grow tiny, happy succulents and alpine flowers.  Grow bulbs in the spring and citrus in the summer, and never let them die.

6.  Travel.  Go to a new country and get to know it.  That's all.  Just go.  No putting it off to save money, because I don't do that anyway.  No visiting countries I've already been to. 

Six things, twelve months.  Not so hard at all.



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