Lazy Sunday

Today we have had a quiet lazy Sunday in and around the house. I have caught up on laundry, read a little and listened to music. While, Mr. Michie has done a little reading himself, worked on writing a paper and a new blog post. What could be better than a quiet day to just be?

We made tomato salad for lunch on grilled bread:

We played in the garden and made sure everything was happy:

We made ice-cream sundaes and watched the afternoon thunderstorm from our couch:

Happy Sunday!

Organizing the Bookcase

I just love it! And, I love the fact that they list their books in the credits too!

The Unseen Jobs

The "Unseen Jobs", that is what my grandmother called all the little jobs we do as women, that no one else sees, such as cleaning out the kitchen drawers, washing all the utensils, wiping out the drawers and re-organizing everything when you are done.

No one will ever know you did this but you! But, that is what I am doing today, all the little unseen jobs to get our little cottage in order and ready for Summer. I wish I could wiggle my nose like Samantha from "Bewitched" and it would be done in a jiffy, but that isn't going to happen. I am cleaning, scrubbing, sorting through my closets, the washing machine is whirring away and the air is heady with the scent of lemons.

So back to work for me, soaking up the therapy that cleaning seems to give me along with the sunshine pouring in through the windows and looking forward to finishing, so I can enjoy a slice of the chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing that I made yesterday and start on my little crochet project, because I haven't managed to do that yet!

Hope you are having a wonderful first day of June wherever you are.

Cramped for Space

Our little cottage is getting very cramped at the moment, we seem to be running out of space! We worked so hard cleaning and organizing while we were on 1/2 term, last week and the house looked so clean and cozy. You have to stay on top of things in this little house, or it will attack you!

But, this first week back at school has left it in a sorry state. There are piles of papers to grade, more things I have fished out to bring to the Art Cupboard, just waiting to be taken, projects I am working on...

It looks like my weekend is planned. Saturday morning, I am tying my hair up and getting to work, this little cottage needs to be put back in order!

(Image: Vintage Alice in Wonderland Illustration by A.A. Nash, found on Flickr)

Vacuum Woes

Well, I now know why the men who were doing some work in the cottage before Christmas, decided to take our vacuum bag out of the vacuum cleaner with them when they went: they had BROKEN it!

We came home from work the day they finished and began to start putting the house back in order, only to realize the vacuum wouldn't work; we then discovered, that they had removed the bag and taken it with them. We have tried to find replacement bags, with no luck and we borrowed a vacuum off and on from a neighbour to get us by. But, my friends, I am embarrassed to tell you this, my house hasn't seen a vacuum go over its floors in over a month.

I keep a clean house, so this has been driving me nuts! This past weekend we went shopping and after hitting one of the local markets, I finally found my vacuum bags.  I woke up yesterday morning, put on my best June Cleaver apron and pearls and decided to get to work! Mr. Michie put the bag in for me and plugged me in, so I could go, go, go.

As soon as we turned it on, there was a poof, a lot of smoke, a lot of dust and a high pitched squealing noise; we couldn't even see each other through the haze in the kitchen.  So, we turned it off and ran to open the front door to get some fresh air in, looked at each other and then just had to laugh, because it was either that or cry! So, that is why they took the bag with them when they finished, they realized that they had broken it and there was no way for us to know until we were able to find replacement bags.

So, I shook out my apron, dusted off my pearls and turned to the internet. Thank goodness for Amazon! A new BAGLESS vacuum cleaner is now on its way to my little cottage and I will have a sparkling home once more!

I Dream of Storage Space

We live in a very tiny cottage behind a racing green door and as I have an important visitor coming this weekend, I am dreaming of more storage space to put everything up in as I tidy. Who is this important visitor? He is my Dad! I have not seen my parents since Christmas and for me that is a long time.

These are the moments where I truly feel like a pioneer woman, leaving all she knew behind to journey for months on end to reach her destination and her dreams.

But, through that journey she either never had the opportunity to see her family again or the visits were so few and far between, it could have been years before they laid eyes on each other. Thank goodness this pioneer woman has Skype. I can see their beautiful faces everyday and that is better than nothing, I am lucky.

My Dad has been in Europe on business this last week and is stopping on his way home to stay with us, as this is the first time he shall see our Lilliputian cottage, I want everything in tip-top shape! If only I could wiggle my nose as Bewitched's Samantha and everything I don't need at the moment could magically disappear!

Alas, that is not to be, so as I lay my head down on my pillow tonight, I shall continue to dream of miles and miles of storage space to contain my treasures...

(Image:Anne Taintor)

Back To School

Tomorrow is my first full week at school. I jumped in last week and now I am just swimming around, not sticking too close to the edge, I have thrown myself into the deep end and I am just fine, for the moment anyway.

I have plans this week to do more cleaning in the cupboard, just taking it a section at a time. In going through a pile on Thursday (it cascaded down when I went to reach for something above) I discovered some treasures from China. There were little paintings, bought in a market, a box of two shadow puppets and a few packets of tissue paper wrapped intricately designed paper cut-outs including circus figures, the New Year's animals and a selection of Oriental women.

I cleaned the other half of my "hallway", so now there is an easy path inside, with no tripping, twisting, or contorting to get through into the main part of the cupboard. So, tomorrow I will be donning my green apron, rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work!

In celebration of going back to school I will be doing a small series this week of "Back-to-School" posts, so keep a look out for ideas and projects that I will feature here!

Getting Organized

I am trying to get organized in our house this weekend. The Spring Fever Bug has bit me! So today I am cleaning and getting the house ready to go into the weekend, so tomorrow I can tackle the pantry.

The pantry is not only a place for food storage, but living in a little cottage it has taken on the role of having bookshelves packed with books, holding my cleaning supplies and most importantly all my sewing bits and bobs.

It has gotten quite messy at the moment since I have been in the throws of creating bears and bunnies and now when you open the door you just hold your breath. It is like those can of snakes, you pop the lid and they all come shooting out, well, when I open that door, I am waiting for everything to come shooting out at me! (it is not that bad I am being a bit melodramatic, or am I?)

So, I have donned my June Cleaver pearls and I am going to wax my way out the door to go grocery shopping. Tonight we are making bean burritos with queso sauce and making my sister's guacamole, yumm!

(apron image from Stitch Thru Time)