I once read that the more you try to diet and restrict the intake of a particular food, the more likely you are to crave that food above all else. For example, chocolate (possibly doesn't hold true for cabbage). So it is that, several weeks after declaring a major household purge on all items that are neither beautiful nor useful (thank you William Morris) or are simply too numerous, I find that I am trawling Etsy and Ebay to sate a few little obsessions, looking for more stuff to fill the house with.
Namely, Wombles and Kiwiana (NZ kitsch - like Australiana).
Suddenly I can't get enough of Tomsk, Tobermory, Great Uncle Bulgaria and the rest, nor paua shell and hei tikis. I suspect it's the thrill of the chase, more than anything. I have resisted the urge to buy so far, holding myself to a cooling-off period instead.
Do you have any little fascinations on the go at the moment?
I started a 'skinny scarf' last night, having been inspired by the picture below. I'm knitting with Patons 'Wilderness' yarn (70% wool, 20% acrylic, 10% viscose) in a lovely plummy shade. I am envisaging it taking on sort of long, winding Tom-Baker-as-Dr-Who proportions. Simple knit stitch on big needles is very satisfying!
I have no idea where this picture is from - the magazine I saw it in was from the op-shop and the cover is missing!
I will be away from the Wood next week but I hope to drop in now and then. Have fun until we meet again!
Time for some nostalgia. What tv shows did you watch as a child? When I was very small, I was a big fan of the Wombles and Paddington Bear. This clip takes me immediately back - especially the theme tune! - to sitting on our living room floor on the old nubby brown carpet that used to be there, gazing up at the old black-and-white tv.
As I got a little bigger, I was allowed to watch programs that actually featured people rather than solely the soft and furry, and so I was then raised on a steady diet of late 60s/early 70s American sitcoms - The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and so on. But it is the soft and furry that exerted the most pull over my young and fertile imagination. I didn't long to be a part of a large step-family (although I did want Marcia's long, straight hair), cast spells or live inside a genie's bottle. Oh no. I wanted to live in a world populated by talking bears in hats and duffle coats and other animated creatures who lived out their lives in underground womble-sized burrows, where they ate womble-sized meals at womble-sized tables and chattered amongst themselves. In short, I wanted to believe that there was a whole other world beyond the one I could see before me. I wanted to believe that if I just looked away for a second, one of my army of teddy bears would have a quick chat to the fellow next to him, or give his ear a scratch, or have a flick through a book. I'm still not convinced that this world doesn't exist, and I'm glad. It's important to live in the now and engage with what's tangibly around you - of course - but it's also lovely to think of the worlds upon worlds upon worlds that may be out there. Somewhere. Just glance away for a second and there they are. One day, I'll glance back just in time...!
