In which I feel inadequate
Categories: uncategorized, life-in-general, pictures
Tags: home
Date: 29 March 2012 13:47:18
You may remember I joined in a "bloghop" or blog party" in January called "Imagine the Impossibilities", where folk all over the world (but mostly in America) made a commitment to try to complete a project that they'd been putting off because it seemed so overwhelming or impossible. I tried learning to crochet (and what a disaster that turned out to be!)...
Well, the same group are hosting another party called "It's A Cinch!" where people post short tutorials about easy-peasy projects that they have done. I'm not sure I have a really easy project to share, although I am very proud of these bookmarks:
which I have been creating, inspired by the one I received from Angela as a giveaway a few weeks back:
But despite not joining in with "It's A Cinch!", I have been visiting various projects from around Blogland to see what people have been creating.
Somewhat Quirky made a "rustic" cut out with a favourite poem
Happily Home explains how to make an elegant sisal covered vase
Little things... created some wall art...
and so it goes on. You can visit more of the sites from this link
But what I find makes me feel inadequate are the beautiful "vignettes" that are being showed off all over these sites... Such as this from Gardners2Bergers
or this at Thistlewood Farm
I love my old house, here in the centre of the village. I love coming home to it, cool in summer, warm, with our granule burner, in winter. I love the creaking staircase which is different on every level. 
I love the little balcony (despite its less-than-romantic view of the public toilet, the HLM housing (council housing) and the cemetary!!),
I love our tiny courtyard, 
and the squew-wiffiness of the floors that means if you spill something (or let the freezer defrost by accident...) the water runs fairly rapidly towards one corner...I love our house.
But I'm not good at "vignettes". We have three cats (including two Very Bad Kittens) who chase things, or who sit where they shouldn't, I have a dearly beloved Mr D who doesn't really notice "vignettes", and there is me. And I prefer to read, create, watch TV - in fact, do anything - rather than do housework...and I suspect that, lovely though these vignettes are, they require a clean and pristine home to look their best. Dust does not enhance them. In fact, when I looked around our home to find the closest thing to a vignette I could, I came across this:
...and without looking very hard, you can see what I mean about the lack of dusting in our house!! (In this, there is an old Olympus Tripp camera, of which I remember my father being inordinately proud, and an old postcard of Geneva, where we used to spend our holidays)
The other pathetic attempts that are around the house are
my cat ornaments, which are constantly rearranged by the Real Cats, who like sitting on the bookcase to wash themselves and get a good view of the kitchen door ("Is it time for food yet?!")
and
A very bad photo of our mantelpiece, with varied and unthemed items, including a checkered cow, a handmade santon of an old lady, a puzzle box, my bowl of crocuses and a stone cat-and-mouse. Hardly a "vignette" of Kari's standards.
And when we go to the bedroom, things go from bad to worse...Four Corners Design offers us this lovely setting
Gardners2Bergers has this beautiful bedside table:
and what can I offer...?
(Yes, that really is a cycling waterproof dumped on top of the bookcase!) and
Hardly the peaceful, calming centre of beauteousness that is shown off on other blogs!
Oh, well! I may be rubbish at vignettes...but I can cook reasonably well! And I love crafting...Maybe I'll find a little corner somewhere and try my hand at vignetting (do you think that's a verb?!) I shall be taking tutorials from all over the blogosphere!