photo taken yesterday on my way to volunteer work. i love it when there's no expensive shopping involved in my outfit, i feel lighter, happier...

on another note, this week's been very good because i got quite a few orders in my shop, my supplies arrived safely, and the rain's been fantastic for my vegetable garden. i have lots to be grateful for!

last tuesday, i wrote a tutorial for etsy ireland blog on how to make a fabric tape. you gotta check it out!

and lastly, thanks to you for being here. i suck at blogging this year,  i don't know why,  my blogging mojo has left me it seems. but hopefully, i'll do better for the remainder of the year. ^-^

have an awesome weekend. give your lovelies a hug and a kiss. tell them you love them. whisper a prayer of thanks that you have them in your life.  

xx

♥♥♥

foggy thoughts

for the first time since tom came to live with us, he explored the comforts of my lap.

and so there goes my things to do list...

♥♥♥

tomorrow is an early start for me. early for us means 5:30am. 

the husband goes to work at 6:30, and i needed to do extra volunteer duty myself because

one of our oldest volunteers' sister passed away so she's off down the country to be with 

the rest of her family. nellie is 86 and she's one of my favorite girls in the world, bless her.

you can't underestimate her carrying a cane, she can spot a silk scarf

from five meters away...a lovely jumper hanging in the rails close to the wall

from her perch beside the till. she can laugh heartily and giggle like a girl

when we're engaged in strictly girl talk. i'm gonna miss her tomorrow.

meantime, it's almost one in the wee morning!

tom is curled beside me, sleeping sweetly already. perhaps dreaming of birds,

and scaling fences, and his favorite tuna-flavored food. 

but i must drag myself to bed now.

have a great day everyone.

♥

xx

let's celebrate, quick!

i am awaiting for my 100th sale on my packages&strings shop!

be it and i'll throw in a sweet gift with your purchase. yay, exciting!

thanks magpieandbutton,
you're taking home the party loot bag!

thanks a mil ♥♥♥

xx

tuesdays are happy days

i went to my volunteer job today and met M, my new co-volunteer for Tuesday mornings. she's a lovely french woman, a perfect picture of one who has aged gracefully and beautifully. i'm looking forward for my french lessons (and french recipes!) in the coming weeks! we had a lovely day today talking about so many things that the hours flew so quickly. for someone who has been working from home for over two years already, it's a real treat to have some exciting girl talk from time to time. the icing on the cake is that she's really nice too.

in the afternoon, E, another volunteer from Uzbekistan arrives for the afternoon shift. he's been in dublin for three years already to learn English and he speaks both Uzbek and Russian.  we've been working together for about 2 years now.  i usually stall in the shop while i wait for my bus, so for about 30 minutes, i get free Russian lessons from him as well. can a girl get so lucky?

every tuesday, at about lunchtime, two seniors come to drop by the shop for a chat. john loves western movies and he's the only one i know who still buys VHS tapes. he hoards them. he comes with his friend joe. they're both septuagenarians, or so, i haven't really asked them their age. i think it'd be impolite as the two hold great pride in their strides. anyways, today i introduced them both to my new colleague, the french lady M. john always had loads of stories to tell, but today - among many things, he told M there's a magnetic force that draws them to the shop every tuesday. M exclaimed, i know!!! Odette!!! 

i mean, how sweet was that?! God bless their hearts. ♥♥

sometimes it tires me to tell stories about what happened to me regardless how funny or exciting were they. but today i thought i must get back to my daily or at least weekly ramblings. someday my memory might fail me, but i wouldn't want to forget the nice people i have met. here's hoping my blog will keep them all for me to later remind me of them.

have a lovely, happy week everyone! 

may you meet the nicest people in the world too. 

xx 

i've been guest blogging for Etsy Ireland last Saturday. here's a copy of my post. enjoy and be inspired!

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hello everyone!

i've been scrolling through 70 Etsy pages with the "craftyirelandteam" tag and i'm overwhelmed with so much talent and crafty goodness! here are a few of my favorites :

1. Anemone on the Shore by meluseena
2. Irish Gaelic Folk Art Bird Ornament by homespunireland
3. Fuchsia Rose and Brass Beads Necklace by ABoxForMyTreasure
4. Marino Felted Slippers by suzanneorford
5. Summer Festival Hat by purlsofcolour

 ...and speaking about creativity, check out this brilliant short film by Tanya Davis and Andrea Dorfam titled How to be Alone. my husband and i have left our friends and family back in Holland and in the Philippines when we moved here in Dublin, so i could relate pretty much to that feeling on my first few months here. i'm glad that ireland is so easy to fall in love with, and how quickly i found my peace and focus and happiness again.
  

HOW TO BE ALONE by Tanya Davis

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it.

We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You're not supposed to talk much anyway so it's safe there.

There's also the gym. If you're shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).

And there's public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there's prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you're hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.

The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they -- like you -- will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You're no less intriguing a person when you're eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one's watching...because, they're probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you're sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life's best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there're always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might've never happened had you not been there by yourself

Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.

You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one's in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.

Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school's groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you're happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.

It's okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can't think like you, for this be relieved, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.

And it doesn't mean you're not connected, that communitie's not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn't get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don't obsess about it.

you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it
If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

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thanks for dropping by! ♥♥♥
xx

my new supervisor

okay, obviously i am besotted with this cat. 

he's an old chap already, and loves to supervise what i am doing. when i'm sewing, he'd hog the chair i am sitting on, leaving me about one-fourths the space for my buns. 

this picture was taken last week while i was tidying my desk. naturally he had to be there to make sure i'm doing it right. but the moment i puckered up my lips for a goldfish kiss, he turned his face away. great compliment eh?!

by the way, Tom has a funny story to tell of how he came to live with us - just about a month ago or so. he's telling it very soon, so watch out for that. ^-^

ohhh, jen, you had me laughing out loud with your plan to catnapZ him. i've just increased security in our house, just in case. :D

have a lovely week you sweet thing who's reading now. tom sends a flying kiss to all of you. ♥

{chinese spammers not included! grrrrr!}