Wonderland

It has been a while since I last posted. A temporary internet connection and lack of time both got in the was, so much so that since my last post it has gone from snowing to sunshine! Also, Eliska took up a lot of my attention as she was ill with every bug going, so was at home for a while, getting up to mischief....

So,  as you can probably guess, with teaching too, I was not short of the below...

With the days getting brighter and the weather warming up, we ventured to a nearby park...

Roman and I love the silvery looking trees. They remind us both of 'Game of Thrones', our favourite TV show, set in a magical, fantastical other world.

We went all hippy in the park. I got the heebie jeebies for a bit and Roman said he could feel the energy from the trees... Like wow man...

I am sort of breaking this post up between outings and other things. It has been so long since I last posted, that I have all sorts of pics, so this post will be a bit higgledy piggledy. As it Easter soon, I have a few decorations around the house.

I made the bunny specially for Easter and I am pleased with her as she is the first animal that I have made. I have tried to make Tilda animals before and they have gone terribly wrong. I am rubbish with patterns, so I didn't use a pattern for this and just kind of made it up as I went along. Do you like her little hippie flowers?

We have also been into the city. Brno has more of  a feel of a large town. It is not as hectic as cities such as Leeds, in the UK, which suits me fine as I get a bit stressed around large crowds.

We visited the market. There were quite a lot of people there. I saw this Mummy and daughter and thought them rather adorable. I love the shopping basket, it harks back to simpler days...

The market is situated next to some beautiful buildings. The one with the little statue infront of it is a theatre.

Who could resist such gloriously coloured fare?

Brno looks pretty in the sunshine and is a great place to be. We saw quite a few street musicians out enjoying the sunny day and earning a bob or two!

I did a swap with very lovely and thoughtful Gem. Look what she sent me!

There was gorgeous bunting which I am going to use to cheer up our bleak garden, beautiful Macaron cards, scrumptious butterscotch posh choc, which I enjoyed very much indeed. Also, some happy reading, which I much appreciated. It is funny how Gem knows exactly what I like, even though we have never actually met.

I am not the best cook or erm ... baker?  But I must make some buns or muffins or suchlike, just to use the pretty cake flags.

The weather is quite good at the moment. Winter here is usually f f f f freeeeeeeeeeeezing, but true summer is blaaaaaaaaaaaaazing, which sounds good, but if you are lily white like me, it can be hard. Ok, I'll stop moaning, but right now, it is sunny, but not hot, just the way I like it.

So, I stalked the pretty shop again... More lovely cups and quilts...

I know it is a bit blurry, but can you see how pretty it is? You can, can't you?

There was a springlike and Easter time feel, in a subtle way, which I like, sort of seasonal...

Eliska nabbed my sunglasses...

Possibly dull, slightly Gardener's World alert. We planted peas. I had had a few wines, so ended up with very muddy paws. Roman has become quite knowledgeable about gardening, much to the befuddlement of some of his friemds, who enquired why he was gardening and not in the pub watching sport! Well, erm... I know which I would rather he were doing. Do you like my rows? A bit higgledy piggledy eh?

¨Roman and his father make wine. They have a vineyard in the village and we have a wine cellar at the end of our garden. As I like a tipple, it seemed only fair that I pulled my weight a bit so I helped out there. The rows where the grapes grow are mighty steep,so it was good exercise for me. The vineyard is surrounded by woodland, so Eliksa liked playing there.

I made a little doggy friend. This is Vicki, the new pup of my next door neighbours. Eliska and I are a bit in love with her.

I like moving plants from the window to the dresser sometimes, they just look pretty. There is even an Easter bunny on my dresser. Did you spot her?

This is another Brno beauty. I am loving the gold. Bling bling, baby!

We saw this little flower shop in a neighbouring village. I think the exterior is cute.

What a sweet name. Kvetiny is the name for a flower shop, as kvet is the word for flower. Roman's father and brother are both called Kvetoslav, so both blokes are called 'flower.'

I like the writing above the doors. The lady there was bemused when I told her I was English and said that she thinks England is better. She told Roman that her husband wants to move to England with her. I love the white painted chest...

The interior was lovely too...

I can never have enough of little lanterns like this...

Gorgeous old furniture and blooms...

Heaps of lavendar and little details...

I bought this little floral butterfly garland in the shop.

I got the funny little fairy and the larger one sitting down, for Mother's day.

I found the Belle and Boo tin in Brno and was delighted but surprised to see it has reached the Czech Rep! There are more happy Easter decorations in the kitchen.

Lastly, the reason for my title for this post. I am making quite a few dolls at the moment and this one was a custom make. I give her a slight Alice in Wonderland theme.

 Is it sunny where you are?  Hope you are enjoying your Monday.

xxxx

Spam emails

Hi everyone, just a quick message as I know some of you have emailed me in the past. I have had a problem with spam recently, which I should have sorted sooner. As a fellow blogger informed today that my email account is still sending spam messages to people, which are not sent by me, I was alarmed and subsequently closed my email account. So if you recieve an email saying it is from my yahoo account, please do not open it. Massive apologies to anyone who has recieved spam from me.
On a brighter note, I hope to do a blog post at some point today or tomorrow. xxx

Anything strange or wonderful today?

This is a long post with whimsy, lots of pics and bletherings about fairy tales. If that is your kind of thing, you are in the right place.

On Saturday, I had a wander around the city centre. It was mostly a wander, as the shops are closed on Saturday afternoons and Sundays in the Czech Republic, which I find maddening, but maybe makes sense as weekends ought to be about relaxing. The shops within retail outlets on the motorways are open, so I sometimes go to them.

I do like this shop and I thought the window displays were quite pretty with their Easter theme. However, I am a bit put off going to this shop as the owners are quite snotty and always seem rather sniffy when I go there, as if I am far too much of a pauper to enter their fine establishment.

I LOVE this shop in the next set of pics. I was wandering around Brno last summer, when I chanced upon this shop. Then, in true Tracy fashion, I forgot where it was and it took me a while to find it again. I have an awful sense of direction. The lady who owns the shop is lovely and so friendly. She speaks English, which is fab for me too and used to live in England. I love the way she arranges things, her 'styling' if you will. Anyway, it being Saturday, I took some pics through the window, as the shop was closed. I probably looked slightly potty. Himself took off far away from me, down the road, though he swore not be embarrassed by the pic taking. He was even wearing sunglasses, it was THAT nice and suntastic a day.

I like this pic. It is like a bubble of loveliness.

I could quite happily live in this little shop. I am sure Eliska and I could sqeeze ourselves in. Not sure where Roman would go, he's a big lad! I am wearing his hat here as you can tell from my dorky reflection, which he lent to me in gentlemanly fashion as despite the sunshine, there was still a cheeky nip in the air!

I want this cup. Yes, tea shop forthcoming...

I love the table below the mirror and the grey shelves.

                              The heart on the mirror is sweet, as are the lamp and hyacinth.

                                        I also wouldn't mind the chair and various plant pots.

                                                                        Quilts and birds, sigh...

I apologise for the quality of the pics. I wish I had one of them there posh cameras.

After stalking the pretty shop, we found a cute cafe and relaxed for a while. I loved how they wrote some of the menu on this mirror.

The cafe was in the square in Brno, which has lots of lovely old buildings. The details inside were beautiful.

Afterwards, we strolled through the city centre. This is one of Roman's favourite buildings. Look at the rabbit, it is Easter style!

Such pretty turrets...

There were lots of buskers around. We felt just that bit more jaunty after seeing these geezers...

I like these windows, which have the appearance of being held aloft by mermen. I always imagine all the statues and creatures suddenly coming alive and breaking into song.

Then home again... I have been faffing about with things in the kitchen. I bought the bunting years ago in Laura Ashley.

The little crocheted flower came with my parcel from Jo. It is exceedingly cute and adorable, so I attached it to some ribbon and tied it around an old jam jar, as you do, hee hee.

The stone archway was my idea and was done by Roman and his Dad. Aren't they clever? The bricks were found in a local village by Roman.

I bought the pinny below by accident. When I saw it, I thought it was a packet of tea towels. I was qite pleased when it turned out to be an apron.

I am a bit happier with the kitchen as I could never find the right place for my things before.

There is a collection of mainly blue and pink things in the cupboards, which I think is a tad OCD of me.

I have SO MANY cups. The other day Roman asked me, with quite a worried look on his dear face,

'What will we do if you buy any more cups?'

'We'll open a tea shop' was my response.

I did some baking today, mainly as something to keep the little one occupied. She loves getting her little mitts into the dough. Often, my baking does not look the most attractive, but it usually tastes ok. I made little heart shape biccies, which turned out not to look very heart shapey at all and some scones, which went a bit wrong and didn't rise enough. Typical me!

I have been enjoying sitting here and munching and admiring the pastels.

I have a little old kitchen table, which I like to sit at.

¨

In Brno yesterday, I chanced upon a book shop and was DELIGHTED to find this book that I have been wanting for a while. As you can imagine, English langage books here are few and far between. I was expecting to have to order it from the Internet. They wrapped it in paper, which I found very charming and cute of them.

Has anyone read this? My friend on flickr recommended it to me, as we like a lot of the same things, often things of a dark fairytale nature.

I watched a lovely film last night, Ondine, which also had a fairytale theme. It starred Colin Farrell, who I do not usually associate with good films, only with an uncanny resemblance to Kev form Corrie. I liked that his character in the film asked his daughter every day, 'Anything strange or wonderful?' Then he would inform her of the importance of looking out for anything our of the ordinary happening. I ask Eliska similar questions.

I almost had the hots for Farrell, most unlike me, as he had a sweet musical Irish accent and wore cuddly fisherman jumpers, which remined me of Roman. I mean, the jumpers, not the being a fisherman. I am not entirely certain what Roman does, except that he measures roads for a living. Anyway, at the beginning of the film, Farrells's character, who is a fisherman, fishes a woman from the water, who tells him to call her 'Ondine', the name of a water nymph from European folk tales. The scenery of the West Cork coast is stunning. The myth and fairy story nature of the film is blanced quite nicely against reality.

Ondine gets to live in a cute as a button house by the water, which is covetable in a ramshackle dreamcatcher and stained glass windows kind of way. I am sure of course that this has nothing at all to my liking the film.

I thought I would nip in here with some random thoughts, as I recieved some blog awards recently from lovely Carly at Crafted by Carly and Manda from Vintage Hobby House. I will pass on awards on my next visit here in the next few days, as I am a bit rubbishy at thinking of lots of things at once.

Some things I think are true.

           Festivals may not be enjoyable if you are terribly small and they are terribly large.

                   Appearances are just that. The people you may expect to like may turn out to be terrible snobs.

                   Imagination is very important. Imaginitive people can imagine another's pain and so help them.

               Reading is good for the soul and has taken me to other worlds, times and circumstances

You won't ever know what it will be like until you get there.

Soap looks better wrapped in pretty paper.

Toast is fantastic with a slightly bitter marmalade.

Open your heart and the people you judge as not your sort may turn out to be utter treasures.

Really, you will look back when old to wonder at how daft you were and realise you were quite lovely. 

Yes, is a word I am more choosy about saying. I only say it to those who matter.

There was an interview with the late Anthony Minghella on the radio today and he commented on how fairytales allow the extraordinary to cut into everyday life. I hope in some small way, it peeks into yours.

It might just be a moment when the light comes streaming into an otherwise dull day,

an unexpectedly brilliant idea that you have...

We all have imagination, but we often listen to those that tell us that impossible things can't be done. Days can seem hard, then suddenly they are not a struggle any more. You see the world in a new light, the magical alchemy of everyday things.

The sun comes out again, but the difficult stuff sometimes makes us appreciate it all the more. We don't have to be perfect, after all to deserve our fairy story and our happy ending.

'There is a crack, a crack in everything. It's how the light gets in.'

Leonard Cohen