Craft groups, tortured poets, afternoon naps, sky winds & biscuits

Friday 19th April

It’s The Tortured Poets Department Day! I’m so excited to hear Taylor Swift’s new album. Social media is alight with wholesome anticipation and it’s very, very cute. 

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IMPORTANT NEWS! 

Last night while I was soaking up the TS anticipation on TikTok, I stumbled across a lass named Juliet who’s going to start a new craft club in Melbourne. You can find the video here. I hope she does it. There is always a need for community crafting groups. Especially when they have excited energy behind them. This group is looking at going to the movies and doing craft –  with the lights on – as they watch. So fun. Go Juliet!! (More here.)  

With that said, please note that the amazing Brown Owls Craft Group still has chapters running in several states! So you can hop onto Facebook and find Brown Owls Brunswick (Victoria), Brown Owls Brisbane (QLD) and Brown Owls BM (NSW). These groups are run by excellent and committed folk, not by me, and you can contact them to join in, if you’d like to do that! They’re always up to interesting things and are connecting people in chatty and crafty ways. (If you run a Brown Owls group and I did not mention it above, please let me know and I WILL mention it in future writing.)

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images above: L/ Jaffle and a cup of tea R/ Taylor Swift’s cookie recipe (stolen from a TikTok)

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I’m hoping to plant some tulips and ranunculus in the garden over the next few days, if I can summon the energy. And the car is still full of compost and potting mix, so I need to get right onto that. 

Getting dressed: I am wearing the same dress as yesterday, black opaque tights (for the first time in years! I forgot how cosy they are!) and Birkenstocks.

I drove down to Coburg to go to Fresh on Young and get things for pumpkin soup and another batch of Korean-ish Chicken Stew. While I was there, I ran into my eldest and her gorgeous chap, so we hugged excitedly and did our shopping together. Then we had a quick coffee at True North and then I came back home and waited for Taylor’s album to drop. I was not disappointed. And then another bunch of songs dropped a couple of hours later. Honestly, it was an exciting day.

While I was at Fresh on Young buying my groceries (our favourite bread, rhubarb, pumpkin for soup on Sunday, potatoes, carrots, silverbeet) I chatted to the lady on the register. She said she had silverbeet growing perennially in her garden and I said I have seeds coming up and we discussed whether I should get some more mature silverbeet seedlings in to form a sort of succession planting vibe. I asked her what else she grew and she told me she grew a lot of herbs and also tomatoes and pumpkins and things. She said when her kids were little she would make plant markers by writing on wooden spoons. Then she’d give her kids a ‘shopping list’ before dinner and they’d go out and pick the dinner things. So cute. We both discussed how hard it is when kids grow up and move out and you dont get grubby cuddles anymore. In all it was a lovely chat.

Images above: BTS photos of the making of The Tortured Poets Department by Jack Antonoff (via Instagram)

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Now. Taylor. My first thoughts are that I love this album. It’s a response to misogyny and a subversion of the Feminine Hysteria myth that has been trotted out highly detrimentally for centuries. It’s a natural progression from the witchy themes she’s been writing about for quite some time.  I love it that the little Swifties are being introduced to this history and are being encouraged to challenge the status quo. And I love it that Taylor’s yet again encouraging her fan base to prioritise themselves to and honour their feelings. Female feelings forever!

I even wrote in my Woolf-y diary about it, not that it makes a lot of sense, but here is what I wrote:

What I love about Taylor is that she is an embodied example of what a girl can be – creatively – if she tries. That’s not to say that everyone is a Taylor, nor that this is even the ultimate goal, but more so that she commits to the process, she commits to her position, she commits to herself. This is so admirable and I love that so many girls are seeing her focus and her serious approach to her own work. Especially in a world where so many try to diminish her creative output. 

I made the chicken stew for dinner tonight and now I have a very sore back and – after just finishing my Woolf diary – I’m going to tuck myself up in bed and watch some telly. 

image above: Screen shot from Palm Royale series – via Vogue

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Good things

Cheddar and chive biscuits (to have with soup, perhaps?)
I love all the owls in this blog post about illustration.
An incredible matchstick artwork. Gosh!
Some amazing icy-water swimming ladies.
This book looks gorgeous. I want to get it for my friend Del.
New period dramas on Netflix.
This homemade Ayurvedic tea could be good for the cooler months.
In memory of Nicole Brown Simpson.
Culprits sure looks good.
Have you watched Palm Royale? I haven’t, but I want to!
Journaling prompts to help process emotions.
I might need Ina Garten’s new book.

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Saturday 20 April 

I was so tired last night I couldn’t even watch telly, reader. I listened to the new TS album until I fell asleep which, from what I can recall, took about 4 ½ minutes. I’m finding it hard to pace myself as my health improves. That much is clear. I need to calm down a bit.

I made breakfast (Vegemite on toast and a pot of tea) and then got ‘dressed’ for a comfy home day. Next I wrote in my Commonplace Book, trying very hard to concentrate on writing neatly. It sort of worked. It’s sort of neat. My hand gets ahead of my head usually and it ends up a bit messy, but today I slowed it down and made it a sort of mindfulness exercise. This reaped a bit of an improvement, but looking at the neat writing, comparing it to the more natural writing, I like the natural better. The problem is it’s harder to read, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m not sure. I will think on it.

I watched this and this on YouTube and felt the better for it, too.

Getting dressed: Track pants, sweatshirt, slippers.

image above: the clifftop theatre Rowena Cade and her gardener (and some friends) built from stone and sand on the Cornish coastline.

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Next I listened to the Taylor album again while poking about on the internet. I switched it off to watch this video and this video and felt instantly better and also very much like my home day was a good idea. I watched Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella set (which I missed last weekend) and realised I only like her three hits and am not super into the rest. Perhaps I need to listen more? Anyway, I enjoyed the three tracks I like – Espresso, Feather and Nonsense. 

Next, I went to bed and tried to listen to an audiobook which did not work out. Instead I had a very long nap. I woke up feeling woozy and it was the middle of the afternoon, so it was more tea and some more TS until I felt more awake.

I tried to vacuum but the vacuum only works for 5 minutes at a time. It’s been doing this for weeks and it’s quite annoying … So I threw it in the rubbish bin outside and swept the floor instead. I’m going to mop the floor in increments this afternoon, so I don’t get too tired. 

Dinner was leftovers from last night – Korean-ish Chicken Stew again! It’s always better the next day, as many things are, so that was nourishing and delicious. 

After dinner I climbed into bed and watched Summer House and … fell asleep again. It was such a low energy day. I did not leave the house at all. That’s ok.

image above: Image: Rowena Cade in a wheelbarrow – more here

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Sunday 21 April

Oh I feel a lot better today … thank goodness. I got up quite early (after – surprisingly – a terrible night’s sleep) and made a pot of tea and some baked beans on toast (one tin goes a long way, right?!) Next I did some reading and checking about the internet. 

Someone in the comments here (hi you!!) asked me about Commonplacing, thinking they might have missed me talking about my own Commonplace Book. But guess what? You didn’t miss a thing! I have just started a Commonplace Book after first hearing about them from Miranda and then watching a bunch of YouTube videos about them. My Commonplace Book is an old Moleskine notebook that I had only used a few pages of for other stuff. I tore those out and started fresh and now I’m FIVE pages into my writing there. So far I have written down:

1. A list of Miranda-recommended Persephone books to accumulate over the coming decades
2. A quote
3. A quote
4. A little biographical passage about Rowena Cade, the amazing woman who (with her gardener) hand built a theatre on a clifftop in Cornwall. She also built herself a cliff house and it does not look like you might imagine. (Or at least it was not what I thought it would be, and I LOVE that.)
5. A quote
6. A quote
7. The lyrics of Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me by Taylor Swift (a song about female hysteria.)

I don’t really have a routine with this at the moment. I just have it on my desk and when something resonates with me, I write it down. It’s actually so good because I can just flip through it to see what was making sense to me on previous days (and in the future, previous years.) I like it that it’s in my own handwriting too – however messy – because it makes it feel personal. 

Perhaps you want to make one too? Or already have one? I would advise you to see if you have an existing notebook to use, if you are going to start. No need to buy anything new. Let’s use what we have! That’ll totally work!

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This post’s op-shopped cookbook is … A Green Guide to Traditional Country Foods

Images above: A Green Guide to Traditional Country Foods by Henrietta Green (2011)

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With my daily writing in general, I am doing this:

• First thing in the morning – start a daily diary post in Google Docs. Add to it during the day, as needed.
• As required – add to Commonplace Book – this is for quotes and info I want to keep and refer back to. It’s not for diary entries/life writing.
• In the evening – finalise the daily diary post in Google Docs. Write in my Virginia Woolf inspired journal. The Woolfy journal is also an old repurposed notebook. It’s for more personal observations and things I don’t want to share publicly.

All this is working so well for me. It’s helping me to slow down and is basically a mindful framework for my day. Also? It’s helping me to chat with YOU! And that, my friend, is a gift (and one I’ve missed when I was not well enough to write here.)

Getting dressed: I’m going to do some chores so … Old wide-legged jeans, Harry Styles t-shirt (Max found it at Preston Savers), socks with flowers on them, Blundstones.

images above: L/ Pumpkin soup and toast R/ Chippy

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I picked up some supplies from ALDI and then planted the snowdrops into a tray of seed raising mix and put them (plastic wrapped) into the fridge. Apparently this makes them think it’s winter so I’ll leave them in there for a month or two and then bring them back out for their ‘pretend Spring’. Hopefully they will sprout and I will have my very own snowdrops a la The Secret Garden. 

I also had about twenty cuttings I’d been propagating in little jars to pot up. Most of them had good roots on them, so I did that and I am going to take a couple over to my friend Gemma’s house later this afternoon.

Next, I made a batch of ANZAC biscuits and a giant vat of pumpkin soup. Some of the ANZACS are for Gemma’s house and some are for Rin and Paul and some are for me. They’re packed into three tins and ready to go where they need to go.

Getting dressed again – more neatly this time: An old dress from ASOS, leggings, socks, Blundstones.

images above: L/ post-pumpkin soup scene R/ Anzac biscuits

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I’m going to have a cup of tea and read some I Leap Over the Wall before I go out …

In part one of Chapter Two, we find Monica in the small Sussex village where her mother’s sister lives. She’s going to use this Sussex place as her home base and she refers to her mother’s sister as A.B.

“A.B. was a pretty old lady with soft white hair and a penchant for piety. She and the devoted maid-companion who waited on her divided their time between church-going, gardening, and the worship of a small and extremely undisciplined black-and-tan dog.”

A.B. immediately realises that her church mouse niece has few belongings and begins to share all she has, as lovely aunts are wont to do.  After quite some time recovering from some quite stressful final years in the convent, Monica begins to come back to life.

“I started going for long lone country walks among the spendthrift gold and glory of the year-end, giving myself up to the earth-scents and the sky-winds and all the magic of the countryside which is ordained for the healing of the soul.”

I love the writing in this book! Sorry, I keep saying that, but I do. She does that thing with setting where the landscape becomes almost human. For instance:

“The little Sussex village in which my aunt lived had a dual personality.”
“On the horizon, the soft green shoulders of the Downs curved mistily.”

I know there will be lots more as I make my way through the book. I will post them here, so we can remember them. Landscape as body is very much my kind of thing.

images above – op shopped books : L/ Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor & R/ Tatiana’s Table by Paullina Simons

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Monday  22 April

I was going to post my blog overnight, but I realised I had taken very few photos in recent days, so I’m going to remedy that today and post tonight.

I had a tiny sleep in, by which I mean I didn’t wake up naturally at 6. I slept until 7.30 and then got up, made breakfast and watched the new Miranda Mills video on YouTube. It’s about vintage books and it’s chock full of reading ideas.

Breakfast was a jaffle – I found a jaffle maker at the op shop last week, the kind we used to have when we were little – so I used that and felt very please. I also had two cups of tea.

Getting dressed: Old jeans, a jumper my mum sent me, Birkenstocks

I’m feeling super exhausted after going visiting yesterday, so I’m going to stay very close to home again and try to pep myself up. On the cards today is some writing (my ‘long short story’ for honours), an update of my research diary and a meeting with my supervisor (online!) Hopefully I can manage all that if I go at a slow pace. I might need to lie down for a while before I begin.

Later a man’s coming to do safety checks or somesuch, so characteristically I am not looking forward to that – although I do understand it’s good to be safe.

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I worked on my Honours story for a couple of hours and I feel so excited that it’s coming together, however disjointedly at present. There is plenty of time for polishing and editing down the track. I’m just relieved that I’m actually finding the words. Now I need to have some lunch before the man comes. Pumpkin soup, I think!

See you back here very soon, pal,

Pip xoxo

If you fancy, buy me a coffee —>  https://ko-fi.com/piplincolne

PS: A few people have asked me why there’s not much craft on my blog lately (over the past couple of years, really). It’s because I have been so ill – and my illness and related health conditions affected my joints and skin. That meant that crafting would cause pain and sometimes pressure urticaria. But I am slowly mending and am able to do small bursts of activity – and the bursts are getting increasingly longer – so I will be back! I did not stop because I wanted to, but because I had to. Hope this answers some questions!

Top image: Olivia Rose Austin® Standard Rose from Wagner’s Rose Nursery