February 3 - 9, 2013

Back to back blog entries, SURPRISE! I feel guilty every time I walk by the dresser and see the line-up of brooches waiting to be nattered about. Hurrah - seven more into the cookie tin they go.

I think of this as my buddy brooch. Don't you love the recycled pop cans for the dresses and I like moving the metal arms, legs, and heads into different positions. Thank heavens I haven't started to knit little sweaters for them - yet.








I sometimes get raised eyebrows in response to this brooch. People see different things - a mask, a robot, a pair of breasts with a wee wiggly dangling below...I'm keeping mum on the subject.









The largest of my brooches - a whooping 4" x 3 1/2". My husband bought it for me. OK, I'll fess up. I made "mmmm me like" noises when I saw it and he went back and got it. I'm a relatively sane woman but the kitschiness of it appealed to me. It is soooooo over the top.







One of my favourite beasties are pigs. Don't get much of a chance but I like to give them a good back scratch when I'm fortunate enough to be in their company. Ever the Pollyanna, I liked how this flying pig meant that anything is possible. There is a wonderful book - Tuesday by David Wiesner. It was a fave when my son was a little one. 





Who doesn't like dragonflies. Nothing speaks summer like dragonflies zooming around the garden.













This was one of a few blank name tags left over after an annual weekend retreat where we bring in teachers and make a variety of things - from  twig furniture to jewellery and everything in between.  Although I don't like hearts as a decor item, I do like them as brooches . 











My apologies - it was photographed facing properly but alas it flipped sideways and of course I don't know how to right it. P.G.Wodehouse makes me laugh out loud. His books with Jeeves and that young gadabout Bertie Wooster can make a cloudy day sunny. The man on the brooch reminds me of Jeeves, although instead of bringing Bertie a heart on a silver platter it would have been Jeeves' morning elixir to chase away the effects of the night before.

January 27 - February 2, 2013

 Yikers! A month til Spring and I'm still nattering about brooches in January.
Will I ever catch up? Have faith dear friends. Apologize now, the spacing is wonky for this week's entry and je ne sais pas why!

I like terriers - the straight furry legs and lantern mugs. Although my town has dogs galore of myriad shapes, sizes and temperaments, I have yet to see one of these. I like the depiction of the dog, although the brooch pin back is a bit overlong - A-OK at the front of the dog, but a bit questionable at the "rear".

We have three cats - Violet, Moggy and Purdy - named for 3 people that we love. These cats look very relaxed in comparison to the feline shenanigans that go on in our home. 

I LOVE SQUIRRELS! Boo to all those who call them rats with furry tails. A friend of mine calls me the squirrel whisperer as I've saved a few of them from a nasty end. Squirrel Story: I found a squirrel stuck head down inside my  small metal suet feeder. He must have tried to get that last morsel of bird suet. He was a young'un so half of him was in, half out. He was in distress, his tail was flailing and he was scared. I got the garden shears, held the feeder in my hand and started talking to him to calm him down and with a neighbour friend keeping me company slowly cut the metal grid that was pressing along his body and face. When he was freed and dropped to the ground he looked up in relief at us, and then off      

                                                                                 he went. Happy ending. Happy brooch.

Love the colour of amber and a square cut.   

 A bit battered as it spent a few years on a gardening coat. It's mainly wood. I like the jauntiness of the train. 

Such a pretty heart. The tatted piece in the middle was handmade and then attached to the backing. The artist (whose name I can't recall - Andrea?) was a member of the same art group I'm still in and I liked to watch her flying fingers as she tatted away. I love the different textures that she used. It took me quite a while to decide which one to buy. I regret not buying another one. 

I think I bought this one summer when I worked at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta. It was a present for my Mom and she gamely wore it but it wasn't her style. I recently found it in a box with a few other of my Mom's trinkets. I like it immensely and was thrilled to find it again. The photo doesn't do it justice - the greens, the metallic sheen - but the design rings true. Again, one of those wonderful enamelled brooches.                                                                                                                                                         

January 20 - 26

It's bloody cold outside, so I've been lying on a couch in the Sunday sunshine, nestled in a woolly blanket, reading a book - luxury. But I feel the day marching on, so here I am with a mug of French Earl Grey tea ( Earl Grey with lavender blossoms) - such a heavenly smell, such a divine taste. Here's the next 7 that I wore in far-off Jan.

I have a fondness for enamelled pins. Found this in a second hand shop and was a bit disconcerted when I found my mother-in-law wearing the same pin. Thank heavens I like her - honest!  I think this bird might be a gold- crowned kinglet seen through the eyes of artistic licence. 

I'm a musical being, as many of us are, hence the gift of this brooch with the music symbols. I like the jingly jangly of it.

One of my Mom's brooches. I can picture this twinkling on her Easter coat. I like the movement of it as it spins round and round. Almost expect to hear a whirling sound emanating from it. Or if the centre was a button, that old chestnut Windmills Of My Mind would play.

Yes, I know, not the prettiest of brooches. Actually reminds me of the Grinch's scuzzy teeth. But it was made by a friend's girlfriend. Need I say more.

This is the closest I've come to wearing a clown brooch. For some reason, he reminded me of the puppet shows that my friends and I put on as kids. We had hand puppets - a Punch (but no Judy) - so he was always the villain; a King and a Queen who always played .......the King and Queen; and this one would have fit in as a Jester or Fool.

One of my faves. It's porcelain, light in weight for the size of it. I usually don't like masks but I made an exception for this one. And I love stripes. People see the Statue of Liberty or a South American figure. I see strength and mystery. It's a love it or hate it type of brooch.

Sometimes I wonder about myself. I think I have 3 of these cat brooches but thank heavens this is the only one holding a beer. I can't remember but I hope the other 2 aren't holding a wine glass and a scotch glass.

January 13 - 19

 As you can see, I'm in the first baby steps of blogging and I'm having some difficulty with the spacing and alignment - hopefully before the end of the year it will look, if not peachy keen, than a bit less wonky. 

An old-fashioned wreath of posies; I like the everlasting chain.

There are lots of Mallards on the river. Even though they are as common as lint on a black sweater, I enjoy watching them paddling around. This brooch is a little worse for wear as I've had it a long time but the feather impressions on the leather still are clear. 

It must have been a warm week in January as this is the 2nd of 3 flower brooches worn this week. For some reason, the smooth surface is pleasing to the touch as are the lilac-hued daisies pleasing to the eye. 

A cautionary tale - I bought this brooch for a friend's daughter who was interested in ballet. We didn't see each other often and I kept procrastinating about calling up and taking it over or forgetting about it when we were meeting up. Needless to say, ballet was a passing fancy for the young daughter. 

I honestly don't have a valid excuse for buying this brooch other than I couldn't afford a real Mickey watch at the time but I could buy this - it's ceramic, bought it at a craft show somewhere before the Disney Corporation got nasty. And how can you not love that mouse.

If the Ark weighed as much as this brooch it would have sunk, so it's worn on a heavy sweater and looks swell.

My third flower brooch of the week. It's as tall as the "ark" is long, but made of various bits of wool and fibre.
It has puzzled people as to what the heck it is.

January 6 - 12, 2013

I'm slowly playing catch-up with my brooches; they have run far ahead of me. There is now a long conga line of  brooches that I've worn so far this year running along the dresser; only when I finally place them here in this blog do they go into my Mom's old cake tin - for want of an empty jewellery box. (Don't worry, they're embraced in soft felt.)

A tiny owl with spooky glittery eyes and that's what I like about it.

                                                                               

This reminds me of my Mom. She had a few of these decorative "bone china flowers in a bowl" objects around the house and I was lucky to receive one of them (they looked like a breeze could blow them over - a breeze couldn't but Bertie, the cat certainly could), but they were hefty in weight. This is a lovely brooch, very delicate and sweet and whispers to me of another time.

    I love rocks, every purse I have has one that I picked up on my wanderings, be it near or far. This brooch has a rock (check mark) but it has always looked a little bit like a granny would be wearing it.       

A sparkly little one. Who can resist?

No doubt, I picked up this leather Canada Goose in a tourist shop because it has "Canada" stamped on the back and sometimes I like being a tourist in my own country. One of the most wonderful sounds in the world, a sound that stirs my heart, is Canada Geese flying overhead and honking and if you are specially lucky, they are flying low enough that you can hear the whish of the wind through their wing feathers.

Don't you wish you too could be a-dancing to this underwater jive that the octopus is grooving to?

One of my favourites - I wore a necklace to-day so this is the brooch that graces my grey wool winter coat, and I am NEVER changing it for another on this coat as the brooch is perfect for it. Bought it a few years back in Camden Town Market in a building that used to be the Horse Hospital. Each horse stall has the antique/what have you dealers and I bought 3 brooches from one of them. I was in brooch heaven. It garners "I like your brooch" comments from strangers - thank you kind strangers.

                                                                                   

January 1 - 5, 2013

       I wear brooches. It's something that I have in common with the Queen of England - granted, hers are of a royal pedigree and mine are of a Heinz 57 variety. I've worn them off and on since my childhood in the fifties and for many years now every morning I rattle around in the jewellery box looking for a brooch that suits my fancy, or sometimes it's a quick grab, try hard not to impale myself with the pin and off to work I go.
       So here they are, a brooch a day.

One of my favourites, I loved it when I was a kid, and I love it still. I've always wondered why the paper clock is at 8:18. Was the designer marking a special moment? The romantic in me says yes.

Friends give me brooches. You hug them, thank them and occasionally wear the brooch. Being a lover and collector of  brooches, pretty much anything goes - except for clowns - and I will not apologize for that! Until I saw this photograph, I did not appreciate the intricacy of the design.






A little metal bird, one of three that I have, it's lighter than air.


















I like to rug hook; it challenges me, stirs my creative spirit; massages my ego when someone loves my work. 
I like this sheep with its curly curly starry starry night swirls. And I think of all that glorious wool. 








I like the hustle and bustle of London England. Many years ago on a belated Honeymoon to the British Isle and Paris we found a store in the Underground that catered to the likes of us - tourists -. I bought a few bus brooches - here's one of them.