Shop refurbishment.....and blog vanishment

Pop up shop nearly completed - added the lace trim and re-arranged 'stock'....

Shop comes complete with roses...those rosy roses....

Day deceptively sunny - it was raining outside of course!

Matching bike - ho ho!!

Anyway it cheers an otherwise dull day

Shop a little on the full side - may have to downsize....

A temporary sign in situ - just waiting for the master sign writer to come along and scribe for me (anyone else left handed with rubbish hand writing out there?)

PS Alex thank you for cycling with me and letting me show you my 'haunts' - ' The Shop that rarely opens', 'The Shop that sometimes opens', the Charity shop where I take my stuff - now realise how bizarre I must seem (singing 'Any umbrellas' as I wend my way round the shop par exemple...).  Glad though that you saw my bike in action - when you said 'Do you really use it' I realised that some people must think that it is all a prop and nothing more!

I do not want to spend too much more time on Pinterest - even as I write  this there are people going through my 'drawers' (somone called Jemmina Puddleduck has been busy with my posts today I see - she has managed  to sift through lots of posts going back to last year but apparently not read a word of the blog itself) - the bunting post from yesterday is now on Pinterest as are my bag pictures from last week.  The comments that I have had regarding Pinterest where I am told people 'love my blog' I feel are pretty vacuous - love it so much we cannot be bothered to read it but we will take your photos to adorn our own pages thank you very much.  Similarly with wanting to have the photos as inspiration -  what was wrong with them being here or just saving them to your computer if need be? So it was a good idea to make it a private blog and  I am just waiting for Pinterest to get back to me to let me know how I then pursue the copyright issue if my blog is private.  All very sad as this was not what I thought would happen - I thought that a middle aged woman sharing her 'bits'would be nice and cosy (very British dare I say it).  I see on Pinterest my photos with comments such as 'I am so gonna do this' or 'I want this so much' - mmmmm, people who did not take the trouble to read what I had written.  I do very much hope that I have given people some incentive to make things and create more 'stuff' - that was the idea you see, just to share here.

Anyway it has been lovely - I only started blogging  properly in November (before that I wrote once every three months or so!) and I had lots of lovely posts lined up for everyone (got to do something during the night) - I do very much wish people to use my ideas, just not the photos.  I find I am an in perplexing world where it becomes 'my fault' for not telling people that I did not want them posted elsewhere (Pinterest seems to assume that the world knows about it so every blog in the world should say if they want they photos using - in my part of the world that is called being self-centred).  I was also hoping to celebrate 100 000 views with a wonderous give-away - I have made three lovely things (each representing something that I love bestest) and you could choose which to win.  Even that became a little soured when a friend suggested that the reason why I like to give things away (I give a fair bit away..) but not so good at accepting in return is that I like the power and control - oh dearie me nothing could be further from the truth and I winced that people might think that of me.  If I have ever sent you something free in the post do drop me a line if you feel that you now under my control!!!

My parents both left school at 14 - no qualifications, no inheritance, no 'we will give you a good start in life' stuff - my dad had no idea that people celebrated things called 'birthdays' until he was an adult (he thought birthday cards bamboozling) - I come from a time when people worked very hard indeed to get anything and I find that Pinterest represents the opposite of that ("I like that so I will have it thank you very much").  My dad was born in 1917 - a tough childhood where he had very little - he taught me always to be grateful  for what you have and that no one person is any better than another. A favourite saying (now my favourite saying) is/was: 'We all piddle in the same pot'.  We do indeed all piddle in the same pot but at the moment my pot is feeling very vulnerable.

Of course I shall end in the 'traditional' please do not post on Pinterest - not that it makes a blind bit of difference because people on pinterest apparently never read this far.  I hope to close this blog to public view in the next week or so.  Update - posted this all this morning and by this afternoon I see that indeed these photos are on Pinterest....