at home

Some random photos from the last few weeks.

I never did get around to blogging our balcony garden this year but it’s there (past its prime already) and we had zucchini, and turnips and herbs and tomatoes and lots of flowers.

The peppers! I had high plans for these. I got ‘pimientos de padron’ peppers because I had liked them in Spain and started lots of plants from seed. Alas, they all turned out to be the hot type instead of the mild ones I was hoping for. I ended up giving them all away. If anyone in Spain has access to the mild pimientos de padron (the ones you fry in a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt), I’d be more than thrilled if you could send me some seeds! Do email me at tidytipsy.at.yahoo.de!

A little Oleander cutting my mom gave me is thriving and produced its first flower. Love it.

And finally, some down time with the cats amid some crazy busy weeks 🙂

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at the fair

Last week was the bi-annual big shoe trade fair. My dad has been attending for thirty years or so with whatever brand of shoes he has been selling over the years.
I worked there for almost ten years during school and university. It’s weird not to anymore (I stopped when I finished university and got a fulltime job).
I stopped by shortly before they closed to say hi to everyone.

I worked for an italian kid’s shoe brand, having known the owners all my life and being good friends with them (heck, I even learned to speak italian just so we could chat). I did some photoshoots for them a while ago, which still shows up on their flyers and posters.

For nearly all of my life, the shoe fair fell on my birthday. Years ago, my dad introduced me to an old client of his and the client told me: “Oh, I know you, I remember the day you were born. Your father was called out for in all of the exhibition halls, telling him he had better go to the hospital now. That day, everyone on the fair knew he was going to be a daddy.”
I guess I just have a special relation to shoemaking. I loved this video about a shoemaker.

While my friends have a factory and a few dozen employees, a lot of their work is still handmade. I’ve seen them work at these old industrial sewing machines and cut leather fringes meticulously by hand one by one. Their designs are still drawn on paper and later, my dad goes through dozens of designs, picking and combining different leathers and colors to make each shoe a work of art.

birthday post

My birthday was on Saturday. Last year I wrote a pretty elaborate post on my birthday and the changes in that year.
This year I seem to have a case of writer’s block. It was hard for me to even start this post. The past year has been pretty much what I had hoped for…steadier, quieter and less exciting than the years before.
This time last year I was still working in a very crappy job and distinctly remember my birthday as being another of those days where I was yelled at and made feel inadequate at the office. Thankfully I changed jobs in December and while I still have a challenging job it’s now challenging in a good way and I actually look forward to going to work in the morning…something I didn’t imagine was possible a year ago.
I think the changes and the growth were still there this year, just less obvious as it didn’t involve major life events like graduating or starting a job.

In fact, I guess the challenge is that with all those outward decisions made and things quieting down a little, all you’re left with is…yourself. Someone you paid little attention to when things were going topsy turvy. I admire people who seem so completely sure of who they are. I never seem to be, never seem to know myself that well.
Turning 27 I feel like crossing some invisible border. A lot of people my age already have kids, a mortgage, a plan. Time to sit down and think about how I want my life to be in the next years because for the first time it feels like it’s all up to me.

I’m not sure that’s a good thing yet.