Late to the party



I have discovered Etsy.  (I know, where have I been...).

I am in serious trouble.  Send help.

C.x

Tree cosy

No, really.  Look!

Completely barking.

And somehow completely intriguing.

So, what are you up to for the weekend?  We have my sister-in-law arriving tomorrow for a few days, so will be doing lots of eating and drinking and laughing.   Can't wait.

Whatever you're doing, have a lovely weekend.

C.x

Pure escapism

Recently, I've come across Anthology Magazine.  It's published every quarter and is absolutely delicious. 

                                                                                 (All photos from Anthology Magazine.)

                                                                                (All photos from Anthology Magazine.)

I have an idea to do a sort of 'sea wall' in our new house, full of all sorts of things from Etsy and ebay and flea markets  all loosely related to the sea.  But really, I just want to arrange for everything in this house to be delivered to my door.  Sigh.

And yesterday, they featured this collection:

(All photos from Anthology Magazine.)

Clearly, they are stealing my ideas :)

C.x

A little piece of Jersey in the City

The builders tell me that work is going well on the house by the sea - no buried treasure found, and that's a good thing...  It's raining today but all last week we had sunny days here (hurricanes and earthquakes aside), and November and our voyage home still seem like a long way off.

But we have an influx of visitors in September, so I know that suddenly we'll be waving goodbye to our old neighbourhood.  And one of the institutions that we pass all the time on the bus is this old store.

In many ways, it's nothing special.  And it's not as though there won't be pork in Suffolk.  But I'm pretty sure nowhere will have this on the wall outside.

Hilarious!  Every time I pass it I expect to see a Soprano lurking outside.  Or a rug-shaped object being hussled into the back.

I mean, seriously - doesn't it make you  want to start singing to yourself that you woke up this morning and got yourself a gun?

Now, I know I've spent way too much time in my life watching Sex and the City and Sopranos (what else is there to do for two years in the desert?)  But please, tell me it's not just me.


C.x

Giveaway - owl anyone?

I am reading in blogland that Autumn is in the air in Blighty and that children are heading back to school and generally that Summer is nearly over.  I thought it might be a good time for a treat.

It's Labour Day here.  Which means a day off.  We've been out and about a lot this weekend, but today has been spent making this:

Yes indeed.  I made that.  Not just sewed it.  Made it up.  From scratch.  Me.  I have realised how easy envelope cushion covers are to make, and now I want to revamp every cushion in the house.  But I want to start with a thank you giveaway.

I had an idea that it might be good to have my own interpretation of what seems to be the craft mascot of the moment.  

Google is awash with owl images so it was all a bit bewildering at first.  But eventually, I found this one and knew that I could make it work with what was in my head.  

I then spent lots of time faffing around with different scraps of fabric and generally making a mess.  I hadn't used my sewing machine in a couple of months so that was all a bit daunting too.  But in the end, it all came together pretty well.

Okay, so it's all a bit rough around the edges, but I think that makes it more home-made looking.  And I like the perplexed expression.  (If I didn't exist yesterday and now found myself living on a cushion cover, I think I'd be a bit perplexed too...).

I wasn't quite sure what to do about the feet (talons? claws?).  But then a particular piece of fabric emerged at the top of the heap and I knew this would be just the thing.

Anyway, all this is a prelude to saying thank you.  Eight months ago I had no idea how to sew or to crochet, and I didn't read blogs. Neither did I know that there was such a fab support network of lovely people out there just bursting with goodwill and enthusiasm waiting to cheer me on.  So I thought I'd say thank you with my owl mascot.  

I'm also very preoccupied with my move coming up.  So, I thought that should come into it somehow too.  

Here's all you have to do: 

1. If you'd like the chance to win the owl cushion cover ( padding not included but it's about 17 inches square), then please leave me a comment telling me where you'd like to live in the world.  

2. You don't have to worry about what you'd live off, or whether you could take your pet giraffe, or where your kids would go to school, or whether there will be sweetpeas there.  All that is included in your fantasy place. 

3. Maybe you're already living in your dream location (lucky duck).  If so, I'd love to hear about it. 

3. And if you blog about my giveaway on your blog, come back and leave me another comment and you'll be entered twice.

That's it really.  Hope you like it.

C.x

Oh yes, forgot to say the posts will be open until 19 September.

Requiem for my trousers - Ta dah!

This is a bad news/good news post.  First the bad news.

My trousers have died.  To be fair, they have had a good innings.  They are nine years old.  Which in trouser years makes them about 112.  These are the trousers that have survived every cull of my wardrobe. Every house move and clear out.  Every makeover and fashion reinvention.

I bought them when I lived in Kosovo.  Think mud and dust in Summer.  I wore flat shoes all the time because the surfaces were all uneven.  And these were the perfect flat shoe trousers.  Good quality linen, a good cut that relaxed rather than sagged around the behind with each wear.  And comfort akin to trackie bottoms.

They then came with me to New York the first time we lived here and I schlepped all over the city in them.

In North Africa they were line dried in searing heat over a couple of years, fading to a kind of colourless grey.  So, when we came back to New York three years ago they came too, but were consigned (most of the time) to house trousers.  A bit too scruffy to be seen out in but too deliciously comfortable to give away.

Every Summer I promised myself would be the last.  But somehow they came out each year for one more go around.

But this year, they have given up the ghost.

First it was a thinning.  But the thinning gave way to a hole, and a dangerous lack of thread in the crotch area (ahem).

So, what to do?  I couldn't quite bring myself to throw them away.  And then I hit on the perfect solution.  I could still sit on the them, sort of....

TA- DAH!  (Imagine a gap in my typing here while I skip around the room.)

I had some heavy cotton fabric with a big repeat in the pattern that I haven't quite known what to do with.

It used to be wrapped roughly around the original horsehair (uncomfortable) cushions that came with this chair found at a flea market years ago.

But the chair had a makeover when we moved to Manhattan and the fabric went to live at the bottom of our laundry basket.  For a very long time.

So, cast off fabric, meet worn out trousers.

A fab new cushion.  My first ever cushion cover.  Do you like it?  Do You?

Now it lives on our sofa bed, looking pleased with itself.  Fits right in.

Even the Queen looks pleased.

So there you have it.  I made a cushion cover.  Hurray!

So, have you recycled your clothes?  Would love to know what you've done with them.

C.x
(The Queens are vintage life magazines bought on ebay and framed by Mr. P.  And the make do and mend is an original photo from stock in 1942.  Did I tell you I love ebay?)

NTR

Well, that's it then.  An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week.  Definitely time to pack up and go home.

In fact, it wasn't bad at all.  I know there are people without power still and some who are dealing with flooding.  But the house of NKK was entirely unscathed.  In fact, the only danger was that we might have died of boredom.

We had a friend visiting for the weekend.  We had planned to go to see this, and to have lunch here.  And of course to do some shopping here.  And we had tickets to see this.  On Saturday, we did spend an inordinate amount of time in Anthropologie before it closed.

But then we were forced home.  Not by winds and hurricanoes but because everything was shut.

So we stayed in. And ate (sorry, no photos - too busy eating).

And we played lots of this:

And tried not to squabble over the made up words.

At some point I decided to 'style' my hall...

(It's not quite there yet -still working on it.  Think I have the ingredients but haven't worked out what to do with them yet.)

I am collecting hearts - one for each year Mr. P and I have been married.  I don't get them on any particular day, just when I see one I like.  Although the feathers were bought as a bit of a joke on our first married Valentine's Day and I liked them so much, they've stayed.

And I like how they contrast with the simplicity of the other two.

I bought the mirror at the local flea market in the first year we moved here.

And the lamp came from a local shop.

But really, it was just all an excuse to find a home for this pretty, bought on Saturday.  (It is essential that you buy a vase on the morning a hurricane is due to hit.  Or I suppose it could be vintage china, or a jug.)

It reminds me of some kind of sea creature.

Anyway, after we'd eaten ourselves silly and drunk too much wine, we went to bed with all the blinds down and a feeling of anxiety that we might wake in the night to the world ending.  But Sunday arrived more or less on time, and it was all, well, normal looking really...

Sure, it was a little overcast and damp.  And there was NO ONE on the streets at midday.

But all in all, it just felt like a wet Sunday morning.  And by 3pm, it had all cleared up.

So, that was it.  The NKK Guide to Surviving a Hurricane.  Re-style your hall.

Hope everyone else was as lucky.

C.x