Meandering

I don't know about you, but I store up random odds and ends to tell you as I go through my day, and then something happens and I never get to post about them.  But going through my pictures today, there are a few things that I just knew you'd like, even if they come across as a bit random.

1. My sister asked me to buy an iPad which we delivered the last time we were home a few weeks back.  We spent a little time fiddling with it and generally revealing that we are not part of the tech generation (or whatever letter that is - we had generation X some time ago now...)  While we were distracted with something else, my niece got hold of it and drew a self portrait:

Isn't she lovely?  She is eight.  (If she could send along a picture of her brother, I would love to show you that too.)

I gave my sister this:

2.  We had a lovely day out in Brighton.  After pootling around furniture shops all morning, we had lunch at a cafe with this in the window:

Bonkers.  Lovely, but bonkers.

3.   I read here that vertical gardens are very much the thing at the moment.  But have you seen the one in Trafalgar Square?

Apparently, it's inspired by A Wheatfield With Cypresses by Van Gogh.  How lovely is that?

4. If you are ever near the National Portrait Gallery, then make your way to the fifth floor.  The bar offers such a beautiful view over London, even on a grim grey day.

5. Isn't the ship in a bottle on the Plinth just lovely?

6. I never did tell you that awhile back, Mr. P and I went to hear Edna O'Brien read from Saints and Sinners, her new collection of short stories.  Of course, I went for the stories, which are beautiful.  It didn't hurt that she was being interviewed by Gabriel Byrne.

Dodgy photo taken with my iPhone - sorry

We will draw a dignified veil over my failed attempts not to drool...

So, there you are.  Random things that I felt you needed to know.

C.x

Only a matter of time

Hello everybody,

Mr. P and I have come to a tacit understanding about my recent flea market purchase, which involves him pretending he doesn't know about my mad woman's basket, and me pretending that I haven't noticed the new golf bag that has appeared in the house.  Besides, I now have my excuses at the ready.  It's a packing case, after all...  And if all else fails, I have "Oh, that old thing...  I've had it for aaaaaages," to fall back on.

Anyway, the House of NKK has moved on from all that.  We are now on Etsy.  Oh, yes.

Ta dah!  My first ever Etsy purchase.  Isn't he fabulous?

At 5"x5", he's petite.  But of course, quite leggy...

I'm thinking a box frame so that all his hairy loveliness doesn't get squashed behind glass.

He came from a very nice lady called Liza at Felted Fuzzies.

So, what was your first Etsy purchase?  Would love to see.

Before I go, please can someone buy these cups from here:

and come back and let me know.  They are absolutely adorable.  I would buy them myself, but as you all know, I have my limits...

C.x

PS - I have no affiliation with the shops.  I just like stuff.

This is not a picture

First, a reminder about my giveaway.  I'm loving your responses so far.  Still time to win the cushion with the slightly bonkers looking owl.  Every home should have one :)  All you need to do is click here or on the button to the right and leave me a comment on that post.

Second, thank you for all your support with my recent addiction to Etsy.  I see I am in good company....

Lots of photos today, and a bit of a story....

Two weekends ago, I bought a couple of pictures at the local flea market.  I haven't photographed them yet because they have been consigned to the back of a cupboard for now.  (I loved them, Mr. P did not.  Nuff said.)

Every Saturday morning, I take the bus to my writing class.  The bus stops just outside the flea market.

This is a Dangerous Thing.

This week, Mr. P has been busy getting quotations from removal companies.  (I tell you, whatever business you're in, close up shop immediately and open up a removal company in Manhattan.)

So, last Saturday, before I set off for my writing class, Mr. P and I had a Serious Discussion about how every cubic foot would cost $10 to ship.  We agreed that there was to be no more buying of fripperies until we arrived at our house by the sea.

The last words from Mr. P before I left the flat were: "No more pictures."

"Right," I said.  "Got it," I said.

When I arrived at my stop, I had ten minutes to spare before my class.  Just a couple of stalls, I told myself.  Not even the stalls further in where I've found stuff before...  How much harm can it be to just kill time before I spend the morning studying?

And then I found this:

Totally mad.  And I had to have it.  You will understand, I'm sure.

I mean, really, it has houses on and everything.

Surely a basket to move house with?

Okay, so it's a bit battered.  But it's quite nicely made.

I did dither a bit over it.  Mr. P's voice was rumbling away somewhere in my head.

But the thing that clinched it was this:

The year I was born...  (It's a sign!)

And there you have it.  I was true to my word.  This is not a picture.

C.x

Late to the party



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

I am in serious trouble.  Send help.

C.x

Wired

Thanks so much for all your good wishes.  You really are lovely, and I am so glad you want to share this new phase with me.

So, how many electric sockets do you have in your house?  And are you happy with their location, or do you find yourself trailing extension cords around the place so you can do the ironing while you watch the tele, or do you have to drag the mixer out from a corner every time you use it or walk half way around your house with the kettle in your hand to make a brew, or get half way up the stairs when the Hoover konks out and you're left with a flex dangling in mid air over the banisters?  And if you were given a chance to start again, would you know exactly where the sockets should go?  And the radiators?

These are the things that are keeping me awake at night at the moment.  I had what felt like 5 minutes to walk around the building site that is our house by the sea last week with two builders who wanted to know where everything would go.  In rooms that look like this

.  To be fair, they're not all that minimalist.  Most look like this:

And the kitchen's practically finished:

(Just kidding...)

And all things considered, I think I had a pretty good idea of what would go where.  (When we finished, the builders told me I could run a war I was so decisive.  That's a good thing, right?)  But now, everyone I speak to tells me that you can never have too many sockets.  And I'm not there anymore to figure it out.    Still, I have my own collection of extra length extension cords to fall back on.

And I have also chosen bathrooms, carpets,  wooden flooring, interior doors, a kitchen, taps, and tiles.  But bad for 10 days.

But in case you thought you'd tuned into the wrong blog, I have also been buying fripperies.  What do you think a girl needs most when she has a hall that looks like this?

Why, THIS, of course!

Isn't it just lovely?!  I'm thinking it needs a new cushion cover, but then I'm so handy with a needle that that shouldn't present any problem...

I bought it at a vintage fair near the house.  I was so excited I had to tell the poor guy selling it all about the 60s house it would be going to live in.  He tried hard to pretend he gave a fiddle.

Other than that, I was very good, except for one complete frippery which I couldn't resist.

It was only a tenner and the label said it still worked but needed a battery.  Of course it was only when I got it home that I realised that it needs one of those big old square batteries that you can't just pick up in the local Homebase.  So now I'm on the hunt for the right battery.

All in all, I think it's a good thing that I'm back in Manhattan.  Otherwise I'd be tormenting the builders and sneaking stuff in under the dust sheets.

C.x

All change, please. All change.

So, I have big news.  I resigned yesterday.  And we are moving back to England.  I have been bursting to tell you for the longest time, but somehow it didn't seem right to tell you lovely ladies when my team didn't know.  Pretty much no one knew actually.  But now I want to shout it from the rooftops.  There are BIG changes ahead in the house of NKK.  I've never bungie jumped (I'm a bit of a scaredy cat like that). But this is how I imagine bungie jumping to be - scary and thrilling and a little bit edgy.  In three months we sail out of New York on the Queen Mary II (delusions of grandeur, I know...).  And then we go to live in our house by the sea.  Hurray!

C.x

Packages (2)

Like most people, I do love a parcel.  And when I got home the other night, there were not one but two cardboard boxes waiting for me.  Mr. P is very good and doesn't tell me when such parcels come so as not to spoil the surprise.  I have to say I would not be so disciplined, and would likely rip into them to have a good rummage inside before ever he had the chance.  But anyway, these parcels were both ebay purchases.  I have not mentioned this before but I love ebay.  We used to live in the desert in North Africa before we came here, and before every holiday, I would go onto ebay, with the result that I always had parcels waiting for me at my sister's house when we went home.  Most of it was stuff I now don't have (what does this tell you...) - summery things and jumpers (who knew you needed jumpers in the desert).  But not housey stuff.  No point in carting housey stuff back to the desert only to ship it on to, well, wherever we were going next.

But now.... Now is an entirely different ebay experience.  Which leads to purchases like this...

... and this...

I am now the proud owner of a pink milk glass cake stand...

...with a beautiful, intricate lacey pattern which will be so easy to clean...

... and which stands elegantly on a pedestal adorned with patterns that look like musical instruments (I gave up piano when I was nine)...

Really I don't know how I have limped along in life without this until now.

AND, a sewing basket....

... with pretty faded fabric on the lid...

... and more shouty fabric inside.  Of course now that I am a seamstress, I will definitely have use for this.  And I haven't a single other box or tin or cupboard or drawer where I could store my sewing things.  No, I'm sure I don't.

Do you ebay?

C.x