A day of plenty

Hello there,

Firstly, thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.  In the (too long) break from blogging, I pretty much stopped taking photos at all, but in coming back to the fold I realise just how much I enjoy it, and how important a part of blogging it is for me.  Taking photographs makes me really see things and I love it.

Secondly, welcome, welcome to my new followers.  It's lovely to have you here.

So, today, I have lots more photos of a market.  Because finally, I have uploaded my images of the vintage market I went to recently in Woodbridge.  Oh, my!  You know there are some days when you visit a flea market or vintage fair, when you traipse around scanning ahead from stall to stall and reach the end and wish you hadn't bothered?  Well, this was the exact opposite of all that.
  

It fell on a crisp clear day a couple of weeks ago and wandering around felt like being in the South of France.  Yes, really.

And even as I look through these photos, I see all sorts of things that I somehow missed ,and want to go back to.  But before you feel too sorry for the opportunity lost, let me show you what I DID buy....

I started slowly with this sweet little dish, made of Welsh pottery.  Love the flowers.  Love the dots.  Love everything about it really.  (And it didn't cost a lot.)

Then I spied these two lurking in the shadows.  No House by the Sea should be without them.

Then I happened upon a stall selling tiles made locally in the 1950s in my favourite colour of the moment.  (Can't seem to get enough of mustard...). 

By this point I was giving myself a stern talking to about the Age of Austerity ruling in the House of NKK etc, but the woman in the bird's nest hat simply smiled.

And that was my final purchase.  Final final.  Until I saw this.

Really, I shouldn't be let out.  Clearly, I cannot be trusted.  But in my defence, I defy any of you to have walked away without this beautiful blanket.  I know I should just have gone home and whipped one up myself.  But we all know how long that's going to take...  And this is made of pure wool.  And in such lovely colours.  And I couldn't buy more than a few of balls of yarn for the price I paid for it.  So really, it absolutely had to come home with me.  Don't you think?

So, now I need some advice, please.  As you can see, it's a little too small for our stupidly big bed (for which, I have Mr. P to thank).  And I am wondering about the best way to add to it.  I know I could just add to the border.  Or I could make granny squares in a single colour (probably either red or navy to tie the room together (in a non matchy match way, hopefully) and sew these in a sort of mega border around the outside, expanding the blanket by a granny square width all around, which I think might do the trick.  

What do you think?

C.x

PS the lovely Rebecca from Posh Yarn was there and I chatted briefly but then ran away in a fit of shyness (more of that another day).  Sorry.

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

Ups and downs

We are due to receive planning permission for the extension to the house by the sea tomorrow.  Today we got an email from the Council saying that the archeological service has marked our application.  This is not good.  I have visions of having to dig the foundations with a teaspoon.  Hopefully, we will be able to convince them that a close built in the 60s isn't the obvious place for pirate treasure.  And if it were, wouldn't they have found it in the 60s?   Fingers crossed.

Slim pickings at the flea market this weekend.

But I did snag this lovely at the charity shop down the road.

It may not win any prizes, but I love it.

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

At it again

I have written before that my natural instinct is to looks to books as having the answers to everything.  I am busy decorating my little old lady house in my head (the finance and legal bods haven't registered the same sense or urgency), and I am accumulating a small collection of books to help me do this.  I love these books.  They confirm my view that it is cool to be rummaging through flea markets and craft fairs for that special something that speaks to me and will make our old lady house ours.  And they have such pretty pictures...

(if anyone knows where to get this picture of the Queen, I'd love to hear from you :)

This kitchen belongs to Aurelie Mathigot, the crochet queen, who seems to be able to make just about anything with a hook and yarn.

And I love this yellow collection where the grey slate is such a fab backdrop to the blossom and retro kitchen ware that you might not look at twice on its own.

I also crave the simplicity of this kitchen set up.  If and when we ever get this house, I'm planning on plain white cupboards to counter level and shelves on top.

I had vague impressions of this kind of collection for my own sideboard when I bought the Danish vase last week.  But the best thing about Decorate is that it has got me thinking about room plans.  So I have enrolled Mr. P to draw up rooms to scale and cut outs of our furniture so that I can literally play house.  A poor substitute for the real thing, but still...

I love this Ercol-style furniture, and have unearthed a fab nest of tables on John Lewis's website.  A girl can dream...

More cupboards with shelves overhead, this time from a house in Brooklyn...

And finally the clean lines of this house from Perfect English Cottages.

I know there are hundreds of websites out there with just this kind of inspirational content.  And I do look at them.  But to me, there's no substitute for settling down with a cup of tea or a glass or wine to lose myself in these pages.  I love the weight and feel of them, and how the content slowly reveals itself as I flick through.  And I usually have my ipad on hand to search on ebay or look up an idea if the inspiration hits me.  So hooray for books, I say.  It's also a little bit more than that.  In truth, I am having a shocker of a time at work at the moment and burying myself in these books, dreaming about my old lady house by the sea, is just the antidote I need.  If only the money and legal people could get their act together...

C.x

Treasure at every turn

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my iPad case.  I'm glad you picked up on the temptation to sling it in the back of a cupboard.  I just couldn't find a cupboard deep enough to stop the nagging voice that I could figure it out if only I tried hard enough.  Nothing if not dogged...

Anyway, I am back from my travels, safe and sound.  I would love to tell you about all the great things I saw and did, but I spent a week going from compound to compound and not seeing anything more exciting than airports (of the non-glamourous variety) so nothing much to report there. 

But we have had a lovely long weekend here with Memorial Day so, when I wasn't sleeping, I was out and about, enjoying having Mr. P back with me, and generally making the most of a hot weather weekend (it finally stopped raining...). 

And I have treasure to show you.  First up, this fab leather footstool bought for a song at my local flea market. 

Isn't it just the business!  I LOVE the colour.  (Anthropologie has a beautiful club chair in just this shade of green leather with each button covered in a different fabric that I have been coveting for the longest time.  In truth, a green chair might be too much, but the footstool is just perfect...)  And it really brings out the green in the faded old cushion cover from Designers Guild that I've had forever.  And it's got those great metal tips to the legs.  We found it at the end of a trudge through the market in the very last stall.  Exactly the kind of thing that keeps me going back week after week.

(We will draw a veil over the fiasco that was the Manchester United v Barcelona match, watched after we found the stool.  Nuff said...)

I left Mr. P. hiding from the heat on Sunday to go back to the Brooklyn Flea.  Treasure at every turn.  A Royal Denmark vase...

... and a partner for my other tapestry picture bought there a few weeks ago.  (I sense a collection in the making...)

... and this lovely Arabia marmalade jar.  (I saw one when I was in Australia but left it behind and it has been nagging at me ever since, but if anything this one is even better with its gold accents...)

And finally, this lovely bowl bought in a charity shop for $1 last night.

This weekend, I am promising myself not to go to any more flea markets.  There's no end...

C.x

Loving catching up on all you blogs.  I missed them while I was away.