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.

Glow

Hello everybody,

Brrr.  Hope you're managing to stay warm.  It's sooo cold here, but beautifully sunny so that's okay. And I'm trying to contain my excitement because we have visitors coming for the weekend.  Two whole days of eating and drinking and chatting and general girliness.  And it's finally given us the incentive to sort out the bedroom that we've been using as a dumping ground since we moved in.  So this is how it looks now.

I made the lampshade this morning.  Can I just say that again - I made the lampshade this morning.  Yes indeed.  As my sister will tell you, I am a bit obsessed with lampshades at the moment.  It's so difficult to find nice ones for anything approaching a reasonable price.  And then it occurred to me that I could make my own. 

It was a bit fiddly and I needed to call in Mr. P to help at some point.  I suspect it's the kind of thing that gets easier with practice.  Which is good because I have a second kit and am waiting for some Etsy fabric to cover it with.  

Like it?

Have a lovely weekend.

C.x

Making Winter - A tale of three blankets

As no doubt you already know, Silverpebble and Thrifty Household have come up with the wonderful idea of sharing what we like about winter to banish any signs of gloom in the months of short days and long nights.  For me, winter is all about cosiness.  And cosiness requires blankets.

I have lots of catching up to do with all the posts I have in my head.  For ages, I've been wanting to show you this loveliness.

My Mum found this blanket in a charity shop and gave it to me just before Christmas.  Isn't it just beautiful?  It's in pristine condition and made of cotton, so we bunged it into the washing machine to get rid of the old lady whiff and it came out fresh and spotless. It makes me smile every time I go into that room.  And it's got a lovely weightiness to it that you need sometimes in a blanket.

You may remember that I wrote about coveting a blanket from The White Company here.  Well, they had a sale awhile back, just at the point when the House by the Sea was at its most chaotic.  Now, I had no business at all buying a blanket at that point when we were still at the stage of choosing taps, but sometimes a thing calls to you and you just have to answer the call.  This is the opposite of the white blanket; all gossamer lightness but deliciously warm for all that.  It's on our bed at the moment and keeps our feet toasty when the temperature drops in the small hours.

And then there is my blanket.  It's really not there yet.  In fact it's still a fairly random collection of squares.  But if I squint my eyes and ignore all the threads forget about how many hundreds more grannies I need to do to get it to the size I want, then I can almost see that it will be a blanket some day.

I'm trying to be good and do a granny a day, encouraged by the lovely Annie and Laura of Nimble Fingers and Steady Eyebrows.  And I've been pretty good so far and reckon on about 5 a week.  But we'll see.  

I'm also trying not to be too daunted by how big the bed is compared to each little square!  Maybe it'll be done by next winter.

C.x

Not a great first date

First, just to let you know that service from the house of NKK will be intermittent at best in the next few weeks.  Posts will be random and commentary on all your lovely blogs will likely be lacking.  For tomorrow, we are off to see our house by the sea.  Hurray!  Then back for three weeks and then sailing out for good.  It'll be a bit of a roller coaster ride.


Okay, so to my date with Prints Charming.   I have such a feast of colour for you today. 

You will be pleased to know that I did not let you down.  I did not swear once (well, not out loud anyway...).  As to the rest...


It was not a very auspicious start.  I arrived 45 minutes late.  I hate being late.  I am rarely so.  My only excuse is that my life is even more chaotic than usual at the moment.  So, I got the dunce's chair rammed into the back corner with the edge of the table and the table leg to contend with.  Not so good.

Luckily the lovely women of Prints Charming allowed me to think it was no big deal and chatted away while I got my act together.   


I am left handed.  When it comes to hand sewing, this usually makes your average right handed seamstress run away screaming.    But they managed to remain quite composed.  I kept forgetting to tie the knot to start a stitch, so it kept slipping through.  No cursing please.  Big sigh and start again.  

What really killed me was the chain stitch.  I understood completely the theory, but I kept forgetting to anchor each stitch so that it all came unravelled in a most annoying way.  (You are allowed to laugh, by the way.  I won't be the least offended.)It wasn't helped by the fact that I kept getting distracted, wanting to take photos of all the lovely treats they'd bought with them and had strewn around the place.

And I was mesmerised by the detail of the sample work everywhere.

Not to mention the teacher's necklace.

But it seems there really is no short cut to the swear a lot/rip it/start again mode of learning that I have developed this year.


Undaunted, I came away armed with two instruction books (hurray - there's a book for it!).

And after much consideration on colour choice, these lovely threads.

They will be used to adorn (sic) this lovely blue bird.

You will understand from the scraggy bits of thread messing up the place that I already have plans in the swearing/rip it out/start again department.

More soon I hope from our house by the sea!


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