Wednesday 23 February 2011

In search of some rays...



A lazy, rainy, grey half-term so far. A trip up to London to see some lovely paintings and a lot of much needed lazing around at home.



The sun's gone AWOL, the clouds have taken over and whilst we're all snuggled up at home watching the rain pouring down the windowpanes, I find myself in desperate need of some colour.



So please indulge me whilst I just post some colourful pics from around the house, nothing special just splashes of much needed colour...





And today I added the most colourful eiderdown I own to our ""princess and the pea" of a bed...





Oh and some lovely images from some goodies in the Emporium right now that again have nothing to do with anything in particular other than they're full of colour and make me smile...

Monday 14 February 2011

A Thing Of Beauty...



Well, it seems very apt that I share this book today on Valentine's Day. A romantic treasure that I found a few months ago, at the bottom of a pile of books on a shelf, going for a song... how could it have been overlooked?



An 1895 edition of the collected works of John Keats that I love for so so many reasons.



Its beautiful bronze leather covers embossed with gilt lettering. The golden branch with bird (a Nightingale perhaps?).



The tissue paper that protects the photograph of John Keats at the front of the book.



Its foxed, browning pages illustrated with beautiful Pre-Raphaelite pictures.
The smell, the weight and age of the book.
And then there's the words



The beautiful words, the achingly sad poems to his love Fanny Brawne - it's better than any black and white weepie that I know!

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Blue Is The Colour



Weatherwise it wasn't the best of weekends. Back to back grey with drizzle and gale force winds thrown in for good measure. After braving the elements on Saturday morning and returning home drenched and frozen, I decided to throw anchor and stay put for the duration.



The girls had plans aplenty and weren't deterred by the bad weather. Left at home I took stock of the million and one jobs that had been left half done or unstarted around me. Paint pots and brushes in the hallway, sandpaper in the bathroom, the sewing order that needed to be finished and sent off and all the goodies that needed to be photographed for the Emporium...
Well I've always been more than a bit of a procrastinator and will find a thousand odd things to do rather than the one that matters most. Which led me to the cupboard under the stairs. The dreaded cupboard understairs where nobody goes unless it absolutely necessary. It'a an 'enter at your peril' kind of place, the sort of cupboard that explodes each time the door is opened. The kind of cupboard where our cats have been known to disappear without a trace for hours on end...



Like a woman possessed, I grabbed bags, piles of cushions, sleeping bags, camping kettles in search of my prey. And there it was in an old plastic bag, the rather worn, stained old woollen blanket that I had managed to hide from the ruthless Mr Roses. Well this blanket takes the word "pre-loved" to its limits, you would have to be truly smitten to take this blanket to heart, to wrap it round you and enjoy its comfort. But there were bits worth salvaging, I was particularly taken by the blue striped edging and grabbed the sewing machine whilst nobody was looking.
In the time it took Mr Roses to go and buy some tomatoes, a newspaper and lose his umbrella, my cushion was made. A quick encounter with some lavender water to freshen it up and a casual chuck onto the blue armchair in the living room and, hey presto, nobody would ever know...



Well, there were no protests from Mr Roses about the smelly blanket from under the stairs, the cats love it, there is a bit more space in THAT cupboard and whilst I may not have touched the sewing order that should have been number one on my priorities list, it did bring a smile to my face to see it finally sitting there soft, blue and finally re-loved.
And if that wasn't enough, look what's going on here today



Blue sky!

Like a siren calling to me this morning I couldn't sit still until I'd gone out for a walk in all that glorious sunny daylight. As I said to a friend, it was like the world was a huge box of chocolates, urging me to open the door and tuck in. And tuck in I did.