also...

ebay

cute and cozy, whilst also really strange and disturbing. perfect!!

today i am coveting...

an antidote to the granny-ness that has overtaken me of late.
i really, really,really want some of these - the start of a deceased menagerie if you like...

beloved & co, etsy

tophattaxidermy.com

and i am totally and utterly head-over-heels in love with these...

good ol' ebay

for some reason the dis-embodiment makes them so much better!!!

things i may someday make...

like an old lady, i am now searching out favourite yarns! i bought some gorgeous multi coloured Rowan wool in Liberty on a trip to London last summer, and am coming close to finishing it (NOOOOOO! must hoard, must hoard!).
as well as lovely (and expensive!) yarns, they also have a free projects section on their website, which might even get me to learn to knit more than plain stitch...

 

 LOVE the plaited necklace, and i could actually make the top one as it is crochet, though deciphering the pattern might take some work! 

such a cute tea-cozy, and its called the 'hug' cozy!

i want this whole outfit, but may have to ask my knitting meistress mother to knit this sweater for me, for my up-coming birthday!

its not an addiction!!

i have been crocheting cushion covers obsessively for the last month...

when i should have been doing something much more constructive and profitable like designing and printing cards.

now i just have to make the actual cushion covers up, make labels, decide where the best place to sell them is (and actually get around to doing so), and price them so that i am not working as slave labour and so that people don't think they should be made of pure gold!

thank you, and ooooh look!

Thank you so much to all the new lazycozy followers, and amazed thanks to louise at the lovely australian blog table tonic, full of stunning interiors eye-candy!

table tonic is also a superb emporium of lots of my favourite things; mr l.c.will be glad we do not live in the antipodes, as i want ALL of these!

vintage suzaniis...

ikat cushions and embroidered mexican bedspreads...

moroccan leather pouffes...

and, oh!, look at this blue moroccan wedding blanket; we have a gorgeous traditional one which we bought on our honeymoon, but now i want to go back even more so that i can get one of these!

a little picture...

and a lot of bravery! i did a quick sketch of mew mew the other night, because i really want to be able to draw and i have to start somewhere...

it is in no way anatomically correct, but its the first drawing i have done for years and years that i am at all happy with. trying to draw correctly makes me (actually) feel like crying so i'm going with picasso, who said he spent his whole life trying to unlearn how to draw - lucky i don't have years of training then!

it also made me very happy that mr l.c., my pop and my sister all - independantly of each other - said it looked a bit warholesque - my ultimate illustration hero, and, y'know, not that bad of an artist all round!!

pink-slaw, geodes and turbans

my mum and dad have been staying with us for the weekend, so we thought we would treat them to our new favourite recipie, pink-slaw, made with beetroot and turnip (from our garden) and red cabbage (from the supermarket!), and just a little bit of mayonnaise...

mmmmmm, pink-slaw and roast chicken!

my pop pays good attention and brought me a lovely little geode from the shop at the ulster museum...

and my maw, in her creative genius, brought a turban from a performance of a mini-play she wrote, which i nabbed as i think it looks rather fetching in a little edie type way.  

no, i don't think it makes me look like a crazy at all!

on the subject of bathrooms...

in my search for images for a project at work today, i came across these two vinatge 'vent-away' toilet ads with a perfect but somewhat bizzare visual concept...

via dads vintage ads

via adclassix

i particularly like yellow one, coloured bathroom suites surely must be due for a revival!

my goodness me!!!

the bathroom floor got on apartment therapy!!
i think i might be speechless!!

bedroom plan, and some coveting

our spare bedroom is currently being used as mew mew's bedroom, she basically has her own bed!  as it's bigger than our current bedroom, we think we'll swap, so we plan to get started on decorating it soon (tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!); we will be putting up a picture rail and skirting boards (to be painted white) and painting below the picture rail in this turquoise-y beauty ...

i have had the curtains i plan to use in the wardrobe in our room for about two years,  bought from a charity shop (of course!) and lined with turquoise! (it's quite a big scaled pattern, i think it looks like it should be in a large english country house, or maybe even a bit palm springs-y)

this picture from the car boot sale down the road, which i masked off and sprayed the frame of, will be featured somewhere...

the following two items, from a very nice antique shop, are in the fantasy design of the room, as the fabric - which i would use on a chair - is not for sale (boo)...

                                

and the ridiculously gorgeous venetian glass mirror is £220 - waaaay out of our budget. but i LOVE it so much it makes me want to cry...

     

well of course!!

i decided to have a t'internet free long weekend - haven't even checked my emails - i get on ikea hacker and also have a busy comment weekend on lazycozy!!
sorry to anyone who thought i was being ungracious or rude!!
and as to the question of the booze bottles in the bathroom, they hold our bath-creme and shampoos! i hardly ever drink, but i do like to try and retain the veneer of rock'n'roll, and bombay saphire is most definitely my booze of choice, ooh or hendrick's cucumber gin - i do like gin!!

today i am coveting...

all this thrifting isn't just glamour thrifting, it born of actual pauper-ness, so today i decided to go anthropologie fantasy shopping...

i love these geode-like coasters and hope the geological mini-trend of the moment lasts a while - i really want some crystal clusters and wish i still had all the rocks and minerals i used to collect from the museum when i was a kid.

i do like a terrarium, and i love the seafaring theme of these, they make me want to sing sea-shanties!

as for the cat plate and the shower curtain, these are fantasy shopping even if i had the money, as they are just too girly for mr l.c. to live with (even though he actually wanted our pink fridge)!

perfect dress by proxy

ok, its not the PERFECT dress, but it is a very nice dress, and it was only £9 in tkmaxx, and now i won't have to yearn so much for the cath kidston one...

for me a pretty white dress is a wardrobe staple, and i can't wear my lovely antique one as i bought it when i was teeny-tiny and now my well-fed arms are ripping it when i try to move!! i still look at it every  day though, hung up in our bedroom...

oh well. i shall be wearing the proxy dress with black tights, black slip and my dead man's brogues which i got in a charity shop for £5...

..like a fatter, older alexa chung!

thank ebay!

ebay blessed us with five sets of these lovely blue ceramic doorknobs (for £11!).

mr l.c. remains to be convinced, he needs a bit of help to see past their 80s-ness, he has asked me to explain and justify my design process. i hope i don't have to build a 3D scale model like i did when i was planning the bathroom. (yes, i really did, i spent a whole afternoon in my old office job doing just so - oh for a husband with no design opinions!!)
i think the hallway plan can rock them, and as there are only five and we have six doors, the rooms that blue won't work in can have different interior handles. (the graham and green ones!!!)

more bathroom stuff!

mr l.c. and i have been busy refurbishing some of our spoils which we got in the "dead people shop" - so called by my beautiful, clever, talented, younger and only sister (contractual obligation!!) - a house clearance warehouse paradise!

this is the cool little stool in its original state - it was deee-sgustingly filthy and the seat fabric was almost totally worn away.  i cleaned it up, spray painted the base, and upholstered the seat. 

now it looks like this (!) and it even has a little basket under the seat for us to store our stuff that doesn't look good with the booze bottles!

mr l.c.'s contribution to the refurbishment of bathroom goods was first the cleaning of our new, non-crappy-plastic, scales.  unfortunately the cleaning led to them not working, so he took them apart, figured out how they work, and fixed them!  (i am so proud!)

now we have real vintage scales which even have a little light at the face, much better than the p diddy ones!

i have lots of excellent saturday spoils and related projects to share, but i will split them over the week, as i am kind of good for nothing today, due to the fact that my digestive system has finally broken under the strain of the lazy cozy diet of treats as staple foods!

i did make this while feeling sorry for myself on the sofa though...

i'm making myself use my hoarded materials, this used some gorgeous wool by kaffe fassett (again! - i really like his use of colour).  it is backed with a deep green felt and i think it looks very at home on mr l.c.'s sofa (we have one each, we don't share!!)

fancy bathroom blind

no more peep shows!!  as budget did not allow for a fancy custom printed blind, i decided to cobble together a custom patterned blind myself.  i used a fantastic kaffe fassett fabric from my hoard, so now i can look at it every day as opposed to looking at it neatly folded in a cupboard!

i started with an ikea cheapest ENJE roller blind and my lovely, lovely fabric...

i measured the length that the blind needed to be when fully rolled down in situ, and marked this length plus 5cm (so there would be no way that we would see the abrupt end of the fabric)...

i then weighed down the fabric and measured it against the blind, leaving about 10cm extra to wrap over the back.  (the champagne was a congratulatory bottle for a visual merchandising competition this time last year which is still to be drunk when i and my glamourous assistant get together for dinner - it was the heaviest thing  i had to hand!!!)

i used my new favourite adhesive product (and i do like adhesive products A LOT) to stick the fabric to the blind...

i spread the pva on in about 20cm sections and smoothed the fabric on using my metal metre rule (this was suprisingly effective, i only had to unpeel it a couple of tiny bits, due to small creases in the middle - i should have ironed them out first)

then i just had to adhere the remainder to the back of the blind, cut a straight edge...

and trim the along the edges (my fabric was only slightly wider than the blind, so i didn't need to cut the width before i pasted it).

then mr l.c., with his superior diy skillz, kindly fitted the blind, et voila...

a very stylish addition even though i say so myself, with the plus side that my neighbours no longer can be ambushed by the sight of my what would very kindly be described as rubenesque flesh anymore.