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.

more quirky ceramics!

the word whimsical could have been invented for Bjorn Wiinblad's mid-century ceramics...

i love the stripe and pinwheel design on this (even though her eyes are a bit scary!)

the april showers and the october apple harvest are particularly sweet highlights of the romantic year in this series of mugs.  my aunt has a really pretty little plate with a couple in a paris scene that i have always loved, now i may have to make a purchase of some of these mugs from luna.

knobs! (so,so sorry)

we finally have our full retinue of doors, all attatched to their respective doorholes! after a couple of years with various doors missing, mr l.c. finished the last door today, so now we need to buy some fancy doorknobs to replace the mismatched and ill fitting assortment we now have (although i wouldn't mind a selection of different styles, just nicer than horribly nicotine stained and uncleanable bakelite and aluminium.)

these are my ideals...

i love these classic glass faceted ones from graham&green, particularly the green, and i also really like these glass ones with painted flowers, they don't seem to be available anymore, but i think i may have to decorate whatever doorknobs we end up with in such a manner!

so pretty - this may just be a step to far for the mister! - so on a more sober note...

these (very, very pricey) victorian ones from ebay are just georgeous, and just look at the little details on the backplates. i think we are in for a long search!

saturday spoils!

three car boot sales and a couple of charity shops later...

a very pretty bird print in a nice simple frame, and three little silver plated urns for flowers etc...

a really crudely modeled fake jasperware plastic umbrella stand that i love the colour of, and also kind of love for it's crapness...

a set of two smallish wooden shelf/brackets which i will use in the back bedroom for little bedside tables  (i have had this plan in mind for a couple of years now!)

a really cute little thistle pot, a discarded holiday souvenir as evidenced by the blurry lovely stamp on the bottom (i have a bit of an obsession with off register and messed up print, i think the demand for and pursuit of 'perfection' is a social illness!!)

and a seventies staffordshire ironstone steak-plate - i have wanted some of these since the 90s when they cost A LOT in london vintage shops, the style reminds me of jamie hewlett - i wonder if he ate a lot of steak in pubs growing up! 

mew mew also seems to like it so i might have to buy some more!

weighty issues

i need to lose weight, so i need to weigh myself, so i need to buy scales. i'll buy the cheapest i can find, but these are the fantasy, lovely bright yellow seca medical style for about £70 (for bathroom scales that i am destined to despise!!)

these scales,however, are a sign that all is not right with the world...

24carat gold, real white leather foot plate, the (P) Diddy of the personal weighing world. £650, really? really??

...although the more i look at them the more i think i might kind of like them.

the PERFECT dress

oh why can't cath kidston just reduce this to £25, so that i can spend days of whimsy just like their model.
we even stock the spotty windmills in work, so i'd be ready propped!

i know, i know, the dress to end all dresses is from cath k. and i aspire to whimsy- so rock n roll, so edgy!

important research!

i have been working on some wedding invitations and , on a quest to find the name of the classic border style with squares on the corners, have fallen into a wee bit of an invitation internet gawking addiction! (martha stewart weddings has a lot to answer for!)

utterly stunning hand drawn calligraphic genius by none else than rifle.

pretty whimsy, lovely colours and lots of little dots (!!) by the indigo bunting (a martha stewart art director!).

oh my goodness! pink candy stripe paper bags, yellow and pink, vintage fonts, indie calligraphy, punched paper and LETTERPRESS!!

thoughtful day has included most of my very favourite things in these last invites (and an ex jonathan adler designer too!!)

saturday spoils!

i am so happy i actually made the effort to walk the mile to our local car boot sale this morning, not only did i bring home these lovelies, but i got to appreciate the blue, blue sea and the rare event of a totally cloudless sky...

two beautiful (possibly ivory - hopefully very old) inlaid elephants. pretty, elegant and traditionally patterned, what more could one ask!...

soft, soft tan leather short cowboy boots with stars!! they are also fully magic and make my very muscular calves look positively slim, and were FOUR pounds!!! 

i also nabbed these from a neighbour's hedge and will try to propagate it so i can have a pretty wild rose hedge myself some day, for now they look good in a glass in our kitchen!

bokja!!!

when i gain my inheritance from the kindly benefactor to whom i unwittingly did an act of kindness in my youth, i shall be purchasing some if not all of these beautiful bokja pieces to furnish the home also kindly wished to me...

the floral fabric makes me feel the way homer simpson feels about donuts, and mixed with the missoniesque zig-zags!!!!

i do love me some eames, especially when reupholstered with abit of pretty/ sophistocated ethnic (i think ray and charles would have approved!)

i love the suzani sun/flower motif, and what great legs

lovely legs again, and the mix of colour and pattern of course appeals!

i shall lounge in artfully mismatched dries van noten and missoni on this, and read south american experimental fiction...

and i have to believe that this will be mine someday, not just the picture on my noticeboard in our study that has taunted me for over a year!!