Conversation Pieces

Via fffound

So I’m back from Norway, where I had a stupendously good time (will show you some pics soon), my red Bobbin Glorie has arrived (ooh she’s so pretty!), I’m gearing up for the Moonwalk on Saturday (followed by seeing Take That on the Sunday!) and all in all I’m feeling really happy… and loved up. Which is strange when you’ve been in a relationship as long as me and the other half have but good strange… So I thought I’d pass on the love (and an award) since it’s a Friday and you’re all so lovely

1. Simplify our love tile from Rob Ryan
I love this gorgeous tile from very talented Rob Ryan… and they’re finally back in stock at his Etsy shop. Yay!

2. Heart Yo-Yos from Somethings Hiding in Here
Love is a little like a yo-yo – sometimes in love you feel up and sometimes you feel down… And don’t you just love the cross-stitchness (yes a trip to Norway hasn’t cured me of that!)

3. Love Card from Curious Doodles
Love how simple this is… it’s so a ‘I could have made this’ kind of thing. Except I didn’t.

4. We Make Sense via fffound
Even if no-one else understands us…

5. Sampler Love via fffound
Only just realised how many cross-stitch/sampler things are in this post. Anyway, no idea who Helen and Lito are but I think this is so sweet.

6. Every Day I Love You from Rockett St. George (via Poppy Talk)
How romantic is a bit of old wood? Very apparently!

7. You are loved via fffound
Because everyone needs to be told that once in a while.

7. A rather lovely award
Before I went away, Kerry from The Seventy Tree gave me this rather nice award. She has a totally fab blog – and is a fellow lover of yellow – so if you haven’t been there before, get over there as it rocks.

And now for the passing on of the award. Here’s some blogs I think are rather lovely too…

Eden Rose
Her Little Place
Lobster and Swan
Fieldguided
Little Doodles
Slices of Beauty

Check them out if you haven’t already and have a fab weekend xx

Remember those really frustrating laminated cardboard milk cartons from your childhood? The ones on which you had to pull out a cardboard spout that hardly ever worked or ended up tearing and creating a really irritating dribble when you poured? Well, you’ll look upon them in an altogether more fond light once you’ve seen them reincarnated by Hanne Rysgaard.

The Danish ceramics designer has given the now obsolete carton a makeover that transforms it from a boring everyday item into a beautiful porcelain object worthy of the most prized position on your sideboard or mantlepiece. The plastic version we use these days has also received the Rysgaard treatment – and wouldn’t the supermarket be a brighter place if your daily pint came in designs as pretty as these?

Zoë says: Since I’m away, this week’s “Friday I’m in love” comes from my friend Linda, who’s a sub-editor, a super mum and an all-round sparkly person.

Came across this feathered shuttlecock lightshade on my continuing quest to find a funky light for the kitchen. I think a cluster of them might look pretty cool – but I’m rubbish at badminton (as far as I remember) so the appeal ends there for me. The search continues…

P.S. Trying to be very grown-up here and not snigger over the word ‘shuttlecock’… Not really working!

I stumbled across Johanna Öst’s blog the other week and I was immediately in love with her outfits, her decor and her drawings… Wish I (and my home) looked this stylish on a daily basis!

I’m also so in love with her ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ big toy!

P.S. Make sure you roll over the header on her blog… it’s very cute!

Saw this beautiful wallpaper by Aimme Wilder over at 50 danska kvadrat. The wallpaper comes with a cloud face wall sticker which you can place anywhere on the design. How cute is that? I also now want that wooden bear and stool!

Aimme also does these great wallpaper designs (in case clouds aren’t your thing):

1. Mountains…

2. Pigeons… yup, it’s hard to see in this pic but the pattern is made up of pigeons!!

3. Robots… think this would be great for a little girl’s room (so much better than Barbie right?) and there’s a globe in the pic too!

Now I discovered Eurovision a bit late in life… I was a student studying in Denmark (which itself is a strange enough fact) and a boy we knew there was having a Eurovision party. I’d thought this would be a party party but instead it was a room packed full of Danes intently, silently, watching the TV screen.

A friend patiently (and quietly) explained the crooked voting system where everyone votes for their neighbouring country and not the best singer – and that the UK commentator Terry Wogan was going to get progressively more drunk as the night went on. By this point I was vaguely confused but enjoying the cheesy randomness none the less.

And then it became apparent that Denmark were winning. The party went mad – and then went even more mad when the Danish entry “Fly on The Wings of Love” was announced as the winner. Afterwards we all went out and danced in a little poky club to that same song all night (I kid you not – they did not play anything else!!) So since then Eurovision has had a special place in my heart.

It’s a bit late to invest in these British pillows and bunting from RE for tonight – but I thought they were worth sharing anyway. If I had one of the cushions I’d be waving it about in place of a flag (but also secretly supporting Denmark and now Norway in honour of my friend Ellen). Hope you have a great night if you’re watching it – I’m off to go and listen to what our UK entry actually sounds like (as you can tell I’m still a bit of a slap-dash Eurovision lover!) xx

A. Yes.

We gave up this lovely multi-coloured bathroom below in our old flat…

For this bathroom in our new flat… (Believe it or not the window actually looks more scary without the silver insulation stuff – if the windows guy would hurry up and make our new windows it would be a big step forward!)

But this is all about to change! Here’s the first brick from the wall we’re taking down (that’s the wall the toilet roll is currently on and the bit of wall with the cr*ppy shelf on it)…

So we’re a whole lot of bricks closer to our planned Japanese bath, his and hers sinks and a much-longed-for shower. Yay!

So I’ve just spent the day wandering about in the sunshine and rummaging through stuff at the Funk Fair – which was indeed very funky and saw me part with all of my spending money (and most of the other half’s too). But I’ll leave the sharing of those finds for another day – as today, following on from my earlier post, I’m going to show you my current favourite bits of my home…

1. The view
I’ve mentioned this before but we used to live in a ground floor flat in a not so great area which pretty much meant we had the blinds down all the time – so we’re constantly still amazed by having a view at all… let alone the view we have now.

2. The period features
The previous owner of this flat did not modernise a single thing in this place. Which might a lot of work for us but also means we have struck gold in having an original working doorbell (it always makes me think of ye olde shops when it rings!), beautiful cornicing and keys for every single door (we’ve left on the labels as we kind of like them).

3. My dressing table
I got this dressing table for free from a woman who didn’t want it any more! After spending months living out of boxes and knowing where nothing is, it’s so nice to sit here and get ready in the morning – and I get a great view of the new wallpaper!

4. Our bed
It’s yellow for a start, it’s comfy and I love our pillow covers from Lush Designs.

(And below is the obligatory pet shot you always get in home photo shoots!)

5. The other half
Well without being too sappy… home is where the heart is so as great as this place is, it wouldn’t be the same without him. (Also for anyone who’s seen our ‘before’ pic, you’ll notice the green is well and truly gone now!)

P.S. You’ll notice that in the true spirit of being anti-Elle Decoration for one day I’ve just taken a pic of the living room as it is, clutter and all… so you may spot a glimpse of some of today’s finds scattered about the floor and a few of my current projects!

P.S.S. Hope you’re all having a fab May Day Holiday weekend xx