Attic24

Autumnal Inspiration

Hello....I'm afraid I'm feeling a little muddled today and although I have many things I'd like to say to you all (including a big thank you for your response to my Wrist-Warmers !!!!), the words just won't seem to come out properly.

I've tried, honestly I have! I've sat here at the pc for what seems like an age and tried hard to formulate my thoughts into something coherent, but it's just not been happening.

I've drunk coffee and baked white chocolate and cranberry cookies (and ooooo-eeeee they are goooooood!). I've faffed and mooched and pondered and muddled my way through the morning, but nothing is happening right. Just one of Those Days I guess.

So instead of wittering at you in a rather muddled fashion, I thought I might simply show you some inspiring pictures that I took a few weeks ago.

Pages from last months Country Living magazine (UK October issue) which quite honestly make me hyperventilate with pleasure.

Don't you find these images so heart-achingly Beeeeeaaaaauuuuutiful????

Exceeeedingly, totally, Inspiringly Autumnal???

I love them, truly I do, love the whole heap load of feelings they stir up. Love that they make me LOve Autumn.

And thats coming from me...someone who outwardly mourns when the Spring/Summer issue magazines come to an end, and inwardly groans at the thought of the Autumn/Winter ones taking over.

Yet this year, I am surprising myself by LOvIng the whole style of the Autumn magazines (with the exception of some persistent Brown-ness), and feeling inspired by it.

I'm seeing some purchasing of colourful squashes and pretty cyclamen in my immediate future. The creation of an Autumnal table display. Possibly I might go forth into the great outdoors and gather some pretty Autumn foliage too, fashion myself a twiggy wreath and the such like.

Yes, I feel there's much to look forward to this season, much to be Inspired by.

However, this afternoon I'm going to proceed to drink tea, munch a cookie and crochet a Granny Square or two in celebration of Autumnal Cosiness.

The seasonal gathering, fashioning and displaying can wait till tomorrow.

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Drippy Wet

Hello....another very drippy wet day here in my patch (again), although we seem to be having what I think is known as Intermitent Short Sharp Showers interspersed with Brief Sunny Spells. It rains, then it stops. Rains then stops. And each time the rain stops and the sun comes out, Little People go outside to play, hopeful that the rain will stay away for good this time, only to find their games are cut short by yet another downpour. So it's been a rather In-out-in-out kind of morning so far. Right now they are In, although not in at Attic24 :: no, they obviously got bored of their own surroundings and decided to decamp across the road to number 21. So all is peaceful, all is quiet here right now. And I am enjoying the Intermitent Solitude.

This morning, during one of the brief Sunny Spells, I ventured out back to make my daily check on my poor, rain sodden, saturated, drippy backyard blooms.
I thought that they looked quite beautiful in the morning light, laden with drippy wet droplets of rain. My second lily has flowered, and is the most magnificent deep pink colour imaginable (top photo).
I really enjoyed taking these photographs (and yes, I was wearing my pyjamas at the time), and put together a little drippy wet mosaic for you....

Captures the weather of today perfectly :: Sunshine and Showers.

All this wet weather is proving to be heavenly for the local molluscs. Look at this beast, caught in the act of eating his delicious Marigold breakfast. Ah well, thats life :: I do try and adopt the Live and Let live approach to gardening, so refuse to get my knickers in a twist over it.

With the Little People out the house for a short while, I've been taking the opportunity to indulge in some peaceful idling this morning. And my goodness, let me tell you I am Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery good at Idling. Could probably do it professionally if I put my mind to it.
I've been sat amongst my blankets and cushions, looking through the August issue of Country Living magazine, for the umpteenth time.

It really is delicious.

Uplifting.

Inspiring.

Beautiful.

Scrumptious.

I enjoyed my mornings Idling a great deal :: thank you Country Living UK, we are very lucky to have you.

In other Idle Moments during the past couple of days, when I've been trying to take my mind off BB, I've been using up the remainder of the Rowan pure wool to make a simple granny square cushion cover. Which also remains unfinished, cos I realised that it too needs that missing blue colour.

So in a weeny short while, I shall finish my idling and go and retrieve my Little People and set forth down the A56 to visit the yarn shop, to purchase the yarn, to finish the blanket, to set the scene, to take the photographs for the long awaited BB-Ta-dah moment. It is almost time folks.

Right-oh..all that remains for me to say today is a hhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge big thankyou to all of you who took the trouble to vote for Attic24 over at the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards. More than 500 of you have voted in the last 24 hours, and you have totally rocked my colourful little world.

((thank you)) with all my heart.

See you tomorrow...
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Edited to add :: 2.40pm :: The Blue Yarn Has Landed!!! BB here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thrifty Chic

Heeeheeee!!!!! I am smiling and laughing to myself here, pootling about in my own little world today, thinking my own little thoughts, dreaming my own little dreams, planning little projects, gathering ideas, images, inspirations and generally being sort of quietly, mentally, hugely creative, do you know? Lots going on with me inwardly right now, so very, very much I wish to do, create, achieve, make happen, I am bursting at the seams with it all. Its exciting beyond words sometimes, living life in such a creative, colourful way as I do, and with a mind and imagination as ditzy as mine.

Last night, do you know what my dreams were filled with?

Can you guess?

Patchwork!! Lots and lots and lots of colourful, crazy, wacky patchwork!! hahaha yes, sadly it's true...my mind has turned into a big, messy piece of Patchwork.

Ahhh I was SO hyped writing yesterday's post, so hugely pleased to show you my Chair, and I thank you enormously for sharing in my enthusiasm over it. Your comments mean so much to me, most especially as my family, as lovely as they are, just do not get it. J has not really commented on the Chair :: I think he said something along the lines of "hmmmm very good", in an absent minded sort of way like you talk to a keepy-on, pestery child when you are trying to concentrate on something else and they are interrupting you with nonsense.

But somehow, the Chair has turned out to be hugely important for me personally. For one thing it has started me out on the Patchwork Highway (even in my dreams!) and I can't tell you how excited I am about that, don't know why it's taken me so long to be honest. And for another thing, it has kind of opened my mind to the whole delicious concept of breathing life into old abandoned objects, of Re-purposing, Recycling, Revamping, Restoring, whatever you like to call it. Of course this is not a new concept by any means, but in the present climate, this style sure is having a huge revival, and I for one think its Fantastic.

 

You know I am a Magazine-o-holic, right? Yeah, week after week, page after page, magazines continue to inspire me enormously. This mag I'm sharing with you today is BBC Good Homes (June issue) :: not one of my Must-haves but one that I always flick through and will buy if anything grabs my attention. And being as the words Thrifty chic were on the front cover in bright magenta letters, it caught my eye right away.

I just LOVE that phrase *Thrifty Chic* it really tickles me! 

This magazine spread is actually a decorating article and is all about livening up rooms by making and transforming things on the cheap. I find the overall style is a bit full-on, but there are some lovely ideas in amongst it all. By the way, you can click on any image on my blog and it should pop up larger and in a separate window so you can see it better.

 

I really, really like the above image, that slightly battered but oh-so-gorgeous turquoise shelf is right up my street. The idea here is to cover old boxes with gift wrap or fabric remnants to make pretty storage :: oooooooo I SO want to do that! In my cellar, accompanying my stash of empty Bonne Mamman jam jars, I have a collection of empty cardboard shoe boxes. Yes, tis true. I am a Grade A hoarder, no doubt about it.

 

The ideas on the above page are to do with revamping old furniture with bright paint and wallpaper samples (YEs, i can do that!), making slip covers for dining chairs (yes yes!) and sticking bobble trim along the bottom of a plain blind (why of course, a bobble trim makeover, how fabulous!)

 

And the above page is my favourite of the lot. ahhhhhhh yes, I am really all of a flutter now, because all on the same page there is a stripy tea towel, patchwork seat covers and those melamine tumblers which I love!! All of my favourite things! In fact I love the idea of using giftwrap to stick up behind shelves or on cupboard doors. In fact, I think I might have found a new avenue of Retail Therapy to join my paper napkin and tea towel buying addiction :: Giftwrap! Yes yes yes!!!!

 

The magazine also came with a little booklet called "Make it Yourself!" with an assortment of projects to make and do.

 

I love the painted chest of drawers...

 

...and the repurposed old enamel containers used as plant pots.

Yes, I think I could really get into Thrifty Chic style.

It really appeals to me.

I think I might need to buy this book too, you know, just to be really sure.

Then me and Chair can cosy up together, browse the pages and dream and plan and get inspired.

Have a great weekend one and all, hope it's an inspiring and dreamy one!

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Patchwork Stuff

Hello...ahhhhh glad it's Friday, are you? The weather here today is absolutely dire and the forecast for the weekend in my little patch is for continuing Heavy Rain, which to be perfectly honest, would suit me just fine. I'm envisaging some luxurious hours spent pyjama-clad and fluffy-socked, in front of the fire with Country Living magazine to the left, my crochet bag to the right, cushions and blankets to the back and tea and cake somewhere reachable in front. Yeah, that sounds mighty fine to me. I shall surround myself on all four sides with cosy, homey things. Bring it on.

Today though, I thought we might take a little diversion from the weather, and from yarn and crochet and talk fabric instead? More specifically, the business of cutting pieces of beautiful fabric into neat little squares and then attempting to stitch them together with precise, straight, unwobbly lines?

Ahhhh yes I've been busy in the Attic these past few days! Busy doing fabricky, cutty stuff! As you know, I had this idea for my Lloyd Loom chair that I would make a patchwork seat cover for it. Now despite being absolutely Passionate about Patchwork, and despite owning this wonderful book for the best part of ten years, I have never actually attempted to make Patchwork. Never. Well thats to say that when I was a weeny scrap of a girl I did have a go at making hexagonal patchwork, the old fashioned English sort where you hand stitch all the fabric pieces onto little paper templates, you know? But never tried my hand at grown-up sewing machine type patchwork before. Even though it greatly appeals to me and I adore the whole idea of it.

I think that has partly been down to the absence of a Stash. And anyone knows that you need a half decent stash in order to make a half decent stab at Patchwork.

But over recent months, a little itty-bitty stash has been accumulating in the Attic...see those yummy scrumptious fabrics up there, don't they make your heart flutter just a little?? Well that'll be the extent of my stash, and I am very, very fond of it. Its very strokable, very inspiring. Its a mixture of Kaffee Fassett fabrics, European fabrics, and some generously gifted fabrics. I think there are only twenty five fabrics in total there, so extremely limited really in the giddy world of stash-building. But they are mine-mine-mine and I love each and every one of them.

And oh! What fun!!!! To spend an afternoon ironing and gliding my rotary cutter up and down my magical transparent Omnigrid ruler (bought a while ago and never been used before) was just delightful! Delightful. I chatted away to the fabric, enjoyed playing with it enormously.

Want to see what happened?

Want to see what I built?

Ok, look..........

.......I built a fantabulous pile of neatly cut, perfect little 4-inch squares!

A whole stack of them look!!!!

Oh my, well let me explain...what I did was to make a calico template for the chair seat I'm covering, and from the size of that I reackoned on needing 25 patchwork squares to fit it. So any noodle can work out that if you have twenty five fabrics and need twenty five squares, then that's only one square needed from each fabric, right? But where's the fun in cutting just one lonely square??? Nah, much better to cut big strips of fabric, then slice the strips into squares, two at a time! yeah, that rotary cutter was made for cutting strips, it didn't like doing single squares at all!

So anyhow, the upshot is that I think I am about to embark on my first ever patchwork quilt!!!!!! Ooooooooooooo how very totally, utterly exciting! Cos even after I put aside my 25 squares for the seat cover, I think I must still have around a hundred squares left over (yes I really did cut that many, I lost the ability to let go of the rotary cutter).

Anyhow, I will most definitely keep you posted on progression with that.

 

I think the whole Patchwork thing must be really In Fashion at the moment as I've noticed it in several magazines recently. The above image is from the May issue of Homes & Antiques, its the London home of Kate McShane. See that chair, isn't it amazing?? I love love love it. 

And these pages are from the May issue of Elle Decoration.....see the round crocheted cusions on the sofa??

Turn the page and there's a beautiful paper patchworked book shelf, and more of that amazing patchwork furniture too....take a closer look........

How fabulous are those?? Ooo makes me want to smooch that furniture and cover it in kisses, I adore it!!!! You may recognise it as the work of London based Squint Limited.

Want to see some more of their stuff??

(photo above borrowed from the Squint website)

That's the Chesterfield Sofa...

   

(photos above borrowed from the Squint website)

...and above are stools and chairs that've been given the Squint makeover.

I find this whole idea totally inspiring, fun, creative, imaginative, energetic and heart-skippy. It really inspires me to use fabrics and pattern more around the house, although not sure what husband would say.

Whilst we're still talking Patchwork Inspiration, I came across a fabulous blog yesterday with a beautiful Patchy Post to drool over......ah I do like a good browse in Blogland for inspiration, it always comes up trumps.

Well my friends...just before I log off and return to stitching myself into a squared-up Patchwork Frenzy, can i just say a huge thank you to all your responses to yesterdays post. I've been working my way though all your links and have thoroughly enjoyed my Global Hooky tour, it's been quite wonderful. If you haven't already added your crochet link to the post, then please do, I'd love to come and pay you a visit and see what you've been up to. I will also consider making a Flickr group, if you think that'd be cool??

Enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather, make sure you have yourself some fun....

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Sunday Stuff

I often wonder if there might come a point when I get bored with blogging my life. If you will get bored reading about it too. If you will one day pop in to Attic24 and groan. Think to yourself :: oh no, how boooooooring, not moooore crochet, moooooore baking, mooooooore magazines, how predicable, we've seen it all before, a dozen times or more. Isn't there anything different? Isn't there more to this persons life??

Well maybe that might happen one day. In the distant future. But right now I have to say I really, really, really enjoy my life. And i enjoy that my blog follows my life, and it is therefore honest and reflects my happiness as well as  my current passions, all of which don't alter much from week to week.

I sincerely hope you don't think me too smug for saying this, for declaring my happiness? I hope not, because it is certainly not meant that way. I am not bragging about my life. I am quite simply photographing bits of it and sharing it. Honestly, simply, and exactly as it is. Although of course I do tend to miss out some of the messy bits, the tantrummy bits. And the very private bits.

Why am I saying this to you? Well....because just now I uploaded my photos from my camera to the computer to take a look at the weekend images. Pictures from the past 48 hours which were snapped here and there. And I was delighted to see them. Yes, they are quite predictable. Yes, there are images which are very similar to ones you've already seen. But then that's the nature of my weekends at this point in my life, there exists a great deal of predictability, of repetition. But OH how I LOVE it that way!!!

So today's post is all about my yesterday, the Sunday Stuff. A little morning crochet (pictured above), interspersed with baking cookies, drinking coffee, eating breakfast (a bacon sarnie, sat on the front step in the morning sunshine), some magazine browsing and some Little People supervising (they were outside, up and down the street on scooters/bikes with half a dozen other neighbourhod children).

11am or thereabouts and we decide on the spur of the moment to pack the Little People's bicycles in the boot of the car and drive to a nearby town which has a park with great cycling potential. Unlike our local park (which is beautiful but hilly), this park is flat. It has expanses of flat grass and a neat flat path which circles the perimeter. 

It turns out to be quite a momentous bicycling morning as for the first time we remove the stablisers from Little Lady's bike. It does not go smoothly. There are tears and snot, there is a lot of obstinate, rather frightened protesting. There are wobbles and there are falls. There is minor injury. There is a rather exhausted Mother running around the entire park attempting to maintain her daughter in a vertcal position whilst whizzing along with some furious pedalling. But we do on the odd occasion achieve Balance, and a Little four year old girl pedals on her own when her Mummy secretly takes her hands away. We still have a way to go, still have plenty of practice to do, but it was a great start.

 

After all that emotion and exhaustion we drive up out of the town to a favourite pub we know and love. We were in fact here last weekend too, on the Yes-day. Today we don't sit inside near blazing fires and under ancient beamed ceilings but instead sit in the pub's beer garden with cold drinks and crisps and enjoy the warmth of an early spring afternoon. You can see the pub in the above photograph look, see it's stunning location. It's high high up on Ilkley Moor, and the views are spectacular.

 

After we've had rest and refreshment at the pub we take a walk up over the moor.
 

The landscape is quite bleak in some ways, but there is beauty in the sweeping open spaces.

It's the height that I love about this place. I love that when I am up on this moor top I am so much nearer to the sky. The town of Ilkley looks so tiny and far way down there in the valley, like a model village.

 

There are spectacular rock formations up here on Ilkley Moor, providing great climbing/scrambling opportunities for Little People and heart-in-the-mouth panics for Big People. There are sheer drops all around. It is not all that pleasant at times.

 

We watch gobsmacked as climbers scale the sheer rock faces. And eventually we tire of policing the daredevil antics of Little People who are so unaware of the perils of Sheer Drops.

So we head homewards to number 24 to light the fire and settle down for the late afternoon/evening. A film for the Little People, and some crochet and magazine-strolling for me....

....I began working the reverse of my circular cushion. Round and round in ever widening circles, I am loving it.

 

I often like to multi-task when I am crocheting, and one of my favourite things to do is to browse a magazine at the same time. Well truthfully I cannot read and crochet at the same time, but what I mean is that I like to hook a row, then browse a few pages, hook another row, then browse some more. I like the visual stumulation of doing these two things together, of seeing the yarn against the pages, the stripes against the print (see here, I was doing it then look)

Yesterday I was looking through last months issue of Country Homes (the April issue I think?) as I realised there were bits of it I had missed out the time I first read it. The above page caught my eye...it was a spread about cleaning out your greenhouse. Want a closer look to see what attracted my attention?

OK...look....

That blanket!!!!! OH oh oh!!! I Love it!! I tell you, I can spot a crochet blanket in an instant, they jump out at me, leap off the pages...That colourful stripyness is just so joyful isn't it?!

Oh yes and speaking of joyful, I realised this morning that I had indeed promised to show you a little something today, a little itsy bitsy peek at some new yarn, remember?

Want to see?

Do you?

Really?

Really really?

Oh go on then...have a peek......

Hmmmmmmmmm yes, another bag of scrummy yarn comes home to Attic24.

I blame Lovely C entirely. It's all her fault.

On Thursday, she casually mentioned to me that she was taking a trip that afternoon to a shop in a nearby village as they were selling off Debbie Bliss yarn for £2 a ball. Do you remember me posting about a Sale last summer? Well another sale is about to happen in a few weeks time at the same place, which is very exciting indeed. But even more exciting was the fact that Lovely C decided to telephone the shop and ask if we could possibly have a sneaky private rummage through the yarn before it goes on sale. And the shop owners agreed! Yeeee-hawwwww!!!! Wild Horses wouldn't have kept us away.

 

The yarn they had this time was Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. This is a GORGEOUS yarn, quite fine in weight (you would hook on a 3mm or 3.5mm hook) with a slight twist, and oh SOooooo soft!! It usually retails at around £4.35 for a 50g ball, so to find it at £2 a ball was an absolute bargain.

 

I'm not sure how many balls I ended up with...maybe 24 or so?? I was waaay too excited to count numbers. I simply filled a bag. And used my grocery money to pay for it. It all happened very fast, in a bit of a blur.

I got them all out and had a lovely play with them yesterday, had a good look at the colours I ended up with...13 in total, all very spring-like and oh-so-pretty aren't they?? A little more pastely than I would normally choose perhaps, but I love the way they look all together. They remind me of  sweet peas, that alluring combination of pretty softness with the odd deep shade thrown in.

Of course I don't yet have a plan for this yarn.

I am still firmly in the stroking/gazing/playing stage. Oh and sniffing. One thing I do love to do with any new yarn stash is to stick my face right in it and have a good, long snaffley sniff.

Delicious.

xxxxxxx

In Print

Oh it's been a funny old day today. On the one hand I am waaaaay beyond excited about writing this post, and on the other hand, well, I am very apprehensive.
I have almost just deleted it in fact. Almost.
I am not one who naturally likes to blow my own trumpet. I don't like to question things too much, I don't like to try too hard.
I just like to be ME. Just little old me, pottering about in the Attic, gazing out the window at the view, doing the odd bit of crochet, a  bit of baking, admiring pretty things.
It's not ground breaking stuff really is it, the stuff of Attic24?? It's just normal, everyday, domesticated, fairly mundane stuff really.
Bright and colourful, yes, it is that. Creative too? Well yes, it is I guess.
But to make it into a magazine??????????? You WhAt?????? Are you kidding me here???????

But it appears to be true.
The Attic is In Print.
Not once, but twice.

Firstly I was approached by the lovely Cara who is the creative editor of a well known scrap booking publication in the UK, called Scrapbook Inspirations.
And lo and behold, a little while later, PLOP!! The March issue comes through my letterbox and I find myself leaping off the furniture with delight.
Because there on page 10 are my crochet flowers!
And I am called an "Inspirational Woman"!!!
Oh jeez, you should have seen me when I read that.
Words cannot describe.

Secondly, day before yesterday, I start to receive one or two comments about me being "famous" and that the blog is mentioned in "Simply Knitting" magazine.
Eh?? What?? Are you sure??? Is it true????
I know nothing of this I might add, have had no forewarning.
I have to wait until today to go to the supermarket and buy a copy.
I rush outside and rip open the plastic packaging.
I stand in the middle of the supermarket car park, scanning the pages of Simply Knitting, no doubt looking slightly bonkers.
And then there it is, towards the back on page 77.
Attic24. My face. Me. It's me, my blog.
Sh*t!!! It really is true then!

A blog like a rainbow.
A blog like a rainbow.
I still can't quite take it in.
But I am chuffed, oh Lordy I certainly am.
I would be telling big fat fibs if I said this sort of thing goes over my head and means nothing.
I mean, it's not important in the big scheme of things, but just lately my friends I have been feeling a little off kilter, a little doubtful about my life, my abilities, my direction if you like.
You could say I've been having a bit of a wobble.

So between the magazine print and your generous comments left here on the blog, I am beginning to feel very much better. I am realising that it's OK to just be Me, that possessing Direction is not necessarily essential, that it's OK to muddle along, to wobble every so often.

Thank you, as always for your support, enthusiasm and friendship, it means a lot.
Thank you :: thank you :: thank you.
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The Dream v The Reality

I've been home-dreaming today. Do you do that? I do it often, I am a renowned daydreamer. I often find myself looking around my home and trying to envisage the changes I could make, the way that I feel my home should look (arty, homely, cosy, eclectic, beautiful, tidy, warm) as opposed to the way it currently looks (messy, untidy, chaotic, shabby, disgraceful). I can transform it in my mind into a beautifully styled interior worthy of a magazine shoot. Yet in real life it is nothing of the sort. It's a mess.
It's The Dream v The Reality.

And the reality is that I am ashamed of the state of my house right now. Yet rather alarmingly, although it is making me feel wretched to see everything in such a state of disarray, it is not seemingly bad enough to motivate me to get on and actually deal with it.

Of course I should be tidying, de-cluttering, re-arranging, sorting, doing right now, right this minute......yet I am not. I am procrastinating and daydreaming (and blogging), which offers light relief but ultimately doesn't deal with the root of the problem.

Amongst the mess, the accumulated stuff of everyday life, I create little oases of escape and prettiness. Painted pebbles, a little stripy chicken with wire legs, pots of leggy narcissi. Fresh flowers, stripy things, crocheted things.
I can zoom in on these details and make believe that the whole place has this simple, colourful, homespun, pretty freshness. I wish. Oh I wish!

I wish I was better at keeping house. I wish I could be given a means to make the place tidy and keep it that way. Better storage? A Filing System? A ruthless clear-out?
Ah well, I will not dwell on such matters, will not bore you with my faults (primarily extreme Idleness). Lets stick with the home-dreaming shall we?

March issue of Country Living...wasn't this a fabulous issue? Did you see it? Love it?
I absolutely adored the house featured this month, the home of Jette Arendal Winther, a Danish potter.

I love what she said about using the home and interior style of Matisse as her inspiration. It made me look at the rooms in her house in a different way after reading that, seeing them almost as paintings, as compositions of pattern and colour.

I love this phrase, describing her kitchen where "the organised disorder has it's own intrinsic charm".
Oh that tickled me so much!! I love the idea of Organised Disorder!
I think that could be my catch phrase, if only I could make my own disorder appear organised somehow.

I am obsessed with this turquoise colour paint. I just adore it. I would like to paint the legs of my coffee table this colour, keeping the top wooden as Jette has done.

Ahhhh....I so enjoyed my dreamy visit to this magazine-house. So inspirational! So diverting! I breezed through this home and felt uplifted and inspired, truly I did.

Now the question is, do I ::
a) have a coffee and browse through this delicious book yet again?
b) roll my sleeves up and go make a start on tidying the awful mess?

The Dream v The Reality?
What's a girl to do??

Magazine Love

I think that anyone who has a love of all things homely combined with a deep, ongoing need to be visually and creatively inspired, is almost certain to be addicted to magazines. I know I am. I stand up and honestly declare :: hello, my name is Lucy and I am a Magazine-o-holic. I think there are far worse addictions, and that the £3.50 or thereabouts that this particular addiction costs me each week is so worth it. Worth every penny.

I really enjoy the pleasure that magazines bring, and I especially love to reserve that pleasure for the weekends. I absolutely adore heading into a weekend knowing there is a favourite magazine waiting to be devoured. Its pretty high on my list of weekend must-haves. I have often written about my love of magazines here on the blog, in particular I recall this post, where I am babbling about how the pages of magazines manage to reel me in, how they grab me by the heartstrings and make me want to live inside the very pages, to inhabit the beautiful interiors, to partake in beautifully seasonal activities, to surround myself with colour and pattern and exquisitely styled lovliness. Such fun, such joy! So pretty, so desirable! Let me at it, let my life be as charming as these pages.

I have my favourites of course :: Country Living and Country Homes and Interiors are monthly must-haves. Others come and go, depending on whether a quick flick through in the shop yields anything promising.

The weekend just gone by, I bought BBC Homes and Antiques (the Feb issue). It's not one I would normally get, and I bought this issue purely on the strength of the above image. Isn't that spread just beautiful? If you click the picture it'll pop up in a larger window so you can see the details...it was a styling article titled "Make do and mend", which went on to say :: "Sophisticated interiors don't always have to come with a hefty price tag - scour antiques markets and charity shops for unique finds to brighten your home". I just loved it.

There was also a most amazing house featured, a house made inside an old railway carriage....

 

...Oh I swooned. I fell in love. So desirable. So Chic!

I think there is definitely a theme running at the moment, a sort of Eco-chic if you like. A desire to recycle, to re-use, to give a new lease of life to old things. And I like it, like the idea very much.

The following images are from Country Homes (march issue). They sum up the things I most love in magazines :: good styling and good photography (the pure visual appreciation bit) combined with that desirable-lifestyle element (the tugging of the heart-strings bit).

 

See :: recycling/eco issues again, and made to look oh so beautiful too.

 

:: A stunning style-spread based on Waterside Living...

 

...oh yes, let me live right there, let me have a stripy rug and a fireside chair, a dinky little curtain and flowers in glass jars...

...yes please, I will happily sit in that chair by the waterside. I will paint things in those jaunty colours.

:: an inspiring invite to plant seeds...

 

...and make ones garden sing with colour! Yes please, I would love that! When can I start?

 

:: a beautifully photographed recipe section for all things breakfasty...

...and yes, let's bake!!! Yes me me me, I will go bake bread! Sprinkle seeds and tie with raffia, oh yes!

Ahhh, my weekend reading/browsing/daydreaming was divine.

I strolled in magazine-wonderland.

And it was beautiful.

Fridayness

Ahh Friday today and I am glad. Don't know about you, but for me it's been something of a loooong, tiring week. Thank you so much for all your get-well wishes of late, I really appreciate your lovely comments more than you may ever realise. I am still not quite right within myself, but I am beginning at least to feel the end might be in sight. My energy levels are still way below par though, and for someone like me who likes to bounce and skip through the days, I am finding this lack of energy very frustrating. But hey-ho, life could be so very much worse and I am pretty darn good at finding ways of cheering myself up.

Lemons is one of those cheering-up things :: nothing like the sight of a bowl of bright yellow citrus in the kitchen to lift the spirits. This afternoon I'm going to be making some homemade lemon drink, which I am hoping will be just the thing to refresh and revitalise.

I did manage to stop by the market today on my way home from school, and as well as the lemons I couldn't resist another little bundle of yellow goodness.

Fresh flowers always feature very highly on my list of get-well-soon remedies (along with chocolate and magazines), and oh these little daffs are just perfect picker-uppers, don't you think?

I remembered I had this yellow vase to put them in too. I found this vase in a corner of the cellar when we moved in to the house, it was covered in so much dirt and cobwebs that I did not know what colour it was until I gave it a wash. It seems the perfect vessel for a bunch of cheery daffs.

And talking of Perfect Vessels, I've recently taken to drinking my morning cup of coffee from this giant colourful mug. It's so impossibly happy this mug, so bright and cheerfully stripy that I cannot help but smile when I sit a while with my hands wrapped around it.

Yes, hot, frothy, chocolate-dusted coffee tastes reeeeeeeeeeallllllly good in this mug. 

You can see I have been sat stroking the cover of my latest issue of Country Living magazine this morning. You know the score, you know my ritual with this magazine, you know I can't possibly open the cover until tomorrow. I am enjoying the delicious, slightly agonising wait for this pleasure, because I think the Spring issues are my favourite ones of the whole year. I am very, very much looking forward to going in to these pages.

What else? You see a little crochet something?

What's that then, that stripy crochety thing on the table?

Why, that will be my current project, started on Wednesday.

A closer look?

Want to see what it is do you?

Want to know what my wirly-gig brain has come up with now?

Yes, stripy isn't it?

Delicious colours aren't they?

A Closer look?

Oh ok then..........

There you go, a closer look.

And nope, I'm sorry I'm not going to tell you any more about it just yet because I am not sure if it's going to work out yet or not. This is already the second attempt I've made at working this idea of mine, the first attempt went quite hideously wrong.

But maybe I might get time over the weekend to hook a little so I can show you more next week.

Have a great weekend one and all, stay warm and cosy and happy.

xxxxxxxx

Autumnal

Can you tell from this picture what kind of a weekend I had? Does it look colourful and cosy and homely and comforting? Yes, I think those four words pretty much sum up the last two days, and it was good. Very good. Remarkably similar to this weekend it has to be said, but similar is good.

This month, the October issue of Country Living arrived through the post on Thursday. And as you know, I cannot possibly read this magazine on a week day ::  it has to be a weekend activity, because I have to be in pyjamas for a  good stretch to get through from cover to cover in comfort. And weekdays just do not give me this opportunity like weekends do. So I was forced to sit and look at the cover for Two Whole Days before I was able to go in to the pages and the suspense nearly killed me. But on Saturday morning when i did eventually get to read it, sat in bed with my cup of tea, it was good. Very good. Worth the wait even.

On Saturday morning my train tickets arrived through the post too. Yes, I am off to The Country Living Fair in November, and I am way beyond excited already. I've never actually been to the Christmas fair before as I've never been organised enough to book train tickets in September. But this year, oh yippee, I was on the ball and the tickets are mine, all mine. Note to self :: better start saving up some spending money.

Country Living magazine, like many interiors/home magazines is very seasonal, and I love it for that. The October issue is unmistakably Autumnal, and I found that despite my resistance to Autumn arriving and my instance that it's still Late Summer, by the time I'd read through the pages I was firmly infused with Autumnal inspiration. I just love these images of carved pumpkin lanterns, and if I can find somewhere to purchase a lino-cutting tool then I will certainly be giving these a try.

The "seasonal Inspiration" section this month, called Autumn Treasure,  is especially inspiring and a reminder of the beauty to be found in Autumn colours.

I found a bit of my own Seasonal Inspiration yesterday when I picked these fallen leaves up from the pavement whilst walking home from town (Little Lady and I went to our little local cinema to watch Mamma Mia, oh we did enjoy it!). I thought to myself, how can I possibly keep insisting it's still Late Summer when the leaves are doing this? Silly me. Need to stop mourning the loss of Summer and begin to embrace Autumn like everyone else is doing.

In fact, I have been doing some very un-summery things this past week or two. I just didn't want to admit it to you. I've put an extra layer on my bed (my Laura Ashley quilt has come out of summer storage), and my hot water bottle is back in service. Not every night, but there have been some nights recenty when I've felt chilly and needed the comfort of it.

Last week, we also lit our fire for the first time in months, and it was an absolute delight. We had our chimney repaired and swept in May in order to  remove a hideous electric fire (complete with fake coals and light effects), and have an open grate installed. So this will be our first Autumn/Winter with an open fire to play with and we are so excited! Oh the joys of burning stuff, of having real bonafide flames and embers!

I took the above photograph late yesterday morning, when something magical happened :: the sun shined. Late Summer sun or Early Autumn sun I'm not sure, but it was very very welcome. It's been so long since we have had sun rays coming into our sitting room that I'd forgotten how lovely it is. We have a large bay window at the front of the house, and on a sunny morning this room is beautifully light and bright. On the window, I have one of these, so that when the sun does shine, it creates these magical little rainbows that dance across the walls and ceiling. The rainbow-maker was given to me for my birthday last year by a very dear friend who knows me well and knew I would love it. Which of course I do, very much.

I managed to do quite a bit of hexagon-making this weekend :: this project is giving me so much pleasure. The colours I'm using are so full of summer, that with every double crochet stitch I am thinking of Dahlia Walks and nasturtiums and geraniums and cornflowers and trailing lobelia.
Flowery Summer colour as we head into Autumn.