An online store

Not a very big one I grant you, but we'll be loading product up over the next week or so. Our furniture collection is starting to build up nicely, so that will be following shortly.

Any questions, just pop an email over to me.

I'm currently staring at the Battersea Arts Centre, waiting for the Osborne & Little fabric sale to start. 1 hour, 47 minutes to go......

Thanks Pia!

The very lovely Pia, wrote, well, extraordinarily lovely things about me and my Haven. It really made my weekend - I can't tell you.

Very much looking forward to the day we can sit and have that ginger loaf and tea in London Pia!

How to be idle - something for the weekend!

Oh what to do after a week of ups and downs..... 

Purchase one magazine - a favourite, with decent stories as well as pictures. Walk with dog/friend (friend only invited if they have their own magazine) to a delightful place such as the above. Sit in the chair so invitingly available with a large drink and read the whole magazine (read, not flick), from cover to cover, including the recipes. That should take about 2 1/2 hours. 

Lovely. 

Walk home and get on with the chaos of the weekend.

So, a little more on stools

The reason stools were on my mind in the first place was because of the below two beauties. How I managed to miss them out I have no idea..

Russell Pinch - well everything he makes is pretty astounding and I hope, will not become faddish or 'now', but behave a lot more like an Eileen Gray.

Seating for Eating by Ilse Crawford - well everything she makes has an ethos. Stools mean more bums around the table, more gathering, talking and eating, and that is all there really is, isn't there?

Enough stools.....

"true beauty is not made ; it is born naturally"

Or so Sori Yanagi said - the creator of this piece of loveliness. The butterfly stool is one of the few pieces of furniture I covet. I have since I was a teenager and I still love it as much now. I still don't have it, but I will and when I do have it, it will stay with me until some much younger relative puts dibs on it when I am ailing. You can buy new ones here, but I'm going to hold out for an original.

I am in fact a huge fan of stools. A little more casual than a chair, and definately a more inviting way of gathering around. They say, put your feet up, lets sit around the coffee table and eat cake, lets let the four year olds sit with the grown-ups....

A little round up of some other favourites.

Silver leather stools from Retrouvius on sale now. Find these and other great stools via the Decorative Collective website. You wont be able to stop looking.

 

Oh - delightful, beautiful, solid and functional. The Walnut stools were first designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Time Life Building in 1960, but being so perfect, they went on to world wide acclaim and lust-worthiness. Table, seat or the holder of your tea-cup, this stool would stack up in a Georgian townhouse (hopefully mine),modern apartment or 30's semi. Handcrafted and with a huge and happy personality. Again, new ones can be purchased from here.

 At £7.99, it's a very good looking, very useful and well made stool. A friend of mine has a cafe in NZ, where they have held their own for the last five years - that's a lot of bottoms eating cake. They are of course the Frosta from Ikea.

Tolix - French and functional - it's true! Hi or low, many many colours and will fit anywhere. You can buy new ones from Conran, Graham & Green or Baileys (my first choice).

I could go on and if I was pushing the category, I have this thing for Moroccan pouffes. In Marrakech in December, for some reason we didn't buy any. But we will next time - I love to haggle. Ed not so much me-thinks. Child and (small) dog friendly. A little reminder of my 70's childhood avec macrame, and I think a rather long-term friend once owned.

I'll stop now.

Floral Inspiration - Zadok Ben-David

Go here. A field of painted stainless steel flowers resting in sand. Inspired, and inspiring. Winter, definitely, new start, absolutely.

Now why didn't I think of that?

 

A recent chat with a friend, led to an aha! moment. She said 'God I love your quilts, but I have shameless amounts of fabric at home that I keep promising myself to turn into a quilt, but..... but....no time etc etc' So I thought, why don't you just hand that lot over (including you granny's 1930's tea dress you love so much), and I'll make it into a beautiful contemporary quilt for you?

So she said 'Could you make it based on this design?'

I said  'of course', so she said 'Hurrah!'

So a new service is born...

We all have special dresses, collections of fabric or treasured childrens clothes. Working within one of our designs (or a mix-up), we'll meet up and have a chat, or talk over the phone or email about what it is you want and how we can make something precious and personal for you. A quilt for a new baby, a upcoming binding of two, or a new start perhaps?

The cost includes preparing the fabric, cutting, piecing, quilting and binding, as well as providing the fluffy stuff in the middle. The chatter, my baking and cups of tea - we'll that's just part of who we are.

Click over to here,to get all the details with pricing etc.

I'm very excited about this, I can't tell you!

A tile designer who should inspire a new paint collection

See what I mean? Go here to see the complete collection.

Thought for the week - experience

How to be idle - an afternoon meander in the sun.....

I'm never very productive on a Friday afternoon - I blame it on the fact I always seemed to have free periods at College on Friday afternoons - 2 years worth..... and I can't break the habit 20 years later. Anyway, so it was a sunny day, I've bought my first camera and Lily need to 'run free', so we started 

here

 

and walked past

here.. 

and ended up here

 

and then we wandered through

here..

 

 

  

And then Lily said - enough!

Moodboard - Mark Borthwick

 

Brit photographer Mark Borthwick, continues to create beautiful, effusive and emotional work. His retrospective book 'Not in fashion', has some of my favourite images ever. The above, just starts my brain working overtime on how to make a room or home as beautiful as this makes you feel. Well, you'll need the light, and the height, wooden parquet floors, fine linen curtains, and although it's not in the picture I'm sure there is someone playing a guitar and someone making bread. Oh, and the sense of love.

Paint won't get you there, but it might start you on your way...

All colours from here

Thought for the week - what is style?

Yesterday...

Yesterday, we walked through these fields to...

Here, where although it's closed until April, it was still beautiful. And we saw..

and this..

and this..

and then we went here..

for lunch, and watched the sun go down..

Happy indeed.