One for the weekend...

This weekend I'm going to...

Read the beautiful new book from Lena Corwin.

 

Visit Monks House before it closes down for the year. Beyond excited about this one. 

After a romp through the South Downs, we'll eat (or drink) here.

Then on Sunday, we'll go to visit our new 'son', who is just three weeks old, but will look a little like the above when he comes home.

And last, but definitely not least, I'll be making sure everything is ready to go on this as we launch on Tuesday.

Home, family, food and nature - does it get any better?

Mr Maslow - my hero

Yes - the above is a chart/graphy/pyramid thingy and I'm sorry about that, but this really is the best way to show the love to Mr Maslow.

As I scoot over the 40 line, I often think about a lecture I had in my first year of uni. An eccentric (and slightly smelly) lecturer went off piste a bit and introduced us to Mr Maslow. Mr Maslow based his lifes work on the notion that in order to be happy and fulfilled you must achieve the bottom tier before you can move your way up. You can't skip a tier or ignore some basic needs. 

Have a think about your own life, some lives you read about in gossip mags and somebody who sleeps on the street every night. Are they at the top of the pyramid? It makes sense doesn't it?

It was my most memorable lecture and a thought process that I wholeheartedly support, but until the last couple of years I didn't know how to work it in to what I wanted to do. Theory and doing.

Quilts - you betcha - physiological, love and belonging all wrapped up in some pieces of fabric and time.

Interiors - absolutely - because being in an expensively 'decorated' house doesn't mean you are safe, and have a secure relationship.

 And the community projects I work on - well that's just getting back to basics and giving people the chance to be happy.

Things we love ( this week )

 

I could weep - enough said.

Brighton beauty

 

We're in Brighton for the next three weeks, which is lucky and lovely. We are renting a little flat right in the Lanes and if I poke my head out of the floor length windows, I can see the sea in all its glistening loveliness.

Change = rest, although the bleedin internet connection is driving me a bit mad. I can live with it though for the big skies of East Sussex, lovely food markets and people who celebrate the individual. We are definately not in Clapham now Toto! I am ignoring the presence of Primark and are focused on finding unique shops, places and people.

Where ever you live, there is an almost primal need to make it yours. When it's only briefly, some do it with candles. I do it with flowers - living, breathing beauty. I'm not proud they came from the supermarket, but I'm looking for the flower stalls trust me.

On the hunt for a sofa

Torn - that is what I feel. I know the sofa shape I would like, but you can buy it new or hunt for it in antique shops, ebay or at markets. I know what we would like it covered in - grey wool flannel - like wearing a comfy pea-coat - marvelous, and unfortunately because George Smith is out of the budget for this purchase, I truly am torn. 

It is near impossible to find the 'clean/elegant' sofa I'm looking for and I do not, repeat do not, believe in the mantra "That will do for now". That mantra means a whole lot of land-fill.

So there are two options. The first is the above sofa from sofa.com. They look better in the flesh than the website which is unusual, and they are a good price. I'm slightly uncomfortable with only a 5 year warranty..... and I'm slightly uncomfortable that I'm slightly uncomfortable. So whilst I know this sofa - lovely that it is - is waiting and available within 2 weeks - even that makes me slightly uncomfortable, I shall trek around the countryside to see if I can rescue something and put it in the hands of a skilled artisan. Keep the sofa alive and keep the upholsterer in business.

Did you follow my mental struggle there?

An (un)healthy addiction to paint charts

I am a lover of Farrow & Ball. I am also a lover of Resene of NZ and Porters of Australia. I must now add Little Greene with its relatively new Paint scales collection. It's colours have pipped F & B on a house project. Historically based colours, full of pigment and super matt so that you feel like the walls are almost three dimensional. Beautiful colours that let books and art and people hold centre stage. I'll be using the below colours...

Pale, humble and happy.

And to continue my childhood addiction, I only took 5 colour charts. A table full of paint charts spread out is pure therapy...... I think I even giggled!

Autumn cheer

The last of the hydrangeas from Ed's midnight strolls....

And a lovely note from our man in Japan (not to mention the beautiful fabric underneath for our next order for Liberty).

It's quite special changing parts of your life as nature embarks on her very definate change. I don't want to forget to look up at the leaves changing just because I'm busy packing. Autumn is marvellous.