It Started With A .......

Tweet.  This tweet actually.

I'd spied two key words - 'free' and 'multiyork'.  I had a multiyork sofa in my previous house and I loved it. Sadly it wouldn't fit in this house so I had to get rid of it.  I still miss it and in a few years time I plan to buy another, but having owned it I knew that multiyork are a:  built to last, and b: have removable and replaceable covers. So after a few more tweets I set off to Nicola's (only about 40 mins away) and returned home with the chair.

After a run through the washing machine (yes they said 'dry clean only' but I took a risk) and a few days drying, the chair was given the feline seal of approval before it had even got into the lounge!

It's now in residence in the lounge, covered in a throw whilst I decide what fabric to get new covers in, and looking very 'right' for the room :-)

But this meant that I had to find a home for the other (cheap, temporary) chair that had been there in the lounge for the last 5 years.  In my brain a plan was hatching - in the dining room there's a space under the stairs,  which had always been home to the stereo (rarely used now thanks to itunes) and the shoe basket etc.

After a little re-arranging of the dining room furniture the oak coffer is now in situ on the other side of the room and this is what the space under the stairs now looks like

Somewhere snuggly to sit and read.

Thanks Nicola for the chair - and good luck with the shop move in the new year.

No More Burnt Hands

A little while ago I was given a very cute little enamel saucepan with a metal handle - cue lots of 'ouching' as the handle gets very hot and using a tea towel to hold it is a bit risky as it tends to catch in the gas!

So at the weekend I had a lovely few hours sifting through fabric scraps to and sewing them together to make a pot holder.

A mix of vintage and new,

quilted, backed and edged.

No more burnt hands

and it looks rather nice hanging up too.

I also made this card for my Dad's birthday, from silk tops and threads worked together on the embellisher with beads and wire hand stitched on.

I hope he likes it as the beads made it too thick for a standard stamp and it cost me a fortune to post it!

Autumn's March.

My garden is quite sheltered and, although we've had some over night frost on the cars, the garden seems to have escaped so far.  It is however full of the berries, hips and seed heads that signify that autumn is well and truly marching on.

The rose hips are wonderful colours and shapes,

The miscanthus grass seed heads are being pecked at daily by the birds 

and I love the wackiness of the clematis seed heads,  a cross between a bad hair day and a tutu!

The detail in the monarda seed heads is amazing if you look carefully

and the bright orange berries from the Iris Foetidissima (Stinking Iris) are wonderfully bright.

The viberunum is flowering and the scent wafts up the garden as I approach the greenhouse

and the berries of the honeysuckle

and the ampelopsis look almost good enough to eat! (I think the birds have already eaten lots of these blue ampelopsis berries already as there aren't many left)

But then there are some oddities too.  There are bedding fuchsias still flowering

and roses too.

It's as if they are trying to cling on to summer and resist the march of autumn.  I wonder how long they'll manage it for.