Berlin

Nice new noticeboard

Yesterday afternoon with my new found time (see post below) I covered a magnetic noticeboard with this quirky, seventies style fabric which I bought from Frau Tulpe in Berlin. Now I have had this noticeboard (from a well known Swedish furniture outlet) for at least 10 months so I am very glad I've finally got it covered! Next on my list are some cute magnets and then I can use it!

No TV for a month

Do you think you could go a whole month without watching any TV? That's what James and I have decided to do and we began our quest on Friday evening.
Now I do like my TV- documentaries, comedies, cookery programmes, a bit of reality TV, the odd soap and the news- and during the week a typical night has been spent flopped on the sofa watching around 3 hours of TV before going to bed. Our excuses? We are tired after work and it's the easy option during the dark winter nights to just crash out and switch the TV on.
Meanwhile, we always complain that there's never any time(!) to do the housework, do exercise or go out for the evening. Craft projects I have been wanting to do for ages remain untouched and my blogging has also been rather sparse.
Now maybe it's the fact that we've just returned for a great holiday in Berlin, our favourite, creative city that has got us all motivated, but whatever it is as long as we stick to it I think our lives will become more interesting and our time much better spent. Already we are feeling happier and more positive about all the time we've now 'found' to do whatever we want. It sounds ridiculous but I'm feeling quite excited about our evenings now and how we can spend all this lovely, free time we'll have. And it's as simple as not pressing a button!
You'll be hearing from me very soon.

Peaches

Ooo what an awful few days at work...these floods have caused real havoc and it took me 2 hours to get home last night which is double the usual time...then this morning I had a horrible early start of 5.45am to make sure I got to work on time as all the trains were cancelled and I had to get a rotten coach instead! And then I get home tonight all tired and moody, only to find I've been sent a beautiful new friend from the lovely, generous Ladysnail.




Thanks Ladysnail! She will be a big sister to this cute keyring I got for Christmas.

Looking after Chip

This afternoon James and I went round to look after a very cute little bunny called Chip. He belongs to our good friends Kate and Si and is their new house rabbit. They're away in Paris for the weekend so we agreed to pop round to feed, water and entertain Chip. Do look at Kate's website by the way, she's a very good illustrator and she has a lovely hand writing style too. Even the note she left for us is done in her quirky, illustrated way.

Anyway, onto Chip. He was very difficult to photograph as you can see...
Leave me alone!

Didn't you hear me??

Ok, you can photograph me but I'm going to move.

You may be holding me but I can still turn my head away!

Mmmm...hay!

He was very well behaved at first and we let him out to run round the flat. I think all the attention Chip got made him over excited as he then had a mad pooing session and we had to put him back in his cage and quickly clean up so that Kate and Si won't suspect anything when they return! Shhh, don't tell them!

Happy New Year

A new year is like a blank canvas, just like these Russian dolls I got for my birthday. January is a great time to decide what you will change this year and to reflect on the past year. I don't make resolutions but I have decided that I need to make time for myself to do crafty, creative things in my spare time. I have lots of craft projects which I never got round to last year so I am going to make sure I do them this year, I MUST! I have want to make cushion covers, a sock monkey, a jewellery stand, recover my noticeboard and also do some illustrating.
My first project is to paint these brilliant Russian dolls. They are quite small- the smallest doll is about 3cm high (or should I say short)!

One of my Christmas presents was this beautiful book illustrated my Mary Blair and published in 1961. I love the illustrations which are quirky and stylised and yet I think they still look fresh and modern too. I love the sweet little song sheet at the back of the book!If you are interested, you can see some more of Mary's gorgeous work here. Mary was an American artist who did work for Walt Disney, working on Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. She also illustrated packaging and greetings cards. It's really lovely stuff so do look if you get the chance.

Vintage fair

Ooops! Is it really that long since I posted on my blog? Yes. Sorry. I'm always so busy with this full-time work malarkey and most nights by the time I'm home I just want to flop onto the sofa and drink cups of tea (always with biscuits.) But I've been meaning to blog about my finds at a vintage fair I went to about a month ago at Leeds Town Hall. It was great and I could've spent a lot of money so I had to restrain myself. There were lots of beautiful things there from bags to clothes to collectables and I did fall in love with a mirror compact that was £110. I didn't come home with that but I did get these:


A black glove box decorated with a painting of a bird and some flowers (I have a mild obsession with birds!) and a pretty mirror.
These aren't vintage but I thought they were cute:


And James bought this fully working retro phone: