do you mind if i knit

Wallpaper?

Hello! I'm wearing a yellow dress I found in a charity shop, today, and I'm much chirpier than I was on Monday! Hurrah!

Today I'm going to dip my toe into the subject of wallpaper, which I'm not planning on buying, but I could be manoevred into planning to buy some, if this wallpaper idea of mine was available.

Patchwork wallpaper. I haven't a clue if it exists, but I'd like my wallpaper to be exactly like one of Hen's cushion covers. She's a master of mixing pattern and colour, using the most gorgeous vintage fabrics, and each cushion cover is made up of about 100 small squares. One hundred, yes.

I'm in the fortunate position of owning one of Hen's beautiful cushions, it was a Birthday gift from my parents this year. Such a wonderful present.

Every time I look at it, I see fabric squares I hadn't noticed before, so it's a constant joyous surprise staring at it whilst I'm drying my hair each morning, when I should probably be paying more attention to my hair in the mirror.

I thought I'd photograph some of the squares to show you, and give you a similar happy experience! Then as I was putting the mosaic together, it occured to me that this patchwork cushion would make the loveliest of pattern repeats on wallpaper. Probably not like my mosaic, more like Hen's actual cushion cover.

A bit like this above?

Or like this photo?

If I was suddenly blessed with an immense stash of fabric, I suppose I could always sew my own wallpaper together, out of little squares of fabric.

I'm off to knitting group now, but before I go, I see it as my duty to direct you to something that may well make you smile, laugh too. A real pony who lives the high life, look here, at Jenni's blog post (scroll down a bit till you get to the video). I must show it to Hugo later, it's a real gem.

Well, toodle pip and all that. Love Vanessa xxx

Things that make me want to spend money.

Hello! Friday, Friday, Friday! Yippeeeee! Hugo's out shopping for ingredients, because his Dad is away, and we're having his Mum over for supper. What we're going to eat is a surprise. I'm sure it will be very nice, as Hugo loves to cook for other people.

I really am very fotunate that Hugo likes to cook, I think about just how fortunate, quite a lot.

I know that some of you are curious to know how my knitted dress is progressing. 'Slowly but surely' is the answer! But it is progressing, yep indeedy, one of four panels is completed, and I'm enjoying the knitting of it enormously. It's easy enough to do whilst watching t.v. but not so easy that I get bored, I like that sort of knitting.

Just to remind you, this is what I'm knitting, above. At the moment I'm working on the large one coloured area of the skirt section, which comprises of four panels.

So not much to show at the moment, but getting there.

Just had to show you this tray of Primulas I bought recently. Each little plant should have been put in a pot, but because I love them in a cluster in their tray, I'm holding off doing just that. But I'm sure their little roots would like a bit of growing room, so I must get that done. I bought them to paint, I love their colours. Spring flowers, love 'em, I think they have to be my favourite seasonal flowers.

I bought these Primulas to paint, but recently, shopping has been something I'm trying to avoid. If I spend any money, it's on flowers for my paintings, art materials for work, or gifts for Hen, for our swap. No purchasing of clothes (apart from the odd 50p jumper from a charity shop!), has been taking place over the last few months here, because things have been tight.

But I still look at glossy catalogues and fantasise about buying a little something.

I turn down the corner of the pages as though I'm going to buy something off that page, and whilst it's frustrating because I know I can't afford these things I see, I like to pretend that at some point I will be able to buy them.

Maybe.

Like things in the Cath Kidston catalogue! I'm loving some of her new patterns, especially that Provence one, (top left pic).

I don't actually NEED anything from the Cath K catalogue, but it would be lovely to be able to be able to order something.

Something I don't need.

Though I could possibly 'need' the floral fabric covered headboard above.

And I could see myself  'needing' the stripy scarves, (especially the red striped, and the green striped), the lime green trainers, and the lime green cardigan from Boden, above.

I am absolutely convinced I need all these things.

Because you know how it is, you can never stop needing scarves, shoes and cardigans. They are essential to exist happily on this earth.

One thing I do have to buy for my work, is flowers to paint. My local florist is just brilliant, but I like the idea of growing my own flowers to use as subject matter. If there is one catalogue to inspire in that department, it's Sarah Raven's catalogue. Her website is here.

She sells seeds, seedlings, lovely goods for cooking, gardening, displaying, and she loves colour. Sarah Raven is an inspiration.

I'd like to grow the Zinnia's and Sweet Peas, pictured above. I always find growing things from seed makes me think of the word 'miracle'. The point when the seed becomes a seedling, and just starts to emerge from the soil, then starts stretching up, up, up, is a truly magical sight.

And then actually producing flowers, real flowers! If things actually grow into plants that flower, it makes you feel like a miracle worker, even if the plant is doing all the hard work.

And now for magazines, the purveyors of perfect dreams, those unattainable perfect dream homes is what I'm alluding to. I love interiors magazines, but from lots of past experience, am aware that they are full of pitfalls in terms of relieving you of cash.

Firstly, there's the cost. One magazine, well that's o.k.

Two magazines, you're getting into a suddenly much larger hole in your wallet.

Then there's all those things they list the price of, inside the magazines. Very dangerous. Such nice things, that would make your home so very nice, but would need to be hidden from one's better half.

Things that put a special glint in the eye, a glint of "I want, I need, I've always wanted, my life would be improved by having", that sort of glint.

I have many, many catalogues with pages turned down. I'm not sure how many years back some of these catalogues go, kept because they're nice to look at. I never throw out a Cath Kidston catalogue, they're so pretty.

Many things I don't need, but one thing I do need is flowers, colourful flowers. I always have, and I always will, I think they're an essential for my well being!

Something I really do need to do now, is finish up. Hugo has gone to collect his Mum, because the weather is atrocious, and I need to be off the computer and ready to join in the conversation when she arrives.

So I'll love you and leave you till Monday. Have a good weekend, no, actually, have a GREAT weekend, hope you do! Cheerio. Love Vanessa xxx

Yipee! The bedroom is finished and I can now show you the finished result!

Hello! Welcome to a new week! I hope you had a lovely weekend? We had the wonderful weekend I'd hoped for, very relaxing, but at the same time, we seemed to do a lot...........hmmm, bit of a contradiction that, I know. I'm going to have to tell you all about our weekend tomorrow, because I promised you photos of the newly decorated bedroom today, and I want to deliver on my promise! So here we go! Imagine you're standing in the doorway to the bedroom, this is what you'll see. Well, this is what you would have seen directly after I had tidied up for the photos. It's quite scarily tidy isn't it? if it makes you feel any better, it was tidy like this for the photos, special occasion you see. It's normally a bit more relaxed looking. Here's a photo just to give you a reminder of what the room used to look like! Gosh, there's quite a change isn't there? Actually, it pains me slightly to look at the photo above, because I find the old version of our bedroom quite depressing. Like the new colour in my studio, this new look in the bedroom has felt very positive. Our new bedroom actually feels cosy and happy, yes, a welcoming room to be in. This is one of the quilts that I had hidden away in a drawer, under the spare bed. It's been there for years, and it's fantastic to finally be using it. The lady who sold it to me, told me it's a Bible Quilt. I'm in no way knowlegeable about quilts, the area is a beautiful mystery to me, so I don't know how common Bible Quilts are. (I should look it up on the internet shouldn't I? Rather than just languishing in complacent ignorance. I will look it up. Soon). This quilt has quotes from the Bible printed in the white squares. Some of them are warnings not to be bad, some are about security. These quilts come with a lot of history don't they? Mystery history. Because I don't know who made this quilt, I can only imagine that person lived in a very devout household. (I just did a quick search on google about Bible Quilts, but the information I found only had floral designs, inspired by the Bible, nothing with printed text on them). Anyway, you're probably wanting to get on with the tour aren't you? I'm going to do the 'wizzing round in a circle' thing, like I did when I showed you my studio in my last post. So off we go, anti-clockwise again. From the bed, we come to the wardrobe. This wardrobe is huge by-the-way, but it doesn't look it, because our bedroom is so large. It's a good six feet or so, can't quite remember. Looks quite small doesn't it? This wardobe came from Scotland. The shop was a shack/warehouse in the middle of no-where, and we just chanced upon it. It was stuffed full of antiques mixed with junk. I saw this wardrobe, and I knew, that's it, that's the one. I'd been looking for a large wardrobe, and I'd found it in the wilds of Scotland! Luckily we didn't have to put it on the roof of our tiny car at the time. The dealer was coming our way with other furniture, and so he brought it down for us, dismantled into various sections. Hugo is used to the car being stuffed with my 'finds' on our holidays, but this would have been one step too far. I remember that shop we bought the wardrobe from well, because I came across a little black and white photo lying about. It was of Queen Victoria off-duty, I think she had a fishing rod or something. The man wouldn't sell it, which was a shame. The little quilt you see in the above photo, is a Pram Quilt. So I imagine it's covered up numerous bonny wee babies in the past. Do you think a Mother sewed it while she was pregnant? It must have looked splendid in the pram. Or cot I suppose. If it was a pram, I'm imagining it to be an old fashioned Silver Cross pram, you know the one's that are more like carriages? This tiny quilt was a recent find, from our local curio shop. When we started to decorate our bedroom, we had no master plan. The main thing was to get the walls painted. Once that was done, well, the walls looked bare you know? I thought about the Bible Quilt I had stashed away, which was approved. Then on the off-chance, I brought out the remaining two quilts I had, all with the cream and red theme going on. We thought, well, why not try them? They were too big for the walls, so we lightly tacked them back, to make them fit the space better, and not over-power the room. Then I remembered seeing that Pram Quilt a few weeks back. It seemed like fate. Luckily it hadn't been bought. And now it's on our bedroom wall! On we go. past the window. And on to the very, very comfy arm chair. It's so comfortable, I can see myself sitting there in the future, knitting or crocheting away happily, in that very peaceful room. And there are the two other quilts. The one on the right was narrowed quite a bit. Those thick red stripes could have been too much, but I think it works o.k on a smaller scale. And the quilt above the fire place is actually my favourite, I just think it's so pretty. We had to reduce the size of that one too, by tacking it back with needle and thread. It's slightly lop-sided, isn't it?! I think we can live with that, to be honest. I just can't be bothered to tweak it that centimetre or so! I thought the finishing touch was my precious Deer. I bought the Stag and the Doe from a charity shop. When we returned from our outing, Hugo went on-line to find out more about them, and discovered there should be a Fawn in the group. So he went on to e-bay and secretly went into a fierce bidding war for a fawn he had found. And he won it! And it was a gift............ a complete surprise gift. I love this little family group, they're so beautiful, and delicate. We've come full circle now.............. I forgot to mention the boarded up fire place! Well, that's a project for the future............ Big decision what kind of fire goes in there, we've been discussing it for years! But first we have to open up the fire place, and discover what lurks behind. I think we're avoiding doing that, if I'm honest. And anyway, we need a rest from the decorating for a while. Still, it was worth it, our bedroom is a nice place to sleep now, and a lovely room to have a lie-in on a weekend. I love the combination of the red and blue. The red tones down the whoosh of bright blue, and the blue calms the red down so it's not too fiery. I do hope you've enjoyed this little tour........... it's not that often you get shown round someone's bedroom, is it? Oh, I almost forgot, while I'm showing you our bedroom, why not show you my matching pyjamas? See?! Matches the duvet cover! Not intentional when I bought them, I just love Gingham, and especially Gingham pyjamas. Another great happy coincidence!............ Hope you sleep well tonight, sweet dreams, and cheerio! Love fom a sleepy Vanessa................ a cup of tea will sort that out xxx