the art of hanging onto furniture

2 posts in one day? Or in one hour even. But I have to put this photo up.
This chair, god KNOWS where it came from, is in a right old state and has been languishing in Maisie's room since we moved in. But despite it's shabby demeanour underneath you can see the glimmering of a once beautiful bit of furniture - look at those sweeping arms and it is really comfortable too

I might be up for doing my dining room chair covers but this is an upholstery step too far for me I think so I found an upholsterer on Yell.com and yesterday she came round to measure up. She's a really nice woman called Sarah Noble. I haven't seen what she does yet - so I am being really trusting but I got a really good feeling about her. She trained at the LCF so that's pretty cool. Also she is busy up to the end of March when she has a spare week to do this chair and then busy again til May - that's got to be a good sign hasn't it (or she works incredibly slowly?)

Anyway she has measured up and is going to get back to me with a price and then do the business - so now the search for fabric starts! yipppeeeee!

Being an upholsterer looked pretty fab... maybe I'll retrain.

Be still my beating heart

Curses! Spotted today in a local charitable emporium this ama-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-zing dressing table for a mere £60. And when you open the drawer? No less than a neat little G-Plan sticker to set hearts a-flutter. I WANT THIS SOOO MUCH! but have no room - it's absolutely massive, just look at the size of that mirror!

This is the type of dressing table that Beverley would have sat at to get ready for her party... Demis Roussos playing in the background.

either those chair covers go or I do...

So not only are we living in one grandparent's house we have also managed to accrue many many possessions from long deceased relatives and even one old lady I didn't even know. We eat our dinner at a table owned by Pete's granny sitting on dining chairs owned by mine (the other granny not the house owning one - keep up!). My granny was pretty handy and did lots of upholstery but the dining room chairs are covered in some sort of foul and filthy plastic. I guess it looked good in 1960 something and hell - it was definitely practical and hard wearing doesn't even begin to describe it. But it's got to go. I have got an upholsterer booked to recover a fireside chair that's languishing upstairs at the mo and the plan was she'd do the dining room chairs as well but then I realised how easy it was and that the less I paid for the work the more I could spend on fabric. And this is the crux of the matter. Have you ever seen something that has made your tiny heart beat fast and brought you out in a sort of 18th century lady flush? Feast your eyes on Mark Hearlds beautiful linocut fabric from St Judes. Yes ok it IS £44 per metre but think of what I'll save doing it myself. Now I just have to persuade Pete that spending over 60 quid on covering the dining room chairs is actually an investment. Watch this space...

http://www.stjudes.co.uk/birdgarden.htm

A little box of treats

Found this case - it wouldn't open so sadly I had to force it. It's full of family photos going back to great great grandparents. The case has got my mum's name written in it - I think it was her school bag. The woollen thing? Well that's like a massive knitted sock - I think it might be something to do with Navy Uniform. But why is there only one... and why keep it?

Hats off to not throwing stuff away

We have just moved into my Grandfather's house - he lived here from 1945 until Easter 2009. My mother and sister were born here and there are so many memories attached to the place. And yet now it is filled with all our many many many possessions it doesn't feel like that same house anymore. Which is a good thing. But every now and again I get little whiffs of the old place - pipe tobacco and gin mingling with old dust and ... what IS that?? It is the same house and at the same time it isn't.

Anyway the house, despite clearing so much stuff away and having to be horribly ruthless is still full of completely random things - he was a real hoarder. So I have decided to catalogue the nice things we find - watch out for some amazing typography along the way.

Abiding Ephemera? It's a contradiction in terms surely, but I seem to have a whole house full of it.

For your delectation today... A Tyrrell and Green paper bag. Long before the days when we had to call it John Lewis but still Never Knowingly Undersold.