Fabric

I just love fabrics, especially unusual, dainty ones. I ADORE Amy Butler fabric, the designs are gorgeous! so I will be looking for inexpensive pieces of it here and there where I can for little projects for the cottage. I came across the company Spoonflower a few weeks ago and was just dying to send a design to print. Spoonflower offer different types and weights of fabric, you can send your own design, choose the size, pattern etc.

I ended up doodling this image:



I thought it was quite cute so I decided to scan it and in photoshop I simply added colour with the fill tool in a few places and used a couple of filters, one was the watercolour filter and I think a sharpening filter too. I then cleaned up the background so there were no flecks and added a soft overall background colour... easy.

I uploaded it, chose a basic repeat pattern and paid approximately £14 (including shipping to the UK from the US) for a yard. Two weeks later my fabric arrived. The cotton is a beautiful quality, as is the print and colour. I am so pleased with it. I haven't decided what I am going to make with this yet but I am thinking either, a summer dress for my daughter, a lampshade (base painted a watermelon red) or a cushion... watch this space!

Colour Palette

As this blog is a means of inspiring me for all things house related, interiors etc I am putting together some colour palettes. This colour, not sure what you would call it.. watermelon? peach red? has been a favorite of mine and I think would look fabulous as an interior accent, with grey perhaps.



Alongside a darker, more cranberry red it is gorgeous. I have wanted a lipstick in this colour for ages.

Credits. Top left to right, then bottom left to right.

1.Coral Rose Blossoms by AYSE at Etsy
2. Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette
3.Althea Cushion, Laura Ashley
4. Lola Table Lamp, John Lewis
5. Watermelon Dress, Coutureallure.com
6. Cardigan by Jadegirl
7. Red Herringbone Throw, by Velvet Brown at Notonthehighstreet.com

High Hopes

In early October Ed and I visited the Grand Designs Live show at the Birmingham NEC. It was interesting but to be honest we were both tired and there was such a lot going on there it was a little overwhelming. Extraordinarily busy too. We were just heading to the exit, or at least trying to find it when we saw a painting by Doug Hyde. We both loved it immediately and right then and there we bought it. I have to say it's not something I would usually go for but it's bright colours and childlike qualities really endeared us to it, it is also framed beautifully. The main thing was the title 'High Hopes' and the red balloon.

It arrived a few weeks later (we couldn't take it away with us on the day). Here it is...



I'm not sure where it will go in the cottage yet but I love it.

The red balloon bit, well here's a little something to sort of explain a little about the significance and relevance to our new house.

I wrote this on September 1st 2010.

"At some point in my life a red balloon has come to represent some sort of positive spiritual sign to me. They have appeared at significant moments here and there, now and again. Perhaps it's pure coincidence, regardless I take pleasure in seeing them and comfort when I do.

Today, on what can only be described as a perfect, golden sepember evening we snuck to the cottage. We only had our offer accepted yesterday and whilst it isn't officially ours yet, we couldn't resist. The warm sun shone between the trees and rabbits were playing at the far end of the field. Ella and Henry ran to explore the hedges as Ed and strolled along, Ed listening to my running commentary about how the orchard will look without the vast sea of nettles and piles of old bricks. As we walked and talked we could see the hazy shape of a red hot air balloon in the distance, somewhere over Warwickshire or beyond. It was a moment of pure magic, like something clicked into place."

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Anyway, how to begin...????...

I was at the house today and walking around the orchard clearing the odd brick here and there (it seems there are literally hundreds just under the surface of the earth, I think they were just left there in the 1960's) when I noticed this perfect little glass bottle at the entrance to a rabbit hole. No, I absolutely am not joking, it really was there and it most certainly was not there before. The rabbits must have dug it up and flicked it out. I thought it was sweet, then it got me thinking...

The very first project for the house. A tiny little ornament, perhaps for a printers drawer display.

"this time she found a little bottle on it, ("which certainly was not here before," said Alice), and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters."

- from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll