Lovely stuff and breathing space

I've purged myself of worldly goods; half my stuff is either being sold or going to charity. 

I need to go shopping.

Christy Leigh Stewart

This quotation made me smile. I can soooo relate.

I've been going through a bit of a clear-out around here. The trigger was sorting through some boxes transferred from my old workplace and that I'd avoided for months. Not sure why. I finally tackled them though and it was great - most of the stuff ended up in the recycling or being given away to former colleagues, who I hope might still find some use for it. A fair bit of it just went in the bin. Why've I been holding on to some of those materials for years and years after the content was out of date? Just in case? No idea. Apparently I have squirrel tendencies!

Once I'd started, I just kept going... sorted through several cupboards and identified more stuff that really needed to go. Some of it was worn out (why do I hang on to that sort of thing, much like the out of date materials?), some of it was excess and taking up space for no good reason, and some of it was junk. Lots of paper junk especially. I swear paper multiplies on its own when left in the dark! All into the pile. For several days my hallway was a box-and-bag-mountain range of stuff to be given away, thrown away, or recycled.

Now that it's done, on the outside, not much looks different. I can feel the breathing room behind those cupboard doors though and it feels good. I still have some sorting to do but it has created a sense of calm even where I cannot see the space. I love that.

So why then is my next impulse to think... "Mmm, now that I have given that away, have the space, I could go out and buy..."? Peculiar. I'm really not in need of anything. Definitely not in need of anything. I don't even really want anything. But I do love beautiful stuff and the urge to reward myself for the clearing out with some new loveliness is strong. I've found though, that in times like this, a little online window-shopping can really help to diffuse the impulse to splurge.

So I went to Etsy and had a bit of a browse. I haven't done that for a while and it was fun. These were some of the goodies added to my already 45-page long wishlist. Just added. Not purchased. And, just like that, I feel it go... the urge. The breathing space remains. Best of both.

Etsy loveliness:

Curious, a mini art-feeling sculpture
Have a bit of a thing for pomegranates at the moment
Long and lovely hoodie
Butterfly leather wrap bracelet
Gorgeousness!
I'm sure it sounds like the sea too...
Turquoise flame
A lesson I'm still learning
Never can resist a beautiful mobile

Five minute lovely list

This week I've been:

~ Enjoying the fact that the everyday tools of my trade now include as much paper and handwritten ink as technology.

~ Loving my pretty new phone case - like carrying a little quilt of colour in my pocket!

~ Noticing just the slightest shift in daylight hours... not out of the long darkness by a good distance yet but moving in that direction. Oh, and the snow's gone. Thank goodness because, much as I love it to look at, it was causing havoc with getting around.

~ Thankful for the support of people who, with many a kind word and deed, have helped me deal with some of the less pleasant aspects of being self-employed and resident in a foreign country. 

~ Relishing the paint! The juicy acrylic colours, the feeling of it on my fingers and under a brush, and the sheer escape of losing myself in the process for a few hours... BLISS.

♡

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.

Heinrich Heine

(1797-1896)

If that's true then these roses must be feeling really, really, really good! 

The yellowy-orange ones are from a florist (hardly any scent), all others are cut from the garden (a blend of the most beautiful deep and subtle perfumes). I'm not a fan of rose-scented products but real roses... divine! Don't think I've ever smelt such a delicious bunch.

I hope the techy bods are working on a smell-o-version of Blogger. I'd love to be able to upload and share scents here as well as sights and sounds. Today, the ocean, my spicy masala chai, these roses... they'd all go up. Wouldn't that be amazing? Give them time... the techy bods. I don't discount it. Nothing seems impossible these days.

I hope that wherever you are, you have a lovely Friday, and find time to smell some roses...

K ♡ 

Thankfulness, every day - Three

Today I'm feeling grateful at a very basic level.

I'm grateful for those little everyday things that I carry in my bag, which either make my life a bit more comfortable - like my Burt's Bees lip balm - or are just plain practical, a pleasure to use, or make me smile - like my cheerful little chocolate milk recycled purse, which is all three of the latter.

Other things that qualify are a Muji notebook and coloured pens, a small pack of tissues, a beautiful and tactile keyring, and a lovely rich hand cream (at the moment I'm loving this one from M&S)... all items I use and enjoy every single day. Being able to have these things that I like is a small luxury, for which I am thankful.

At the heart of it

There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits.

Robert Southey

(1774-1843)

Our homes are a reflection of who we are, the place where our story begins and our heart lives. We decorate these physical structures with the things that define us, that we have placed value in, and that we love. Home is where we seek refuge from life's storms. It is where rest, replenishment, and nourishment abound.

Sandra Magsamen
Living Artfully (2006)

We all have within ourselves a blueprint for just the home that will shelter our spirit. This blueprint doesn't deal in design and dimensions; it is the plan for home as a spiritual construct, or that homey sense of safety and belonging that can come with us from house to house and from one phase of life to the next.

Victoria Moran
Shelter for the Spirit (1998)

I've been thinking a lot over the past few weeks about what home means to me. 

For many home is a place they call their own because it is their own, filled with things they own, things they value, where their family is, where they feel connected to their personal history... rooted, settled.  I get this. Strangely, home is none of these things to me right now. I own relatively little, my family live far away, I have only a recent connection to the place I find myself, no significant history to speak of here yet and no intention to stay for good. This new apartment will be the twenty-sixth different place I've lived during the course of my life (only those I remember and where I've been for longer than 6 months qualify) and it probably won't be the last. I know that just the thought of this freaks some people out. But it's true. I know it's a big number and perhaps hard to understand how, but most of them have felt like home. Some more so than others but for the most part, home is where I am. My environment is important to me. It has an impact. I struggle to be happy in an ugly, uncomfortable place. But I can be. I have been. Because home is a feeling. An emotional space.

Having said that, I'm looking forward to making my new home (even if it is only temporary) a physical place that both reflects and shelters my spirit again. 

I'd like it to be calm, comfortable, creative, colourful, casual - eclectic. I'd like it to be a place where I enjoy spending time alone, where my loved ones gather (even if only occasionally), where my few treasures surround me and bring me pleasure, where my heart finds comfort and rest at the end of a day.

What makes you smile when you think about your home? I'd love to know.

(quilt from Anthropologie)

Lovely stuff

1. Harvest moon necklace 2. Vanilla rooibos tea 3. Paper tea filters

4. Voluspa seasons candle 5. Russet elegance earrings 6. Lovely leather lariat

7. Tiny gold lustre vases 8. Honeybird clutch 9. Toasty fingerless mittens

Just window shopping...

♥

Is it very superficial...

...that I'm excited as I am about this?

Anthropologie

Opening, Autumn '09 - Regent Street, London

Finally, finally coming to the UK.

I still won't be able to buy most of the delicious goodies I'd like but at least I'll be able to walk around their beautiful store and touch stuff - maybe even try some on...

In the meantime, I'll just keep browsing online and compiling my wishlist.

At the moment these are my top five: a Leafy, Fluttery, Scoopy, Studious, Pastiche of loveliness.

So excited. Superficial, maybe. But true.

You win some, you lose some...

...except in the magical world of the blogosphere, where sometimes even when you lose, you win.

a box and butterfly

The Winner

I was recently lucky enough to win a competition held by Denise of Freshly Found, the prize being one of the beautiful origami boxes, which she'd made out of old record album covers. Denise is the queen of repurposed fabulousness and is always turning something old, into something new and beautiful.

I love boxes and drawers (things to keep things in - what could be better?) and was very excited to have won. Although I knew that one was on its way to me, it was a complete surprise which of all the beauties she'd made it would be. And this week, it arrived. Could it be more perfect? A Linda Ronstadt album cover made into a lovely little box for goodies. I LOVE the colours and the cover art. And the base of the box is the back of the cover with the song titles listed, including Tracks of my Tears.

Looking at this (and hearing the echoes of that song in my head) instantly transports me back to my childhood: listening to my Dad's records; sitting on the lounge floor with the album covers spread in a swirl around me; wearing the huge, but then state-of-the-art squishy-cushioned headphones with individual left and right ear volume controls, each earpiece almost the size of my whole head; feeling so grown up because I was entrusted with use of the record player and the precious collection of records, including my Dad's favourites and mine at the time, Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis. And Linda Ronstadt, with her quintessential sound of the 70s. What a girl.

And clearly, as the picture on this cover illustrates, Linda is a girl who liked her accessories. Just like me. So I'm going to use this perfect little box for some of mine. It's just the right size for my prettiest hairbands and clips. Just right.

Thank you Denise. Thank you!

The Loser

Where would one find a giveaway that included a book, two cigar boxes full of gorgeous handmade paper bugs, and a pair of squirrel underpants, with the prize draw taking place from a boob mug? Yes, that's underpants for a squirrel, and a mug that looks like a woman's breast... you read it right! Only one place, and one person in this blogosphere that I know of who could pull that combination off with any style, and that's Linda Sue. And she did. Brilliantly.

Unfortunately, I did not win the giveaway. I believe that the underpants are now going to be gifted to a squirrel named Fatty, who lives somewhere in New York and is the friend of a friend of Linda Sue's pup, Dexter, called Buster. Buster and Fatty have been friends for a while and it makes sense that, as he is a dog and not a squirrel, Buster pass the pants onto Fatty. Dexter and Buster met through blogging, like Linda Sue and I. True story. In fact, Buster is one of the best bloggers out there. If you haven't read his blog, you should do yourself a favour and visit... He has a way with words, and is a very good artist.

Anyway, I digress. I did not win the giveaway. I was a loser. But just because Linda Sue is Linda Sue - generous and lovely - and couldn't bear to disappoint the losers, she offered us all a prize in the end. Made with her own fair hands, out of beautiful textured and patterned papers... butterflies.

Well, we know I'm not one to resist the allure of a butterfly, and so I said, "Yes please!" and Linda Sue dispatched a parcel to me with instructions to fluff wings when it arrived and the hope that they would find a good home on this side of the Atlantic. There was in fact more than just the beauty above enclosed, and the others have already taken up residence on my desk at work, where they are much admired. They flew all the way here, carrying some fresh summer lavender and a treat for my brain too, and landed safely on the same day that Denise's box arrived.

Another special mail day, courtesy of bloggy lovelies! I feel very lucky.

And Linda Sue, you always make me smile. Thank you! Not that I would love you any less if you didn't make me smile, but you do. Even when I don't feel like smiling. And I love that about you.

So, a box and a butterfly. Perfect prizes.

A winner and a loser. Perfect balance.

Perfect day.

♥

I failed!

Less than a week after I posted this, and during a spending hiatus that started less than two months ago, I caved yesterday afternoon and bought these - two jewel red pressed-glass stemmed plates and a big-old-knuckle-duster-bit-o'-bling! Abject failure on both fronts.

I turned my back for only a moment and Amy took charge of the purse-strings. I blame her. But, truly, I'm not tooooo mad at her. The plate set is just too gorgeous and something I've lusted after for a while. And there they were, on sale. Massively on sale. Under £10 for BOTH. How could we resist? And while collecting the earrings that I'd ordered for the wedding (wedding goodies don't count under the spending ban - necessary expenditure) it just seemed too cruel to leave this ring when all it clearly wanted to do was get out in the daylight to make rainbows. We liberated it, Amy and I. It seemed like the right thing to do.

How is it possible that a few bits of coloured glass can make a girl (or two) so happy?

P.S. Happy, happy 4th of July to my American friends and family! I hope your day is fully of sunshiny rainbows too.
♥

Sunshine and Spring flowers

I know that as Spring is now properly sprung I should be thinking about casting off blankets and throws and spending less time snuggled up on my sofa or under my duvet but oh, how I LOVE this and this. Spring flower beds - so pretty.

And I see Anthropologie now delivers in the UK. Uh-oh!

The sun shone yesterday. And it called me outside to play.... So I popped into town briefly to buy some trousers for work (much needed) but came home with this instead (not at all needed). 

I blame it on the sunshine. It led me astray.

Kurbits and Krokus? Yes please!

I recently ordered a catalogue from this Swedish company - Gudrun Sjödén - and I then saw them posted on Style Discovery last week, which reminded to go back and have a proper look. Now that it's getting colder, I would like to invest in an extra layer or two for snuggling up in at the weekends.

So many reasons to love them:

• I love their individual, casual, layered look. 
  
• I love that they use models of all shapes, sizes and ages. 
  
• I love their green approach and the use of natural and luxury fabrics.
• I love the comfortable and flattering shape of their garments. 
  
• I love the combination of patterns and the embroidered details. 
  
• I love the folk ethnic feel of the look, which is right on trend now but something I've always loved.  Witness one of my favourite coats...

The only problem really is deciding which of their lovely things I can't live without.

I stuck with examples of the neutrals and autumnal colours in this selection but I love the more brightly coloured palettes too - plum, turquoise, orange, and red. All gorgeous.

And I haven't even started on the home collection...

Pretty in the morning

It's a another grey day outside but these pretty things have already cheered up my morning:

Gorgeous roses in autumn colours. A "just because" surprise I came home to after a few days away for work. Enjoyed them this morning while sipping my first cup of tea and listening to a little Missy Higgins... something light to start the day with.  I love how she sings in her own accent.

This bracelet was made by a friend 'specially for me with vintage 1950's buttons. I love it!

Little things like this help me face the grey...

Lovely, lovely autumn

I hate that we've had no summer to speak of in the UK this year (again!) but now that autumn is officially here, I love that I can start to wear actual weather-appropriate clothes, without the guilt.

I spent most of summer struggling with what to wear. It was either feel constantly chilly but look like I knew that it was summer on the calendar - regardless of the temperature... or wear those warmer layers (often topped by a scarf) and feel like an alien amongst those who go out in their teeny-tiny-strappy-chiffon-and-sandal outfits because it was summer on the calendar - regardless of the temperature...

I must admit to opting for the latter approach most of the time (and that forever-feeling-like-an-alien thing can be quite depressing in itself) so it will be nice to be out now in my warmer layers. Legitimately. I hate feeling cold and I love to be able to wrap up against the chill. Warmer fabrics, lovely textures, coats, hats, boots... Bring them on!

This season I'm especially loving the rich colours and the heritage and folk trends and, although I'm not sure I can pull them all off, these are some of the looks that I'm liking:

Yves Saint Laurent

Matthew Williamson

D&G

Ralph Lauren

Oscar de la Renta

Burberry Prorsum

And then there are the boots! I love boots!!!

Stella McCartney

Fendi

And I wonder if there's any chance I'll be attending an event where one of these might be called for? With cashmere wraps for the cold bits, of course!

Ellie Saab

Maybe not, but a girl can dream, can't she?

{All images from Vogue}

An embarrassment of riches

Just a few days ago I mentioned that I'd treated myself to a few goodies from my Etsy wishlist and that I was all a-tingle in anticipation of their imminent arrival.

Well, on Saturday they arrived.... Far more quickly than I'd expected and both packages on the same day! How wonderful. I love parcel post. And it didn't stop with just these two.

Not only were these gifts to myself everything I'd imagined and hoped for, but there were some extra treats in the form of an unexpected enclosure, and a few more beautiful prezzies - sent by my lovely friend in Toronto - that arrived on the same day. That's twice in one month that I have been blessed by the thoughtful kindness of my friends! How lucky am I? And believe me, the postal treats are the least of it. Knowing these people enriches my life, and being able to count them as friends is something I never take for granted.

Anyway, Saturday's post brought me the following lovelies...



This book is gorgeous! Beautiful, soulful, and inspiring in so many ways.

Christine's work is just a visual feast. The images and reflections that she captures in her art and in the pages of this book (which is a work of art itself and an obvious labour of love) are warm and heartfelt, personal yet universal. They resonate with me on so many levels. I read it from cover to cover yesterday, greedily devouring the whole thing in one sitting, and now I am starting again and working through it more slowly in order to savour every page, every picture, every word.

To treat yourself to a taste of her art and what's to be found inside the book, have a look here.

I also was surprised and delighted to find this little gem of a collage enclosed...


I know that she knows nothing specific about me but it could not be more perfect! The colours, a butterfly, a little dance dress and black lace drama, and reference to procrastination and wanderlust - probably two of my most defining impulses.... Beautiful and perfect! Thank you!

And then there were the gifts from Canada - an amber-coloured necklace and a black, butterfly lacquered stone... Again, beautiful and perfect!



These gifts come from a heart so generous and loving and that instinctively knows just how and when to reach out and make a person feel special. A heart that knows mine very well - including all the dark corners - and loves me still. She enclosed a little note to say that she was sending these things for no reason other than that they'd reminded her of me, and that they came with love.

What can I say except, thank you my dear friend?! They are beautiful and I will take pleasure in them every day.

And speaking of warm and open hearts.... This woman I don't know at all really, except through the glimpses I've been granted on her blog and in her photography. But I think you can tell a lot about a person from how she sees the people and the world around her. And if her photographs and musings are anything to go by, then that's enough to tell me that she is gentle and brave and beautiful.

And I love this picture.


It reminded me at first sight of one of the single most perfect moments of my life to-date - a dawn walk on a beach in Mozambique, with my youngest brother, before we went out for a swim with wild dolphins.... It captures all the connection, all the peace, all the joy, that I felt at that moment. And that I almost always feel when I have my toes in "sea bubbles".

An ordinary sparkling moment.

I am fortunate to have many of these moments in my life to look back on and I like to be visually reminded of them because it reminds me to notice and to strive for more of them in my every day. I don't have many pictures from that time so thank you, Denise, for capturing it so perfectly in yours!

A taste of home

You might remember that a while ago I posted some pictures of an outing with a friend, which featured a very cute handbag bought on a recent trip to Cape Town, made by local South African company called Mielie?

Well, I love Mielie goodies and I like to keep an eye on what they're making...

And what they are making is gorgeous! I can soooooooooo see this pouf cube in either my living room or bedroom.




And they have a new handbag design too - based on a Pincushion Protea.



Ooh yummy! This stuff brings out the very worst acquisitive tendencies me!

I also love what this company stands for. Find out more about them at their blog, Mielie Peeps.

Concertino - visual music

More Quilt Exhibition loveliness. This one was an series of fabric books displayed on music stands.... The textures were just too delicious - I could hardly resist touching them!

{Click to Enlarge Images}

Concertino - Jutta Erner

Black and White Wonders

As promised, I wanted to post a few more photo's taken at the Quilt Exhibition...

Spring of Desire - Ted Storm

This one has to be seen to be believed. And I'm afraid the pictures don't really do it justice, so I feel that I should apologise to the guy who made it for that. But I hope you will enjoy a sense of it anyway.

It really was a wonder to behold and I ended up with my nose virtually pressed against it. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.... Big enough for a double bed. So striking in its category - monochrome in a room full of traditional multicoloured creations. So obviously a labour of skill and patience and love. And all of it, every single stitch, handsewn!

{Click to Enlarge Images}

Yep, those little squares are only about 1cm along each side.... And handsewn people! Apparently it took him four years to make. A real labour of love. Or obsession? Either way, a worthy winner in several categories.

And then there was this one, which also won a category - Quilters Guild Challenge - and was one of my personal favourites.

Elemental - Laura Kemshall

The brief for the challenge was to interpret the concept Elemental and this piece was "inspired by foreboding weather approaching across an open landscape". The technique was described as "wholecloth, free motion quilted on a long-arm, hand painting and drawing, foiling"

I loved the contrast between the organic, curly, fern-type patterns on the top part of the quilt and the structured, linear patterns on the lower part.

I loved the freehand painting and the movement that it added to the stormy effect.

I loved that single rectangle of copper foil.

Very Elemental I thought. Lovely.

{Click to Enlarge Images}