Seventies style in Mog the Forgetful Cat.

I'm so lucky that our local library doesn't charge late fees for children's books - I'd be bankrupt! I've just looked, and Torin's latest books were due back two weeks ago! Perhaps if I knew I'd have to pay though, I'd keep on top of it a little more.

One of the books we borrowed this time was "Mog the Forgetful Cat" by Judith Kerr. 

Image from here.

Not only is it an old'un (1975), it's a good'un too. If you don't know it, Mog is a loveable but troublesome pet cat, belonging to the Thomas family. He gets up to all sorts of mischief, but of course the books normally end with him saving the day somehow. 

There is also something wonderfully nostalgic about the books. If you had to guess the date of the books, the names of the Thomas family children may give the era away (Debbie and Nicky (boy)), but so does the furniture and decoration in their house!

The furniture, with its tapered legs and simple lines is reminiscent of Ercol. In fact, just the other day I was looking at a rather lovely Conran table in Marks and Spencer that was very similar to this!

Image from here.

Look, there's even the little three legged stool!

Image from here.

Although I do pay attention to the illustrations in my children's books, noticing how the pictures in this particular book illustrate the time it was published so well, I think I'll be looking at several of Torin's books with fresh eyes to see if I've missed anything elsewhere!

What Martin did . . .

While my mum pottered in our garden, my dad set to work fixing things in the house. If having my mum in our garden is like fairies doing their thing, having my dad in the house is a little like the Elves and the Shoemaker - I find if I've left out the raw materials (not that I do this on purpose of course), things get magically fixed, tightened, and screwed to the wall!

One of the many jobs my dad over the weekend was put up my souvenir from our stay on the Isle of Wight. I saw this print in a lovely interiors/gift shop in the village where we were staying, but every time I went back to the shop it was closed. On our last day, my dad went for a little walk and surprised me when he returned with this picture wrapped in bubble wrap under his arm.

I thought it would look good in our living room next to the heart shaped light and red vases.

I also like the fact that it catches my eye each time I walk into our living room. If your eyesight is as good as mine (!) it reads:

I love Seaview Isle of Wight in the summertime

I love the fact that I have a permanent reminder of my thirtieth birthday celebrations (in addition to all the other wonderful gifts I was given) and that it's also funny, as one of my abiding memories of Seaview is that it rained every single day we were there, so "summertime" is perhaps a little optimistic!

Thanks Dad - I'm very lucky that you have such brute strength for all the wonky walls in my house, and that you have such a kind heart that you want to fix all my broken things xx 

'Tis the Season . . .

Well, it's not . . . not yet . . . but with this rubbish weather it jolly may as well be! I'm really beginning to think that if it can't just be glorious wall to wall sunshine in August, then summer may as well give up and let winter take its place - at least we'd all know what to wear then! 

One of my Facebook friends noted earlier that it's only 19 weeks until Christmas! She runs a small business making things she sews and knits, so I suppose making time for Christmas orders must be on her mind, as I'm sure it's on the mind of several of you who are in the same boat.

19 weeks still feels quite a long way away - it is after all, four months away. My goodness actually - that means it's only three months until Astrid is one! Where has that time gone?

So, 19 weeks. That got me thinking about making Christmas presents. I think I'll try and go for it again this year. Last year, as Astrid had only just been born, I bought most of the gifts we gave to people. However, the year before I made all of our presents and really enjoyed the process, so I think I'll try to do the same this year.

Unfortunately, it was just before I began writing this blog, so I didn't take any pictures of the finished articles, but things I made included a Scrabble inspired cushion similar to these:

Image from here.

I also made a plectrum pouch for my Dad using an old tie. I used a guitar plectrum for the button on the front rather than this maritime motif.

Image from here.

I spent hours in our kitchen making various types of homemade curd, and vanilla and cinnamon sugar, which were actually pretty easy but just took a while and lots (!) of stirring to make.

For other people I took inspiration from artists like these below and filled frames of homemade artwork.

Image from here.

Image from here.

Image from here.

It gave me such a sense of achievement to make things for people, and they seemed to be very well received. I managed to work on making these gifts while Torin was napping or in bed at night. I think I was even finishing the cushion I made for my brother on Christmas Eve! I guess now I've got two little ones, if I'm going to make presents this year I'd better try and be organised and get started now. It's probably lucky that we've got 19 weeks to go!

What about you - do you make your own gifts? From where do you get your inspiration?

Napoli is stuck fast.

I've managed to knock another item off my living room to-do list - I've finally managed to get around to fixing my Napoli canvas to the wall above the console table.

The canvas was a birthday present from our lovely friends Andy and Anna last year and it has been resting on the console table ever since. This is mainly due to the fact that I knew that I was going to be decorating the room before too long, and also the fact that there's a blooming great steel girder running down the centre of that part of the wall - not very convenient for drilling holes to hang pictures!

Anyway, the picture is now up, and I'm very pleased with how it looks, and how well it has stuck to the wall. In the end I used sticky pads from Sellotape to fix it to the wall - they're meant to be removable, but we'll see!

The only slight thing is that I think I may have put the picture up a little too high. It's at the kind of height it would be if it was hanging from a picture rail, but I think in order for it to look really good with the things on the console table, it needs to hang a little lower - I think the bottom of it should hang lower than the top of the red vase - what do you think?

Rather than try to move the picture and risk ripping the lining paper on the wall (that I have recently painted remember), I think that I'll just put up a smaller picture in the space underneath the canvas. This should balance the area a little better I think.

Reader, I bought it.

Knowing that I had a purse full of Next vouchers, I couldn't resist popping in there and treating myself to the recycled red glass vase I mentioned here. I'm really pleased with it and how it looks in this corner of our living room.

The plan here, is to firstly put some more screws in that shelf so that it doesn't dip down anymore (!) and then to hang the Vogue picture, which was a twenty-first birthday present from my brother and sister, on the wall. That will free up some more space on the shelf and I'll then put another olive green vase (the same as the one in the bottom right of this picture) on the shelf next to the red vase.

I was reading this post over at Decor8 the other day, and it got me thinking about this corner. As I've mentioned above, there are a few little tweaks that I want to make to this alcove, but overall, I rather like it at the moment. Now, to get to work on the other corners in my house . . .

Let me know if you want to know sources for anything else in this picture.

Make do and mend: bears for a baby.

Back from a lovely spell in Kent with my family - lots of delicious food, beautiful weather and lots of time splashing in a paddling pool in my parents' garden. We spent a lot of time at the beach, visiting local attractions like Leeds castle, and seeing extended family, so I'm really sorry that my promise that I was going to post every day proved a little too ambitious.

As I said, I'm back in Cardiff now and I spent this afternoon visiting my lovely friend Mary who has just had a baby girl. Baby Sophia had such a mop of black hair and was a real sweetie. It was funny for me to compare Sophia at nearly 4 weeks, with Torin - a newborn suddenly seems very easy to deal with - feed, wind, sleep, feed wind sleep . . . Of course, I'm sure the reality of actually having a newborn with a two and a half year old will be a lot of hard work!

I made Sophia's gift myself:

Her room is green and white, so I chose paper with different patterns in those colours to fit in with the room scheme.

Here's a little how-to if you want to try your own:

I began by buying a small white RIBBA frame from IKEA - they are great for this type of project as they come with a mount that is just about the right depth for what I needed.

I also used a teddy bear shaped hole punch to cut out loads of little teddy bears out of green and white paper.

I then cut out a piece of plain white card and fixed it to the back of the mount with tape, to form the background to the picture.

By eye, I then laid out the teddy shapes on the white card and moved them around a bit until I was happy with where they were - I didn't want the layout to be too strict, so I avoided creating a sequence of patterns by punching out different amounts of bears from each type of paper.

Once I was happy with the layout, I stuck the shapes onto the white background using tweezers and sticky pads - you can see from this picture how the shapes stand away from the backing card.

And that was that! Once the shapes were all stuck in place, I popped the mount back in the frame and the gift was finished.

I then wrapped the picture in brown paper and finished it off with some green curling ribbon and a green flower on which I wrote Sophia's name.

I was really pleased that Mary liked the present - she'd had a bit of a clothing overload, and was also relieved that there was no pink in sight!

Birds nest in blue.

I've had to buy several birthday cards this week and unusually for me, I've actually bought two of one card to send to two different friends. I always try (if I don't have time to make a card) to choose cards that are "perfect" for that person, so sending someone a card that I have also sent someone else felt a bit odd. 

It happened that way this time though because I discovered a range of cards from Jane Ormes - they're lovely! 

This is the card I bought two of, called "Birds nest in blue":

I hope the people I bought it for like it as much as I do!

Below are some of Ormes' prints that have caught my eye, I really like their witty titles!

"British bird unaware he'd flown to Australia":

"Bird praying for an open top":

"Tattooed birds, they'll regret it later":

Print images from here.

Butterflies and landscapes.

On Saturday, I managed to tick two things off my to-do lists. I cracked open our drill and put up a picture in the little area outside our bathroom, and some ceramic butterfly wall art up in our bedroom.

Here's the picture:

The clock has been here for a while now, and when I put it on the wall I positioned it with this picture going underneath in mind. The picture is by local artist Nick Comerford, who is also an art teacher in the school where I used to teach. I was so touched when he gave me this picture as a leaving gift, as I had previously been to see and admired his paintings when he showed them in a local gallery.

I think adding this picture to this wall has really made this strange little space into more of a room in its own right.

These are the ceramic butterflies I put up in our bedroom:

David bought me these a few years ago and I'm not sure why they didn't made it onto the wall for so long, apart from that I wasn't quite sure where to put them in order to show them off well. I decided to just go for it, and I'm really pleased with how they look above my bedside cabinet. They look pretty against the paint colour during the day, and the bedside light glows pleasingly through them in the evening.

Even though these were tiny jobs, I feel like I achieved something this weekend, and it feels good!

Can't stop looking at . . .

Each week, I'll be sharing with you something that has caught my eye. It may be a picture, blog, product or website.

The work of Wendy Harrison of Letterfest, these personalised prints are hand-drawn and based upon a picture provided by the customer. 

Image from here.

I first saw these personalised prints on Notonthehighstreet.com a while ago, but recently they have re-captured my eye as I think I may try my hand at doing something similar for my grandmother's birthday which is coming up in June. I'll show you how I get on!

Dream on dreamer . . .

Yesterday, David came back from work with this lovely "dream" sign for me:

As we are currently living on one salary, there are many things that we want to do, but can't. I know we're not the only ones - many people are experiencing difficult times at the moment with today's budget not giving much respite either. David bought me this sign to remind me to carry on dreaming. It's made of tin, and I really like the way the font looks like old printing blocks.

Happy World Book Day everyone!

Today is World Book Day in the UK and Ireland!

Did you know that World Book Day is celebrated in more than 100 countries around the world? A celebration of books and reading, it is a day where publishers, booksellers and other interested parties work together to promote books and reading for personal enjoyment, as well as personal enrichment.

In order to share my love of books with you, I though I'd take a look at some of my favourite book-related products available for the home.

A whole book on a poster? It's possible with this great print from Spineless Classics via Her Little Place.

Image from here.

These great Penguin Classics tea towels available from here. Use them to dry your dishes in style, or stretch it onto canvas as Heather Young has done here:

Image from here.

This literary candle from The Literary Gift Company, features an excerpt from "Wuthering Heights", and is scented with wild heather and a hint of violet :

And finally, the now discontinued Wakefield Chandelier from Pottery Barn, featured here.

Image from here.

I'm currently reading "Such a Long Journey" by Rohinton Mistry (promise you'll get it back eventually Catherine!). It takes place in Mumbai in 1971, and tells the story of Gustad Noble, a father of 3, who is set a difficult task by his friend that means he has to delve into a dangerous world of politics, secrets and large amounts of money. I'm learning such a lot about how India was at this time - I really love it when a book teaches me something. What are you reading at the moment?

Happy reading everyone!

A Chapter full of art.

While my parents are visiting this weekend, we'll no doubt go to one of our favourite bars, which is near our house in Cardiff. The bar at Chapter Arts Centre was been described as, "the best place to drink in Wales" by the Observer Food Magazine. It has a great atmosphere, serves delicious food (a lot of it vegetarian and vegan), and is child friendly. We often go there when my parents visit, as my father is partial to their wide selection of wheat beers.

Chapter has recently undergone a £3.8 million refurbishment, and now has less of the feel of an school hall, and more of a contemporary, comfortable place where you can go to eat, drink and meet friends.

One of the things I like the most about the Centre, (apart from the black copycat Eames DSX chairs), is the fact that there is a wall running the length of the bar area, where artists can display their work.

The display at the moment, is by Gemma Correll, an illustrator who specialises in hand-drawn comics, characters, typography and pattern. To produce the huge piece of work for Chapter, Correll drew directly onto the wall, and, in her quirky style, produced illustrations in the form of a mural, depicting the history of the Arts Centre. I was lucky enough to be in Chapter while she was working on the piece, and I was in awe - she seemed so confident, drawing in red and black onto a huge white wall.

Below is a picture of the completed mural, followed by a shot of Correll working on the mural, and a close-up so you can see the detail.

Image from here.

Image from here.

Image from here.

My home: an introduction.

In this mini-series, I'm going to share a selection of my favourite things from each room in our house. Hopefully these posts will provide you with a little insight into my style, and give you a peek into what our house is like.

Dining room

Our living room and dining room are really one room. They would originally have been two rooms, but have since been opened up by knocking through and installing a square archway. The result is a large room, but with two very separate areas. 

This week, I've chosen to show you a few of my most loved things from our dining room. They are:

Our large clock

The clock is on the wall that faces the living room, and is therefore visible from both rooms. The sheer size of this clock (50cm diameter) means that we can see it from the other end of the living room, and therefore don't need a clock in that room. We bought it a few years ago - it was a bargain from TK Maxx and I carried it all the way home from town to our house!

Torin's footprints

I made this print of Torin's feet for David for Fathers' Day 2009, when Torin was 5 weeks old. His feet were so tiny! I bought the frame and mount and then printed his feet onto plain card using a large ink pad like this, from Hobbycraft. I did several prints of his right foot on different pieces of card, printed his left foot onto each one, and then picked the best one. Looking at him now (he's 20 months), I can't believe he was ever that small!

Torin's highchair

There are so many high-tec and expensive highchairs to choose from when you have a small child. We managed to escape that hassle because we were given this highchair from my parents:

My grandfather (the same one who drew these) made it for me when I was a baby 28 years ago! It was also used for my brother and sister, plus numerous other visiting cousins, and still looks great today. Using nothing but a staple gun, I recovered the seat in the same fabric as I used for the table cloth - a much cheaper version of this by Cath Kidston from here.

He was a clever man, my grandfather.