Things I am loving right now: Part One

Now Im back at school, most of all I'm loving my bed

The new Boden catalogue. I now just need a Boden body.

My new sale room bargain to house my fabric addiction

This fab red polka dot lampshade from Rice

These gorgeous pillow cases

Billy boy

Here is sweet Billy boy one of my two tabby toms. He is nearly five but still very timid. He was thrown from a passing car and abandoned when he was only a tiny kitten. But he was very lucky to be found huddled under my mum's car bonnet where he had crawled, totally terrified. He then broke his leg when trying to crawl under a fence that was too low, only six weeks after we got him. It cost a fortune to sort that out and six weeks in a cage which really traumatised him.Anyway he is a darling cat and although still a bit people shy he will sit on my lap and is very good company.My othertabby is called Tom and he is at present asleep on the chair next to me snoring his old head off. He is about fourteen.In the twenty five years I have been married our home has never been without a cat or four. My youngest son used to say "Mummy we are really rich" "Why is that then,Harry?"
"Because we have three cats." Maybe there is a lot of truth in that because we have had twelve cats now and they have all been so different and such wonderful companions and characters.

Rehabilitation

Another weakness. I cannot resist scooping up old and unwanted chairs that nobody else seems to want. I don't have a lot of spare time but when I do, I love to paint and refurbish my little orphans and make them respectable chairs again. Consequently I have a house full of old chairs dotted about in various states of rehab. Here are my latest:

This one was rescued from my sisters garden.It was out in all weathers and had a moss green velvet seat pad that was mouldy. A lick of paint and a Cath Kidston tea towel and its as good as new and now lives in my bedroom.

This cost me a £1 from a car boot sale.It was brown with an orange seat.(Note to self -do before pictures for full effect)

This one cost me £1 from the sale room. It was burnt and covered in splodges of black paint.It has a cushion pad from Ikea just to finish it off.
There are many more waiting in line. I have a lovely childs bentwood chair which I bought at auction for £6 and there's an auction on Wednesday, so who knows how many more need rescuing.Watch this space.

Stress buster

I have discovered a brilliant stress reliever. Some people may find what I am about to tell you a bit bonkers and definitely very anal. I have spent a happy half hour sorting out my books and lining them up according to the colour of the spines.Now the colours flow beautifully and I find the look of it, scarily satisfying.I get the same thrill from looking at yarn in a wool shop all the lovely colours sitting side by side in perfect harmony. Yes, I need to get out more! Enough said.

Busy,busy busy...Tired,tired,tired....

Why ,why,does everything take so much longer to do than you imagine? I have been far too busy sorting out months of accumulated stuff which is now camping out on all four landings and stairs,decorating my bedroom which does look really nice but the resulting chaos that abounds whilst doing any job is very depressing.
Why also do I start one job (decorating said bedroom) then in the middle decide to start moving downstairs furniture around and washing suite covers

and curtains to fnd that we are now in the throws of some mini tropicical climate which entails monsoon -like rain every few hours?

And a bit more