I Don't Do Pink!

What can I say? I know pink is a very much loved colour in the creative/thrift/shabby chic corner of blogland, but I have to admit it is not my favourite. It's way down there with peach and yellow. I much prefer blues, greens, blue/greens, browns, orange and ivory. I avoid pink. I believe some shades of pink can actually make my teeth hurt.

I went around the house today collecting every possession of mine that's pink. Dear reader, the following photo shows the sum total of the pink I own:



How about that? The coathanger was knitted by my Nan sometime in the 70s (the fabric is nylon offcuts she got from the bargin bin at Brentford Nylons - anyone remember them? Of course not - you're all far too young). The perfume is Agent Provocateur; the rainhat (top right) came free with the Lady Penelope doll in the 60s, and the collection of boxes within boxes (centre bottom) was made by my son about ten years ago and two of the boxes are pink. The perfume bags and dog were a pressie and the sissors and tape measure were accidents.

Also, two of the dolls I have from childhood wear pink. This is Angelina who comes from Austria and Jane who's wearing a 60s Faerie Glen dress.

I do possess some pink underwear but I didn't choose it. Enough said, let's move on....

But something is happening now that I've discovered blogland. I visit all your blogs and see wonderful photos of things you've created, treasure hunted, transformed, bought, and they're beautiful; and many of them include pink. I think...perhaps...the thought that pink might be OK is seeping into my brain, because look:

A quilt and shams I bought last week in the local charity shop.

It has pink in it!

The hat I had to buy in TK Max last weekend:

I can tell myself the velvet trim is a raspberry red but that twinkle in the flower center is definitely pink.

Even my camera case (a Christmas pressie last year) has Cath Kidston pink blooms over it:

And then the beautiful quilt (yes, another one) I bought at the Country Living Fair from Forever England is green and pink:

As long as it's subtle and there're plenty of other colours surrounding it, I think I can cope. One step at a time.

Blessings,

Andi xx

B is for Bath Sheet

It's Metamorphosis Monday over at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch and I'd like to take part by showing you my little project that took just about an hour one day last week.

First I have to confess - I had a bit of a spending spree at the Cath Kidston site. Not only did I order the blue polka dot quilt and pillowcases, I also got these two wonderful bath sheets:




Sorry the picture is a bit blurred, don't quite know what happened there. Perhaps I was trembling with excitement over my new fluffy towels with cowboys and polka dots no less. Yippee!

Anyway, now I didn't really need as many plain white bath sheets for myself, but my daughter did. Plain white is a bit boring for an eleven year old though, so I decided to make it a little more interesting.

Take one plain white bath sheet:



and an old blue hand towel that's always at the bottom of the pile because no one wants to use it. I'm pretty sure it's been washed enough times for all the excess colour to have come out (we're talking an old towel here):

Mark out a kind of rugby ball shape and cut out:

Then cut a weird shape out of an old black t-shirt:

Then take an old face cloth (why do I have so much old bathroom stuff in my house?) and cut out two discs (can you guess what it is yet?):

And two pupils from the t-shirt:

Attach the face to the bath sheet using Bondaweb and then zigzag stitch around the edges:

One happy daughter and a fun way to have celebrated Sesame Street's anniversary last week.

Blessings,

Andi

COUNTRY LIVING FAIR

On Wednesday 11th November I went with my mum to the Country Living Fair. We'd managed to get last minute tickets and, thank goodness, the industrial action on the trains didn't affect our journey in.



We arrived at 10.58. I know this because we stood in the reception area while the two minute silence was observed for Remembrance Day. This always moves me far more than the ceremony at the cenotaph.



Once we moved through the doors, we turned right and I bought something almost immediately. I found the booth for the Welsh company Calon (http://www.caloncompany.co.uk/). Absolutely beautiful things for sale BUT the must-have for me was this fantastic doggie fabric:









Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but it was so lovely I couldn't leave it there.



Next up was a tin sign from Live Laugh Love, (http://www.livelaughlove.co.uk/) a very busy stall with lots of lovely things. I just liked the humour of this sign:












Another of their signs balanced things out I think:

I've loved this saying since reading a biography of Edith Piaf years and years ago. I think she had a plaque or a heart brooch or something with this written on, and I thought, Yeah, that's a good thing to believe.

I also bought a little jug with violets painted on. That was put in my lovely new china cupboard and I forgot to photograph it.

Unfortunately, just after we'd had our lunch, the fire alarm went off. People were ignoring it until a security guard came striding through the crowd saying 'This is NOT a drill. Please make your way to the nearest exit'. Well, I don't know how many visitors the building holds, but it was a full but calm crowd that made its way down the staircase and out into the street. I guess we were out there for twenty minutes before being allowed back in. Perhaps the chef had burned the waffles?

We calmed ourselves down at this stall:

Selling Sloe Gin, Sloe Whisky, Sloe Brandy... you get the picture. Tasters!



My last purchase was a quilt from Forever England (http://www.foreverengland.com/). 'Chloe' in green. It should arrive sometime this week. Free delivery. Very excited.



Looking forward to reading other reports of the Fair, and perhaps seeing more photos. Most of the time it was far too crowded to allow photos to be taken.



A very enjoyable trip.



Blessings,

Andi xx

Recycled Sweater

This week, for the first time, I am taking part in Metamorphosis Monday over at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch, so please click on the link and take yourself over to see all the wonderful ideas by those also taking part.

Months ago my husband had a clear out of his wardrobe and had thrown a couple of sweaters into the rag bag. When I saw them, I thought they were too good to just throw away, so I kept them with the idea of selling them at a car boot. Well, that never happened and then I read somewhere about felting wool. This involves washing pure wool items on a hot wash to shrink it and 'felt' it.

This is a photo to give you an idea of how large the sweater was to begin with:

Now the sweater above isn't the one I 'felted' because I forgot to take a 'before' picture of the one I actually used. This one is being used to show you how much the sweater shrunk.

I have to admit that even though the sweater was headed for the rag bag, I still had to steel myself to put it in the washing machine and turn the dial to the maximum programme. Could I really do it? Could I?

Well, I did, and here is the actual garment. Remember, it was the same size as the sweater you've seen previous:

I decided to use the main part as a hot water bottle cover and the rest may be turned into Christmas decorations of some kind.

Well, husband saw me in the throws of cutting up his sweater and wailed 'That's my jumper you're cutting up!' I reminded him that he'd thrown it in the rag bag months before. 'That's not the point - it's a good jumper and you're cutting it up!' I pointed out that after he'd thrown it out he'd have no control over what happened to it whoever owned it. He went off muttering under his breath and I carried on cutting.

My new hot water bottle cover:

And I have to say it is sooooo cosy, and in the middle of the night when a bare hot water bottle can feel soooo cold, this one now retains a little warmth and so it doesn't get thrown out of bed.

I realise this is a very small project compared to some of the wonderful things on Met Monday, but I'm very happy to have recycled with very pleasant results.

Blessings,

Andi

A Knight to Remember

Now this happened a few weeks ago so I'm cheating a little by posting it now, but I can't let such an exciting event to go by without recording it here.

Our theatre company was performing the female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. This is not only a very funny script, but was also a fun production to work on:

We reached the last night and the cast were asked to stay on stage after the final curtain. This was curious, but we presumed Brian our director wanted to have a word with us. Patiently we waited. The doorbell on the set rang. We all laughed and shouted 'Come in, Brian'. When he failed to appear and the doorbell rang again, and again, and again quite urgently, Val got up and threw open the door....

What a shock to find Sir Ian McKellen standing on the other side! There was a collective jaw drop. He'd been in the audience.

Having picked ourselves up from the floor but still in shock, we had a cast photo taken with our VIP guest:

Sir Ian is Patron of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain and he'd come along in that capacity to see the first production of our 75th season. He stayed for the after show party and was very natural and friendly. He spoke to us all and even had one of my Alan Rickman's Lovely Cakes (that title is another story for another day).

Not a particularly great photo of me, but I was very happy!

Just wanted to name-drop a little!

Blessings,

Andi