Smiles

It's funny how, after a while, you look at things and no longer see them. Really see them, notice the things that make you like them, the things that make you smile. This chair stands at the end of the bed, in a corner of the bedroom. It was given to us years ago by a friend who had inherited lots of her aunt's furniture. She kindly gave us keys to her aunt's flat and told us to have a good root around and take whatever we wanted! This took place when we just moved into our first home, had very little furniture or money and our friend realised that we needed a bit of help. There was a beautiful, really beautiful, sofa and armchair with loose covers in rose pink linen that we coveted. For hours and days after we planned how we could squeeze this big old furniture which had spent years in an enormous tall ceilinged Regency flat overlooking the sea into our tiny, doll's house of a Victorian terrace. We had to admit defeat but it's one of those "if only ...." things we talk about. The other day i was looking (just looking!) at the new Cath Kidston catalogue and spotted the pink sofa the model was lounging on, a quick knowing look at M and it was another of those "if only" moments.


So we took this chair, along with kitchen utensils a box full of Cornishware (yes a box!) and considered ourselves to be very spoilt indeed. Over the years I think the chair stood in the shadow of the much wanted pink sofa and eventually ended up in the attic. When we moved here one of the first things I did was to give the much neglected chair some TLC. I painted it Eau de nil and covered it in a beautiful pink linen Laura Ashley fabric (you see I've never really got over not having that sofa)! I loved the fabric so much that I covered a huge canvas with it and hung it on a wall behind the chair. Hanging proudly from the chair is one of my mother's bags that I loved when I was a little girl. It was the colour of the beads that I loved and I think the colour combination has to be one of my favourites. It's the colours I tend to use when ragging and the colours I'm fondest of wearing. A friend pointed this out to me the other day, that I tend to have clothes in this colour palette - I wonder where that came from?
Anyway, the chair and bag stand together. Rescued and looked after, their colours make me smile.


Another thing that has brought a lot of smiles to this house these past few days is this wonderful book. One of my favourite children's stories illustrated by my favourite illustrator - Pippi Longstocking (yes, Pippi Longstocking!) illustrated by Lauren Child (yes, Lauren Child). Gorgeous - pick it up if you need a smile!