( everyeskimo - I think I need these! )

As is often the case when one moves house (or indeed constantly for some, myself included) the hunt for treasures, nick knacks and storage solutions to organise and prettify your home with begins (or continues)....Being without bookshelves in the new flat, and getting annoyed with ever growing, teetering towers of books which surround me, I thought I should go on the search for something to store them in. I have visions of stacks of old wooden crates - an old, modern, modular bookshelf that can be re-arranged and moved as required.......

Beverage crate from elizabethwrenvintage Soda Crate from ingenuityondisplay

Whilst browsing I inevitably started looking at things that were not book storage....and fell in love with these floral Atlas mason jars too (northwest vintage treasures) I kind of have a thing about transfers and decals on glass though...it gives it a haunting feel that I love...

Unfortunately, all of this is in America....and I am not. So I guess I will continue to trawl the antique shops, visit the auction house street sale on Thursday and see what I find....not that that is really much of a chore!

Made in the Shade Summertime Hop and other stories

Made in the Shade went well, thanks to the hardwork that the Made in the Shade gals put in! I was a little more organised than I'd expected to be (due to the moving and illness) so that was quite good! I met lots of lovely people and chatted and looked at and bought some fabulous things, tapped my feet along to the music and generally had a good day...good but long.....around 18 hours start to finish....I was joined by the lovely Claira for most of the day (what a trooper!) and plotted and planned new and exciting things......watch this space!

Anyhoo....the new flat is going fabulously, all of our things were moved by a lovely man and his van called Michal on Monday. I'm currently away from my new abode, house and cat sitting for my sister. It's quite nice to be away from everything for a while, most things are still packed up at the new flat, I have a day off work today, so I actually have nothing to do....I am actually relaxing....whilst doing some online bits and pieces for Lost in the Forest - you can now be a fan our Facebook!..... this evening I will settle down with a takeaway and a film, covered in a furry cat shaped blanket or two!

More regular updates coming soon -BT have finally (after 3 days and numerous phonecalls) agreed with me that we actually do have a BT line in the flat so won't be charging me £120something to reconnect me - so internet will be in new flat by 2nd July!

Packing is still under way....but we finally move on Monday!! Normal service will resume shortly from the letter A.....or at least the basement flat below the house which the letter A is pointing to!


Please don't forget about the Made in the Shade summertime hop...20th June. Please come along if you can - it will be lots of fun!

staring at an owl through a flowery porthole....

I am still alive, surrounded by boxes of 'stuff' and empty shelves waiting in eager anticipation for The Move.
I am mostly packed, which proves frustrating when I suddenly want to look at a book or watch a film, thank goodness the internet exists! All that is left to go is daily essentials - this includes fabric mountain, art materials, jewellery making stuff, computer, my toothbrush and coffee.

I am on a bit of a floral kick at the moment...maybe because of the beautiful weather, the vintage furniture fabrics I have been looking at, the big hole left by the disposal of my dried rose collection (I have been ruthless in my packing!) or the fact that my new flat will back onto the fabulous Botanics.....who knows how my mind works!?

All I know is that I want to fill my new flat with peonies, begonias, roses and beautiful floral vintagey things....such as this!


Utter perfection by littlepaperhome on etsy....I want a wall full please. Then I could make a giant chalk drawing of an owl, or something, although it would look as though you were spying on him through many floral portholes....I seriously think that would be the best wall in the world.

So. I don't usually dedicate a whole post to my personal day to day life...pretty much because it's usually fairly mundane. But I really think I need to document yesterday, just so I can look back when I'm having a shit day and remember that some times things just work out perfectly.

Some of you may know (I think I have blogged about it) my dislike of my current abode. It was not carefully selected, it was desperately signed up as a last resort....this was all before 'the crunch' - rent was high, people were moving...I live in Edinburgh, well known for it's student population and festival - both of which start to rent flats at a rate of knots around June when we were forced to move last year. Added to the less than ideal flat is the fact that slowly over the past couple of months things are falling apart (the ceiling being the main thing as there is a hole in the roof), getting damp and generally not working. Letting agents notified, nothing gets fixed - or in the case of the ceiling - they spend 3 weeks fixing it, only to find next time it rains that the roof STILL has a hole in so renders the repair job pointless.



Anyway....in a moment of 'I hate this flat and can't stand to be in it a moment longer' last week I started looking at all the rental websites. I found a vague listing for a flat, in a beautiful location (I will just mention that I am currently sat here at 8am with pneumatic drills outside which have been drilling for an hour now as part of the Tram works) it sounded bigger than our current flat.....sounded perfect, but there were no pictures so we had no idea what it was actually like. I was undecided whether to bother even getting the full details...can't really afford to move....where we are is not soo bad...why is it so cheap? It must be horrible.....etc etc....Curiosity got the better of me in the end and I went to enquire and came out having booked a viewing... OK....so I'll get to the point. The flat was beautiful. It has a private patio....leading down to a beautiful mature garden, it has a 2 double rooms so my poor sister doesn't have to live in a tiny room any more..it has a utility room - which is huge and can easily double as dyeing/painting/messy room. It has STORAGE!!! Oh my, how I have missed cupboards...one of the cupboards is actually massive and has a desk and power inside....so we have renamed that Emilys studio. There are big antique mirrors and things all over the place....Perfect for me and my sister to live in perfect harmony! No more clutter, no more papier mache, fabric and jewellery supplies all over the flat, no more cooking in my studio!


We rushed to the letting agents to get a holding deposit in....2 minutes later so did somebody else. They put it to the landlady for a decision.....So, yes, the point.....Yesterday..... I was on the bus to work yesterday morning and received a phonecall asking when we could move....we have to give a months notice on this flat, so a month. She asked if we could possibly move any earlier as this would probably swing in our favour. In a moment of utter madness we said yes. 2 weeks time was fine..... Crazy ladies!! Our mum agreed to lend us the holding deposit and apart from that we would scrape by, and possibly have to scavenge in bins or pick grass and eat that rather than shopping for food.....3 tense hours later we got the news.....YAY!! new flat :D An hour or so later I got another phonecall off my sister, who not only got promoted at work - but they have also moved her to the shop closer to our new flat! Then, a little later, I got confirmation that I would be doing an art residential weekend.....and then heard of another 4 days artist work that I will be doing...and at this point I was grinning, slightly hyper and really rather happy! Just thinking about what if we'd said no to moving sooner because we didn't think we could afford it, not got the flat, and then 2 hours later got better jobs/more work. I'm so glad I'm a little silly and don't think about the whole consequences sometimes!

Images via desire to inspire

home is......

I have been thinking a lot about 'home' recently. What does it actually mean, and where is it?

I've moved around a lot, especially in the past year.......maybe more mentally than physically......I am not yet settled into my own nest. I feel like I am in a suspended place between the past and the future....this place doesn't quite exist and it refuses to fit. I'm like a snail who has found a new home in an empty can.

erica browne - city bird

That all sounds a bit dispondant. It isn't. I know these things must happen, and we must go through these periods of change.....we all (hopefully, anyway) find a place where we fit eventually, or I guess make the place we are in fit a bit better, or realise it fitted all along.....or something!

And also, these times make you think....get ideas flying around your head, albeit at 2am when you're trying to sleep in the bed that doesn't feel like yours.