red and turquoise

Top is a detail from my Diwali flip flops, bottom is a thrifted saucer, I can only imagine what the teacup looked like that must have once matched it.

My front door came completely off in my hands yesterday, I mean, right off. I spent over an hour in the rain trying to get it on (luckily the gale was blowing away from the door) bu to no avail. Today Mr P helped me with it, turns out it is unfixable, but at least we got it re-attached so I could lock it. I have to use my side door now, which is not so good as it lets all the heat out my house and sends the wind blowing right across my bed! But hey, at least I have a second door option so I'm happy about that.

Ooh, must dash, got a text to say food is ready, Mr P making his super tasty pasta. He used to live in Italy so his pasta is always beautiful and the best comfort food. Bye....

Purple & lilac

Hydrangea flowers on top of my stove. The black branches hang from the ceiling above my stove to make the whole thing seem less heavy as it's a huge thing in my white room (the walls only look pink here because of the pink indian fabric I hung at the window for Diwali). When the warranty runs out I'll be painting the stove white, can't wait!




Old lampshade on vintage cushion cover.

More Diwali

It's a long time since I posted a Self Portrait Tuesday pic isn't it, so this is me in one of my outfits for Diwali. I had a proper Sari but I was convinced I'd catch fire with so many candles so I wore this thrifted top instead. It was only £1 cause it has a big oily stain down the front, and something red, but the red sequined scarf hid all signs.

And I finally added the red flowers to that table display and took daylight shots. Will be adding the colourfest to flickr soon but need to set up a new flickr account for fancy dress and parties, fun!

The sugar consumption seems to have delayed my 'cycle' (never so subtley said in real life) and so my PMT continues on and on and on. Luckily yesterday was beautifully sunny so it really lifted my spirits. Rain coming today, I may try and sleep through it so I don't go mad and break things. And speaking of sleep, must get some now... Ciao lovely people.

Divali - table setting

Table setting without flash, I was a bit rushed so I never got the second layer of smaller coloured flowers to go inside the white ones, but I was still pleased considering I had 10 minutes to rush something together.



Table staken with flash, but showing how it is reflected in the mirror to create a full circle, but again, the white flowers hardly show without their coloured centres, not that we were looking at the flowers, we were looking at the (top corners of shot) sweets! More pics soon, trying to sleep off the intense sugar rush.

It really was a lovely night, peple looked wonderful in their outfits and I had an unexpected guest that I hadn't seen for over a year, so that was extra special.

Best of all, it was warm and toasty, my stove was on top form (though it switched itself off 10 mins before people arrived!) and the music I had keyed up on my Mac went down really well, particularly as I finally found the cable that connects my Mac to my stereo.

The music was accompanied by some incredibly gorgeous photo's from the internet shown as a slideshow, they really gave a wonderful Indian feel to the whole night. Happy Divali.

All aglow

4.30am, PMT (PMS) mania has helped me get lots done and I now have places for people to sit inside my house on Saturday. They forecast showers all day so probably no garden fire but no matter, I have my stove working! My house is all cosy now, what an absolute delight. Everything is all orangey glow which is psychologically so warming, if only pellets stoves weren't behind glass... I do miss the smell and sound of a real fire. The most recent filling of insulation seems to be making a big difference so it was worth being pinned under the ceiling the other day :0)

I'm looking out as many lamps, tealight holders and fairy lights as I can find to get the place lit up, the photo above was taken a few weeks ago when there were power cuts, I love the light and shadow it casts, especially inide hte bath as seen here. Whenever I see one second hand I buy it, I have 3 so far.

Frozen berries

Look how lovely and frosted my berries got after they came out the freezer!

Yesterday I had to prune off the last of my oh-so-productive berry branches because I don't want my friends to get berry stained as they brush past. No great loss, there were only a handful of berries still to ripen and I have more than enough in the freezer to keep me in smoothies for a few more weeks.

I'm so enormously pleased with the bush, which was the one things that kept itself going even when I was ill in the summer (unlike the tomatoes, poor things). I've eaten mouthfulls (and often bellyfulls) of berries for nearly every day for about 2 months. I'm so glad I bought it instead of flowers when I moved here.

Colder nights

The light fading on a chilly Edinburgh evening


But even the grey streets have bluey beauty


Monuments on a darkening sky

I can laugh now, but I wasn't laughing yesterday when I was trying to re-attach my kitchen ceiling. Having filled it with enormously generous layers of Thermafleece wool insulation I was naturally tackling alone the two person job of putting back the 6ft by 8ft panel. Unsurprisingly the weight on my hand caused a massive pain which I thought at the time was my wrist breaking (but it was just me aggravation my work induced Bursitis).

My hand recoiled
The panel bagan to fall
The prop posts (with nails in them) started to collapse towards me.
My good hand reached out to stop them...

Nothing was now holding up the ceiling.

I was stuck underneath it, keeping it just above me with my feet, for one hour until my wrist and hand had recovered enough to lift it off without causing further damage. Luckily nothing was seriously damaged, other than my enthusiasm for the work, but that was never really there anyway.

Thankfully I managed to get the panel up and will now have at least one clear space for friends to retreat to if it rains on my Diwali garden fire this weekend... but lets hope it doesn't rain, an October fire is such a delight. A delight for the Festival of Light, how perfect.

Now I need to find somewhere to hide the remaining insulation so I can get to my indoor pellet stove and free up seating space. Am I crazy? What sort of person entertains in a home like a building site? This person :0)

Baraka

If you don't mind paying £1.75 for a cup of tea then head to Baraka, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, it's really quiet in the afternoons. I practically had the whole place to myself to pour over my huge pile of library books, so much easier than lugging them home on the bus and then back in again, and more treat-like than just looking over them in the library itsef.

Love the oversized round lights on the ceiling, the colourful cushions, the and the bluey wallpaper with a muted gold print.

The Museum

I love the museum on Chambers Street, not just the exhibits, but the building itself. These pics were taken in the original building, but the new one is equally wonderful and detailed. Anyone visiting Edinburgh must go there and go to the roof terrace to view the city. I like to go there if I feel tired or in need of fresh air in the middle of the city.

Coe and Waito cones

Art Esprit are now stocking some of the pottery from Coe and Waito that has been popping up on many blogs. I really want to feel the birds and cups that they make, they look incredibly smooth. But what I really want is a little collection of those pinecones, I must email them and ask about UK stockists.