All around my house

As always, with a change of season, I feel the urge to change my surroundings.

Just a tweak here and there - a few pot geraniums that never made it into the garden can have an extended flowering season on the window sill indoors

a little table has been painted with a Farrow and Ball paint in the living room - one of a nest of tables bought for a song at a charity warehouse, with ugly damaged varnished surfaces but with shapely, elegant legs with a little carved detailing

before

after

the others await the same treatment

an old Edwardian chair bought off eBay for £15 and collected from a cold dirty barn several years ago,  patiently waiting for a little attention in the meantime, has finally been rewarded with a thorough sanding
and a scarce coat of grey paint - this has been sanded and it now awaits another scarce coat of a lighter grey to give it a soft faded look in contrast with the heavy brown varnish I sanded away.

The chair will be re-covered in either a natural linen or a ticking - I havent yet decided.

Some new teal coloured cushions to pep up the old comfy sofa in the family room





a bit of home shopping with a new mix of old cushions on this sofa - I made the two smaller cushions a while ago from an old 1950s printed cotton fabric.



And a new inspirational book has arrived in timely fashion for the autumn change around

French Essence is a beautifully photographed, large, hardback "coffee table" kind of book, pure heaven for any lover of France, the french way of life, french brocantes and french interiors, and beautifully written by Vicki Archer, whos blog you can enjoy here.

I urge you to visit her blog for a taste of France.

or maybe add this book to your Christmas present list or why not treat yourself?



I'm sure you won't regret it as it is so beautifully written as well as bursting with such evocative photographs

Fuelled by both my visit to the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair at Battersea Park, mentioned in my last post, and the above book, I have also painted another charity shop buy, this lovely shaped barley twist table that I picked up for a few pounds a while back.

This is the table before - a great shape but with a stained top that still showed after stripping back, so an ideal candidate for painting.

whoops! spot the dog chew in background!

I have painted and gently aged it to match the small chest of drawers and mirror in the hall painted a while back.

The Decorative Fair was a wonderful treat, a feast for the eyes. (Now over, was on at the end of September for a few days)  An easy place to get to if arriving by tube as a courtesy car service operated every 10 minutes (although it was more frequent in practice) from outside the Sloan Square Hotel just across the square from Sloan Sqaure tube station, each car seating 6 visitors with 2 in the boot.(I am assuming this service is provided for every Fair!)

Yes, that was us - in the boot - despite our provincial excitement at being in London in Sloan Square for a day out (although both hardened commuters after having done our time living and working in the metropolis for years, in a distant past, care free child free life), we arrived in no uncertain style in rear facing seats in the boot of an Espace, giggling like children in the back of a volvo on their way to a Theme Park making faces at the driver of the car behind. ( Actually we didnt make faces although were sorely tempted to!).

Through the busy traffic, over the bridge and turning through the gates into a surprisingly green haven amongst the buildings we found the venue, on the site where part of the Festival of Britain celebrations in 1951 were held.

Of course this year we celebrate 60 years on from the Festival of Britain, and in the entrance area there were some wonderful examples of 1950s furniture and art work in recognition of the anniversary. Indeed throughout the fair there were exhibitors of some beautifully shaped mid century modern furniture.

We had a free ticket for two from an advertising leaflet in Homes and Antiques magazine, and exchanged this for a booklet of exhibitors which acted as our pass in and out (for two people) for the whole of the 5 day event - so had we wanted to we could have returned for another visit another day.

And to us this is was a grown up theme park of antique stalls rather than scary rides, but the adrenalin pumping thrills and excitement were there just the same as we moved from exhibitor to exhibitor, feasting our eyes on the most perfect painted chests and armoires, delicate and intricate birdcages, statement lamps made from the most diverse antiques you can imagine from guns to violins to cricket bats and topped with glorious feather lampshades, antique quilts and boutis and torchons, american feedsacks and scottish spongeware, smooth and worn wooden handled vintage gardening tools, iconic 50s chairs, beautiful golden walnut art deco cabinets, delicate china and silver, beautifully inlaid Tunbridge Ware boxes, elegant french chairs and sofas covered in plain linen, stunning chandeliers and wonderful works of art.

The Fair is on three times a year and I for one hope to return at the end of January for the Winter Fair, on from the 24 to 29 January 2012.

Back on the home front..........

The tomatoes are ripening beautifully now, and aswell as eating them raw and cooking with them, many have been frozen whole or await being made into sauces or passata for the freezer

My daily walks through the woods and around the orchards are proving bountiful in terms of chestnuts for roasting on the woodburner

 

And the orchards are overflowing with fallen apples, so each morning I collect a few windfalls of differing varieties not often seen in the shops, such as russetts - I wonder where they go?

Yesterday large empty crates were stacked at the end of some rows, labelled Export - Braeburns.

What madness is it that we can usually only buy French or South African braeburns in our supermarkets when here in Kent we are growing them for export?

And in a week when the news included more people than ever using free food handouts of past date supermarket goods, the orchards here are absolutely swimming with windfall apples that are mainly undamaged but not good enough for sale.

Just lying there slowly rotting - the orchards smell of fermenting apples

Were I an apple grower here I would want to open up my orchards this time of year, after I have safely gathered in my crop to sustain my livelihood, for all to come and pick up the windfalls for free - but then I always have been a dreamer.

Oh dear, my ideas of society, communities and living were heavily influenced by the simple and good Barbar the elephant stories of my childhood I fear - as well as Enid Blyton - ah well.

A new piece of Poole Pottery from the 1950s or 60s arrived this week

A posy bowl

I just love this pretty design

And it matches my other two pieces - a little collection growing here I think

Well, so much for my good intentions of posting little and often - sorry for such a long post, and thankyou so much, you are my faithful blogging friends indeed if you made it this far!