Hockney & The Wolseley

Mr.S&P splashed out a bit today, we don't do it all the time, but days like today are why we save our pennies elsewhere. He took me and our lovely boy, who has been staying a few days, to the Wolseley for lunch. It's one of the places that you hear everyone talk about. It truly doesn't disappoint. 

Neither does Hockney.

The Royal Academy was absolutely packed though. I booked our tickets on line, thank god, otherwise I don't think we would have made it in. And I would have been so upset to have missed this extraordinary exhibition.

I hope all you lovely bloggers have had a great day too. Here is my fabulous Gruau card from my Valentine.

And here is the one I sent him.

They say it's Frank's world, we just live in it.

Between Two Worlds

Well it was very quiet at the Antiques fair yesterday, probably a combination of the freezing cold and lack of pennies in the pockets post Christmas. I still really enjoyed it though. Had a lot of compliments about the look of my stall, did I take a picture? duh no.

Also a lot of people liking my stuff even if they didn't buy yesterday. I always enjoy the day, probably because I don't do it that often but mostly because I love talking to people.

One of my work friends turned up and we were chatting about this and that, and in a swoop she solved a long standing mystery for me. 

Years...... ago I saw a great black and white film on the box about a cruise liner drifting in foggy seas. As the ship's journey continues, the individual stories of the ship's passengers are played out. The film has a massive and spooky twist at the end which I absolutely loved. But could I remember the bloomin name of the film? I recalled that Paul Henreid was in it, but that was that.

Turns out it's called...............................

It was originally a play in 1923, made into a film in the 1930's then remade in 1944, BINGO!!!!!

My friend's husband is in a revival production of the original play, on at the Finborough theatre in London, only on for another couple of weeks. I'm desperate to go and see it.

Here he is, David Brett. 'Time Out' magazine are loving him. And well they should.

The play is called Outward Bound.

See it if you can, it's an amazing story.

Shrimpton and Perfect at Lewes Town Hall

S&P will be stalling out at the Collectors and Antiques Fair this coming Saturday at Lewes Town Hall, East Sussex. I'm taking along lots of gorgeous and interesting vintage items including the hand made jumper above.

It's on between 10.00am-4.00pm come along and see me.

Garden Excitement

Our lovely gardening chum Willy came to the house at the week end to help us get a handle on our garden. We stuffed him with lashings of hot chilli and a little red wine to fortify him for his task. It was very cold on Saturday, just a few short hours before the snow arrived. But he very patiently took me and Mr. S&P round our own garden helping us to identify every single plant we have. It was totes amazing because nearly all the plants are just twigs at the moment , but he knew each plant and it's properties and yes, even the latin names.

We have lived in the house for 4 years this March and it has taken us all this time to earn the cash to restore it. It really isn't finished yet, we need to decorate the drawing room, which is quite bleak and unwelcoming. I hope to turn that into a little art deco haven where I can listen to the wireless, read and knit of course. 

But whilst we are thinking about that we want to get on with the garden plans. The garden I think will be a long and ongoing project. But we hope to grow our own veg, and maybe sell a little surplus. To have some flowers for the house and to have a few areas in the garden where we can sit out and enjoy the sun. We are slowly collating ideas and we will be visiting some luscious local private gardens when the spring comes, as part of the open garden scheme. But yesterday Mr. S&P utilised the snow to score out possible layouts, tres beans I say.

Monty Don is on board, good ole boy.

And Stafford Cliff.

The Dowager Duchess of  Devonshire even let us take a peek in her garden last year during Edensor day.

And we have been taking pictures of inspirational gardens for quite some time.

At last we are making a start and it feels very good indeed.

Keep Toasty Warm

Weather like this can paralyse activity outside the house, but it doesn't have to. It can also promote time spent on activities inside the house. Not just the usual chores we all have to complete. No, we can get crafty and make things that will help keep us snuggly and warm.

If you can, embrace the enforced time at home, take time out and relax.

It's freezy outside brrrrrrrrrrrr.

images Martha Stewart Living.

Easy Rhythmic Knitting

The first garment I ever knitted was a fair isle, I loved the look of it you see, didn't think about the angst involved.

This isn't it. This is a small piece of knitting I did when I had the idea of creating my own fair isle designs. I do love fair isle but it requires so much concentration everything else has to go on hold. I much prefer the kind of knitting that you can do whilst relaxing at the same time. I find knitting and my limited experience of crochet soothing.

This is my latest finished project, a jumpee for Mr. S&P. The first one I have ever knitted for him, (shame on me). This should have been a fairly straight forward garment, but the b****y pattern was wrong, grrrr. I thought I had misread it, then thought I didn't have the necessary skills to finish it, but after consulting my fellow knitters at my knitting group we all came to the conclusion the pattern was at fault. So I made some adjustments, left off the big shawl collar, simplified the neckline and finished it. Things like that really knock my confidence as a knitter and I've been knitting for a long while. 

Anyhoo I've moved on to a really simply sweet pattern now, nice and easy and I'm over half way through.

I'm making it in a pale mint green cotton rich yarn for my Danish friend Mia who lives in Florence and who is expecting her first baby. I have had the yarn a while, purchased for another project that I changed my mind about. Now that's thrifty and satisfying, the exact yarn I need, already in my stash.

The pattern is in this months Knitting magazine and is a great project for a beginner.
This is to be my next project, which I'm guessing will be easy once I know how to do it, right? I'm hoping to make some 'Blackberry Salad' cushions during a long haul flight I'm going on fairly soon. Of course the tricky part might not be the pattern, it might be getting the crochet hook on the flight in the first place. Anyone out there managed that recently?

Winter Views Today

Sun on the door.

Burning garden cuttings.

Smoke on the water.

Frozen water mid air.