Shifting Corners

I don't have the luxury of being able to shift furniture around my large sitting room, because, well, I don't HAVE a large sitting room, and pretty much the way the furniture works now is due to necessity rather than aesthetics. And don't you get just a little fed up of seeing people furnish their house with just one. more. chair. for the heck of it? I know I do - because, goodness, how I love to re-arrange a room with the best of them!

Not to be outdone I do the next best thing - I rearrange corners. Yes, I can just about manage a corner or two in this tiny two bedroom mid-terrace. A new picture in a frame, an ornament moved from there to there, perhaps a new cushion or a rearranging of the blankets if I want to go all-out crazy.

I dream of bigger - of having ALL the couches of my dreams in one room, just so (I do love me a good couch and daydream a lot about them). But until then, corners will suffice.

Yes, as we move into the season of being indoors, a few new corners feels just right.

Leaves as decor

It's almost irresistible - the urge to decorate the inside with the beauty found outside. Those reds! Those amazing watercolours on leaves - if these were captured on canvas they would be declared masterpieces, yet here they are - dazzling for a few short days before crumbling to dust.

We deck the sitting room with their beauty and wait for replacements until they all have to give way to a more trying season.









Reminders of where we are on our journey round the sun.

A Time to Knit

More and more afternoons are spent here, doing this.

The boys commence marathon checkers and chess sessions, I sit with a cuppa near and knit. The eldest closes the curtains, puts on the lamps, declares 'this is the cosiest room EVER' and settles into the rhythm of s l o w i n g down, remembering the routine that we fall into at this time of year.

Even though I try to hold on to my sanity at this time of year, I have to admit, these afternoons are pretty sweet.

My Floor

The boys had a retro moment last week, and literally the entirety of my sitting floor was one whole farm yard. And I didn't have the heart to clear it away. Not just because it is probably the closest thing to my own farm I'll ever likely own, but because no matter how cluttered it gets, wooden toys never look ugly.

I refrained...

I refrained. I did not make the lap blanket I thought was a foregone conclusion when I first received the fabric.

Instead, I did make the over-sized burlap basket for my spinning needs, and there it sits, large and empty, waiting to filled to the top with fleece. Yes, I'm ready now for a whole sheep.

I also made a cushion cover, for this piece of fabric was one I was mesmerised by - it just took my breath away, and I wanted it to shine a little light all of its own. I made piping to give the cover a finished look, and I love the way it 'pops' whilst nestled with all the other cushions.

And with some scraps I made a small table runner, or mat. Not really a necessity, but it pulls all the new colours in the room together somewhat.

And the best bit? I still have loads of fabric left! Maybe I will make a blanket after all.... *twitch*.... just to scratch that itch....

These walls of ours...

A year or so ago I nailed these crates to our sitting room wall for somewhere to display nick-nacks. I really love them, they have a rustic charm and they have turned a large, boring flat space into something more engaging.

But still, there was something missing... Of course, a plethora of prints! And so with the help of arty friends, some of my own images and etsy finds I created our 'seasonal wall' - Images that keep us in tune with the outside when we are in the very heart of our home.







I think it works somehow. A hotch-potch of nick-nacks and granny things with a little modern tweek.


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The Blankets

I'm almost embarrassed about how many blankets I have stashed in my sitting room.









I've tried to squirrel them down into more sane proportions (can I just say that apart from these four large quilts and blankets, there four or five more behind the shots), and I know blankets are my thing, but still - can I really justify the instigating and making of TWO more, all in the name of cosy??!

Will there be a time when there will be 'enough' blankets in our house? In reality, yes, we're there already. In my head? Never.



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