Pass the chair

My mum bought this chair second-hand as a student in London in the late '60s. It was a leather armchair then and apparently she planned on reupholstering it but never got round to it. When she told me she was throwing it out - she had literally dumped it in the back garden - I said I'd sell it on ebay for her. But when I saw it, I felt I needed to rescue it myself. It is not in the greatest nick.

It could look amazing with a really brightly coloured floral fabric. I love these from Bluebelle Grey.

I want them all! 
I adore these designs by Zoe Barker 

 How fabulous is this deer?

Or this one from Designers Guild

There is something quite hideous but also strangely appealing about this one also from Designers Guild.

Maybe not.
These delphiniums on yellow by Harlequin are rather cheerful.

Or something more retro. How gorgeous are these Josef Frank fabrics in Ben Pentreath's London flat?

I am in love! 
This fabric with the pomegranates by Harlequin is not dissimilar.

Or this large leaf design from Harlequin again.

Not as colourful, but I love these ferns from Sanderson.

Decisions, decisions. I have a niggling feeling that I may have taken this chair on with the same intentions my mum had forty plus years ago and that they may remain just that - ideas. Maybe another forty years down the line little P will rescue this chair from me full of plans to revive it. It could just become a family tradition of pass the chair. Why not!?

Trick or treat!

I did Halloween for the first time ever with the kids and it was FUN! We spent half term at my parents mainly because I had a lot of running around to do for work and I knew they'd have a good time with my mum. She had them carving pumpkins, baking bat-shaped biscuits and she would have whipped up some pretty impressive costumes too, if I hadn't already ordered them from Tesco. 

Originally I had ambitious plans to sew a very bling princess-witch costume from black lace and millions of sequins and a bat with folding articulated wings, but the sewing machine was acting erratically and time just seemed to slip away from me. The children were beyond excited when we picked up their supermarket outfits. Little P put on her princess dress (not very halloweeny, I know!) in the confectionery aisle right next to the Haribo party buckets and little M struggled into his devil onesie by the tea and coffee. 

I spent the day in St Leonards and saw this fabulously ghoulish shop front.

I've only ever made flying visits to St Leonards, but I must go back and spend a day exploring properly, maybe when it is not so cold and miserable.

Back at my parents' house, this splendid sight greeted me.

Predictably the children were too excited to eat any tea, so as soon as it hit half past five, we took to the streets for some trick or treating. Some people had really gone to town on the Halloween decorations; pumpkins, fake cobwebs, candelabras and dry ice. The children initially refused to approach a front door with a blood spattered sign reading "Zombies Beware!" but the thought of more sweets spurred them on.

Next year we need to remember to take little bags for collecting the treats. My coat pockets were stuffed to bursting and we kept forgetting whose sweets were in the left and whose the right pocket. They nearly came to blows over an unidentified chupa chups. In the end, there was more than they could eat anyway, though they gave it a good bash.