this moment...

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

pretty pins...

Hello lovelies, how are you doing this bank holiday Monday? It has been pouring with rain here, but luckily we've had a few busy days so we have surrendered to laziness - the house is a sea of lego and we are full of pancakes, so all is well with our little messy corner of the world.

I have been having fun on Pinterest recently, I have over 1,000 followers (I'm not even saying how many pins I've got, suffice to say I must have spent a LOT of time pinning over the last few months!), and my goodness there's a lot of loveliness out there on t'internet!  

Architectural patterns and prints are a trend I've been enjoying, here are a few of my recent favourites...

I discovered printmakers Birorobot  via their lovely Saul Bass pins, like this one...

then they treated themselves to this stunning Melitta coffee set - I'm glad they did, otherwise I would have had to (and I so can't afford to!)- it's soooo gorgeous!  I left an effusive comment about its loveliness and now they are following me here, welcome and thanks to them!

 I also love this vintage magazine cover...

 

and this lovely Paris tourism poster, designed by Herman Verbaere in 1960 ...

and this Stig Lindberg illustration is just gorgeous...

and don't even get me started on Mary Blair!

And it's not just vintage designers and illustrators who do it for me, I love this illustration by Tim Hopgood, who is interviewed here on 1973's blog...

and I also love this poster by The Heads of State...I've got a real thing about overlapping translucent colours at the moment.

Inspired by all this architectural fabulousness, I think we might spend this rainy day making stuff like this...

 

or this...

or this...

though I'm not sure if we've got enough boxes for this!

All of these photos have been linked from my Pinterest boards,  if you pop over there you can see all my pins and click through to the original sources.

I'm off to rummage in the recycling, hope you have a great day whatever you get up to. Thanks for reading and welcome to my new followers, it's lovely to have you here!

Rachel xx

colour therapy...

Today we went to an amazing, immersive art/music installation called Colourscape.  It's brilliant, for kids and adults.  It travels around, if you ever get a chance, go.  We loved it.

 

The lovely Lottie of Oyster & Pearl blogged about it a few days ago, with lots of information about the project and amazing photos. If you haven't read her blog, do, it's gorgeous!  Anyway, I loved it so much I just wanted to share.

It's in Bath for one more day, then in London in September - photos are no substitute for being in it, it's a strange and magical thing.  

Hope you have a lovely Bank Holiday Monday.

Rachel xx

wise words...

Hello lovelies, I hope you've all enjoyed your Saturdays, and are looking forward to the rest of your long weekend...the end of the school holidays is almost upon us, and I am feeling a mixture of wistfulness and relief when I think of M returning.

I want to say thanks again for all your lovely messages of support, encouragement, love....I feel very lucky.  I am generally a pretty positive and optimistic person, but sometimes when things are going pear-shaped and I'm tired or depleted, I can feel myself slipping into a dark place....that's where I was at yesterday, and I reached out, and you were there for me.  It made a real difference. Thank you.  

I found this the other day (on Pinterest of course!), and it sums up what I need to remember when it starts going a bit wrong....

Aah, so true.  So today I have banished all those dark thoughts, and focused on the moment, which is really all we have anyway.   Tomorrow I'll be back to show you some of my favourite pretty vintage things from the magical world of the internet, because that, among other things, is what this blog is supposed to be all about!  Sorry if I forgot that for a while, and thanks for sticking with me, you're great.

Happy Bank Holiday weekend!

Rachel xxx

thanks and a tune for you...

Thanks all of you for your lovely messages earlier.  I really appreciate you taking the time to send a hug or a kind word, it has made a real difference to my day.  I find it hard striking the right balance here, between honesty and misery, or positivity and inauthenticity (is that even a word?!) - I don't want to act like my life is always perfect, but I don't want to bum anyone out either, and of course I know everyone's got their own problems to deal with, a lot of which are probably far more challenging than mine.

I'm sure my worries are being amplified by the school holidays, the rain and being woken at a hellishly early hour by the boys - giving us all a lazy day with no expectations seems to have helped my mood to lighten, combined with the magical feeling of being supported by you lovely bloggy women, most of whom I've never even met - it's a lovely thing. 

Here's the tune that I listened to today that helped me to get a grip, it's beautiful and wistful, not too happy but not too sad, and from my one of my favourite films...RIP Tony Scott, what a sad thing, puts my minor wobbles into proper perspective.

I hope you didn't mind me sharing my blue mood, I think maybe I should have saved that post as a draft and waited to see how the day panned out, but at that moment I needed friends and you were there, thank you.

I hope you have a beautiful, joyous weekend.

Rachel x

this moment...

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Sorry I've been quiet this week.  I'm struggling with a few things in life right now, and though there's stuff I want to share, I feel quite choked up.  It's nothing too serious, just normal life stuff, and I know a lot of it is a matter of attitude and perception.  I hope you've had a good week and that life is treating you well!

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

this moment....

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

vintage treats...

Helloooo, how are you today? I've had a busy few days, making the most of the weather to get out with F and the boys - hurrah for the sunshine!  

We all went to a car boot sale at the weekend, we haven't been for ages because M always gets carried away and we end up bringing a load of plastic tat home. But I fancied a rummage in the sunshine so off we went, and in fact the boys were great, each choosing something small and then getting engrossed with playing with their new toys.  Meanwhile I scanned the tables, looking for that elusive treasure...and then....

well, I do like tins, though I usually go for a bolder design, but it's pretty...

 

the designs around the sides are a bit more my style... R likes the 'funny dancing boy'...

I love the crazy pointy beards...

how much was it? £5 with the contents - I don't usually spend that much on one thing for myself at a boot sale, it doesn't really feel like a bargain price, but I could hardly say no! 

 

Most of the reels are wooden, and apart from their obvious use they are just beautiful objects. 

These 3 are proper strong button thread, the blue and brown are linen...

these 3 are the smoothest and shiniest cotton thread I've ever seen...

and this one you don't find in every sewing kit!

I never used to haggle at boot sales but I tend to pick up a little extra something and see if I can get it thrown in...in this case, I think I did quite well...

3 rather gorgeous pairs of knitting needles.  I don't really knit - my Grandmother taught me a bit when I was little but I could never remember how to cast on or off!  But I'd love to learn properly someday...

I found the background fabric on holiday, in a little vintage shop in St Ives called Beatengreen Boutique (I don't think their website's been updated in a while, but I always like to provide a link where possible).  It's a very bright and psychedelic pattern, here's a close-up:

If you like it I'm going to be listing a cushion-cover sized bit of it on Ebay soon, along with a few other favourite bits of fabric; I'll let you have a sneak peek at them soon!

Before I go I must just welcome my newest follower; I had an odd thing happen the other day when 6 followers just disappeared - did I lose them down the back of the sofa?! maybe they didn't like photos of flowers?! - but having the super talented Jane of teawagontales more than makes up for that little mishap!  If you've never perused her lovely blog or Etsy shop I recommend it, especially if this applies to you too...

Isn't that just perfect?  I so need that somewhere on my wall!

I hope you're enjoying your week , 

Rachel x

summer blooms...

Happy weekend everybody!! Hope you've had a great week, the sun has shone and we're now settled back into being at home.  The kids are driving me crackers at times but I try to take a deep breath and smile despite the squabbles and tantrums, me and R will miss M when he's back at school so I don't want to wish away this precious time with him. 

The sunshine means we are spending as much time as we can in our little garden, our nasturtiums are taking over but are being thoroughly munched by caterpillars, which is fine by me - there's plenty to go round and they'll be butterflies soon, I like to let nature do it's thing without too much interference. 

One of our favourite trips of our holiday was to Trengwainton Gardens, a National Trust property not far from Penzance.  It was really stunning, with giant Tree Ferns and a stream running through it, the planting was just beautiful.  I got a bit carried away with taking close ups of flowers, I love them so!

 

Obviously I could not resist the urge to put them in rainbow order!  I hope you have a lovely weekend, whatever you do - we don't have anything planned, but I'm sure we'll be out in the sunshine somewhere before long.  

Happy Saturday!

Rachel x

this moment...

 

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via Soulemama.

Have a lovely weekend.

Rachel x

a home from home...

Thank you so much for all your lovely welcome home messages, and comments on my photos - it has made coming home a lot easier, feeling the blog love in between the bouts of unpacking! 

Yesterday I restocked the fridge, and made it to the park for the boys to climb and run - the house still feels pretty trashed, but I have to be honest, that is just normal life!  One of the things I love about being on holiday is that I'm not surrounded by piles of stuff that need sorting through, or putting somewhere (where?!) else - our house is small and none of us are very tidy, so there are always piles on pretty much every surface, making me feel guilty where ever I look!

This is where we stayed last week, and it is truly a home from home - we have been going there at least once a year for the last 12 years!

Ah, our little Cornish home - every year I mean to take a better picture of the house, and every year I forget!  We are so lucky, it belongs to a very dear family member and we love it so much. It is small and basic but has everything we need, and is in a great location, about 2 miles from Lands End, and a short drive from countless little fishing coves and stunning coastal paths.  Our relationship with the house has changed over the years - when we were childless and both worked full time, we would sometimes laze around all day, then maybe go for an evening clifftop walk, or out for a meal - now we're up and out early, for splashing and sandcastle fun.  Just like at home, lie-ins are a distant, fondly remembered dream!

Here are a few of our favourite seaside spots that we revisited this year....

Penberth

St Michaels Mount

Mousehole (pronounced Mowzel)

Sennen

rockpooling near Mousehole

Lamorna Cove (with our own mini St Michaels Mount in foreground)

Exploring old tin mines along the coast near Zennor

St Ives

Oh so much loveliness!  If you haven't been to Cornwall before I can really recommend it, and the bit that we go to, West Penwith, is a tiny bit of it - there's loads that we haven't explored yet.  

We did go to a new place this year, the beautiful National Trust gardens at Trengwainton, where I became OBSESSED with taking close up photos of flowers!  I'll show you some of my favourites pictures tomorrow. 

I hope you've had a lovely sunny day,

Rachel x