Patchwork Slip Covers for Folding Chairs

You may be wondering where I've been, it's not like me to neglect you so.... Well I have been away on holiday and I use that last word fairly loosely. I think we went to the only place in the northern hemisphere that was poring with rain for the entire week and was 6 degrees when we arrived!
We made the most of it though and I don't want to be a moaner. Once you know it's how it's gonna be, you just get on with it.
The thing about holidays is that there is always twice the work to deal with when you get back, so most of the chillin' good vibes that came with the holiday dissolve into frenzied activity upon return ...well I find that anyway.

So what have I been doing in such a frenzy? Mostly very rock n roll carpentry, getting excited with various power tools. Ok, enough blather, what I mean is I've been making the furniture for my stand at the trade show Tendence in Frankfurt which is in 3 weeks time.
When I was away on holiday I had a dream about my stand and it wasn't the usual anxiety dream about things falling over or forgetting to wear clothes or something, but a wonderful vision of how I could build my stand, different to my original plan. When I got home I was convinced I had to make my dream come true...literally, so that it what I have been doing. The pieces of furniture are massive, too big to be able to photograph properly so you'll have to wait until I take pictures at the show to see what I've been doing with them.
I have also been looking for other clever space saving solutions and here is what I've done to make my folding chairs look a bit more sophisticated...

Here they are before...

They don't really say 'welcome to Van Asch, home of eccentric delights' do they? More like grab a beer and poke at the meat on the barb e.

What do they say now?

I think they say 'would you like a cup of tea and a wee chat?'

I think it's a great way to make crappy chairs look elegant and they were not that difficult to do. Each one took about 1 and a half hours. I never measured anything and didn't use a pattern, just started at the top and used lots of pins.

Atmospheric Outside Places

I love a blurry line between what is inside and what is outside. My dreams are often filled with places that are neither indoors nor outdoors but some strange mix of both and this blog is dedicated to sharing those magical places with you...

What a great thing to do with an old fire surround! Buried in foliage as nature reclaims it's own.

This is Molyvos village in Lesvos Greece. I'd love to stop here a while and have a cup of tea and cake

I found this images on Inspire Bohemia blog and it really feels like something from my dreams. This is such a magical setting, I imagine it's for a wedding party, just lovely...

and this is an outdoor home cinema! Oh yes please!

Pretty Flowery Things

Sometimes I just feel like surrounding myself with pretty girly flowery things, but my husband doesn't. That is to say, he doesn't want to be surrounded by pretty girly flowery things. Fair enough I say, compromise is central to a happy marriage and thusly I must get said girliness out of my system and onto this here blog. So here's to pretty whimsical nonsense that I will never have in my happy home...
Having said that, I do also use lots of flowers in my cushion designs which helps to get it out of my system. Here is Flaming Sacred Heart printed cushion

  And here is Vintage View which has a really lovely flowery back.

These kettles could make it through the hard husband line, as although he dislikes flowery things, he has a steak of love for Russian traditional stuff and these kinda have that vibe

These plates are a must have and maybe hubby would tolerate them as he does like a bit of odd quirkery here and there...