Woody

You might remember the cat and her newborns that my friend Laura and I rescued back in Auguest ? 

That cat family has been living quite happily at Laura's lovely home all this time. Laura is going to keep most of them. Bless her ! One kitten is going to another friend of mine. And of course, being the total cat sucker that I am, I couldn't resist adopting one of the little ones.

So here he is. Woody ! An almost three month old, fluffy little rascal. 

Woody has had a few busy days since arriving at the Fat Cat residence on Tuesday. He has discovered a favourite new chair.

He has made lots of new acquaintances.

He has a new BFF.

And he's clearly into West German pottery.

And seems to enjoy it as much as I do, if not more ! He's certainly put it to an unexpected use.

And in case you're wondering. Yep, that now makes a total of five cats. FIVE ! I know, crazy right ? 

Does anybody know what the next step after hoarding is ?

UK goodies

Uh oh. I've been at it again. Spending a few days in the UK, roaming through my favourite antiques centre and car boot sale.

So what did I find ?

A little bit of everything. British, Scandinavian and a whole lot of West German pottery.

Böttger studio pottery planter (10£), Bay planter (5£) and two Scheurich vases (13.50£ and 7£ respectively).

Midwinter 'Plant Life' tureen (37.50£ incl.shipping) and Finel Kaj Franck / Esteri Tomula hob kettle (13£).

I've already professed my love for the Plant Life pattern. Boy oh boy, was I over the moon when I spotted this tureen for a reasonable 45£ 'buy it now' price on ebay. These things have been known to fetch between 100£ to 120£.

But best of all, the seller had added the 'make an offer' button. Very cheekily I tried my luck at 30£, all the while convinced that the seller would haggle to 40£. But to my utter amazement, he (or she) actually accepted my 30 quid offer ! SCORE !!!

Let this be a lesson to us all.

Rug ! And rethinking the seating area...

Uh oh. I've been futzing over the living room again. Like so.

Step 1 - Score a wonderful vintage Desso shaggy rug at the Ghent Vintage Design Event for a mere 100 eur. It's in mint condition, pleasantly soft to the feet, has been professionally cleaned and reminds me of fat lava glazing. What's not to love ?!
(I'll spare you all the prep steps of moving furniture and giving the whole area a throrough wash. Who knew how much gunk could actually hide under a rug and sofa ?)

Step 2 - Move all your old crap back in. Starting with the sofa and a sleepy cat.

Step 3 - More furniture and of course some plant life.

Step 4 - Coffee table.

Step 5 - Additional seating, fifties cocktail chair. All the while ignoring the pitiful state of the coffee table top...

And scruffy old chair that has seen better days and has been nearly scratched to death by the cats, but that - for the life of me - I could never give away.

And my personal favourite - Clutter everything up with knicknacks, like a bunch of West German floor vases.

More plants, WGP and some stacking candle holders.

Still more plants and 'Fat Lava' ceramics.

And one last effort ! Squeeze in a very à propos vintage rocket lamp (a souvenir from my last UK trip back in August). 

And finally, crash down on the sofa for a well deserved rest. And start rethinking the whole process. 

Too much brown / teak going on ?
Wouldn't a glass coffee table be more suitable to show off the new rug ? Maybe. 
Can I place that rocket lamp in a less cramped in, more favourable place ? 
Do the black & white cushions go with the colour and pattern of the rug ? Hhmm, not really.
Do I really need to clutter up every surface with stuff ? How do other people always manage such stylish and minimalist displays of their collections ? Etc, etc.


Fuck it. I'm too exhausted to start over. 

For now.

Dining area before & after

Taking all those pictures on Thursday while documenting the new pendant light made me realise how much that particular area has changed over the years.

Waaaaayyy back when I first started writing this blog, it looked really scary.

And very messy. This must have been shortly after I came back from Berlin in September 2009 with said pendant lamp in my hand lugagge. You can see it on the table still in its bubble wrapping. Sadly it would remain that way over the next three years.

By spring 2010 the dining area had evolved to this.

Still messy, but decidedly improved and all styled up with Eames DSW chairs and a new coat of bright white paint. Such a relief to the eyes !
Oh yeah, and that was when I still had my desk in the living room.

A year later in March 2011, things had changed.... again.

New dining table, new sideboard, new black wall, additional Tomado shelving (one can never have enough of those !), new Ikea rug, and a new found interest in West German pottery.

And then today.

No radical changes, but I guess I've slightly toned things down. Or at least I like to think so.

I sold the red Eames chairs and replaced them with English vintage teak and skai ones. They are marked "Elliotts of Newbury", but so far I've been unable to find out anything about this maker. Or to find a fourth chair. So I've completed the set with my Bertoia wire chair which was a lucky ebay find from a couple of years back.

I've also replaced the colourful Charley Harper poster and moved the Tomado shelves to a less conspicuous position. Plus I've recently added some black & white art above them. Like the London type map from Bold & Noble.

And clearly the WGP "interest" has turned into a full on obsession. Waaaaayyy out of control.

Let there be light

Man. It's only ever been three years since I brought back a decently priced PH5ish pendant lamp from a trip to Berlin. 
Three years since I took down the Japanese paper Habitat lamp that I had installed in the living room when I first moved in. 
And then, three years where I lived with this.

Yes, THREE years where absolutely nothing happend and I lived with a wire mess on my living room ceiling. And conveniently decided to ignore the whole situation.

Because let's face it, if you didn't look too closely, it was actually possible to ignore it.

But then this morning, I was done ignoring. Ta-da.

Pendant light over the dining table. Finally ! It only took three years to get up there, and the professional intervention of lighting specialist Christian from Le Vistemboire fame.

Of course, such an event had to be documented from all angles.

Final praise (and words) go to Christian. I think I might have mentioned him before in these pages as my go to guy for all things lamps, repairs and rewiring related.
He and his equally charming wife Dominique are the amazing owners of Le Vistemboire, a Brussels shop specialising in vintage and antique lamps. Christian also does lighting repairs and rewiring, as well as in-house lighting installations (such as my slightly tricksy PH5 lamp). They not only offer a fantastic service, but they are also truly lovely people. So go check out their awesome shop next time you're in the Flagey area !

And then there where six... more

I know, I know. I've neglected this blog for far too long, but I've been busy looking for a job and incidentally spending a few more days in the UK, enjoying the sunshine and thrifting to my little heart's content. More about that another time.

As if all this wasn't exciting enough, my good friend Laura and I got sucked into yet another cat rescue mission. Ok, I admit. We've got only our weak-minded, cat crazy selves to blame for this. But still... what can you do when you come across this beautiful cat mummy and her (at that time) three newborn kittens stranded on the side of the road ? You pick everybody up and offer them a cozy, safe place in your home. Of course !

So that's what we did. Mummy cat and her five kittens - she gave birth to two more while Laura and I where out buying her food - now live in a spare room in Laura's house. Everybody seems to be doing well. Fingers crossed. 

Name suggestions anyone ? We've got one adult gray tabby, two white kittens, two gray tabby ones and one little black one. So go crazy.

Oh and btw, if anyone in Brussels and surrounding areas is reading this and can offer one (or more) of these cats a good home, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaase contact me.

Bedroom peek

I'm on a roll ! 

Ebay roll that is. Success has been achieved. And my bank account has been bailed out. Not in the hundreds of millions like most European banks and/or countries, but still enough that I could reinvest part of my gains into some new thrift without feeling too much guilt - and still put enough aside to pay some big upcoming bills. Like house taxes. Grrrrr.

So here you have Watson modelling my latest acquisition. Much like this witty lady, I've been focusing a lot on the bedroom lately. But more about that later. 

I'm particularly happy about this purchase as I've been on the lookout for a 50s "cocktail" chair for a long time, probably ever since I saw T's cream one about ten years ago. Unfortunately these little chairs now tend to sell around the 100 eur mark. And I'm afraid this one was no exception. But since my budget wasn't too tight, I gladly coughed up 115 eur for the chair (justifying the additional 15 eur because of its lovely curved armrests) and an additional 20 eur for delivery.

The entire corner. Actually the only new things are the chair and the big plant (a totally reasonable Ikea find !). The rest is all stuff I already owned and rearranged in a new way.

Guest Star

I'm still in awe after seeing my good friend T.'s incredibly stylish new place. And yes for all you single ladies out there, this is actually a single guy's flat. Amazing, right ?

I love his wonderfully minimalistic decor ! Of course it would be even more perfect with a few more plants... and cats ;-)

No. Just kidding. Sadly my photos don't do this place justice.

I don't usually post pictures of myself or my friends, but I had such a fun evening, I can't resist adding this last one (Plus I don't look like a total twat for once).

Thanks T. for a truly lovely time !