Late Night Playlist

My neighbours must hate me. With my current erratic sleeping patterns, I've been pottering about the place at all times, day and night. And mostly night.

Today I went through some of my music collection which is still mostly vinyl and CD (no mp3s in this vintage household !), trying to decide what to keep and what to give away.

At the moment, I'm mainly exploring my New Wave records. Something about that music - souvenirs of teenage depression, angst and longing - appeals to my current job-seeking, slightly heart-broken self. I haven't listened to those records in over a decade and now I wonder why it took me so long to "rediscover" them. This is some seriously good shit.

Uh, one more for the road ! Another classic. (And a belated happy birthday to Mr Dylan).

"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief"... basically sums it all up.

Have a good night everybody.

My Home on Etsy Blog

Imagine my surprise on coming back from a lovely holiday in France to find an email announcing that my home has been featured on Sunday's "Get the Look Decor" post on the Etsy blog. I haven't read through all the comments yet - wow, a 130 people took the time to say something - but a lot of them seem to be very enthusiastic. I'm very flattered !

An Oscars-style thank you speech is probably in order. But let me just say this much : I'm very, very happy to have been selected ! Especially since - as one commenter rightfullly pointed out - I'm not that much of an Etsy girl...

So, if you're curious to read a short interview, find out my birth name (Pants ! I forgot to ask them not to publish my lastname) and check out various MCM furniture and accessories options inspired by the Fat Cat style and available on Etsy, head over here.

Oh and btw, now that I've gained a couple new readers (welcome guys !) and scored record pageview stats, posting around here might come to a stillstand again, as sadly my beloved Panasonic Lumix idiotensichere camera died a sudden and tragic death during said holiday. Too much red wine probably. 

It's a pity really since I of course managed to score some interesting finds which are begging to be documented.

Lazy weekend

I spend a quiet weekend in Germany, checking out my favourite thrift store and incidentally visiting my grandma. 

Of course, I brought back a whole bag of finds and amongst them this little round Rosenthal bisque vase. As I've been regularly spending a quite substantial part of my meagre income at this shop, I always get welcomed with a big smile, a nice chat and an equally substantial discount. In this case, they knocked off 5 eur on the 17 eur price tag and that little fella was all mine.

God, I just love the texture of those vases ! They'e just asking to be caressed by my chubby little sausage fingers.

Which reminds me, I don't think I ever showed you the one on the right. I'd been drooling over some pretty whacky specimens on the internet (like this one, or those) and was very eager to score an 'ammonite' vase of my own.
However when I eventually spotted a whole bunch of them, they happend to be in one of Brussels more exclusive antiques shops. Of course, I ended up paying a very unfortunate price (I think it was around 40 eur, waaaaaaayyyyy back in September, can't really remember the exact amount) and eating rice and onions the rest of the month. Ah well, all in the name of vintage design !

In yet another bout of insomnia, I also tried to capture the sun rising at the front of the appartement (the light was much more golden in reality). I mean what else does one do at 6 o'clock in the morning... Certainly not tidy up the mess that is the rest of the room and which I cleverly managed to exclude from this shot.

Speaking of sunlight, this weekend we also finally got to see the see the sun again. 

As if that wasn't a rare enough occurence, the entire cat herd decided to have a sunbath on and around the bed. This never happens. The four of them being so close together without any hissing, hitting and biting. I'm very happy I managed to capture this peaceful/sleepy moment.

Watson, passed out. Keeping three furry ladies in check can be tiresome work...

Flo. Bless her. Watson doesn't like her, so she isn't allowed on the bed with the others. But she still manages to keep close.

Plant Life

As if obsessively collecting West German pottery wasn't enough, I'm also in love with British post-war ceramics. I have been known to indulge in the occasional Hornsea purchase, and in the more frequent Carlton Ware buys.

It was only a matter of time until I stumbled upon the Midwinter productions, and in particular their 1950s ranges decorated by Terence Conran, then a budding designer.

Equally passionate about plants and ceramics, I could hardly have passed up this 'Plant Life' plate combining the two. And - the ebay gods were smiling on me - at 11£ (incl. shipping !), still a very affordable indulgence.

I'm back !

And it's good to be back, let me tell you ! Got distracted there for a few months with school work, an internship - or 'work placement' as my purist Brit brother insists on calling it -, meeting a certain someone I really liked (which let's face it, doesn't exactly happen every day)... In short, just life doing its thing.

Ok, if I want to make it to at least three posts this year, I'd better get on with it. Because distracted as I was, I've still been thrifting, flea market haunting and generally spending the last of my hard earned cash from my legal secretary days.

So here are a few glimpses of what I've been up to decorating wise.

My most expensive West German pottery buy to date. Ehem. 50 eur at the Brussels flea market, but - in my defence - I haggled this down from 60 eur, plus I got a second vase for free. But still, after spending that much dough, I ended up eating spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino for the rest of the month. These things happen...

See the tall brown fat lava vase to the right. That's the freebie I got with the first one. Pretty cool, huh ?

The seating area. I have been talking about replacing my old battered Habitat couch ever since I started this blog. Well, I finally did it.

This was a total impulse buy. I saw it in a shopwindow, had a chat with the owner, agreed on a half-way decent price and free same-day delivery. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. And voilà. New (old) sofa !

And on sunny days, this happens... He loves it as much as I do.

On a totally unrelated side note. I also finally solved the mysterious case of the stunted rudbeckia growth.