Magic Carpets

How time flies! Looking back at old blog posts I've owned this dress since 2015. I spotted it in a clearance charity shop in Shropshire and paid the grand total of 99p for it.

Throughout the 1970s Kate Beaver worked with her partner, artist Robin Rae, from their Dorset home screen printing fabric by hand and creating amazing period-inspired dresses. I've found a few on-line but definitely think this colour combo is my favourite.

With its teal trim and rusty-orange lining, my Anokhi riding jacket, purchased at the same time as the dress I wore on Monday, always feels like the perfect thing to wear with it. This was how I was dressed on Tuesday for an early morning swim followed by a Spoons breakfast.

Due to a refurbishment,Walsall's Wetherspoons, St Matthew's Hall, had been closed for almost a fortnight so we were excited to see the changes. The walls in one of the dining rooms have been painted "court room black", to echo the colour of the robes worn by the judges when the building - built in 1830 and formerly a free library - was repurposed as a courthouse in 1847. 

Until I mentioned them on my blog the other day, a lot of readers weren't aware that each of the chain's 900 pubs has a different carpet reflecting the history of the building or the local area. Each bespoke carpet is worth around £30,000, handmade on an individual loom and crafted in Devon by Axminster Carpets.

Our new one features gavels, another nod to the days of the pub being a courthouse. The rectangles possibly represent the spines of the books from its former incarnation as the town's first free library.

This is my friend Tricia's local branch of Wetherspoons, The Hippodrome in March, Cambridgeshire, formerly a 900 seat cinema which opened in 1929. I've got a bit of a obsession with the designs of Spoons' carpets so if you don't have a blog email me a photo and I'll share it on mine. ``

Liz and Al bought us this book years ago. When I last looked you couldn't get a second hand copy for less than £45 so I'm obviously not the only person into Spoon's carpets! 

I was watching this vintage embroidered Indian cotton Phool dress on eBay and the seller sent me an offer I couldn't refuse.The seller had listed the dress as being embroidered with hedgehogs but I think it's more likely to be a peacock, like the label (a Phool label I'm not familiar with).  

I wore this for a morning of charity shopping.

Today I wore one of my Dilli Grey block printed cotton dresses along with a vintage waistcoat. We've been swimming but eschewed the Spoons breakfast and ate at home instead popping into Lidl on the way back for a £1.50 Waste Not box. 

We've been really lucky this year and managed to snaffle one every week. 2024 has got off to a very healthy start.

As promised here's just a tiny part of the collection of vintage clothes that our friends Graz & Steve negotiated for on our behalf and dates from the 1940s up until the mid-1980s. A vast majority of it is St Michael, Marks & Spencer's brand until 2000. I love seeing how the font changes over the years and how the vast majority was made in Great Britain, the reason why most people shopped there. 

Graz & Steve's shop, Moseley Vintage Hub, is in the Digbeth area of Birmingham and they buy (& sell) anything quirky and interesting from cool Mid-Century furniture to industrial lighting, retro vinyl and architectural antiques. 

Jon spotted this chrome radiator when we visited last week thinking that it would be perfect in our bathroom.

...it is! 

Swimming, shopping , stitching and carpet spotting aside, this week we've mainly been bingeing on series 1 of True Detective, Season 2 of The Tourist and the brilliant but utterly bonkers The Lobster from Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of Poor Things which incidentally has been nominated for 11 Oscars - I told you it was good.

The weather's looking okay for tomorrow - no wind or rain and relatively mild - so we're off National Trusting. I'll be back in a few days with photos!