A blue chandelier

It’s been up a while now, but it still makes me smile every time I see it. So I think we chose well - but it did take us a while to decide. When we moved in a light for the stairwell wasn’t our priority, but we knew it would need - and could take - something pretty spectacular. Our stairs double back on themselves, and so have a half landing - so while it’s not a big space because it is the full height of the house, it’s a very tall space, and our choice needed to do the space justice.

When we moved in there was the standard white fitting with a lightbulb on the tiniest length of cable. The electricians were here soon after we moved in and we said to them about it and they admitted they were waiting for us to call them to fit a light. So that was good to know, but it was a while before we called them back.

I’m not sure why though as I’d pinned the light we actually ending up buying soon after we started to think about what would work, though to be fair it was one of many coloured chandelier type lights and I’d originally opted for the jade version, as that’s much more our usual colour scheme.

Our final choice was helped by the large artwork we spontaneously bought on a trip to Nottingham, when we intended to look at a new sofa - oops. Anyway we had the picture hung by experts (and it was well worth it) and they also helped us plan its position in relation for the likely chandelier we knew we’d have at some point.

In January I was on the Dunelm site and thought I’d look at the chandelier I’d pinned so long ago again. It was THIRTY PERCENT OFF. I hadn’t expected that, but it was worth pursuing, and quickly as there were only a few days left of the sale. We tried to find a shop that had it on display, and I went all Beattie from BT calling shops but it wasn’t in our local and local(ish) branches. So we took the plunge and ordered it, hoping that if we really didn’t like it then Dunelm would come good on their promise of hassle free returns.

Thankfully we didn’t need to test that, as it arrived and it was gorgeous. Phew.

But it needed putting together, and there were many, many parts. The parts were labelled and there was a diagram, but it wasn’t always obvious.

But I got home from yoga one week, and with the electricians scheduled to come later in the week, to find MOH already making good progress with the blue crystal jigsaw we’d bought. And between us we got it all in mostly the right place.

With it successfully assembled it lived on our dining table, propped up by packing materials until the electrician’s arrival.

It made quite the centre piece!

And then it was up - with MOH assisting the electrician in the final stages - and thankfully without any ‘Only Fools and Horses’ moments, and it looks great.

No doubt it’s clear now why blue was the obvious choice.

It’s a stunning light, and works well in our space which is always likely to stay white. It was also a great price - even better with the sale discount, and despite looking like it probably isn’t, it’s just about reachable from a tall stepladder for any bulb changes, but hopefully that’s a long way off!

Putting mum's embroidery to use

I have finally finished both of these project bags where I’ve used some hand embroidery sewn by my mum. It’s taken a while to finish the larger of the two, and for no other reason than I’d not got around to it. When I was helping mum to relocate her sewing room she found some embroideries that she’d completed most likely in the 1990s as part of a magazine series, which she no longer wanted. Some went to the charity shop, and I brought a couple home with me always intending to adapt them into a project bag, and that’s what I did.

Delving into my stash I found the perfect fabrics to use. The smaller of the two (which is still approximately A4 size) makes use of some tiny bobble trim I felt particularly drawn to and some pink fabric which I think also came from mum. The lining is tiny rosebuds, and that was definitely from one of her old dresses - the turquoise paisley material is one I’d bought a while back and it just felt right to use for this.

Two new project bag pouches - both brightly coloured surrounding some hand embroidery by mum

The larger orange and purple one, which just about fits into one of the cubby holes in my Kallax unit, uses more from my stash. The orange and lilac wave fabric came as part of a set - and I’m not sure if you can see it but the text on the wave says ‘a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor’ and while mum’s not a sailor, I’m sure it’s something she’d agree with. Bizarrely the material reminds me of a dress she once had, but in actual fact it’s nothing like the actual dress - I remember the dress having swirls, though I suspect they were more likely paisley shapes, and the dress was a pale blue/lilac, so I’ve no idea why this material prompted that memory!!

They’ve turned out brilliantly and I’ve adapted my usual go to pouch pattern, and although they are larger and don’t have a vinyl front they use the same principle and construction with a tweak or two along the way, but the pouch is just a small part of it, mum’s embroidery is so much more.

Focusing on mum's embroidery which I've repurposed into a project page.  This has arches and beading on the grid and sashiko like patterns
This much larger embroidery by mum uses coloured thread on the pattern which also continues on the back of the pouch

Aren’t they great? And isn’t the embroidery just fab?

Post Comment Love 15 - 17 May

Hello there, welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

This week I’ve wanted to do much more gardening than I’ve been able to thanks to the weather - it’s been quite changeable here with more typical April showers weather, although there’s been some downpours too and I haven’t really wanted to take my chance with them. I’m hopeful I’ll get through the ever growing list of jobs - or at least start them, soon.

I’ve been meaning to pop into town to see the Knife Angel sculpture which is in our market square for a month, and this week I made it happen - along with lunch out, some errands and an eye test.

The sculpture was worth seeing, it is both shocking and moving. In 2014 the ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’ campaign was born by Clive Knowles, Chairman of the British Ironwork Centre in Shropshire. Struck by the large number of knife crimes reported in the media he set about finding a way to make a real difference by highlighting this national issue.

Speaking to families and communities affected by the horrific acts of violence, many of whom were already working tirelessly to help raise better awareness the Ironworks offered to fund and provide all knife banks with police constabularies across the UK holding an amnesty or surrender campaign to better educate their communities about knife crime.

Thousands of weapons were collected in these knife banks, they were cleaned and blunted and included in the Knife Angel sculpture. Some of the blades have messages engraved by families who experienced knife crime first hand, and these were placed strategically in the sculpture which is now known as the National Monument Against Violence and Aggression.

It took four years to make, involved all 43 Police Constabularies in the UK and standing over 20ft tall is built from over 100,000 blades removed from UK Streets. It’s purpose was to evoke emotion and raise better awareness and importantly make educational change everywhere it visits.

As I said it’s both shocking and moving - and also quite beautiful - I really hope it can be part of reducing knife crime, something that is truly needed.

Have a good week.

The Knife Angel in Newark's market square

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter