Pattern

Okay, I’ll just admit it: I love Pinterest. I was an early convert, and I love the whole concept. Since I was very young I’ve loved doing what my mum affectionately (?) called ‘cutting and sticking’. This involved cutting out beautiful things from magazines, newspapers, labels and packaging, arranging them and then using a Pritt stick to collect it all together in a pretty notebook, or just on blank card to stick on the wall.

For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, Pinterest is like a great big scrapbook that you create by ‘pinning’ linked images onto online pin boards. It’s a wholly frivolous and delightful pastime, perfect for whiling away a few hours with a hot cup of tea.

As this blog has always been for collecting together things I love, I’ve decided Pinterest may have to creep in every so often – I’d like to inject more colour and creativity in amongst the musing and the baking. And today, it’s patterns that have been on my mind, swirling around in all of their glory. Here are some of my favourites.

~Méchant Studio Blog: Indigo Obsession

By Micklyn, print available on society6

Pomegranate Pattern from Georgiana Paraschiv’s Flickr

If you’re a bird, I’m a bird by Johanna Burai

Penguins? from this Flickr

The beautiful art deco patterning on this edition of the classic is the work of Coralie Bickford-Smith (Her website is captivating – what a talented lady!)

Circles I by Rebecca Atwood

Found on unchichleenmitacon.blogspot.com.es

Listening to Breezeblocks by alt-J, Va Va Voom by Nicki Minaj, Woman (Oh Mama) by Joy Williams.

All content is © Rebecca Daley and ohtogoawandering, 2015, unless otherwise stated.

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The Friday Frame {13} From the ground, up.

The understated grandeur of the painted fronts of Poznan townhouses almost made the unbearable 35 degrees centigrade heat worth it. When we told people we were going to Poland in July, most people suggested it might be a little chilly: we took coats. They were so incredibly wrong (and we were, evidently, so incredibly gullible for taking their word for it!) Of the four cities we visited, Poznan was the hottest — after the first day we took to going out at around 6.30am to fit in sightseeing before the hottest rays hit. By around 10am it would be searingly hot, sending us fleeing back to the hostel to lie around in very little, trying desperately to cool down and resolving to return to Poland only in the dead of winter. Beautiful buildings though.

Townhouses in Poznan, Poland, Summer 2014.

All content is © Rebecca Daley and ohtogoawandering, 2015.

The Friday Frame {12} Up the Wall

A mural on a backstreet in Warsaw. There’s just something about this that I love; it’s on the one hand very realistic, on the other strangely surreal. It’s also just amazing to create art on this scale, and in this environment —  I couldn’t help stopping for a few moments to gaze in wonder every time we walked past.

Street art in Warsaw, Poland. Summer 2014.

All content is © Rebecca Daley and ohtogoawandering, 2015.

Design in small spaces

Our flat is pretty nice. It’s also pretty small. Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom… That’s kind of it. This, my friends, is what two graduate salaries in the Arts/Humanities can rent you in London town. I really shouldn’t complain, we’ve actually got a very good deal: a lot of the places we looked at only had two rooms, and would have involved waking up, rolling out of bed and seeing your reflection in the oven door immediately opposite. One place I looked at online genuinely had the shower in the bedroom i.e. cubicle next to the bed. Quite a lot had no fridge or washing machine. The city should really employ me to advertise the perks of London living… Anyway.

To me, home is important: I’m definitely a home bird at heart. So even though this place is rented, and we can’t hang anything on the walls or have our own furniture or replace the dodgy extraction fan on the hob, I was determined to make it nice. I also didn’t want to spend a fortune (you know, Arts salaries, see above), so I used a lot of what I already had. I thought I’d share some of my efforts with you, in a handy numbered list of unfortunate home scenarios, and how to make them nicer.

Scenario One

A small, cheap white table. Quite wobbly, with a very warped and bubbled top from where the previous tenant has spilled something. Or been using a blowtorch. The letting agent promised to remove this on the day we moved in. It is now two months later and it’s still here, so I thought I’d make the best of it.

I made a kind of runner with a scarf which I’ve had for ages- it was a present and I think it originally came from New Look. I love books as decoration, so I piled up some of my prettiest ones. On top of the pile is a candle teacup which my mum made with a teacup and saucer that they were selling for about 50p at the local British Legion, melted down tea lights and string. Next to it is a vase that I bought for £5 from Next while I was at university because somebody bought me flowers too nice for a plastic bottle. Et voila.

Scenario Two

A space which is small enough that you put down your bag at the end of the day and it feels like the messiest and most cluttered space on earth, combined with a slight make-up/cosmetics addiction. Solution: put it all in a massive box, but preferably a pretty box. With old maps on. That you got from TK Maxx for a tenner. The space instantly looks neater and all of your stuff is still easily accessible. I used all kinds of mismatched stuff to store my makeup and brushes inside, including a mustard tin and a makeup box that is straight out of an S Club 7 dressing room in the ’90s. This is a good tip for desks and stationary, as well as dressing tables. This is my kind of tidying, just hide it all away…

OH MY GOSH SO MUCH MAKEUP DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING

Scenario Three

Your heating is externally controlled by a mysterious being/ force that does not exist along the same space/ time continuum as we do. Thus it’s sometimes freezing, especially in November. Solution: get a throw in your life. This one is from BHS. It is so snuggly and warm it will change your life (no overstatement there) and make you choose activities based on whether you can complete them from under the aforementioned blanket of joy. TV/YouTube/reading are in. Washing up is probably out.

Just looking at it makes you feel warm

All content is © Rebecca Daley and ohtogoawandering, 2014.