Lucky Win! Roddy cushion!

Quiet times at PlanetMithi ... we've been busy living life and enjoying the company of friends but somehow keep forgetting to take the camera with us - like our tandem trip last week to Bath to make samosas (yum!) with the lovely KimStar.

Anyways, one other lovely thing that happened this last week was that I entered a competition over at Roddy and Ginger to win one of her cushions ... really didn't espect to win - but Virginia's stuff is SO lovely and I've just been waiting to have our own house (and Ercol Studio bed/sofa) before I blew the budget on a bunch of Roddy and Ginger originals; so I thought I'd just try my luck ...

My lovely win came in the post over the weekend - doesn't Roddy look smashing on our Ercol Windsor chair (inherited from the sister-in-law) on some Dandelion Clock by Sanderson seating?
It took us a year to get round to getting the seat cushion cut for that chair; another year to source a fabric we liked; and another further year to actually get round to cutting the fabric; plus a few months on top of that to finally sew the seat up (thank you mum for that!). Now its all done and has its own Roddy cushion too ... Happy Mithi!

Lucky Finds - Nymolle Hoyrup Art Faience Dish and Cup

Some of my favourite finds - a vintage limited edition Nymolle of Denmark little dish and matching little cup (slightly larger than a shot glass size) designed by Paul Hoyrup illustrating a lovely little scandinavian habour sceen ... I've not found out much about Hoyrup but all the stuff he did for Nymolle is Adorable!

Lucky Find books - "What Makes an Orchestra" by Jan Balet

A quite recent find and in really good condition ... This is fairly simple (illustration that is) - and absolutely adorable in its simplicity. Although if you Google image search Jan Balet, you'll find a plethora of other work, including this lovely multicoloured version of this same book. The drawings (although I seem to have not included the best of them) are quite entertating too - you can see what I mean from the mother and crying child. The text is great as well - and its really nice to find an illustrator/writer combo in one person like that.

Lucky Finds - Chance Glass trays by Kenneth Townsend

Two of my more recent finds - a couple of small trays or pin dishes by Chance Glass with illustrations by great British illustrator Kenneth Townsend. I think I have a thing for 'London' based paraphenalia :)

The bright colours and simple shapes make me go "Yay!" ... what I wouldn't do for a Chelsea pensioner.

The front garden ... part one

And I don't actually know if ever there will be a part two - but we had to start somewhere!

Before:

We live in a rental property so haven't really paid much attention to the front garden. Its also not a place to "hang out" in (that's what the back "yarden" is for!). In the last three years its slightly taken on a life of its own. So we thought its time we had a bit of a re-structuring. And for that, in comes, Miss Leela S, fellow dancer and friend, and horticulturist :) ... its amazing what you find out about your dance friends when you actually bother to ask what they do when they're not dancing ...

Anyways, yesterday Leela came round with her tools, and I joined in (mostly assisting rather than doing much ...). A whole day of cutting, chopping, digging, pulling and clearing.

During:

And ....... the-morning-After:

So this is it this morning - its bizzare - feels like we've gained an extra room! The big lump is a gorgeous purple clematis. We've also left some of the roses, and moved one bush. Have left a pink fushia although that might need moving. Apart from clearing out those bags full of shruberry and dealing with clearing the 'bathtub' (on the right), its like a blank slate ... part two will hopefully be the filling of that slate ... (when we get round to it!)

Brambling along - Chew Valley Lake & Stanton Drew

Those of you who know us will know about our obsession with our lovely Thorn Explorer tandem aptly named "Bramble" (Thorn? Explorer? Geddit?). We've already done well over 200 miles - our longest being to Stratford-upon-Avon and back (54 miles). Yesterday we went for a shorter ride - but my was it against gravity! North Somerset is sooooooo hilly ...

First - plan the route. The Sustrans cycle maps are great (have a look at how close together the contour lines are ... told you we were fighting gravity!

Eventually made it to Chew Valley Lake.

On the way back we had to stop at Stanton Drew. Sunshine had told me about this stone circle and the story is that they were dancers at a wedding that got turned to stone by the Devil because they kept dancing into the Sabbath ... so obviously we had to take a photo of us as petrified dancers ;)

Ah yes ... my Stanton Drew Stone Cirle...

Didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have liked - too busy enjoying the ride I guess ... Thank you for a lovely day out Sunshine :)

Lucky Find books - "Happy Owls" by Celestino Piatti

I first came across Celestino Piatti back in April whilst looking for Italian illustrators that I could look up on our trip to Milan for the design festival. Piatti is infact Swiss, but it didn't stop me squeeling with delight when I came across his work - wish I could draw like that... and squeeling even more when I finally got my hands on a copy of "The Happy Owls" ...

Its the story of two little owls who are asked by the local barnyard fowl why they never quarrel. And so they proceed to tell the barnyard birds all about the things that make them happy with the changing seasons ... oh my God SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Can I just say - that is pretty much Sunshine and I ... we ARE the happy owls. And you can often find me reading this to myself and hugging the book whenever I need a little cheering up.

Squeeeee :)

Happy 1st Birthday Sophs...

Happy birthday to our favourite niece, Sophie ... photos from her joyfully pink birthday party a couple of weekends ago (its her birthday today - but her parents decided to have an early celebration so we could fit all the family in). All the lovely decor by her smashingly talented mum, my sister-in-law Lucy.

Lucky Finds - Carlton Ware guards money boxes

I can't remember where I first came across these, but my heart was immediately smitten. A year of hunting has resulted in two of these gorgeous vintage Carlton Ware ceramic money boxes - a Cold Stream Guard and a Beefeater. I would love to find the other two - a policeman (Bobby) and a Scots Guardsman - am still on the lookout for them. Wouldn't they look fab in a kids' room? They currently sit on the window sill behind my desk, protecting my unruly pile of stationary. One day they will have pride of place on their own shelves.

Lucky Find books - "Moon Man" by Tomi Ungerer

I've been collecting illustrated children's books for a while and thought it would be nice to catalog them here. This lovely charity shop find is by one of my favourite illustrators, Tomi Ungerer. He has such a soft loose style and a gorgeous sense of colour ... mmm... makes me smile lots :)

Juggling friends

Second weekend of the convention ... my favourite year yet :)

Lucky Finds - French Happy Families card set

I've been wanting to start cataloging my vintage/charity-shop/ebay* finds for a while now but didn't know where to start. Then this lovely thing came in the post today and turned out to be the perfect piece to start with: found going for a song on Ebay; a vintage Air France Happy Families card game set with an aviation theme and the most gorgeous retro illustrations.

* My interests are usually either mid-century modernist, or illustration based (especially retro/vintage children's illustrated books).

Tandem tent

How to arrive at a juggling convention.

I am a juggling groupie. I can't do it to save my life, but I go along to juggling conventions/gatherings/festivals all the time. Why? Because Sunshine is a juggler/manipulator as are many of his friends. Who are all of course now my friends. There is proportionally (and I speak not just for myself here ...) far more socialising that goes on at one of these things, than there is any actual juggling. This is especially true at the annual Bristol Juggling Convention.

It is 9 days and we go for all or part of it every year. This year, like last, Sunshine has to work - he's a university lecturer and term starts this week. So, as we like to say, we are "bookending" the convention. We drove up to the field on Friday night after work with our tent and other gear. We convinced everyone that we weren't actualy there - it was just our luggage arriving (nod knowingly and touch side of nose...). Set up our tent, hung around a campfire, then drove home to our owm warm bed for the night. Saturday morning we set out again, but this time on Bramble the tandem. It was a gentle hill climb all the way there but it took us just under an hour and we managed to arrive properly in style.

Tandem tent

I'm not sure where most of Saturday went. More people arrived; lots of hugs and hellos and catching up was done; lots of campfire-boiled tea and coffee was drunk; much marveling was done at the many vintage and new (Airbus A380!) planes that flew overhead as part of an airshow being held nearby. We showed off Bramble and Sunshine made her a tent of her own (great as it rained all of Saturday night). I was too relaxed to take any more photos, spending most of my time sitting on folding chairs and yawning. After a wet night, and a damp morning; on Sunday we cycled Bramble back home via the Bristol Cycle Festival. What a great detour! Unfortunately - left the camera at the juggling festival so we have no proof that we saw at least 7 tandems (one of which was even dressed as a dinosaur!).

Had hot showers and a nap at home (the combination of cycling and the really relaxed atmosphere of the convention made us both very sleepy), then drove back to the convention for another evening of random silliness, tea and catching up with friends; before the 20minute drive back home.

Sunshine is back at work today - but hopefully we'll be back at a field in North Bristol (where our tent is still standing) sometime this coming Friday for another gentle weekend ;)

Happy birthday lovely laydeez...

Miss Delia's super yummy birthday cake.

Hanging out with my illustration coursemates and Sunshine's friends, I'm usually the one of the oldest, being in my mid-30s - not that anyone realises this. But in the span of last week and next week, 3 of my girl-friends have turned/ are turning 40, 40 and 48 - not that you'd notice they were older than me either. What do they have in common (and I think is their secret) ? Swing dancing! I've been dancing now for well over 12 years ... and I sure hope I can keep my youthfulness - like these ladies - in my 40s ...

Happy Birthday Miss K-Star; Miss Delia-Dee and Miss Suzanne-McG!

Even kite historians have a soft side ...

Today I mostly hung out at the Bristol Kite Festival (sans-Sunshine as he is away)... with our friend the Kite Historian,and his grand-daughter (and son and daughter-in-law too of course!)

All things start small...

This afternoon I watched this white cabbage butterfly laying eggs all over our (slightly overgrown) Nasturtium.

I have no worries though - the little green caterpillars devoured our small nasturtium last year - and yet it still managed to seed and spread itself like a lovely orange flowering weed all over one corner of our 'yarden' :)