Giddy up!

I know I should be packing, but just a quick post before I go!  Just time to declare my latest crush ...

Now you all know how much I love wallpaper, but these days I'm pretty good at, and even enjoy, coveting without owning, appreciating without purchasing, admiring from afar, or just plain salivating over beautiful objects and interior decoration that take my breath away without needing to have them. (It's just as well, really, given the amount of magazine and blog ogling I do - I'd be broke and/or forever moving house, knocking down walls and rearranging furniture if I were to try and accommodate every latest object/interior of my desire.)

But there are times when I just know, when I see something that - if it's still on the market when I get back into a house I can really call my own - I will definitely make space for  ....

Horses warm grey on white paper by dearwood

I think this paper is a bit paler in real life - I've had to increase the contrast on the photograph, so you can actually see the horses.  What a perfect, perfect backdrop in a room where I might decide against colour on the walls and go for colour in the furniture and accessories instead.

I just love it - it does the same for me as colour does - the movement in the pattern creates energy, which I love to feel in any space I call home.  It's handprinted, so each repeat might be subtly different and I really don't mind if it goes on a big wall, or a tiny wall - it just draws me in and I get lost in it. 

It's a childhood thing too though.  I love horses and was lucky enough to have my own when I was growing up ....

A couple of companions I've picked up along the way

They are the most amazing creatures if you get to know them - they're smart, strong, and they have such personality.  You can easily end up loving them like a friend ....

My Kikki-K Dala horses enjoying some fresh air yesterday ...

And the term 'workhorse' didn't happen by accident either.  We humans have relied on their strength and stamina for as long we've both existed, and they've proved again and again to be the most loyal and reliable of companions.

I am not prone to shoplifting, but there's a giant red Dala horse in the Ikea food shop in Brisbane that I'd love to take home.  Do you think anyone would notice?
(photos from balticproducts)

As a child, I was thrown off a horse more times than I care to recall.  I was dragged through tree branches, stood on and kicked, and the awards I usually got at the events I entered were for worst-behaved horse or most spectacular fall ....

Mustangi fabric by Marimekko

But I also got to jump gates and ditches, to feel the grace and poise of taking a horse through its paces in the dressage ring, to get nice and muddy and smelly along the way and, best of all, to race as fast as my horse would take me along deserted beaches and through miles and miles of beautiful forest without a care in the world ...

Horses Stampede by Florence Broadhurst, shown here as a rug by Cadrys (via rugdesignblog)

The very best of childhood memories.

Chinese Horse by Aurore de la Morinerie (allposters)

Til next time, Nx