Rain on the caravan roof - Part 1

Over the past week, a lot of people in my part of the world (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia that is) have been heard to say, "I wish it would just b****y well rain!"  Two things I've learnt about Queenslanders since moving here last year that are summed up in this sentence: 1. they don't mince their words and 2. they take a very keen interest in the weather.  If you live here and don't know what the BOM is, well, you'd just better go and find out before you're sent back to New South Wales or wherever it is you came from.  (It's the Bureau of Meteorology website, by the way.  It's first with storm warnings, so kinda important round these parts).

So now we have what we wished for - it's pouring!  And has been all day.  Just in time for a 4-hour drive up to Fraser Island tomorrow for a very welcome break.  I was feeling a little uninspired to blog today, what with it being so grey and wet outside, and a wee bit cool (I really need to toughen up).  Until, that is, I started listening to the rain on the tin (deck) roof.  How I love that sound ....

Visit Wallpaper Decor for the OAS (Oasis) Collection

And why do I love that sound so much?  Simply because, when I was a littlie, every year our family packed up the car and the trusty Thompson Traveller - our caravan - and headed south for our very own European vacation.  I was a happy and a very lucky little camper to have spent holidays in France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy and Andorra (it's a tiny country between France and Spain), and all before I was even a teen.

via Talking to Unicorns

On these holidays, my brothers and I made friends and played with kids without being able to speak each other's language. 

via Blondie and Co

We learnt how to pack light, because somehow you had to squeeze 3 weeks' worth of clothes into a cubby hole about the size of a shoe box. 

 A travelling Brisbane shop - otherwise known as the Best Little Vintage Van in Vegas

We got to swim in the sea, get a suntan (and burn), wear nothing but flip flops and swimsuits for 3 whole weeks, and of course we got to sample exotic 'foreign food' - I still have a vivid memory of eating my first pizza!

But one of the strongest sensory memories I have is lying in bed listening to the pitter-patter of summer rain on the roof of our home-away-from-home.  Mum and Dad would still be up, talking in hushed voices (we were only separated by a curtain, after all) and maybe playing cards on the table that would later be folded away to form the base of their bed (design genius!).

Check out this little wagon somewhere in a forest in Denmark at Boboho

I loved caravanning as a child, it holds many happy memories for me, so much so that I now have a dream of one day having a very special type of caravan to call my own ....

But you'll just have to wait until next week to find out what that is, if you haven't guessed already!


Til then, Nx

What's in the bottom drawer?

Isn't it amazing how quickly memories fade if we don't pay attention to them? 

It's only a few months since my trip, but so many other things have come along to fill my head and push those memories to the bottom drawer of the file cabinet in my brain.  So it feels good to open that drawer again and linger over the patterns, their shapes and their colours, that transport me back to a time and a place, just like a scent can do the minute you smell it.  Before you know it, you're right back in the memory ....

Tiles adorning the outside of Rumah Bebe shop-house

When I first walked into Rumah Bebe in Singapore, I gasped.  So much colour, so many patterns - my kind of heaven.  I feel so alive and happy in places like this. 

You can imagine how hard it was to choose which fabric to buy from the seemingly infinite range of batik prints stacked to the rafters in the back of the shop ....

A length of batik fabric I bought in Rumah Bebe

Then I just couldn't resist this vintage thermos and its delicate decoration ....

Detail from vintage flask bought in Rumah Bebe, Singpore

Time for a sit-down and a Singapore Sling after all that shopping!

Coaster from the Raffles courtyard bar, where you'll be served a REAL Singaore Sling. 
Tip: Don't bother with the Singapore Slings in the upstairs bar where everyone goes - it's pre-mix!

Pattern is everywhere in Singapore, from the coaster under your Singapore Sling, to the stationery in your hotel ....

A montage of card, paper and envelope designs from the Regent Hotel, Singapore

From the modern ....

The Crowne Plaza, Changi Airport, Singapore (taken from Terminal 3 - much more than an airport terminal!)

To the traditional ....

Traditional shop-houses, Singapore

I love this country's joyful use of both pattern and colour.  I felt right at home!  And speaking of home ....

Poppies (once they've flowered)

The intricate patterns of nature and the countryside are always a source of delight in my native Scotland ....

Loch Leven, Scotland

And how amazing was it on this trip to see the original interiors of the Royal Palace at Stirling Castle recreated as they would been in the 16th Century ....

The Queen's Inner Hall in the Royal Palace, Stirling Castle

Another gasp-inducing moment ....

 The Queen's Outer Hall

And my old stomping ground of Edinburgh didn't disappoint either.  It never does ....

A typical New Town terrace, Edinburgh

 And while Paris was a mere glimpse compared to the rest of the trip ....

No denying the Parisiens do a good lamp-post ...

 The patterns of its history are always a joy to behold ....

The underside of the Arc de Triomphe

Thank you for joining me on this little 'Pattern' trip down memory lane.  There's still the 'Texture' tour to come, so I look forward to seeing you there soon.

'Nature Table' plate by Lou Rota, from Anthropologie in Edinburgh

Til next time, Nx

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