Christmas in York

While mum's been preparing the house in the Netherlands I've worked on some small projects to get the house ready for Christmas as well.

One corner in our living room - you can see the cushions I've finished a few days ago. I bought several samples of fabric this year in India and didn't have a purpose for it until now.

We got this desk off a friend who was moving house a few years back. It's very simple, but works really well now it's painted all white. The bowls at the bottom I bought several years back in The Netherlands - they were picked up from the wreck of an old trade ship and never reached their destination. I love the decayed floral pattern.
The Paloma lamp I picked up from Habitat, and have recently given it a little make-over. The cross stitch sampler I'll add to my etsy shop soon.

I'm collecting little antique earth-ware objects such as these here. I'm really happy with the pudding mould I found in York a few months back. I do use it sometimes, and the puddings look absolutely lovely! I painted the pale blue duck eggs on the right hand side with traditional Japanese patterns in white paint.

We've got two cats in York: Neko and Mira, the latter posing for this photo here. She's such a pretty little cat!

I bought Herbert Krenchel's Krenit bowls a few years ago when I was on holiday in Denmark. The thin black bowls with the bright red enamel are so beautiful, and I've never regretted buying them.

These little red shoes were lost by a little girl in a shop I worked, and after having been stuck in lost property for months they were about to be thrown away. Linens I bought from The French House in York. They used to have a wonderful shop on Micklegate in the city centre, but have unfortunately moved out of the city center.

And speaking of linen: as I was looking for things to decorate the house I came across a long-lost bag of linens yesterday! I'm really excited as it has some beautiful Belgian portrait linen, some course embroidery linen and a few other pieces. On one piece I had made a cross stitch border pattern - a traditional pattern found on embroidery from Marken.

More photos later!

- Jacob