Thoughts from the Bus Stop

Portslade Mushrooms

Image (c) Kristen Bailey 2013

Spotted on Victoria Road, Portslade. Wonderful!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Feist - Mushaboom *

Brighton Fantasy: Gay felt appliqué ( #MagpieMonday )

A lovely charity shop find - this time in the Relate shop in Broadfield, Crawley - the December 1963 edition of Patons 'Stitchcraft' magazine for 10p! I going to buy it anyway so the pattern for a felt applique of Royal Pavilion in Brighton (my 'home' town) was a bonus!

I love seen the Pav rendered in stitches - most recently a knitted version by Peter from Temptation cafe in the North Laine. Well done sir!

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Lemonheads - Big Gay Heart *

   

This post is part of Magpie Monday - your chance to share your second-hand treasures.

Get aboard Brighton's Woolly Bus

Image via The Woolly Bus on Facebook

A Brighton bus stop has been given a woolly makeover to launch an appeal by a Hove yarn shop to raise money for The Martlets Hospice by covering an open-top double decker bus in knitting.

The lovely folk at Cocoon Knits in George Street are asking knitters to collect sponsors and knit a minimum of three 15cm x 15cm squares. To celebrate the end of the project the bus will be driven along Brighton seafront on the 20th August with contributors and guests aboard! The minimum sponsorship amount is £25 per entry but they're aiming to raise over £40,000 for the Martlets Hospice. More details at www.cocoonknits.co.uk. After the event all blankets will be broken down and sent to Africa with the help of Knit a Square charity to help keep AIDS orphans warm.

My First Paper Diorama

Look what I made - it's a foldable pop-up diorama! I went to a workshop (in December - yes, am crap at getting posts finished!) at Hove Museum run by lovely local artist Lizzie Thomas, who is part of the Unravelled group of craft-based artists (also lovely - the ones I've met anyway!).

Lizzie showed us several samples she'd made using the same basic principles, and although they looked scarily complex, she explained everything so clearly we all came away after two hours with complete and fairly fancypants versions of our own! All just from some pieces of card and careful scalpel work.

Mine is a secret garden. (I must re-read 'The Secret Garden'...)

 

A great tip from Lizzie was to cut all or part of the back of the diorama away and cover the aperture with artists' tracing paper. Then you get a lovely effect with diffused light shining through. You even place in in front of a candle if you were VERY careful. Maybe one of those fake LED candles would be better!

 

Since I did this I've made a few more, mainly as birthday cards, so I'll post some photos of them shortly. This is a fascinating craft, I really want to explore it further!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Dawn Penn - The First Cut Is The Deepest *

Sequins and sunshine

Sunlight hitting the sequinned handbag which hangs on the back of my front door, covering the hallway with shiny shapes. A lovely surprise!

* SONG OF THE DAY:  My Life Story – Sparkle *

Overheard

Elderly lady behind counter in charity shop:

"And then she went in her bag and got out a... what are those things they eat in Devon?... a Cornish pasty!"

 
Cornish Pasty Recycled Felt Food Sculpture (c) British Cream Tea

Stuarts Granolithic

'Stuarts Granolithic' paving stone in Holland Road, Hove

Grinding gears at Hove Museum

 

Mum and Dad came down for the afternoon so the Blonde and I took them to Hove Museum to partake of afternoon tea. In the foyer of the museum is a wonderful coin-operated automata by Ian McKay.

 

There's a chap reading a newspaper, seated next to a lady with a flask of tea...

 

... and a kissing couple!

 

I love automata. I enjoyed making the sheep automata for my mum, and I'd like to learn how to design one myself. I'm not a woodworker so I'd like to see if I could make a fabric one - over an armature of some sort I guess.

Rob Ives' Paper Engineering and Pop-ups for Dummies looks like it might be a good starting point.

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bus phone

Spotted in Snooper's Paradise in the North Laine - a bus phone! Saved myself the £30 by making do with a photo :) 

September sunset in Hove

September sunset in Hove (c) Kristen Bailey, 2009

Slept most of the day as I'd been awake all night, but still managed to get outside for a walk as the sun went down. Beautiful, eh?

* SONG OF THE DAY: Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day *

Ye olde Bunn Shoppe, Brighton

I found this advertising card being used as a bookmark in a charity shop paperback years ago. It extols the virtues of 'Cowley, Fancy Bread and Biscuit Maker', at 9, Pool Valley in Brighton town centre, off the seafront near the Palace Pier. The Cowley family traded there for 150 years - not sure which of those years this card comes from! They must have closed in the mid 1940s. I love that their telegram address is 'Biscuits, Brighton'.

These days, if you find yourself in Pool Valley with a yearning for something sweet, treat yourself to tea and cake at The Mock Turtle.

 

* SONG OF THE DAY: Stephen 'Tintin' Duffy - The Icing On The Cake *

 

5 Jan 2011 - edited to add:
I've been contacted by Peter Cowley, whose family used to run the Bunn Shoppe:

"Nos. 8/9, Pool Valley housed the bakery run by my great, great grandfather, Francis Cowley, who I believe took over the business that had been started by the Streeter family, possibly Sarah Streeter. After Francis died the business was run by his daughter, Caroline, who actually obtained a Royal Warrant. If you are interested you can read more and see more photographs on my family history web site at www.cowleyfamily.org.uk/bunn_shoppe.html."

Thanks Peter!

 

Bad Wolf

Image (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

This made me laugh out loud! A rogue Doctor Who fan has graffitied this tree, near Hove Museum.

Baldism

We were walking to Hove Library when Dad (hairy everywhere except his head) let out a cry of distress at this poster in the window of the hairdressers next door!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair *

Score!!!

Thank you, Person Down The Street, for putting a huge wodge of magazines (some over 2 years old!) out for recycling. You have made a near neighbour and her scissors and scrapbook very happy indeed. :)

LEGO fairground carousel

The LEGO shop had a really detailed model of a hotel in its window, and I thought it must be a special display item, but when I went in I found a whole range of these premium models, available as kits. They're expensive but would be really fun to make (but a bugger to dust)!

My favourite is the Grand Carousel - it reminds me of the Golden Gallopers which are on Brighton Beach every summer. This model rotates, the horses and swingboats move, and it plays music!

I love fairground imagery. There are some lovely things on Etsy, including gorgeous prints of carousels and helter-skelters. For a treasure trove of fairground images, check out the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round *

Coco Before Chanel

It was a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to wander over to the Duke of York's Picturehouse and spend a couple of hours in the dark in the company of Audrey Tatou, watching Coco Before Chanel.

I enjoyed it - it was fascinating to learn about her early life (the film ends just as she's setting up as a fashion designer). What struck me most was how different the garments she started making for herself were from the fashion of the day.

The film shows her making herself simple, comfortable, practical clothes from garments she's pinched from her boyfriends, while all around her the upper class woman are corsetted and wearing enormous frilly dresses and hats which make them look like wedding cakes. The young Chanel's homemade clothes look thirty years ahead of their time.

She's portrayed as a prickly but sharply intelligent character, going from rags to riches but not without taking advantage of a couple of rich admirers on the way. My favourite quote was when Chanel is asked how old she is and replies, "When I'm bored, I feel ancient" - a fantastic anti-aging tip, I think!

Jennifer's garden

White passionflower (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Just down the road from me is a house which has a passionflower vine growing over its garden fence. Since spring I've been watching it develop with great anticipation - I love passionflowers, can't believe that something so exotic-looking grows in UK - and taking photos week by week.

Yesterday I was there again, taking a close-up of the fruit forming, when a lady came down the street and saw me as she went in through her gate. I explained, blushing, that I'd been keeping an eye on her passionflower vine, and she told me she also had a white passionflower and asked me if I'd like to see the rest of her garden!

 

There was so much going on I hardly knew where to look first! At the far end of the garden were several beehives - only one was being used but there were bees everywhere, getting on with the day's business. There was also a glass cloche (above) stacked with old honeycombs, to drain off the beeswax, which will be used to make candles!

Bee on white buddleia

To the righthand side of the garden were dozens of 7ft-high evening primrose plants which Jennifer said she'd left to do their own thing. She told me that she and her late husband used to make a 8pm date to come out to the garden and watch the flowers open.

 
Evening Primrose | Crocosmia 'Lucifer'

Around the garden's edges were at least a dozen water butts and a few young trees. There was a pond with frogs in, and she showed me the two drains where toads live - sadly not at home at the time!

We went round the garden with me taking photos and asking the names of things I didn't know - she knew all the Latin names and had a story to tell about how she'd come by each plant. She tore a seed pod off an honesty plant and tore it open to show me its three layers, and how the inside had a glossy sheen - crushing it in her fist and brushing the dust away just as I opened my mouth to ask if I could keep it (I was too shy to ask for another)!

I can't remember the name of this elegant pink bloom but it stuck in my mind because Jennifer said it reminded her of her mother's dresses. It's so delicate and beautiful, I really love the ways the buds look like 'lucky' origami stars.

 
 
Clockwise from top left: Lavender | Globe Buddleia | Cardoon | Gaura lindheimer

It was so lovely to be discover this half-wild garden in such a densely-populated area. Jennifer does a lot of work - there were potted seedlings stacked everywhere - but if something has thrived where it was planted (or has self-seeded) she likes to give it free rein.

She's told me to knock on the door anytime I'm passing and fancy another look - it will be wonderful to see how it changes through the coming seasons. And I only went out for a pint of milk!

All images in this post (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

* SONG OF THE DAY: Donovan - Jennifer Juniper *

A Strong Tower

Cloud over Hove (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

At yesterday's evening service, our pastor David was talking about how amazing clouds are and how awesome they can be - a showstopping reminder of the One who put them there (we believe).

Then today I was walking to Hove shops and as I turned into Blatchington Road I saw this massive tower of cloud, almost heart-shaped. It made me catch my breath and then spend the rest of the afternoon singing Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord* (but without the actions)!:

"The name of the Lord is
A strong tower
The righteous run into it
And they are saved!"

Cinema carpets

Foyer carpet, Odeon Cinema, Brighton Marina

Went to the cinema this week - the Blonde had given me her free ticket to the new Sandra Bullock romcom. I love the sort of carpets you find in theatres, cinemas and amusement arcades - busily patterned so they don't show up the dirt, but zany enough to say, 'Hey, let us entertain YOU!'

There are beautiful specimens in Flickr's Movie Theater Carpet group. Here are a few more I've found:

I don't need to go to Chelsea

  
  

Hydrangeas of Hove (c) Kristen Bailey, 19 June 2009

Watching all the recent coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show made me really want to be there in person. But I have to be realistic - I couldn't cope with the journey to London and a whole day on my feet in a crowded showground (plus it's really expensive to get in!).

Then, as I was doing my regular tour of the streets in my neighbourhood, camera in hand to snap the latest blooms, it occurred to me that all around me are lovely gardens which I can look at for free, which are constantly changing. Now I'm in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere I go, I'm looking at everything I see more closely, and starting to read up on what I photograph. I don't need to go to Chelsea.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Elvis Costello and The Attractions: I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea *

Gimme a sign

I love the old ceramic name tiles many of the streets in Hove near me have. I can't find any info about how far back they date from but I'm guessing they're Victorian.

Some of them are a bit worse for wear but I'm glad they've not been replaced.

Some have even been remounted on new walls.

So good they named it twice...

* SONG OF THE DAY: Teenage Fanclub - I Need Direction *

Painted Ladies

Painted lady butterflies (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Towards the end of my early morning walk last week there was a flower bed full of Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) flowers, covered in orange butterflies. At one point I could see seven at once!

I managed to get this snap of two together, and am extra pleased that you can just see the curly tongue (proboscis) of the one on the left poking out (close-up view below). I was able to get really close without them flying off. They were all busily feeding - the way their tongues whipped in and out reminded me of a watch spring!

When I got home and went online to identify them - they were Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), which arrives in the UK from Africa every year! I visited Butterfly Conservation's Migrant Watch website to log my sighting. 2009 has seen a mass migration with millions of butterflies arriving over the May Bank Holiday. I felt very blessed to have seen so many on my doorstep.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Dolly Parton - Love Is Like A Butterfly *

Painted lady butterfly (c) Kristen Bailey 200

 

A walk from Cromwell Road down The Drive and Grand Parade to Hove seafront

Had been awake all night and the dawn was so lovely Ihought I'd go for a walk with my camera. From 7am to 8am on Friday 29th May 2009.

J'aime beaucoup les magazines trouvés!

Well, how's this for a score? Yes, while just popping out for some milk, glancing at each recycling box I passed, I picked up a 2006 copy of Elle Decoration in one street and the April 2009 issue of Marie Claire Maison in the next (bone dry too, unlike last week's haul)!!! You get a better class of recycling round here, I tell you. If I was still living in Crawley I'd be lucky to pick up a copy of Chat.

I've never seen a Marie Claire Maison before. It looks fab - so colourful and full of great photos. It's even fun using my very rusty (1993) A-level French to decipher the text! I notice that one of the articles is called 'Léger comme une bulle' - light as a bubble - where in English we describe something as 'light as a feather'. I used to get into trouble when writing my French essays for translating English phrases directly into French, where they didn't work.

It wasn't till years later, when I worked in a software/website testing lab, that I learnt the difference between translation and localisation - the latter done by someone who not only knows how to translate words but phrases, sayings, slang and other cultural, religious or political connotations. It's important - many big companies have landed in the brown stuff when trying to sell the same product all over the world with the same brand name without checking if that name is funny or offensive or nonsense in any given country.

The Elle Decoration turns out to be one I had bought when it was originally on sale - I recognise some of the pages I tore out and stuck in my scrapbook. I must fish out the scrapbook and see which bits of the magazine I liked enough to keep and which I wasn't that interested in - I bet my tastes have changed slightly since 2006. Are they more refined or more garish? NB: If you are related to me, that is a purely rhetorical question!

Cocktail hour

 

Got this lovely Arcoroc cocktail mixer glass in the Mind shop on George St. I love the font and the little symbols on it - can't really date it but don't think it's very old. I guess it once had a lid but I'll use it as a water glass. Check out the vintage cocktail accessories on Etsy. Bottoms up!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Spike Jones & His City Slickers - Cocktails For Two *

 

Peter Blake's Art Bus

CCA Art Bus (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

The Blonde and I went aboard Peter Blake's Art Bus the weekend before last. I'd heard he would be around and had taken a book along for him to sign, but sadly he was nowhere to be seen.

The exhibition wasn't very exciting either, just a dozen or so prints, most of which I'd seen before. Maybe I'd been looking forward to it too much, but it was a bit of an anti-climax. I guess it was mainly a promo for the new 'Retrospective' book.

The most impressive thing was the re-fit of the bus. The outside was unmistakably Peter Blake, painted in his Pop Art style and signed - I even love his handwriting! Inside it had 'Target' and Union Flag seats, and fab red LEDs along each step of the staircase (and the Beach Boys, his favourite band, over the PA).

All in all it was a bit disappointing, but it was free so it doesn't really matter!

All images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Also:
The Guardian: All aboard Peter Blake's Art Bus
Creative Review: Mother launches art space with Peter Blake show
CCA Galleries: Peter Blake

Recycling recycling

Am I a bad person because I fished six sopping wet magazines out of someone's recycling? I've brought them home and hung them up to dry!

I love getting magazines but I rarely buy them in a shop. I keep my eye on various magazine websites and wait until a title I'm interested in has a special offer. I love reading them, but my favourite thing is chopping them up when I've read them, and sticking the images I like best into my sketch/scrap book. I've got these books going back years now and they're great to flick through when I need inspiration.

Have you ever watched magazines dry? I'm gagging to get at them!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Five Star - Rain Or Shine *

What's This Then? Ivy-leaved Toadflax

This stuff is everywhere, growing out of cracks in walls. The tiny mauve and yellow blooms are no bigger than a fingernail. As you can see from the pics below, it seems to need nothing more than a bit of grouting to fasten onto, and spreads across otherwise barren surfaces, making them beautiful!

I started my ill-informed Googling by trying 'minature pansy creeper' but got nowhere till I looked more closely at my photos and realised that its leaves looked a bit like ivy - indeed, ivy was often growing on the same surface. Bingo - it's Ivy-leaved Toadflax!

 

All images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

 

Turquoise treasure trove

 

I has an appointment in Portslade last week, and afterwards I decided to do the Boundary Road charity shops. And look what I found in the first shop I went in - a beautiful little vintage travel clock, in my favourite shade of turquoise, for £3!

It's so pretty I think I'd have bought it even if it was broken but I wound it up and wandered round the shop for five minutes and when I came back it had kept good time, so it was definitely coming with me.

Usually I use my mobile phone as an alarm clock, but this is much nicer - waking me with a proper old-fashioned 'ting-aling-aling-aling-aling!' It sits next to the old Pifco lamp I bought in a charity shop about ten years ago, on my bedside table, which was also from a charity shop. Love it!

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Lemonheads - It's About Time *

 

Cupboard Love

Isn't this a beauty? I wrestled with myself all afternoon over this gorgeous old cabinet with glass shelves and curved doors, which was in the Martlets Hospice shop on Blatchington Road (for £35). Eventually I had to admit that there wasn't any room in my flat for it. I do hope it's gone to an appreciative home!

 

Reader, I...

...went to see an adaptation of Jane Eyre at the Theatre Royal, Brighton last week. I'm very glad I got to see it - Jane Eyre has been my favourite book since I was a kid and I've never seen it on the stage before - but I can't say I was impressed. Obviously the story had to be abridged, and of course I wasn't expected a whole variety of sets to cover the different places Jane lives in the book, but... it was a bit of a damp squib.

The whole thing took place in one room in Thornfield, important chunks of the story were explained away in a couple of lines of dialogue, it sped along far too fast (the plot should simmer slooooowly), and Peter Amory (Chris Tate from Emmerdale) as Rochester really wasn't very convincing. There were moments of greatness - mainly when one of Charlotte Brontë's original lines was delivered with spirit as part of the dialogue - but I kept being distracted by what was lacking.

Am currently trying to read (I say trying - I've started reading about six books at once, which means I'm making little progress with any of them) Lyndall Gordon's biography, Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life. So far it's a bit dry and wordy, am hoping it'll pick up a bit of speed. I first got into Jane Eyre when I was eight and took the audiobook (read by Dame Wendy Hiller) out of the library - Rochester was my first crush! I borrowed those tapes so many times my Mum threatened to ban them from the house. So I read the book, and I've read it every couple of years since then.

Am interested in getting hold of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - a fantasy novel based of the story of Jane Eyre, where characters have the power to go into classic books and interact with the characters. And I should re-read Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys' prequel to Jane Eyre, about the early life of Rochester's first wife, Bertha Mason, who becomes 'the mad woman in the attic'.

There are many other filmed versions of Jane Eyre I've yet to see. There's one starring Samantha Morton and Ciarán Hinds, an older BBC version with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton (although this may be the series I remember watching on Sunday teatimes when I was a kid, it's just that he's not the Rochester I remember - he had black hair), a 1970 version with Susannah York and George C. Scott, the 1943 film starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, and a low-budget 1934 film starring Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive. I got the DVD of Franco Zefirelli's Jane Eyre (with William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg) for my birthday, and I watched it drinking green tea from my Jane Eyre mug. Both were spot-on.

The Scotsman: Jane Eyre, Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Ureader: Peter Amory in Jane Eyre - A Review
Wikipedia: Jane Eyre
TimothyDalton.com: In Search of Thornfield Hall

Blossoming

 
 
 
Blossom on Eaton Gardens (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Walking home from the supermarket on Tuesday, my spirits were lifted by all the different blossoms appearing on trees and bushes - I'm just an old romantic I guess!

I wish we had 'flower viewing' in our culture, as they do in Japan (hanami) - how much more fun would it be to have a 'blossom forecast' (sakurazensen) after the news bulletin?

* SONG OF THE DAY: Dolly Parton - Little Blossom *

 

 

Image: www.sakurazensen.com 

 

Adamantstone

I spotted this paving stone on Grand Avenue in Hove. T'internet informs me that this was made by the Adamant Stone & Paving Co of Aberdeen. According to The Maven's Word of the Day:

"Adamant comes ultimately from Greek adamas which was first an adjective meaning 'invincible' -- it came from the verb damao meaning 'to tame or conquer' -- and then became a noun meaning 'the hardest metal' or 'anything firm and unyielding'. It was also applied to the hardest gem known to the ancient world. The Latin adamas had the same meanings as the Greek word and was eventually transferred to the diamond (which is a variation of "adamant"). "

I remember being at primary school one day doing a reading test, and next in the list of words my teacher was getting me to read to her was 'adamant'. I thought it was a trick question - what was the name of that bloke on Top of the Pops with the white stripe across his nose doing in my reading test?!

Cup & Saucer Posy mosaic by Anna Tilson

I have totally fallen in love with this beautiful (or beaut-tea-ful?) mosaic by Anna Tilson, spotted in her Etsy shop. It's made with fragments of rose-printed crockery and is just... LOVELY (sigh).

It's £120 so a bit out of my reach, but maybe if manage to save, or get a surprise commission, I'll be able to make it mine! Or I could treat myself to a mosaiced letter 'K', like this £45 letter 'E'.

I went to a mosaic workshop at Hove Museum run by Anna a few years ago, and she helped us all make something we were proud of - but I still really really want a Tilson original!

Also: MADE: Maker of the Week - Anna Tilson

Both images (c) Anna Tilson

Peter Blake takes the bus to Brighton!

Another of my two favourite things combine - Peter Blake and buses! A specially designed double-decker London bus will bring an exhibition of work and sale of a new print by Sir Peter Blake to Brighton's Fringe Festival in May.

The man himself will be there on Saturday 9 May – it's in the Bus Stop diary!

Alas, poor Woolies...

Empty Woolworths store, London Road, Brighton (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Took this rather sad pic of the empty Woolies store on London Road yesterday. The signage has been removed but you can still see 'Woolworths' in grime!

My first job was at Woolworths in Crawley, aged 15. I worked Saturdays and the Christmas '89 holidays - it was bedlam! As soon as I could, I moved on to Marks & Spencer, for a more genteel working environment. :)

Though the retail stores are all closed, the company may yet be revived online, according to the Woolworths Blog. Not sure if you'll be able to buy Pick 'n' Mix...

Beach huts, Hove

Beach huts, Hove (c) Kristen Bailey, 2009

I was having a slow day, M.E.-wise, and couldn't have handled the evening service, but the late afternoon light was so lovely that I thought I'd take a short walk down to the sea, get some fresh air and stretch my legs before the sun went down.

I took my camera, 'just in case'... and I ended up taking individual pics of the whole row of beach huts on King's Esplanade. It took a while, but look how pretty! You can look through them one by one in my Flickr set.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Nick Drake - Man In A Shed *

 

Bus stop armchair

 

Back in August, I was coming back from the corner shop and noticed two winged armchairs on the pavement outside one of the houses in my road. It's common round my way to leave unwanted items outside, for anyone who wants to take them. I've given away and acquired lots of things this way!

In the wee small hours I was woken by torrential rain. I got up to make a brew, and when I looked outside I noticed that someone had moved the armchairs under the bus shelter to keep them dry. Then, as I watched, a bloke ran into the bus shelter, picked up one of the armchairs, flipped it upside-down, placed it on his head and rushed off through the downpour!

I didn't get to my camera in time to catch him, but I got this picture of the chair he left behind. I went back to bed, and when I got up, it had gone too. I love this town.

Praying in the hospital chapel

The chapel in the Royal Sussex County Hospital (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

I had an appointment at the Royal Sussex last week, in a part of the (sprawling) hospital I hadn't visited before, and the hospital chapel was close by, so i thought I'd take a look. It was wonderful to be alone in this silent room, knowing that all around me was noise and bustle.

The chapel was built in 1854 (it is inside the main hospital building, built in 1828) and it's still Victorian in style, with a Wedgewood blue ceiling and glossy wood panelling. It feels like an Anglican (Church of England) chapel at first, but care has been taken in providing for many different styles of prayer.

You could light a candle, as I've seen in Catholic and 'High' Anglican churches.Then there was a 'Prayer Cairn', where you're invited to take a stone from the tray, hold in your hand while saying a prayer then place it onto the cairn being built on the table.

I'm from the Baptist tradition, and used to just closing my eyes (or not, if I'm not praying with others) and getting on with my prayer. It was good to try this 'creative' way of praying - holding the stone helped me to concentrate on my prayer. It also felt good to place my 'prayer' in the cairn with the prayers of others.

I'll still be praying on the bus and in the shower and as I'm walking to the shops, but I'm going to look into other ideas like this 'prayer cairn', to see what I can use to help me pray more, and for specific people/situations. PS: I do requests!

The Methodist Church of Great Britain: Ideas for Prayer
Prayer Requests: Creative Prayer
Creative Prayer: Comtemplative Prayer Stations
Beliefnet: Ten Creative Ways to Energize Your Prayer Life

* SONG OF THE DAY: Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer *

Stained glass windows

 
All images (c) Kristen Bailey 200. Click on pics for larger versions.

These are the staircase windows of the house my flat is in - late Victorian I think. You only get the decorative borders and garden bird roundels on the stairs from ground floor to first - the second and third floors (which wouldn't have been seen by most guests, I suppose) just have tinted squares.

They are wonderfully incongrous in what is now a rather grotty communal staircase serving seven flats (I'm so glad the removal men didn't stick my sofa through one of them when I moved in...). It's a reminder that the house was once a much grander residence - home to a middle-class family who had a bit of spare cash! You can view the whole lot on Flickr.

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Hollies - Look Through Any Window *
 

 

 

Green shoots

I took the walk back from the shops today slowly, looking for signs of spring. It was a grey, cold day, but it was green shoots a-go-go in Hove. Spring is here!

Pink feather

 

This shocking pink feather caught my eye as I dashed down North Street this afternoon. An escapee from a reveller's feather boa, it instantly took me back my cousin Lisa's hen night in 2003.

That night we giggled our way through Soho wearing shocking pink feather boas (with pastel pink for the bride), and in the morning I discovered my neck had been dyed bright pink!

* SONG OF THE DAY: Aerosmith - Pink *

 

The Great British PicKnit with Shaun the Sheep

 

Sarah and I spent this afternoon at the Creative Stitches show at the Brighton Centre, and got to see the finished Great British PicKnit. 

The project is supported by Aardman Animations (together with the UK Hand Knitting Association, Simply Knitting magazine and ICHF exhibitions) and the star of the piece is Aardman's own ovine knitter, Shaun the Sheep.

The longer we looked, the more details we spotted - the robin in the tree, the pop bottle knitted from clear plastic, the chicks fighting over a worm, Shaun's iPod! It was fantastic - a real labour of love by hundreds of knitters.

It continues its tour in March and April, visiting Glasgow, Birmingham and Liverpool.

* SONG OF THE DAY: Henry Hall & His Orchestra - The Teddy Bears' Picnic *

 

 

All images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Windowsill snowman

Windowsill snowman. All images (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

I can't remember the last time we had proper snow in Brighton - it must be years ago. Usually we get a dusting which is gone by midday, but today we have real proper snow! So I decided to build a snowman.

I live on the second floor, so the only place I could build was on one of my snow-covered windowsills. He's only small (7 inches high) but perfectly turned out, in a mini hat and scarf set I had made to go on an unfinished Christmas toy.

I gave him button eyes, beads for his mouth, more buttons down his front, and used some rotten bits of windowframe wood for his arms. Cute huh?

* SONG OF THE DAY: Low - Just Like Christmas *

 

Bus seat upholstery

 
Bus seat, Brighton & Hove bus (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

I love the various moquette fabrics used to upholster bus, coach and train seats. One day I'd like to have an armchair upholstered in one.

Take look at the amazing patterns available from Holdsworth Fabrics and Blackpool Trim Shops. There are also samples in the London Transport Museum archive and a Transport Upholstery Patterns group on Flickr.

You can actually buy furniture upholstered in specific London Transport moquettes through the London Transport Museum shop - though sadly a £600 armchair is beyond my means! More affordable are the moquette-print homewares available from Tranport for London's shop.

* SONG OF THE DAY: My Drug Hell - Girl At The Bus Stop *

Snowdrops!

 

Spotted in the Pavilion Gardens this afternoon. Spring is on its way!

Pensioner knits over 100 woolly breasts

Audrey and daughter Rhona producing their knitted breasts (photo Terry Applin)

Lovely story this, from our local paper The Argus (thanks, The Blonde):

"WHEN it comes to knitting most people would settle for a pair of gloves, socks or possibly a jumper. But Audrey Horncastle prefers to spend her time on something a little more exotic. For more than three years the industrious 84-year-old has churned out more than 100 knitted breasts... "

The crafting community has been knitting these boobs for a while now - they are to help teach new mothers how to breastfeed, as knitted 'breasts' are far cheaper than the synthetic models which surgeries have to buy... and less scary-looking! 

You can get the 'breast' knitting pattern on the website of the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (pdf).

For Loveliness That Lasts: The Dubarry building, Hove

Dubarry building overlooking Hove Station (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

This sprawling building across the tracks from Hove Station is the old Dubarry Perfume factory. It's currently home to residential flats, a gym, a yoga studio and a company which localises video games, but its walls are still ringed with green and white mosaics advertising Dubarry's 'perfume and toilet luxuries'.

Dubarry building mosaic (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

They're not only beautiful to look at but always raise a smile, coming as they do from a less cynical era in beauty products. There is no 'science bit'':

'Shalimar Complexion Creams For Loveliness That Lasts'
'Creme Shalimar For Dainty Soft White Hands'
'Dubarry's Silkashave Soap For A Luxurious Shave'

I took my camera out to capture as many of them as I could, and I've gathered them together in a Dubarry building mosaics set on Flickr.

See also:
Flickr: Dubarry cosmetic ads

'For Loveliness That Lasts' (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

* SONG OF THE DAY: The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain - Smells Like Teen Spirit *

 

 

Filthy Gorgeous

A few weeks ago I was woken up at about 8am (I need 12-14 hours sleep a day so 8am is very early for me!) by a huge amount of banging and clanking - my first guess was that scaffolding was being put up on the building. Eventually curiosity (OK, indignation...) got the better of me and I got out of bed to look out of the window. The basement flat was being emptied, and there was an enormous pile of junk on the pavement. And right on top of the pile, staring up at me, was this filthy dirty 'Cycle Lane' road sign.

Now, one of my dearest friends is a cycling obsessive - used to run a bike shop, has a shelf full of Tour de France videos - so I couldn't let it get away. I ran down there in my PJs and grabbed it. Once it had been introduced to some hot soapy water, and a bit of elbow grease, I had one perfect (free!) birthday present for my favourite boy on a bike:

* SONG OF THE DAY:  Mark Ronson & The Business International – The Bike Song *

150 Years of Art & Design in Brighton

'Angel', Alison Lapper. Courtesy of University of Brighton

It's 150 years since Brighton School of Art was founded, in 1859, and there's an exhibition opening soon at the current Faculty of Arts & Architecture at the University of Brighton to celebrate its history and students. And - hooray! - it's right on my doorstep! I haven't been able to cope with day trips to London since I developed M.E. so I've missed a gazillion exhibitions I'd have loved to see.

Exhibits will include fashion, textiles, 3D, illustration, fine art, architecture, performance art and graphic design items, with contributions from famous alumni such as Julien MacDonald, Quentin Blake, Alison Lapper, Rachel Whiteread, Keith Tyson, Antony Gormley, Emily Gravett and Raymond Briggs. It runs from 16 January - 14 March 2009.

Dress by Julien MacDonald. Courtesy of University of Brighton