Brighton

In the end we didn't go anywhere in East Anglia, nor indeed anywhere close. We ended up in Brighton. The weather was probably a bit too cold for me (I have the internal heating of a lizard) to be out all day walking on some coastal saltmarsh, so the husband suggested shopping - and I would never object to that. I love this city, even though I've only been a few times - it is like another London only it's more kind of concentrated (you know what I mean?) and, of course, it has a beach! The shopping is fantastic especially in the quirky Lanes and the trendy, studenty North Laine, so after a stroll along the beach we headed into town for a spot of junking (OK, we were distracted for a while by a food fair, some tea and a sausage roll...).

We need more chairs, since we are now down to just three in our house that could be passed off as dining chairs. When we have guests we use the piano stool and our 1920s wooden swivel chair too! So we headed for Pigeon Vintage's shop to enquire about those lovely school chairs that I had my eye on. They were there in the window display, but sadly they had just been sold to a local restaurant (with excellent taste, I might add!) :-( Boo hoo! They were even more beautiful in the flesh - gorgeous blue-green metalwork, little gold Belgian maker's marks on the back... they were so lovely it was sick. But never mind, eh? There will be others!


Other shops we came across included Swag (images above), another beautiful antiques shop with some to-die-for plan chests and French kitchen tables amongst other things.


And then there was my dream shop, Utility. It sells enamelware, embossed notebooks, letterpress stationery, traditional hardware and household products. The shop's name says it all. I would have had the lot! There were other places too, like the amazing Snooper's Paradise, but to talk about it all would probably be boring!

Did I buy anything in the end? Only this little fella (from The North Laine Antiques & Fleamarket), another tin wind-up toy to add to my collection of unloved policemen-type toys. He needs a bit of a clean!


I'll be back later today with another idiot drawing!