Happy days

Well, this weekend is all about the chocolate for me.  This is the scene that greeted me upon waking:

Yes, I'm one Easter egg down already and it's not even Easter Sunday yet.  In my defence it was a very small egg and I'd not had any tea . . . not that I need an excuse to eat a whole Easter egg in bed on a Friday evening, - that's pure class as far as I'm concerned.

Today I've been over to Chichester (avoiding the big fabric shop this time, - my wallet can't take another beating like that), to check out an exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery.

This is the first time I have visited Pallant House and I was very impressed by it (the service in the cafe was appalling, but that's another story. . .).

I loved the Lucienne Day textiles on show, which ranged from post-world war II to the late sixties.  The above are some of the later designs, the ones below are early 1950's:

Lucienne Day designed textiles and wallpapers, her husband Robin Day was a designer of furniture.  I'd not heard much about them before, but seeing their work, it is obvious that they were pioneers of their time.  (I nearly wrote "of their day" then, but much as I love a pun, that's a bridge too far).  I'm sure most of us will recognise this:

The good old plastic stacking chair!  There must be millions of these around & it makes me think how many of these chairs I must have sat on in my lifetime.  It was the first ever injection-moulded one piece plastic chair.  The Architect's journal described it as "the most significant development in British mass-produced chair design since the war".  Robin Day's ambition was to create "well designed low cost modern furniture affordable to all", & I think he definitely fulfilled that ambition with this design.

Here's another of his designs, which is a bit more up-market and was designed for the Royal Festival Hall.

There was lots more to be seen at the Gallery including works by Peter Blake, Francis Bacon, Paula Rego and Anthony Gormley.  The highlight for me was "After "Shell" by Susie MacMurray, a small piece from what was a large installation around the staircase of the old part of the building.  I wish I could have seen it as it must have been jaw-dropping.

Not a great shot, my fault, not the iPhone.

We have a Cath Kidston shop here in Brighton, but I still couldn't pass up a chance to go in and swoon at all the lovliness.

I'd be quite happy actually living inside a Cath Kidston shop I think.

How did I not buy anything?  I had a lot more self control in here than I did with that Easter egg last night eh. . .

Such cuteness.  My self-control was rewarded though, as when I arrived home there was a package waiting for me:

A delivery from the Cotton Patch! (http://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/) A fabric to feed my text-loving soul, a Dan Bennett designed fabric (he lives in Brighton apparently), a new rotary blade (I can cut fabric again!  My old one has been rolled into complete bluntness), and best of all, a tool to stop me cutting my fingers off!  I've had a few near-misses with my cutting, and with my bull-in-a-china-shop ways it feels inevitable that it'll happen one day unless I invest in this.  For a just over a tenner to keep all my fingers intact & me in a job, it's a bargain.