Geffrye Museum, arts and crafts

I seem to be constantly thinking about how I will decorate the boat, when I'm not panicking about how much it is costing and how little money I have that is. Managed to get some lovely material that I have made into curtains (see pic below) and a beautiful patchwork quilt, both from my favourite shop (called "The Shop") on Cheshire St, near Brick Lane (n.b. just found out it's also "East London Local"'s favourite shop).

Took some inspiration from the Geffrye Museum, which we visited yesterday, and which is thankfully free. F suggested we go there to check out their Eco Home exhibition, which, despite being small, was excellent. There were some very beautiful pieces of furniture made from recycled/reused materials including a chest of drawers and footstool by Zoe Murphy. Also the exhibit where you turned a handle to see how much energy it takes to make a normal incandescent lightbulb, an LED, and an energy-saving lightbulb work made me resolve to use only the latter two.

I absolutely loved their 20th century house exhibition - particularly the 1900-1914 house, which really reminded me of 68 Grand Drive, my mum's family home. Sadly it had to be sold, but I hope I have honoured its memory by using some of the money I got from the sale to buy the boat.

There was also a thought-provoking and beautiful series of photos by Zoe Barker about what makes a home a home. She had photographed the house of an old man (the fantastically-named Hrolf Trump) just after he died, then after it was emptied, and then after a new family had moved in and redecorated.

I've developed a virus this weekend (snotty and dizzy - yum), but I'm going to watch Eastenders on iPlayer, drink a hot chocolate with cardamom & cinnamon, and make my own patchwork something or other from the fabric cut offs.