Nigerian Fabric (or is it?) and Yola Couch and Table

Sometimes it's almost dizzying to try to select fabric from the colorful array available in the market. I was happy to return to the land of West African fabric that I last visited more than five years ago, but vendors of late have told me that much of the mass produced fabric available here is now made in China. I try not to focus on that too much...





... since it's still beautiful and supports Nigerian sellers (insert the pros and cons of globalization here). I was able to find a few different fabrics that initially didn't seem to go together until I threw them over my three black pleather chairs that I pushed together to make my 'couch'. Maybe I'll have a tailor fit them to size eventually, but the current arrangement does the trick of not allowing my skin to stick to the furniture - and in a place where nearly every fixture falls apart (Chinua Achebe was right on all kinds of fronts) if you just look at it funny, my motto is 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.



Every item on the coffee table - save the San Francisco music box I recently received as a precious gift - are from local vendors: the mats were purchased on the side of the road, the bronze salamander bottle opener is from the Arts and Crafts Village in Abuja, and the metal 'snack holder' is from the Yola market - to be filled with small little tidbits of nature soon enough.