Wreath making.

I have been wreath making. I love wreaths, for every occasion and season. They signify the circle of life. I love circles, spots, curving lines, but I know people who love straight lines, symmetry, nothing flowery or fussy. I find it fascinating, also I find fascinating the thing about how you apply your lipstick. Mine is always rounded because I turn it round as I apply. My mum's was always pointy as she applied it the same way every time. What about you? How does your lipstick look, and do you love straight lines or curves? It must say something about us, but I am not sure what.

I have been working on bringing in a little Christmas business by having wreaths in a few local shops .
I have finally decided my theme for the Wedding Fair in February. I am going for the Classic Country theme, but with a period feel, think 'Tussie Mussie' bouquets and Empire line dresses, ribbons and roses. This is my inspiration collage, but I don't want to give too much away, so I will leave it at that.

I also have been re-discovering Annie Sloan paint. I have used it about 25 years ago, when I used to paint for the Paint Magic shop in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Back then when people were so interested in paint effects I was using so many different kinds of paint, American Milk Paint, Chalk Paint, Linseed Oil Paint, Distemper, Limewash etc. I even remember making my own with egg yolks and pigment. So needless to say, Annie Sloan got forgotten about. It has featured so heavily of late on so many different blogs, that I thought I needed to try it again. As luck would have it I discovered that a  shop in a local village was selling it.Vintage in Vogue.

I must say I absolutely love it, it is so chalky and soft and yet it sticks like glue to whatever you paint and distresses beautifully. What really sells it to me is that you don't need a primer and it covers so well in a couple of coats...hurrah! So this is what I have been painting at home.

My kitchen has had a few more lavender touches added, I made the curtain for the back door, the lampshade and recovered the dining chairs. The far wall in the kitchen, I have never been totally happy with as it always seems a bit blank, I felt it needed a large piece of furniture. So I repainted my chest of drawers, using Annie Sloan 'Pure' and also a plate rack that was in the hall. The display needs to be worked on a little, but I am happy with the overall look.

My egg basket got a little makeover, I added a heather trim, which will just dry, and stay looking good for a few months at least.

My table top, which was a plain charcoal grey, has been prettied up with a little hand painting.

I added a little plaster decoration to my larder cupboard, which has a lovely scent and little lavender flowers on it.

So inspired was I with the kitchen that I gave the hall a makeover also. The panelling and doors were painted 'Paris Grey', and then I decided it was all looking quite 'Gustavian', so I needed to do something with the floor. It was already painted with a stone coloured wash, so I added some little black tiles.

I really dislike my doors, which are those awful preesed things that reverberate through the whole house when you shut them. However, I don't mind them like this, especially with a little wreath added.

This year, for Christmas I am going for a shoe theme. I don't know what has come over me, I am not one of those people who has a shoe fetish. I do however love baby shoes and I saw some adorable ones with little Christmas puddings on, and I think that is what set me off! I normally am very traditional, red and green, and bring my old faithful decorations out year upon year. This year though, I wanted a change, so I have made a lot of shoe decorations, which I shall show you in a later post. I didn't want to spend a load of money, so I have just found lovely images on the internet and printed them, or made them from scraps of fabric. The image below is from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com.which I printed and then glued to cardboard and added some ribbon and rhinestone decoration and a little Paris tag, also from Graphic's Fairy.The joyeux noel is handwritten by me unto an old ledger page, I printed and distressed with coffee. It has been fun. I just hope that when the tree goes up I won't be missing my old faithful's!

Sorry, this is a bit of a long post, but I had a little catching up to do. Welcome to my new follwers, and wishing you all a stress free and wonderful week. With love, Linda x.

Oh I nearly forgot, and Lois would not be pleased! Lois (my 10 year old daughter), made the arrangement with the fir and frosted pinecones, sitting on the hall table, ALL BY HERSELF!! 

Rock 'n' Roll....Part 2

 Following on from my previous post, here are some more shots of the preparations for the party.

The door to the garage and window were painted Duckegg , more blue than the previous colour.

My very tatty fence had to be painted, which was quite tricky considering the weather we have been having.

Ta da! A lovely fresh Duckegg Blue.

At the side of our house, we had some gates made to section off the driveway, we added a fence and a pedestrian gate. I had already painted the fence black and had asked for  the gate to be painted the  same, needless to say it came  'Tango Orange'!!! I didn't get time to paint it properly, so you can still see the dlightful colour showing through. (These things are sent to TRY us!) Arrgh!

I managed to get the Wisteria for the side wall, so let's hope it survives the winter.

The side of the house is South facing and so now we have an area where we can enjoy the sun all day, as opposed to the back, where the sun goes in at about 4.30p.m.. I was able to use Wendy from 15Coast Road's lovely vintage bunting on the fence.

This is the door through to the little yard at the back, (where the Ice-cream Parlour is.)









Inside the garage I decorated with some paper records I made and some great images and words I found on the Internet.

I found some great free printables on the Internet.

Martha Stewart's Peanutbutter Ice-cream and Brownie sandwiches.

Stars and stripes.

Vintage posies.

Roses in ice-cream colours.

We had plenty of music from the 50's to get us in the mood, so there was a little bit of singing and dancing, much to the children's embarrassment! Everyone went to the trouble to dress up, which I really appreciated as it really helped  create the atmosphere.



I had a bit of a drama with my outfit. I had ordered an original 1950's dress from the Internet. It didn,t quite fit, but I couldn't bear to send it back, I so loved the colour and the feel of it. I ended up making it into a skirt, then it was....eeek now what do I wear with it. I took my daughter for a rather frantic shopping trip and ended up with a little black top from Next, but it sort of looked right and I added a belt and a pink corsage. Sorry I have no pics of me wearing it, my sis took some so I will get one for you.



I loved the shoes, even though they killed me!





Lois wore a cute little dress that she got when she was 6, but it still fits!

I made her a petticoat so that the dress sat out. She loved it!

Paul was a little reluctant to dress up, but I found him this Hawaaian shirt and he was happy!

I loved the little planes saying Santa Barbara! Apologies for the crumpled clothes, these were taken the day after the party!

My (heavily pregnant) sister Tracey, with her partner James and 2 children, Lily and Nancy, all ready to party!

My kitchen. I have wanted to paint the wooden floor with this chequered pattern for some time now. I managed to get it done for the party and it really fitted well into the 50's theme.

I hope that I haven't bored you all with too many photos? It was a fun party and I am glad you persuaded me to have it! Have a great week. My daughter is back to school tomorrow,so I hope that I will have more time for blogging! Much love Linda x



'I know it's only Rock 'n' Roll......but I like it!

So sorry, it's been so long since I posted! Saturday night was my 50th birthday party, and it was great fun!

After the last party I had at home I didn't know if I wanted to have another. I asked your advice and you kindkly encouraged me to have one but to take the strain off with the catering side of things. I decided as it was going to be a 1950's themed party, that I would make burgers, part cook them and then let my husband finish them off on the barbie. Good plan! It went a little wrong though. I found I didn't have the time to pre-cook them and my hubbie didn't get the barbie hot enough, soon enough, so I ended up in the kitchen anyway! Hey ho, I decided whatever happened I wasn't going to stress, and I am proud to say I didn't. I had found a Jamie Oliver recipe for 'Elvis Burgers', they contained chilli, mustard, tarragon, onion, and parmesan cheese, and I must say they were very good. I laid out all the different toppings, relishes etc., and people helped themselves and then held the burger together with a little american flag. I enlisted help from my two lovely sisters with the making of salads, and a friend brought a lovely vegetarian roulade. I got some salmon with a dressing on from M&S, for my brother, who doesn't eat meat, and that was wrapped in foil and popped in the oven for 10 minutes! There were sausage rolls, cocktail sausages and chicken for the children, so everyone was happy.

For dessert I made Peanut Butter Ice-cream and Brownie sandwiches in advance and they were just kept in the freezer until needed. These were a Martha Stewart recipe, and went down very well. There were little fairy cakes for the children also. So it wasn't fancy, but I think everyone enjoyed it.

As usual I forgot to take photos at the party, but here are some I took before and after to give you an idea of how it turned out.

You might remember, the garage was turned into the Lion's Head Pub, for our last party.

This time stripes were added to make it into 'The Ice-cream Parlour'.

View from the kitchen.

Images from Pinterest

I am having some difficulty uploading my photos, so I will love you and leave you for now and let you have some more photos later. I hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend? Love Linda x

Angel

Well here she is as promised, my little angel, Lois. Isn't she sweet? You can just see our dog "Sparky" investigating this strange angel creature, in the corner of the second picture.

Another angel, my lovely friend Yolanda, brought this carrier bag full of gorgeous lilac blooms from her garden, to our party. I just love the bag, with it's simple print and clever words. I had seen an image of a wall full of framed carrier bags (see below), and thought that perhaps I should do something similar. I have no other bags though, so in the meantime I have hung the bag on a nail in my kitchen so that I can enjoy it and think about what to do with it.

I hope you all have a visit from an angel, to lift your spirits and brighten your life. Love Linda x

The bottom 4 images are from tumblr.