Pretty flowers on a Friday

The other day I went to mum and dad's and came home with this pretty tea cup that was once owned by my grandmother. It's a Royal Albert set called Painter's Rose. When I was a teenager and did a bit of watercolour painting I used a plate from this set as my palette. I liked how the name matched my activities.

The pretty mauve rose came home with me from the hardware store the other day. Eventually I will plant it out the back but I'm enjoying it in my Spode planter for the time being.

We moved into Molly's Maison 1 year ago last Tuesday. Wow, time has flown!

Have a lovely weekend!

Lace lovelies

I've been busy making a batch of lace pendants for a local gallery, Handmark, who are doing a Mother's Day jewellery feature.

All the lovely comments from my previous post on these really inspired me, so thank you.

The images are all from a collection of vintage French lace samples that I was lucky to score off Ebay a few years ago.

I chose to do them in black, cherry red and a royal blue with steel chain and velvet ribbon.

If I can get my act together (don't hold your breath!!) I'd quite like to do a giveaway with one of these.

Have a great week friendly readers!

Photo number 6

The lovely Amanda from Homely One tagged me in the 6th photo bloggy game. I am supposed to go back and re-post my 6th ever photo again and then remember the moment.

Well, will tredipation I looked back, almost a year ago to discover it was the time when we started on our first major project, our lounge room. As you will see from the post, the room was uninhabitable thanks to the putrid state of it (which doesn't come up in pics). If you had a sniffing capability on you computer right now - you'd turn it off! It had been used as a toilet by a couple of small dogs prior to our purchase. Ugghhh!! The carpet was still wet and we ripped it up within half an hour of getting the keys on settlement day.
You can read the post here.

Man of the house and all-round master of the tools Lyndon took to the room with a vengeance! The only thing I think that would have improved this image above would be the addition of a tool belt - but then that's a whole other story...

What a mess it was...

Here is the room now...

As you can see Lyn jack hammered out the concrete, fitted new floorboards in the gaps, built in a new fireplace, installed the heater, removed old lights and power points and installed new ones. We had the floors polished and fancy cornice installed.We restored the windows, installed new skirting and picture rail that I sketched off the original and had made up. Finally we painted ( I fell off the ladder and knocked myself out!) and moved on in!
We both really love the room and it reminds us of what we will hopefully be able to do to the rest of Molly's Maison over time.
PS, here's a pic of our little furry helper. She discovered old bones under the floor which she ate and then vomited during the middle of the night! Yuck!

Have a nice weekend!

Pretty in pink

Here are a few of my pink paperweights...

The one above is called a Swirl paperweight and it was made by John Deacons of Scotland in the 1990's. This is based on a traditional pattern made by the classic French factories of Baccarat, St Louis and Clichy from the mid 1800's.

This one is a miniature Strathearn paperweight from perhaps the 1970's. It was a gift from Lyndon :)

The style is called a close concentric as the concentric circles of glass canes are packed together closely. The Strathearn factory was in Scotland.

The one is from an American family company called Parabelle. The were based in Oregon, USA and made small editions of paperweights during the last part of the 20th century. This would be classified as an open concentric as the rings or canes are spaced out, but I don't know if the design had a name or not. I love Parabelle paperweights but they are very difficult to come across. They were well known for a cane they made in the shape of a pansy flower. I would love to add one to my collection. One day...

Still many more paperweights to show you all as I unpack them.

Almost Friday flowers

At the end (almost) of a very pesky week that I'd rather forget here are some gorgeous "Scentimental" roses from my garden.They remind me of my Great Auntie Ila and I love the way they every one is unique - some are very pink, others are quite pale with pink patches. Beautiful scent and a vigorous grower - what's not to love?

Doggy days

It's looking all grey outside so I think I'll just hang around the house...

Up here on Mum's chair is a good spot...

I can even chew my ball up here if Mum doesn't catch me and tell me to stop...

Or maybe I'll sit here in Dad's chair and get toasty by the fire....

Dad, just sit down there and tell me how beautiful I am....

Have a good week everyone!

Vegies coming and going

It's coming to that time of the year where out in the vegie patch there is quite a lot of tidying up and preparation under way.

My corn is finished, my butter beans are almost all eaten (apart from the bags of frozen ones in the freezer for winter) and the tomato plants look terrible as the last few bits of fruit ripen. The cut tomato above is Black Russian and it is absolutely fantastic - so flavoursome! Pumpkins are being harvested.

I've got brocolli growing which I am looking forward to and am trying to get some carrots and beetroot going again (which would be easier if a certain furry fiend would stop running over the top of them).

Lots to do out there!

Have a great weekend :-)

Vintage bits

Esty is a fave of mine - lots of interesting finds to be had. My latest is a set of old typrwriter keys and some tiny Swedish tart tins.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the keys yet. They'd make interesting cuff-links or I might use them in some wearable art. Or, maybe I'll just look at them for a while until inspiration strikes!

PS. the old tablecloth is also a recent Etsy bargain :)

Buns galore

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday cooking Hot Cross Buns. The results are quite good though I think they could have done with a little more spice. Quite nice toasted for breakie with a nice cuppa.

Molly kept herself very busy on the couch in the kitchen while I cooked. Look at that belly! If I had a dollar for every time I had to straighten those throws and cushions thanks to Molly I would be a rich girl.
Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Wishing everyone a relaxing, nice time and to those who have a break from work like I do - YAY!!

Hot Cross Buns for breakfast, here I come!

I'm planning on cooking my own buns today so I'll post those if they look ok :-)

Cheerio, Sarah

PS. do you like my bunny bookmark? She is from Little Black Crow.