An Ugly Duckling

Today, I have been a busy girl. Before I was taken poorly, I started a project which I had had in my mind for an age and a half.....and my mind goes back a way :)
In the mists of time, when I was still working, a grateful patient gave me a demi -lune table ( half moon ) just because I had said, in a conversation, that I would like one. He had been an antiques dealer by trade and now and again he had come across something which wasn't antique but he'd had to take it anyway as part of a job lot.
This was how he acquired my table.

And so he gave it to me at a later date.

It has been sitting in my attic for ten years.
And for longer than ten years I have been hankering after a small dressing table.
So when I went up into the loft the other week and saw this little table, which is a reproduction, mahogany in base wood with a plastic like veneer I thought that I'd have a go at turning this rather unprepossessing piece of furniture into something a little more fanciable.

This is actually a photo of a rather nice table but believe me mine was no where near as pretty as this. Dark mahogany, the drawer didn't fit, it was a bit bashed, and it looked cheap so it got a coat of primer.

Years ago when I had been living in Sweden for a while, I came home with a longing for some of the beautiful French inspired Gustavian furniture I'd seen in the castles and stately homes I'd visited. If you want to know more about Gustavian furniture...go HERE. There was no way I could afford any of the real thing but being a handy sort of girl and having an equally handy husband, we decided one weekend ( as you do ) to build our own mirror in the Swedish style.
I had for years, when no one else wanted them, been collecting rather old and battered gilt frames, some of them 18th century. Many of them adorn my home today either rebuilt and re-gilded or like this frame, remade.

The top of the mirror was made of three layers of mdf, each cut out so that it appeared as if the decoration was etched in to the wood.
Then some pre-cut pieces which I got from a shop which sold everything you can think of to do with the reproduction home, from Tudor to Edwardian, Artisan to Art Deco, were glued into place on top. The whole thing was then painted and scumble glazed with light blue. The detail was picked out in gilt creme and the frame below it ( which is separate ) was treated in the same way. Et voila...a French inspired Gustavian mirror. We also made a matching pelmet for the bedroom in the same way.

A sweet little chair which had wormed its way into the boot of our car when we were on holiday in Sussex one year, was given the paint and gilt makeover too. It was such a pretty shape and very bashed and unloved. It's now our bedroom chair.

All I needed to complete the look was a dressing table.

And that was the easiest bit.

So today, I finished it, I did the gilding. You might say it was the icing on the cake, the gilding of the lily. An ugly duckling has been turned into a lovely swan. I'm very pleased.
Oh...and the connection to flowers? Well there are some rather pretty wooden ones on the mirror, pelmet and the chair. I might add a couple to the dressing table...just for a match.

( I know that 'brown' furniture is not a la mode but please do not paint antique pieces. The veneers will be ruined if you paint them with modern paint. Paint rubbish like I have. Antiques are too precious to ruin. Thanks. )

Roses all the way

BoxCleva...Out of the Woods and into the Rose Bed?
This is a link to BoxCleva where I have at last published a post on how to make the little silk flowers you have all seen on here and on BoxCleva for the past few weeks.

I'll put any photos of the work you make as a result of following this workshop. Do send me pictures.

A flower for a little friend

I have had a commission for some silk flowers.
So I thought I would try something a little different. One or two of these need to be about 5inches across so this will be the biggest flower I have made so far.

This large one will go onto a keepsake box, I think. It's in two tones of pink silk which has been wiped with pink and red inks.The commissioned ones are for Wedding tiaras so will need to be in white and cream.

Meanwhile, talking of weddings, one of my 'students' has made this..... a wedding tiara ~ how very pretty. See how very versatile these flowers are? It can be found at Urban Angelz. 
Do go and look.

Now to make a pdf of 'how to' and see if I can make one which is more cupped. I have an idea.....

But not a lot of energy to execute my ideas at the moment. Nor do I really feel like indulging my creative senses, after the piece of horrible news I had this afternoon. It's fair knocked me about.

My dear little friend Mattie, the West Highland Terrier whom I have known since she was young, was found this afternoon, floating in the pond at her home, by my friend Elizabeth, her owner. She rang me shortly afterwards, as she knew Mattie and I were good mates.

I can't bear to think of her struggling in the water. She was a bit arthritic but I'm sure she should have been able to get out and lately she had had a bit of a new lease of life.
The very strangest thing, is that my friend's other elderly Westie, George, was found in the pond by Stephen and I when we were staying there a couple of months ago. ( Those who do Facebook will know how this upset me ). It was a horrible experience and not one I would wish to repeat. History has, however for some bizarre reason known only to itself, repeated itself.

They say that lightning never strikes twice....in the same place.

One truism that isn't true at all.

So this flower is for you Mattie.... you would have loved wearing it on your collar!

Taking a Liberty

Sadly, still not well enough to do any crafting. I spent nearly the whole afternoon cuddling the dog and watching the swifts wheeling about in a blazing blue sky over the playing fields.

I did however, re-organise my wardrobe a bit and changed it from Autumn/Winter early Spring to late Spring/Summer....all the blacks and dark browns are now away and the pinks, yellows and whites are seeing the light of day. That is enough to make the weather change isn't it?

It's a good time, too, to check all my padded hangers; re-tie the bows, replace the potpourri ( I didn't - that was a step too far but I had every intention of doing it, ) and checking for tatty bits to mend.

So, I thought I'd let you see just a fraction of my padded hanger collection. My 'plain' Liberty ones.

Some of these materials are thirty years old. Some, they still produce, some are gone forever, unless you can find a small piece somewhere in a sale.
I love them all. However, my very favourite is the one I lined my Kaffe Fasset inspired cardigan with ( which I knitted in the middle 80's ). Peacock, in blue/grey. I'm unsure if you can still get this one.

Liberty's fabrics never fade. They wear extremely well despite being, for the most part Tana Lawn and very thin.
So.... here are some pretty things for you to look at. Not what I had intended for this post but at least it's something.
I'm at Liberty to write what I like, when I like, am I not...it's my blog. :)
Hope you don't think I'm taking a liberty! :)

Sleight of Hand

Throughout my adult life I have collected covered hangers for my wardrobe. I find they allow your clothes much more room in the space and prevent creasing and marking of the shoulders.
I am always on the lookout for pretty ones, or unusual ones and have, in my time, made a few from materials I have particularly liked. I use nothing else in my wardrobe now.

Some of these are covered with Liberty fabrics. I used to work alongside Liberty ( amongst other companies ) when I was younger and had my own business in the late 1970's, 80's and early 90's. They would send me the fabric and I would make up the finished item of their choice which they would sell in their shop on Regent St. for at least six times what they paid me to make it. :)

One of the perks, however, was that the left over fabrics ( and they always sent me far too much metreage ) were mine to do with as I wished.

So I have a lot of Liberty hangers in my wardrobe.

These hangers are quite easy to make and I propose to show you how to do this in my next post. Those who hate machine sewing ( like me ) will be happy, as there isn't a machine to be seen - it's all done by hand.

Onto these hangers I used to sew little pretty potpourri bags and sometimes, in addition, the hangers would be adorned with a little something special in the way of a bigger bag, a tussie mussie type creation.

So using lace and ribbon, bits of silk and embroidery, pearls, buttons and pieces from old clothes, I anticipated the fashion for pretty feminine things now sweeping the world of the Vintage collector, by at least two decades .Dunno how or why.

This means I have a lot of lovely things tucked away in drawers and in my wardrobe which I can show you in future posts and can help you to re-create for yourself.

Here are a few.
The first is a two tone silk creation double sided with antique bugle beads sewn on to the top. This pattern I have re-created many times in Christmas fabric for presents for my friends.

The second is a most delightful piece of lace which is Edwardian and which came with the effects of my friend's house when she willed all her materials etc. to me, after she died. It's the front of a chemise and I added another piece of lace and silk to make a sort of hanging ball.

 The last is a silk hanger with one of my little ( very easy ) silk potpourri bags.

All hand sewn...so get out your silks and lace, and sharpen your needles..... we shall begin to sew something like this- by hand....

Pretty as a Picture

I have just has great fun over on my other blog BoxCleva.http://boxcleva.wordpress.com/ I promised on that blog to post something for you all to see here.

For quite a while I have been following a blog or two which are quite simply, inspirational. On one of them, I found the idea for the making of the silk flowers that I have been absorbed with for the past few weeks.
These bloggers post every week, or almost every week and quite apart from the wonderful ideas they come up with, the photography is of the highest quality- something I can't say, sadly, about my efforts.

Inger lives in Norway. Her home is a shrine to white ( I don't know how she does it ).  Much of her work is based on white too. Here are a few of her lovely pieces.

And while you are looking at these lovely things, you can listen to Bach's Air on a G string... absolute Heaven!

The Polka Dot Closet is the home of Carol who can turn her hand to absolutely anything. Here are  a few of her goodies. It was from Carol I learned the technique of making flowers.

Her things are just to die for.

My Romantic Home is Cindy's blog and is just FULL of roses. What more needs to be said?

PARADISE!

Can you Adam and Eve it?

I had a wonderfully cheering parcel in the post today. I needed it being a bit low on the old health front at the moment. Not only do I have a very whopping dose of the flu but my darling Delphi Dog has had to have a mini operation on her foot for a suspected foreign body. So we were both languishing on the bed feeling sorry for ourselves when- the postman knocked and brought us an unbelievably lovely item from...
Daisymoon Designs 
I think it might stand in for the Tree of Paradise from the Garden of Eden don't you? Hence the post's title.

I have shared this company on my Facebook page but not on my blog so here we are.
And what did they send us.... ? This....

It's very intricate little tree in two parts which lock together. I say a little tree. Actually, it's a lot bigger than I thought when I first saw it on their website so absolutely brilliant value for money. It will be invaluable come Christmas when I will festoon it with Whimsicals - my little hand made perfumed tree decorations. I do love detail and this tree is bursting with it. It is also exquisitely made and very novel. So it wins my plaudits on three fronts!
This is my first foray into another's work...so...I give you Daisymoon. Long may they lasercut!


For our Foreign visitors...'Adam and Eve' is London street cant, slang for believe. So it's -Can you believe it?

It has certainly made Delphi and I feel better. :))

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

It's another beautiful early Summer day today. Thank Heavens

I took delivery of some new Auriculas yesterday. Those of you who follow my other blogs will know that I collect these little jewel like flowers. They are quite ticklish to grow but when they do grow...they are very rewarding.
And growing they are...and flowering. Only a few weeks ago I was despairing of them ever coming out. The weather hasn't been kind to them this year.

I have about 30 plants in clay pots which live in an Auricula Theatre...a sort of staging. I lost a couple last winter and about 5 in the winter before ( as did a lot of the expert nurseries, ) in prolonged minus 20 temperatures, despite coddling them in fleece. The good thing about these little Alpines is that they are prolific. They have lots of babies, named offsets and so you often find you have more than one plant of a variety.

Now I have bought another five.

There aren't many true blue ones but I've bought two, though in the photo they are still tinged with purple.
They, in common with a lot of other plants, have some strange names. Maybe they are named for some famous growers or fanciers. Perhaps they carry the name of famous people - like Racehorses...some of the names are unfathomable.

 So here are a few others for you to look at, which are flowering at the moment.

They transfer really well to being made in paper.
The great thing is that, although the flowers are fleeting...those in paper last forever. Yes alright! I cheated. I put paper flowers on real plants. :) Now who was taken in?

Carpe Diem

It has taken me an age to configure this blog! Wordpress, with which I am very familiar, of course, seems a picnic by comparison. However, I can't seem to get the element of prettiness I want for this blog, on Wordpress. And pretty this blog I hope will be.

So to show you how pretty, here are some labels upon which my new idea of shoe bows will appear, when they next get an outing. Three of these Vintage postcards I found in my local antique centre in Brackley. I managed to scan them into the computer, block out the wording and add my own.

My roses will be out soon and when they are I shall take some photos for you to see. It's a beautiful day today so let's have some beautiful imagery to go with it.

How pretty are they?

Carpe Diem I say. Seize the Day.
That is after all what Robert Herrick was advocating at the end of the 16th century, when he wrote the poem which I use as my blog title....

Let's not waste our time eh? :)

Welcome

BoxCleva

And so my first proper post will be one which shows you what I am doing. If you'd like to see a bit more then go to
BoxCleva and scroll down, you'll see the sort of thing that, in the next few weeks, you'll see here. I am going to write about my silk flowers on here as well as on BoxCleva. What you won't see is so much of the papercrafting element on Gather Ye Rosebuds.

I am also on Facebook BoxCleva on Facebook
so all you Facebookers can look me up on there too and maybe LIKE my page? :)

So here we are...some pretty things for you to look at.