Happy New Year!!

Wishing you all the most exquisite, delightful and exciting New Year! Hoping whatever you wish for comes true.
I've one picture to share, it's taken me weeks to capture and when I finally had my camera to hand I found I had a close up lens fitted and managed to hit the window in my excitement !! So this was the one and only shot. Got your magnifying glasses to hand?

Drum roll........May I present for your delight and amazement.........Parakeets in the Crab apple tree!!!

Hopefully the rest of the pictures in 2014 will be a bit more inspiring, think this goes to prove that I'm not a wildlife photographer!!

Enough exclamation points for one blog post......have a Wonderful 2014
Georgie
x

Friday Flowers

If only you could smell these!!! Heady and wonderful, every morning I come downstairs and am greeted with their intoxicating scent. My Christmas Hyacinths.

Hope you have all had a lovely Christmas break, I feel like a stomach on legs!!! Diet in the New Year .....might as well tidy up all the chocolates and sweeties first.

Have a fabulous weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers Christmas Decorating

Once again a distinct lack of actual flowers, but plenty of greenery.
It has been so dark here over the last few weeks a day of sunshine feels like a real blessing. We only have a few more days until the longest day...21st December....then it's a very long slide into Spring with the days little by little getting longer. I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel!!
So firstly the table wreath I made at the Martin and the Magpie workshop the other Sunday, I really love the feathers!!

You can just see the mantlepiece in the background, with it's little houses, real and bottle brush fir trees, fir cones and twinkly lights.

And across the room, the tree, decorated with feathery friends, pine cones, acorns, birch stars and mushrooms.

With all this decorating I'm starting to feel really festive.....only a few more days to go!
I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas with friends and family, that Santa leaves you exactly want you want in your stocking, that you eat too much and have a rest and most of all enjoy it. It will be 2014 before we know it.

Georgie
xx

Friday Flower Free!

Yet another post without flowers, at least this week there is real greenery.
Here is my wreath....I was going for a woodland walk look.....a mixture of firs and spruce, birch twigs, pine cones and grey moss.

I had a wonderful day at Martin and the Magpie in Hungerford, let loose on piles of greenery, with copious amounts of inspiration from Emma and Kay, lots of coffee, a fabulous homemade soup for lunch and cake for tea! What more could one want?
This is their storefront......see the swag of evergreens around the shop front, made by Martin.....it must weigh a ton! I pinched the photo from their website.....with their permission of course.

I also made a table decoration, I'll see if the light will let me take photographs of that next week. We have had a few dark, damp, cold foggy days here, but as I got home this afternoon, the sun appeared across the road just in time to set, the last glimmers reflected on the lake.

Have a lovely weekend.
Georgie

Friday Flowers

With my last Dollshouse Fair of the year behind me I can now start to think about Christmas.....19 days to go........gulp!!! Better make a start on the present buying and the card writing, better buy some Christmas cards, that would help.
I have just bought these little houses for my Christmas mantle, though I'm beginning to think three might look better, like groups of plants in a border. Anyway this was a sort of dry run, I think the whitewashed wood and metal and the green trees real and decorative might look alright. Will probably add more candles and perhaps some pine cones......I'll show you when it's done.

I'm off to Hungerford on Sunday to do something Christmassy at Martin and the Magpie. A workshop for a
wreath or table decoration? Perhaps both? I'll show you next week.

Have a lovely weekend.
Georgie

Friday Flowers in Miniature

No time to take photographs of real flowers this week, I've been busy getting ready for my last miniatures show of the year. The Kensington Dollshouse Christmas Festival. I'm exhibiting this time with just my kits, the picture above shows Echeveria plants made from one of my 12th scale kits.
Busy packing bags and I'll be loading the car after lunch, then off up to London this afternoon to unload so it's a bit more leisurely tomorrow morning.

Hoping all my American friends had a Happy Thanksgiving......next stop Christmas. I'm going to start thinking about that next week!

Have a wonderful weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

When I'm taking photographs for my portfolio it often takes one thing to spark off an idea. I found these little round bottom vases at a local home decoration shop, I knew they would have to stand in sand and I also knew I wanted the lightest of flowers to sit in them, so the idea was percolating and a trip to the florist's wholesaler turned up these round bottomed test tubes strung on a wire......serendipity.

A bunch of Gypsophila bought on the way home, a branch of twisted willow rescued from my workroom, white china and napkins from my props cupboard and it all came together.

Have a lovely weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

The last of the Pumpkins, or perhaps these are Squash? Anyway a beautiful faded grey/green with the antique shades of Amnesia Roses, the fascinating seed heads of Scabious and a semi dried Hydrangea Flower.

Reminds me of dusty old books, faded photographs and vintage linens washed a million times.

Have a wonderful weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

The crab apple tree in my front garden is covered in fruit, this small tree was a wedding present...26 years ago! And it has never disappointed, in the Spring it is covered in blossom and every Autumn and Winter is abundant with fruit.
Even though it seems half of them have fallen off in the recent strong winds there are still plenty for the birds.
The Wood Pigeons clamber and crash about in the branches and eat the fruit whole whilst the Parakeets descend in a screeching flock of vibrant green and perform acrobatics to reach their chosen morsel, then hold it delicately in one claw whilst nibbling delicately until discarding the remains.......usually on the top of my car! There is a whiff of cider as you walk up the drive from the fermenting apples rotting on the floor.
And the tree has presented me with another gift, in the last couple of years it has sported two bunches of Mistletoe, just in time to cut a few twigs for Christmas.
So if you have a wedding present to buy in the future can I recommend a crab apple tree........it will be appreciated for many years to come........thank you Ruth and Mike for ours.

Have a lovely weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

I found these French storage canisters at my local antiques fair.........couldn't resist the colour!
As a nod to Halloween yesterday I teamed them with some mini pumpkins, just loving the turquoisey blue and orange together.
Hope you all had lots of treats and no tricks.

Have a lovely weekend.
Georgie

Friday Flowers

I'm back behind the camera where I love to be!
I'm not sure what happened the last few weeks, I lost my inspiration and got bogged down in the technical aspects of my camera.......if it's got numbers in it my brain turns to mush...........I suddenly "got" what had been flummoxing me and now I'm back doing what I love.

So here for Friday Flowers some full blown almost over the top pink roses, called something?? O Hara.
And the best bit is they actually have a scent.

So having got my Mojo back, Friday flowers has returned!!

Have a lovely weekend and see you next week
Georgie

Friday Flowers

As you can see it's not really flowers! But I can't resist a nice white pumpkin and they are in the greengrocers again.....Hurrah.
Autumn is really in the air here......but it is still quite warm, often warmer out than it is indoors! All the trees are looking slightly tired, leaves are changing colour here and there. My crabapple tree is laden with fruit all turning a beautiful red. The parakeets will have plenty to feast on this year.

Sorry I've been missing for a couple of weeks, first there was the big miniatures show, then I was inspired to open an Etsy shop with my kits. I've been sitting at the computer for a couple of weeks getting all the listings done. 131 items are now in the shop, just got to add all the tiny 1/24th kits!
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheMiniatureGarden
It's been a lot of work, but amazingly I had my first order about an hour after opening!!!

I'll be back next week, may be flowers, may be more pumpkins.

Have a lovely weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

We've had a really busy week this week.

Family from America stayed for a few days, three generations of the same family! The youngest had her 5th birthday whilst they were here.

These are pictures are some I took a while ago......I haven't touched my camera for a couple of weeks and I'm really itching to take some photographs, but I'm now busy preparing for my next Miniatures show on the 21st and 22nd September. So it's punch punch, bag bag, label label, when what I really want to do is click click the shutter button!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, we have a party to go to........see you on Saturday Barbe!

Georgie

Friday Flowers

I promised you flowers......

Have a lovely weekend
Georgie

Friday Props Room

I promised you some photos of my props room this week....so here they are.

 3 x 90cm wide and 1 x 50cm whitewashed wooden bookcases from.......you know where........my favourite Swedish boutique, Ikea!!!
I find most of their products very good value, good quality and I do love to put together flatpack furniture.....weird??
I've strung thin curtains in front to keep some of the dust off and when I'm taking photographs they help reflect the light.

I've tried to arrange everything by colour, so that it's easy to find what I need. I must admit that all my white china, glass, cutlery and blue and white china is still in cupboards in the dining room.....so much stuff!!

As you can see it's not a very wide room, just enough space for a table and me and my camera. This turquoise painted old bamboo table on castors I found in the local charity shop for £5.00!! The top is all marked and distressed, but it's perfect for backgrounds......imagine orange flowers against this......zing!!!

At the other end of the room is a large ornate mirror, hopefully reflecting some light. Underneath are two more charity shop finds awaiting their Annie Sloan paint finish and new upholstery. There should in theory be just enough room to fit a single put you up bed here, for extra guests.

I've just got to hang a blind and I'm done. Back to flowers next week.

Have a lovely weekend
Georgie

Friday Flowers

I've had a very busy week, got over the nightmare with technology of last week and had a building, sorting tidying, throwing out and organizing type of week.

In an effort to stop the house being over run with all my photo props I've taken over the smallest bedroom as a props room. There is just about room for the Z bed if we need another extra bed and as it has a north facing window is good for taking photographs.......talk about squeezing a quart into a pint pot!

I'll show you the finished room next week when I've had a chance to take some photographs.

I'm unashamedly giving you more roses this week, pretty little pink spray roses teamed with zinc, and as you can see I'm still in love with my vintage cutlery.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, it's a bank holiday on Monday in England so we all have a long weekend to look forward to.....hope it's special.

Georgie