Self Portrait

If I dared look in the mirror, this is what would be staring back at me! In the few days since Christmas I have eaten so many chocolates it's not true.................well actually it is and that is why I'm avoiding mirrors!

This was the very last one in the box, so I took its photograph.................then I ate it.
My New Year resolution is...........................................................................

Ready for Chistmas at last

It is Christmas Eve.

The Fairy is on top of the tree.

The tree has been decorated.

The little Christmas Angel has joined Samuel on the mantlepiece.

 

Father Christmas is waiting in the forest until it is time to deliver the presents.

Hoping you get everything you wish for and more, have a wonderful Christmas.
Georgie

Ready for Christmas

We have had snow. Lots more snow than usual. The road where I live has become a winter wonderland.

The lake opposite my house has been frozen for days.

The winter sun barely gets up in the sky before it starts setting again.

But we have Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe, though not with many berries.

And the crab apple tree, though covered in snow, still hangs on to a few of its brightly coloured fruit. Just like Christmas decorations.

Outside seems ready for Christmas. Inside is a different matter entirely!

The Old Soldier

Seen at an antiques fair last week, the stallholder very kindly allowed me to take his photograph.

Apparently he is Lord Kitchener, the British general.

Most famous today for that recruitment poster of the First World War.

 "Your Country Needs You".

I needed to take him home but couldn't afford the £500.00 price tag!!!

So he will go to a serious collector, not just someone who fell in love with him, ah well.

Room with a View

This is the view from my attic room.
It has been raining, windy and cold all day, and then the sun came out and threw the remaining foliage into glowing relief against the dark cloudy sky.

              

A beautiful view.

Lucky for Some?

Looking through the items in my etsy shop, and preparing some new listings, I became aware of rather a lot of horseshoes in one guise or another, and some other equine related things. Am I becoming obsessed? Or is it just coincidence? See what you think.

 Featuring in BeauPapier now, or coming soon.

Pumpkin and Black Lace

Happy Halloween weekend!

Black and Cream

Guinness? not wet enough!    Chanel? not pearls!        Just beautiful mother of pearl, vintage rosary beads and an old necklace with beads that still have lustre but some look like sea glass with an almost rough surface, fascinating.
Coming soon to BeauPapier.etsy.com

"Lydia, the Tattooed Lady"

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?

Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

She has eyes that folks adore so, and a torso even more so.

Lydia oh Lydia that encyclo-pidia.

Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo.

Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, music by Harold Arlen.

Inspired by a picture in Somerset Studio magazine, Lydia is a wooden artists's mannequin. Her joints were stained with black ink and her body painted with white gesso. Her tattoos were stamped in permanent ink onto white tissue paper, they were then torn around the edges and stuck to Lydia using matt gel medium.

She lives in a gessoed wine box, waiting for the interior and exterior to be decorated.................one day!

In the Pink

I'm not really a pink sort of girl, I have no clothes in pink, it would never be my colour of choice.
However when I grouped the latest gathering of treasures together, the pink background was the one that made them sing.

Hmmmm, perhaps I don't mind pink after all!

Sewing

A few things from my collection of vintage sewing accessories. They remind me of my years as a fashion designer, these vintage treasures hold a fascination for me.

I found the small display dummy at a fleamarket, and though not old, I loved her shape. She was covered in shiny crushed velvet and plastic flowers.
I literally ripped all that off, and revealed her papier mache torso underneath. A couple of coats of matt black paint and she has become sophisticated and stylish. I think you will probably be seeing more of her in the future.

The Last of the Summer

Earlier this year I decided to make some changes in my garden, out came a huge clump of bamboo which was spreading everywhere. If you ever buy a bamboo plant and are told it is a non spreading variety, treat the information, with a pinch of salt! Bamboo likes to travel.

Down came an enormous Silver Birch which was shading a large part of the garden and taking all the moisture from the soil. Now I had sunshine and an empty flower bed to plant.

I had visions of a haze of Verbena Bonariensis floating above the lower planting, the edge of the bed grounded by a row of Box balls.

In went a small Olive tree that had been in a pot for years, white Scabious, blue and white Lupins and Lavender were planted along with annual Nicotiana Sylvestris to fill the gaps whilst the perennials grew.
Now at the end of September a lot of the flowers are over, but the Nicotiana plants have been stars, flowering their heads off.

And there is the Verbena hovering above the rest of the planting, including the weeds which are growing like mad!

Just behind this new flowerbed I have a good crop of apples on my row of fruit trees, and the hot early summer has done wonders for the grapevine. I have never seen so many grapes.

No good for eating, but the birds will love them, they need to fill up now it will be winter soon.

Buttons

Jars of vintage buttons on a shelf in my workroom. I can't resist them. Glass, pearl, metal or plastic, it doesn't matter, I love them all.

My Favourite Tree



This is a Catalpa Bignonoides Aurea, also known as an Indian Bean Tree.

Every winter I pollard it and am rewarded by lime green leaves six to eight inches across.

Yes they really are this colour!

It lights up a corner of my garden, and provides a bright backdrop to other plants in a bed beyond the trellis, that divides the garden.

In the summer it has sprays of frilly spotted white flowers like foxgloves, and then long thin seed pods which stay on the tree long after the leaves have gone.

A native of the south eastern states of America, it seems to like my garden in the south east of England.

Dried Hydrangeas

On top of the chest of drawers in my spare bedroom, sits a collection of some of my favourite things.

I like to rearrange them from time to time, but they all take their cue from a crackle glazed pot of dried hydrangeas.

The natural colour is picked up by my miniature dressmaker's dummy.

The pink blush on the flowers a perfect match with the shell's soft pink interior.

Throw in the sparkle of a collection of perfume bottles and the wavy edge of a frilly glass dish.

The glow of mother of pearl and the black accents of an old sheet of music, perfectly complements the papery flowers.