Spring Time.

Well, l guess most of us here downunder are pretty excited about tomorrow being the first day of Spring....it's been a LONG Winter.. 

 

When l found these vintage quilts at the opshop a couple of weeks ago they became the inspiration for this florally Spring post.  

 

 

Lots of layered linens..... tablecloths and throws. 

 

Found at the market was this King George V cup....imperfect and beautiful. (only a fiver).

 

A little afternoon sun shining in.....soo nice!!  

 

 

shabbychic.com

 

 

 

Wandered into Sportsgirl this morning and found this pretty Springy-ish top... half price today..$40. Hopefully it'll look nice with vintage pale pink jeans....chiffon scarf, feather earrings, and wooden anch necklace.

 

 

 

Loved these fluro paints when l saw them.....just had to try them out... prom party frock. l boosted the colours a little to show up the fluro's.

 

 

...also my son said it was bad that l hadn't included mural pics following the story in the previous post....so to those who requested, or if you feel like having a squiz, l've dug up a couple of photos and added them.

 



l hope you all have an awesome sunshiny weekend, thanks for stopping by,

 

Til next time,

 

Bron.

 



 

Crowning Glory..

 

 

 

Thought you might like a sneak preview of next week's Spring blog:-))

 

 

This week as well as showing a few pretty sparklies l'd like to thank the lovely and talented Tam from atreasuredpast. for awarding my blog the above award.

In order to accept it l need to thank the giver (thanks again Tam) and write 7 things about myself and pass the award on to my fave blogs.... Hopefully the rules are more guidelines cos l can't think of seven things to write about myself that you don't already know, but l've written a story that might brighten your day. (Hope you don't mind me using your idea Tam).

Also l'm passing the award to new blogs with less than 200 followers for some added exposure to them. Here they are below in no particular order...thanks ladies for being so awesome...

 

Michelle at MD interior design.

Amanda at notsoperfectmess.

Alice at Alicelovesbrocante.

Michaela by Vicki

Beth at boatshedchic.

Karen at whimsyantiques. 

Julie at fabulousfindsstudio.

Shelly at shellygregorylushlife.

 

Hope l haven't left anyone out....if l have please feel free to take it and pass it around. 

 

 

One day l recieved a phone call from a couple who had heard through a friend of a friend that l painted murals and were wondering if l'd be interested in painting one for their new home. They'd recently travelled overseas and visited the Sistine chapel in the Vatican....and could l possibly paint a section of it for them...the section was the one of God and Adam almost touching fingers (The creation of Adam)......Of course l can whip up a MICHELANGELO....no probs :-o !!!

Well it WAS a really stressful project but also a great opportunity to try something really challenging.... The painting was to be a massive 3ish metres long and about 1.5 metres wide and was to be installed in their FRONT entrance hallway ceiling. (No pressure). Handy hubby made me what was essentially a huge easel to sit the board on (which they measured and supplied so l could paint at home) and so it began. If l remember rightly it took about a month to paint and there were a few hairy days when l just wanted to sit and have a sook and a cigarette (that was the EX smoker in me) when my hand couldn't or wouldn't paint anything useful ....but eventually it was finished and then came the most exciting part.  A cherry picker was hired and the painting installed into the ceiling... with the help of a few strong men.....where l believe it still hangs today :-))

Then to top it off...although  a price had been negotiated before l began, we were offered a free three day weekend at their beachfront house on the coast. l'm sure they did this out of the kindness of their hearts and was in no way related to my bulbous red eyes, the constant shaking of my hands, or the fact that l couldn't make a coherent speech pattern, at the end of it....(insert smiley face).

Just as an aside a few years ago hubby and l were able to visit the Sistine Chapel ourselves and here we were staring at the ceiling with loads of other people when hubby points up to the roof and whispers a little TOO loudly....yours is better (with a big grin on his face)....haha!!! BLESS HIM.

 

 

These are photos of a photo so the quality is pretty ordinaryand the colours are not true... but hopefully you can kind of see what it's meant to be. Also the ribbon is what l came up with to hide any nudity (at the clients' request).

 

l've put this one in as well as it shows the remainder of the right side of the mural. At the time l didn't think to take a picture of it on the ceiling....where was my head AT!!

 

 

 

This is Michelangelo's amazing version.



 

 

 

 

You may remember the napkin rings l found at the opshop a couple of months ago (there's one shown on the table)..... well l decided to turn them into a crown.

l'm not much good at bending steel or welding so l had to enlist hubby's help....we used three of the rings in total. They were bent to shape and pop riveted together.
Then l had the fun task of decorating it using old beads, diamentes and pearls.

 

Gorgeous crown vignette from frenchgardenhouse.com via pinterest.



 

 

Dreamy dressing table also via pinterest.

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed my little ramble...thanks so much for taking the time to stop by,

 

Til next time,

 

Bron.



Creamy Whites and Pearls.

Lamp Revamp.

 l mentioned a couple of posts ago that our bedside lamps were under (re)construction and l hoped you might like to see how they turned out. l've sat them on the candlesticks so you could see them together.

l was going for something a bit different.....and l remembered how enjoyable it was working with hessian  at school....l mostly loved the way it frayed with such ease, so l really wanted to use...and take advantage of that.

Though l had in mind using the hessian, the end result wasn't at all planned...it more just evolved. The bottom half of the fabric was frayed and the threads attached to the edge (two at a time) using a kind of macrame knot, after this l wasn't sure how to finish the lamps off, so when l came across a bag of broken (large) pearl strings at the opshop, l took it as a sign:-)) The pearls were each threaded on to every third or fourth string and the remainder strings were cut evenly to neaten.

A few metres of tiny seed pearl strands were bought from Spotlight and glued on...they add balance and hide the imperfections. A band of hessian was gathered and frayed and attached to the top edge. Vintage shell earrings were customised with pearls and glued on.

l put this creamy vignette together and used the soft focus setting in picassa.... it reminds me of the pics in the old "Victoria" magazines.



                       

Now that's pretty!!! berengia.tumblr. via pinterest.



Vintage bag that matches my quilt ....having a bit of fun with the cinemascope  setting in picassa.

l had to smile when my daughter sent me this pic of the tea tins she painted using lace and spray paint......as my Mum would say....the apple doesn't fall far from the tree :-))

If you'd like to check out her gorgeous pinterest page click here .

Hope you all have a great weekend and have time to do something for YOU, thanks so much for stopping by.

Til next time.

Bron.

Garden Room

Only 3 weeks til Spring...!!!

.....which is just a bit exciting .... and it inspired me to try and pretty up the garden room to take some pics.......l rarely show pics of this room cos although it's a lovely light filled and well used room, specially in Winter with the wood fire..(off to the left) it's not without it's problems. This room was added on after we built the house so all the walls are brick...hubby loves them (but NOT me) so he refuses to plaster and is totally against me painting them..... such a guy thing isn't it :-)) In the pic above l've covered the walls with a screen and hung some white prettties... they hide not only the walls but also the door into the garage.

The table and chairs were bought new..... but as soon as they came home l whitewashed all the metalwork and had  a new clear glass top made up....The original glass was dark brown and the steel a dirty beige .......NOT awesome....much better now.

The cups and saucers were a recent opshop find.....l thought them so pretty and unusual with the diamantes set into them....a couple of the stones were missing but l soon found some replacements in my bead stash.....not exactly the same, but close enough.

Pots of daisies from the market were wrapped loosely in scarves to hide those nasty old black pots.

An old mirror for some pretty reflections.

Dream garden room....and not a brick wall in sight. haha!! blissfulrhythm via pinterest.

 

Hope you all enjoy a fun filled weekend.......thanks so much for your much appreciated visits and positive comments....til next time.

 

Bron.

Bird,Butterfly and Branch.

l sometimes wonder if other people's houses are evolving and changing on a regular basis like they are here. For those of us who are collectors....the finds that make their way home need a place and/or a purpose, so they often become the inspiration to shuffle things around, arrange something new or maybe take things away.....it's all very cyclic isn't it.

The lampshade was the wrong colour for this (now) beachy corner so l threw a tiered skirt over the top of it 'til l come up with a more permanent solution....l've done this a few times before and l love the idea of a quick change whenever the inspiration hits.

The military style belt was added for a little structure and detail....A diamente brooch gives a sparkle.

The glass jar is a new (old) addition to the corner as well.....l gathered some tortured willow sticks (see top picture) and lightly sprayed them white.....they looked a little Winterish (bare) so l made some birds from sheet music...a little glitter was added to the wing and tail tips.....diamentes became eyes.

 

While we were collecting the willow l snipped a few pliable tree twigs which were plaited, woven and sprayed white to form a wreath for my butterfly collection.

The butterflies range from the 30's to the 70's mostly picked up in opshops for less than a few dollars.

My bedside lamps are also under reconstruction:-)).....they were stripped of all their previous lace and frills. Their wire frames were repainted and placed on the candlesticks to dry.

l recently added this priest to my religious collection....although it's meant to be a candle he's holding it looks more like a sword doesn't it.......some tot's had a chew on the end of it as well, haha!!...

Mary has a new angel wing pendant.

Gorgeous vignette from bellemaison23 via pinterest.

It's been a lot of fun rearranging and making a few things while watching the games....bring on the athletics next week (go Aussie's).....have a wonderful weekend everyone....

Til next time,

Bron.