The week that was........

......was a gentle week. It was a week spent enjoying many things.

Enjoyment in early morning walks with Miss Maisie, walking along dusty country roads, meeting interesting characters along the way.

Having a li'l pow wow; secret animal business, me thinks.

Some members of the family aren't really into long country walks. Some are a little terrified of the bovine you meet in this part of the world, both the four legged kind and sometimes, even the two legged kind. =) Yes, some much prefer to nap on bedding fit for a queen; obviously a fellow of exquisite taste.  Have I introduced you to our Boo??  He is a rather aloof fellow. If someone perchance, should drop by he is out of here quicker than quick, heading for dem dar hills. He always considers strangers with a certain amount of distrust, a little suspicion. I don't know why.......I have a theory about black felines. We have had two who have lived with us in our home, and both have been rather aloof and have followed the beat of a different drummer. Besides, when not dreaming of a life without Miss Maisie, he is off catching creatures of the pesky, rodent kind. Boo understands perfectly I hate meeces to pieces!!

This past week has found much enjoyment in knitting my cabled woolly, delighting in it's progress. Progress is still slow, but I am loving all the lovely aran texture. The back is finished.....hip hip hooray! Now for the sleeves. Maybe, just maybe come Winter, this pretty will be hanging from my frame as I gad about town.

Enjoyment also, in planning another tarted up jacket. I was gifted an inspiration-filled book written by Mandy Pattullo for Christmas. Mandy Pattullo is a textile designer and artist who creates beautiful collages from vintage fabric and quilts and a plethora of other pretties. I have loved her work from afar for a while now, so when I saw this book in a book shop I hinted rather longingly that it needed to make one of our many burgeoning bookcases, home. This jacket has been sitting on my dress form, in the corner of my sewing room for much too long....two years if my memory is correct.

I am going to use old tapestries that I found at a market many years ago, and other bits and bobs. As it has been an age since I tarted up some pretty, I am looking forward to playing again.

A delicious jumble of needlepoints, ribbons, laces and a little bit of this and a whole lot of that. Probably too much of a "whole lot of that" for these neck of the woods.......but who cares. Not me. Eyebrows aren't raised heavenwards any more when I am seen out and about in an eccentric, tarted up pretty....it's kinda expected.

Of course, I have been strolling through the garden cutting flowers for vases. The roses are in their last flush and  the Dahlias are still winning the prize for sheer lusciousness.

Are you ready for some floralicious delight?? Again, there is photo after photo overspilling with sumptuous, floral exquisiteness......old habits die hard. Besides, soon they will be no more and I will have to sit out a loooooong Winter without any blossomy prettiness. I am not looking forward to Old Man Winter returning to our happy li'l isle, armed with his arsenal of frigid tricks, one little bit.

The Dahlias. Those vivacious, vibrant, flashy Autumn showoffs of the floral world. 'Tis hard not to be filled with joyousness at the sight of these flowers. There is nothing demure about these beauties, they trumpet "look at me, look at me"!!

Of course, vivid, rainbow-filled, embellished to-an-inch-of-their-life, hexie quilts demand your attention as well. =D

As I say, one can't help but be feel a heightened sense of joyousness at the lusciousness of the Dahlias, or indeed "queenly" hexie quilts.

Then, there are the roses, in their last flush.

Soft, pastel-painted, with sunlight-kissed petals.....roses.

For those of you who are wondering if the heavens opened up this week and sent lightning bolts filled with creative notions on what to do with my au naturel lampshade......alas nothing. Not that I mind, as my imagination has been swirling and swirling around with other pretties. Thank you lovelies for your comments re this conundrum. It seems half of you prefer the cream shade to be left just as it is and the other half have decided it is sadly lacking in a li'l pizzazz and is in need of a little embellishment, a li'l oomph. This jury.........is still out on this "the-world-will-stop-spinning-on-it's-axis", problem!

Until the next time...........a l'il love sent from me to you, this lovely day.

My letter box beareth a pretty gift

Sometimes in life people do the sweetest things. A little while ago my letter box beareth the prettiest  of gifts. It is always exciting to receive a present in the post; sooooo much nicer than a nasty bill, which unfortunately appears much too frequently. The gorgeous Jeneta from Plum Jam gifted me this treasure which she had found at an op shop, taking it home to live with her. This treasure sat......sat some more .........and sat even longer in Jeneta's lovely home. Jeneta said, try as she might to find the right spot in her home for this pretty, 'it' just wasn't at home.  Jeneta said she felt very strongly that this pretty should come home and live with me. I can think of no lovelier gift to come and live with me in my humble abode.

It is a lovely impressionistic-like printed canvas with dainty cross stitches interspersed here and there. 

There are two young ladies of a bygone era, dressed in pretty lace trimmed dresses, carrying  parasols; and a little girl standing in a meadow of dainty flowers. This pretty really is exquisite.

This lovely print brings to mind those paintings of the Impressionist era. The Impressionist era is my favourite period of great art works. I have enjoyed many a bewitching hour strolling through art galleries drinking in works by Monet, Renoir, Manet, Degas and the like. These artists, especially Monet, strike a chord deep within me. In my mind's eye it is easy to visualise Claude Monet painting these ladies plein air in one of his flower-filled meadows in Giverny.

I deliberated for a while what I would do with these ladies. I thought of stitching a cushion but then I remembered I had a shadow box like frame in which I could place it. The shadow box frame is 46cm x 38cm so the lovely canvas would fit perfectly.

Of course this pretty cannot sit in the shadow box unadorned, now can it. Though the canvas is beautiful just as it is; me wouldn't be me if I didn't embellish.....if only a little. Besides, the embellishing of this pretty makes for a more alluring post.......does it not??

Once again I found myself rummaging amongst my snippets of lace and crochet doilies and all those little bits that would add a little  pizazz when embellishing.

I gathered together various visually pleasing French and vintage laces, carefully stitching them around the border of the canvas.

I espied a crochet basket of flowers hiding in my plethora of pretties. I stitched it to the canvas, filling it with a beauteous, floral arrangement using a melange of crochet flowers that I snippety snipped from doilies. I added various leaves, fluttering butterflies and tiny silk flowers to fill in the gaps.  I do find the prettiest things in my lace and doily stash!!

A basket always looks so much more appealing with the addition of a pretty bow.

I twirled and swirled the ribbon in a rambling fashion across the top, meandering it's way down the side and across the bottom, adding swirls and swirls of other ribbons, cinching them down with various pearls, buttons and a few pieces of vintage ornamentation.

The embellishing of these ladies has been such a delight. I spent many a happy hour in my sunny sewing room this week playing.......stitching a button here......stitching a pearl there......swirling ribbons round and round till they happily found their resting spot.

I spent many a happy moment in my sunny sewing room reflecting what a blessed gal I am that Jeneta should think of me and gift me this lovely treasure.

Yes indeedy, my letter box did indeed, beareth the most wondrous of gifts.......thank you, Jeneta, from the bottom of my heart!

Wishing you all the most wonderful week. Until the next time...........

Linking up with the lovely Stephanie's 'Roses of Inspiration'.