show pet

I planted an old blue and white dish with some miniature Iris, they were beautiful but fleeting! I have been painting pine furniture again, this time it was some lovely old pieces that my client has collected over the years. A lovely pitch pine cupboard, a wardrobe with leaded lights and a charming school desk. The stool I had painted for a different room in a duckegg blue, but it was being moved into  the grey room. I primed the furniture with 2 coats of primer, then painted with 3 coats of Farrow and Ball's Pavilion Grey, followed by a charcoal grey wash and 2 coats of acrylic varnish in a matt finish. I thought it would be fun to paint the desk and stool with a Paris postmark. This gorgeous Armoire was painted in Duckegg blue with a brown antique wash. The decoration on the walls was done by me for a previous client a few years ago, but my new client kept it because she loved it. It was a lovely surprise for me to see it again. I hope you are all enjoying the Spring weather (or ...

A lot of people are a little bit 'sniffy' about stencilling! If you have lived through the 80's and 90's, when everything that moved (or didn't) got stencilled, then I can understand you feeling a little reticent. Also a lot of the stencilling that was done was rather badly done, with leaks and dribbles and smudges. I started painting furniture in the late eighties and didn't have the confidence to hand paint things then, so I used stencils, first bought ones, then as I gained confidence,I cut my own. Eventually I learned how to paint directly on to the wall, but that took time. I have to say though, that I still have a soft spot for stencilling. Recently, I thought that I would check 'The Stencil Library's' website, as I hadn't been on it in quite a number of years. I knew that they were still going strong because of the magazine coverage. I was thrilled by what I found, as they have really moved the whole thing on with both modern and vintage d...

I thought you might like to see a couple more of my little collages, on the theme of blue and white this time. I love blue in all it's varieties, and never seem to tire of it, especially blue and white china. I am a little busy with work at the moment, so I do apologise for such a short post. Wishing you all a very happy and productive week, love Linda x

I knew I was going to be linking to Flower Jane's ' Flowers in the House   post today, but didn't think I would have any fresh flowers to show you, so I decided to go around my home and photograph things with a flowery theme. I then messed about on Picnik  to achieve my little mosaic. I must admit I was quite taken by surprise, that all these lovely things are mine! I f I had seen these on someone else's blog I would have been lusting after them, so I am rather pleased that I did this little exercise. As it turns out I do have some flowers in the house to show you as well. I picked up this little planter at Tesco's supermarket. I just love that it has Muscari written on it. I also had some little miniature daffodils, which I displayed in my husbands empty beer bottles.  Although they look pretty they do smell pretty awful. I made marmalade at the weekend and the smell of it cooking was glorious, and masked the flower smell! Have you ever made marmalade? It is quite ...

Do you eat like a King at breakfast time? What do you like? I think breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, probably because it is an excuse for me to have 'pudding' and get away with it. I love all the bread based lovelies, toast, scones, croissants, pancakes (oh happy pancake tuesday),waffles, brioche,etcetera, etcetera, etcetera! I do apologise to anyone planning to give up these things for Lent, I did think about it, for a brief second, but no, no, no self control, sorry. My daughter isn't very keen on breakfast at all, and if I do manage to get her to eat, she likes very peculiar things (in my eyes), like tuna and mayonnaise, olives, or chocolate spread on toast. My husband loves a fry-up, an Irish fry, with a big long list of ingredients, such as, sausages, bacon, black and white pudding,tomatoes, mushrooms,fried egg, potato bread,pancakes, soda bread. (Have I missed anything?) Needless to say he doesn't get this very often (heart attacks and all that!) We norm...

I love colours that aren't true, that have been' dirtied' with a little ochre or umber or black. I very often like to mix my own colours when painting furniture as you can arrive at something a little more interesting. Even more than that, I love to add washes and layers to the finished colour to achieve something more complex.Here are some images from  Pinterest  to show you what I mean. So soft and easy to live with all these dusky, dusty shades I find. I hope you enjoyed my selection. Have a merry midweek. Love Linda x