My English bunting

I have had these William Morris postcards carefully stored in a box since my time in England in 1992 when I visited his house – gosh 20 years! William Morris is arguably the single most influential designer of the nineteenth century.

Well I cut loose today and put holes in them and made them into bunting (of sorts), ready for hosting our street Christmas party in a few days. They were intended for an inside wall but nowhere looked quite right so...

A little bit more (home-made) Christmas

Continuing my natural, 'use-what-u-got' theme, here is some more simple Christmassy stuff I created this week.

Hanging rusty wire reels with led xmas lights - the photo doesn't do them justice at all - one will soon double as a bird feeder. 

And a rather wobbly bay leaf wreath on our lovely new black front doors – simple and recyclable in the kitchen.

My recycled wrapping.

Artichoke stalks which may become table decorations.

A tennis ball bought for the dogs to fetch has become a Christmas tree ball for a while with my favourite ribbon I have had for ages. I am sure the dogs know it is for them!

It's feeling a bit like Christmas

The tree is up! It's a monster at nearly 4m high. Thanks Ian for the tree and thanks Damien for wrestling with it. We had to make up for not having a Christmas tree last year due to building the extension. The decorations are mostly home-made with a natural green-brown theme this year. The scent of pine is lovely. I hope it lasts until the 25th.

My beautiful briars are back

It has been a while between posts. I thought I would resume with something cherie that I am so glad to see again... my rose blooms. The first few anyway for this season, and the early ones don't last long on the bush (snip, snip, snip)...

MY TWO-HEADED BEAUTY!! Has anyone ever grown one?

Pea flowers on the edge of the rose garden I let grow from the pea straw mulch!!

OK so this is not a rose! Just as sweet though! (when not rolling in cow ***)

It's not always so black & white

Another productive weekend of mulching, tiling, painting and creating.

I found a lovely old frame for $10 which perfectly fits the space for a rustic blackboard in the kitchen. A chunk of left-over ply, a few coats of blackboard paint and it's done. My new must-have cow paperclips hold the string (black & white of course), which holds the chalk. The brown string and black pebbles achieve absolutely nothing except I like them!

And we have all been sanding, staining, varnishing, painting...
a black stained floor for Sam coming along and a white lime washed floor for Eyreland.