Sunshine Yellow Dress

Happy Saturday everyone!

I bought this dress as a Christmas present for my daughter in the Boden end of Summer sale.  I adore Boden children's clothes, but as a rule they are a treat, and bought when reduced and with free delivery.  My daughter rings the things she likes in the catalogue, I ring what I like, and what we agree on gets bought for birthday and Christmas.  

 I decided to start wrapping my gifts this morning, and had to share a picture with you of this bright yellow tea dress, it made me feel so happy when I took it out of it's packaging, especially when the skies are so grey and dreary at the moment.  As much as I love this time of year, I shall look forward to seeing her wearing this in the sunshine with blue sky behind her, looking for shells on the beach.

I made a trip to Hobbycraft this morning as I had 25% off voucher.  I nearly fainted when the lady at the till gave me my grand total, but I have some absolutely lovely things for that I will share with you soon.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tamsyn x

Homemade Advent Calendar

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a good week!

After a crazy busy weekend, I finished the advent calendar that I was making for the children, and ta-daaa!  Here it is in it's full glory.  I used one of my job lot of large antique frames that I found at a car boot fair (post about some of the frames here) after giving it a coat of paint.   The Range do lots of large frames which you could paint and distress to look older.

I used mini white pegs to hang the little bags I made onto a twine washing line.  A trip to the 99p Store for chocolate coins and stickers to go in each little bag and we're good to go!  I love the red and white theme, and I'm making some bunting from the same fabrics too for a festive Scandinavian feel.

Once Christmas is over I will use my new frame to display photographs and mementos.

I can't believe December is just round the corner, I'm really looking forward to sharing lots of festive posts with you!

Tamsyn x

PS : To all you lovely readers in the States - just want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope you are having a wonderful day with your families! x

Festive Crafting

Hello everyone!

Just thought I'd share a few snaps with you of some festive crafting I'm working on at the moment.  I love these Scandinavian style fabrics I found in a local haberdashery.  I'm fairly sure you can tell what this is going to be, and I look forward to showing you some pictures of the finished item next week!

Have a wonderful Saturday.

Tamsyn x

Vintage Champagne Glasses

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good week!

So as I may have mentioned before, I had a small collection of vintage champagne saucers, collected from car boot fairs over the last year or so.  I loved them, they were so delicate and pretty, and it felt very decadent and Gatsby-like on the one occasion I actually sat with a friend and used them to drink bubbles out of.  Sadly I broke them whilst having a clear out.  Sob.  As my dear mum has always said on such occasions, 'No use crying over spilt milk!'.  A not entirely helpful saying but there we go.  I prefer 'Dry your eyes princess, and go buy some more!', which is indeed, what I did.

These were not the car boot bargain bottom-of-a-cardboard-box in a field type champagne saucers, these were a treat to myself from eBay.  They are actually pretty heavy and very clear cut glass or maybe even crystal, so I will take better care of these ones.  I'm looking forward to making some sort of elegant cocktail over the festive period, and I shall use these for a touch of vintage glamour.  

Bottoms up!

Tamsyn x

Hydrangea Wreath Tutorial - Guest Post at Apartment Apothecary

Hello everyone!

I was ridiculously excited and very honoured to be asked by Katy at Apartment Apothecary to write a guest post for her amazing and inspirational blog.  We decided that a dried hydrangea wreath would make a fab tutorial and I'm delighted to share it with you today!  Please do hop over and take a look!

How to Make a Dried Hydrangea Wreath

Tamsyn x

Sunday Snapshots

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today to show you these beauties I found yesterday in some little vintage shops in Holt, Norfolk.  I'm fairly sure I turned into a Gollum-esque type creature on spotting them, taking apart widow displays to reach the bowls full to the brim of shiny baubles - 'Give them to us, precious!!' 

 I can't help it they're just so pretty...

Have a lovely, relaxing Sunday!

Tamsyn x

Rosehips and Foliage

 

Hello all!

A bit of a serene and elegant still life for you today as I thought I'd share some snapshots with you of this display I put together.  I raided the garden for some greenery and found these vibrant orange rosehips, and the greenery is jasmine.  I love the colours against the creamy white backdrop.

I'm thinking of adding 'Pin it' buttons to the bottom of each post - what do you think, would that be a useful tool for any of you?  Let me know!  Alternatively you can find all the pictures from the blog on my Pinterest board here, so pin away!

Have a lovely weekend, I am off to stand on a windy field somewhere today to watch my daughters first ever hockey match!

Tamsyn x

Polaroid Style Prints

Hello everyone, I hope you've had a fab week so far!

Printing my own photo's at home has always been a bit hit and miss.  I used to fork out an absolute fortune for Canon inks and Canon paper to go in my yep you've guessed it, Canon printer.  In order to try and be a bit thriftier, I then tried cheaper inks and paper, only to disappointed with the quality and slightly faded colours.

However, since then my style of photography has changed, and the cheaper inks and papers actually give me exactly the results I love - a slightly faded, vintage feel.  My face lit up when I went into the Pound Shop the other day, and discovered that you can buy packs of 50 6 x 4 photo paper for, ahem, £1.  Which quite frankly is a bargain.

I decided to try printing out some of my Instagram pictures, and I discovered that by formatting them to print in the middle of the paper with a border, and then trimming the top off, I had these really rather lovely vintage Polaroid style prints.  Perfect for making a lovely mini photo album or scrapbooking.  Or hanging on a picture washing line, or even gift tags...so many fab possibilities!

Tamsyn x

Last Remaining Flowers

Hello!

It's reached that time of year where the garden has gradually turned into a mossy wilderness, bare twigs and a carpet of leaves everywhere you look.  I admit that I'm a fair weather gardner, and tend to the garden with love and affection from March to the end of August.  I'd love to take the Gardeners World advice of keeping up with the maintenance of the garden through the autumn and winter months, but quite frankly the back door shuts half way through September, and I then ignore it all until March, apart from occasionally shoo-ing the children out in their wellies to get some fresh air.  I then moan about how messy it all is and the cycle starts again.

I did tiptoe my way into the garden yesterday, for a little look to see what remains from the summer, and the answer is very little.  I cut most of the hydrangea's for drying and everything else looks very bare, except for these beautiful, almost fluorescent purple tiny flowers, standing proud on tall, skinny stalks.

The plant in question is verbena bonariensis.  Garden centre's love to charge a fortune for them, but they are easy peasy and cheap as chips to grow by seed.  They are very tall, and add a magical, meadow feel to any garden in the summer, the flowers almost glow they are so bright.  They look very pretty lined up in vintage glass bottles, perhaps as a dining table centrepiece.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tamsyn x

Vintage Glass Baubles

Hello everyone, hope you're having a fab week!  

As some of you may know, I have a huge obsession with vintage glass baubles.  I remember as a child that we had a lovely if rather gaudy artificial Christmas tree, and the thrill every year of unwrapping the same decorations in rainbow hues.  Coloured lights, tinsel and metallic streamers ensured that every inch was covered in glitz.  We had a couple of pretty pink little glass decorations, and I remember one year we came back from a trip to find the tree and all its jewels sprawled across the living room floor, with a very guilty looking cat sat next to it.  One of the little baubles did not survive the fall, and its silvery pink fragments were quickly hoovered up the Electrolux, never to be seen again.  I'm guessing the other bauble faced a similar fate somewhere along the line.

Anyway, my mother now has a very tasteful Christmas tree, with matching decorations in one colour only, the perfect example of a well dressed tree.  I do miss the clashing colours though, which is one of the reasons that I love these fragile beauties in their candy colours.  I photographed them against floral backgrounds to try and keep them form looking too christmassy yet - I'm saving the reds and silvers for December!

Tamsyn x

Instagram

Hello everyone!

This is a super quick post as I need to dash to work in a mo, but I just wanted to let you know that I've made my Instagram public, hurrah!  I had a major spring clean and took out the selfies taken by my children, and voila, you can find me here.  Now I just need to get my tech head on tonight and work out how to add a follow button to the blog, I may need wine for that...

Have a fab day everyone!

Tamsyn x

Sunday Snapshots

Have a lovely day everyone!

Tamsyn x

Welcome, November!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post from me today, the children and I are down at my parents in East Sussex for the last few days of half term and we are having such a lovely time.  My brother has been visiting too, so it's been a wonderful family get together.  We dressed up for halloween, and had soup and sausages outside, next to a bonfire surrounded by lanterns.  We even roasted marshmallows on sticks, and the children went to bed late, their bellies full of sugary treats.

My parents have a little bit of land where they grow vegetables, including these beautiful pumpkins and squash which I couldn't resist arranging and photographing.  I'm looking forward to taking some home and making soup!

Have a lovely weekend!

Tamsyn x