Neglected Treasures

The birds are singing, the days are getting longer - spring is on its way!! Made me want to redecorate a bit, so I changed the outfit on my dummy:

I love the hat, it´s so springy I think, with the vibrant pink and the flowers! It´s a fleamarket find from Germany and it´s very small, so I only use it for decoration purpose.


Even in the garden there are signs of spring, I´ll have to give the garden a good clear up over Easter.




I still fetch fresh vegetables from last years growing season, mainly green cabbage and leek. They are great winter vegetables - I didn´t even cover them over winter.



But let´s come to the neglected treasures.I had a little raid around my favourite vintage shops on Saturday, and of course lots of things made it home with me!

Some nice tins (again ;-) - but can you ever have enough??), an old sewing box like the one my granny had, a charming old mirror, lace, fabric and some small bits´n bobs.

In the second shop I found a whole box of sewing equipment - thread, embroidery yarn, crochet yarn, needles, fabric and these adorable needlecases!

I even found some unused stockings from the 60ies with the most delicate pattern! So naughty ;-)

Isn´t that beaded lace gorgeous? And the buttons will make beautiful centrepieces for a brooch or a pendant.

The woman who owns the shop where I found all the sewing equipment, some nice fabric, buttons and the stockings told me it all came from the same old lady. She had stored everything carefully, neatly wrapped and put away, there had even been old fashion magazines from the 30ies and 40ies and vintage slips but they were sold already (AARRGH - how annoying!!!). And although I was ever so happy having found such beautiful and useful things, it made me sad to think about the fact that this old ladies life now was for sale in a vintage warehouse, that none of her relatives appreciated the treasures she had collected and stored so carefully for many years enough to want to keep them. Well, at least some of it found a new loving home!

Home Sweet Home...

I recently set up my flickr photostream and my God, it´s addictive!! But I still found time for a little bit of shopping, bumped into this great flower-fairylights in the local shop and had to have them! They look nice draped around my tailors dummy with the vintage slip, don´t you think?

The cupboard is a fleamarket find that I´ve painted in a nice pale yellow shade and the scarf is a gift from my friend Tracy.

I made some more pictures of our home and my favourite vintage goodies for the flickr site.

Here you see a corner of our living room. On the blue cabinet a collection of beautiful ceramics made by my friend Laila Witt. The painting is the work of another friend of mine and the lovely vintage Chinese lantern was given to me by my generous and dear friend Tracy who had found it during a holiday in Brighton.

Some vintage goodies from my studio. The mirror is a fleamarket find as is the beautiful tin, the doilies and the vintage pearl necklace. The metal lace in the foreground is just stunning and comes from France and the other lace is a mix of ebay and fleamarket finds.

I have to show you this, too. It is a vintage angel from the 20ies and it comes from my home country, Germany. She looks like a beautiful fairy as she looks down from the top of my vintage Dutch mirror. I found her on ebay, the picture was quite bad so I didn´t really know what I had purchased befor the parcel arrived and oh so happy I was when I saw her! Look at the teeny tiny candle!! The seller had a blond version too and I´m so cross with myself I didn´t buy this one too!!! I guess I just have to enjoy the one I have.

The last two things I want to show you is recent work - I don´t want you to believe I´ve been lazy! The picture above shows my latest cuff. It´s built around a piece of vintage jewellery and made of layered silk and lace and embellished with a vintage appliqué, pearls of an old necklace, glassbeads and hand embroidery. The cuff was inspired by Sophia Coppolas film "Marie Antoinette" which I recently saw again.

This brooch is inspired by "Marie Antoinette", too. It´s made of a lacy vintage serviet ring combined with hand dyed tulle and embellished with lace, sequins, trim and beads.

If you want to see more, check my flickr photostream. See you soon!

Waiting for the spring....

I am so proud of myself - spent the whole afternoon yesterday cleaning our lovely conservatory and getting it ready for the spring.

We don´t use it in the cold wintermonths as it is very expensive to heat, but from the middle of march the sun is powerful enough to warm it up and we put the floor heating on, too. So I spent a wonderful sunny afternoon getting everything ready, I haven´t put the blankets and cushions out yet as it is still quite cold and I don´t want them to get damp, but apart from that everything is ready. I´m so looking forward to sitting out there drinking tea or a glass of wine, it´s my favourite room from march to octobre where I spend most of the time when I´m in the house and not in the garden. If you want to see more of our conservatory and the rest of the house, take a look at boboho where our home is featured and take a walk around our Danish farmhouse ;-)

The other thing I want to show you is this - I love flowers, so what more can I ask for?

I bought this gorgeous bracelet and the matching earrings on etsy from moonlilydesigns and oh how thrilled I was when I opened the parcel this morning!! Such delicate beadwork! Check out her shop.

So - I am definitely in the right mood for spring!

Furry Friends and woolly bits ;-)

Oh oh I have been a lazy blogger - maybe someone missed me out there? Yes? That´s nice! This time I want to show you pictures of my furry friends - our gorgeous cats and dogs (the horses come later!) For us they are dear members of the family and they enjoy quite a lot of privileges - like drinking out of the vases with flowers and squashing them... which sometimes leads to nice pictures though!

Here you see Kveiting, our 10 year old white Norwegian - he adopted us when we lived in Norway and what a great cat he is! Always gentle and calm but still incredibly confident.


And here we have Frasse, 13 years old and a lovely little stripy tiger. He moved with us from Germany - we are a truly international family with me, Frasse and our dog Snuff being German, my Partner Bjarne, Kveiting and Forest Cat Frida being Norwegian and last not least our Dane, Border Collie Mix Gustav.


No, this is NOT an enormous beaver with very small ears but our 6 year old Norwegian Forest Cat Frida. We got her from the animal rescue centre in Kristiansand, Norway and she is quite special (read: she´s lost the plot a bit), but a real beauty and obviously the picture doesn´t do her justice - I am going to post another one later, I just think it is so funny I had to share it with you! So sorry, Frida ;-)


Well, how many dogs have their own bed, boudoir style with tons of cushions... Ours do! They love it - and we have the big corner sofa for ourselves, at least sometimes! The daybed from the 20s is a fleemarket find and the cushions are of course my own design! The lazy furry creature to the left is Snuff, our gorgeous Collie/Shepard/Retriever/Elkhound/Husky Mix. He is such a great dog, self confident, patient and always friendly. He is 12 years old but still going strong! The other doggy is Gustav, our 6 year old Border Collie Mix. Do you know the New Zealand comic strip Footrot Flats? Dog, the protagonist - that´s him! He loves herding the cats, and we even caught him herding snails in the summer, it´s true!! He is quite demanding, but his love and devotion are immeasurable and I´m so happy he is part of our family, he makes me laugh all the time with his crazy ideas and naive enthusiasm for the world around him.


So far the furry friends, let´s come to the woolly bits! I want to show you some of my crochet pieces, first two lamps I made a while ago. The red one you see in the picture to the left is quite quirky and a little bit over the top, but I love it! I stripped an old lampshade and crocheted a new cover in a lovely raspberry red. The foot is vintage and a carboot-sale find and the pink, blue and green flowers add to the kitsch appeal of the lamp.

The other lamp I want to show you is kind of oriental inspired. I actually started with the beautiful beaded trim in eau de nile and purple colours, chose a matching cotton yarn and combined the shade with a vintage metal foot. This lamp is more elegant and gives a very nice light.

What I especially like with crocheted lampshades is their great texture and the pattern that emerges when you switch on the lamp. Everyone should at least have one crocheted lamp!!

It´s quite late now so the rest of the wooly bits follow soon!!