Some Carnival Stars ..

in pale pinky peach and translucent light caramels (I struggle with naming glass colours most of the time!) Whatever colour you want to call them, they are light, and soft and feminine colours I chose after making the Vintage Summer garland (one of the stars is in the same glass) and finding those tutus!
Why do I call these Carnival Stars ? because the glass beads on the star points remind me of lights on carnival merry-go-rounds, and the coloured shadows move and twist in the breeze .... :)

The Dowry garland now in mirror glass - yay!!

I've been planning to make these for ages, so finally here is the first of them - actually this is 1 of 2 (as you know I normally only make one of each of my garlands) but I love this combo of roses/beads/ribbon that I had to make a second :)

The garland is tied with a pearl grey ribbon and embellished with frosted glass beads and taupe roses dipped in fine silver glitter. The ends of the garland are finished with mirrored stars and little glass puffed hearts. These mirror garland would look great for an evening wedding party!!!

you can find it in my Etsy shop here

A Vintage Summer - glass garland

Two blog posts in one day - it's either feast or famine with me :) I listed this garland in my Etsy shop this evening and wanted to post it here too. It's very girly ...and pretty even if I do say so myself :)



you can find it for sale here

I also want to say thanks to Anna aka The House of Mouse who featured one of my flutterbys on her blog Life, Craftiness and Everything

more garden photos !

Because I love our garden in May I've taken some more pictures :) This week I'll take some photos of around the hamlet too.

the 'wild' border! it gets cut right back in the summer.

this bush was a bit of a butterfly love fest!

a view looking up the garden from underneath the walnut tree

some aquilegias - one of my favouite flowers in the garden, although this year they're not looking just good as previous summers.

the public path - this was the original 'road' down to the village!

Just some pictures of the garden today

The wisteria that covers the terrace - the garden smells so good right now - with this and the lilacs along the drive





Outside the side window of the kitchen just blooming iris' , the grapevine has the tiniest little grape bunches (what are they called at this stage??) and the pink rose will start soon and flower right through to the autumn.


Quincy looks gorgeous this year - this is going to be a bumper year for fruit I think - we had no late frosts - the weather just got warmer nice and steadily so buds weren't nipped :)


Looking over to the hamlet from my atelier balcony ...hmmmm... I need to do some repainting v. soon :)
This is taken from the balcony too - it's cloudy today so you can't see the top of the Chartreuse mountains opposite. But you can see how fluffy our garden has got - wild and wooly :)

Vintage Tutus from The Royal Opera House Collection

I was looking for romantic vintage ballet costumes to inspire some new garlands and discovered these treasures from The Royal Opera House collection
Fabulous.


Tutu worn by Fiona Chadwick as The Fairy Winter in Act I scene 2 of The Royal Ballet production of 'Cinderella' (1987)

Tutu worn by Anya Linden as Cinderella in Act III of The Royal Ballet production of 'Cinderella' (1948)


Tutu worn by Nadia Nerina as Cinderella in Act III of the Sadler's Wells Ballet production of 'Cinderella' (1948)


Tutu worn by Anya Linden as Cinderella in Act II of The Royal Ballet production of 'Cinderella' (1948)

Tutu worn by Vergie Derman as Odette in Acts II and IV of The Royal Ballet production of 'Swan Lake' (1971)

Tutu worn by Antoinette Sibley as Clara in Act II of The Royal Ballet production of 'The Nutcracker' (1968)

Tutu worn by Margot Fonteyn as The Firebird in the Sadler's Wells Ballet production of 'The Firebird' (1954)

Tutu worn by Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora in Act I of the Sadler's Wells Ballet production of 'The Sleeping Beauty' (1946)

I didn't know I needed a bio hazard lab coat ..

but now I'm wondering if I can possibly live without one! I'm having slight palpitations I want this coat so much!!!! Made by NYC based independent fashion designer/artist Patricia Ayres aka ArtLab





I'm a pauper, if however, you are not a pauper and would like to treat yourself to this fabulous thing, you can find it here

...I won't hold a grudge........