Pink Saturday

I love PINK lampshades.. Love the pale 'face powder' shaded shadows they cast in a room.

Here a swirled chiffon shade I made.

Below, an experiment with tea dyed cheesecloth I used to decorate a plain ready made shade to get the powder pink look.

This pink print square shade, wound with ribbons, crystals dangling, caught my eye in a magazine.

Do visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to find the list of all the great PINK SATURDAY posts.

Friday's Favorite Family Foto

Have you crossed an ocean by liner? Yes, they were called 'ocean liners' at one time, not cruise ships. I've never taken a cruise, but I did cross the Atlantic on one of the greatest of the ocean liners ever built during the golden age of elegant transatlantic sea travel. One always dressed to travel back then.........................in high heeled shoes and silly hats. This was my favorite coat - a royal blue textured wool, and I loved those shoes. I thought I looked quite snazzy for traveling home to England!

February 23, 2006 the new RMS Queen Mary 2, on her way to Mexico, saluted her predecessor RMS Queen Mary at Long Beach, California where she has been a tourist attraction since her retirement in 1967.

A Gazebo Break

I'm taking a break for a few days. May hang out here in my garden. I've been having frustrating computer problems for several days, and I have projects needing attention, including my big trip to France. I'll turn the ceiling fan on high in the gazebo, and have a steady stream of lemonade swirling over ice in the big glass pitcher - must beat the heat somehow.

On second thoughts, just heard it will be 100 degrees again, perhaps I'll just do all that planning inside the house!

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Thank you for stopping by and leaving such great comments this past week, I love to hear from you and truly appreciate your friendship.

Vintage French Fashion Journals

Hot, humid, Southern Sunday afternoon..................birds were hiding among the leaves of shrubs and bushes, waiting for the cool of evening to stop by the bird baths and feeders. Where was I hiding? Why here of course...............I wish. OK, so I do have a French inspired guest bedroom which I love, but it always happens, you flip a page and there it is, somewhere more beautiful, more inviting, more impossible to create in a 1980's house with low ceilings!
I just needed an inspired space to sit for a while ~ a place that would allow me to step back in time and get the feeling of being transported to Paris.......in the exciting 1920's.

Beautiful bedroom - Anthropologie catalog.

Here's the reason. The mail brought these on Friday! All the way from France, packed carefully by my sister-in-law. So unexpected and appreciated. While browsing a local vide grenier (attic cleanout), she and my brother noticed these amazing fashion journals from the early '20's ~ and they saw my name written on them! The delicate newsprint is still in great condition and the color plates bright. The ads are quite amusing and I'll have to share some another time. The fashions are gorgeous............................

.......................there are even pages of children's clothing as shown below. These are apparently school clothes and will perhaps come back in fashion again some day, you know how the kids are always looking for something new and different!
I'm just thrilled with this wonderful gift.

This is another spot for lounging, reading, dreaming ~ with all that cool marble it's doubtful air conditioning would be needed. Hope you set aside a special time and place to enjoy your favorite book or magazine today.

More Damask......and Brocade

Following my recent post on the classic fabric damask, many of you concurred that it was also a great favorite when you are searching for decorating fabrics.

Designers have recently looked to the past in order to revive one of the most loved of fabrics, brocade. Damask and brocade are both made on a jacquard loom. Damask is a flatter patterned fabric, which is reversible. Brocade is richer in texture and often uses several colors. Brocade designs look best on the top of the fabric surface. Because of this, brocade fabric is often used for opulent dressy garments such as ecclesiastical robes and evening wear. Brocade is only rarely reversible with most designs looking best on the top face.

If you are familiar with the company Brocade and have seen their stunning catalogs, you will know that both damask and brocade patterns are being reproduced in many types of decorative accessories and furniture as well as fabric. Lately I've seen these patterns on items in local shops also, some still have the traditional look, others have a modern twist giving an almost contemporary appearance.

Above and below, plates and storage boxes from Brocade.

Pretty covered notebooks...........
.........wallpaper with a classic damask design from Brocade.
Delicate jacquard damask patterned waste basket from Brocade.Below, linen fabric lampshades with a more modern look seen in a local shop.

Strongly patterned black and white storage boxes seen in Homegoods this week.
Brocade's outdoor furniture with damask patterned water resistant upholstery....very pretty.

Don't forget...............one can never have too much fabric.

Pink Saturday at SuzAnna's Antiques

Pink Saturday post - cute pink things spied while treasure hunting in the last few weeks at SuzAnna's Antiques here in town. Those great gals not only do pink, they have green, yellow, blue and every other color in the Pantone Color Guide.

Pink junk - cute junk!
...........and this is my favorite. No, not the pink chair even though it's cute, the BUGS sign which I definitely would put in my garden if it would ensure death to all mosquitoes........................before they bite!

Note: Other bugs I can handle, and some I even love because they are good for the garden, but mosquitoes have no redeeming value and they ALL love me!

Best wishes for your weekend - hope it's a super one.

Don't forget to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound to view the list of all today's Pink Saturday participants - lots of fun people to visit.

Friday's Favorite Family Foto

Favorite? Yes. Treasured? Most definitely. This is the family photo I would strive to save in a fire or flood ~ it is the documented piece of my English heritage closest to my heart.

London, England ~ c. 1915

This amazing lady is my maternal grandmother, Olive Elizabeth, b. 1886 in London. Within a space of four years, following her marriage to my grandfather George, she bore five children! The eldest daughter, my beautiful Auntie Madge is on the left with the double hair bows, Next the twins, my dear mother Gladys on the right with her brother Edward. Then a second set of twins, the girls being held by grandma, Auntie May on the left, and Auntie Edith, the last one to die just a couple of months ago, aged 94.

Edited: Deborah's busy schedule will prevent her from actually hosting FFFF this week but she says to post anyway if you want....................as mine is ready to go, here it is!

Using Unusual Urns

My dear friend Vanessa at Vanilla Lavender wants to see your urns!

You don't have urns? Please don't say that because you'll make me feel strange, peculiar, the odd one out! On taking inventory of my urns I was certainly surprised to find I had so many. I already knew there were a few dotted around....................actually several. I LOVE urns of every description and have been gathering them for many years. Perhaps I was a Roman, maybe even an Etruscan, or some such urn using, urn loving being in another life.

If you've visited here before you'll remember I have a heavy iron urn at the cottage door, above. It held fresh and lovely hydrangeas for the recent Spring garden tour hosted by Cielo at The House in the Roses.
Below you can see a very large urn holding a conifer - this is the molded resin version now very popular as they are easy to move around and quite affordable. There's no way I could ever afford one this size made of iron!

This is probably my favorite - very old iron, has even been repaired to reattach both handles, these may not even be the original handles to this urn. I move this one around - last Summer is was on the front porch holding seashells. ...........then it moved to the French style guest room after the makeover in February.......................and now it's in the living room holding some lovely vintage balls of cotton and bits of lace for the Summer.


The resin urn below is now in the guest room on the small chest. It spent the Winter in our master bedroom because it's a true blue-grey shade and matched the wall paint. More cotton lace and vintage thread, a grapevine ball, and note the lovely doily crocheted by my cousin Sue in England.



This is a matching pair of very old heavy iron urns at each corner of my pine armoire. They are slightly rusted and the coloration is lovely with the honey shade of the wood. The Italian ceramic urn on the shelf is part of my collection of Tuscan dishes and serving pieces.


On my mantel there are small matching stone urns at each end. Recently I stripped the topiaries of their faux ivy ~ I like this iron look better.

These two concrete urns are a little more contemporary. I like their huge iron rings. The French Jardin china pot on the lower shelf even looks a bit like an urn too.

This tall urn, also made of concrete, has four interesting lion heads. It stands on the dining room table holding woven or grapevine balls, and at Christmas I like to jazz it up with sparkly glass ornaments, garlands etc.


Last, but by no means least, I love this stone urn on my kitchen island. Probably the most useful of my urns, it holds my wooden cooking implements, spoons, rolling pin etc.

I'm sure there are a few more urns hiding out in the garden - but these are my special ones. Vanessa wants ideas about what to put in her urns so hope you will share yours.

Now just don't ask me about soup tureens!!!

Best When Fresh

Early morning in the garden, the humidity wraps one in a damp blanket on opening the door and stepping out into a green world. Up early, I drifted past the large flower pots along the front path, an early rising bee was busy at the Lantana.

In the side garden, and raised bed, the vegetables are struggling, not unusual here in the hot and humid Summer weather of the Southeast. I picked a fistful of perfect haricots verts dangling from the bamboo tepees...............spied some delicate yellow squash needing a few more days of sunshine before harvesting..............firm green tomatoes are expanding their waistlines as they call out for more water..............and, best of all right now, the heat loving herbs are growing rapidly both in pots and beds.

My first picked bunch of Napolitano Mammoth-Leafed Basil.

"Napolitano has absolutely huge, light green, crinkled, savoyed leaves. Richly flavored, these mammoth leaves are perfect for serious pesto makers - height 24 inches".

That's me, a "serious" pesto maker! Off to stock up on Extra Virgin Olive Oil, pine nuts and walnuts.

Dreaming in Damask

For many years, before being permanently attached to a digital camera, I was taken prisoner by a sewing machine! How could the daughter of a seamstress to Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, not have genes passed along which made fabrics and thread more important than tea and crumpets!

One of my great loves has always been beautiful patterned, textured damask fabric. I was always seeking out a yard or two to turn into a pillow, table cover or curtain, and quite often to cover the lampshades I made. I may be a cottage gal but I guess my decorating style is somewhat eclectic. I enjoy mixing different styles and textures and believe one should live with what one loves. I'd like to share a little history of this truly romantic woven fabric.

A pile of damask patterned fabric remnants I've used over the years ~ on my damask upholstered chair that sits at the top of the staircase.

In the Middle Ages, handwoven linen in original damask patterns was imported from Damascus, Syria, thus the name Damask. Jacquard weave, was named after French inventor, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, who invented the loom attachment in 1801, allowing patterned fabrics such as damask and brocade to be produced much more efficiently.

Damask is a textile that combines warp-faced and weft-faced twill or satin sections and is always reversible. Traditional damask has always been white-on-white. Prior to the 19th century, damask was the only linen fabric used in the dining rooms of the elite. After the 1920's it became more affordable. Colored damask was used in the late 19th century, but only for informal luncheons.

Damask linens with figures are unique and very collectible. Floral designs are the most common and easily obtained. The finest damask was produced in Ireland, Italy and France and it was the linen of royalty. Today mass-produced damask fabrics of other blends are readily available and, although not precious like the antique linens, can still be beautiful when used for many home decorating projects.

My sofa is upholstered in a cream traditional patterned damask used on the reverse side. I prefer this as it's a more matte finish and looks less formal. I purchased extra fabric and made large cord edged pillows, reversed to the right side which adds a little more texture and interest.

Above and below are lampshades I've made using two silk damask fabrics. Large shade above on my old somewhat funky lamp base ~ picked up at a consignment shop years ago ~ and the small shades on the dining room chandelier below, are an embossed type of damask which was actually a wedding gown fabric. The other lamp below is dressed with a beautiful tissue weight silk damask, again purchased in the bridal fabrics.

Dining Room chandelier decorated with a silk and crystal garland.

Next time, a new take on damask and brocade.