It's Confession Time..........THURSDAY FLOWERS

THURSDAY FLOWERS

I have a confession to make!

I broke every rule in the florist handbook today !

It all began with a boring trip to the grocery store to buy laundry detergent

As I lined up to pay I noticed buckets of fresh flowers at the end of the checkout.

Rule no. 1

Do not buy fresh flowers from grocery stores. They are often kept near the fruit and veg section, have been affected by gases which give flowers are very short life span. Also quite often the flowers do not have fresh water each day and in some cases have been sitting there for days and who knows how old they are.

Rule Broken........

For the bargain price of $5 I tucked a bunch into my basket and handed over the cash.......oops ! (sorry teacher !)

Rule no. 2

On buying cut flowers one must travel home and pop straight into water to prevent flower stress.........

Rule Broken........

3 hours later after picking children up from various sports and visiting a friend, roses still sitting on floor of car waiting for a drink. (sorry teacher !)

My confession gets worse.....

I popped in to visit my lovely friend Michelle at Shabby Sheilas.

She asked how my birthday was and what gifts did I receive.

I had visited her store the week before to buy a friend a birthday gift. I had bought her this gorgeous French room spray.  It was all gift wrapped beautifully with the other goodies I bought for her but I was curious to smell the room spray.

Very carefully I opened the wrapped gift, slid out the bottle and took a sniff..........mmmmmmm

I liked it so much that I kept it for myself.

(sorry friend !)

On returning home from mornings activities I fed the 'starving' children and begin to prepare for a visiting guest that would be arriving soon.

I had a filthy, dirty, muddy little boy straight from the sports field who had walked mud through the bathroom. Cleanup required.

roses still sitting on kitchen bench

(oops !........"I will be with you soon roses !"

20 minutes later I chose a vase and went to cut the stems of my roses so that they could rehydrate. As I pulled the secateurs out my guest arrived. Roses quickly stuffed (very unlovingly) into a vase (stems uncut, but at least they were in water !)

poor little babies !

2 hours later the roses were cut, lovingly arranged into a vase and were looking decidedly perkier than the few hours before.

This evening my 2 new found purchases are giving me much pleasure.

The roses are sitting in a simple white jug on our dining room table.

The room spray is being lavishly sprayed around and smells divine.

but...

My friend will never know the sweet smell of this gorgeous spray and with a bit of luck my Floristry lecturer will never know I have been shopping for flowers at the supermarket and mistreating them..........oops !

It will be very interesting to see how long these poor little roses live for after travelling around thirsty for much of the morning on the floor of my car.

But aren't they just such a pretty colour ?

and lets be honest, you simply cannot buy roses in the middle of Winter for $5.......bargain !

and I thought I would share with you all this amazing book  I received for my birthday. It is 'Vintage Flowers' by Vic Brotherson.

If you love vintage style floral arrangements and vintage vases and displays then you will adore this book as much as I do.

 

My copy came from Shabby Sheilas

See you all tomorrow

Melanie

x

Vintage Children's Books

When I was a little girl,

if there was a book in sight, then I was very far away from it.

I looooved a good book !

Still do too !

In the early years it was Golden Books that caught my eye.

I remember begging my Mother to buy me a new one each week when she would go grocery shopping.

I remember being so young, in fact I think possibly 3 years old and reaching up into the tall wire rotating stand of Golden Books at the supermarket trying to pull down a copy of 'The Little Billy Goats Gruff'.

Lucky for me that day, my Mother agreed or I imagine there would have been a flood way of tears down my little cheeks.

Books of nursery rhymes, pop-up books and picture books also took my fancy.

I remember sitting on the floor of my little pink bedroom with the flouncy white curtains and white blinds that I 'accidently' pulled the tassells off, reading my Mother's childhood books.

There was something fascinating about the names of the children in the books. Mary, Susie, Peaches and Candy became  my 'lets pretend' names when I would play role and recreate these wonderful stories.

Fairies and all things magical filled my mind with wonder and I wished for magical carpets to come and sail by my window and take me on mystical journeys.

Years later I discovered Secret Seven books.

Tales of secret passwords and cubby houses took me to another world. A place where 10 year old children saved the day and caught the baddies !

and then came my very favourite of them all.

(Yes Mum....I am going to make you laugh)

Nancy Drew !

Nancy Drew and her friends George and Bess captivated my mind.

I became obsessed with reading every single book that I could get my hands on.

Every mystery that Nancy embarked on had me secretly reading under the covers long after bed time.

A small torch safely hidden under my bed saw me enjoying these wonderful stories while the rest of the house slept.

Every now and again I find a

'Nancy' in my travels and I always snap it up and have a read.

The stories are not violent. There is no swearing in these books, there is hardly any hardly any violence, the fashions are very outdated and the grammer is seemingly ancient, but there is something clean, honest and entertaining about these lovely books.

Enid Blyton was another favourite.

Amelia Jane was always naughty,

Wishing trees had me floating off into magical lands

and fairies had tea parties under spotty red mushrooms.

Oh to be a child again !

BLISS

I hope that you have enjoyed my little trip down memory lane this week with my 'Children's Week Special'.

I have enjoyed bringing you all these lovely treasured memories and beautiful vintage goodies.

I would like to thank Ambleside Cottage in Islington, NSW Australia for allowing me to photograph her gorgeous antique store.

(I have a lot more to show you from her lovely abode)

I wish you all a beautiful weekend.

I am in search for blue skies and all things pink and blue !

Melanie

x

Things To Do At A Marie Antoinette Tea Party

When the teapot is empty and the last slice of cake has been eaten.......

It is time for the fun to begin at a Marie Antoinette style tea party !

Marie Antoinette was quite the party girl but our little tea party was on the quieter side. We pulled out our pretty vintage deck of cards and played a hand or two !

When the last card had been dealt, I cleaned up a little and decided to read my Mary Antoinette novel.....

It was a very relaxing morning !

                           
                        Now for a quiet read of my book..........

Do you like my pretty necklace that I wore to our tea party ?

It is a hand crafted piece that I wore a long time ago when I was asked to be bridesmaid at a friends wedding. It has been tucked away in a safe place for many years but I think I may start wearing it again.

It looks very Mary Antoinette don't you think ?

Well what a big week it has been.

This little 'Marie' is in desperate need of a cup of tea and a sit down.

I am on holidays from my Floristry course for a couple of weeks so THURSDAY FLOWERS hasn't run this week.

I am sure everyone has enjoyed a week of other pretties though and didn't really mind even a little bit !

I hope so much that you all have beautiful weekends with your loved ones and are doing lots of fun things.

I have plans to do lots of sewing and creating.

I have decided to have a market day here at home leading up to Mothers Day to sell my wares.

I have lots of pretty things to make and I am feeling positively charged with creation and motivation to begin.

There will be no time for any antiquing this weekend I'm afraid, but I will be sewing up a storm with lots of antique French Lace.....Pretty !

So without further ado !

Enjoy and stay safe !

Melanie

xo

Books I Am Reading

Today I am going to curl up somewhere warm in the sun and enjoy these books.

I will look forward to discovering new "Tea" recipes

I will enjoy reading "Keepsakes". It is such a great book. It is  a scrapbook of treasured recipes and momentos and pretty things found along the way. It is eye candy and also entertaining.

AND although I won't be cleaning this weekend because I need a break, I will be reading on new tips to clean the good old fashioned way with "Completely Spotless"

Spring Cleaning The Natural Way

Spring Cleaning Special

Today was  beautiful and sunny so I made the most of it and pulled out my antique Marcella quilts and lace doilies and washed them in the tub. I love to wash antique linens as gently as possible to increase their lifespan. Some soakers on the market can be particularly harsh on these precious pieces. I prefer soap and water.

Washing Linens and Delicates
Soap flakes
lemon juice
warm water
sunshine
essential oil of lavender

Dissolve soap flakes in small amount of warm water. I mix mine up in an old bottle. Once dissolved I add to wash tub full of warm water and place linens in.
Gently handwash your desired article in the soapy water.
If the article is not heavily soiled or just needed a freshen up I often get 2 articles washed in the same water.
Then let water out and rinse in more warm water. I like to add a few drops of essential oil of lavender to my rinse water. It gives a fresh, sweet fragrance and also repels pesky silverfish.
I then gently wring out by hand or for my bigger quilts, I spin on a gentle cycle in my washing machine.  Then hang in the sunshine and let nature take care of the rest. The sun's rays will bleach away stains and leave that beautiful sun kissed feel to your linen.

Mildew Stains on White Linens
Over Winter, mould can creep in to the cleanest of linen cupboards.
I have had some success in the past squeezing fresh lemon juice onto the affected area of the linen. I leave for a few minutes in the sun and then add more lemon juice and gently rub salt onto the mouldy area.
Leave in a sunny position and gently rinse a couple of hours later.
I would only use this method however on white cotton linens.

When my first baby came along I used cloth nappies (diapers).
I used to use soap flakes to wash  and sunshine to dry and very rarely did I ever have a stain to contend with.

"Completely Spotless" by Shannon Lush and Jennifer Flemming  is my bible.

I I keep it handy in my kitchen so it is always close at hand. It is full of lots of wonderful home hints with ingredients that are usually found in your kitchen cupboard.

Bicarb soda, white vinegar, borax, salt....the list goes on.

No need to clutter your cleaning cupboard with expensive cleaning products. Our forefathers used common ingredients to clean for centuries before modern day products came along.

I have a bit of a fetish for vintage and antique pegs.  They are beautifully time worn and last forever. Not one single trace of plastic or metal hinges. Simple design and they don't need to be replaced constantly.  They can be found quite cheaply in antique stores.