Spring time gardening

Spring is finally here and it's time to start thinking about getting out into the garden!  It's been a long winter and I can't wait for some bright sunny days so I can go out and potter in the garden.  I'm definitely more of a 'potterer' than a gardener..... I don't ever have a grand plan for the garden, but just let it change and evolve depending on plants I buy, plants that die and random pots or containers I find that I think will make cute planters.

So, Spring got me thinking about one of my favourite garden books 'Planted Junk - Gardening with recycled containers' by Adam Caplin.    It's a fabulous book aimed at inspiring the use of found objects and unexpected containers for garden planting.

The book is full of great ideas for finding different objects to use as garden containers and practical advise on matching suitable plants for certain pots - but best of all it's getting people to think creatively about recycling.  Finding planters for the garden doesn't have to be expensive - scour your local tip shop, second-hand shop and hard-rubbish day and put some throw-away items to good use!

It's a lovely book to flick through and inspire your next gardening project.

I love the use of brightly coloured cardboard boxes, woven bags - and even soy milk containers!

The San Pellegrino drink cans are ideal for smaller plants, and I just LOVE the use of retro patterened enamel, ceramic and tin cannisters.  Very cute!

Used tomato tins and even old childrens toys have been transformed into colourful garden accessories

I've blogged about my little garden before here and how I love to plant with unusual containers.  Above I've planted succulents and aloe plants into old teapots, and I also found some terracotta pipes at a salvage yard which I've used to plant two differett types of succulents.    

I'm always on the look out for old kitchen-related pots to use for planting, last year I found some tin teapots and a fab yellow saucepan!

Following on with the kitchen theme I've used old metal saucepans and a colander - and I've even got some plants housed in woks and steamers in a different part of the garden!

Planted Junk is available on-line here:

Painting my second-hand crockery

A while ago I started to paint some of my collection of found second-hand  vintage and retro crockery.  It's taken a while and I've not painted everything (far too many things to paint all of them!) but I've made a start at least.

I'd love to do something with the illustrations and maybe create some designs featuring the artwork - but for now it's just been fun to get the coffee pots, cups and plates out and paint some of the beautiful colours and patterns featured on the old pieces.

I thought I'd share some of the painting in progress and some of the finished artwork.....

All the illustrations were painted in watercolours; I only ever use Winsor & Newton watercolour paints (the tubes) and I personally prefer painting onto a 'cold-pressed' watercolour paper which has a textured surface, rather than painting onto a smooth 'hot-pressed paper'.  I used Arches medium 300gsm 100% cotton paper.

There is some good information about different watercolour papers on the Winsor & Newton website here: 

I always start by quickly sketching the object, and putting in some rough detail.  I then start to paint by building up layers of 'washes' of colour to get the basic outline, shape and shadows of the object.  When I'm happy with the overall body and shape of the mug or plate for example,  I'll move on to concentrate on the actual pattern.  Depending on whether I want a detailed or washy effect will depend on whether I allow the paint to dry, or work wet-on-wet.  If I allow the paint to dry in-between layers I can build up more detail, whereas wet-on-wet will give a more washy and free-flowing finished effect with less detail.      

Indigo Junction and Retro wallpaper

It's been a few weeks since I last managed a blog post as I've been busy, busy, busy with freelance work..... however, I managed to find time to spend some of my hard-earned income on some fabulous retro wallpaper from Indigo Junction!

Indigo Juntion is in East Brunswick in Melbourne and they specialise in vintage and retro furniture and collectibles.  Some of the items can be pretty pricey - but they select great pieces which are always in very good condition.  I made the fatal mistake of wandering in the other week whilst I was waiting to cross the road - and came out with two rolls of original french retro-styled wallpaper!!

I already had a couple of rolls of quite 'out there' retro wallpaper, so thought I'd add to my small collection and bought a roll of cute floral and a classic geo design.  The designs are great as sources of inspiration - and one day I hope to use them as intended and actually be brave enough to put them on a wall somewhere....

Treasured op-shop finds

I'm back working in-house for a few weeks for the textile company I design for, and it's great to visit some op-shops during my lunch break that I don't normally get the chance to visit!  I often go with a view to check out some of the clothing racks......but I'm always so easily distracted by the ceramics and homeware items.  How can one resist such  fabulous colours and patterns?!.....

I love it when I unexpectedly buy in colours - first came the retro orange bread-bin, and then the matching set of orange floral Staffordshire Potteries cups and saucers (on the left) and then the Ridgway 'Harvest Gold' yellow and orange floral cups and saucers. 

The vintage red rose floral plate didn't really fit in with the orange retro theme - but was just too lovely to leave on the dusty shelf.  I also found this old linen tea-towel showing off the 'birds of Fiji' and there was something quite appealing about this too!

My first original Angie Lewin print!

It's no secret that I'm a BIG fan of Angie Lewin's prints, and for my birthday a few months ago I received my first ever original Angie Lewin print. 

It was a very big surprise, and the print made the journey all the way from Norfolk, England safely to my living room in Melbourne, Australia!   I finally got it back from being framed and is now proudly hanging on the limited wall space we have (most of my walls are full of my father's wonderful watercolour paintings!) 

The limited edition lino print is called 'Spey Seedheads' and I have the Artists Proof version - an artists proof being the first few prints taken prior to the regular, published edition of the print.  A big thank you to my lovely partner Mr B for such a beautiful and thoughtful gift..... although you've set yourself a pretty high standard to follow now!

New kitchen!

It's been a little quiet here as we've been going through some major kitchen renovations for the past few weeks.... we had to remove all the old kitchen units and get everything out of the kitchen ready for the new floor that had to be laid before we could even start installing the kitchen, so it's been a bit of an epic transformation. 

For several weeks we had no oven and no kitchen - so we were cooking on a single burner camping stove and washing up in the bathroom sink! If that wasn't bad enough our old water boiler then decided to pack up - so we had no water for a few days and no hot water for a week! Seriously bad timing!! Lots of boiling water on the camping stove to wash and make endless cups of tea to get us through.

So, this is the original kitchen - seen here from a few years ago prior to the re-stumping and chaos that followed!.....

.....then everything removed from the kitchen and the new floor and tiles being laid......

..... then here we are constructing the new kitchen units under the watchful presence of Jolly!

And finally the finished result!!  We're so pleased with what we've acheived and with the exception of the floor and the tiling we did it all ourselves!  The mess and hassle has been well worth it - and it's great to finally have a spacious and organised kitchen at last.

The only trouble is this means no more excuses and it's time to get cooking!......

Kitchen details

A few weeks ago I posted about my trip to the fabulous Mill Markets at Dayelsford (see post here). Whilst I was there I spotted this old shelf unit - and I just knew it would be prefect in my kitchen!

It was actually sold as a hanging shelf and was originally the other way up - however I removed the hooks and turned it around the other way so it now sits on top of my kitchen bench!  I love having patterned things on display rather than hidden behind cupboard doors, so this is perfect to display some of my favourite kitchen items as well as being very functional. 

I also found a use for the glass jug I bought at the market too - it's a perfect vessel for housing wooden spoons!