gifts from fairies.....

Sometimes, when a day has been really rotten, the kind of rotten that makes you want to cry and stamp your feet and perhaps just give up a little, something magical happens, something that makes giving up seem all of a sudden a most unappealing option. For who can give up while they still believe in fairies? And who but a fairy, someone with the most magical of touches, would know that it was today of all days, this week of all the weeks, that you needed a little something to lift your spirits, warm your heart and make you believe again?

Last week, after a day (or was it several?) of things that made me want to scream (some of which might actually have made me scream) a box arrived. And in it was a bunny. And my heart nearly exploded with warmth and amazement and surprise and joy. Because it wasn't my birthday, I hadn't done anything particularly kind or clever or deserving of a bunny, it was a bunny just because. And how often does someone send you a bunny just because? Hardly ever, that's how often. And how often does someone send you a bunny just because on a day that you really really need a bunny just because? A day that the knowledge that people send bunnies just because will pick you up and dust you off and make you smile and forget all about foot stomping and screaming and giving up? Almost never.

Photos by me, bunny by Little Love Blue, magic by Meg.

How do they know?

How do they know?

How do they always know just what I need, just what needs to fall through the letter box?

How do they know that when life is woe and days are grey blue shoes and pink walls and yellow flowers will make it all better, even if just for a few moments?

All images courtesy of Toast

I like little things....

Dearest lovelies, this week I listed some tiny prints in the shop.

Little, diddy, wee, small, diminutive, petite, teeny tiny pictures.

Pick any four (I know that the photo shows three. The Boy says that's confusing. I say that my readers and customers are quite clever enough to figure it out) to have printed at an itsy bitsy three inches tall.

Do with them what you will - peg them to a string, hang them from a ribbon, decorate a tiny space, buy a bijou frame. Put one in an envelope and post it to someone special, pin them to a notice board, buy lots and use them to play snap. The possibilities are mind boggling and any ideas you might have (nice ideas please. thank you) would be most welcome in the comments!

Diana

I want one. Although it looks more like a pink lady than a Mr Pink to me.







Image via lomography

A little Danish teacup...

My darling mummy bought me a subscription to Country Living magazine for my birthday. Now I'm an old married lady I'm allowed to ask for subscriptions to old lady magazines about chickens and goats and which variety of acer is most resistant to greenfly. Magazines with chutney recipes and competitions for most inventive use of empty jam jars. Magazines where the only clothes are handmade from home grown goat hair, woven by Cornish virgins on the banks of a river at twilight. Or something like that.

What I really love it for is the homes though, the beautiful homes of creative and clever types that are light and airy with gardens filled with roses and studios filled with crisp northern sunlight and furniture scavenged from French flea markets. Kitchens filled with flowers and antique linen, decorated with real art, usually made by the owner. Not an ikea print of Tree Lined European Boulevard or Poppies At Sunset to be seen.

Last month in a feature about women who live and work in one space I fell completely and utterly fell in love with the home and studio of Danish ceramic artist Jette Arendal Winthe. Again, like the Selby house I wrote about earlier this week the walls and floors are the palest neutrals and every single thing from the kitchen cabinets to the bathroom rug is fascinating and beautiful and filled with colour and life. I'd like to

The same sort of passion for colour, for vibrancy and for vintage romance shines out of Jette's ceramics, which I must admit are what first caught my eye in the article ('a flowery tea cup you say? Why I simply must have it. Now.' )

I'd like to live here, and drink from flowery teacups. It would be a quiet yet vibrant life, filled with creativity and travels and a dog in a basket.

Aside from the first picture, all images of the ceramics are courtesy of Jette Arendal Winther.
Other images by Marie Rosenkrantz Gjedsted and are via Country Living Magazine.

Fairies in the garden....

“There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?”

Wise words from dear Meg, who sent me a little email to say that this wedding was a little bit for me as she knew I would love it so.

If any photographs can make you believe there are fairies at the bottom of the garden it is Heather's. And if anyone can make you believe that fairies might just exist with their loveliness and kindness and ability to know just what to send you in the post to make you feel like just the luckiest, most touched by magic girl in the world it is Meg. A fairy disguised as a one woman powerhouse (evidence to be presented at a later date your Honour. Once the puter has been fixed.)

Gorgeous gorgeous photos by Heather of One Love Photo.