No bacon in my pan...

 

The glow of the afternoon sun is warm and wonderful...

With the last few days' "heat wave", the newly planted violets seek my attention 

with small gasps of thirst, and the watering can is always at the ready.

When the three bacon lovers in this family indulged their pork-yearning palates at 

Sunday morning breakfast, I filled my own pan with something - to me - much more palatable...

 ... idly ignoring the need for a proper scrub of both bench and patio... 

Instead I later sat back to enjoy the rays of sun reflected in the windows of the conservatory, 

casting a warm gleam on my little corner of violets, rust, pots and... spring!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Helena

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Shabby Chic Gardens 2012

A little shabby in your garden at this time of year won't go amiss. Here are some inspired ideas for your outside spaces...I am loving the hanging birdcages and the chandelier dining!

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Feeling blue...

... but in a good way!

(The images in this post look better if you click on them to view them against a black background.)

Having returned from Lacock with blue & white inspiration from the Tearooms, I rummaged through my cupboards to find my blue and white second hand shop finds (50 p - £ 1 per piece), to organise my own little tea party...

But... ehm... you can't blaim a girl for being slightly distracted by newly bought pansies and stunning sunshine, can you? And so it was that no tea was ever brewed, but pretty pansies projecting their petal pride from the small coffee cups. 

These particular cups were bought second hand by some friends in Sweden, because they knew these were identical to the ones my grandparents used to sip their three o'clock coffee from. Just looking at these little  cups and saucers brings back so many memories, and I can almost hear my grandfather quietly slurp the coffee whilst holding a sugar cube between his teeth, the way he always did...

The garden table (spray-painted to look old and rusty) was brought in to 

the conservatory and decorated with some ivy from the garden...

There is something about the white and blue that oozes summer vibes, don't you think?

And if I am not mistaken, that is where we are heading, slowly but surely!

...and then one thing led to another...

... and a blue & white cushion was born!

The perceptive reader might recognize the photo on the cushion as the third one in this blog post, although a mirror image of it due to the transfer process. I used Iron-On T-Shirt Transfer paper, which can be found in most stationery shops (I made lavender sachets in the same way here.), and some white linen fabric I had in the cupboard. A couple of straight seams and voilà, a summer-inspired cushion. The images are not perfect, perhaps because of the not entirely smooth linen fabric surface, but we can perhaps call it...ahem... "rustic"...?

Wishing all you of you, new readers and old, the loveliest of weeks, 

and thank you for stopping by!

Helena

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Layered  loveliness...

Snow drops are on their last breath on the road side, ready to move over and give way to other colourful spring-petalled cousins. A few days ago, with fingers itching for some floral play, I grabbed a handful of the snow drops, a couple of stems of Chrysanthemums from the flower shop, some ribbon, left-over linen fabric and burlap and there, ready to go, I set to work. Hearing my heart humming joyous spring tunes, I also decided it was time to air my latest DIY project, the wooden cake stand... 

I made this cake stand in the same way as the one I made with plates and a cup a year ago, but this time I used different sized "plates" of birch, covered the wired metal rod with strips of burlap/hemp, and topped it off with a left-over piece of the wooden branch from which I made napkin rings before Christmas.

The wholegrain strawberry yoghurt with grapes, served in small tea light holders from IKEA many years ago, was devoured just a moment after these photos were taken...

Funny that, how two hungry boys just having returned from school seemed a lot more interested in the edible props than stopping to admire mum's little decorating frenzy...

***

Magazine feature

For those of you who subscribe to Country Homes & Interiors, you may see a familiar face in the April issue that arrived today (due to arrive in UK stores on Thursday, March 8th). In April last year, photographer Brent Darby and journalist Hazel Dolan did a feature of our home. Both were such lovely people and very skilled at making me feel at ease, despite my being rather uncomfortable having to appear before rather than behind the camera. Below are two of the pages from the feature:

***

Thank you SO much for all your kind comments on my last blog post. Those of you enjoying old English stone houses, "watch this space" as there are more to appear here soon. I confess to lately having gone a little wild and crazy with my camera on my walks in the spring sun...

To those of  you who may have found your way here through the magazine feature, a warm welcome and thank you for stopping by!

All the best, 

Helena

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Colour cravings, anyone...?

Well, that makes two of us!

So, sticking my tongue out to the chilly wind, I today "recycled" a few tulips that were on their last legs, for a little colour therapy by the wall at the very back of our garden. In the wind, it was touch and go if the petals were going to stick to their day job long enough to let me play, and later, when I was carrying my "toys" indoors again, these pink princesses bowed one last time and then spread their glory all over the ground... 

I have lived in the UK for over six years now, but my affection for 

the old stone walls in this country has not subsided. 

Not. One. Little. Bit.

And as a true quality of play, the imagination is allowed to run wild...

So what if a small green cabbage was not meant for this... 

So what if it is perhaps rather more bizarre than beautiful...

Tickling the creativity for a brief but blissful moment, and aaaaah -

- my smile is instantly a little broader and more sparkling than it was a moment ago!

So, today's conclusions?

1. Allowing yourself to decorate in less than conventional ways can put a smile on your face - HEALTHY...

2. I have said it before and I will say it again: Playing with your food is a GOOD thing...

3. The wind did indeed play a February tune, but with a promise of the main act, 

The Spring Overture, being only moments away...HOPE

4. A purple shawl that in real life matched the tulips perfectly can indeed look very different 

in a photo...!  Hmmm, I think I will have to stick to the "so what"...here too!

 

Thank you so much for all your kind words and anniversary greetings after my last blog post!

A warm HELLO to my readers who have been here for a while, 

and a special HI THERE to all of you who visit The Swenglish Home for the first time. 

A WAVE and a WINK to my new followers, 

and a HELLO, HELLO, HELLO to all of you anonymous readers - I am happy to see you all here!

Wishing you all a great start to the new week,

Helena

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Dear Weather Gods...

Dear Weather Gods,

When I was talking about SPRING in my previous blog post,

this was not exactly what I had in mind...:

The snow that fell last week here in the south of England nearly put a stop to my work trip to Sweden, with a large number of flights cancelled from Heathrow last Sunday...

However, I made it both there and back, but I had only been back for a day, 

when again I woke up today to a world covered in a fluffy white blanket...

So, true to my conviction that one can lure spring out of its hiding place if one only tries hard enough, using floral bribes and bulb reminders of how spring is really done, I confess to having done a rather desperate raid of the garden centre shelves yesterday...

And what better box to fill with Muscari/grape hyacinths, than this lovely, 

numbered tin one, a gift from my dear blog friend, Lotta!?

So, there we are, all ready for spring... so feel free to take the cue from me, dear Weather Gods. 

Feel free to go wild and crazy with warm temperatures and colourful buds. 

We are ready, so bud away!

Thank you all for your lovely comments about my tulip play last time, 

and for visiting my blog despite the loooong wait between the posts! 

Wishing you a fabulous weekend. I know my weekend will be special, 

as I am expecting a very special visitor in the Swenglish Home...

All the best,

Helena

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