Kindly Currant Buns & a Fairy Bedcover

Every leaf will unfurl, every flower bask in it's own glory,

for a day or a week...

in celebration of the sun & the coursing of life returning..

in it's veins.

Fragrance, elegance, grace.

Spring.

Caught up, as I am in such loveliness of season I quite forgot to mention to you about Happy.

Happy Harris of Happy Loves Rosie international acclaim!

So when I came across this little ad in Happy's sidebar

I paused for just a moment & then...

I thought, why not?!

It was Happy's own Vintage Caravan inspiration that sowed those first seeds of the tiniest wistful dream, that one day I would own a vintage caravan of my own.

 And the red, ooh the red..at first, I could not do!! But over time, the strangest change began to happen & as I grew & as my soul began to heal the red came in to focus & Lucy came along to help me live in my Pollyanna place of... I can be happy too. I have been told off many times by those who do not understand, told to stop looking for the rainbows & the miracles, but you know what...I NEVER ever will & they can't make me!! 

The Lucy interview with Happy can be found just here, if you haven't seen it or for the slightly extended version : The Lucy page.

A small kindred spirit came along to play at Aunty Catherine's again today (yes there were boys but they were mowing lawns & playing with remote controlled cars & lego).

She instantly spotted the little vintage iron that I had found at the market a while back. The wooden ironing board is still in the roof awaiting a new cover so we improvised, while listening to little vinyl records. I am most impressed, in Nina's magic hands the little iron both cleans & presses!

 This is Carrot the giraffe, he loves peanut butter.

I know it sounds very weird, but as it turns out, this banana chocolate icecream is really very good.

Everybody agreed...you can find the super simple, healthy recipe here in the kitchen blog.

I often mention how I have bought & sold various items on our own Trade Me auction site, well I have been reflecting lately that Trade Me is so often very much more than a commercial transaction. What I mean is this, several years ago I listed an utterly adorable fairy duvet cover (no wee girls on the horizon then), the cover was sold locally & a lovely lady came to my door to pay & pick it up.
The lady was a Nanna & had bought the fairy cover for her 3 year old granddaughter who had lost her mother the previous year. The wee girl & her brother (who had a heart condition & a pacemaker at 5) were now living with their grandparents & everyone was still very sad. I knew I had some fairy wings tucked away which I gave the Nanna too...& then she told me that the two of them were now off to the cemetery together to visit "Mummy" & show her the lovely new things.
Ooh I wept when she left. We never know who we just might touch, even bring a little comfort to... through beauty.
The duvet was covered in fairies, roses & butterflies!

So when I found this book yesterday for 30 cents

I was delighted to find it was full of kindness & thoughtfulness

(Emma Jane got to hold the new baby bunny)

She made currant buns to share with Teddy & all the forest friends.

As it turns out the pixies were in a bit of strife as their cardboard box home was all sodden & leaky from the rain. Toasted currant buns cheered everyone up no end!

A new suitable house was then sort out & Fairy Rosebud called upon for her assistance,

& of course there's always a fishing frog..

who just happened to hook a red kettle.
(look at those wee wings!)

A little fairy wand waving to give the kettle a few homely touches & the pixies were over the moon!
A happy dance is definitely in order.

No currant buns here, but these tasty lemon balls are very delicious.

 You can find the recipe just here.

So this week, I wasn't overly surprised upon buying a pretty yellow orchid off Trade Me, to find that I was in fact trading with my dear neighbour just across the road!

 I love this spot of blue ajuga in our spring garden.

Thank you so very much for visiting.

I hope your week is one filled with colour & kindness & a currant bun or two.

 ♥♥♥♥♥

Rusty Knobs & The Big Book of Little

Hello dear friends!

Living in the Land of the Garden Fairy as I do, I am rather firmly of the mind that the Little Ones should not suffer, be thoroughly & robustly loved & that Little can indeed triumph over Big, so, when I came across The Big Book of Little with a Margaret Tarrant picture on the front cover I was quite sure that I would like this book...and I do, very much! 

"The garden of beloved children's stories is full of small characters: the Little Mermaid, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, the Little Engine That Could. That's not only because children themselves are small. Audiences old and young, for generation upon generation, have cheered the triumph of the little over the big. Here, then, is a collection of tales that delights in everything small...these classic stories will enchant & entertain, & remind us that sometimes it is the little that make all the difference"

So much lightness & joy!

 I also came across one of my other favourite things..vintage Sanderson fabric, this pattern came in the form of a bedspread via Trade Me & from the care of a lovely lady called Andrea. Thank you Andrea!

 This gentle spring Saturday morning we managed to get ourselves out of bed & off to an early morning small Church fair & at lunchtime a school Gala just down the road. There was little of the usual jostle & pushing, I think most people stayed home, glued to the Americas Cup yachting race.
I found some lovely things: this hand painted Art Silk tablecloth has clearly never been used & is so pretty.

 At St Mary's, trestle legs were being dragged out by the armful & instantly snapped up. They are exactly what I have had in mind to use with this old scavenged, lounging-in-someone's-garden door.

Out came the door, which was repaired just a little,

 various cloths draped & fiddled with,

 including the Spring Lilacs Sanderson. (Do pull down your skirt dear!)

 I found a vintage basket at each venue. They are so useful...& charming.

 The good old door is particularly large & doesn't fit as a replacement for the garage doorway.
I love it's chippy paint effect..

 the patina of age & history

 & the lovely rusty doorknob & key hole.

It was most handy indeed that I spied an old forlorn wheelbarrow at the school. At first I was sure that someone else had already parked it over in the corner, but as I admired it this way & that no one came rushing to claim it so...I just wheeled it away!

 I think that I might plant geraniums in it...in the pots, for bright summer colour.

 The garden is rising in to spring..

I do love my faithful friend Herbert Stevens pink, grown from a cutting from my first garden mentor.

The simplicity of quince blossom is arresting.

 I've come to rather like these poppy's.

 But I am so utterly thrilled to have an abundance of bluebells in my garden for the first time.

 They are so English & sweetly scented & perfect happy day, sky blue.

Lucy loves them too.

 After all these years I have just discovered that this is called Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’, commonly known as honeywort (I did know about the honeywort bit). It is a relative of borage & it very much likes to grow in my garden. It is gently self seeding & is nicely contrasting to other foliage, with it's grey & indigo hues.

 But the best moment of my week (absolutely!!) was discovering that this pot of lily of the valley had survived through the year, & even better than that, it was flourishing...look at all those flower buds!!
I have come to the conclusion that if you cannot grow them in the garden that they like to be squished up together & planted in very deep pots.

 Nina came to meet Jane & tiny Violet

Someone has to be the runner around the circle while others fix the brick edgings.

I'm always alert to sweet innocence, rainbows, loveliness

(Look at the baby pixies being pushed up on to the mushroom & the little mite to the left sniffing the babies dummy!)

and I am continually drawn to opportunities to show & celebrate kindness.

I first "read" this story in one of my Chicken Soup books. It is one of the very, very best!

I bought these lovely roses on Etsy from Tattered Vintage recently, only they came with "friends", all on the one page. I persevered on Pixlr & finally learnt to "cut" out pictures (this time round anyway) What a triumph!

Much love to you all & thank you so much for popping in.

May you find much loveliness & kindness in your coming week.

♥♥♥♥♥