Merry Christmas one and all!

This will be my last post before Christmas so I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a fabulous New Year!  

Next year I am going to concentrate more on my blog and start writing again as I have missed it.  I have been having fun creating little scenes to photograph for Facebook but that means I have sadly neglected my blog so next year things will change.

Having photographed said scenes I thought I would share some of them here for you to enjoy too.  I am normally a bit of a bah humbug when it comes to Christmas and just about put a tree up .  This year though I've become a bit obsessed and started creating lots of little Christmas scenes all round our home.  Never mind that it now looks like Santa's grotto due to all the fake snow flying around at least it looks festive!

It all started when I bought a little snowy cottage from my friend Simone at Ayres & Grace.  She had handmade it and I loved it as soon as I saw it, I want to live there. It gave me the idea to create a wintery scene and it went from there, there was no stopping me after that!

She then made the snowman to accompany the cottage and I added the background, fake snow, robin and little street lamp.  After completing the cottage scene I then came up with the idea to create an ice rink on a frozen pond.  Considering I never make anything myself I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out.

Fake snow was involved again and I used a mixture of new and vintage accessories.  Doing these scenes has opened up a whole new world to me, Dolls House Miniatures.  Oh my goodness there is literally ANYTHING your heart desires!  I enjoyed doing these scenes so much that I have discovered you can actually take part in miniature workshops to learn how to create these scenes.  Guess what I'm going to be doing next year ;)

Then along came Father Christmas who was checking his postbox to see who had sent him a letter and whether they had been naughty or nice.

Christmas isn't complete without a production of Swan Lake.  Not sure where the reindeer appear in the original version of Swan Lake!

My Christmas angel.  He doesn't look too impressed with his new angel wings.

"A fairy is for life not just for Christmas especially when there's a cat involved" Faded RoseVintage 2013.  My beautiful Queen of the Fairies handmade again by Ayres & Grace.  Her name is Mildred and she is always with her faithful companion Tabby the cat.

My favourite one to create was this: 

 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse'

The idea came after I bought the beautiful fairy fireplace from Jane Chapman at Fairy Furniture.  I then added some dolls house miniatures, printed the wallpaper and flooring and asked Jane if she could create a bookcase to complete the scene.  She even made me a mini book of the Night before Christmas.  I love this scene as it allows you to believe that Father Christmas really does exist!


I am looking forward to sharing any new adventures with you in 2014 and I would like to say a HUGE, GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone that follows and supports my blog, it means a lot

On that note I will say

'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night' xxx

Afternoon Tea at Dennis Severs' house

Last Saturday was a real treat.  I had seen on Facebook that Bea's of Bloomsbury were hosting a pop up afternoon tea event at Dennis Severs' House and considering I had wanted to sample the cakes at Bea's and take a tour of Dennis Severs house it was a no brainer, it was booked literally within minutes of me seeing it!

For those that don't know Dennis Severs' House at No. 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields, London.......

......is the creation of Artist, Dennis Severs who used the house as his canvas to create a life as it may have been lived in the early 18th century.  Dennis himself lived in the house in much the same way as the inhabitants of the 1700s which meant that not only did his visitors get to enjoy this unique and extraordinary experience but he also got to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

The premise is that you interrupt the family of silk weavers named Jervis who whilst sometimes can be heard can never be seen, they are always just out of reach.  You know they've been there though by the things they leave behind, the smell of perfume in the room, the footsteps along the corridor, the low voices, the half eaten food, the half finished tasks.  When you enter a room, they have literally just left.

Normally the tour is conducted by candlelight and in total silence so you can experience a number of stimulations to your senses.  Dennis' goal was to 'provide his visitors with a rare moment in which to become as lost in another time as they appear to be in their own' (From Dennis Severs' website).  The house charts the times from the well heeled inhabitants of the 1700s to the grim existence of the attic dwellers in the 1900s.  There are 10 rooms in total and each are unique.  There is nothing to tell you about the rooms and who occupied them, you have to figure that out from the clues they've left behind.

As soon as we entered No. 18 I was overwhelmed.  It was quite unlike anything I had been to before and I actually felt a little tearful.  I had been very anxious about going to London and in a funny way I think this helped as I was so aware of my anxiety that I hadn't really thought much about the house and so had gone without much expectation.  This meant that my mind was completely blank from any preconceived ideas and I was able to have a clear head in which to absorb the sensations.  We were able to look round the house before our tea and we were also able to take photos which was a real honour as photographs aren't normally allowed.  There was only a small group so we were all able to go off and explore at our own pace and then choose a room to have tea.  The house is lit by candlelight and roaring fires so it takes a moment or two for your eyes to adjust.  We started off downstairs in one of the Georgian rooms which had been occupied by a well off gentleman.  I even managed to get Madge the cat in the photo although she was less than impressed!

We had tea in the Victorian mourning room.

Then we went to the Drawing room

Next it was the smoking room

Then the master bedroom.  What I wouldn't do to have a bedroom like this, absolutely beautiful.  The bed was unmade as though the lady of the house had just got up.

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

The Master bedroom

 TheParlour with a half eaten cream tea on the table.

The parlour

The parlour

The parlour

The parlour

The parlour

The Dickens room which happened to be my favourite with the falling down ceilings, torn curtains, threadbare furniture.

Dickens room

Dickens room

Dickens room

The upstairs attic room

Attic room

Attic room

Attic room

Attic room

And finally the kitchen in the basement

Kitchen

Kitchen

Our slot was for about 1.5 hrs and I think I sat and ate my tea for about half an hour.  I was literally itching to get up and explore the house again so I left Mark chatting to Theresa and Brian, the other couple in the lounge enjoying the tea and went off on my own.  I found the whole experience extremely moving and as I was going round the house I felt as though I was with the Ghost of Christmas Past and was listening in and watching the inhabitants of No.18.  The fact that there were people in some of the other rooms meant this was even more heightened as I could hear them but they couldn't see me as I snapped away.  It felt as though I was the invisible observer and No.18 was getting on with life without knowing I was there.  If I had been able to kick of my shoes and settle down there for the evening I would have done.  As soon as we stepped into the hallway I felt at home and as though we had shut the 21st century out.  I really didn't want to leave!

Make no mistake, this isn't a museum nor is it contrived or pretentious.  It is a truly wonderful experience which I heartily recommend for anyone who enjoys history.  You literally feel as though you have stepped back in time and that feeling stays with you for a long while after.

p.s I should just add that the tea was delicious from Bea's but I was so enthralled by the house that I haven't really mentioned it but it was delicious and the attention to detail perfect. 

Vintage by nina book review

I have had the heading Vintage Book Review on my blog for quite a while now so I decided it was about time that I actually wrote one.  I bought this book a couple of months ago but first heard about it last year on Facebook.  I put it in my Amazon wish list and waited.  Waited for it to come down in price and for the English version to become available.  Neither of those things happened so I could resist no longer and had to buy it.  As you may have realised by the title of my blog, the book is called Vintage by nina and is written by the Danish interior stylist and antiques dealer, Nina Hartmann.

 Nina collaborated with Swedish Photographer Maria Isabel Hansson and it is a seamless partnership.  Maria appears to understand Nina's visions and the results are electric.

Vintage by nina

So first things first, do you want the good or bad news?  Well I'll get the bad news out the way first.  The bad news is, this book is not in English.  The good news is, who cares!  They say a picture is worth a thousand words and boy do these photos speak a thousand words in any language.

Vintage by nina - angel wings

There are angel wings

Vintage by nina -pierrot

Pierrot dolls

Vintage by nina

Vintage by nina - fabric boxes

Fabrics and fabric boxes

Vintage by nina - globe de mariee

Globes de Mariee

Vintage by nina - mannequins

Old mannequins

Vintage by nina - corsets

Old corsets

Vintage by nina - ballet dresses

 Beautiful frothy ballet dresses.

When the book came through the door I eagerly unwrapped it and instantly fell in love.  The photos above are just a very small portion of what the book offers but it takes you through every room in the house and all the items are 100% vintage and antique.  All the items were sourced from flea markets around Europe and I seriously need to find out where they are.  Nina has an amazing eye for detail and you can understand why she is one of the most celebrated stylists in Scandinavia.  You can find her vintage and antique items on her website, vintagebynina.com and she has also has a showroom in Stolkholm.

The thing I love about this book is the fact that you can tell all the items are genuine antique or vintage.  They aren't vintage or antique style but the real thing and for me I can feel that in every page.  You can feel the history of the objects coming through the pages and somehow they feel tactile as though you can imagine how they would feel and smell.  That I suppose is the magic of Maria's photography, bringing every item alive and allowing you to live vicariously through the pages.  I do have a lot of interiors books but for me this book stands alone and is in a league of its own.  Who cares it isn't in English.  It allows you to use your imagination and for that words aren't necessary.  Goddamit she even makes chopping boards interesting!

Vintage by nina

I found this book to be incredibly inspiring and I could feel the fire in my belly telling me to get out there and find as many wonderful, unusual and beautiful objet d'art as possible.  We can't all have the vision that Nina has but we have our own creativity and its important to nurture it any way you can and for me that means staying true to what I love and not what other people tell me is fashionable or the right look. Reading books like this should inspire us to create our own style in a way that celebrates our personalities.

Vintage by nina

If you are desperate to read it in English then I suggest you make friends with Google Translate!  Failing that why don't you pop over to Eliza Interiors and Design as she was the only person over here that I could find with any copies for sale in the English version.  I'm not sure she still has any but may be worth an email.  I decided to stick to this version as the English one was double the price and to be honest the photographs were what I wanted to see (there was even a photo of a cat, can this woman do no wrong!)

Vintage by nina

This book is beautiful and deserves to be read when you know you have time without interruptions, when you can sit in peace and quiet and absorb the wonderful photography.  You owe it to yourself to put your phone on silent, put your feet up and relax in the surroundings of Nina's Vintage.

I should make it clear that all the images are from Vintage by nina and the above photos are taken by me of said images for the purpose of this blog.