I Dusted Off Another .....

I dusted off another typecase - actually I dusted two so I hope you'll enjoy a few more pictures of my little treasures.
Then there's a thank-you.
 

Firstly, I would like to say a huge thank you to Illona who kindly answered my plea in the last blog about drooping helebore!  These glorious winter and spring flowers, often called Christmas or Easter roses droop very quickly when picked on the stem for a vase indoors and having (I thought) read and tried all the tips to prevent this over the years, had given up and displayed the heads floating in a bowl very prettily. (See pic. in last blog)

To my rescue came Illona who tracked down the definitive remedy, first suggested by Margery Fish in 1956.  Margery Fish was a well known and much loved English gardener and writer and her books are still collected and read in U.K.
Margery said the stems should be cut through right up to the first pair of leaves and that the flowers would then stay perky and fresh for a long time. So I dashed out, picked a couple of stems, slit them through as directed and YES I had perfect blooms for over a week and the buds opened too - which all goes to prove there's nothing new in the garden, it's just a case of finding it.

If you haven't already found Illona's blog do hop over and take a look - she is also the perfect gardener, only this time in miniature. Her latest blog features wonderful tiny buttercups and a selection of exquisite daffodils - as a bonus there are photographs of the lovely countryside around her home.
http://minimumloon.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/geen-zorg-die-lust-ze-echt-niet-no.html

 So here is my oldest type case and the smallest, containing a mixture of very old tiny things and some beautiful miniatures by the very best of U.K. artisans I have collected in recent years. I use fabulous buttons, pretty shells and things to fill gaps when I 'rob' a box for a project, or until I find something more interesting.

The wedding shoe once graced a family wedding cake, made and decorated by my aunt - it must be more than 50 years old now.
As a member of the family bakery business she continued to do this for family and friends long after her retirement, and the last she did, well into her eighties, was for a 60th wedding anniversary - and she'd done the original wedding cake!
The lovely snowdrops are of course by Jan Southerton, The Flower Lady and were my Granny's favourite flowers.

As a child I loved the book, Anne Of Green Gables,(still do) so here is Anne and the book as well. I played with the wobbly bug  on row three as a child and the french coin turned into a brooch  next to the vintage butterfly brooch was made for me by someone special. These super vintage books are by my friend Celia Thomas of KT Miniatures who borrowed the real ones from us to make authentic replicas.  This is my favourite collection.

This case is also an old one and was mostly filled a few decades ago, although again I occasionally 'rob' it and pop in a shell; it holds mostly special tiny bits and pieces that are  about family or special people, rather than true miniatures.

The three tiny bisque nursery rhyme figures were brought home by my Dad when he was repatriated after three years as a P.O.W during W.W.2 and were given to him by a German family who were very kind to him. The bug brooch is actually also a Victorian  needle holder. The badge at the bottom is from Birmingham War Weapons week in 1940 and presumably raised funds.
All over this tray are nods to the Canadian branch of the family including this and other gorgeous hand painted pebble brooches.

That's a very youthful father in uniform in the photograph and a tiny portion of beadwork and a velvet leaf to remind me of my beadworker Granny, who in the early years of C20th not only created exquisite beadwork that was sent off to London to be incorporated into frocks and accessories for grand Edwardian ladies but managed to cope with seven children and be involved in the family bakery and confectionery business as well.  Interestingly three of her four daughters loved beads and my Mum, the youngest had a lifelong phobia which she attributed to them having to count and sort millions of seeds beads as children.
Clearly it was my Aunts who I followed not Mum, and all my old jewellery and beads have come from them.

The last panel features a photo in a lovely micro-mosaic frame of Auntie Edie - of wedding cake fame - and my first born.
That was a long time ago...... and then there are football reminders; all the 'boys' played. I remember those days with a car crammed full of little boys, then up to our neck in freezing mud every weekend and probably the youngest (or a friend's youngest) shoved in a push chair  under layers of discarded sweaters. Hey ho!
Now our grandson is a centre forward and his Dad  a coach.

One more picture.  This antique wooden egg opens to hold the tiniest imaginable jointed wooden doll. How about that!

 

If you wonder what some of the odd items are here and there...they're probably vintage brooches!

Finally, but not least, I wish you all a VERY Happy Easter and hope that you and yours will enjoy a happy and peaceful weekend.

Thanks for looking
Robin