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

So I Got That Wrong!

Well the wintry weather hadn't finished with us and the snow came back - again we were luckier than many and only had a very pretty but not too deep fall.  The sun came out brilliantly, not only melting the snow but showing up dust and cobwebs indoors.  Time to get dusting......

One of the blackbirds that visits regularly was a little put out to find his food under a chilly blanket.

The day before the snow came down I popped out to pick a selection of helebore flowers - we have so many and as it's a deliciously promiscuous plant,  seedlings pop up everywhere and the flowers all vary just a bit. I love them, but if I pick them on the stem they always droop so I find this the best way to show them off. If anyone knows how to stop the droop in a vase, I'd love to know.

I've been displaying my little things on these type-setting trays for decades, long before I got hooked on miniatures. Back in the day....I learned to typeset when I worked in publishing, so they are quite special as well as fabulous display cases and I have several.  As I said, the sun shone and highlighted the dust, so I got out my soft old paintbrush and set to work before I dared take out the camera.
Click on the pics. to get bigger versions.

This one is in a narrow hallway so I had to perch on the stairs and squeeze the camera through the banisters to photograph it in its entirety.  On the top is an ancient little pottery cat, an old Corgie AA van, a couple of vintage pencil sharpeners and a rather nice antique enamelled match box cover - the hanging cord doesn't show as a rule thankfully.

I thought I'd give you a closer look at some of my little 'treasures'.  As you can see they aren't all true miniatures. I love buttons and small toys, old brooches and badges and the bits and pieces that remind me of special places or people. Then of course there's the 'quirky' that's just fun.

Nothing here is very ancient, except the tiny wooden toys and those gorgeous buttons - the poppy is my favourite.

The butterfly and dragonfly are old brooches, the buttons are miltary, except the black Civil Defence one and the stylish ones from 1930s. I have friends who can knit....and have collected Victoria Fasken's exquisite painted ware (bottom right) for many years.

Lots more vintage buttons, some reminders of happy years living in Cornwall and a very early attempt at making paper tulips in a rather lovely vase which is probably Elisabeth Causeret.  I love my little angel that cost me 50p and a teeny weeny picture of two of my sons. The red kite flying above the agate slab is an RSPB badge  - these wonderful birds fly over our garden every day and we never get tired of watching them.



Thanks for looking
Robin

No More Snow!

Today is a bright sunny one, such a nice herald of spring after the snow of last week.  To be fair, here in Thame (Oxfordshire) we got away very lightly compared to other parts of the country, and were inconvenienced rather than anything else - and it was beautiful!
I was obliged to do the ironing and other such necessary but boring indoor jobs.....

First, as promised, out came the camera so that I could show you the fabulous Orchid by Jan Southerton - The Flower Lady - I purchased at The Thame Dolls House and Miniature Fair.

The bright blue sky lit up the shelf of bits and pieces and plants, of course, in the conservatory, including the dainty flowers of this begonia.

Just before it snowed I brought in some forsythia buds and catkins which cheered us up as the bright yellow flowers burst open and the catkins spread their yellow pollen over everything.

Outside the snow held back the Iris Reticulata in pans just outside the door.  I love these mini iris and think they look wonderful with the bright pink cyclamen.

Now we have a great show as they continue to come out and it's great to see the cyclamen are seeding like mad and making tiny corms  - soon the pans will be a mass of these special little flowers.  I have the more common white and pale pink all over the garden itself but they look best naturalised in the grass under the fruit trees.

The tiny round corms are on the right of the picture

I'm quite pleased with my 'pig pan'- I wasn't sure if it would look O.K. or if they would stand a frost outside. The super stoneware pigs have been with me for  many years and sadly I can no longer remember who crafted them.  All four grandchildren have loved them as they sat on the windowsill indoors and consequently they have lost an ear or two, and the odd foot. Alongside this chunk of flint rock they now look right at home I think.

We couldn't resist this striking primose in the market - I shall have to plant it outside soon - well away from the natives!
There are masses of helebores out, but it's a little soggy  at the moment - when it dries up a little I'll pick some to bring in.

Thanks for looking
Robin