the patchwork dress

16

...another in the 'keeping warm' series - love these muted colours all together...

15

think this may be ex Elle Deco - for some reason it reminds me of a Christmas tree (the dresser being the tree) - perhaps my mind is working strangely... could you imagine a tree hung with old china cups?

14

I composed this list of advent images at the beginning of december, knowing that the advent period was going to be very busy, and now I am chuckling at the list from yesterday for the next couple of days, because the message is very obviously 'warm house', and I hadn't quite anticipated just how cold, or how long it would take for a stone house like this to warm up! It had lain empty for 6 or 7 months - but I also feel once we get things going it will begin to retain the heat. Meanwhile, if you are coming to visit, dress for outdoors (where I have noticed, funnily enough, it seems to be warmer).

...this image from an old Elle Deco...mm...blankets, cosy slips... chairs would be good, too.

13

hello world! we're in! moved into our new home and after 3 days without landline, internet, or for that matter mobile signal, I'm back in touch with the world... more updates on the new home to come... meanwhile, think I will be needing plenty of these - another quilt postcard from the Asa Wettre collection. I just love this scrap quilt, and the building it's photographed against.

12

Yum! what a cosy Christmas scene - just goes to show a bit of braiding and some pinecones never go out of fashion... this one from the 1980's sometime - probably 'Good Housekeeping' magazine. Watch out for that candleholder though, looks like a bit of a firehazard!

11

...some old fashioned Santa scraps. Everytime my Grandma used to visit when I was a child, she would bring a packet of these old type of scraps! Not sure where I got these originally, just one of those things you keep so that one day you can put them on your blog (!)...

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...'World of Interiors' swatch article... love that black and gold...

9

...another quilt postcard from Asa Wettre's swedish quilt collection. Festive, huh?

8

...some festive red Paisley cloth - a postcard from Paisley museum. Very like (and could possibly be) the Turkey Red dye that was produced in the Vale of Leven - which, like Paisley pattern, was world famous in its time. I've heard that the water at Lomond Shores was once coloured red from the dyeing that took place there! To add to the turkey, that's a goose quill fan on the left which was "used to dry the warp threads on the loom" according to the card

7

I'm torn about wrapping paper. On one hand I LOVE it - all that coloured brightness and pattern for (what used to be) a few pence. On the other hand I think it is expensive in cash and energy, for just a fleeting glimpse before it's ripped off. I hoard old wrapping paper and still have half-finished rolls to finish off from other Christmasses, but then I feel a bit cheapskatey. In the end it's all probably a matter of balance. We should have a wrapping paper scrap swap! But these just look so good, don't they!