Roses, Runners & Raspberries

Isn't this rose a lovely old fashioned shape? It reminds me of those 'kitchy' paintings of roses from the 50's. When I bought it, it was actually a lovely lilac shade, but the second year it turned peach, it must be something to do with the soil. I don't mind though as it reminds me of my mum, she was rather partial to peach roses, and peach nail varnish. She had bottles and bottles of the stuff, and almost all of it was pink or peach! Also, I'm thinking, she would give me, or one of my sisters, a castoff handbag, and always without fail, you would find a pink or peach lipstick in it, a paper hanky and some lifesavers (she travelled to America a lot!) Sorry I digress.

I am overwhelmed by the amount of apples we got this year from our two small trees. They are quite sour for eating apples, and last year when I tried making pies out of them, although they tasted alright the apples don't break down (which I like). So this year I am going to make a wreath or two out of them and then some chutney. The red ones are crabapples and I will be making jelly out of those. I have been delighted with the raspberries this year, for the last couple of weeks I have been able to go out in the mornings and pick some for my porridge...mmmm!

The Honeysuckle still has a few flowers on it, and the Clematis is flowering nicely. I have some photos to show you of the stairs, as you remember I lifted the carpet to make way for a stair runner. I painted the stairs first in a stone colour, it was then given an 'antique wash' to age it and then varnished.

My runner is a roll of antique linen from Grainsack at Etsy. Christina, the owner of the shop is from Austria, and she is a delight to deal with. If you don't know this site, check it out, she has a wonderful range of old grainsacks and linens. It is quite light in colour, so the family have been warned...NO SHOES! It is also quite thin, so I do hope that it will wear alright. I am delighted with the result, it gives the hall a bit more character, more of a 'country' vibe. However, as usual when you start these things, it kind of snowballs into a whole range of things that need to be done. The panelling , stair rails, walls, doors and skirting need to be painted. Also I would like to have the big wall, that goes up the stairs, papered. I am not normally a 'paper'sort of girl, but I love the 'fly fishing' paper from Lewis & Wood, and thought it might further add to my country feel. See below, what do you think? Every so often there are little 19th century fishermen, in amongst the trees.

Here he is, isn't he just lovely. A regular Mr. Darcy! The colours are soft blues and greens with a little bit of a stone or sand colour.

Wallpaper found here.

I had some spare linen, so I made some blinds for the windows, and door. My front door is horrible upvc and it is going to be painted like the stairs, so I will show you the photo of the blinds once the door is painted. I also think that I will paint the outside of the door black, and I found this fabulous painted doorstep on Pinterest. I have a rather dreary concrete step, so it is going to get this treatment. As you can see I am going to be busy this autumn!

I found a most wonderful book this week . I don't own it yet, but I will soon. For anyone who likes flowers or the vintage look it is a must. Every page is beautiful, even the words are beautiful. It is called 'Vintage Flowers' and is by a girl called Vic Brotherson. I think she is based in London, but I couldn't swear to it, but she was brought up in the Lake District. Some of the pages made me gasp out loud. I wanted to run out and buy a load of flowers and a load of vintage marmalade jars! Here are a couple of images form it.........