Around the garden

It has been a while since I have posted pics of what is happening outside in the garden. It's all starting to grow thanks to spring being in the air. I always have a vision of everything I plant coming into bloom at the same time and looking incredible, but of course that will not be the case. I can see that many of my spring bulbs will be long gone and looking straggly as my new roses come out. My hollyhocks may even take another year to be the tall stems of florally gorgeousness I visualise and goodness only knows where my pink calla lily might have been planted. Oh well.... I still enjoy what I see growing.

Above is the front garden prior to daisy pruning...below is after daisy pruning...

They'll grow back in no time.

My garden out the back is growing well. The new roses are all getting their leaves and the perennials are coming through as well...

The ferns are looking pretty well...

Above is my sweet little star magnolia who is flowering for the first time. So pretty.

The iceberg roses along the front fence are all growing well. There are tonnes of self-seeded yellow pansies growing below them.

And the vegie patch is doing ok. The peas are coming along, as are the broad beans. Silverbeet just hasn't stopped growing and the raspberries and strawberries are beginning to come along.

I'm also excited to see growth and even flower buds on my clematis. I need to mulch very soon in readiness for warmer weather.

I hope you have a nice Sunday :)

New lighting

Still trudging along on my studio, but we finally have light. Lyndon installed my new chandelier last night and I'm very pleased with how it looks. I think it looks just right with the ceiling rose.

You may just be able to see a bit of glossy floor. We finally (after 3 weeks of hassle) have polished boards. I can't tell you how much I was over that situation. Does it hurt to make a phone call to a customer to say you cannot make it that day and reschedule? Noooo..much easier to leave the customer (moi) sitting at home waiting for hours. Very unimpressed. Thankfully the floor looks lovely.

Now it's the skirting board and picture rail to go...

ps my apologies for going awol on you all x

Things I've made - part 2

Here's part 2 in my Thing's I've Made. This was part 1.

Above is a corset and skirt I made a few years ago called Titania. Hand dyed fabrics, machine made lace (by moi), fully lined and boned corset with embellishments including hand-beading, lino-printing and stitching. Below is a detail of the corset.

I did an evening course in Lost Wax Casting at Polytechnic a couple of years ago and below is a piece I made. I used a piece of vintage lace which I coated in wax, cast in plaster and then cast in fine silver. I then had to clean it up and attach chain. I really love it.

Below is another of my wearable art dresses called Fleur. This is a pretty simple design for me but I enjoyed making flowers from pretty cotton florals and attaching it to the dress made from lace and hand-dyed silk.

This is probably the most unusual piece I have made. I few years ago I attended a workshop by a very talented artist called Keith Lo Bue. The workshop was using found objects to create new pieces. This is a pendant called Pearl of Wisdom and consists of an old spoon, transparency, vintage chandelier crystal, seed pearl and underneath the crystal is in fact one of my wisdom teeth I had kept for many years. Not for everyone but I like it (not that I ever wear it).

Well, there you go.

This post was initially supposed to be 7 things about me and so I would like to pass it on to 3 local Hobart blogs...

Catherine at Little Glowing Lights

Emma at Emma Burgess

Jane at Life on Planet Baby

I would also like to give a shout out to Pamela at Mountain Living who has been going through chemo and could do with our positive thoughts.

Ladies, up to you if you wish to post about yourselves!

xx

Friday flowers

Tip-toe-ing through some beautiful red tulips at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens the other day. They're planted in front of the beautiful old conservatory (which was full of orchids) and there's sweet peas growing on trellis behind them. Must get my sweet peas in my garden very soon.

What a tiring week and it's not over yet as I'm working all weekend. Yesterday the cornice dudes turned up unexpectedly at 7.45am to see if we'd like the cornice in the room done. Uhh, ok then....I might just get out of my pj's and wash my hair. They didn't seem to mind.

The cornice looks great and we'll get it painted over the weekend. The floors are scheduled in for Tuesday so that will be exciting.

Have a lovely weekend, whatever you guys do.

xx

Magnolia magic

Stunning magnolias at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens on a perfect spring day yesterday. Photos taken with the help of my old Kodak Duaflex. I had a few odd looks and one enquiry about my 'set-up'. Oh well, I say vintage is making a come-back , even in photography.

Back to work today after 9 not-so-relaxing days off work *sigh*.

I need a holiday to get over my so-called holiday!

Looks like another stunning spring day, perfect for being in the garden. Have a good one bloggies xx

Studio update + curtain dilemas

It was a very busy weekend here at Molly's Maison. It was probably a good thing that it rained non-stop as it meant we weren't itching to get outside. Instead, we painted my studio room and finished off a bit of plastering. Lyn has installed two downlights in the verandah part of the room and today I ordered a nice chandelier for the main ceiling.

Things to do:

- get the floor finished

- install main light and ceiling rose

- fit cornice

- order, paint and install replacement skirting and picture rail

- fit new window hardware

- clean, clean, clean

- curtains??????

- move in and enjoy!!!!!!

Regarding curtains, I keep changing my mind. Due to the replacing of the floor, my curtain budget is now about $10 (sort of) so unfortunately no fancy Designers Guild fabric for me. Boo hoo!!

Because they wont need to be insulating curtains and I will probably not ever draw them (privacy is not an issue) I was thinking maybe something sheer? I was toying with the idea of the Tord Boontje "Until Dawn" panel, but would need two unless I do a centre panel and then a simple drop at each side, perhaps just a cotton voile. I could even replicate some of the shapes in a hand-made print on the drops?

Any ideas/suggestions from all you creative interior design folk out there would be greatly appreciated.

xx

1st image by me, 2nd and 3rd from dedeceplus

Friday flower

Well, it's been one heck of a week here at Molly's Maison. Renovation nightmares all over the place, but lots of wins too. Today looks like being a day of wall patching and painting. Hopefully by the end of the day there'll be some new paint to see.

SO, happy Friday and here's to a nice weekend. I hope you like my photo of a lovely blue anemone.

ps we really enjoyed your comments about our 'room of worms'.

xx

A can of worms

At this point I was hoping to post my newly polished studio floor. No such luck.

Above is my not so newly polished floor sitting on the front porch.

It's not a fun story...

Muzza the floor guy came the other day to sand the floor (above is the before shot).

All looks ok but when you looked closely there was big areas of rot, especially in the old verandah boards over near the window.

We decided that the floor needed to be replaced. We had discussed it a while ago but I was hoping that when it was sanded it would be ok. No such luck.

Sooooo.... Lyn ripped up the boards, in fact, half the room's worth.

The old joists in the end part of the room weren't even attached to anything and some had rotted.

This is where it got nightmarish. You now the saying, "to open a can of worms"?

Well, how about "a room of worms"???

We discovered a leaky pipe and heaps of mushy soil. It gets worse...amongst the soil were colonies of worms. It was truly disgusting! We had to dig out a few wheelbarrows of soil and worms, put in brick supports, a new beam and joists (as you can see below).

Starting to take shape.

Site supervisor Molly keeping a close watch on things.

Yay! A new, level, solid floor - all in one day!!

$600 in materials and plenty of super sore muscles later we are much happier!