January citrus and antique markets

For my birthday I planned a trip to the ICAF antiques fair in Shepton Mallet. One of the things I was most excited about our move to the UK was all the antiques and vintage homewares that I'd be able to buy. So, I eagerly anticipated this particular birthday treat. I had visions of baskets, French dough bowls, milk glass vases, plant stands, kitchenalia and all manner of curiosities coming home with me. In other words I expected to be parted with cash, and be happy about it. After all, I'd heard good things about ICAF fairs HERE and HERE.

Although I did make a purchase- or should I say Alex made the purchase, being the one to haggle the price while I pretended not to know him and look busy on another stall... But, I didn't come away with a car load of beautiful-but-maybe-not-practical wares like I had imagined I would.

My sole purchase was some beautiful Edwardian era transfer ware.  I'm hopeless when it comes to resisting blue and white ceramics. And I have long admired the Asiatic Pheasants design first released in 1862 by Burleigh.

This is a lovely pie dish which I promptly filled with the season's best clemetines.

Accompanying the pie dish is this small platter plate, shown here with my grapefruit breakfast.

They weren't bargains per se (Alex did negotiate 7 pounds off the total) but they make me happy, and I am sure I couldn't have bought them back home in Australia at the same price.

I'll just have to keep looking for more treasures.

Kate  x

Daffs

We've got cheery spring daffodils in the house this week. These are the paler 'white' daffodil variety, and at $7 for two bunches I think they more than brighten the house up, affordably!

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils.

William Wordsworth

I love they're happy disposition so much, and they remind me a lot of my childhood. Daffodils were the only cut flower I remember my Mum having in the house. 

Kate  x

David Austin Roses

They're impossibly beautiful, and they continue to delight as they open and become even more beautiful.

All Monday blues have been chased away by their divine perfume. This single one sits on my bedside table infusing my dreams of one day growing a garden full of David Austin roses.

Kate  x

En Saison

En saison, or the very opposite, in this case. 

It's a blustery winter Saturday here. I set out to buy an inexpensive bunch of daffodils to bring some cheer indoors. I've been patiently waiting for the daffs to start appearing in florists and green grocers this season.

Then, my usual flower man had David Austin roses. In winter! A little more expensive than a bunch of daffodils or jonquils, but Oh-so-worth-it.

The smell is divine. But that's a redundant statement when talking about David Austin roses. They tick every box. 

Simply a superior rose.

We also came home with kalettes. The kalette is the newest vegetable on the Australian market, a cross between kale and brussel sprouts. Should be interesting. 

Kate  x

Linen

I love the freshness of all white manchester. I have slowly been collecting new sheets, pillowslips and towels in white to replace worn out, mis-matched and generally less attractive manchester. The white things we already owned have also been getting a 'white boost' with some extended soaks in the laundry tub.

I spied these lovely Euro slip covers in a shop on Saturday and couldn't resist them. I adore the embroidery detail.

In my experience as a once-a-week bed sheet changer, Euro slip covers tend to wear out at a very fast rate. And, they can be rather pricey. These weren't, so at $40 for the pair I didn't really think twice about bringing them home with us.

Washed and ironed (loose use of the term ironed), they're going on the bed on this Clean Sheet Monday (as Mondays are referred to in our household).

Such sweet details.

It has been a weekend of acquisitions. As well as purchasing these covers, we were also graciously gifted two nearly-matching old oak bank swivel-chairs. They need a little TLC. I was going to photograph them, but I am not sure how best to capture their patina and loveliness. I would like to have them completely restored, but the expense of having someone else do that for us is silly. It might have to be a project for me to complete myself. I know nothing about stripping and refinishing antique wood though. At this point, I don't know if I should leave the wood as is and just have the seats re-done in a nice heavy duty cream coloured drill material to give them a 'lift', or bite the bullet and do a proper restoration start to finish. More research is needed...

Kate  x

Poppies

Our move to England happens this month. 

With such an important date looming you'd think I would be hastily packing, sifting through paperwork, or occupied by some other equally important task. 

Instead I am spamming instagram with pictures of the poppies I bought last Friday. 

My time management is woeful. 

Kate  x

Latest thrift find + enduring milk glass obsession

This little Coalport dish was a happy find for $4 at one of our local Vinnie's last week. I ummed and ahhed a little deciding if I would buy it (another thing to wrap and pack into shipping for our move to the UK), but I justified it because I am going to use it as a soap dish. I plan to stop buying liquid pump soap and instead keep this with a little bar of soap by the bathroom basin. (Alex is forever coming home from business trips with pilfered hotel toiletries- so I rarely need to buy hand soap). So that $4 is actually a bigger saving, in plastic waste too.

I happily splashed the cash (a whole $12.50 *sarcasm*) on these darling dahlias on Saturday though. That dusky pink colour had me hook, line and sinker. The combination of pale pink with the stark white of vintage milk glass is stunning I think.  I can't get enough of my milk glass vases. My collection is small right now, but I continue to grow it any chance I get. Milk glass isn't common place in the vintage/collectable/charity stores of Australia, but it should be more prolific in England. Fingers crossed.

My milk glass obsession started HERE in case you need convincing of its beauty. It is relatively cheap because it isn't to everyones taste, and I'm grateful for that. The real Fenton pieces can be a bit expensive, but the generic vintage no-name ones are quite affordable. I don't discriminate, and buy whatever I can spy and fall in love with. This one above was $17, and a Fenton hobnail one that I have was $20. I'd love to get a compote style one. I think they're lovely.

So, that's a big tick for milk glass, and a big tick for the last of the dahlias for this season. Although, I'll get round two when we're living in England. 

Kate

Styling and photographs by Moss & Vine

Links to love: November edition

This CAKE is phenomenal.

I am so in love with this STYLED SHOOT from +White Magazine. It is simply breathtaking.

Could I pretty please move into THIS dreamy little cottage?

I love the foliage GARLANDS in this wedding.

Even though this is a goodbye post, it makes me want to move to the Southern Highlands PRONTO!

So many BOOKS, so little time.

The Atacama Desert in BLOOM.

Current INSTAGRAM crushes HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

PUMPKIN PIE  from Farmette, timely, as the Northern Hemisphere embrace all things pumpkin. I am giddy with excitement for The Farmette Cookbook to be released in March.

Have you seen the Christmas cover for COUNTRY STYLE MAG this year? It features a joey called Honey who belongs to the master of aesthetics, Annabelle of THE DAILYS, photographed by the dizzyingly cool KARA ROSELUND. I love it when clever, kind, and talented creatives get together to produce wonderful things.

Kara's book SHELTER, has just been released. It looks fab!

HELLO from Adele was worth the four year wait. I will confess to contributing to the song being played in excess of 100 million times in one week on youtube...not sorry.

This seems like a good excuse for a trip out to ORANGE. Which is, incidentally, a place I've been wanting to visit more and more recently...

I adore KATE'S CREATIVE SPACE, and I had a serious case of envy when I read about her FLEA MARKET FORAGING success recently. I have been lusting after a vintage printers typesetting tray. But all of the ones I spotted on etsy were very pricey, and shipping costs made it a pretty prohibitive purchase...until...last weekend. I found one on my travels to the Southern Highlands! Thank you Dirty Jane's in Bowral.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

Links to love: October edition

An English garden in BLOOM.

I have pet and studio ENVY.

This is a FUN idea. But before you go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, THIS should be compulsory viewing. Succinct facts from the film by +1 Million Women HERE. Everyone should THRIFT.

I have nothing to say about THIS except, swoon! And some MORE!

THIS satire account is so on the money, it's scary. SO good!

Such pretty WEDDING INSPIRATION.

I am drooling over some of the furniture in this HOME. That bedside table...magnificent!

I could move into THIS SPACE tomorrow!

MASTER FLORISTRY at its finest.

 I would spend my life scouring flea markets and vintage stores if I could get a set of mis-matched dining chairs as wonderful as the set in THIS HOME.

Crushing on this WEDDING DRESS.

The anthropologist in me loves THIS.

A gorgeous BOHEMIAN STYLE elopement.

STYLING TIPS I am trying to employ in my 'fake it till you make it' approach.

ADORABLE.

What an ADVENTURE.

This is making me want to play about creating WREATHS.

I love this PLAN BEE seed idea. So important. So clever.

A RECIPE to try.


Kate  x



Styling & Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

Spring in our nest

It is finally spring! 

(Although a part of me feels like winter never really got going). There has been much talk of this being the coldest winter in years! But i'll admit, I didn't feel it. 

I spent much of May and June thinking, 'It can't be wintertime again already? It seems like only weeks ago that we were living in Canberra and snowboarding every weekend?!?!?!'

When I finally accepted a whole year had gone by, the snowfalls didn't arrive as further proof of the seasonal shift. We have only been up to the ski fields twice so far this season. Another trip is imminent. A third trip is necessary to validate the purchase of ridiculously pricey season passes. And to gather more muscari as they bloom in the lawns.

I digress! Back to spring. Here is what it has looked like so far...

Reading... QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Enjoying... Ranunculus season

Watching... THE HONOURABLE WOMAN

Planning... A February trip to Japan

Dreaming... About baking AN IRISH COFFEE CAKE

Trying... to eat a vegetarian dinner once a week, to buy only thrifted clothing, and starting a new exercise regimen.

Talking... all things cake, snow, Myers-Briggs, thrift shop finds, & new suits.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

Covet

If it is not a sin, it probably should be. But I covet a whole lotta things...

Mostly antique furniture,

vintage kitchenalia, 

and

a never-ending supply of ranunculus.

I am beginning to put together design and decor ideas for a home*. Which sees me trawling blogs, instagram, and etsy like it's my job. Which it kind of is these days. 

SOURCE

I would love a kitchen with open shelves, styled with silverware, flowers, milk glass, and ceramic treasures.

SOURCE, SOURCE

SOURCE

An armoire would be fantastic. A beautiful piece of furniture, and so functional too.

SOURCE

SOURCE

I think I will be waiting a long time for the scientific discovery that allows me to have ranunculus in my home, all of the time.

Kate  x

*Tentative plans are afoot for a home in the countryside.

Links to love: September edition

Why are there pink magnolias on bare branches in winter, and white magnolias on glossy green trees in summer? This is the question I asked my Mum recently. HERE is the answer for all you readers who don't have a green-fingered parent close to hand.

My Dad gave me a sweet, mossy birds nest on the weekend. It makes me want to start a COLLECTION. (Only nests that have been blown out of trees, of course).

I am sharing this just for the CUTE FACTOR!

FIONA has given me a supreme case of wanderlust.

Aesthetic perfection HERE, HERE & HERE.

This is the SWEETEST idea, and perfect keepsake.

This was the INSPIRATION for seeking out my own milk glass vase. Success! If you are ever in the Snowy Mountains, stop by Stone Cottage, Berridale where I found the above milk glass vase that I promptly filled with white ranunculus.

I mean, seriously, RANUNCULUS make me stupidly happy.

THE MRS BOX just launched a new collection. Yes, I had to buy another one to join the one I was given for my BIRTHDAY. They are hard to resist.

A simple, fresh, spring MEAL I am itching to make/eat.

THIS new-born shoot incorporating flowers is beautiful.

This would be a DREAM COME TRUE to attend.

Wishing you happy spring days.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

In my nest this week

I bought a $5 bunch of erlicheer on Saturday, I split the bunch in two, plopped them into two matching vases and put them on each side of the bed. We're waking up intoxicated on the scent.

Could somebody please bottle it? I would buy that perfume, pronto!

I then spent the rest of the weekend internet window shopping on etsy. I'm lusting after so many things...

a hobnail milk glass vase,

a silver tray,

an antique letter press drawer,

an old garden sieve,

rustic wooden chopping boards,

vintage kitchenalia, etc etc.

I really cannot get enough of vintage kitchenalia.

Or the smell of erlicheer, it seems.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

Violets are violet: The Language of Flowers, Part 2

Roses are red,

violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet,

and so are you.

Violet  sweet beauty // modesty // faithfulness // 

"I return your love"

Zeus, who was in love with Lo, a beautiful nymph, sought to hide Lo from his wife Hera. He transformed Lo into a white cow so as not to arouse Hera's suspicion. However, when Lo wept over the taste of the coarse grass she was obliged to feed upon, Zeus transformed Lo's tears into sweet-smelling violets that only Lo was allowed to eat.

The Romans associated violets with innocence, they were often chosen as the flower to place on the graves of small children.

Gray, The Secret Language of Flowers, 92

An English myth tells the story of King Frost, who felt lonely in his harsh and solitary ice palace. Eventually, he decided to look for a pretty girl to make him happy. His courtiers found a shy girl called Violet and, falling under his spell, he relented and promised his people six months of milder weather. Violet pleaded with the king to allow her to see her people again, and since he loved her, he granted her wish to visit them each spring. His only condition was that she appear in the mortal realm in the form of a plant, coming back to her husband's icy home each winter.

Gray, The Secret Language of Flowers, 95

In France, violets became strongly associated with Napoleon Bonaparte and the Empress Josephine. She wore violets on their wedding day and on each anniversary Napoleon sent her a posy of violets. Josephine grew an assortment of violets in her garden, setting a trend in France. At her funeral, violets were showered down upon her coffin as it was lowered into the ground. after he had been exiled to St Helena, Napoleon asked to visit Josephine's tomb in 1814. He picked some violets growing around her grave and they were found in a locket around his neck when he died. Napoleon was nicknamed Corporal Violet or La Pere Violet.

Later Napoleon III chose the violet as his personal symbol. When he first met his future wife, Eugenie, she was wearing a violet gown and her hair was decorated with fresh violets. She held a posy of violets at their wedding and the flowers became the couple's special anniversary symbol.

Gray, The Secret Language of Flowers, 95

The Language of Flowers, Part 1 can be found HERE.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

Mother

We inherit our genes, and other traits from our Mothers, but from mine I also inherited an appreciation for:

Books,

Flowers,

Collectables,

Blue & white.

Happy Mothers Day.

Kate  x

Photograph and Styling by Moss & Vine

Bowerbird

I was in a city bar recently, two glasses deep into the house-white when someone amongst our party asked the group what they thought their spirit animal is. I had immediate flashbacks to an exceptionally awkward job interview where a similar out of the blue question was asked. 

Out of the blue. It's from the blue that my answer comes. I'm a bowerbird, fussing over my nest, filling it with beautiful objects (blue, and otherwise) that I've scavenged from just about everywhere. Yes, I relate to the bowerbird completely. The "otter" in the group replied, "that seems like a very florist answer".  Is it? I think I was a bowerbird loong before I was a florist. I'm less a florist, and more a nester, a home-body, a frustrated interior designer. I only believe in beautiful things.

This past year, I overhauled the cutlery drawer by purging it of all plastic. I replaced the ugly plastic divider with a nicer wooden version and put baskets either side. All plastic handled cutlery was thrown donated in favour of silver spoons, bone-handled knives, and wooden serving utensils. It was a total gentrification of the top kitchen drawer. My inspiration for this project was Catherine at In The Fields, previously A Country Farmhouse. The images from this post of her own kitchen drawer sparked in me a burning desire to cultivate my own rustic, beautifully mis-matched top drawer.

I'm not sure how many readers out there would get similarly excited over something as mundane and utilitarian as the cutlery drawer, but a true nester, a fellow bowerbird would understand irrevocably. Catherine is my style idol. The queen of collectables. And a fellow flower enthusiast. To say that I am a big admirer is falling short of the mark. Catherine and her husband are currently undergoing a second home restoration. Their first home featured on her A Country Farmhouse blog was something dreams are made of. Impossibly impeccable.

I try to hold most other aspects of our own nest to a similarly rigorous aesthetic standard. It is not always an easy task, because the man in my our home doesn't recognise why the sheets and covers on the bed need to match, or why I need to buy another lamp, and trying to convince him of the beauty of coloured depression glass will be eternally futile. In his defence though, he thinks nothing of my buying yet another wicker basket, is in full-support of my quest for the perfect wing-back arm chair in which to read, and has readily accepted that the entire contents of our recently gentrified drawer require hand-washing and can never under any circumstances be put through the dishwasher. He's easily trained. I think i'll keep him.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine