About Me

My photo
antrim, antrim, Ireland
Hello and welcome to my blog. If you like flowers and gardens, housey stuff, food and banter, then this is the place for you. I am a decorative artist, florist and maker of things. I sell painted furniture, plants and crafts, through a local retail shop, in my native Ireland, and wedding flowers from home. I am married to a lovely patient man and have a smashing little girl. I blog for the fun of it. Thank you for listening.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

A grateful heart








All these incredible images are from Pinterest, the words too! There is so much beauty all around us, do we really see it? That's all, love Linda x

Friday 27 May 2011

Tulips from Amsterdam

 Isn't this such a cute picture, it's an exquisite piece of patchwork, I just love it. Anyway back to my topic, tulips...do you remember thse little fellows? Well here is what happened to them......
I was doing the flowers for a wedding today and the buckets were needed to decorate the pews in the church and the altar. The bride had chosen invitations that were a minty green with tiny white polka dots, so I painted the buckets the same way.....





The buckets were drilled and pink cord threaded through and attached to the pews, then a little posy of tulips and peonies was popped into each one. The buckets will then be taken to the reception and used as table decorations (nifty eh?). The 2 larger buckets had a topiary type arrangement like so...

Sadly my camera decided not to work and so you can't see the finished article, with the bun moss around the bottom, but the above photograph is showing a miniature version.


The brides bouquet is mostly white tulips with a few pink and the bridesmaids were all pink. Sorry I have no pictures of the bride.

Poor girl there were bomb scares near the church, and all the guests were ringing up in a state of panic. The weather was not too wonderful either, but at least it didn't rain. I am sure that she will have a wonderful day come what may, but I am just adding this little sentiment from Pinterest, as I think it's good to remember. Have a lovely weekend everyone, and thankyou very much for all your comments on Pinterest, love Linda x


Wednesday 25 May 2011

Pinterest is the new black!

So the poster says anyway! I have been  burning the midnight oil learning about Pinterest, a website where you can collate images unto boards of your chosen subject. As I am not great with computers and
related terminology, I haven't quite worked it all out yet, but I am having a lot of fun collecting wonderful photos and words. I think one of the things I love most about blogging are the wonderful images that people share, together with the written word they are very powerful I feel. I haven't yet found any friends, so its just me on my lonesome, but I'm not worried, I will just take my time to find my feet .It is very addictive and you can spend an awful lot of time doing it, but I don't have too much time at the moment, so that's probably a good thing. My user name is  "flowersonmytabl" I couldn't put the e on the end as you are only allowed 14 symbols! Here are some of my recent "pins", I hope you enjoy them. Love Linda x.









Ciao, enjoy the rest of the week!

Saturday 21 May 2011

Cushion me beautiful!

I thought I would share with you two very talented cushion designers. They are both to be found  on Etsy the first, Samantha from The Nest makes wonderful rustic creations from burlap, with words that make you want to own one. I don't know about you, but my "wish list" has seriously increased since I started blogging. Samantha is from Wales, she has a wonderful blog where she shares her great furniture restoration ideas called http://thenestuk.blogspot.com/. Here are some of my favourites, although she also does some wonderful animals, like a Moose and Deer, that would be great for Christmas.








The second is  Kristi  from Jolie Marche, in Tenessee. She also has a lovely interiors inspired blog called  Simple Everyday Glamour. Her cushions I feel are a little more sophisticated, and the detail in the coloured ones is astonishing. See for yourself......

http://simpleeverydayglamour.blogspot.com/





I hope I haven't depressed you all too much? The thing is though, they are all so gorgeous and if they were in a terribly smart shop, the type that have those carrier bags I'm after, they would be so much more expensive. Its past my bedtime, so goodnight to you all, love Linda x

Thursday 19 May 2011

Hardware, kitchenalia and haberdashery.......you've got to love 'em!


I have always loved going into an "old - fashioned" hardware store. There is something about all those dusty shelves lined up with lotions and potions for goodness knows what, all kinds of paraphenalia hanging from the ceiling not to mention all that iron  and string and zinc. It totally fascinates me, and my mother was the same. I remember as a child watching "Westerns" where they always had the "General Store" ......well.....that's another league altogether, with huntin' shootin' fishin' stuff, and then all those rolls of Indian cotton and French silk, tassels, trimmings and ribbon,my how a girl would love to get her hands on all that stuff!

Paint, what can I say, I adore the stuff, it transforms, cleans, brightens things. I love this paint company especially, gorgeous heritage colours, lovely chalky texture.


My lovely old coffee grinder, which does work, but is a bit of a grind! (Sorry!) In the past I have had the great pleasure of going to auctions in "Country Houses", I love to look at all the fine things of course, but what got my heart racing was the contents of the servant's quarters and the kitchen and the greenhouse. Looking around blogland and the web and magazines, it seems I am not alone in my interest in these things. What gets me now though is the creativity which people show in their use of these old items, and some very clever types even use parts of things to create something new but with a "vintage" look, it's fantastic! It is all part of the re-cycling, up-cycling, make do and mend ethos, which I love.





This turqoise glass is very "in" at the moment. I love the way, in an all white scheme it really draws the eye in to the room, or on a table it seems to add an extra dimension to the flowers.



Who would have thought a load of crochet cotton and string would look so delicious in a big glass jar?


Now what on earth is a load of lurid green buckets doing amongst all these vintage images. What can Linda be thinking of...... watch this space!


I am sooo excited, I went to the flower wholesalers today and found artichokes. I have been asking for them for about a year, and always no,no, we can't get them. Well today, there they were, as bold as brass. I have been admiring the way the Dutch and Swedish use them in their interior design and on their tablescapes, so now I have some. Not quite sure how long they will last, if they will dry out or what, we will have to see. So I wish you all a very lovely weekend, love Linda x

Images via tumblr ,Little Greene and me.