Thursday, June 20, 2013

Floral Farewell

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In a few days my blog will be 7 years old...
(In that time I've clocked-up over 1000 posts)...
With some trepidation, this feels like an appropriate time to step back from my Blog Nostalgia at the Stone House...
I am a person who likes to give everything I do, 100% effort, and right now I don't feel I can do that any more...I am truly thankful for all the wonderful people I have met through Blogging and for the opportunities it has opened up to me. I am very grateful to all who have visited here and have found the time to comment or to send a friendly email. My life has been the richer for having you here and I have learnt a huge amount from this interaction and also from the commitment that having a blog involves. 
Sharing the simplest of things sometimes, but knowing that someone out there 'gets me' and wants to read what I have to say or to look at photos I've uploaded, has been the reward.
I shall keep my blog here on the www for now...as I may wish to return - I shall keep the 'fairs' section up-to-date in case you'd like to visit.
I've deliberately kept my other blog simple, so will continue to post on there when I can. I regularly make things at my shop, so have the material for the next post to hand, without having to think too much about it. 
 I have deactivated my Twitter account. I will give Facebook a little more time, but I don't think its for me... 
Pinterest, I love - I enjoy the 'niceness' of it; the kind words exchanged, alongside all of the beauty that's shared - I will be pinning there from time to time...

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For now, my last post for the foreseeable future...
Hubby has been away working in the States, which gave me the opportunity to turn the house upside down and do a deep clean and have a good faff! The whole of my vintage hat collection got emptied out of the glazed cabinet that I had on our landing. I swapped it for this Deco cabinet, which I thought had more space for display! 
Turns out it didn't really(!), so once again floral hats jostle for space alongside my decorative hat stands and a few other fripperies!
 









In our bedroom, I cleaned up the dressing table and dared to part with a few of my treasures...

Much tidier...
Believe me?!





The slipper bath in one corner of our master bedroom is going to be made more of a feature. I plan to paper the walls around it with antique magazine pages, similar to what I did in my shop's fitting room. I also want to find a rustic painted shelf with hooks beneath...
For these things...

And the bathroom has received the faffing treatment too! ;-))
A good tidy up, followed by a culling of my treasures, which found their way into my shop this week. (More details at the end of this post).



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Real floral treasures, with some of the stars in our garden just now...














I DO love these! 
















Take one more bow! ;-))


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And flowers will always feature in the things I like to make...
To finish, one of my quick creative projects. Some of the old glass jars and bottles that came from my bathroom cabinet...
I've applied genuine Victorian paper scraps to the fronts. Tied the necks with lace and trimmed with artificial flowers. 


Once again, thanks for stopping-by...
I hope to bump into you somewhere soon, either on the www, at my shop, at a vintage fair, or anywhere that vintage-lovers can be found...Perhaps under a table at a flea market rootling out treasures, or at the back of a dusty antique warehouse where all the best stuff is hidden??! And I'm always at the other end of my email...Address via my blog profile.
Have a great summer! :)
Love 
Niki x
Update 24th June2013: Thank you for all the kind comments left here - I was sad to write my final blog post, as I have loved putting my blog together over the past 7 years... But it also feels quite a relief too...so it must be the right time. I shall continue to post on my other 'creative' blog (and Facebook for now.) In the future I may return here to use this space as a bulletin board to advertise fairs I shall be attending, any other important developments at my shop, or with my small business in general. Thanks again for all the support over the years…I’m always at the end of my email if ever you need to get in touch!
Niki x