White O'Morn Cottage

On Your High Nelly! Rust is a colour...right?

I got a new bike. It is called a High Nelly. Here it is...it is rust coloured. Nice isn't it?

I also got a matching gents version for Paul. His is blue with fetching rust details. Green with envy ye' all are because of our blue/rust coloured bikes.

 

They are original 1940's//50's ones known here as High Nellys. Stored for decades in someones shed in County Kildare. I wanted them to do a project for the cottage garden and one for Angie's and Catherine's gardens.  I have another one stashed up in Leitrim. This is how I see them turning out. Will keep you posted as to progress. What colours do you think? I can get any colour to spray paint them. Just can't make up my mind.

 

 

Winning Pearls

My sister, Teeda in Canada sent me photos of these divine pieces of jewellery she made for a competition. Aren't they super? Her hand crafted jewellery is amazing. See her blog on my sidebar Beadiva

The one below is called Ripples

 

...and this one is called Pearl on a Wire. I really hope they win. They are beautiful. Gotta love pearls girls!

Shaggy Shadow Dog Story

Look who moved in next door. A puppy pomeranian. She is adorable but at only three months old she is has been traumatised and is terrified of people. She was bought by a family whose 2 year old child was very rough with her. It lasted for a few weeks and my neighbour offered to take her to save her. She trembles and runs from people. 

I hope she finds she can trust people and I did my bit for the cause by giving her lots of cuddles. She seemed to like it but then went back to being so afraid. Poor little thing. She does not have a name yet.  I think she should be called Shadow but my neighbour says that as the westie is called Fred then this one has to be called.....wait for it....GINGER! Fabulous.

 

My neighbour had just got a westie pup a few weeks ago and this little thing totally shadows his every move. It is so cute to see - it seems as if they move as one but it is so sad too.  I'm sure she was taken too early from her mother and is looking for a substitute.

This is Freddie the westie she follows everywhere.

When I had her in and put her on the floor she tried to shadow my dogs, each one in turn. They were not impressed and ran upstairs where she could not follow and then she tried to shadow the cat. Ah, so sad. I'll keep you updated on her progress.

You might have noticed I put a blonde rinse in my hair. Not permanent one though. It will wash out with next shampoo. It is taking so long to grow out my grey I got fedup looking at half grey and half blonde. Neither here not there. Also, it has surprised me to see (and you can see it here) that some of my roots are growing out dark! I can't win can I?

Thanks so much to Josie of Skysillysite who gave me this fab award.

 

I have been trying to get it into my sidebar. Any Typepadders out there who know how to add this?

I get to pass it on to five blogs so here goes:

The Balancing Kiwi

The Old Schoolhouse

Irish Cottage Dreams

AngelMc

Margie Loves Wool

No special rules, just enjoy.

 

 

Recessionista/Fashionista! That's Me.

I am on a spending diet/budget (self imposed - I am not allowed buy any clothes this month) (everything else is fair game)

But....Tesco's - bless 'em gave me a little help (every little helps!) as they were almost giving away clothes yesterday. Two lovely plain sweaters for only £10.....10 FOR TWO? YEAH.

How could I resist? Could you? Would you? No, of course not.

I gave them a unique look by pinning on the gorgeous hand crafted pin that Twiggy made for me

.... and then I knit a huge Peony flower for the other one.

Pic shows me trying to look not guilty at breaking my own rules. It is a look that says " No - really, there I was - minding my own business in Tesco's when this vicious blue jumper mugged me, jumped over my head and refused to leave"

 

I made it using a pattern from that great book "A Hundred Flowers to Knit and Crochet"  I have seen this book on a lot of your blogs. I must say I love it and this is the second flower I have made from it.

 

Who would have thought such fun and fashion could be had for a few euro...and guilt free too as they don't even count as breaking my diet/budget!

I know that is real womens' logic but hey...I am that woman!

 

 

Fields of Gold and Diamonds

More dog walking..this time in Leitrim. Paul set off ahead of me up the winding road that weaves its way up the mountain called Slieve An Iarran *translates as the Iron Mountains. Our cottage is in the foothills just to the right off this boreen which is English for bothereen which IN English means small road. Does that make any sense? Yes? No?..good...we'll carry on so. 

The narrow road winds and winds......The sun was catching the fields giving them a lovely golden hue...Fields of Gold.                                                                                                                                                       

 

The late evening sun casts long shadows

They walked up the mountain and marched back down again.

I was hanging back picking wild flowers (as you do) for some photo vignettes that Teeda said I should do for the front page of the new website.

When I looked over the ditch to my left.......WHAT!!!! ...I couldn't believe my eyes! I was nearly blinded by the sparkle of.......Diamonds! .... A whole field of wild irish diamonds...who knew?

 

...Of course the moment didn't last long because I realised ...they hadn't grown there...they had rained down and were clinging to the blades of long grass. It was raining diamonds in the fields of gold in the Iron Mountains. Alas my "diamonds" were only raindrops clinging to the blades of long grass. Ah well, maybe I'll find my Pot o' gold...I'll go hunting today and keep you posted.

Oh...and the photos of wild flowers...well here they are

A Grandma's treasure trunk

A lovely woman contacted me this morning through Jumbletown (the freecycle site we have here) to say she had a couple of old things that might be nice in the cottage. She had been cleaning out her grandma's attic and wanted to pass these on to someone who would enjoy them rather than her having to dump them. How exciting to go down to her not knowing what was waiting for me....

First these pretty pieces of vintage linens including a set of new mens linen hankerchiefs that Da will love as he never took to paper tissues. Also some damask tray cloths, pillowcases and pillow ticking fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then this crumbling, dusty, moulding box....what could be tucked in here for decades?....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what I found when I opened it....

A lovely roses china tea set that had never even been unpacked from the box. It is in the dishwasher as I type. Gorgeous!...

(Here is the china used as a prop for this vintage shabby chic tea cosy I have listed on Ebay this week - item no. 170222471232  If it does not sell on Ebay it will be listed on my vintage website www.vintageretrolingerie.com)

 But the best was yet to come..........

........a large antique, dome topped travel chest complete with the old destination labels on it! I love it...thank you Mimi!...and thank you Mimi's grandma.

I will enjoy restoring it and using it in White O'Morn Cottage to store my bedroom linens.

The labels are hard to read but say Dublin, Westland Row (a city train station), and Shannon. I have included some close ups of the antique cobwebs and spiders that came with it. These are the before pictures...I will - of course, be adding afters.

Bits and Bobs and Oddments Too

I have decided to blog today about an odd assortment of photos I have filed away for future use but well here they are now. No real theme or relation to each other. Just rambling old lady thoughts (that's right, I am not rock chick today, tomorrow I will be again) I think I'm sufferin' from the mentalpause!

As the cottage is over 150 years old it has a lot of history. Some of this history I am finding in the garden. Here are some bits and bobs I dug up in the  flower beds.  I found lots of broken crockery and am saving it to make one of those cute birdhouses covered in mosiacs. I think that whenever someone broke a plate in this cottage they just opened the kitchen window and flung it out.

Another thing I keep finding are old Syrup of Figs bottles (the white ones here) and Milk of Magnesia bottles (the blue ones here) (someone in this family had bad constipation) The brown circle thingy in photo is the top of a ceramic hot water bottle.  MMM...cold feet, constipation and a tendancy to drop dishes...getting to know you, getting to know all about you..... Anyway, I just keep putting my  finds on the kitchen windowsill until I decide what I am going to do with them. Cute little rustic vignette.

Here's Holly Dolly looking so cute!

This is my surprise camelia. My neithbour next door to me in Dublin, gave me a plant to put down at the cottage.  I was not too impressed- kinda shrivelled up and bent over (...the plant not the neighbour) So I just dropped it into a handy hole around the back, out of sight so it could die in peace. But when I went down in Febuary I spotted this lovely bloom. What a surprise!                                                                                                                                                                                       

These are some of the first flowers to bloom in the garden this year. Ohhh, I spot weeds - I'll put that on my to do list.

These three pics I call "Going, going, gone! I know they are not in order but then neither am I!

I love a dripple-eee candle that sculps interesting shapes as it burns. Here's another one I burned

earlier. 

Look at the shadow it casts on the wall -  lovely! 

...And this was taken in the cottage bathroom

 

....the soft light of dawn breaking on a misty frosty morning at Christmas 2007

A few weeks ago I planted the sunflower seeds and they are doing well. Thsi is is a picture of the sunflowers standing sentry at the garden gate last August. I can't believe they started life as tiny shoots and ended up over six foot tall!

Buried Treasure & Memories

We are always unearthing pieces of a previous life at the cottage.  This one is a very old scythe that was dug up by the digger when we were putting in the septic tank on the acre of land that came with the cottage. Later I was browsing through a book of Celtic poetry and calligraphy and found the following piece of a poem and thought how well it went with the scythe

It reads:

My grandfather's scythe.

Found rusting in the barn,

Now harvests twilight...twilight            

                             

Rescued Treasure – Treasured Vintage Singer Sewing Machine

My pal and fellow skipraider, Cecil, rescued this lovely vintage Singer sewing machine from a skip (dumpster) It is very old but in perfect working order and whoever had it took great care of it.

With it came: the original instruction book, all the attachments in original box, even the tube of oil in its box, the key to lock the wooden dome cover and even the packers slip!

Some woman treasured this for years but when she passed on it ended up in a skip. What a shame and what a waste!

It did show signs of having had a touch of woodworm (treated)  I will add a new electric motor and foot pedal and use it in the cottage. It will look lovely on the Singer sewing machine table that I rescued and restored earlier. (See picture above top left) I will think of that careful lady owner every time I use it.

Thank you Cecil for seeing this and thinking of me. You know I would not have passed it!