Summer Georgian Girl

I know I haven't blogged much even though there are alot of changes in my life.  The big move out of our family home has taken some getting used to.  I am thankful that I know all my treasures are boxed up somewhere.

We do get our new house this Friday, and I will share with you all that "downsizing" stuff and let you know if it's going to work.

In the mean time, I thought I'd share one of my treasures I got before I packed everything up for the move.

She's a lovely little girl isn't she?   I  just had to have her.  Thanks Ebay.  I still love my coral fabric toile on my chippendale child's chair.  Blogged about here.

Given that all my stuff is being stored, using chairs as easels seems to be a habit of mine.  It also keeps off overweight adults who don't have the sense to not sit on a fragile chair.

 Above is a lovely antique handcolored print.  I can't resist anything old.  What can I say.   I really do miss opportunities to find treasures.  

I am trying to de-stress by gardening these days.   Below are some summer photos of the garden in Calif.

The flower carpet roses are doing really well right now.  They surround a lavender bed which has another flush of lavender.  Below is a photo of the other side of the walk--instead of flower carpet roses we have drift roses.  They are a bit lower in height than the flower carpet.  However I do not like them as well as they don't bloom as much as the flower carpet roses.  Note--we planted Red flower carpet roses--not scarlet, which I think turns more pink.

My son-in-law loves gardening, and took care of the property for the past 3 years.  He planted a huge garden, tons of flowers and grasses.

The zinnias do a great job of coming back every year and filling up spaces with amazing color.

The trellises were a summer project.  I designed the end cuts, thanks to an antique plate providing the perfect round template.  That wasn't easy to do.  My job was to draw the pattern on the board.

The zinnias have jumped the sidewalk on the left, and are now headed towards the open space.  We'll see how far the wind blows those seeds!

Unusual Chairs - Antique Italian Aesthetic Movement

I am thinking about these chairs.   I love chairs, have way too many.  But these are different.

Are they too different?

I am not sure that I like the angular look to the chair, it is somehow unsettling to me.  They are so unusual I have to consider them.

What do you think?  Too much?  I think maybe the griffons on the chair don't help me.  A little creepy.   I shall decide tomorrow.

Beverly's Collection of Everything, Part II

The last post was about my friend Beverly's collection.  She passed away, and sadly all her wonderful collection was sold and dispersed to other collectors.  I thought it would be interesting to show how many different collections she had, and in part, how she displayed them.   My photographs were taken during her estate sale, so they are not the best, and don't always show how a room was decorated, but it is still interesting as it was not completely dismantled for the sales.

Previously covered were the entryway, living and dining rooms.    I'll go down the hallway to the left of the entryway which leads to two sitting rooms and her bedroom.


Sitting Room #1 
This room held a french sofa, a couple of chests, a center table, and a screen.  The two sitting rooms were "blue rooms".

Sitting room #1 had a wonderful carved french sofa, and a collection of blue transferware.

I never understood the wallpaper in the background.  She covered it up with this blue screen.

The needlepoint on the demilune table caught my eye.  It's quite lovely.

Wonderful piece of needlework.   I don't think I've ever seen a nicer patriotic needlepoint.

English game table was used as a center table.   I love the piece of old toile underneath the table.

Some of the items on the center table were loners in her collection.  I don't think I saw another piece of wedgwood-- see the lovely cheese dome.

This room held a few interesting mirrors, and my favorite chest.  You can see papier mache trays tucked here and there also.

William & Mary chest with bun feet

Intriguing mirror.  I love the bellflower drops on the sides.

Venetian chair had its original upholstery.  Bev used tacks to cover the tattered upholstery.

 I thought it was interesting that Bev didn't recover her venetian chair.  She used glass tacks to "recover" it, while leaving the original intact.

Beautiful french sofa had an ornate wood carved frame

Most of the blue and white transfeware was displayed in this room.  Some of the pieces are featured below.

Davenport Transferware

Blue transferware with wonderful hunt scene border

Blue transferware with a pastoral scene.  Who can resist anything with cows on it!

blue transferware with deer.  I love the prancing deer!

Transferware and a jasperware cachepot with horses on it.

You see some of her Bennington (Rockingham) brown pottery mixed in with the blue and white.

Sitting Room #2
This room was right next to her bedroom, and was entered through the previous sitting room.  She had a courtyard in the center of her house, and the two sitting rooms along with her bedroom flanked it.  This was the second blue sitting room.  It had more of an american flavor to me with the bird fabric, where the previous room felt more english (and french)  to me.

Across from the door that you entered, you had the view of this wonderful cabinet. I'm not sure of the history, it had so many little drawers in it that I thought it might be some kind of a cabinet made for a shop.

To the left of the cabinet, you can see a display shelf holding blue and white export china.  The doorway you see goes to her bedroom, a tiny room built off the original bedroom.  I think she did this when she was caring for her invalid husband.

The photo below shows the cabinet loaded with more blue and white export china.

Lovely quilt complements the blue and white export china.

Beverly collected portraits.  I love this picture of a chubby chinned royal.   I'd like to have her visit my house.    There is a papier mache tilt-top table set up for viewing.  Lovely!  In the photograph above, there is a mirror resting against the cabinet.  It is wonderful!

Fabulous 18th century antique mirror

To the right of the table is an old cheval mirror with a paw-foot stool in front of it.

Cheval mirror with attached candleholders.

The placement of the mirror was nice.  It was to the left of a sliding door, opposite from the entry door into the room. While it was a small room, it felt more expansive.  A good note here is that you don't have to decorate a bedroom as such, you can use it any way you want.

Paw-foot stool

Sorry about the blurry pictures.  I thought you'd still enjoy seeing all the wonderful things.

To the right of the door, you see this vignette.

Blue and white room with collections of chinese export porcelain and staffordshire dogs.

At one point, there were so many dogs underneath the table, you had to giggle.   They were darling.  Only a few remain here.   I love the bird cage on the table to your right.  That chair was comfortable to sit in and read.  I think the drawers on the table are from a desk.

Bedroom

This was a tiny little room, almost felt like a sleeping porch.  There was a single bed here.  Missing is a beautiful embroidered wall hanging.   Wish you could have seen it.  I only show you this because it is possible to take a narrow room and make it cute.   The embroidered tapestry had dominated this part of the room.

Quilt collection on the bed --along with a toile throw I made for her. 

I really like her blue and white quilt collection.  The one in the previous room, circle around a star, is my favorite.

Love the star in the center of a circle quilt.  I don't know what it is called, but I like it!

Looking past the foot of the bed, you had this lovely view. You could see her courtyard beyond.  Hanging in the window are wooden cherubs.  The wall cabinet houses santos figurines and retablo religous paintings.

Now, this always struck me as odd, as Beverly would tell you she wasn't religious.   Maybe she just liked the artwork.  In front of the window is a papier mache sewing cabinet, with a Baccarat bottle set on top.  I love the sewing table, adds a black item to the room.  That's something that helps give a room depth.

Santos, retablos, cherubs, candles, baccarat, and sewing table in the bedroom.

Close-ups of some of the collection items:

Darling mirror with 3 Baccarat dresser bottles

Papier Mache Sewing Table is to the right of the Venetian Chair

There were many retablo items.  Beverly said she got alot of them in Mexico early in her marriage.  Retablo refers to a latin america devotional painting on board.  It is often on tin.   They are themed catholic art, most likely.

retablo Mother Mary & Baby Jesus

retablo from mexico

There are a few santos sprinkled in too.

Grouped together, it made a lovely display.   I don't have any photos of the cherubs, but they looked great in front of the window of her bedroom.


I will continue with some more specific collections in a future post.  I hope you enjoyed this post.  I wish my friend were still here, consider this a tribute to her, as her collection meant everything to her.   She was very depressed one weekend posted cancer-surgery.  She was supposed to be in bed.  I called her up, and took her out on a Sunday to an estate sale.  She had so much fun and was so excited because she purchased a period table for $45 that everyone else missed.   I am so happy that I stopped by that day.

Summer Antique Finds

This summer I've not done much blogging.  Reading or writing....  That sounds like heresy to write on a blog, but my life has been so hectic, that  I feel my days are not my own.  I'm trying to take back control, so here I am!

Last week I decided to wax my porches.    They are travertine, and I wrote about how we installed them ourselves here.

My favorite stone sealer with wax is by Bellinzoni, Deep Color Enhancer.   After I put it on, I buff it with the car polisher. (One of these days I need to buy a floor polisher.)

Here you can see the life that the enhancer adds.

The back patio - all done!  Waiting for furniture.   I'm not sure what I am going to do back here.

The front porch is where I like to hang out in the morning.  

The fountain is in the center of the courtyard, surrounded by Molineaux roses.  This is my view when I drink my coffee, and sit out here with the laptop.

 There are times when you can't see the leaves for all the roses, but this is a nice bloom for August 28.

I love the color of the roses when they first open.  They are so bright, and then fade to a softer yellow as they age.

This summer I have gone to an antique show, a few antique shops, and shopped on-line.    There's no rhyme or reason to what I purchase, but thought I'd share the little finds, the life of a collector.

It's never to early to think about christmas decorations.

This little Napoleon will look great on a christmas tree!

 The objects below were random purchases.  I don't have a collection of miniature portraits, but I loved the girl in this one.  The faience lamp is for a bathroom counter, my pink bathroom.

I think she's my favorite.  I know the frame is beat up, but you can't pass up the lovely girl.
 You can always find another frame for her.

I ventured out to an estate sale, and came home with a pair of lovely early 1800's sheraton chairs.  I love the morning glory vines painted on them.   I think they will become "looking chairs", not "sitting chairs", as one of my 1820's italian chairs broke last weekend when a very nice young man, who weighs a bit more than he should, sat in it.  At least all his friends teased him when it broke.  I will put a stack of books on the chair,it discourages use if I think it's too fragile.

Lovely sheraton chair.  I love the rush seat.

Sometimes you can protect a chair by giving it an occupant.  This little guy is
wearing lederhosen my brother used to wear. Imagine getting picked on
at school because you wore lederhosen....

 The next two items are handpainted terra cotta plaques from England.  One has some sheep on it, so my family understands why they came home with me.

 Well done, I love these little paintings.

The plaques look nice in the living room.   I have needlework and embroidery mixed in with the paintings, but it all seems to work.   The regency silk embroideries are some of my favorites to collect, and have more of an impact grouped together. So my rooms get layered with whatever was purchased most recently.  It's not a strategy I would advise, but I have to find things a home right away, so the family won't notice my acquisitions, hahah. (On a winter rainy day, I will probably take them all down and put them in a different order...)

My next chore is to replace some lavender that died in my new lavender bed.

I raised the lavender up a bit, they don't like wet feet.  I thought this might help them survive...

I'm off to my next task, working on my daughter's wedding.  What a lot of work for a few hours!  So far I've finished the "save the date" cards, a 1781 trade card, worked on their wedding website, and have begun lining up vendors.

Isn't this the prettiest walk a bride could have?   I love the gated garden!

We came to measure and walk the venue, Villa Montalvo, last week.   What a romantic setting!   Wish me luck, I'm off to spend an insane amount of money (for me) on a couple of hours.  I tried to get the couple to elope, but they want a wedding!