The Truth

With this ring......

 

 

So you may have gathered that I like getting my craft on, but I've always been a bit useless when it comes to fabric crafts. My seamstress granny taught me to sew (ish) but to my shame I've never learned to crochet, knit or make clothes.

 

So I made my fabric crafts debut with this little ring cushion. My sister was recently bridesmaid for her lovely friend Angharad's winter wedding in Cambridge and I undertook to make this for her. The burgundy felt went with the colours of the wedding and as she was a Northern Irish girl marrying an American in England, we chose to use the vintage Irish lace doilies to reflect her roots.

It turned out quite cute I think, just don't look too closely at the stitiching!

 

(I took these photos before posting the ring cushion so that's my beautious engagement ring that Danny chose all on his own-io. Clever boy!)

precious stones

 

Okay so this is clearly not a fashion blog but I couldn't resist posting this amazing malachite print  dress I came across because it's a total work of art and I covet it ever so.

 

Malachite is mined in Zambia and I got a beautiful bangle and necklace when I was there so I've got the jewellery all sorted and now I just need someone to lend me the $$$$$ needed to buy it (from designer Monique L'huilier)

 

Plus: Florence dresses as a sexy dinosaur.

Love it.



Happy Birthday Hubby

 

For Danny's 36th birthday we hired out this amazing little cinema in Comber, just a few miles away from Belfast.

 

The Spence brothers have built two 1940s style cinemas just down the lane from one another, using materials reclaimed from local cinemas as they were refurbished or closed.

 

 

Look at the beautiful interior! A friend who was there with us remarked that the place reminded him of the Regal cinema in Limavady that he'd grown up going to, and it turns out that the seats came from that very cinema! Northern Ireland is a very small place.

 

 

We watched pretty much the best film ever made, 'The Princess Bride'.

Haven't seen it?

Inconceivable!

 

 

 

Happy birthday husbando.

 

 

Feliz Ano Nuevo

 

That's happy new year to you and me! This year I lucked out and spent it in Madrid along with Danny, his mum and sister and her boyfriend.

 

Weirdly all bars in Madrid close until after midnight but we managed to find a Cuban restaurant which served obscenely large rum cocktails in which to pass a few hours before the countdown.

 

I forced poor Danny to make the trek down to the Puerta del Sol where everyone traditionally sees in the new year but our tardiness and the crowds of 30,000 or more people meant that the square was full and we were squeezed into a side street for midnight.

 

As it turns out Dan's sister and her boyfriend had a better view of the countdown at the square from the warmth of their bar (and it is COLD in Madrid this time of year!) but it was cool to be part of all the excitement. Plus I have a slightly perverse love of being in big crowds.

 

 

I hope you all spent the new year somewhere lovely with someone you love.

 

shopping for twigs

 

Christmas is upon us once again. So Danny and I went out to the Cave Hill Forest near our house at the weekend to collect some branches, added a vase, some decorations and a random assortment of christmassy bits and bobs around it, including the obligatory animal skull. Merry Christmas y'all!

 

 

 

Introducing Melanie

 

 

This is an original 'Melanie' by Louis Shabner. I found her in a charity shop recently and swore to myself that I wouldn't spend any more than a tenner on her, but I found that I couldn't bear to pass her by even at the £20 they were asking. A bit of ebay research though leads me to believe that she's relalatively rare and worth about £150!

 

I hung it up in my sister-in-law's salon to have a gander at it and had to admit that it looked good there against the amazing wallpaper; so there it stays until I find somewhere appropriate to house Melanie in my house.

 

Isn't she a little sexpot?!

 

 

 

Here are a couple more pictures by Louis Shabner which were printed in their thousands and hung in every stylish home during the 60s and 70s.

 

 

And they're contemporaneous with the more famous work of Tretchikoff, the 'King of Kitsch'. Original prints of these used to be thrown out in their dozens but it's near impossible to get your hands on them now. I'd sell a kidney in return for an original 1950 'Chinese Girl'.

 

But for now I'm satisfied by my girl crush on Melanie.

 

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shine a light

 

Following on from my last post, here are three more styles of handmade lampshade which are available to buy from lost & found.

 

Prices range from £10 - £25 plus any postage charges.

 

email maevep22@hotmail.com for more details.

 

Handmade map lampshade

 

Here's a little sneak peek of the lampshades I'm going to be making to (hopefully) sell in the Christmas markets this year.

 

a paper globe lampshade

+

circles of pretty paper

+

double sided tape

=

a really nice present for someone.

 

 

Lampshades are available to buy. To find out more just drop me a line at - maevep22@hotmail.com 

 

- small £10

- medium £15

- large £20

 

more small adventures in Ireland

 

My obsession with ancient Ireland continues unabated. Our latest jaunt brought us to Mountsandel Fort (above) in Coleraine, near my hometown. Mountsandel is the oldest known inhabited site in Ireland with finds dating from 7900BC and it perches high on a rather picturesque bend in the River Bann. 

 

Excavations have shown that the site was continually occupied throughout every period of settlement in Ireland,  in the Mesolithic and Late Neolithic; as a promontory fort in the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age, as a motte in the 13th Century and as a fort, possibly an artillery emplacement, during the 1641 Rebellion.

 

Today it is largely forgotten about, bar the odd local out walking their dogs.

 

 

 

 

This is another really fascinating ancient earthwork which I'd never heard of until recently, despite being only about ten miles from my hometown - it blows my mind just how many remnants of our celtic ancestors there are scattered about this country, if you only know to look for them.

 

The earthworks are known as the Lissanduff Circles and take the form of two pairs of concentric rings (raths) dating from the early Bronze Age. The main rath would have been a large standard enclosure used as a fortified home for people and animals, these were built in defensive locations to offer maximum protection from raiders.

 

The farthest set of concentric banks are more intriguing, they are oval in shape and have a water spring at their centre. Archaeologists have discovered that non-porous clay was used to line the banks of the oval in order to create a deep pool of water, which would have been used for water rituals.

 

The raths (or the 'Dark Fort' as it is known locally) sit just behind the beautiful beach and sand dunes of Portballintrae. We visited on a particularly 'refreshing' day! 

 

 

 

And lastly, a small wander through Downhill Forest where we discovered that Autumn has well and truly set in round these parts and indeed winter doesn't feel too far off. Alas I fear my beautiful new bell tent that I recently bought may have to lie in storage until next year. 

 

 

Where have you been adventuring?

wedding brooch bouquet

 

This summer past was all about weddings for me - either attending them, photographing them or making things for them. And so here are some pictures of a brooch bouquet I made for a friend from my hometown who got married in very the same chapel that Danny and I did.

 

She gave me some brooches to include that had belonged to her mother and mother-in-law and some pendants that were hers from childhood including a celtic cross and a hurley stick. A really sweet touch was to put photos from the two parent's weddings into a little locket hanging from the handle of the bouquet. I think I'll steal that idea for again.

 

 

I also made the beaded headpiece you can see here which had three strands in front and three at the back. Again this was Jane's idea and she gave me the brooches to incorporate, but it's something I'd love to try again and was surprisingly easy to make, especially considering the exorbitant prices they charge for these things in bridal shops.

 

The only problem with working in the wedding industry though is that it always makes me wish I could get married all over again!