Vintage Baby Clothes and Lace

Hello again friends,

Vintage baby clothes have always tugged on my heart-strings - especially gentle whites and creams, even those yellowed with age. I've been collecting since I got my first job as a teenager. I could only afford charity shop prices - back then 50 cents or $1 was the norm. My Hope Chest gradually filled with little items that I hoped to see on my own babies one day. 

I had to wait at least 20 years for it to happen, so that's a lot of collecting!!! Below is a cotton petticoat on which I embroidered a pink bow and some rosebuds. 'Sugar Britches' is the model here, a porcelain ad cloth life-sized baby doll I made in my twenties.

I can't believe how people could throw out beautiful heirloom items. This pure wool blanket is light and warm and soft, tastefully embroidered with cream flowers.

And yes, I did use it, as a pram blanket in the old cream cane pram I bought from a shop called 'No Horse, No Wife, No Moustache' about 30 years ago, which served my three beautiful babies.

Here's the old pram - it was a Summer and too hot for a woolen rug...

And another Summer baby! 

Here is a detail of the flowers:

This dress below is superb - in a soft, light wool crepe, in a golden creamy tone with fine white cotton lace. What a glorious find!

Here are some lace details:

And here is my daughter Roisin wearing it years ago!

Next is a 50's or 60's synthetic and lace dress in white with a bonnet to match. I do prefer natural fibres, but it's sweet. You don't see them much any more, even in opportunity shops. 

This dress is also synthetic, but beautifully hand made, smocked and embroidered.

These baby shoes are modern leather in a vintage style. I altered them (not permanently!) by putting some lace held in by pictures of vintage babies... a fun decoration.

Below is a card I made a while ago using a stamped image, a feather and some lace pieces.

And a wedding collage...

I'm joining Wen for Simply Neutrals #49 at her blog AppleApricot. Come over and join us in celebrating neutral beauty of all kinds.

Stay well, and I'll see you soon.

Embroidered Baby Dress, Bonnet and Shoes - Simply Neutrals #35

Hello friends, 

If you've visited my blog before you will know how I love babies, especially 'vintage style' babies. 

My own three babies (two boys and a girl) were dressed in vintage woolens and hand made dresses, many of them vintage treasures saved up from op shops since I was 16! 

One of my favourite things is a vintage cane pram which I got from an antique shop in Cobargo called 'No Horse, No Wife, No Moustache' many years before having babies. Below is my daughter Roisin (which is Irish for 'little rose') in the old pram, wearing the embroidered dress I made for her. The old pram was very bouncy - good for unsettled babies. It didn't fold, so it was limited to our local vicinity only, and once the babies became adventurous and ready to climb, I had to abandon it as it had no harness.

Here is Roisin wearing the shoes and dress, but sadly, the bonnet was too small by then.

So I used a vintage woolen jacket and bonnet...

The pattern was from an 'Australian Smocking and Embroidery' magazine. I used a soft cream cotton twill, with palest pink and cream embroidery thread for the rose buds. Here's a close up of the embroidery...Here are the shoes to match...

The dress is now displayed on one of my porcelain dolls - 'Sugar Britches'. Still in the same pram...

Sugar Britches is a porcelain doll I made before I had my babies - I was always hoping the real thing would happen, but in the mean time I enjoyed dressing my baby doll in the vintage baby clothes I had collected. Her hair was real mohair which I tea-dyed, and she almost feels like a real baby - heavy and floppy. 

One of the most special presents I made for my Mum was a Sugar Britches doll - which I carried on a train to visit her before I had a drivers' licence ( with a few strange glances from other passengers!)

I'm joining Wen from Apple Apricot in Simply Neutrals Tuesday, where the theme is neutral.  Please visit here.

Sweet Dreams and Fairytale Roses

Hello Friends,

It's so good to make contact again with the Blog World after my long hibernation away to heal. I was sorry to hear that so many of you have had sadness in your lives these past months. I hope that time will help heal, and that you are surrounded by loving support. 

I have spent a lot of time away from my computer, partly because I couldn't drag myself there due to PTSD, but also because I needed to do other things like inspirational reading, counseling, mindfulness, exercising and socialising. Some other things that have helped me feel better are:

1. Creating vignettes to photograph

2. Working hard in my garden

3. Getting more and regular sleep

When my inspiration to create is low, I like to 'play' with various collected treasures to create vignettes, which I then photograph from various angles. Rearranging my displays in various rooms lets me enter 'the flow', where time is meaningless, worries drop away, and I find joy in the simplicity of the present moment. 

I found this gorgeous sheet music (above) and the name 'Jessie's Dream' became a theme. In the above vignette I used some white leather baby shoes, a worn silver try and a bridal floral headpiece.

My garden of many roses is a great source of healing - it gives me physical exercise as well as great pleasure. I love picking flowers and arranging them in vases, which I then  photograph so I can take delight in looking back at the results of my work, savouring each exquisite bloom and vase. Below is 'Climbing Cinderella', one of Kordes' Fairy Tale Collection. This is my favourite rose as it is covered in roses in Spring and continues to bloom for months until almost Winter. It is about 3 metres high and vigorous. The blooms last well in vases, too.

Thanks to Dee of Dee's Funk'nJunk in Ulladulla, I found this amazing old chippy paint door to use as a photography backdrop. My kids were appalled at its state, and that I would use it as an item of home decor!

My darling Mum gave me a gorgeous miniature bush rose and it goes so well with climbing Cinderella...

The roses below are David Austin's Windermere, which again bloom from spring right through until Winter with a stunning old-world light lemony scent.

It's a pity the petals fall after one day in the vase, but they do look so beautiful...

Now for all you Creatives, the latest science on sleep shows that you are more creative if you get proper sleep. Since I've been getting 8 hours of sleep regularly now for a couple of months, I feel much better emotionally and physically, and I'm feeling more creative energy.  

The best scientific book I've read recently is Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams". I stumbled upon it in a review in The Guardian just before Christmas; it was only released late in 2017. I've been convinced by his presentation of many experiments from around the world over many years, that we all need to prioritise our precious sleep better. This page from the book is a great summary - and it's all backed by scientific rigour...

I've been committing to a regular bedtime, no screen for an hour before and some exercise during the day. When the dawn light wakes me through the chinks in the curtains, I reach for my trusty eye patch, turn over and breathe slowly until I fall asleep again till about 7:00am. That last two hours gives me the dream sleep that is so important to feeling well rested. 

Sleep is a free remedy that improves so many health problems - all you have to do is try it out to see if it helps you feel better. (I'm not getting a commission here - just wanting to share a great benefit we often ignore :) 

You can purchase the book here:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Why-We-Sleep-Matthew-Walker/9780141983769?ref=grid-view&qid=1515465349015&sr=1-2

Wishing you a good night's sleep and Sweet Dreams, as my Mum always says.

Love and Hugs, 

Jesse XXX

Just Enough - Day 2

Kim's textures are so delicious it's hard to go lightly - the textures add so much depth and 'arty-ness' to the photos. This picture of an antique pair of baby shoes (I bought for my daughter) represent for me those years of bonding, closeness, hormones filling me with well-being and connection, when my babies were babies, and mothering was deep, fulfilling and my skin felt translucent. Emotions and senses were heightened and I felt a greater closeness to the rest of the world. My skin felt 'thin', as if there was less of a barrier between me and my emotions, and other people's presence.

I have used Kim's texture 'KK Charmed' at 46%.