Birds do it.....

Despite appearances over the last few days, Spring is definitely here. After so much rain I can't believe how green everything suddenly is. But the most obvious sign in the neighbourhood is our sweet little blackbird couple (as featured in my post How to build a nest). They have a new nest in the cumquat tree, this time much higher and well hidden. They have been very busy preparing the nest and it seems a privilege to have them here for another Spring. Our midnight caller has also returned, we have a willy wagtail who visits most nights around midnight and sings the loudest and most lovely birdsong I have heard, surely it must work on the ladies.

Just in time for the romance season, we have finally finished a few of our Vintage wedding charms, to complement our Vintage Garters. They are hand made in our studio using pure silk, antique lace and ribbons and beautifully presented in silk organza bags, they are available in ivory, dusty pink, blush, soft blue and black, so romantic.

Shame I didn't spell check the labels..

The perfect soundtrack for this post!

We have some fabulous new Vintage Rhinestone buttons, very sparkly. We have mounted them on these pretty antique postcards, don't they look lovely?

These buttons are antique hand carved mother of pearl mounted on antique post cards from Rome and Paris, L'Amour L'Amour!

These are the biggest buckles we have seen, each disk is close to 10cm wide, two of them hook together to form the fastening. They are celluloid, unused and in perfect condition, classic 30's glamour.

Very special deliveries this week include, delicate little hand sewn monograms, 19th century silver plated filigree waistcoat buttons, lovely little spools of silver and gold thread and a bone tatting shuttle circa 1850. The most special delivery is the carved bone needle case, it is called a Stanhope because it contains a tiny viewer, through which you can see two views of Paris. It is in beautiful condition and a wonderful souvenir from the Paris Exposition in the 1870s.

Also just arrived are lots of lovely spools of vintage and antique threads, including Scottish and Irish linen thread, Japanese cotton and more spools of mercerised cotton. Much of this thread is surplus from the services and is around 70 years old. It is beautiful quality thread particularly well suited to projects involving hand sewing such as quilting and book binding.

Last but not least, we have a fabulous new collection of antique French laundry cloths, known as mangle cloths. They are 2-3 metres long and 90cm wide perfect for table cloths/runners or curtains (they make great roman blinds too). Many have little monograms and the colour and the texture of the linen is perfect. To complement these we also received a new delivery of these fab ticking from French General for Moda, love love love stripes!

We hope you have a great week with plenty of L'Amour L'Amour.