Thursday 25 June 2009

Swapping Goodness and More

Well, the postman delivered me two treats today. First up a lovely brown box from Artemis, filled with all manner of sweet and darling things!



Iris was so excited and helped me carefully unwrap each treasure, pausing only for a fraction of a second before pouncing on the next. It was a lot like Christmas.













I have been wearing the coin all day, it has a tiny wren on it. Perfect.



I mean, wow, look at this, she made it especially for me... (shakes head in wonder). Thank you Artemis.

And what's more, I also got a thoroughly unexpected family of owls in a frothy white tissue paper nest from my dear sweet friend Jessica!




I feel very lucky indeed.

We have been out all day, Iris and I spent the day with my parents. We did a little shopping and my mum helped me buy this beautiful silk blouse from Whistles.



I tried lots of things on so it was hard to decide which one to splash out on. I have a bit of a Whistles habit, but only in the sale. Siiiiiigh.

I also found some lovely books including this Japanese book from the late seventies called Gathering Mushrooms.



The illustrations are slightly creepy and beautiful.







If I wasn't such a book-lover, I would consider cutting some of them out to frame - a triptych of these would look pretty amazing on a wall don't you think?


And this Picture Puffin, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, also from the late seventies. The illustrations are by Errol Le Cain, and they're so incredibly lavish, intricate and detailed.

Look at the Twelve Princesses in their beds.



Or the front papers.



I also love this one from The Silver Forest (a good blog name, oh yes?).



Anyway, each page heralds some new enchanting loveliness, I'm going to pore over it for some time yet I can tell.

A happy day. Thank you to two splendid girls for making it so.

p.s I have just remembered that I haven't even managed to post all my giant flea market finds, in fact I have a backlog of finds to show you. Argh. Does anyone know where I can score a little more time? Hmm?

6 comments:

fern said...

I'm loving those weirdy rabbits!

I struggle too when faced with frame-able book illustrations but ultimately, I don't think I could ever cut up a book.
Can you scan and print?

Naomi Devlin said...

Oh my god, that Errol le Cain, Twelve Dancing Princesses was one of my favourite books when I was a kid. The dresses, the forest of silver trees and then gold, the boat trip to a magical all night dance party. Heaven! I absolutely must visit with it.

Beautiful blouse - whistles is one of the acceptable habits - not like picking your nose or anything.

Gathering Mushrooms - definitely a creepy book. Without the eyes it would be pedestrian. With the eyes it's like looking at the work of the chapman brothers. I don't wish to visit with this one thanks. Give me Mushroom in the Rain any day! http://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-Rain-Mirra-Ginsburg/dp/0689714416

Finally - swaps rock no?

x x x

Anonymous said...

Oh so jealous... lucky you! I only got my mobile phone bill through the post today :(

Anonymous said...

what lovely swapsies! That Artemis is darn clever.. what a thing to treasure!

And The Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favourites too. The illustrations are just out of this world. I have it on my 'look at frequently shelf'!

read me... said...

aaah, my lovely mum has that family of owls... she's had it for such a long time. they're so cute!

Leigh said...

I just went to Artemis' blog and love it as much as yours! Sometimes I feel nervous about moving to the UK because it's so far from my family, but then when I read your blog and now hers, I'm so excited about it that I'm ready to get the first flight out!!