beach styling with vintage china...

g'day from my little beach house *Down Under* sweet gals...


it's tropical...warm, green & pretty lovely on our beaches today...

we're expecting more showers this afternoon- so i'm out with Miss.Lola (the puppy) this morning to tire 
her out for the day...

some days i don't mind a good drenching of the garden...the house...the puppy ;)

on those days, everything just seems a little cleaner...

today is one of those days...

but...before i head out with Miss.Lola i thought we could have a quick kitchen catch up...


the kitchen has to be one of the first rooms in any house to be sorted, don't you think?

i could truly do with a kitchen as big as my whole beach house...

i love everything about kitchens...the communal family life it holds...

the meals cooked...the recipes shared...

the chance to fill it...& the constant thoughts on re-designing it...

yep- this little baby needs some work...the floors are divine...the space, not so sorted yet...

we're moving the bench space around...& a new freestanding big stainless steel recipe inspiring
stove in there would be very loved i can assure you!

i have heard that good things come to those that *wait*...


i'm sooo waiting if anyone's reading this!

there's so much that i love about this kitchen...the light just blesses us...


the floorboards rock my boat more than tiles ever could...& it's white...


i just think, after our life in the English countryside, that i need a little more warmth to it...

can one ever have too much white?

i read many a blog about *beach living*...

many seem to spell out the virtues of whiter than white living...

i love this about the bloggy world...everyone's ideas are their own take on the world...

it's not the magazine empires dictating to us- but real people with real idea's- fresh & shared...

with this in mind...

for me, being born & bred on the Australian coast- i love our little beach house to be more french

farmhouse on the coast...

more linen & vintage china...more surfboards & beach towels on the lawn than starfish & stripes...

so...beach house styling aside...let's get back to the drawers...


i have to admit to a china issue...a serial hoarding china issue...

*my name is miss sew & so & i'm a vintage chinaholic*...

please tell me you can relate to this...


or just let me know if i'm making you feel relatively normal here!

i have to say that i am stunned by the prices of old english china in Sydney shops...


yep...it came on a boat to our coastline...

yep...it's gorgeous...

yep...it's not chain store...

but

it's still old china...

vintage....yep...but sold in second hand stores...

i had a rule of thumb in ol'Blighty- £2 a piece was my limit...my absolute limit...

as you can see, i managed to pack my cupboards on that little budget...

i seem to have drawers & drawers & drawers of the stuff...


& we love & use it everyday...

this has to be good for the soul right?


unpacking one's *vice* - a china vice that was started years ago as a HS student working in an interior

design store...

a vice that has been going strong for years...& one that i resign myself to...& share with pride

& love...

what do ya think?

c'mon sweet bloggy friends we all have one...

i've collected china from pretty much every place we've travelled to in some form...


white's & blue's...fresh & crisp...


from Japan to France...Europe to England...the South Pacific to Morocco...

& now it all has to fit into a little beach house kitchen, in need of a *wee bit* of renovation, on the Australian coast...

i love that...

& i love that i could tell you where each & every piece was from...


yep that's how great my addiction is...& how simple my life is ;)

every time i look at this silver pot stand from Paris- bought by my husband on the banks of the Seine 


i smile...& think of friendship...& birthdays...& memories...


it's not china- but it's a piece of our kitchen that holds our china...it's all in together in my heart...

so...the truth is out- i'm an addicted china hoarder...


i truly couldn't part with a piece...

it's what makes our kitchen...ours...

err...the linen drawer is pretty much the same...but it's better than other habits i could have...

as i said...the kitchen needs to be the first place in a house that's *home*...that's sorted & 

loved...

it's where we spend so much of our time...it's where we create endless family memories...

i started creating mine, with this life in mind, so many years ago...& it all makes me smile...

so how are your kitchen shelves shaping up?

hope my stash makes you feel like you've come across a fellow *chinaholic* member...

got any hoarding tips to share...!?

see ya tomorrow with litte Miss. Audrey's room...

melissa

xoxox

friday pretties on a saturday morning in a village...

friday pretties...
a gorgeously rare morning to myself...
i love school holidays...i truly do...
but every now & again...a day to myself is pretty heavenly...
i had the day, almost a whole day, to sew...catch up on orders...cook & pick up after my divinely lazy busy family...
but before i did all of this i wandered through the village...
& drank coffee...
& hung out in second hand shops...
& just stopped for a moment on my own...yep...on my own...
i picked up this *lovely-shaped* pile of goodies from *oxfam*...
i wasn't looking for colour today- just shape & form...
& how perfect is that little muddy brown one...
colour- hmmmm...
shape- mmmm...

lovely shaped, ugly old left on the shelf *vintage* vases looking for a little colour...

i have been desperate to try the virtues of my new found spray-bestie on some ceramic ware...

{go here for the details of my new obsession}

i have a love affair that is border-line manic for all china, that started when i was in my teens on the beaches...

where all my friends were saving for shopping spree's to the mall...

i was working to fund a china/homewares obsession that meant when i eventually moved out, i was ready to have my space...

no ikea box sets for my first house...no plastic cups...

but we also had no furniture...

we literally covered outdoor furniture in calico slip covers that i made for our indoor dining table & did the same with moving boxes for bedside tables...

but man...did we have great plates...& glasses...& bedspreads...we were young & very happy...

so...having just discovered this *spray-virtually-everything* amazing paint-i can very safely say it would have been my paint bestie way way back then too....

you know how much i love chippy...& worn & old...& dented & french...
but thrown in with all my authentically old vintage pieces, i do love me a bit of almost modern simplicity...
simple lines...
lovely shapes...
no patina or perfect chippy-ness taking your eye away from the *form* of a piece...

i could never have done this little experiment on any of my so very loved, used-every-single-day-old china...
but the experiment also needed pieces of a particularly interesting shape...
the little squat bud vase with it's beautiful blue insides...
stocky almost...but sweet with a rim wide enough for a teeny bunch of flowers...more than just a bud or two...
& that beautiful fan of a vase...muddy coloured & a little too sadly unaware of it's beautiful lines...

a modern, simple take on some wonderful old cast shapes...

i can now see a very cool, very sweet looking tea-party happening in our garden before the end of summer...

my chippy old french garden table, wine, some nibbly bits & some lovely english girlfriends...

i'll get the B.B {british bestie} onto that...

hear that janey- my front garden in two weeks sweetie...

start thinking about it...& where we can *put* the kids ;)

when i walk the village on my own...no kiddos...no bikes or scooters or drink bottles in tow...
i walk the long way...winding up & down past the houses i covert love...
aahhhh-ing over the fences at the garden's i wish i had the patience for...
always pinching a few bits...a few friday pretties...
hydrangeas...are everywhere at this time of year...
beautiful colours...
beautiful shapes...
beautiful in these vases...

that is one seriously shapely little vase....L.O.V.E  I.T!
& love my chippy chair ;)

friday pretties

shared on a saturday morning

because when the storm of kids came home last night

there were endless stories of muddy stomping through the english countryside

&

pizza's to make!

~~~

have a bloomin' great weekend gals

love me in spray paint heaven

xox

melissa