Saturday, May 30, 2009

Flowers Everywhere!


The beauty of an English garden is everywhere - on china, textiles, in paintings and packaging! We have filled our cottage garden with many varieties of pretty flowers and shrubs, and that love of flowers is also reflected in our home and on our website. Here is a small selection of our favourite collections and floral scenes which abound in both cottage and garden!

Vintage toiletries in a plethora of floral fragrances and designs...

A rampant and aromatic rambler of a rose!


The dainty blooms of aquilegia...

...the sunny yellow of the pansy...

...and the soft faded purple of the geranium...


...are echoed in this beautiful old oil painting of pansies.

The vibrant pink of sweet williams provides bold and lasting colour throughout the season.

A mix of magnificent, floral vintage fabrics provides inspiration in a rainbow of cheerful colours and patterns.

A pretty floral glass mirror amidst the vintage toiletries.

Thank you for visiting - we hope you have an enjoyable weekend!

23 comments:

  1. hiya, I have an award for you over on my blog! Hope you guys are enjoying this beautiful sunshine!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for the floral lovliness...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful... And I am loving that hollyhock fabric behind the toiletries. I want that!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Clare, Beautiful photos. Wish I could have a rummage in all that glorious fabric! Hope you have a fab weekend, Lucyxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. So beautiful! Thanks for posting! I have some tins similar to yours, and you've given me some great ideas for displaying them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beautiful post. xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the old toiletries. As a child I had my own display, just like you have shown, of tins of talc and soap and bath cubes! Mind you, they were new then, not vintage!
    I wonder if ever you have come across something I've been searching for for years? A box of soap by Bourjois (of Soir de Paris fame, which wasn't considered a very 'nice' perfume to have in my youth; it was considered 'racy'!) ... anyway the box of soap by Bourjois was lovely. The lid was hinged to open (i.e. not a separate lid) and when it did, it formed the backdrop of a flower stall, with the flower seller. The soaps were end on in the box, 6 or 8 of them, I think, and each represented a different flower, with a painting of a flower down the ends of the wrapper on the soap. I would love to have a box like this again.
    Similarly, Cylax produced something called Skin Soap in a purple and silver wrapper. I loved this, it was quite expensive and a treat for my Mother to buy it for herself, but it smelled delightful.
    And also Revlon produced some guest soaps in their Aquamarine fragrance. They were pale turquoise and each soap was shaped like a small hand. Again, I would love to be able to find one of these again.
    I was fortuante insofar as my mother had an account at one of the town's department stores and, as such, she mde friends with the very elegant women on the perfumery. They used to save the tester bottles of perfume for me, the glass bottles with droppers in them and which often were mounted in a Bakelite stand. I used to add these to my toiletries display in my bedroom.
    Favourite of the cheaper fragrances was Yardley's Bond Street (anyone remember that?) and of the expensive fragrances, and still a great fave of mine, Lanvin's Arpege.
    Margaret P

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely flowers. The toiletry display is absolutely beautiful. You have inspired me to look for old toiletries.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for sharing all these beautiful pictures! Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a beautiful post...I also enjoy flowers and floral motifs in textiles, ceramics and other items.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oooh, what a lovely post.

    There's an award waiting for you at my place.

    Sue xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello! I just discovered your blog today. It's so lovely! I've bookmarked it, so that I can come visit a part of the world that I want to see in person more than anywhere else on earth!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hello, I found your blog through your website which I absolutely love so thought it was about time I commented. Beautiful photos. I never thought about looking for vintage toiletries until I saw your website. I remember my grandmother having a lot of these when I was a child and I was always mad on the packaging even then.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pretty flowers in your post. Thank you for sharing these wonderful English country cottage treasures. Margie.

    ReplyDelete
  16. As always just divine, now off to visit your website!
    alicia

    ReplyDelete
  17. what beautiful photos and wonderful inspiration, I would love to get in amongst it...I am always on the lookout for vintage toiletries

    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mmmmmmm.........yum! I love it all.

    Blessings,
    Spencer

    ReplyDelete
  19. GORGEOUS PHOTOS!!!! Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh it's very very charming !^^

    ReplyDelete