Tagged: dogs
Exterior x
It was my birthday yesterday – Yippeee me! Meet my presents – Alfie and Bear, the two best dogs ever who now bookend the front door in regal fashion, the finishing touch to the newly painted exterior which finally can get it’s unveiling.
We also have new window boxes, made to size from a great company on Etsy so they sit properly within the window frame. The black of the boxes contrasts the graphite of the paintwork.
The boxes have been planted with ivy to soften and tumble over edges, heucheras for their colour and cyclamen as they were the only white plant readily available at this time of year. At some point trailing white geraniums will be added. It will be a pleasure to see the living wave of colour and white expanding and flowing out over the window sill. I’m even thinking about adding them to the first floor.
The painted graphite on the outside of the house has been dramatic. It has given the whole house a presence, made it feel bigger, added a modern gloss without compromising its history.
Very happy.
Laters, Kate x
In England’s green and pleasant land..
We spent the Bank Holiday weekend with family in the light, clean air of the country, marvelling at the fresh greens and bright colours of early summer, whiling away happy hours reading papers that got read, drinking wine and watching dogs happily snoring in the sun.
Their’s is a garden that represents all that is good about England; It’s a place were time stands still yet life buzzes around.
It’s a joy just to walk around and breathe in.
And the children love the freedom of space..
(Taken just for Lauren..)
They have the most amazing tree..
Like something straight out of Doctor Seuss and The Lorax..
I loved it..made me giggle and sigh.
There was much playing of football with cousins and dogs till the sun went down. Gentle, simple..heavenly.
Laters, Kate x
Oddities..
As a child I loved to collect small ceramic animals..the sort of thing I’d scream in horror at now with their suggestion of forgotten, dusty shelves in a down-trodden garage somewhere far away and remote. Which is one reason I find Debra Broz’s Oddities so fascinating..
A rural girl, Debra found her love of all things small and sweet whilst growing up in central Missouri.
Using restoration skills she combines various parts of vintage and commercially produced animals to create her own breed of beguiling art.
They’re fun, they’re witty…they say don’t take life too seriously..and yet look below the surface and there’s something else going on..
With their pastel colours and cutesy looks they deftly question the line between high bow and low brow..when is a piece the last thing to be sold at a jumble sale? And when is it on a pedestal in a feted Exhibition?
They gently flutter their long lashes and weave their magic, concentrating the power of sentiment…and suggest we are all prey to nostalgia..even when something is rather amiss..
In our modern world, the authentic and the virtual have grown almost indistinguishable just like the smooth, smiling lines of Debra’s creations.
The truth is, it takes verve to be so ‘every day’..but she has grabbed it with both hands and transformed kitsch into poignancy, with a little walk back into reality.
Maybe I need to start collecting again…
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 