Friday 9 January 2015

Mushrooming and the satisfaction of hanging pictures

I changed the picture in the heading, just for the fun of it. There is much less chance to go mushrooming here than in Finland, I decided to make some of my own. The mushrooms were modelled in Dass modelling clay and I stuck them in a scouring pad (happened to be out of florist's oasis) inside a little wooden box. I covered the pads with lichen, which I had gathered in Finland. 

I have been thinking about how to hang our pictures downstairs. The process took over a year. Admittedly some of the walls were not painted before the autumn gone and it made it more difficult to visualise. We have been debating what to hang above the sofa; I have wanted the Tingatinga paintings up again, but Elf husband had other ideas, which did not really come to fruitition. I had an idea of maybe hanging a group of smaller pictures there and was going to buy picture ledges from IKEA, when I suddenly had the INSPIRATION I had been waiting for so long. I needed to hang that group of pictures, but not in the living room. We have the perfect spot just in the foot of the stairs. There is a big white space, which I now call my gallery.



The livingroom got two of the Tingatingas and a pot plant called Triffy Trafalgar (she is greeted every morning and we stroke her gently from time to time).


We also had an extra little reading light installed for the little sofa.


I also wanted to show our new stone sculpture; we found it on the beach with the ancient forest. and it is decorated with fossilised marine creatures. It sits like a huge dragon egg on the window sill. 


 Have you found any decorative pieces from the nature lately?

3 comments:

Julie said...

Hi Johanna,

Julie, Ivor's forum friend here. I just wanted to comment that I love all these photos of your home. Yours is a style that I admire and it makes me feel that I'd like to come and enjoy a coffee with you. In your stairway gallery, are the two pieces to the right stitched samplers? They look to be quite old, at least they look similar to one we have that dates back to 1843.

Mama Elf said...

Hi Julie, thanks for your lovely comment and welcome! You are now invited for a cuppa. Which cake do you like? It's a long way to travel...
The samplers are indeed old ones from Ivor's family. One of them was stitched by a great-great aunt and is from 1881. The smaller one was made by a 4x great grandmother and stitched it 1782, when she was 12 years old, so approximately one hundred years apart.

Julie said...

Oh, wow. Those are wonderful heirlooms to have. And a great place to showcase them as well because you do have to be close to appreciate the text and stitchwork. The one we have is not a family piece, at least as far as we know. My husband thinks his father bought it at an antique shop but I rather hope that's not correct and that it was done by a distant relative he doesn't know about. Like your older one, it was done by a child who credited her aunt with teaching her the stitches.

Have a lovely Sunday.