Other Side of the mountain

A DINNER INVITATION

2012-04-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

To Sarah and Henry,
I graciously accept your very kind dinner invitation.

I look forward to our next visit.
Sincerely,
Annette from California

Lee setting the table....... using tweezers.

The table is 20cm long and the lovely lace cloth started life some time in the 1930's as a powderpuff handkerchief and belonged to my mother

We made the peas and baby carrots from fimo and in the covered vegetable dishes are beans and roast potatoes, the leg of ham was bought. I'm very proud of the table setting, the tiny salts and peppers are pewter as are the serviette rings.

The table is set ready for dinner do come and join us,

Features of the dining room are..........................
The wall paper which is deep red flocked on gold foil background.
The clock on the dining room mantlepiece is my favourite.

The Marble topped dresser

Paul made the table and chairs, the chairs specially are beautifully done and the seat fabric is hand stitched on fine linen.

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY

2012-03-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!

COME INTO THE PARLOUR.....

2012-03-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Come in to the parlour Sarah and Henry are waiting to meet you.......

This room is Sarah's favoutite room, the wall paper is called Roosevelt Rose an early American wall paper design. a note on the edge of the paper we used stated This wallpaper has been restored by "Birge Wallcoverings"from President Theodore Rossevelt's family home "Sagamore Hill"in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Before we move round the room note the lovely lace mat on the centre table, this is bobbin lace and was made specially for the house by an embroiderer friend. The drapes and furnishings are all silk, and the antimacassar on sarah's chair is hardanger embroidery The petipoint embroidery on the cushion on Sarah's chair came from Venice Note the little footstool by her chair this is a replica of the Victorian Footstool that I own and was not made from a litset as much of the furnature in the house has been

Another view of the room.. The tiny rose buds oin the vase on the dresser are real dried ones, however with age they have lost their colour so I have been painting them with water colour paints... I felt like the gardeners in Alice in Wonderland who were busy painting the white roses red cos they had planted the wrong ones!! The plate beside the vase of roses was hand painted by Merle Loumans in 1989 is a replica for Royal Worcester China.

Sarah embroidery is on a stand by the door, she has been working on a sampler.....

In actual fact in 1991 the Coromandel Embroiderers'Guild competition for the year was a sampler, this tiny sampler I stitch for the dolls house was my entry.

Will you join Sarah for afternoon tea before we continue exploring the house,. I note the afternoon tea table is set ready

DO COME INSIDE..............the Dolls'house

2012-02-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today there were visitors here to see the Doll's House, and what made it so special they were visiting Stratford from England and have previously visited in January 2010, having seen the dolls house then, asked if they could come back again. Rosemary and Derek it was lovely to see you once more and I was honoured that you felt the Dolls House was worthy of a second visit. (hope you get to read this on your return to England.)

'My blog friends I invite you to come for a visit.

Come in, Rosie, the maid is holding the door open for you-

Rosie the household's Irish maid is another Pamela Jackson doll, her room is in the attic we may see that on a later visit, but meanwhile step into the hall way.

Entering the hall, the floor is polished wood parquet and the wall paper, an Art Nouveau design which has the suggestion of a William Morris design. The stair case carpet is deep blue velvet and shows off well the brass stair rods Paul made. The velvet is left over scraps from the recovering the Elders Chairs from St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Coromandel at the time of the church 125th Anniversary. I did start to stitch a carpet but was taking too long and holding up the building of the house, as the bottom hall had to be completed before the next level could be added. On the landing is a brass Grandmothers clock, one of three working clocks in the house that are all keeping good time. The three lights in the hall are all Tulip Wall sconces replicas of early gas lamps.

On the hall table is a small Doulton pottery jug filled with what appears to be Honesty sead heads, these are in fact the seed heads of one of the Alyssum plants. The little jug which is 1 inch high was brought back from the Doulton Factory in England at the end of WW1 by my Great Uncle Charles Skinner for his sister,Caroline Haworth (My Grandmother) who collected minature jugs and was the smallest jug in her collection.

Down the back of the hall is a dividing door, this is the same as the door in my Grandmother's house and as a child I loved the way the lights came through the coloured glass. Here in the back is where Nanny keeps the pram, This came as a metal frame and we covered it with black kid leather ( a friend donated her old glove) and it is lined with silk. Looking at my note book I see the pram was done in 1992, it looks as good today as it did then.

So far I have only completed 1 of the floor rugs, this one is on the upstairs landing and is a Liz Kennedy of Auckland design, intended to be stitched on silk guaze but Stitch in linen to make it a size in keeping with the scale of the house, 1 inch = 1 foot.

We will move into the front parlour and meet with Sarah and Henry in my next posting,

CAITLIN'S OWL BAG

2012-01-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

Last year at Junior Embroideries we made owl bags. Each of the Adult tutors decide what type of stitch was going to be on each side of the bag. Grandma chose the black work owl and we got to decide what pattern to use, with some guidance of course, then a second one using stitches we .already knew. Mary Garlick chose the jigsaw owl. which was lots of fun and had a painted background.. Maree B. designed the owl with the felt parts on it which was fun to work with. Maree took all the finished owls home with her and made them into wonderful bags like this one. They also have a cute blue, green and purple owl fabric inner. Grandma as a surprise made the little owl toggles for each us and we got given them along with the finished product on the last day of stitching for the year.

Caitlin

A VISIT TO THE DOLLS' HOUSE

2012-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

Speaking with my friend Ann recently, she told me she had never seen my dolls' house except for the recent posting on my blog,'Notes from under the mountain' Ann has visited us most years since we moved down here almost 12 years ago, and have to admit I just though like all our Coromandel friends she had seen it. Sorry Ann I will try and share it with you through photos and you can see the real thing later in the year when you next come down. I hope anyone reading this blog will enjoy it too. This is the dolls' house in the middle of the living room, moved there after our front room was flooded in early December.

Paul started building the Dolls' house for me early in 1991, after research about dolls' houses I settled for this drawing of Springvale Station homestead in Hawke's Bay to be the inspiration,I certainly did not want a square box. We planned it 1/12 scale (1 inch to 1 foot) set in the period of the beginning of the 1900's, and to be front opening like the old English dolls' houses. The house is 51 x 22 inches and to the top of the turret is 43 inches.

Some years later we did visit Springvale during a garden tour in the Tikokino District in Central Hawke's Bay. I have called my house "Summerlee" after an early family home in NZ, that is no longer standing, and I am very proud of what Paul built for me. The roof is cedar shingles and there are over 3,000 each glued on separately. The build of the turret did include a few interesting words !! it was certainly the hardest piece to build.

Living in the house is Henry and Sarah Barker, Henry is just the ordinary ready made dolls house china doll which I dressed and gave a wig to., while Sarah is a beautiful doll a Pamela Jackson doll kit., ( her doll's are really lovely and I am lucky to own several of them)

Their children are Emma, Caroline and baby John, I just realised I have no photo of baby John, but will do something about that before we visit the nursery.

Next posting we will go inside the house and start exploring the rooms.

I look forward to sharing with you.

LITTLE CHRISTMAS BIRDS

2011-12-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

During the lovely relaxing few days we spent with my sister and her husband, these little birds were my sewing project, they are from a patern I had made some years ago but had not used before. My sister's family are all gathering down in the Sounds for Christmas and her daughter Vicki has decided on a Pacific Theme for decorations and the meal, which is in keeping with Christmas here falling during the summer. Snowmen .Reindeer etc are banned there this year down there, Joan had been busy with some NZ designed fabric and had made small padded ornaments, here is a few of them, mostly showing NZ birds.

As you can see I made these little birds in soft natural colours so they would show up on the Christmas tree and be in keeping with the other decorations planned however since then I have made two more in Christmas colours of red and white and these are going to wing their way across to America this week.

I plan to leave them unstuffed, so they will slip in an envelope and go as a card which hopefully might get them there for Christmas. If anyone would like the pattern, send me a message I am happy to share.

TURKEY DAY

2011-11-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

To all my friend celebrating Thanksgiving day ... I hope you have a great day with family and friends.

We all have so much to be thankful for even if we are living in a different country.

Hope you like my Turkeys - I remembered I had these photos of two notice board displays I did at a gathering some years ago, they were done in paper sculpture quite large and lots of fun to make.

Must dash.

A HOOT OF OWLS

2011-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

A hoot of owls.......I thought that was a good title but I am told a collection/gathering of owls is a Parliament.... sounds a bit serious for this lot! These owls are on the draw strings for the bags to be made up shortly for our junior embroiderers. Their bags have 4 outer pockets and the girls have been stitching the one owl shape using different embroidery stitches on each. I have made the owls in colours they have chosen to go with their stitching.

If anyone would like the patern and instructions email me and I am happy to share it with you.

Next project.... its still in the planning stage, will share it with you soon.

STOP PRESS- LITTLE OWL

2011-10-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

BIG NEWS-
Little owl manage to fly to Atlanta in time for halloween,
I have received information on the arrival of Little owl, despite the NZ Post office stating he would take 2 weeks to make the journey, Heather has informed me little owl arrived on Saturday 29th in time to have a rest before sitting ( hanging) on her halloween tree.

Happy Hallows everyone I see the children already on the street here door knocking. Tomorrow All Saints Day is the Special Day in our household.

THE LITTLE OWL IS FLYING TO........

2011-10-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

The little Owl is flying to....... well not quite yet he needs to kinow where to go to.
Caitlin checked in on the blog yesterday after Junior embroiderers and declared the winner is .........................................geeky Heather as she is the only one to have completed all the requirement. and those were to leave a comment on the posting and also be a follower of this blog. so Heather contact me with a name and address and little owl will be on his way to you.

It is school holidays here and we had an extra catch up day for the Junior Embroiderers before the start of the new term, one of the girls was followed in by a younger sister who had a big question to ask?
"How old do you need to be to join and learn to stitch? " Maree who helps with juniors calls everyone poppet and "H" was truly a little poppet. I asked how old she was and with big pleading eyes she said her age was 6yrs. I turned and asked Caitlin my grand daughter who was at the table stitching what age was she when she started. The reply was "5 years old " So "H" is starting next week. Here is the earliest photo of Caitlin stitching.... she is now 14 and has never lost her love of stitching, another time I will share some of her work that she has stitched over the years.

TRICK OR TREAT ?

2011-10-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot of fun making tiny felt owls. and decided to make a few "Halloween Owls" so named for their dark colours!!! the one shown above has gone to Canada, another is about to fly off to its new home and I have a third one needing a new home to go to.
If you would like to have that one, become a follower and leave a message here. I will ask Caitlin to do a draw for me on October 18th when the junior embroiderers visit, and if the postman does his part the owl should arrive at its new home in time for Halloween.

WHEN DINOSAURS...........

2011-10-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

I want to share with you something special, from Rawhitiroa School where my daughter teaches,
The senior room ( there are only two class rooms at the school) as part of their study on Dinosaurs made quilt squares and I had the job of putting them together as a wall hanging. The Wall hanging is titled "When Dinosaures ruled the earth" and it is now hanging out at school.

Here is the hanging, I'm sorry the photo does not do it justice it looks much better hanging than it does lying on my floor, but it was the only way I could get it all in the photo. The squares are just amazing and all so different..

The pictures were transfered on to calico using the same method as putting a picture on a t-shirt, then each child embelished their chosen picture using a variety of threads, fabric pieces and beads. Some stitching had to be included, here is a close up of one of my favourite squares, note the stitching on the wing

GOING..... WHERE ?..... NOWHERE.!

2011-10-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

"Where are we going?" said Pooh, hurrying after him, and wondering whether it was to be an explore or a What-shall-I-do -about-you-know-what.
"Nowhere" said Christopher Robin.
(The House at Pooh Corner.)

I first wrote under the title of "Notes from under the Mountain" about 10 years ago, and then when I started blogging it seemed a natural choice to call my blog the same title. 'Notes' are mainly about embroidery and family, I am hoping that this new blog .... Other side of the mountain..... will be more a scrapbook about the little things that give me pleasure and I hope might give someone else pleasure to read.

So to the words of Pooh Where are we going? I only answer not nowhere but now here... and so here I am launching a new adventure.

I grew up in an era of Winnie the Pooh from AA Milne not from Disney... it was war years and I remember our books had green mottled covers and thickish poor quality paper, we wore them out from love, not carelessness and so when my children were of an age to be introduced to this good friend, new copies had to be bought. Both of them own their own complete set of A.A. Milne books,

Barryn is a batchlor and so his copies are still here and often read by his youngest neice.

We can all quote favourite lines and poems from these books, the piece I quote often- is the last verse of the poem Teddy 'Bear' found in the book- When we were very Young.

A bear, however hard he tries,

Grows tubby without exercise.

Our Teddy Bear is short and fat

Which is not to be wondered at;

But do you think it worries him

To know that he is far from slim?

No, just the other way about?

He’s proud of being short and stout.

Do you have a favourte A.A. Milne poem ?

Will you leave a comment and share?

Thank you for dropping in. come again sometime and see what I have added