The Swenglish Home

 Conquered gladioli and confessions...

On the dolly tub turned side table, a few late-blooming garden flowers share the space with one of seven newly-made wreaths (yes, the small tag reveals that they were made to be sold, but I will tell you more about that another time...), a favourite candle holder and a large vase with gladioli nestled among some conquers, the latter having been invited indoors after having starred in several outdoor arrangements. 

In the old wooden box on the floor (what is it about old wooden boxes that makes my heart beat faster?) rests a floral quilt which some of you may recognize? It was the free gift when you started subscribe to the Swedish magazine "Lantliv" (= Country Life) at the beginning of the summer. Free gift? Yes, please! "Quilt" may perhaps be slightly false marketing, as it is not much thicker than a sheet, but with a little bit of imagination and a lot of fluffing, it might work...

As the big vase felt a little oversized for the small table, I moved it to the dining table. Gladioli are really spectacular flowers, I find - tall, proud, yet modest and sensual. A big bonus is that you usually get a lot of floral beauty for your money. So, there we are, a bit of pink and purple to fight off the October darkness...

I hope you have some flower power in your life too!

Ps. As regards my last entry about the lavender, I do have to confess that I did not harvest all my neighbour's lavender to put in my little "smelly" cushions. I did top up with some already dried lavender that I bought from a lavender farm here in Hampshire in southern England.

To those of you wondering about how to get the photo onto the fabric, I used normal "Iron-on Transfer Paper", often used for transferring images onto T-shirts etc and which can be found in most stationers' here in the UK, for example WH Smith. You just put the transfer paper in your printer and print your desired image from your computer. Then follow the instructions for your particular transfer paper - usually a few minutes' work with your iron set to the "no steam" setting. What you need to bear in mind is that your image will appear mirrored on the fabric, so to incorporate text on your image is not to be recommended, unless you have some means of making the text print backwards/mirrored.

Thank you so much for all your kind and encouraging comments about my little projects!

Happy transferring!