Dressing my New Room.

Mums' old doll.

It has been absolutely delightful to have been able to play and arrange my treasures in my "new" workroom/ diningroom.
Here is my Mums' old doll, she has no arms or legs left.  Made from a now brittle hard plastic, and marked "Minerva 5 Germany" on the back, her eyes are glass  and have real lashes. Once upon a time Mum was going to find replacement limbs for her, but it never happened. I like her moulded hair and the little smile, and Mum played with her as a child.

My lovely white Crown Lynn vases.

My husband and youngest daughter however, find her creepy! They have of course watched far too many horror movies together, she really isn't going to attack...

The 2 nautilus vases (crown lynn) also came from my Mum. They are a classic shape. She was a huge shell collector, and this sometimes extended to shell shaped objects.
Mum knew what she had; a great collectors pair. However, Dad wanted to chuck them out.
And there they are.
The large vase I found in a Petone opshop. In excellent condition, it was a shop without price-tags, you just took it to the counter and there they decided how much... I remember I paid $7.
My heart was racing with excitement over the find!

Just like a lollie shop.

This room is lovely and sunny in the morning. It shines into this dresser that I bought off my friend N. It  is made from blond oak and has mirrors in the back, reflecting light and doubling the collection of glass jars . I filled coffee jars with buttons, felt beads and fabric yoyos.

Up-cycled Lamp Before.

Here something I uhm-ed and ahm-ed over for 3 weeks before buying. A very "twee" lamp from the salvation army store. An awful shade, ground marble base and loads of fly-poop. Every week I'd pick it up, and put it down again. When it was still there at week 3, I considered it mine.

Up-cycled Lamp After.

I cleaned the marble base with warm soapy water and chucked out the horrid shade. A new bright lightbulb, and a $1 lampshade from a school gala last week completed the make-over.
I did consider painting the base in a bright turqoise to modernize it. But this is better.

Too cute!

Now I love it! And it gives a lovely soft pool of light.

The sunny morning-room.

A dirty, rickety stepladder was lying in the free-bin at the St.Vincent de Pauls-opshop, with a wonderful scruffy and scuffed paint-job in pastel colours. I cleaned it up, a new screw was put in by hubby, and there we have a new display stand.

Do you like the picture-rail with hooks? I saw the idea in an old homestead and wanted something like it in my workroom. This way you can shift pictures wherever you want them, and add stuff, without drilling or hammering more holes in the walls.
And guess what, they still sell wooden rails and seperate picture hooks in the mitre-10 shop!

Bossons plaster plaques from the late 50's.

Yes, well... I've had these for about 3 years. Tucked away for maybe one day when I would have a gorgeous vintage chique room.
Super uber-kitsch, plaster 3-d plaques from 1958-9, British Bossons, handpainted.
But they have a certain charm.
I hadn't even shown my Love, for fear of his horrified reaction.
He didn't notice them for an hour...
And was even complimentary about the colours. Phew!
Very polite of him...

Kitschy mirrors under the skylight.

The Mary and Child Jesus mirrors are shining under the skylight.
At least we both loved the funky radiance clock straight away when we saw it in a Wellington shop. It looks superb on the box that hides the electric switch board.
Don't the ceiling cornices look great! Stylish!!