Lord preserve me

Posted on September 1, 2013 by lucy

Though it’s been a delightfully sunny summer, i always look forward to the approach of the autumn. The closing in of a season encourages a natural sense of reflection in me, and my thoughts turn from what has been to what harvests may come. Last autumn we were settling in to our new house and much time was spent putting things here and there and finding a nook or corner for everything. My usual seasonal preserves were thus few and so this perhaps partly explains why i am now gathering produce and preserving it like we’re approaching a major world meltdown.

No summer is complete for me without a trip to Borderberries near Kelso to pick raspberries. At this time of year they are an absolute bargain price so i picked 3 kilos this week, and 1 kilo of redcurrants. This sun was peeking through the canes as i plucked the sweet morsels and as the lady in the next row remarked, ‘the raspb’ries are hingin’ hivvy’. (This can only be deciphered with a ear for the Borders tongue).

The key to good raspberry jam is berries as fresh as you can manage, so i set to work that same evening. The technique itself couldn’t be simpler, adding an equal weight of sugar and boiling til setting point – usually about 10 minutes later. Or refer to the jam thermometer.

If you ever consider preserving, do invest in a jam funnel. Saves you chipping rock-hard bits of jam off your surfaces for a few hours afterwards.

Day 2 and i was onto the redcurrant jelly. This involves the slightly arduous task of using a straining bag, which seems to ever evade me as it all gets horribly stuck in the material and fails to strain properly. Into the bargain, it appears not to have actually reached setting point, and consequently we have several jars of what could only loosely be described as ‘jelly’. Plus, as you can see, a very messy kitchen table.

But when all else fails, a bit of simple pimping is called for. Bring out your best Kidston fabric, dicky up the jars and you’ll be wondering why you ever left the WI.

Come september and i tend to focus on preserves i actually eat, like chutney.

Guest is best: stage one

Posted on August 25, 2013 by lucy

August arrived and i found I had an itch to scratch – redecorating the guest room. I have long admired the all-white look, and figured it might just be possible in a lesser-used room such as this. In any case, anything would be better than an old beige carpet paired with insipid yellow walls.

It seems that unless there is a lot of natural light in the room, white tones can turn grey and pallid in low light, so this being a sun-drenched south facing room makes it ideal for the palette. The quintessential white room must contain white floorboards, and having peeled up the old carpet in our bedroom last year to reveal beautiful pine boards, i reckoned the guest room would be similar. Indeed i was most delighted to find the original floor in pristine condition, well sealed and with only a single layer of ugly dark stain to contend with. It’s a draughty old house we have and removing carpet initially seemed a bit counterintuitive, but as usual form over function won and i reasoned that an injection of warm colour into the room in other ways would hopefully distract the shivering guest.

For experts in white paint one can look no further than my favourite friends Mr Farrow and Mrs Ball. They have a vast range of the non-colour which in certainly made the choosing all the more arduous. As Gemma and I perused the range in the Stockbridge shop for nearly an hour, she aptly coined the discussion ‘a most middle class experience’. 4 testers and 4 days later, but none the wiser i opted for Great White, with grey undertones, for the floor and woodwork, and Pointing, an off-white, for the walls. I was hesitant about the room adopting the austere feel of a low budget asylum so as a minor compromise (probably only obvious to me) I softened the look a little by going for a creamier tone on the walls.

F&B paint not being the cheapest substance, i tried to avoid my usual shortcuts and thus committed to sanding down the floors in case over time the floor paint rubbed off the oily stain underneath. Initially this was to take place within another blatant short-cut involving completing one half of the floor, and moving the furniture onto it before doing the second half.

Work commenced with a belt sander….

But proceedings were halted after 10 minutes when it became clear the task was something akin to washing the floor with a toothbrush. Into the bargain this put paid to my other shortcut, as the job suddenly became infinitely more heavy-duty….

I hired a proper floor sanding machine and did untold damage to my eardrums and probably the floorboards too with this hefty piece of kit. Though not a job for the fainthearted, the beautiful pine boards eventually emerged from their toxic captivity and without much ado i got to work on the undercoat. Before long the boards were painted and we were testing the integrity with some gratuitous tap dancing. So far, no chips.

The macaron challenge

Posted on August 6, 2013 by lucy

July wasn’t an easy month, and with that i felt the need to mark some of the difficult days with some beauty. And what could be more delicately gorgeous than french macarons, made famous by the Parisian patisserie Laduree, but now sweeping the globe as the latest chic treat for young and old. My friend Lora was the first to master the art, and educate me on the maracon/macaroon debate (the latter a coconut affair with a glace cherry on top – so wrong). The prospect of using a piping bag seemed like way too much precision to appeal to me, but as it turned out, a very therapeutic afternoon was spent early last week squeezing these ‘little shits’ (self-named, in reference to the brown ones) onto my pencil-marked baking parchment. Before long i was applying pink colouring like a 4 year old, and turning out the following on day 3 of the maracon challenge…

Sadly, day 2 wasn’t such a merry affair, with these lime and basil macarons from Ottolenghi demonstrating all the classic flaws: cracked tops, lack of feet or ‘pieds’ (the little bubbly bits at the bottom of each half – very important), and a notably dry texture. They should be light and chewy to the taste, ‘melt in the mouth’, not the crisp sweetness of a classic meringue, though the ingredients only differ by one, namely the addition of finely sieved ground almonds. But let us not be deceived; the secret of the macaron lies not in the mere components, but the skill of the patissier at the helm.

Macarons come in many fantastical flavours, and traditionally with a buttercream filling. I find the additional sweetness a little overpowering so i have taken to adopting a chocolate ganache filling in preference, which can be laced with alcohol of your choosing.

Macarons also provide a welcome opportunity for some very pretty photography subjects.

But what to do with all those pesky egg yolks? There’s only so much eggs benedict one can eat, though in this house we may be attempting to break some kind of world record. This calls for another culinary creative outlet: home-made ice cream.

I perused and subsequently bought this lovely book in Waterstones last week. I have found there aren’t many reliable ice cream recipes online, so this was a welcome addition to my expanding cook book collection. This guy has been making ice cream for the family business in the Cotswolds for years. Intriguing flavours include sloe gin and damson, earl grey tea, and chocolate chilli rosemary. I made a start with coffee choc chip.

My most recent macaron batch, mocha, was perhaps my favourite. A bit bumpy on the outside, but chewy and just enough coffee and chocolate to bring about a nice flavour blend.

The macaron challenge ended on day 4, but i like to think that’s because i have mastered the art perfectly….

Hot charcoals

Posted on July 31, 2013 by lucy

Sometimes, life doesn’t go quite the way you expect nor hope.

Sort of like many of my sewing and painting projects, which of late have proven to be both blessing and curse. A blessing when you are able to make a nice homemade personalised gift for a friend. [Insert nice picture of tweed patchwork quilt or nappy pouch, recently made but hastily dispatched before being able to take a picture]. A curse when you realise you don’t actually know what you are doing, or why the project is going so wrong.

Such is the case with my latest curtain escapade. Having contracted with myself never to do any more curtains after the drama of the living room ones (still unfinished), somehow i ended up doing another set for the bedroom. It’s the gift of those rose tinted glasses i often wear. i was thinking, it’s surely just a matter of cutting out some big rectangles and sewing them together. And these ones don’t even require the tricky business of joining panels together, so its gonna be a cinch. What can go wrong? Ha!

I found this luscious charcoal velvet on ebay, and some good quality lining fabric. Cutting out went swimmingly. To sew the linings, you make a big tube out of the outer and inner fabrics, turn it inside out, and then sew on the heading tape at the top, and hem the bottom. What i was blissfully unaware of was the difficulty in sewing some very heavy fabric, namely velvet, to some lighter fabric, the lining. Enter: Tension Problem. No amount of twiddling the blessed dials on my machine would allow me to successfully make these two fabrics happy bedfellows. Whilst the velvet would create a tight stitch, the lining would do the opposite, resulting in a twisted mess that hung at about 30 degrees from the traditional vertical inclination of an obedient curtain. After about 5 sewing and ripping out sessions, i bundled the haberdashery offenders up in my sewing room and forgot about them for a few weeks until inspiration hit: forget sewing them together, just join them at the top and leave the two hanging separately.

This proved a success and after a short stint at the machine i was hanging my velvet curtains like we were best of friends. Here they are looking swanky in our bedroom.

Staying with the charcoal theme, i decided to paint the shelves at the end of our bed in a similar moody hue. I have previously lauded Farrow & Ball paints here before, and in this latest project I was busy congratulating myself on my daring choice of “Downpipe’ eggshell. Especially as the subject was this beautiful handmade oak shelving unit, which could have easily contented itself in it’s former unadulterated solid wood state.

This didn’t last, once i realised that failing to use the appropriate primer underneath (a cost-saving initiative on my part) affects the finish and drying time of F&B paints. These shelves took around 4 days to dry, and even now my delicately placed trinkets tend to stick fast to the surface.

Here we have shelf one decorated by me, with pointless items such as vintage shoe inserts and bricks. Shelf two is carefully crafted by Malkie, with items such as…. shoes?! What daring functionality!!

‘Vintage find’ tribute

Posted on June 12, 2013 by lucy

The phrase ‘vintage find’ seems to crop up everywhere these days, to the point that it’s getting a bit annoying. That said, i am about to write a post detailing all my recent ‘vintage discoveries’ shall we say, as its been a while since i gloated…i mean…shared the wealth of my recent travels around Edinburgh’s bargain trail.

Exhibit 1: The meadows festival in June is always ripe pickings for a canny eye. Here we have a lovely vintage wool picnic blanket rescued from the 20p box.

Exhibit 2: Birdies. I do love birdies. This (larger) picture also emerged from the 20p box. Got a clear theme going on here above my mantle. The illustration above is by my friend Julie, as an album cover.

Exhibit 3: This reminds me that last year I came away with this absolute steal: a set of Woodsware ‘Jasmine’ teacups and plates for £1. These are becoming hot property folks. Get ’em while you can.

Exhibit 4: (ok the ‘exhibit’ thing is wearing thin so hereafter i shall adopt a more traditional numeric approach). Also from the Meadows festival: a pretty gold-lined glass storage jar, to add to the bathroom collection of similar wares. 20p box again.

Five: Its not often i buy anything i can sew up myself, but the horsey fabric on these cushion seats really caught my fancy, and i knew they’d fit perfectly on my 4 Ercol Quaker dining chairs. Its like Cath Kidston, but before she popularised (butchered?) the country/floral/kitsch themes of early and mid-century fabric design. These come from one of my my regular haunts, Drum Farm Antiques.

Six: I am hoping to develop a new cushion design incorporating some of the embroidery peices i have picked up over the years. This recent find, also from the 20p box, stands alone as a beautiful sample which itself would/will make a great cushion cover.

Seven: I have acquired quite a few of these vintage shoe horns. They come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Functional vintage items are becoming very popular as display.

Eight: I tend to grab material when i see it rather than work out its potential purpose at the time. This works well for patchworking. I fancied these 2 off-cuts from Shelter charity shop in Tollcross. Guess what – birdies again!

Nine: The ceiling lights are pretty dull in this house. But least they aren’t ugly. This one has been tarted up for just £5 with these 5 mismatched lampshades, also from Shelter in Tollcross.

Ten: Copper pans. Love. £5 from St Columba’s Hospice charity shop, Leith

Eleven: Last but not least, these ultimate ‘finds’ have just arrived in the house this afternoon. I’ve lauded Ercol chairs in previous posts already, but i have not yet ventured into anything more substantial than dining chairs. Certainly the brand is enjoying a revival and in researching these chairs i discovered that a fully restored ‘studio couch’ (of which these chairs are a match) will sell for up to £1000. Handmade, solid elm wood and steam-bent to shape, this is well made furniture. These ones date from 50s-60s, they will need new webbing but the frames are incredibly solid for their age. This was certainly a high risk purchase though, which i don’t often do. I saw them on eBay on sunday night, ending in 20 minutes and for collection in Edinburgh. This seemed too good to be true, but didn’t allow any time to ask questions, view etc. I paid slightly more than i had hoped at £120 for the pair, but I was a bit giddy on opportunity (i have been looking for a pair for a while now), and is further confirmation of why i still find auctions super stressful! I collected them today and was grateful that they were true to the description. I will re-upholster them in time, but the tartan doesn’t seem so bad in real life.

And to finish, a very nice gift from my pal Ali, discovered in the family dressing up box and originally belonging to his granny. Check out the wonderful ‘housewife’ style tunic design…

Ercol-our

Posted on June 5, 2013 by lucy

Mid-century is of course the must-have furniture era these days. Ercol or G-plan for the everyday but quality items, and maybe an Eames or Jacobsen chair as a statement piece. I love Ercol chairs and managed to pick up 3 for £10 in a sale room in the Borders a few years ago. I had previously held them in such esteem that painting them was out of the question, even though they were not in great condition with a lot of water stains. I then decided life was too short to hold any chair in great esteem, and was inspired by a friend to try some spray painting.

The pictures in this post are taken with my iphone; spray paint and expensive DSLRs don’t make merry bedfellows. Plus i am experimenting with different picture styles for the blog as it has recently proved tricky to photograph every project i undertake.

I started with some primer, a lovely grey shade that i quite fancied! Having sprayed the whole chair in about 30 seconds, i instantly decided i was going to be a big fan of spray painting. It was dry in 30 mins, so i got straight to work applying the red.

Normally its a whole day job to paint furniture, waiting for each layer to dry, and removing any big globs of paint before doing the next layer. When the piece is not going to be distressed, it helps if the finish is really pristine and super smooth. Spray painting seems just the ticket for getting this kind of finish. I got the paints from eBay, and chose a satin finish. Its quite fashionable now to have glossy paints in bold colours but i haven’t quite recovered from my youth whereby lots of things in our house were painted white gloss; not very attractive (but quite functional i suppose!)

The red layer went on in about 5 minutes, and again was touch dry in about 10. True to form, it only occurred to me afterwards to check the surrounding area for rogue paint dispersal. I was working just outside the flat and there does now appear to be a red tinge to the side of the house and the gravel but no matter! Perhaps a better set-up would be advisable, with covers all around the working area, as these modern spray paints are designed to emerge as a very fine mist hence it does kind of go everywhere.

The finished article has a lovely finish, so smooth and uniform! Sadly i think we sat on them a bit prematurely and a lot of fluff seemed to gather on the seats after a few days, as well as a slight peeling noise when disengaging one’s derriere. I subsequently re-sprayed the chairs and applied a wax layer to the seat in order to make them more durable.

I’m really pleased with the results, and am glad to have taken the plunge into bright colours, my usual style being mid-tone greys, greens etc. Many people ask me how i have the time to do so may projects (and in response always point out the lack of little people in our house), but this project made me think of all those mums out there longing to do creative projects but lacking the time and energy required to see it through. If so, spray painting is for YOU!

I would say however that the one disadvantage of spray painting is the limited color range. If it’s a basic bright colour you need, eg hot pink, scarlet, you can easily find these but having worked with F&B paints mainly, and appreciated the fine attention to tonal range within these paints, i think there may be limited opportunity for more spray painting for me.

Having really embraced the red theme in the kitchen, i am now feeling inspired to search out more red highlights and delights. This evening i was checking out this website of vintage kitchenalia; probably a dangerous endeavour as i have now gathered a whole host of new collection aspirations. I was interested to read how popular brightly coloured vintage pyrex and melanine are becoming, as well as ‘Skyline’ utensils, of which i already have quite a few. I can feel a red vintage kitchenalia fetish coming on….

Bettering the bathroom

Posted on May 29, 2013 by lucy

I’ve been spending some time working on the bathroom lately. Its was fairly recently fitted when we bought the place so there wasn’t really an argument for replacing it. (Unfortunately). I decided to just do some ‘tweaks’ to make it a bit more homely. Sadly i forgot to do any ‘before’ pictures so perhaps this doesn’t quite tell the story. If you were really interested, the home report is still available online; glancing at some of the pictures now its nice to see the place transformed a bit from its former slightly drab self.

Beginnings occurred in the usual way, ie getting some furniture painted up. I recently wrote a post about furniture painting with Annie Sloan chalk paint, which i would like to now refute completely as i have wholeheartedly changed my mind and gone back to Farrow & Ball. It is simply much better quality paint, gives a tough, satin finish, and comes in the most delicious color range. I was previously limited in choice by Homebase’s rubbish range but then (dangerously) discovered an F&B shop in Stockbridge, with every colour always in stock. It was a bit like a sweetie shop for grown-ups. I managed to escape from my first visit with just 3 different tins, which should see me through the next few weeks of projects.

This shelving unit originally came from the salvage yard in Musselburgh. It has been reincarnated a few times, being a shoe rack for a while, and nearly a planter when it first came into the house. I painted it in ‘Vert de Terre’, a fresh apple-y grey green.

The colour choice came about serendipitously, through this fabric which i wasn’t too sure about initially. It was a scrap of slightly shiny material which i reckoned would do well for a steamy room. I removed the doors from the under-sink cupboard as they were a bit boring and rickety into the bargain, and replaced them by making this curtain. The bathroom fitter appears to have added a wine rack to the left of the sink unit; rolled up towels are about the only thing i can think to put in there!

I also covered the top of this storage box which i found on the street a few years ago. It also got the F&B treatment…

These shelves came from Tullyroan and I have been quite pleased i stole them as they have come in handy in a few different places. Again, though not very obvious in this picture, they are also painted to match. Here you can see one of my collection of vintage first aid kits. Hey, what do you expect from a vintage aficionado doctor!

The panelling on the side of the bath was pretty ugly before – grey tiles poorly fitted together with sealant bulging out at every angle. I got this tongue-and-groove panelling done, to bring a….surprise surprise….country feel to the room! We also had the dreadful lino lifted, and sanded down the floors to reveal the beautiful golden pine beneath.

Its taking shape, but still a few bits to do including replacing the Ikea shelving with a glass wall cabinet (when i find one), and some pretty lighting to follow. And that should do it for a year or two!

Painting Blitz, Now & Then

Posted on April 6, 2013 by lucy

I’ve been awaiting the coming of spring with anticipation. Yes, to escape the Siberian trade-winds, and plant flowers, and drink tea outside, but mainly so I can re-paint my front door. It was black gloss originally and whilst this might look good at 10 Downing Street, I felt it wasn’t giving a warm enough welcome. Yesterday it was beautifully sunny on my route home from work and so by 6.45 i had the first layer of undercoat on the door. I was half tempted to re-consider my colour choice having seen how good the slate grey undercoat looked….

But I had my heart set on Country Green, and wasn’t disappointed when it came to the moment of truth the following day (ie the moment you first discover whether the paint therein looks remotely like the front label).

Ok, so we don’t live in the country, but that’s just semantics. A very delightful afternoon was thus spent painting the door and reminiscing about all the painting Gemma and I (and Ryan) used to do when we were kids. I was thinking how we have whitewashed the entire farmyard at least 3 times over the years. It was great fun (initially) as there’s no careful brushstrokes involved, you just get a big massive horsehair brick of a brush and slap the lime paint on, or near the stonework walls. Very messy and fulfilling. Then there was the time right before my wedding when we branched out and painted all the green tin roofs. I recall sitting on top of the green roof with Ryan drinking tea and talking about the best way to get efficient coverage with a paint gun. As an aside, writing about this has just made me go in search of the photos. Please indulge me…

Here we are in 2005, doing what people do just before a family wedding…

Not even visitors could escape.

Nor 96 year olds! Nanny wasn’t to be outdone by all the hard work going on in the yard.

When i was 15 i repainted my bedroom, choosing yellow for the floorboards, orange for the walls and purple for the skirting and woodwork. Let us return to the present and see if i have managed to garner any more taste since then….

Having finished the first coat on the front door, i felt so pleased with the whole affair that i got all paintbrush-happy and impulsively decided to neaten up all the surrounding paintwork. I found an ancient old tin of red doorstep paint (as one does); applying this glue-like substance didn’t even threaten to dampen my mood. I then undercoated all the door and fan-light frames, the first step on the journey to ridding the entire house of yellowing gloss-work, which sadly is everywhere.

My little helper Ruby make a cool sign for the postman.

Not satisfied with all that, i proceeded on to the next project, these little bedside cabinets for the guest room. I figured it would be good to see what all the fuss is about this Annie Sloan chalk paint, so I did them in ‘French Grey’. On reflection, i wish i had bought some slightly classier hardwood pieces than these chipboard items. Its probably true, in this case, that you can’t polish a turd.

I reckon its almost a rite of passage in furniture painting, having a towel rail in distressed grey. Walk into any vintage/gift/shabby chic shop and there you will see one, i guarantee it. Not to be left out in the cold, i did one for the guest room, again in Annie Sloan French Grey.

I’ll go down to Anthropologie tomorrow to get some fancy knobs, and at some point distress the cabinets. In the meantime, i’ve had a new distraction! See subsequent post for details…

After the blaze

Posted on March 16, 2013 by lucy

We have now finished redecorating our bedroom post-blaze, so thought i’d do a wee tour. In a deliberate attempt to move away from the usual vintage/floral/junky look, i decided on a blue/grey theme with some attention to texture and detail. The overall aim was a simple but indulgent, luxury look.

We painted it in two Farrow and Ball colours, the chimney breast and recessed press are ‘Oval Room Blue’ and the walls are ‘Light Blue’.

My husband is a tolerant guy but i reckon i might be pushing him to the limits with this undeniable cushion overdose. I wanted to introduce different textures and shades within the colour palate, so tweeds, velvets and natural linens are good contenders. As you can see, tweed cushions make great bedfellows, i made all the covers and the bedspread is from Tullyroan. Poor Malcolm makes the bed every morning and indulges me by placing them all as below! Putting 3 alongside make the bed appear bigger (common hotel trick).

I picked up the gold gilt mirror in a charity shop, which links in well with the traditional brass filial bed. The blue bowl is from Tullyroan, and is filled, usefully, with fairy lights. The picture was £1 from the salvage yard. Malcolm frequently says he doesn’t like it but i think the attraction for me is because it reminds me of walking the shores of Carlingford Lough at Rostrevor, where some of our family live. I’d love to paint the drawers a grey shade but its a bit of a moral dilemma proposing to cover over lovely stripped antique pine.

We invested in this traditional bed from Feather and Black a few years ago, and haven’t regretted it.

We have gathered up some great pictures in recent years. These two both came from the CCE Art Exhibition which i administrate. The first is by a friend Miriam McWilliam and suits the mood of the room perfectly. The next one we bought last year, its by local artists Alan Kay and is the exact scene where we got engaged, at St. Leonard’s Bank.

And a few vignettes. Not sure why i have 3 non-working pocket clocks but i like them grouped together. The press is full of knick-knacks picked up over time. My current favourite is the pair of wooden vintage shoe trees. Followed closely by the enamel shoe polish box, which i picked up beside a bin.

Onwards to the dressing room. This was a big seller for us when we viewed the flat. Basically, there is no denying that i have a lot of clothes, and to fit them all into a shared wardrobe would simply be a recipe for marital disaster. As well as physically impossible. I painted it in a Crown shade called “Rosy Cheeks’. I wanted a dusky pink and surprisingly, F&B didn’t have much in their pink palate.

Essentially the whole color scheme is based on this vintage Sanderson curtain fabric.

I re-upholstered the chair in the same fabric. The shelving was a bit inadequate so i added a few extra to house all 50 of my cardigans. I still need to paint the apple crates in grey, and they are stuffed with scarves (another of my excessive fetishes).

Vintage tins feature everywhere in this house, including here, where i keep my ‘daily’ make-up.

I blogged about this old type-drawer before, which i turned into a rather decadent earring display/hanger.

Just need my beautiful charcoal grey velvet curtains to arrive from the seamstress (not me this time thankfully) and we’re all set!

(With thanks to Heather McMurray for lending me a decent lens for this post!)

Remembering Frances

Posted on March 10, 2013 by lucy

Its mother’s day today and also the anniversary of our mama’s death in March 1997. She was the first and foremost dalzell salvage sister and the inspiration for much of our activity on this blog. Our first ever blog post in May 2010 was this newspaper article below from the 1970’s, detailing some of her projects at Tullyroan House. Since then i think we have gained a wider readership so i am posting it here again as an homage to her talents which wisely taught us (begrudgingly at the time) the ways of the salvaging underground! I recall countless trips as children to old junk yards and antique shops. One in particular always seems to stick in my mind which was The Hole In The Wall in Armagh. I used to hate going to that dank cellar which had a musty stench and seemed every week to feature a collection of odd people skulking quietly around, handling all the ‘rubbish’ laid out on tables and creaky shelves. I used to try and interest myself in the books but they all were about ancient queens, local geography, or old maps, of no interest to an 8 year old. Of course that is exactly the kind of place i myself now love to frequent. The smellier the better, in fact. Then there was Hueys in Loughgall, and an old worn-out stately home somewhere off the M1, with several floors of antique furniture.

Mum was notorious for re-arranging furniture. Not only was there mounds of it to move around but as there was a lot of space in Tullyroan, things frequently got carted off to different rooms, or just a simple re-organisation room-by-room. It wasn’t uncommon to disappear off from a task and come back shortly afterwards to find the sofa you were sitting on located on the other side of the room, or 3 inches from the fire. So as young girls we thought nothing of taking a sofa between us and transporting it to various trial venues under her tutelage.

It seems fitting to speak of all this now as Ryan and Marianne put the finishing touches just this month to their very own version of Tullyroan House after a 3 year arduous salvage project of epic proportions. One day we will get a blog post detailing it all on here i hope!

The rendition of the article isn’t great but if you can zoom in or pull out your magnifying glass you will read about Chesterfields, french polishing, auctions, bedspreads, crocheted blankets and other such topics familiar to any reader of our own blog. I chuckled to read the phrase about auction ‘finds’ – still a term widely in use in the business but more recently attached to the word ‘vintage’.

If you knew her, what memories or stories of mum’s salvaging might you have?

fran4writing009 fran4writing009_2
fran006