Meadow Grass Wallpaper

Sarah Mason took some photo's of the Meadow Grass wallpaper. 

It's such a delicate design, The colours are so soft. We papered next to white skirting and floor boards to give a better idea of the subtle blue & silver background.

Here you can see how the light picks up the silver metallic. It is so pretty.

My dear boy Ollie enjoyed posing for the Oatmeal & Blush photos. Look at his happy face. This paper looks so lovely in my bedroom behind the wooden bedhead. I hadn't realised that Ollie was bedhead coloured haha. He was the perfect accessory!

The wallpaper looks really cosy in the glow of a lamp too and how well do the Anna Wiscombe wooden flowers go with it? I just love her work.

The third colourway is the grey & gold which looked striking with this yellow chair.

It also worked well with the grey chair. It makes the paper look totally different though doesn't it. Oh colour - you are so elusive!

You can see all the wallpapers on my website here.

It's time for a giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of my fabric I'm having a giveaway!

You can win one metre of Paper Meadow fabric in any of my three colourways. To enter just comment below and tell me which colour you would choose and what you would make with it!

You can see the other colours here.

This giveaway is running across my Instagram and my Facebook page so if you'd prefer to comment there instead please feel free. 

I'll choose a winner next Friday 31st July :)

Blomster

As I mentioned in my last post, when I was in Norway I was blown away by the wild flowers. They were in such abundance, lining every roadside and every path, popping up at the edges of the gardens, covering waste ground and generally making their pretty faces known wherever you went.

One day Anne, Jan and the gang took me to visit an artist called Einar Sigstad. 

He lives in the countryside at the end of a bumpy lane (need I say lined with flowers?) and in this peaceful setting he has his house, his studio and his gallery. How lovely is that!

Einar is a prolific painter well known in Norway and they knew I would like him because as well as his huge portfolio of work he has written and illustrated a book on Norwegian wildflowers and is famous for a painting which translates as 'Alter to the Roadside' where he painted every single wild flower in the county.

I was so impressed by his obvious passion and his attention to detail.

He was a lovely man and we bonded over our love of the flowers. I asked him where I could find the best meadows. 'You mean here?' he said 'I have a meadow. I'll take you'. 

So after he had finished wrapping some paintings for some customers (he was having a busy day) we went to see his flowers and skipped about excitedly at the edge of the meadow exchanging flower names in Norwegian and English.

Daisies. Scabious. Lesser Stitchwort, Harebells. Sorrel. Shepherds Purse. Yellow Rattle. Vetch. Speedwell. Ribwort Plantain. Cow Parsley. Clover. Yarrow. So many grasses. 

Daisies translate as 'Prestekragg'. Priests Collar. I can see why that is but the local name for Cow Parsley is 'dog biscuits'. Wha????

I was sad to leave Einars place and grateful to him for sharing his enthusiasm and allowing me to express mine. He felt like a kindred spirit.

The visit inspired me to draw so I continued my foraging in the lanes near the house. There was even a 'Flower Road'.

Then I sat in the garden in afternoon sun with Anne knitting and the cats lolling, and I drew and drew. Happy was I. 

Thankyou Norway for your flowery inspiration. You have given me much pleasure and a head full of ideas!

Norway

I've just returned from a little trip to Norway staying in a town about an hour and half north of Oslo called Gjovik.

These lovely people Anne & Jan have a holiday home on my street in Hebden Bridge and last time they were here they wanted to buy my fabric to take home and make curtains with, but my fabric was late arriving so they weren't able to. They jokingly suggested I hand delivered it and they would show me around where they live. I decided that I would take them up on their offer!

So I went to stay in their beautiful house with their handsome boy Simba,

 this sweet girl Isobel

and their lovely friends from Trondheim, Inge-Johanna and Svanhild.

Their house overlooks the 100km long Lake Mjosa and we spent long evenings on the veranda taking in the view. This was taken at 12.30 at night. I commented on the beautiful sunset and was soon corrected...it is in fact the sun rising. It just doesn't get dark at this time of year! 

We took a trip on the Skibladner, The White Swan of Mjosa. which is the oldest Norwegian paddle steamer. 

She was quite a character. 

We chugged all the way up the lake to Lillehammer ( i just love that name)

picking up af ew extra folks on the way.

Push!!!

We visited Stenberg, an open air museum and saw lots of traditional old buildings.

Quite a contrast from our day in Oslo walking on the rooftop of the Oslo Opera House.

I haven't yet mentioned my favourite thing about Norway. The wild flowers! They were EVERYWHERE, lining every roadside, ever verge, every garden, every bit of waste land. Profuse, colourful, abundant. I have a whole blog post about them but that is for another day :)