Garden fonts

Some more pics from Alexandra Nurseries - focusing on interesting fonts and typefaces I saw. Painted, drawn, chalk-written, block-printed, etched and scribbled on wood, card, slate, blackboard, metal and paper. Not forgetting the playing-card toilet sign!

See my first post here.

Well-styled plants

My favourite new (local) place to visit is the recently opened Alexandra Nurseries in Penge, South-East London - an independent garden centre, cafe and vintage homeware shop. The nursery is run by two professional gardeners, who have restored an old caretaker's office and maintenance workshop that had stood empty since 1970, and created the most beautiful and visually-enticing space as an alternative to big commercial garden centres;  focusing on British grown plants, handmade planters and garden accessories, and selling work by independent craftspeople alongside vintage home and garden ware.

I love the use of old garden and agricultural equipment, tools, furniture and kitchen paraphernalia as quirky plant holders, shelves, and notice boards. There were plants in teapots, climbing up church pews, growing in old storage boxes and recycled tyre planters, sitting on old mangles and brightly-painted stepladders, inside cast iron oven trays, and peeping out of old-fashioned lawnmowers and typewriters (final picture taken from the website).

I have two more posts from Alexandra Nurseries to show you soon, so please come back and see!

Wish list....

A bit of window shopping at Crystal Palace Antiques. Huge-scale biology prints, CYRK Polish posters, quirky 1950's illustrations, toy cash tills, sewing machines and mini pianos. Love!

Summer florals

This post seemed much more relevant yesterday when the sun was shining (today it is pouring down!)....a little collection of floral dresses from both mine and Lily's wardrobes. Vintage, handmade, thrifted, high street and designer.

Retro bedlinen

A recent find at Hayes Lane market in Crystal Palace. I'm not sure if its particularly old, but it's bright and fun, and will look fab when L finally gets her 'big' bed (not for a while I hope!). Oh yeah, it's a single duvet cover for anyone that's wondering.

Baby gifts

Two cushions I've recently made as gifts for friends and family to celebrate their new baby boys. Past season Liberty florals backed with John Lewis Noah's Animals and added applique and embroidery details. I hope they like them!

Diamond Jubilee Pageant

A bit of a squeeze but we managed to see the (majority of) over 1,000 boats float down the Thames on Sunday, and Lily waved her flag at the Queen!

Raggy-Tag + Liberty

A patriotic baby-related post for the Jubilee weekend! I love this Raggy-Tag snuggle blanket made with Liberty Roses cotton front and a pink velour reverse. Made in England, the blanket features brightly coloured ribbon tags, including the Liberty crown logo and the Union Jack.

House envy

 I think I let out a little gasp when I walked into Sally and Peter Nencini's front room (as part of the Dulwich Artists' Open House event). What an amazing space! Vintage wooden toys, early Galt puzzles and picture card games with iconic packaging, botanical drawings, maps, ethnic textiles, ceramics and ornate mirrors....every wall, shelf and table covered with collections of objects both small and huge scales, for fantastic colour and print inspiration.

Thank you to Sally for letting me go a little snap happy in the room (wish I'd been able to look around the rest of her house!) and see some of her gorgeous knitted and embroidered products in my earlier post here.