Thursday, February 21, 2013

Is this Better?? New study photo

Is this Better??


I shifted the furniture around so that the clock is in the corner and the filing cabinet is in the other corner so  now I can make a better feature of the fireplace and surrounds. It has opened the room up as well as cover up the bad corner until I can get it fixed somehow.....

Amazing what you see in close-up photos

The close up photos show where the wall paper doesn't meet properly in the right hand corner.......in real life, I never noticed it.  I usually wallpaper my three walls before my husband makes up the rooms and in this case the wall has moved out a fraction of a mm while the glue was drying.....Damn! Damn! Damn! I'll have to shift the bookcase into the corner to hide that bit or maybe it will be easier to move the Grandfather clock.  Now I'm all upset, I thought the room was finished and I'll have to start again......

Finished Study/Office/Bloke's Den

I am so excited because I have finished the Study and it has turned out totally different to what was in my head when I started.  Firstly, instead of being a formal study for a businessman or lawyer or doctor, it has turned into a cosy den for not one man, but two or even three.

My sister gave me a desk with a lift-down front that becomes the writing desk and I bought a roll-top desk and chair.  The desk that I bought on ebay (from a lady who lives only about ten miles from me, I couldn't believe my luck!) came with a matching swivel chair, filing cabinet and globe in a frame. I included both desks, maybe for a father and son team or maybe for the head of the family and his father-in-law who lives with the family? or maybe for the father and son with Grandad sitting in front of the fire in his rocking chair.

I made Grandad's crocheted knee-rug last night in two colours of Gumnut Yarns wool. Although I used two colours which in real life match because the turquoise is variegated with blue and the blue is variegated with the turquoise, the photos only show the distinct turquoise colour and the blue colour which even to me would  normally be a very odd choice.

There are lots of personal touches to this room such as the filing cabinet full of tiny Manila folders, the bookcase drawers full of the butterflies and shells from my previous post, a tiny copy of "The West Australian" newspaper from 1979 and the book on the table is full of tiny photos.  On the wall is a family tree chart with actual photos of my own ancestors.


Above the fireplace is an image of a man's portrait painted by the famous Cornish portrait painter John Opie.  My maiden name was Opie and my family all come from Cornwall and while I have no direct link to John Opie because he and his wife had no children, he is probably a very distant indirect relation. I have ordered a fire in a grate for the fireplace plus a miniature sailing ship and a miniature ship's wheel clock for the mantlepiece from England so I will have to be patient while I wait for those to arrive.


All in all, the study, just like the other rooms developed a personality of it's own and pretty much told me what it needed. So instead of that posh (note the gold and burgundy wallpaper) study with a large partner's desk in the centre I have somewhere for the men of the house to escape to when they want some time out from the rest of the family.........although Grandad's violin playing might drive them back out again, LOL.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Bookcase Drawers Full




When it is over +40 degrees celsius outside in the shade, all we can do is stay inside with the air-conditioner blowing and try to keep cool.  So I spent an hour this afternoon filling the drawers of my new bookcase......I mean to say, a Victorian gentleman would not have kept his bookcase drawers empty for very long.  He would have had collections of pinned Butterflies (yuk!!), pinned bugs (even more yuk!!), old maps and sketches, shells, birds eggs to go with the stuffed birds........all the things that really turn me right off these days.
Anyway, my man has gone for shells, butterflies and old maps.  Here are the photos from my afternoons work.


When I showed my husband, the first thing he said was "But who is going to see them?"  Well, no-one probably but I know that the drawers are full and that's all that matters. The shells were from a necklace which I bought in the local charity shop and the butterflies were cut from the internet, wings folded upwards and only the bodies glued to the backing paper.  This will go in the study which is very nearly finished.