Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some pretty photos that remind me of Valentine's Day and also a bit of history on how it is observed in the various countries in Europe.  Enjoy!

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Something warm to drink

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While sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts is traditional in the UK, Valentine's Day has various regional customs. In Norfolk, a character called 'Jack' Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this mystical person. In Wales, many people celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen (St Dwynwen's Day) on January 25 instead of (or as well as) Valentine's Day. The day commemorates St Dwynwen, the patron saint of Welsh lovers.


In France, a traditionally Catholic country, Valentine's Day is known simply as "Saint Valentin", and is celebrated in much the same way as other western countries.

In Spain Valentine's Day is known as "San Valentín" and is celebrated the same way as in the UK, although in Catalonia it is largely superseded by similar festivities of rose and/or book giving on La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George's Day).

In Portugal it is more commonly referred to as "Dia dos Namorados" (Lover's Day / Day of those that are in love with each other).

In Denmark and Norway, although February 14 is known as Valentinsdag, it is not celebrated to a large extent, but is largely imported from American culture, and some people take time to eat a romantic dinner with their partner, to send a card to a secret love or give a red rose to their loved one. The cut-flower industry in particular is still working on promoting the holiday.

In Sweden it is called Alla hjärtans dag ("All Hearts' Day") and was launched in the 1960s by the flower industry's commercial interests, and due to the influence of American culture. It is not an official holiday, but its celebration is recognized and sales of cosmetics and flowers for this holiday are only exceeded by those for Mother's Day.

In Finland Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä which translates into "Friend's Day". As the name indicates, this day is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones. In Estonia Valentine's Day is called Sõbrapäev, which has the same meaning.

In Slovenia, St Valentine or Zdravko was one of the saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.[62] A proverb says that "St Valentine brings the keys of roots". Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Another proverb says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine — the first spring saint"), as in some places (especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.[63] Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on 13 June.[62]

In Romania, the traditional holiday for lovers is Dragobete, which is celebrated on February 24. It is named after a character from Romanian folklore who was supposed to be the son of Baba Dochia. Part of his name is the word drag ("dear"), which can also be found in the word dragoste ("love"). In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating Valentine's Day, despite already having Dragobete as a traditional holiday. This has drawn backlash from several groups, institutions[64] and nationalist organizations like Noua Dreaptǎ, who condemn Valentine's Day for being superficial, commercialist and imported Western kitsch.

Valentine's Day is called Ημέρα του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου in Greece and Cyprus, which translates into "St Valentines day". In the Orthodox church there is another Saint[which?] to protect people who are in love, but for Greeks Valentine's Day is more popular.

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Wishing each and every one of you a very special and happy Valentine's Day! Don't forget to kiss your sweetie!  :)

No 5 Interiors

Hi Everyone,

Well, I'm pretty much finished with my blog face-lift.  I still have some tweaking to do but overall I've achieved what I set out to do.  I hope you like it.  I listed all of my favorite blogs beneath my header in a separate category (no worry you are all still there) and you will find my e-mail address there too. My Google followers and Facebook like box are at the bottom of my blog instead of on the side.  I wanted the space on the sides to add inspirational quotes and pictures.  So, there you have it!

I recently sold some of my hand stenciled No.5 tea towels to a shop in England, No.5 Interiors.  Imagine my surprise when I saw one of them hanging over a chair in the picture below (behind the bunny)!

My No.5 Tea Towel draped over a chair in No 5's shop

Here is an article take from the website on the shop.  You can read more and see what's available here: No 5 Interiors .

No. 5 Interiors is a boutique furniture and interiors shop specialising in selling old and antique  pieces of furniture painted and unpainted ,sourced directly from suppliers in France, Holland  and Eastern  Europe.   Situated in Dorking’s renowned West Street – No 5 Interiors source the furniture from their suppliers whether its in the unpainted or an original painted finish, we then pass it onto our restorer if it needs it, whether it's a wobble or a broken hinge, we will ensure you are getting a quality piece of furniture.

We are busy painting and re-decorating the interior to No 5 at the moment as this is the start to a new year and new adventures , so if you're passing pop in, you will always get a warm welcome .We are getting new pieces of furniture straight in either from France or Hungary delivered directly to us here in Dorking on a weekly basis ,so our stock is ever changing

Wardrobes and cupboards from Hungary, armoires and dressers from France and very decorative  Dutch pine cabinets with glass and chicken wire, some painted and some in stripped pine.

We also stock very nice and unique looking French vitrines with glazed cabinet doors with applied gold graphics.

We source large family tables ideal for family and friend get togethers, as the kitchen table is the heart of the home we want to ensure that you are getting the best, whether it is a bespoke one made by our cabinet maker using reclaimed period pine joists or whether it's a french farmhouse table straight off the boat from the south of France, you will have a table that your friends and family will love .

We have an in-shop wish list where customers will ask for specific pieces, and we can then on our travels accommodate this .

We use reliable and conscientious couriers who will deliver all over the UK and London on a daily and weekly basis please ask and we will get a very competitive quote for delivery.

No. 5 Interiors also supply handmade bespoke furniture made to your own requirements from reclaimed timber that are antique in their own right. We use a local craftsman and antique restorer who ensures all the furniture is in good solid condition before it comes into the shop. Also, part of the team at  No. 5 are a family run business of furniture makers based in Cambridgeshire where they make pieces of furniture from reclaimed timber from a workshop in a village where their family have been making furniture for the last 100 years.  Tables, chairs,  and kitchen islands to name a few .

We are always looking for like minded artisans who can contribute to this adventure, so if you're reading this and fancy joining us please give us a call or pop in .

No. 5 Interiors is the creation of two like minded friends who between them have over 40 years experience of buying and sourcing the individual, unique bespoke pieces that we all like to own:

“We want to offer our customers the chance to own the kind of pieces they look at in magazines or they have grown up with at affordable prices ,we buy furniture from all over England, France and Europe and are competitive in the prices that we sell at.  We use reclaimed timber and upcycle old and previously used items.  Scottish whiskey barrels are dismantled, painted or polished and are transformed into coat peg rails or t-light holders and you can still smell the whiskey an ideal and unique gift for any occasion.

We are also going to be having soft furnishings with hand made cushions with French and country inspired fabric and design.

Our upholsterer will be busy providing us with quality upholstered chairs .

Our aim is to provide you furniture and furnishings to enhance any room in your home .

We use the popular brands of paint and undertake commissions whether big or small.

They will also be opening a website called Shabby Chic Country Living. Be sure to check out the link above...there are really some lovely pieces.  :)

A Blog Face-Lift

Just a few room's that tickle my fancy for your enjoyment.  I will be taking a week or two off so that I can give my blog a face-lift. I've been wanting to do this for some time now but just kept putting it on my pile of things to do. I'm not sure how this will turn out, I just hope I don't loose everything which is very possible with me at the helm.  Hopefully with husband helping me I'll get through it.  I'll be making the rounds to visit and keep up with whats going on.  Wish me luck!

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I absolutely adore this!

While not exactly room decor, I love the turquoise color and whats in the cup too!
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http://marieclaire.com

Pastels and Neutrals

This time of year can be rather drab and leave you feeling washed up.  This is when I like to add some pretty pastel colors or neutrals to brighten up the house and my spirit.  I hope you like them!

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Knitting for Dummies

Hi Everyone,

I have been busy trying to re-teach myself how to knit again.  It's been years since I've done any knitting and always found it therapeutic.  Thank God there is You Tube out there to refresh my memory on how to cast on and off and the basic knit and purl stitches.  It is amazing how quickly it all come back to you.

These are the colors I'm trying to incorporate into an afghan

It is going to be a long time before I get this done but it does give me something to do when it is cold outside and I can do it without thinking too much about any one thing.

So, for the time being, I will be content to knit away in hopes of finishing this sometime in the future and when I say future I mean future!   HA

I've also just made a nice little boudoir pillow for my bed in a lovely pale blue linen.  I love the color blue...my favorite color.

Pay no attention to the bed pillows without their cases on...I just changed our bed sheets and hadn't put the pillow cases on them when I took this photo.  HA

Anyway, this  is what I've been up to for the past few days.  How about you?  What have you been doing?

For those of you in the North, I hope you are covered up with a nice throw drinking something warm.  I'm even doing that here and I'm sure it's not near as cold as where some of you live.  :)

Pepsi Anyone?

You might be asking yourself why on earth I am showing you a case of Diet Pepsi-Cola bottles?  It's been awhile since I've told one of my stories and since it is so grey and drab right now, I thought I'd share this funny story with all of you to bring a bit of humor to your day or evening.

A Case of Diet Pepsi-Colas Back In The Day
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Many years ago, husband worked for Pepsi-Cola delivering drinks.  Back then, Pepsi's came in both 10 oz and 16 oz bottles.  I'm going back to about 1971 now so don't quote me on this. He had a sales delivery route all his own and he would have to unload drinks according to how many cases they placed their orders for.

His truck had bins on both sides of the truck where they loaded the drinks and sliding doors had to be tied down before he left the shop so the cases of drinks wouldn't fall out. He hadn't been working for them for much more than a couple of weeks when what I'm about to tell you happened.

He had just left the warehouse to start his day and was turning into one of the busiest roads that at the time crossed over a major intersection that brought most out of town travelers through the city.  As he was turning left through this intersection he looked into his right side mirror as he always did on a turn only to see all of his doors open on that side and hundreds of cases of drinks in those lovely glass bottles slowly falling out of those side bins onto the middle of the intersection...seven bins! He told me later that he was beside himself and used a colorful expletive that he had learned in the Marines and can't be repeated here but there was no way to correct the motion of the truck to pull the cases back into the trailer, it was a done deal!  Glass and Pepsi-Cola was everywhere.  He had to pull his truck over, call the office and have someone bring him a push broom and several barrels to deposit the glass and pieces of wood from the cases so that he could clean up all the glass that had shattered.  What a mess!!  Not only was traffic backed-up but he spent quite a lot of time on the clean-up.  His boss, the route manager, laughed and called him a "star", a name that stuck with him for the next year and half that he worked there. He also told him that because he was new to the job he didn't have to pay for the drinks (every driver had done this once when they were relatively new and the trauma of it prevented them from ever doing it again, they double checked all of their doors before leaving the warehouse for ever after!) or we probably would not have had a paycheck that week!  HA

The funniest part of this was I wouldn't have known anything about it since I had just had my first child who was a newborn at the time and I was at home.  But a girlfriend called and told me that she was on her way to work when she saw a Pepsi truck that had lost all of the drinks on the truck.  I asked her where did that happen and she said in the intersection of Highway 41 and Diamond Avenue.  I said "how horrible".   She asked if I had talked with K yet this morning?  I said no and she proceeded to tell me that she thought it was him who she saw cleaning up all the glass.  I felt so bad for him.  He called me later that morning to see how things were going and I told him I had already heard about what happened.  He said it was the biggest mess!  HA

The most important lesson he learned from this experience was NEVER FORGET TO TIE YOUR BINS DOWN!  We laugh about this now but at the time it wasn't anything to laugh about!

So, anyone feel like having a Pepsi? :)

Faceless Angels

Hello,

I found this tutorial on making a Christmas angel via Positively Splendid's blog and I thought I might try my hand at making some of these in different colors.

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Back view

I think they are adorable and really anyone can make them.  I used Martha Stewart craft paint in Pearl and Lake Fog (two different colors) to paint the base and head instead of spray paint.  I sanded in between both coats to give a smooth finish.

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I used several different kinds of yarn in varying thicknesses to give different textures.

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Around the head and around the base I used Martha Stewart Glitter eyelash yarn as directed in the tutorial in a silver and gold color.

In Pink yarn and Lake Fog paint

And used a piece of Lamatta German tinsel for the halo instead of a button.

I used sheer ribbon instead of burlap ribbon for the wings and added the two mother-of-pearl antique buttons for the back of the ribbon.  These are really cute and can be viewed from both sides instead of one as the tutorial explains.

A perfect gift for a newborn baby (what child doesn't need an angel watching over them)

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Or you can change the look and colors for Valentine's, St. Patrick, Easter, July 4.

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For Valentine's day

I've made four of these and will have them listed on my Etsy shop.  If interested in purchasing one send me an e-mail.