Macro

Playing around with the Sahib's camera in mamma's garden ...

Aren't they lovely?

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The Toy Maker's Workshop

This amazing toy maker's shop is always closed when I go past it on my way from Gospel Oak overground to Anthony Nolan, where I volunteer on the web team one day a week.

The windows are dusty but full of promise. The jumble of doll's houses, mechanical toys, rocking horses and the like are so evocative, a 'box of delights' of nostalgia and memory.

I can't help peering in the window, it's a bit like one of those sentimental Victorian Christmas card scene of urchins gathered around shop windows.

Maybe one day, I might magically find it open!

I think this guy - possibly the best ever 'Weekender' in the Saturday Guardian, beating the usual Hoxtonite crowd that grace these pages - is connected somehow.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Confession

Alright, I confess: some vintage homewares never make it to my Etsy shop ...
[http://www.butterflymindvintage.etsy.com]

East Dulwich

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The Cult of Beauty at the V&A

If you haven't been, you must...

Peacocks. Sunflowers. PreRaphaelite hair. Morris wallpaper. Du Maurier Punch cartoons. Liberty dresses.

What more could a girl want? My heart is full ...

Here's a taster from YouTube:



The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900

I only wish I'd been before I submitted my Dorian Gray essay, ah well...

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

The only way is ... Essex?‏

Yes indeedy, this is Essex, Chelmsford in fact. Such pretty buildings and a lovely river too. Enough wisteria to cheer any heart.

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

This Week

This week, I have been mostly:

 - feeling conflicted as I'm a republican but enjoyed 'the dress' and the cakes

 - trying to keep the cat off the keyboard ...

 - starting to obsess over Edith Nesbit and the Fabians ... "Sounds like a rock band" - thanks Dad!

Image from Wikipedia Commons

 - rediscovering collections of turn-of-the-century cigarette cards - Cissy is my favourite, love the white lace / black opaques combo

 - dusting off the SLR for a sunny, windy day in Greenwich

 - and picking up gems for the Butterfly Mind Vintage Etsy shop.

What have you been up to?

[http://thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]