Lights, Camera, Action!

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy here at the HenHouse.  The building works are now in their third month and I am pretty cheesed off with the whole business, to be honest.  I'm used to the luxury of having a lovely peaceful house to myself most days so the constant presence of smoking, singing builders is unsettling to say the least.  I've found it hard to settle down and get on with many sewing projects but that's not to say there hasn't been a fair amount of making over going on.  


But first, it wouldn't be right (nor British) not to talk about the weather.  It's a little dull here at 7am but there are exciting promises of sunshine later!  AND this coincides with the week of Chelsea Flower Show, oh happy days.  Most thrillingly, I have been able to pick my first peonies from the garden and also, the first roses.  And they just happen to be seriously divine.

I can't tell you what variety they are as this rose was already here when we moved in.  To look at it, you would now think it is a climber but I'm unsure whether it was always a climber or has just gone slightly mad in recent years!  It vies for first place as my favourite rose in the garden and has a heavenly scent, too.

It's been a delight to snip off a few blooms and bring them indoors, to arrange them in my new (old) china rose jug and arrange them on the table on the landing just outside my Den.

You may recall that this is the site of the "Bagpuss Table".  Whilst making yet another run to drop off things at the charity shop last week, I ended up coming home not empty handed.  This bamboo table called to me, all £5.50 of it.


And did you spot my new lamp?  I have become quite giddily obsessed with lamps, dear reader.  This one was spotted at the Shepton Mallet Flea Market, £8 for a bargainous 1930s/'40s oak barley twist lamp base and a shockingly dreadful 1980's shade!  No problem: a spot of new braided flex courtesy of Mr HenHouse later, and a lampshade with delicious vintage fabric from yours truly et voila.  What a team!

What to put on those handy shelves under the table top?  It had to be piles of delicious vintage fabric.  These are generally of a heavier weight, so those I would use for cushions and lampshades, rather than patchwork.  This delightful sight greets me every time I go upstairs.

What of the original Bagpuss Table?  Fear ye not, that has simply moved to the next landing and had a little makeover of its own.

I recently came to be in possession of this brown lamp.  It's very un-me, don't you think?  But none the less, it had indeed sat in the spare bedroom for a few years but was liberated last week when I turned that bedroom into a full scale quilting den, getting rid of the bed and so on (more of that another time, oooh it's exciting!)

This lamp did look nice in the environs of the chic calamine pink and mink bedroom but had no home elsewhere in the HenHouse.  

But it is a tale with a happy ending.  One can of pink spray paint and a recovered lampshade later and the Bagpuss Table has a new lamp.

More lampy stuff has been going on downstairs.  This time, I bought the 1940's oak lampbase on eBay and recovered a charity shop shade with some gorgeous French red rosebud fabric which came from Lizzie (The Washerwoman).  Yes, I am quite quite potty about these fabric lampshades.

We bought the little 1940's glazed cabinet at the Shepton Mallet Flea and I made a little door curtain using that same yummy fabric.

Finally, (are you all lamped out yet?), our beloved Bridport yielded a rather lovely Globe Wernicke bookcase.  I have wanted one of these for ages and imagine our joy when we got it home to find that an original CC41 plaque is attached to the back.  We somehow managed to find a spot for it up on the top floor landing, an area which is largely the Munchkin's domain (the top floor, not just the landing!) and before I knew it, he had claimed the bookcase as his own.  He has selected items he owns and made a fabulous little display, all on his own.

Yes, there atop the bookcase is yet another lamp.  The base came from Bridport's vintage area for a few pounds, the lampshade was 50p from a charity shop and it was a simple job to cover it with some groovy retro Spitfire fabric and finally, a very Jubilee-esque trim.

Hmm, surely there must be more surfaces here in need of lamps? I feel my love affair with making over lamps is not yet over. I urge you to get making over lamps yourself, a very satisfying and thrifty affair indeed.  One thing's for sure, no one else is going to have a lampshade like yours!