Postage and Packaging

If this blog were a baby I'd be accused of serious neglect! Poor unloved child. I have been busy elsewhere.  You know how today's career minded woman has to juggle a home, family and work? Yeah well, if that was the case for me, I'd not be doing all that well at it.

Still I'm not gonna beat myself up, I've just started a new job (which I LOVE) and I'm trying to get my new vintage shop, Hedgerow Home, up and running. I've mostly been hunting high and low for treasures to stock my shop with, and familiarising myself with the Etsy community... and today I have been working on my packaging.

Its a simple thing, but you know what they say simple things please simple minds!

Styling a Vintage Wedding

There are so many ways to add a little vintage style to your wedding and decor, I thought I'd share a little inspiration via the online crafts and vintage shopping emporium that is Etsy.

• Start with the stationery and think vintage stamps or repurposing vintage postcards 

• Use old printing blocks or scrabble letters for table names, and keep names settings in place with an antique key

• Decorate tables with embroidered tablecloths

• Make table runners out of a mix and match bunch of doilys 

• Pop odd stems of wild country flowers in vintage bottles

• Make your own bunting with book pages or music sheets 

• For garlands sew doillys or strands of vintage sheets onto strings of cotton or lace and deck the halls, ceilings, mantle pieces - where ever takes yours fancy

• Make like a pro and style up little areas with old suitcases, collections of books and other props. Little vignettes are lovely for sweet or drinks tables, or for guests to linger over the wedding book

• Don't forget those who can't be there by including photos of loved ones displayed in hanging mix and match frames. Or use these to tell your own love story

To find all the details of the items shown follow the link to the treasury, and bob over to my shop while you're there.    

Simple - Succulents

I was pushing succulents and cacti this weekend for Fathers Day, but they're one of the more masculine things we sell, but they're not just for men.  Although they're probably not your first thought when it comes to flower arranging, they do actually make a very cute display.

If time, patience and fiddly flower arrangements are not your thing, then succulents are your friend.  Easy to handle and repot, unlike their prickly cacti cousins, succulents come in a range of subtle green/grey/lilac shades, are low maintenance and really long lasting.

There are lots of different types too - Echevaria, Sempre Vivum, and Crassula Argenteum are some of the most popular. Echevaria, one of my favourites, has large plump leaves that form a striking rosette shaped plant.

I like them in low wooden planters, zinc troughs, window boxes and vertical wall gardens, but they look fab in silver goblets, bowls and platters, and are fun in mismatched groups of pewter jugs and trophys.

Line em up or gather in clusters for a simple succulent display.


Images: magnetstreet, foundon8th, designsponge, country living, ruffled, catherinegratwicke

Grand Opening of My Vintage Shop

You may have noticed that the blog took a slightly different turn this week. I had been getting into a pattern and trying to stick to a bit of a rough schedule, posting regularly on flowers and floristry with more detailed posts on ideas for simple vases, and a weekly focus on classic wedding flowers.

But this week I was pushed for time and dashed a few posts off rather quickly. You see, I've been pretty busy, working on lots of different projects behind the scenes as well as the usual floristry and interiors styling. One of the things that I've been working on is setting up a vintage shop.

I've been a lover of vintage since I was a young girl and remember sitting at my nan's dressing table eyeing up her jewellery box, and pawing through her wardrobe! As a teenager I started to frequent the local charity shops, back in the day when decent well made clothes were still donated to charity. Later I sharpened my elbows at the village hall jumble sales, and ventured up to London for the second hand stalls at Camden Lock, Kensington Market and Portabello in Notting Hill.

If I'm honest, I should admit that my choice of University was in part due to the sheer number of charity shops in Preston. That and the jolly friendly chap in a little shop called Rags behind the Adelphi. On my first visit to town I discovered his gem of a shop. After watching me rifle through his stock with glee, he presented me with a black felted bowler hat to keep. I left with the hat and a smile and was a regular customer there for years.

That was a long while ago now, but although I no longer have the bowler hat, my love of vintage has never left me. So recently I started collecting a few bits and bobs, things for the home mostly, charming cottagey treasures that are a little bit rustic and a little bit country and I've gathered them together in my Hedgerow Home.

Pop over and take a look.

Images via (apart from Hedgerow Home) from: W Magazine, Kensington Market Archive via Facebook, Vixen Vintage