Tulle Topiary

Totally loving tulle at the moment as I have been playing with yards of it, embroidered, colour, vintage, soft, scrunchy, with dots without. I've been making more corsages and new styles of scarves using this material. I do have to be incredibly careful as 'Tinky' my white cat has a bit of a fetish when it comes to tulle. She doesn't take any notice of anything else but if I leave any tulle laying around inevitably by the time I return it has been shredded!!!



'Tinky' even managed to get to a bridesmaid dress of Faye's once fortunately the event had already happened and I caught her before toooooo much damage occurred. So now my wedding dress which was a skirt made up of only tulle and separate lace bodice and faye's Bridesmaid dresses are in bags hanging up in my spare bedroom with the door permanently closed. If 'Tinky' ever gets to them past all that security I am definitely taking her for cat counseling or letting her launch her own fashion label!
If the above red dress is anything to go by I think 'Tinky' maybe onto something.

1.2.3 images from starshine
4.Blank
'Tinky' with slight pinky tones to her coat, when she was going through her Zandra Rhodes period.

Thank You Country Living

Thank you Country Living and thank you to all of you for making the past week a really delightful experience. I made many new friends and three very special ones in particular who were all the way from Australia. Gaye, Tom and Yazzie I hope will be in our lives for many many years to come and both Christian and I are looking forward to seeing you all again soon.


Cavania will hopefully be attending Country Livings Hampton Court Fair in July, so I will keep you updated as soon as I know the stand number.



My pretty handmade corsages went down a treat and I am thrilled you liked them as much as I do. They sold out completely so I will be making a limited number and they will be in the Cavania online shop this week.
I have been working so hard the past 6 week that I think I might take tomorrow afternoon off, I will post again in a few days.
xxx

Butterfly Friends

The lovely Kathryn over at 'Secrets of a Butterfly' blog has posted a really nice piece on Cavania. I do love the pretty colleges she creates and the beautiful words she writes, do pop over and have a look.
Thank you Kathryn xxx

More from the Country Living Fair

As promised a few photos of the little garden that has been planted in the front entrance of the show. It measures aprox 4x5 meters and is so beautifully designed with a fabulous mix of plants it fills the air with the aroma of Spring.







Last day tomorrow and the clocks go back tonight so one hour less in bed tomorrow, must go to bed as I am extremely tied.

A Wonderful Fair

End of day 2 at the Country Living Fair and the show is so lovely, it's well thought out and the in-house floral displays and garden are gorgeous, more photos tomorrow.



A big thank you to you all who have stopped by and said hello it is always so lovely to meet and put faces to names.
The show runs to Sunday and is well worth a visit if you can, it is quite possibly the best presented show I have ever attended.
Country Living Fair Spring 2010

Handmade Corsages & Button Hearts

I have been very busy this weekend putting the finishing touches to all the corsages and vintage button hearts I have made for the retail Country Living Fair this week. I still have a few tickets left to give away so email if you want them.







As you may remember I was lucky enough to stumble upon a mountain of vintage buttons that came from an old haberdashery suppliers on the famous Portabelo Road, London which closed down. Well what do you do with thousands of buttons, make Vintage Button Hearts of course.

They are very limited edition and no two are the same, I will try and put some in my online shop after the show as well as the scrumptious corsages.






I will try and post this week and keep you up to date with the goings on at the show.

See you there xxx

Job Opportunity

Cavania is potentially looking for a guest writer/blogger and retail manager. Job to entail promoting the brand and attending the retail and trade shows in the UK and possibly abroad. Retail skills, hard working and fun loving essential.

Do you know of anyone that can craft, write, take photos and talk about Cavania amongst other things.
Preferable living in the UK because we have to post you lots of goodies for the photo shoots.

Looking to start in the next couple of months, so we are on the search for the perfect person now.

Email karen@cavaniacards.co.uk

Image is from our Silhouette range of cards 'Congratulations on your New Job' click here to purchase this card.

Finishing Touches

Today I am sewing my new woven labels onto all my handmade goodies for the Country Living Fair, sneaky preview photos tomorrow. They finally arrived on Saturday and I love them, well worth the wait.
I have also had printed some swing tags which I am now threading cotton string on to. Packaging and finishing touches have always been a passion of mine.

Skip Treasures

Another skip treasure, I don't go out trawling through skips honestly, this was from the one in my next door neighbors garden. I had the wooden trunk last month from them and now they were throwing away this shelf unit, so it has now had a make over and will be joining me at the Country Living Fair next week to display my goodies on. I still have complimentary tickets for the show left, so let me know if you want them.

Country living Fair

I have another 5 pairs of complimentary tickets to give away to Cavania followers, so just leave a comment below.


Country living Fair Spring 2010 Click here to visit their site.

When you leave your comment just let me know if you would like a day time ticket or an Evening ticket for the fabulous Gala night on the Tuesday 6.30-9pm.

Times
Wednesday 24th March 10.00am - 6.00pm
Wednesday Gala Evening 6.30pm - 9.00pm
Thursday 25th March 10.00am - 6.00pm
Friday 26th March 10.00am - 6.00pm
Saturday 27th March 9.30am - 6.00pm
Sunday 28th March 10.00am - 3.00pm

Keeping it Simple

The sun is shinning again today and Spring could be just around the corner, at last. There is a line of sunlight hitting my little shed and gravel at the bottom of my garden and if I let myself drift I could be by the seaside. I certainly do need to relax as it has been manic this week and still I have so much to do. The trade website has taken all my time up for the past 8 days straight. I have been taking photos of our wedding invitations and uploading more of our products which there are now over 1,000 items. So you can imagine just what a huge job this has been for Gemma and I over the last couple of months as each item has 2-3 shots from different angles, then colour correcting and resizing.

Don't forget it's Mother's Day this weekend here in the UK and the amount of card orders we have been to shipping this week have been amazing.
Click here to see our Mother's Day range.

Below are images of a simple life and one I think I would like to try one day, before they cart me off in a white van!
Oh I think I heard a seagull...............




Images
1.2.3 by Lucinda Symonds
4.Skonahem
5.Photo by Frances Janisch

Dream stairways

I have a folder in my laptop and it's titled dream home and finally after much deliberation I have chosen my perfect stairway. The photo below is simply stunning, I love the shape and shape of the staircase and detail. The pale stair runner and the feeling of light and space give this hallway a calm elegance.

via Lucyina
Christian has asked for our dream hallway to be filled with photos of family and our travels. So this image has also made the short listing.

image via starshine


Today saw the opening of Tim Burtons 'Alice in Wonderland' and Faye & I have tickets for tomorrow. I will be baking cupcakes in the morning and packing my basket full of treat for our picnic in the cinema, we can't be late as we have a very important date.



Alice inspired photos by Elena Kalis, visit her site for more adorable images.
I hope you have a lovely weekend xxx

Country Style Painting Projects

Here are a few photos of some painting projects that I did a while ago. They came from a book called Country Painting by Emma Hunk, available on Amazon or try your local library.

I really liked the naivety style to the paintings which makes it easier for anyone to have a go, above was a inexpensive terra-cotta garden pot.

A plain galvanised bucket took on a whole new look with a paint job now I keep all the shoe polishes in the bucket which makes for a cute country styled display.

Front of the book.

Inside the book.