Beaufiful Autumn days on Gabriola and the art of rubbish pit exploring.....

Learning curve announcement, "must include pictures of what I am talking about" when doing a blog post.  Also must re-assure everybody that the pillows you see here are for sale.  If you go to ETSY and go to Modern Bohemian Design you will find my shop where you can buy most of what you see. Sorry about that, and many thanks to my dear friends for pointing out that the omission.  Note to self, double check next time.

It was great to get such lovely feedback from all of you, thanks so much, and if you would like to share some pillows stories of you own, I would love to hear from you.  Here is a couple of pictures from the "great/big" room where we spend so much time.  The photo to the right I did in my last post, I will do some more next time, for now I want to share some outside photos I took last week.

This past Wednesday was a beautiful early autumn day (my Australian roots are showing - it is still autumn to me; which brings me to the beauty of some words. Autumn is definitely one of the most beautiful and evocative words I can think.  Pillow, chiaroscuro, the word "bella" spoken with gusto and joy, and the word joy itself.... so many words are just a "joy" to use).  

Anyway while taking some pictures of newly completed pillows , I decided to be a stylist for the morning.  So I actually ran around setting up a photo shoot on the deck,  which led to taking photos of all kinds of things out there. I am including some for you to share and get ideas from. 

This beautiful little summerhouse you see below is where I do my sewing and is just steps away across the deck from the house.  I am very lucky to have a creative and handy husband and my summerhouse/studio is just the latest of many beautiful buildings and rooms we have created together over the years.   The windows are rec-cycled from a neighbor's renovation, the beautiful old door was on the property when we moved here and the beautifully aged ceder we salvaged from a fence from a previous house.

As you can see we are also great lovers of all things flotsam and jetsam, whether it be painted wood, paddles, colored floats, rusted metal or just interesting bits of driftwood.  We are also world class scroungers, and I never walked past a junk shop or pile of rubbish that I did not want to dive into with gusto.

 The fence between the house and the summerhouse is made of pieces of painted driftwood and decorated with all kids of beautiful rubbish.

 

 Which brings me to another story about my dad. The apple has not fallen far from the tree as far as I am concerned, as the only person I know who loved a junk pile more than me was my dad Roy.
 
I grew up in a  small, rural community in southern Victoria in Australia where some of the properties were very old and the way people disposed of their rubbish was to throw it in the "pit", which was a big hole in a back corner of the house yard.  So you can imagine the treasures thrown into these pits over the last hundred and fifty years. Broken china, beautiful old bottles in colors of blue and mauve and wavy shades of white, rusted iron work and gorgeous old tiles.

On returning home for a visit the first thing I would do after having that blessed hot shower (after 24 hours of traveling), would be to go outside to Dad's shed. He,like all Aussi boys had a great shed, with all manner of interesting junk and treasures piled up and stowed away in old drawers.  Just watch out for the spiders! And I mean spiders, big, brown huntsman spiders which "won't hurt you, they just eat the flies" and beautiful, but lethal little treasures like the red back spider.  Too bad about that, because that red cross on the black body background could be fabulous.  Anyway I digress. There at the end of the bench was a big box with all the things Dad had dug up for me to take back to Canada. 

Yes, back to Canada in my luggage went old tiles, fragments of beautiful old ornaments, glass bottles, pieces of broken china in blue and white and one lucky year lavender, a tiny child's tea set, pieces of rusted iron and some beautiful old pieces of cutlery.
 
This lovely piece of old cast iron and the candle holder on the driftwood bench below are both from my dad's pit.

It was such a gorgeous day even lunch of yoghurt, fruit and granola looked like a photo op.  My kitchen windowsill which is at the other end of the "great/big" room is a great spot to showcase whatever I am loving at the moment.  These photos were taken in the spring of this year when the daffodills were in bloom, it includes bits of beach wood and shells, favorite pieces of ceramic and pottery, chickens and of course a super hero, every kitchen needs a super hero with a sonar gun.

Hope you find some inspiration in here, whether it be to make a pillow, go for a fossick on the beach or dig around in your own favourite junk store or "pit", Who knows what treasures or plastic super heros are out there waiting for you.

Ciao for now
Christine