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It's all about the pillows...


I love pillows…

I love their coziness, their luxurious voluptuousness and the possibilities of beauty and comfort they provide. It may have to do with the word “pillow” itself…what do you think of when you hear it? Big, soft, fluffy pillows piled on top of your bed; piles of gorgeous pillows in fabulous colours and textures on a deep-seated sofa…perfect for reading or napping on a cold, rainy day. Or perhaps it is the pillowy hug from the woman you love or the mother who held you when you were tired or sad.

Wherever you find the word “pillow” it is usually associated with comfort. I have always carried my pillow (or “pullump”, as the five-year-old Aussie kid in me says) on any trip, be it a short road trip or a fifteen hour flight across the Pacific Ocean.

As a little girl, when my dad would come home from work he would call out “get your pullump Christine, we’re going to Queensland!” Oh the heaven of it! A huge pile of pillows and blankets in the back of the van and a thousand mile drive ahead of us. Too bad I had to share it with my two little brothers - but that’s another story.

Then there was the bliss of being wrapped in the loving, pillowy bosom of my nanna when we finally arrived in Queensland and climbing into a bed that was encircled by a "romantic” mosquito net and made up in clean, white, cotton sheets and pillows. One of my daughter’s few memories of my dad includes bringing her pullump into bed with him and nanna for a morning snuggle.

I have this huge collection of of gorgeous fabric and vintage blankets that just keeps expanding; spilling off the shelves, into drawers, out of drawers; piling up in corners…

So when I asked myself the question “what do I want to do?” I thought…”I want to make pillows.” I will make beautiful pillows to make people happy.

Saturday 29 December 2012

Drift Exhibition and Market - December 2012



This was the event, and these were some of the creations generated by the event.  Once again Mariko and Bryan at Feedlot Studio on Gabriola came up with a wonderful idea and followed through with it, creating a wonderful opportunity for all of us to showcase our wares.  The weekend was a great success for all of the artists and artisans as well as a big success for the Nanaimo Art Gallery.

Inspired by the vintage image Mariko used for the ad postcard I created a group of pillows especially for the show.  I was especially smitten with this beautiful, chiarascuro image so I created a pillow in it's honour.  

As it was a winter show I decided to use some of my vintage woolen blankets and a vintage (very moth eaten) Hudson Bay woolen coat.  I then decided to stay with the idea of Drift, and create images of things drifting such as the sailboat drifting through the ice, the hot air balloons drifting in front of the snow capped mountains, the maple leaves and the French school girls drifting around underneath their huge umbrellas.

I have never done anything like this before so it was an adventure, but I discovered I loved the creative aspect of it.  I had to find the image, draw it onto a piece of cardboard and then cut out the template to trace onto the blanket.  Many layers of different stitching in a variety of colours brought the image into relief.

Well that is enough for one year.  Happy new year to everyone, and may we all go on to a joyous and creative 2013.

Salute....

Christine




This is the original pillow with the postcard in front.
Close up of the ship with the rigging,this has an envelope closure at the back of the pillow.  (sold)
The pillow case was made from a vintage RCMP blanket and the icebergs and boat were pieces of another beautiful, soft white wool blanket.

Hot air balloon drifting in front of the snow capped mountains. (still available)

The basket and balloons were highlighted with coloured beads.
Beads and lots of rows of coloured stitching bring the picture into relief.




 
This is the most beautiful pastel stripe blanket, envelope design with opening at front.  It is a huge 26" x 26" gorgeous, curl up with a cup of tea pillow. (still available)
Drifting maple leaves.


This image of the French girls with their umbrellas is from a vintage fabric design.

Oooh la la.... dancing with the stars. (still available)

Vintage Hudson Bay coat made into this gorgeous 26" x 26" pillow.

(Sold)

I loved these crisp navy and white strips of blanket pillows, very chic. (sold)

All that is left of a basket of wooly blanket scotty dogs,

The Drift pillow in it's new home, love it against the white.

Could have sold at least 6 of these, will definitely be making more


Sunday 25 November 2012

Ooohh dear it is almost Christmas....

Hello and almost merry christmas to all.... In the interest of full disclosure I am a merry christmas person, not a happy holidays person. By that I mean that I am a big believer in real christmas trees (the recently chopped down ones that is) not pretend ones, beautiful hand made christmas decorations as well as a few cheezy ones that have been either made by the children or given to us by the children over the years.... they are all treasured, even if they don't make it out of the box every year.

My favorite decorations are the "demented teddy", the christmas fruit and veges and the red bicycle.  The demented teddy is my particular favorite because it drives my son crazy.  I brought it into our christmas when he was about 8 years old, and why not? It is a teddy wearing a red and white nightdress, so cute!  My son has called it the demented teddy ever since; I tried to make it the tree topper one year, but that did not go down well, now we use a big red and white bow.

I have really no explanation for the christmas fruit and vegetables, it just seemed so sweet to have a pretty christmas pickle, cherry, apple, pea and corn hanging on the tree. Same goes for the red bicycle, it is red, and it is a bike and it has a string so you can hang it on the christmas tree, what else do you need?

So I guess it is obvious that I like to have a little fun with christmas. I spent so many years getting stressed out by it, trying to do it all perfectly, spending way too much money, trying to get the traditions right, even though they were not really not my traditions.  I grew up either sweating through a huge, hot meal in the middle of summer, dieing for it to be over, or at the beach, eating sandy seafood and drinking syrupy soft drink..... this was after opening dozens of snowy scened wrapped christmas presents at 5am in the morning with my little brothers.  I look back and can't believe how understanding my parents were, getting up at ridiculous hours of the morning to watch us rip those presents to shreds.  

You can bet I knew what they all were anyway, as I spent the 6 weeks up to christmas carefully searching the house for clues, carefully prying up sticky tape to look inside packages and make sure everything that I had asked for was there. How I found out that santa was not who I thought he was is a pretty ironic story actually.  We usually drove the 1000 miles to Queensland in Australia to see my Nanny and Poppy at christmas time, and after the absolutely joyful reunion I was helping my dad unpack the van.  I lifted up a blanket I was not supposed to and there was a little girl's dolly cradle, with beautiful hand made blankets, pillows and sheets tucked in all around.  The thing was, I recognized the blanket fabric immediately and knew it was for me.  Amazingly I kept my mouth shut and said nothing to mum and dad, but sure enough there it was under the christmas tree with my new and much beloved dolly Rhonda tucked in warm and cozy in the 102 degree heat of a Queensland christmas.  I couldn't tell you what my brothers ever got for christmas, as I was a typical kid completely absorbed in my own presents.

I know it is almost christmas because I participated this weekend in a wonderful christmas artisanal fair here on Gabriola.  It was held in our local senior centre, which was just the right size with lots of light, and a small group of artists and artisans. Seeing as some of these people are heros of mine as they do the most beautiful work and make a living at it on this small island, I was honored to be asked.  I am going to include a couple of them in each of my blog posts in the next few weeks, so check them out if you can.  I would encourage everyone to check out Tammy Hudgeon's beautiful glass work at www.tammyhudgeon.com and Laura Hanford's stunning silver jewellery (actually it is not jewellery it is silversmithing at it's finest) at www.moonshinesilver.com . I am sorry if silversmithing is not a verb, but you know what I mean.

I am going to include a few beautiful christmas images that I found courtesy of Pinterest and a beautiful Australian blog La Maison Boheme.  I would like to think that I would use some of these ideas, and I do plan to..... if I can ever get past my typical red and white Swedish christmas traditions.  I just love the whole, evergreen boughs, red and white checked ribbon, wooden apples and lots of candles thing.... but I will try harder this year to do something different..... and keep you posted.  

This is sublime, all it needs is a demented teddy in a red and white nighty...

I am definitely going to create this one

This is definitely a North American christmas, mine's the red one.


This I would SO do, if I had a gray velvet sofa, yes definitely...

fabulous..... but I will probably never do this.



Going to do this one too.

Merry almost christmas.... Christine

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Encore Une Fois


" (French for once again / one more time)"


About two and half years ago my good friend Barb Rutherford and I were sitting around in my back yard wishing and dreaming about having our own "shop" and how wonderful it would be.  We envisioned a place to display and sell all the the stuff were accumulating in our houses and storage spaces: old wicker furniture, pictures, buckets, lovely old worn china and most of all textiles.  If only it were possible but with her living in Victoria and still working part time and me living on a gulf island. a ferry and 2 hour drive away it just was not going to be.
So we started to figure out how we could do it in a "pop up style". Maybe we could have a sale once or twice a year, bring everything together at her beautiful Arts and Crafts house in Oak Bay, Victoria and invite people to come and shop.  It seemed like that would be doable, so we decided to just do it.

Well Barb went home to Victoria and chatted about this idea to her friends Fran Fettig-Winn and Patti Wells, two very stylish and talented ladies in the world of vintage and upcycled design who thought that this was a great idea and loved the idea of being a part of it.  Encore Une Fois was born.  Barb came up with this wonderful French interpretation of "once again / one more time" and we jumped right into our first sale for that Christmas.  Between the 3 Victorian friends they had a pretty substantial friends/family email list, and our house show was  a huge success. Patti has been a vintage and all things beautiful collector for many years and had a garage full of containers filled to the brim with glass ware, silver, paintings and china, small pieces of furniture, jewellery and textiles which she had sold in her beautiful shop in Oak Bay - Manilla Tag in another life.

Fran is a craftswoman and needleworker of great skill and style who makes tea cosies which are works or art as we well as pillows, aprons and childrens dolls.  She is also a collector of vintage ephemeria and had an overflowing crafts/sewing room which was crying out for a bigger outlet.

So between the four of us and a few wonderful friends we did Barb's house up as a boutique with each room displaying our home made and found wares, it was beautiful...... and a huge success.  We have gone on to do another Christmas sale last year, and a spring/summer outdoor sale this past June, each of which has been a great success.  We are in the throes of getting our next sale ready for early November and looks to be better than ever with people looking forward to bringing their friends and family to early shop for Christmas or just for themselves.  Here are a few pictures to tell the story so far

Our first sale advertisement



Aprons and tote bags lining the stairs

One of Fran's beautiful tea cosies







Encore Une Fois's first spring/summer sale in Oak Bay Victoria








So if you would like to join us on November 6th  in Oak Bay, Victoria Encore will be presenting it's Winter Sale.  If you would like more information you can go to Encore Une Fois Community on Facebook or drop me an email at christine@modernbohemian.ca.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

I am calling it the "great room"....


 October 16th, and a beautiful Spring day here on Gabriola..

After much thought and referring to the wisdom of my style icon Kathryn Ireland, designer, author and all round creator of all things beautiful, I have decided to call our main floor the "great room".  

After all it is not just a big room, it is the room where everything happens.  In the morning we start out the day with coffee, magazines, papers and crossword puzzles and at the end of the day we come together for a glass of wine or gin and tonic and review the day before starting dinner. 

At one of the room is our sitting area which snuggles up around the wood burning stove.  This is definitely my favorite area of our house, as it is light and bright and cozy and open all at once. At the other end of the room is the kitchen and dining area, although I have serious problems with the expression dining room, we don't dine, we eat here! 

Because there are so many windows in the space and it is south facing there is lots and lots of light; which when you live in the middle of a forest in the northern hemisphere is a good thing.  We are actually surrounded by other properties but because there are so many trees and you would never know it.  That being said, it is lovely to live in a quiet, secluded neighborhood with the beach and fields with horses and cows just down the road, knowing that our neighbors and friends are not far away for impromptu cocktails and games of street hockey.

Sitting area of the "great room" with the fire blazing..

Eating area of the "great room"
Kitchen and dining area of the "great room"



 As you can probably see this house is a "timber frame" house made with fir grown and milled right on this island.  It sits on a cement slab which has thermal floor heating, and that with the wood stove makes it lovely and warm in the winter and lovely and cool in the summer.  We bought the house when it was only a year old, and still sitting in the building site surrounded by blackberries, weeds and wild brambles.  The floor hadn't been finished, and I had a picture in my head  from an Australian design magazine of a deep, ocean blue which would ground this huge, two story room.  Fortunately we did the floor in the middle of a beautiful July summer and could put everything in the house in the front yard including the tub, fridge, stove etc while the very labor intensive, time consuming and stinky process took place.  A week later we were able to move everything back in just in time for my mum to visit from Australia.

The woman who built the house had a very spare, chiaroscuro esthetic which I admired a lot, but I just cannot resist colour for very long, especially red.  Eventually the whole look came together, calm white walls, dark blue/black floor with a motley blend of comfortable furniture, artwork, salvaged treasures and my beloved blue and white collection of pottery and china.  The red antique dresser filled with our everyday china was from a farm in Saskatchewan by way of Fort Langley.

The side table beside the white, slip covered (with painters drop cloth) sofa is a vintage Singer sewing machine base with my husband's teenage skim board screwed to the top.  It just is one of those things that you carry around for years, because it is so pretty and he made it himself, and all of a sudden you think of the perfect way to use it.


Saskatchewan dresser with 7 coats of red paint


Sewing machine base with skim board top


Blue and white and red, what can I say... 



That ice cream sign is a real, honest to goodness beach find

Sunday 30 September 2012

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