Mirrors and Bunting

Traditional (and even semi-traditional) French houses are very dark, with a roof over most windows to keep out the blazing summer sun - you can just see our patio roof in this picture. It works brilliantly, but everyone has to find ways to bring more light into their homes. Electric lighting is bound to provide some of it, but Ben and I have tride hard to maximise the available natural light with pale walls and lots of mirrors.
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I'm always on the look out for mirrors!
The French mirror above came home with me from Scotland this time - it used to belong to my grandmother. The terrible old one below cost me a few euros at a Vide Grenier and I fell strangely in love with it, despite its damaged mirror glass and strange, wood-effect metal frame. I honestly like it, folks!

On Sunday Ben finally stopped his outdoor work (rain and darkness stopped play) and came in brandishing tools, offering to put the mirrors up. Once he'd replaced the dreadful old fixing, they went up quite quickly, and looked like this. Clutter visible, realists - I hope you're proud of me!These lovely hooks I got (and altered) for my birthday got put up in the kitchen at the same time. They now house my two Garden Party tea cosies and the vintage apron which Kate sent me, leaving the other hooks for more prosaic kitchen stuff.

So on Monday evening, as homework took place all around me (maths and physics - thank goodness Ben was home), I fiddled and tweaked the area around the mirrors (and dusted, too!)

I got my megaplant, which was but a baby when the boys bought it for me a few years ago, to drape itself elegantly over the French/Scottish mirror. Happy mummy.The other side was looking decidedly bare, so I thought and thought (even giving Ben a second to make suggestions, but coming to a conclusion before he said anything, poor man). What I thought of was some bunting/garland that I'd just made following Tif's wonderfully vague instructions over at dottie angel. Here is Tif's seasonal festive garland.

I'd wanted to make this ever since I saw her tutorial, but I wanted it to be more than just a poor copy of a dottie angel garland. After all, Tif is an English woman who flits around a mossy shed in Seattle, wearing a customised slip and studiously avoiding her shift key. On the other hand I am an English woman who stomps around a barn-type house in France, wearing loads of woolies and lazily over-using ellipsis...

...so I wanted to make mine different, somehow.

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The moment of epiphany came when I remembered the 'useless' little bits of Victorian quilt that I'd saved after making all the 'useful' pieces into cushions or whatever. I quickly hauled them out of the cupboard and got to work:

I added bits of French embroidery from whatever I was prepared to cut up:

And to give it the wintery theme I wanted I cut up a sweetly embroidered blouse with Inuit people and snowflakes on it:

I draped it from the bookshelf, sort of echoing the draping pattern of my plant on the other side:

And took it down to the pitcher of bullrushes in the corner.

I am quite happy with the result, although I might just 'tweak' a bit more!

So thanks, Ben, for the hard work, and thanks, Tif, for the great idea!