Unavailable in Brown Thomas

or T K Maxx or anywhere except the Limerick Animal Welfare charity shop on Parnell Street is this wonderful tablecloth which is hand embroidered in a colourful, idiosyncratic stylethat must have taken ages.  The only thing is it's almost too lovely to use and I make no apologies for posting all the photographs of the details of this beautiful object.

With wallpaper like this, who needs enemies?

I'm through with matching anything to this wallpaper.  The dog and the dove battle it out but the wallpaper always wins.

A little piece of 1970

I seem to be on a bit of a 70's vibe at the moment - the string picture I posted recently was gone but today I got this embroidered picture - more embroidery.  But look at it!  The subject, the colours, the polyester or nylon wool, the hessian backing, the style all scream 70's and I couldn't leave it behind.  It didn't fit into the top box so was carted home fastened to the bike by two ties. 

I love the way whoever made it has run out of wool for some sections and carried on in a slightly different colour and yes, the dove does look a little strange but who cares? This is handmade and maybe 40 years old



My very own Irish cottage

I always wanted one of those traditional cottages with the stone, whitewashed walls and thatched roof and chickens in the yard.  And now I have one ...

in the form of this lovely and unusual embroidered brooch, complete with birds and chickens and even possibly a pile of turf at the side.

It's a gorgeous little thing, the embroidery is fairly intricate and I think it may be quite old.  It's certainly a much better souvenir of Ireland than the plastic leprechauns, (made in China), that are sold in shops today.