A wallpaper time capsule...

When we stripped all the old plasterboard off the stud walls in the old part of the house we found a treasure trove of wallpapers trapped beneath....

In the hall there was this very yellow floral number.

This green and gold glitzy number was in the living room.



Some more sparkle, this time a leafy design with lots of silver dots.



This one was a little more subtle and one of the only ones that wasn't floral.  Its a sort of chain design with a touch of gold.



This one looks quite tropical!



This one looks quite hawaiian  or surfy!



These roses were in the dining room and are quite dramatic when seen on a whole wall scale!



I can't remember where this was but it's very pink...



This one would give Cath Kidston a run for her money!



This is the last one we found and it's quite delicate with pink cornflowers on a white background.



All the stud walls in the old part of our house are made of tongue and groove.  They had been papered with old newspapers first - I think probably to stop the ridges of the wood from showing through on the wall paper.

We've stripped the wallpaper right back and have repaired bits of the wood that were rotten or simply missing.  There's still lots of work to do before we can paint but I can't help dreaming of what colours to use!  Having stripped all the wallpaper off I'm definitely going to steer clear of putting anymore up, paint all the way!

I've no idea what date any of the wallpapers are from, do leave me a comment if you recognise any of them or know when they might be from!

Bank Holiday day trip...

On the last Bank Holiday in May we decided we would take our first proper day trip as a family.  It was a really sunny day and we contemplated going to Castle Ward but decided in the end to go to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

We spent most of our time in the transport galleries looking at all the trains, buses and cars.

I was particularly taken by this Land Rover fire engine as it has so much in common with our camper van.  They really are very versatile vehicles!

We thought it would actually make quite a good mobile shop with the openings on the side!

So many of the vehicles had brilliant badges.  They just don't make them like that anymore.

I also really liked all the commercial vehicles, again modern commercial vehicles really don't cut it compared to some of these.

This little blue car was pretty cute.  It's a Peugeot Bébé.

Always love a Morris Traveller.  Maybe some day!

We then went across to the Folk park part of the museum were we had a picnic, with tasty bread and olives from the Poachers' Pantry in Lisbane and then we went for a walk round the rural part, mainly getting ideas for our own house and garden!

One of the last building we looked at was the rural school, it had some lovely vintage posters inside.

We reckoned that the older the kids got they must have moved up to the higher coat hooks.

All in all it was a great day out, I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for an interesting trip.

dear photograph...

This is such a genius site….

So many great pictures like this one….

Makes me want to go and rummage through old photos!

Brought to my attention by Picked by Six

inspiration from the ulster folk and transport museum

The other week I took a trip to the Ulster Folk and Transport museum, it must have been about ten years since I have been and I have to say I will be back again! I had forgotten how brilliant it is, so many amazing things to look at.  As you can imagine I was particularly taken by all the old packaging and machinery.  I will definitely be working on some illustrations inspired by my visit!



Being the nostalgic type it made me want to go home and bake soda bread and light the fire - I also couldn’t resist stopping at the shop on the way home to get some peat for the truly authentic smell! Heaven.