Looking Ahead to a Flower-Filled New Year

One thing constant in my life: flowers!
Whether they enliven my breakfast table, turn their sweet faces to the sun in my own garden, flow from the tip of my paint brush or grace my fabric and wallpaper designs, I have decided I cannot live without them, and I am in good company!

Happy New Year, all!
And here's to a year filled with wonderful, happy, colorful flowers!

"I must have flowers, always, and always."  - Claude Monet

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."  - Iris Murdoch

"Perfumes are the feelings of flowers." - Heinrich Heine

Looking Glass Art

I've had this vision in my mind for quite awhile now, of a slightly distressed, ancient-looking mirror, with beautiful flowers showing through in the rubbed off sections.

So today I decided to go about creating that vision, using a really gorgeous, ornate brass frame I bought from a neighbor's garage sale, years ago!

After getting glass cut to size at Lowes, I returned home and used decoupage glue to attach a piece of patterned paper (in this case, I used my own design, which can be purchased through my shop, Lilyoake, on Spoonflower, here)

After it dried, I waited still longer for a dry moment outside (this is, after all Seattle) and ran outside to put on 5 light coats of Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint.
I have seen it used on many DIY blogs for homemade mercury glass effects.
I'm not even sure I used it on the correct side of the glass - as this was a first time experiment!
But in between each coat, I spritzed it with vinegar water and blotted off the paint in areas where I wanted my roses pattern to show through.

After it dried, I put it into the frame and lit the candles - its rather ghostly, and very romantic!

I will try a second time with new glass and try a different technique.
But I thought my first try was worth sharing!

Exploring Wallpaper Looks

Spoonflower has a fun feature that allows you to see what your design will look like on a wall, as wallpaper ( or even on a wrapped gift, as wrapping paper).

Here are a few favorites of mine. I am quite sure I will choose Rococo Roses, blue on white, for my family room walls.

But its still fun to see what certain designs might look like on a wall, to scale!

Free Favor Box Download for Holiday Gift Giving

   I am linking this post to TPP today - The Pink Pagoda, one of my favorite blogs to read, showcasing fabulous blue and white!!
Click HERE for the direct link to her blog, where you can explore the many other fabulous links!

To celebrate my newest fabric designs, I am offering up a few free downloads today of a 2" cube favor box!
The dark blueberry violet design is my newest fabric "Violetta", available here, on Spoonflower.
These would be fabulous in a stocking or to put at place settings during a special dinner with friends and family!

   The lighter stripe and rose bouquet is "Jane's Rose Stripe", available here, on Spoonflower.

And the third is "Ella Lace", available here, also on Spoonflower.

   Simply click on the image to enlarge it, then right click on it and save to your computer.
   Its best to print on at least an 80# card stock, for a sturdy enough box.  I put small markings on the outside of the die line so you can use them for scoring at the folds, and not worry about the lines showing up on the printed box.

   These favor boxes (both the template and the pattern) are copyright Lilyoake (that's me) and by downloading them, you agree to use them for personal use only.  They are not to be used for resale or to be given away for free on any other graphics website or blog.
   If you feature them on your blog, I'd appreciate a link back to my blog at Lilyoake.

Other then that, enjoy!
   They'd make great wedding fave boxes, tea party favors filled with dried lavender or a petit four, or to hold a small gift for a friend.

Let me know what you think!

Romance in the Dining Room

Please join me over at  The Pink Pagoda for her fun and fabulous Blue & White Bash, and share in everyone's mutual love for blue & white! And check out all the participants.  Its so much fun to see what everyone is doing with their love of blue.


I worked for Laura Ashley, years ago, when the company still had shops in the US!

I was and still am, heavily influenced by the florals and romantic fabrics I was surrounded with day after day in that wee Seattle shop.

So when I finally bought my own cottage and had a chance to decorate it, I already knew just how I wanted it to look.

Soft blues and whites and romantic florals.

Influenced by Laura Ashley and Swedish Gustavian design!

So, budget allowing, I am working my way through each room.

Right now I am working on the dining room.

I love being able to design my own fabrics and wallpapers via Spoonflower.

My shop name is Lilyoake.

I chose my "Jane's Rose Stripe" for my curtains ( to be paired later with a matching wallpaper called "Jane's Rose Bouquet".)

I took some time out this past weekend to finish sewing the first curtain panel, printed on linen cotton canvas.

I edged it with a matching blue gingham I bought at a fabric shop.  I intend to line them too, with white cotton sheets, so they look more finished from the outside.

But in the mean time, I can get them up, because we need the privacy now that its dark early!

Violets are Blue...

"We are violets blue, For our sweetness found careless in the mossy shades,

Looking on the ground.

Love's dropp'd eyelids and a kiss,

Such our breath and blueness is."

             James Henry Leigh Hunt

This is a new fabric I designed, I've called Violetta.

I needed to balance out all my pastel blues and white designs with a little drama, a rich blue background!

Flowers for the Soul

This quote by Hans Christian Anderson, says it all:

"Just living is not enough...

one must have sunshine,

freedom,

and a little flower"

That's how I feel about interior design as well.

I adore floral prints, especially in soft shades of blue and white.

And I believe a home looks magical and romantic when adorned in flowers.

I have designed over 160 so far, and each new design becomes my new favorite!

I started out designing just for myself, to decorate my little Cape Cod cottage in colors and patterns I wanted, but couldnt find on the open market.

Now its become an obsession!

Here are a few photos I took recently of some of my fabrics I have had printed on the linen-cotton canvas, quilting cotton or heavy cotton canvas, available at Spoonflower.

I plan on sewing them up into soft furnishings for the home this fall/winter, and offering them up for sale through my ETSY shop, Lilyoake.

So, stay tuned!

My Love of Roses

"Won't you come into the Garden?
I would like my roses to see you..."
                        Richard Brinsley Sheridan

I took advantage of the late summer sun on the patio and took some photos of my roses fabrics.
I have designed so many, I had to limit my choice to a few, but in my Spoonflower shop, Lilyoake, I have nearly 170 fabrics.  Most of them feature roses.
I think I have an addiction!!