Little Cyclops

Wanted to come with me, wants a clean

I still love old wheeled toys.   I still have several, some real favourites.  A vintage early 60s era blue & white Tonka farm truck.  A plush white rabbit on a wheeled platform.  I have a framed poster of a flying tricycle (sprouting feathers, as it flies up into the sky).  The child in me delights in them;  the sight of them always brings a smile.  And I continue to be drawn to old style tricycles, vintage bicycles, and red wagons.  Favorite and familiar icons and emblems to me, I guess.

So I there was no restraint to my imagination possible when I saw a red wagon outside of Bowsers of the Barossa vintage goods and consignment shop a little over a week ago (Check out their Facebook page here).  Alas, I could not stop that day, needed to be somewhere by some particular time, something like that.  But several days later I did pass that way again and called in to inquire whether it was already sold, because it wasn't outside that day.  Lucky for me, it was just inside the front door, sheltering from possible rain showers !

awesome old metal wheels,
bright yellow paintwork (albeit rusty).
Coaster lettering faintly seen (yellow).

It is a seriously cute Cyclops Coaster red wagon, with the sort of handle that apparently was clipped onto for towing by a Cyclops pedal car.  Probably vintage from late 50s or early-mid 60s era.  It has a lot of chipped paint and wear on it, but still has great old yellow metal wheels, with lots of spokes.  A blue undercarriage/chassis.  And you can still tell it used to be all red !  The side has a light outline of where the lettering Coaster used to be, and you can still see a bit of Cyclops on the side.

Cleaned and given a protective finish
of beeswax.  Too Cute !!

The wagon came with me.  I was covering hours at Salon Rouge gallery right after I picked it up.  It was my afternoon project.  I cleaned the dust and surface dirt off it and then carefully rubbed in a light as can be coat of beeswax to protect the finish and the patina.  Too cute !  Don't ask what I will do with this just yet, but I have wanted a vintage red wagon for awhile !!

Spring Around the Corner ?

It has been so dreary lately, I am desperate for signs of spring.  Any and all of them.  One of the tasks I need to do is to prune the roses.  While they can be done in July, many suggest waiting until 1 August to do this, so any new growth will not get frost bitten, as risk of frosts should have passed by 3 weeks or so after that date (when new growth would emerge).  I know from past experience that roses here  spring to life fast and well, this is a perfect growing area for them.  So I went out to trim the first lot, it being quite close to 1 August.  And I have many to do, so will be doing this off and on all week.  I got about 20-25% of them done in this first session, and have nearly filled our green bin already.  (the rest will be piled up to fill it after it gets emptied next Saturday).

I found a few early signs of spring coming soon.  Lovely coral red blossoms that open just before and during the month of August,  I will have branches for the next few weeks, to put into a favourite cut glass vase.  And small marguerite daisies.  Paperwhite jonquils, which are especially fragrant filling the room with their scent the first several days after I bring them in.  And a few creamy and bright yellow jonquils too.  Cute little grape hyacinths, with their intoxicating perfume.  And a few crazy silly roses that have still been blooming, right up to Rose Pruning Week !  A few pink, two yellow, and one red.

lalala...Pookie.just happens to turn up
after a basket of flowers
is brought in the house

 I collected a basket of flowers to take in.  It did not take long for Pookie to come around to check out what was happening.

Now he is curious !

Coming in for a little sniff.  Yum, jonquils !
(fortunately the cats do not eat these, but the last of winter's roses have already been "enjoyed" and grazed!)

The flowers make it feel like spring is soon to come.

Make Do & Mend

mended and embellished:
my old cashmere cardigan gets a new look
to complement retro spring frocks

It is the dead of winter, short days, cold chilly days, and when there is sunshine, it seems to be accompanied by a biting wind.  In the evenings we have a nice roaring fire in the firebox, and it is a nice place to have dinner.  And for a bit of time before I have to do evening work shift calls and emails, I have a bit of time to catch up on things in the mending pile.  This year it just happens to be a convergence of many wool items needing a bit of attention.  Of course, if these were items I did not wish to keep, I might not bother.  But they include ultra fine merino knits (feather weight, no bulk, excellent next to skin layer).  And some nice wool socks, still good for fitness workouts this time of year.  And also, a cashmere cardigan twin set that has had an encounter with something that left small holes in it !

The under layers and socks don't show, so a tidy mending stitch is fine.  But for the cashmere, the stitches, even fine ones, do show.  In a tiny row of ribbing, but noticeable.  So after mending them, I had to consider what to do to embellish or cover the mending stitches.

bird appliqué on back of the
sea green cashmere cardigan

First, I tackled the sleeveless shell.  Mending stitches ran down the front.  I found a pink stripey ribbon that looked cute and covered up.  I stitched that on and then considered my options for the cardigan.  It had mending middle of the back and also on one front side.

I decided to swap the green matching colour buttons with pink ones !  In a candy pink colour to match the ribbon.  In fact these buttons are not from a set, and do not match one another.  But they are similar tone and in style, so I have done them on this cardy as a mismatch set.  Then, a solution was needed to cover the mending stitches.  What, what ?  I got out several fabrics, to consider the options.  I found one with very cute bird motifs in pink, coral red, and blue.  I used Steam a Seam two sided fusible webbing to make the birds into appliqués.  Fused the bird fabric first, then I carefully cut out two of the birds.  One for the back and one for the side of the cardigan.  Then each bird was carefully fused onto the cardigan, placed to cover up mending stitches.  I knew they needed to be secured on the cardigan though.  But, with a fine weight cashmere, doing this by machine around such an intricate pattern did not seem the right method.  I thought it could pull or pucker the cashmere too much.  So each got carefully stitched with tiny little hand stitches, using button hole stitches.  It took awhile, but came out well and looked very cute.

iridescent seed beads in pink and soft cherry red
embellish the bird appliqué

I had some seed beads in pink and soft cherry red.  And embellished the front panel bird with them.  Now that took forever !  But it did look very nice and added a nice touch.

cashmere shell on left with stripy ribbon and cardigan right
with mismatch candy pink buttons and
embellished bird motif appliqué

The cardigan will look very cute with all three retro 50s style dresses I bought at Cath Kidston in London earlier this year.  And the shell and cardy will make a super cute set as well.

Now, I can't wait for spring !