Happy Birthday William Morris 🎂

It is a special day today as it was on this day 185 years ago that William Morris was born. There are Morris devotees all over the world and I receive emails every week from as far away as Russia and often the Czech Republic. Everywhere you go you can find his timeless (and tempting!), designs reproduced but I am not sure he would be very impressed with this commercial mass production. But I have to admit that I am guilty of participating in this commercial venture since my first obsession began in 1997! You only have to ask Mr Google what there is to buy and you are flooded with ideas......

even masking tape..........

I'd love to get my hands on a pair of these!! I could only find an Italian website but I did discover the designer is from Japan - Flower Mountain

And one can never have enough Morris mugs.........maybe I do have quite enough really!!.....

So I am content to continue reading and learning about this remarkable man pondering what life would have been like 185 years ago! The William Morris Society of Canada have the most interesting of Symposiums and this year they met yesterday to coincide with Morris's birthday....and of course they always have the most splendid of birthday cakes.........

The Society also has an interesting abstract from a member who recently passed away and coincidentally she too was questioning the mass production of Morris - you can read that HERE. I've spent the last week also celebrating a bit of William and May Morris right here at home. We shared a day with a visiting couple from the UK but they had only set two days aside in Adelaide so we only had one day to show a little.... so I decided on Carrick Hill.........

 and then I returned to Carrick Hill just two days later to meet with a film maker (!!), so I've been doing a little research for that Morris related project that I will reveal in the coming months......it is VERY exciting!!! I also visited another Museum twice this past week.......first up with the two younger boys in our lives to the National Railway Museum....

there was a lot of pointing and smiling!!.......

 And when we discovered that one half of the UK couple was also obsessed with trains we just had to take him to the train museum too!! It was actually nice to do it with adults as the little ones get bored with all the interiors and history....and some of the interiors are wonderful but a bit hard to capture through the glass windows......

 So life in the Hill household is still full of a little of this..........

 and some of this.......

and domestic chores of course! We still desperately need rain but are enjoying the final weeks of seasonal sunshine so I decided to wash all the scrim curtains....... 

I also had a giggle during this past week after receiving a couple of enquiries about my "Afternoon Tea with May Morris" book. Sadly it is out of print and we can't afford to reprint it but while searching online for copies for two people I came across these ridiculous prices of both that book and my second William Morris book (which is also out of print)!!....

So it has been a very productive and busy couple of weeks. I hope life is treating you well as I leave you with my favourite quotes from this past week from my Dalai desktop calendar  .......

Rainy days and Mondays.....

Blog post titles can be such a challenge at times but today it is a Monday (and a public holiday for a local horse race!), but sadly we don't have the 'rainy days'! We have had above average temperatures and below average rainfall this past Summer....in fact Adelaide only received 6.6mm of rain for the entire month of February - almost 70% below the average so we desperately need it! And I am sure we can all relate to the rainy day lyrics from Karen Carpenter too.......

Karen was only 32 years old when she died and I remember that tragedy so well. So while we wait for rain our lives go on.....with a touch of William Morris thrown in! Today I received an email telling me about this amazing house that is about to be opened to the public for the first time in the UK (thanks Darylin).  David Parr House in Cambridge had a secret hidden inside it for years and the story of David Parr is fascinating. He purchased the house in 1886 - just 10 years before William Morris died. David worked as a decorator of homes for the Arts and Crafts decorator Frederick Leach who also worked with William Morris on occasions. For over 40 years David Parr decorated his own modest home all by hand sometimes by candle light including an inscription that my late mother used to tell me regularly...'If you do anything do it well'. .... I might have to work out a way of visiting when we are in the UK next year...........

While speaking of 'Arts and Crafts' I thought I would share some recent work I've completed this past week most of it with a touch of Morris for my monthly market......

 And a new diversion from the cotton rope bowls to making bags so I might make a few more of these before next market day. I recycled a faux leather bag purchased from an op shop by disassembling it and then cutting it into strips to make the handles as it is not cost effective to buy new ones........and some Morris willow bough patterned fabric for the trim.......

 and I did complete a couple of bright charity quilts ready for a friend to quilt...... 

I've also recently enrolled in a dressmaking class using these wonderful designs - Tessuti Patterns. The course runs over 6 weeks and I hope to learn some tricks of the trade with these two garments first on my list.......

 So not a lot to chat about today but thought two weeks would pass me by before I'd touched base again! So I will conclude with some lovely images of little Wade who is almost walking but still gets around and is already becoming obsessed with the internet!!.....

 and little Maisie who has just passed her latest hearing test with flying colours (thanks to her Mum for the photos.....I just love her trying to get the embedded coins from the city pavement!!)......

 and finally from my desktop calendar......I love these words from the Dalai...so very true and how wonderful the world would be if only we respected each other's personal views......