Treasure

I'm very excited about my latest ebay purchases.  These beauties arrived in the post yesterday and I LOVE them.  I've been seeing these horses in all the interior magazines recently but wasn't sure how to find them.  And then in an idle moment I put 'wooden horse' into the ebay search and there they were waiting for me.  They have their original stickers on their bellies, which tell me that they are Olsen horses from Mora and Nusnas in Sweden.  I love the folkloric nature of the background to them, that these Dala horses were first made as wooden toys for children, carved in the long winter months in log cabins up and down the land.  But most of all I love the colours, their subtle variations signifying where they came from, like the patterns in an Aran jumper revealing the family that knit them.

These are bigger than I expected (despite the accurate measurements by the seller).  Or maybe they have even more presence than I expected.  They are now standing guard on my bookshelf, protecting my precious collection of short stories.

Aren't they just beautiful?

Oh and before I forget again, thank you all very much for your suggestions as to how to clean the "my first embroidery" picture.  I'm sorry it has taken my until now to come back to you.  And I have good news.  It looks so much better than it did when I brought it home, looking like this ....

In the end I took rather drastic action and splashed soapy water on it and rubbed it gently with a nailbrush and rinsed it with cold water.  (It was kind of kill or cure).  Fortunately the blithe approach worked and now it looks like this, hanging happily in my hall...

(There's still a little stain in the bottom left hand corner but it's kind of in shadow so I don't notice it so much.)  I think it came from a smoky house because lots of yellow water came out as I was cleaning it.  Now it looks so jolly and Springy and I love it.  Not bad for $5.  Thanks everybody.  You're lovely and amazing.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.  Fabulous weather here (at last) so off out to the flea market down the road.

C.x