Oma Lisi
Oma Lisi was the maternal grandmother of my husband. She hoarded fabrics and crochet and knitting threads and I also have stash just like hers. I knew that she made her own dress patterns when she was younger and sewed a lot. She gave me her Husquarna sewing machine because she wanted to buy a new Pfaff. When she passed away, we cleaned her storage in the basement and found a box full of unused fabrics. They were great fabrics that I have kept for future use until now. I also inherited her Paff sewing machine because my Mom in-law did not sew. It´s a blessing to have another machine on stand-by.
This cupboard I am using to store my blue and white porcelain came from her together with some of the vintage coffee set which she inherited from her mother. We only used these cups and saucers a couple of times when some friends came by.
The rest of the blue and white porcelain (cupboard interior - top and below) with onion design was given to us by my mother-in-law, as was the antique clock. The set was acquired from the Czech Republic when they made their small excursions there since it was just bordering Lower Austria. The crocheted cloth on top of the cupboard was made by me about a decade ago.
Antlers and Blue Bohemian Glasses ...
We found the antlers/horns one by one when scouring the Saturday Flea market, they had been an ongoing collection and since we do not have space anymore in the new flat, we stopped collecting. They are most common in the Austrian countryside where hunters live. Either they consume the meat or sell them in restaurants as specialties thereby preserving the antlers and display them on walls of their home. I am not sure whether they are still available in restaurants because many closed down due to the pandemic. Antlers are sought after by interior decorators when they are commissioned to do country homes particularly in the Alpine regions of Austria and Germany. The Bohemian wine glasses were made in the Czech Republic and they were mouth blown glasses that were hand painted. Our collection came from scouring the Saturday flea market, each price varies according to the shape and design of the glass and could fetch between 30-50 Euros.
Vintage Lightings ...
When mom in law suffered from Alzheimer, we organized a special clinic for her so she could be monitored by doctors and nurses. When we dissolved her flat, I kept 3 of her chandeliers until I have a place to install them.
The above crystal now graces the ceiling before the main door of the flat. I love its wonderful glow, so shiny when the lights are on. I kept it for so many years in a box and I almost forgot about it until we relocated to a new flat.
This is one of two identical crystal chandeliers that came from Mom in-law. I had to leave the 2nd one since the new family who took over our house pleaded to have it . We don´t have more ceilings anyway now than we used to have in the former four-bedroom house that we gave up.
I love vintage style which could be mixed with a bit of glamour, these vintage objects has many charms in it and stories behind them. I love eclectic style in decorating and even if the decors and furnitures are all different from each other, for as long as they please us, then we use them in the flat. For example, according to interior decorators, the furnishings and objects inside a home should correspond to the external style/architecture of the house. In my opinion, in the modern world, that is an old fashion statement. We love the eclectic style and therefore we mix the old and the modern. Important thing is we are pleased by what we see and have.
I had been lucky with this lamp, when I saw it in the thrift shop, there were no shades, I cut the chain to shorten it because we only have the standard 2.50 meter ceiling. I found the shades that correspond to the style of the lamp the following week in the same shop that had dozens of them. It cost only 1 Euro each.
Wall decors ....
We love to scour the Saturday flea market in the city and one of the things we look for are original copper etchings as well as paintings. The picture below shows the three framed etchings from an unkown artist while the two watercolors came from an art dealer when hubby visited Warsaw, Poland for a business trip. The two bigger framed ones came from my former company I worked with. These are 2 of 4 etchings (two etchings are in our 2nd home in Spain) that were gifted to me by a giant US chemical company when I closed their office and relocated to Brono, Czech Republic. They were the works of a famous count artist named Michael Coudenhove-Khalergi.
Paintings...
These first two paintings are dear to us, they came from the family of five generations that included artists. The painting on top left is a watercolor from an aunt that made it after a year when the WWII was over in 1946. The one with a golden frame is an oil painting of F.Treu which was inscripted with the year 1886. It was always on the wall of Oma Lisi and we really do not know whether F.Treu belonged to the family.
The two oil flower paintings above were painted by me some years back, seems as though I love painting with blue-violet hues, lol.
Opaqued Hanging Lamp and A Quilt For Ako...
This was a lucky find also in the thrift shop where I found the hanging lamp with shades. I love it because of its opaque shades which are not blinding, but again I have to trim the chain for it was too long. In the former house, it was the dinner table lamp. The green tiny design of the shades had been hand painted and also fit the color of the Lone Star Quilt I designed, sewing the parts of about 400 pieces , hand quilted and dedicated to my dog, a rottie named Ako. Dedicated to him because he was always sitted on the sofa during my quilting process.
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